Now that the roasty, toasty season of Shomu is upon us, (once again, I am impressed with how Yuma weather lines up with that in Egypt. I would say that here the season of 'heat' has begun. Flannel shirt season is over, and we had to put the AC on a few days ago), I get inspired for the Season of Peret (Season of Flannel) topic.

(That's me, on my own time zone spiritually, if not physically....)
Better late than never.....
And besides the Gods have their own cycles....
.... and relationships, they have their own relationships to each other and to me and....

As for the relationships to each other, "It's complicated," depending on which version of the creation story one goes by. "The different creation accounts were each associated with the cult of a particular god in one of the major cities of Egypt: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes.[9] To some degree, these myths represent competing theologies, but they also represent different aspects of the process of creation.[10]" (Source: Wikipedia)

Somehow, I blend all the versions into a somewhat cohesive understanding. Theban theology posits that Amun is "the hidden force behind all things". Amun to me is so abstract, so undiffereniated, that I don't really relate to Him. Yes, He's "The One who made himself into million." (per Ramesside texts found in _Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism_, by Jan Assmann, translated from the German by Anthony Alcock), pages 150,151 and 153 (first published in 1995 by Kegan Paul International Limited and later published in 2009 by Routledge)

But to me, He's hidden. I start relating to Creator Gods further down in the process. Nit (Neith) is the first to me, who is not hidden. She's very ancient. I see her as an old Great Grandmother, watching over her many, many, many descendants. I feel her gaze.

"Words spoken by Neith the Great, Mother of the Gods"

Hieroglyphs right to left, crop from museum photo

Mother of the Gods, that's who Nit is to me.

"...She is the Great Ancestor, Who was at the Beginning, Creator Goddess, born into this world on Her own, First Mother, Uraeus, Front of the God..... (Printable version, Source for English: Chelsea Bolton, _Flaming Lioness_) "Born into this world on Her own," She came into being, arising with consciousness out of the Hidden Force/Energy/Godstuff that is Amun. She named herself, as "she was the first, Born before them all..." That's Great Grandmother Nit! She has the largest, vastest consciousness, she remembers all that ever happened, because she was there when it happened. Nit creates the Gods, one of whom is Ptah, who also creates. Does this, in the "cosmology of Joan", make Ptah and Ra brothers? Like I said, "it's complicated." But that's pretty much how it works in my headspace. Interestingly, reading in Petrie's first volume on Memphis, he writes, "The temple of Neit seems to have been to the north of the camp; for as Ptah is said to be south of the fortress, so Neit is said to be north of the fortress.", Page 3, page 14 in the online scroll-along version. Petrie speaks of (plate) Pl. XI, 15 "Ptah, lord of truth, beautiful of face, creator of (art)." "Below is the common formula to "Ptah, the hearer of petitions, made by..." The name of Ptah, in the centre, is written from left to right, whilst the inscription reads from right to left. I found the line drawing to which he refers: The 'mes' glyph to our left must be referring to 'creator of' But what really intrigued me is this stela to which Petrie did not refer. The top glyphs start with the basic "Ptah, Lord of truth" But there's a complex hieroglyph combo at the bottom which says more than the sum of its parts. Its parts at the bottom are: