Khnum
Khnum is the ram-headed creator of Elephantine who fashions human bodies and their kas from clay on a potter's wheel and places them in the womb, and who regulates the inundation from the caverns of Hapi at the First Cataract.
The planetary, zodiacal, tarot and Wiccan sabbat values are later Western correspondences. Khnum-Ra is a syncretism and is marked as one. The Famine Stela, which gives his best-known inundation narrative, is a Ptolemaic text carved on Sehel Island, not an Old Kingdom record, and is treated as late tradition. His consort and his triad vary by period and place - Satet and Anuket at Elephantine, Menhit, Nebtu, Neith and Heka at Esna.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Saturn
Offerings
- Offerings
- BreadBeerCool waterIncenseClayFirst fruitsFish
Sacred timing
- Sacred Timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- KhnemuChnumKhnum-RaThe Potter
- Gender Expression
- Masculine
- Titles
- The PotterLord of ElephantineLord of the First CataractFashioner of BodiesLord of LifeThe Good Protector
- Symbols
- Potters wheelClayRam hornsAtef crownWas sceptreCataractNile water
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- TonePatient makingAddressKhnumThe PotterLord of the CataractRelationshipThe hands on the potters wheelWarningHe shapes the body and the ka not what you do with themResonanceCraftspeople parents those giving form to a work
- Modern Practice
Khnum is called by makers, and at the beginning of anything that has to be given a body - a child, a book, a vessel. The offering is the work of the hands and the patience of the wheel.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- CreationPotteryThe body and the kaThe nile cataractThe inundationFertilityAnimalsCraft
- Mythology Summary
Khnum is the ram-headed creator of Elephantine who fashions human bodies and their kas from clay on a potter's wheel and places them in the womb, and who regulates the inundation from the caverns of Hapi at the First Cataract. In the Famine Stela he appears to Djoser in a dream and promises the flood; at Esna he is the creator who made gods and animals, and women brought a potter's wheel to his temple in a fertility rite. His cult is early - Khufu's full name means 'Khnum is my protector'.
Details
- Correspondences
- ColorsGreenBrownBlueGoldScentsMyrrhFrankincenseCedarMetalsCopperBronzeIronAnimalsRamBullGoose
One of 3,120 entries in the Grimoire — the whole library, every cross-reference, is free to take. Take the whole thing Is it wrong somewhere?
Referenced by 5
Every entry that names Khnum, grouped by the system it comes from.
More in Deities
The entries either side of this one in the same catalogue.
All of Deities →New entries, when they land
Occasional notes when a section of the grimoire is added or revised. No account, no tracking across sites, and one line to leave.