Also called Nuit, Newet, She who protects, Mother of the gods.
Their story
Nut is the sky, arched over the earth with her hands and feet touching the horizons. Each evening she swallows the sun and each morning gives birth to it again, which made her a natural protector of the dead. Plutarch tells how the sun forbade her to give birth on any day of the year, so Thoth won five extra days from the moon, and on them she bore Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis and Nephthys. Her image was painted inside coffin lids so the dead would lie within her embrace.
Best times to give to them
- nightfall
- the epagomenal days
- dawn
What they like being given
- water
- milk
- incense at night
- a candle under the open sky
How to honour them
- Step outside at night and look up at the stars as her body.
- Ask her to hold loved ones who have died, as her image did on the inside of coffin lids.
How they can help you
- grief
- feeling protected
- rest
- rebirth after endings
Symbols
- arched body covered in stars
- water jar on the head
- sycamore
- cow
Sources
- Pyramid Texts
- Book of Nut (cenotaph of Seti I, Abydos)
- Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 12
- Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
More Egyptian goddesses
- Isis Great of Magic, mother of Horus
- Bastet Protector of the home, lady of joy
- Hathor The Golden One, lady of love and music
- Sekhmet The Powerful One, healer and protector
- Maat Truth, balance and right order
- Nephthys Lady of the House, comforter of the grieving
- Taweret The Great One, guardian of mothers
- Amunet The hidden goddess of the primordial eight