ABSTRACT
The ancient Apt, the first great mother who was the bringer-forth in Apta, as the womb of life, was elevated to the planisphere as bringer-forth in heaven. She was constellated in the Hippopotamus or Greater Bear, and called “ the mother of the fields of heaven ” ; “ the mother of beginnings ” ; “ the mother of movement in a circle ” ; “ the mother of the starry revolutions,” or the cycles of time. As such, Apt was the builder of a heaven that was founded on the seven pillars of the Heptanomis. Now the most primitive Egyptian type of building is a figure of turning round, as might be in making pottery. The conical pillar, pile, or mound of earth was also a type of this turning round. Thus the heptanomis was built on seven pillars, and the mother of the revolutions was the founder of the heptanomis. How this was built has yet to be explained according to “ The Mystery of the Seven Stars” The heptanomis of the old Great Mother and her seven sons was followed by the Octonary of Am-Khemen, the park or paradise of the eight great gods. This, as we reckon, is the circu Dipolar enclosure which was founded when Anup, the power of Polaris North, was added to the primordial rulers, or Nomarchs, and whose animal-type, the jackal, remained as guide star in the Lesser Bear (planisphere of Denderah, plate in Book of Beginnings). The octonary was one of the “ upliftings of Shu” which are alluded to in the Ritual. The heaven, that is also called the mansion of his stars, which was again and again renewed (ch. no). Shu had been one of the sustaining powers of the firmament who were known as the seven giants. He then became the elevator of the heaven that was imaged as the cow of Nut; and lastly his was the sustaining power with Atum-Horus in the double equinox. Apparently this change from the heptanomis of the ancient mother and her seven sons to the heaven of the eight great gods upraised by Shu is indicated in the Magic Papyrus. In this the giant of seven cubits is addressed. A divine command is given to him : “ Get made for me a shrine of eight cubits ! And as thou hast been (or wast) a giant of seven cubits, I have said to thee, thou canst not enter this shrine of eight cubits. And, as (or although) thou wast a giant of seven cubits, thou hast entered and reposed in it.” The “ giant of seven cubits “ in the shrine of seven cubits now gives place to one who “ has the face of a Kafi ape, with the head of hair of a monkey Aani.” The type, that is, of the moon-god, Tehuti-Aani, in the shrine of eight cubits, or the heaven of the eight great gods in the enclosure of Am-Khemen, the octonary of Taht, upraised by Shu (Magic Papyrus, Records of the Past, vol. x., pp. 151–154). Aani, the Kafi ape, was Taht's own especial monkey of the moon, and is a sign that the shrine of eight cubits was the octagonal heaven or octonary of Taht, the lunar god which tends to identify this with the enclosure of Am-Khemen that was upraised by Shu. In all likelihood the giant thus addressed is Shu, the lion of the uplifting force.
