THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

sparked by the unruly impulse of freedom in these depths. The godhead, the very
theogony of the gods, is enacted against this donné and all must be referred back to it
as it operates as an ontological foundation along the very boundaries of non-existence.
Nun, as a principle of formlessness mysteriously merging towards form, is the
progenitor of all differentiation, divine and earthly, and the image of water,
manifesting both form and formlessness simultaneously, perfectly contains this idea
in itself, most especially as it can be linked with the very “greening” of life. We shall
more closely examine Nun in chapter 10, especially as it appears in Gnostic texts, but
for now we must probe the concept as the starting point for a host of Egyptian
emanation theogonies.
An equally abstruse line of thought, and one which likewise flows into
Gnostic speculation, pertains to the ancient Egyptian view of eternity, for which the
Egyptians had two conceptions. Nhh eternity pertains to the cyclic nature of earthly
existence, of the phenomenological, of the realm of actual beings. In contradistinction
to this dt denotes the stasis of the non-existent, of nonbeing. However, we have noted,
as does Hornung, that the non-existent permeates all that is, and we therefore expect
nhh and dt to be intertwined. A sexual gloss to this is not inappropriate given the
widespread appeal and duration of the Heliopolitan theology. Nhh is in many ways a
masculine demiurgic temporal quality, whereas dt is a feminine archetype that is
rather more static and passive in its makeup. One has to be careful in making broad
generalisations based upon gender however: while Re is quintessentially nhh, Geb is
ostensibly a passive dt figure beneath the overarching dynamic nhh Nut.
It is entirely in keeping, then, that in the Memphite theology we find (Ptah)-
Nun and (Ptah)-Naunet depicted as the parents of Atum. From the Old through
Middle Kingdom we can see Nun now represented as an “inert” dt figure, then as a
dynamic nhh demiurge. 90
It is worth mentioning at this point that Nun’s function was
later taken up in Gnostic cosmologies wherein such primordial figures as Firstthought,
Self-created, First-father, Logos, Nous, and the female Sige (silence) are to
be found as the first discrete entity adjacent to the Primal Source. The upshot of this is
that a sort of translucent entity is visualised, existing simultaneously in form and
formlessness, being and nonbeing. For Nun, as in numerous later emanationist
systems, the first move into differentiation, from one to two, is primarily sexual, and
all of creation is imbued with the twoness of sexual differentiation thereafter.
In the Middle Kingdom Coffin texts, as well as the Book of Two Ways, and
various magical spells, the recognition of Nun’s unique role was continued. It is hard
for us not to think that only the ubiquitous and sensuous intuition of Nun all about
them kept the Egyptians interested in such a difficult principle. But then the principle
is also a personality, and the personality is regularly manifest in the seasonal
inundation for example, and in the appearance of Re every morning from the depths.
One can seen this poetic/sensuous appreciation in a text from the time of
Amenhotep III near Luxor:
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In a late text these were interestingly combined in the story of Nun lusting after a goddess
bathing in the river. He devises a strategem to seduce her which fails and one wonders if his
innate “innertness” might have been the problem.