In the beginning were the waters of Chaos. Darkness and silence reigned, but in the depths of the watery abyss lay the formless spirit of the Creator, the father and mother of all things.

One story tells how a mound of earth slowly rose above the waters of Chaos, just as Egypt itself emerges when the Nile floods recede in the heat of summer. This was the Primeval Mound, the first land. At last, there was a place where the spirit of the Creator could take on a body. In the form of a phoenix with flaming plumage, the Creator alighted upon the Primeval Mound, and his cry shattered the eternal silence, becoming the first sound in existence.

A second story tells how eight creatures with the heads of frogs and serpents moved through the waters of Chaos before time began. They were the Ogdoad: Nun and Nunet, deities of the watery abyss; Heh and Hehet, deities of infinite space; Kek and Keket, deities of darkness; and Amun and Amunet, deities of invisibility. These mysterious beings swam together and formed the great egg from which the Creator would emerge.

Others say that this Primeval Egg was laid upon the risen mound by a goose whose cackling was the first sound in all creation. The Great Cackler sat upon the mound, guarding her egg through countless ages until, at last, it hatched into a shining phoenix. The two halves of the shell separated the waters of Chaos and formed a space in which the Creator could fashion the world.

A third story tells how darkness covered the waters until the Primeval Lotus rose from the Abyss. Slowly, the blue lotus opened its petals to reveal a young god sitting in its golden heart. A sweet perfume drifted across the waters, and light streamed from the body of the Divine Child, banishing the universal darkness.

This child was the Creator, the Sun God, and the source of all life. Yet every evening the lotus sinks below the surface and does not rise again until dawn. So the Primeval Lotus closes its petals at the end of each day and vanishes back into the waters of Chaos. Throughout the night, Chaos reigns once more until the god within the lotus returns.

The forces of Chaos were not conquered forever at the beginning of time. They still surround the earth in the form of serpents poised to attack the Sun God. The war between Order and Chaos will never end.

Whatever form the Creator took, all the stories agree that, even while he lay in the watery abyss, he knew he was alone. This solitude became unbearable, and he longed for other beings to share the new world with him.

In Memphis, the priests taught that the thoughts of the Creator became the gods and all things that exist. Once his thoughts had shaped them, his tongue gave them life by naming them. Thoughts and words were the power behind creation.

In Heliopolis, the priests named the Creator as Ra-Atum. After eons of solitude, he spat forth Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. For a great span of time, Ra-Atum remained alone, for Shu and Tefnut were lost to him in the waters of Chaos.

Then the Creator took an eye from his own face and filled it with his power. He called the Eye his daughter, Hathor, and sent her out into the darkness to search for his lost children. The light of the Eye pierced the forces of Chaos, and Shu and Tefnut were quickly found and brought back to their father.

As a reward, the Sun God placed the Eye upon his forehead in the form of a great cobra, the uraeus serpent. He promised her that she would have power over his enemies and that, in ages to come, both gods and mortals would fear her.

Then Ra-Atum embraced his first children, Shu and Tefnut, with tears of joy. As he held them in his arms, his spirit entered them, and they, along with all the gods yet to come, shared in the divinity of the Creator.