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I will make a home for my children in this world.

Nut is the Egyptian sky Goddess and mother of Osiris, Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. Her brother and husband is the earth God Geb, and Their parents are Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). Nut and Geb were married in secret against the will of Ra, the one-time king of the Gods. When Ra found Them coupling, He had Shu the air God violently and permanently seperate Them, forcing Geb to the earth, where His body's contours became the hills, and lifting Nut into the sky (which implies that, like Lilith, Nut preferred the top position). Since then They have always been seperate, and Geb has been inconsolable.

Ra then forbade Nut to have Her children on any day of the year. But Thoth, God of wisdom, helped Her, by winning at gaming with the Moon. From His winnings—which were a little of the Moon's light—Thoth made five extra days that were outside the year, and Nut was able to give birth to Her five children. These five days in the Egyptian calendar did not belong to any month, and with the twelve months of thirty days each brought the total of days up to 365 (and no, they made no allowance for leap-year, though they knew perfectly well.)

Like Hathor, Who is also a sky Goddess, Nut can take the form of a cow. She is also depicted as a slender woman whose arched body touches the earth with only the tips of Her fingers and Her tippy-toes, Her starry body forming the heavens.

Ra once grew disillusioned with rebellious mankind, so Nut in the form of a cow lifted Him to heaven on Her back. Stretching higher and higher, She grew dizzy, and four Gods (who represent the pillars of the sky) were needed to steady Her legs.

Nut is also said to swallow the sun each night and give birth to it in the morning, and Her sign is a vase shaped rather like a uterus. She also protects the dead, and is painted on the inside of coffins, Her starry body embracing and protecting the deceased.

She is shown here cradling Her womb which contains the sun, shown in its hierogylphic form that was later used as the symbol for the sun in alchemy.

This card in a reading indicates a time of fertile waiting, and can mean a literal or a figurative pregnancy. Projects need to be nurtured, and the right time will make itself known.



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Tales

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