Page 350 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

The sky had not been created, the earth had not been created, the children of the
earth and the reptiles had not been fashioned in that place ... I, Atum, was one by
myself ... There existed no other who worked with me ...
6
Conscious of being alone, this blessed and immortal being contrived to
create two divine offspring, Shu, god of the air and dryness, and Tefnut
the goddess of moisture: ‘I thrust my phallus into my closed hand. I made
my seed to enter my hand. I poured it into my own mouth. I evacuated
under the form of Shu, I passed water under the form of Tefnut.’
7
Despite such apparently inauspicious beginnings, Shu and Tefnut (who
were always described as ‘Twins’ and frequently depicted as lions) grew
to maturity, copulated and produced offspring of their own: Geb the god
of the earth and Nut, the goddess of the sky. These two also mated,
creating Osiris and Isis, Set and Nepthys, and so completed the Ennead,
the full company of the Nine Gods of Heliopolis. Of the nine, Ra, Shu, Geb
and Osiris were said to have ruled in Egypt as kings, followed by Horus,
and lastly—for 3226 years—by the Ibis-headed wisdom god Thoth.
8
Who were these people—or creatures, or beings, or gods? Were they
figments of the priestly imagination, or symbols, or ciphers? Were the
stories told about them vivid myth memories of real events which had
taken place thousands of years previously? Or were they, perhaps, part of
a coded message from the ancients that had been transmitting itself over
and over again down the epochs—a message only now beginning to be
unravelled and understood?
Such notions seemed fanciful. Nevertheless I could hardly forget that
out of this very same Heliopolitan tradition the great myth of Isis and
Osiris had flowed, covertly transmitting an accurate calculus for the rate
of precessional motion. Moreover the priests of Innu, whose
responsibility it had been to guard and nurture such traditions, had been
renowned throughout Egypt for their high wisdom and their proficiency in
prophecy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture and the magic arts. They
were also famous for their possession of a powerful and sacred object
known as the Benben.
9
The Egyptians called Heliopolis Innu, the pillar, because tradition had it
that the Benben had been kept here in remote pre-dynastic times, when it
had balanced on top of a pillar of rough-hewn stone.
The Benben was believed to have fallen from the skies. Unfortunately, it
had been lost so long before that its appearance was no longer

From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, p. 140.
6 Papyrus of Nesiamsu, cited in Sacred Science: The King of Pharaonic Theocracy, pp.
188-9; see also From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, pp. 141-3.
7 From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, p. 142. In other readings Shu and Tefnut were
spat out by Ra-Atum.
8 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, p. 27. The figure 3126 is given in some
accounts.
9 The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved, p. 13; C. Jacq, Egyptian Magic, Aris and Phillips,
Warminster, 1985, p. 8; The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, p. 36.

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