seen from these quotations, that Khepra, the scarabaeus
deity, especially as Tum-Khepra; occupied a most elevated position, I
might say the most elevated, of all the religious conceptions of the
Ancient Egyptians, for beyond it, was the unknown ideal deity whom
none could form a conception of. Khepra was asserted to have generated
and caused to come into existence, itself through itself, it united in
itself, the male and female principles of life. It was androgenic. The
scarabaeus was the hieroglyph of the _creator_, the _to be_, _to
become_, to _exist_, the _eternal_, the _coming into being from
chaotic non-being_, also the _itself transforming_ or _becoming_, the
_emanating_ or _creating power_, also, the _universe_. Khepra was
"Father of the gods," connected with the idea of the rising of the sun
from the darkness of night, Khepra was used to typify the resurrection
from the dead of the spirits of men. It represented the active and
positive in antithesis to Atmu, or Tum. With Atmu as Atmu (or,
Tum)-Khepra, it represented the positive and negative united, spirit
and matter.

Atmu, Tum or Tmu, was the symbol of the eternal night or darkness of
Chaos, which preceded the emanation of light, it was the type of
senility and absolute death, the negative and end. It was the
nocturnal or hidden sun, as Horus was the rising sun, and Ra the risen
sun, proceeding in its course each day through the firmament. Tum was
not however considered as absolutely inert, it was the precursor of
the rising sun, and the point of departure of the setting sun, and was
the nocturnal sun, and was also a point of departure into existence,
of all the created and emanated in the universe. It, as well as
Khepra, in some of the texts is called "Father of the gods."[104]

This deity was the unknown and inaccessible, primordial deity of
chaos, "existing alone in the abyss," before the appearance of Light.
One of the texts reads:

"Homage to thee, sun at its setting, Tum-Harmakhis, god renewing and
forming itself in itself, double essence. * * Hail to thee author of
the gods, who hast suspended heaven for the circulation of thy two
eyes, author of the earth in its extent, and from whom the light is,
so as to give to all men the sensation of the sight of his fellow
creature."[105]

It is of the greatest importance to an understanding of the Egyptian
religion and philosophy, and especially of the _Per-em-hru_, the
so-called, Book of the Dead; that th