9 deities of Heliopolis

   Before I get started, I know we are supposed to write about fighting with our siblings. Issue-I don't have any. No problem; I will write about fighting with my little cousin, but not today. I have a quiz tomorrow in Origins of God. With my luck she will not ask about the 9 deities of the Heliopolitan cosmogony, but since I am also taking Egyptian religion I thought this might be something worth memorizing. Here goes:

1. Re-Atum
2. Shu
3. Tefnut
4. Geb
5. Nut
6. Osirus
7. Isis
8. Seth
9. Nepthys

When I get to campus I park near Linfield, since I am early and it is a warm autumn day, I decide to go sit on the benches by the statue of Champ and enjoy the view of Montana Hall which is surrounded by water. I quickly check my planner to make sure I do not have anything to finish before class, but I have none. (Nun-self generated god). I look up back up the hill and there is Re-Atum (Re-sun Atum-it's an autumn day). What a disgusting fellow, he is up there spitting (those of you who know the entire myth know there may be other activities involved, but I don't want to think about them much less discuss them. I look away upset because he had ruined my view. When I look back up, there is a giant brown man's shoe with laces on one place he spit and a bag of macadamia nuts in the other spot. (This is the way I remember his children: Shu-the first male god and Tefnut-the first female goddess). I decide this is too weird and since I have time I will wander over to the Museum of the Rockies. First I go into the room with the how old the planet is and I see a new display. They are calling it the Global Energy Ball. It is a huge ball that monitors world energy consumption and gets brighter when more energy is used. I ponder the Earth for a bit and think about GEB which just happens to be the next name I need to remember. Geb was the god of the earth. Since I still have lots of time I decide to go to a planetarium show. Sitting there while they explain all the mysteries of the universe, I see a group of stars that looks like a female version of Mr Peanut. This must be the Egyptian goddess Nut who ruled over the sky.
Deciding it would be a great time to grab something to drink, I head back to the sub. There I order a drink with ice. This is how I remember Osiris and Isis, the siblings who marry. Osiris is the god of order.

   Later, I go pick Dallas up from school. There he is-her exboyfriend Seth who has become the god of chaos. Fitting, he put chaos in her life for the 5 mins she put up with him. Oh look, he has a new girlfriend. It looks like it is not going to well. She just yell "nuff of this" and slapped him. (Seth god of chaos and his sister/wife Nephthys).

   Getting home I sit down at my computer and check the news. There is a human interest story on Eyewitness news. (This is my memory system for how humans are created in this tradition). It seems that Re-Atum (remember the guy sitting on the hill earlier) has lost his children in the flood (primeval waters). So he sends the Eyewitness news helicopter to look for them (actually he just sends his eye out). The children are found and he cries tears of joy and all the people come. (The tears become the humans.)

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The quiz is today, as I said, I doubt she asks us to list these, but it will also help me if there is a compare and contrast to another myth. I have to get working on Mesopatamia now. Wish me memorable thoughts!