The Goddess Nut at Dendera Temple

Entering the Temple of the Goddess Hathor at Dendera I weaved my way through the giant columns with the face of Hathor reaching the ceiling and pointing in all the four directions of the earth, walking towards the corner of the Hypostyle Hall  I recognized the outstretched arms of Nut the goddess of the sky, her name is pronounced Noot and means night, her elegant arms and legs were the pillars to the earth, her face was so beautiful and serene. Her slim elongated body snuggly wraps itself around the corner of the room and her long back extends across this length of ceiling creating her nightly shroud of Heaven, I followed her around as her elegant legs curved around the next corner of the hall as she gave birth to the sun in the morning, and each new day the first rays of light shine down onto the face of 'The Golden One’ the Goddess Hathor that had been deeply cut into the ceiling. I think the face of Hathor still shines today.  During the daylight Nut and her husband Geb are separated but once the light of the day diminishes she gradually draws down to lay on the body of her husband Geb and the earth succumbs to darkness.  Nut was the barrier that separated the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos of the ancient world.

Gazing up at the ceiling, a row of Heavenly barque sailed across the night sky beneath the starlit body of Nut.  I can see Taurus the bull and Sagittarius the half man half horse pulling back on his bow with his arrow poised on the future. A tiny barque sails directly beneath the sun and the first ray of light a barque carries an open lotus flower that appears to have a snake rising from it; this is a representation of Ihy, the son of Hathor and Horus, as he appears for the first time out of the primordial sea.  He was the beautiful child of brilliant light, the offspring who lights humanity with the rays of the sun and floods the land with gold. On a slightly larger barque in front of Ihy sit his mother Hathor and the goddess Isis, the procession of barque carry all the gods of the sky, surrounding them and above their heads are golden stars which represent the homes of departed souls, and the silver and golden star gates to travel back and forth between heaven and earth.

`I am a soul, I am a star of gold, Here I am, O Ra, I am your son, I am a soul, a star of Gold.’