According to some records of ancient Egyptian mythology, Atum was the primordial god from which all existence arose. He created himself, and then created the divine couple Shu and Tefnut, the ancestors of all the other gods. But according to Spell 261 of the Coffin Text, before he created this “duality”, Atum created Sia (perception), Hu (the creative word), and most importantly Heka (magic).
Heka was the magical energy from which all existence stemmed. It can almost be seen as what existed at the Big Bang, which exploded in creation, and continued to be a part of all things that exist. Or it could be seen as “the force” in s Star Wars reference. Everything had heka in it, and that is how magic, also called heka, worked, by manipulating this omnipresent force. The word heka combines he (active energy) and ka (life force).
Heka was the Egyptian word for this pervasive force, and for the act of magic, which was essentially engaging with and manipulating this force. The gods used heka with ease. Priests, magicians, and even normal people could also engage with heka through magical spells. These could take the form of words (as the Egyptians believed that words had the creative force of hu), images (since the Egyptians believed in sympathetic magic), and rituals.
The force of heka was also embodied by the divinity Heka, a male deity in the Egyptian pantheon. He is probably best compared with Ma’at, the goddess who embodies order.
Heka in the Egyptian Pantheon
While Heka is described as a god created by Atum, he is also described as part of the divine triad worshipped at Esna as the son of Khnum. This kind of inconsistency in Egyptian mythology is very common as beliefs from various tribes and cities came together and merged into a shared religion.
Khnum is one of the oldest gods known to have been worshipped in ancient Egypt and was associated with the Nile cataract and the source of the life-giving river. Since the Nile brings silt down the river with it, and it was believed that men were made from this silt, Khnum became known as the creator of human bodies and the life force Ka. He is also sometimes seen as molding the other deities out of clay, making him a creator like Atum.
Various goddesses are attributed as the mother of Heka, including Nebetu-u, a goddess of facility sometimes equated with Hathor, Menhit, a Nubian war goddess, Mehet-Weret, a sky goddess associated with the great flood, and Neith, a primordial goddess of the cosmos.
The triad of Khnum, Neith, and Heka were worshipped at Esna from the early days of ancient Egypt well into the Roman period at Esna.
Heka is also seen as one of the gods that protects Ra’s solar barque from Apophis, and one of the gods that protects Osiris on his journey into the underworld. An association with Osiris is perhaps logical. When Osiris was killed, Isis brought him back to life using magic, heka. But it was only a half-life, so Isis used heka again to create the Duat, the underworld, for Osiris. Therefore, Heka is an essential element of the underworld.
It is actually Isis who is described as the greatest worker of magic, heka, in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, and not Heka. This reflects the fact that Heka was more the embodiment of the force, anthropomorphised to make it accessible, rather than a principal worker of Heka.
Symbolism of Heka
Heka has very complex symbolism. Starting with the hieroglyphics, it starts with the monoconsonantal hieroglyph h, which is represented by a twisted rope, and the biconsonantal hieroglyph ka, represented by two parallel arms pointing upwards.
To represent heka, this is then matched with the determinant of a paptrus scroll, which suggests writing or an abstract idea, in this case, magic. To represent the god, it is partnered with the determinative of a seated god.
He was also depicted as a male deity, often young, with the side ponytail of a youth. He had a stomach paunch linked to fertility and creation. In his hands, he would often carry an Ankh and a Heka scepter, also carried by the Pharaoh to represent his power.
He often holds two snakes, in reference to a story of him battling and overcoming two snakes. The two serpents later became a symbol of medicine, since medicine was considered magic, heka, in ancient Egypt. It mostly involved driving away evil spirits and negative energy with heka.
Famously, at the temple at Esna (shown above), he is depicted standing behind his father Khnum and facing the Pharaoh and wearing a hemhem crown. This crown seems to originate from the reign of Akhenaten in the 14th century BCE and is most often seen on Heka, Isis, and Osiris. It might have been developed to represent magic within that king’s new theology that focused on the sun disk Aten in an almost monotheistic fashion.
The throne features three atets, the white crown with two feathers worn by Osiris. It also has two serpents, ram’s horns, and three to six sun disks.
Above is a statue of a child god wearing a hemhem crown currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which may represent Heka.
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