chapter 10 the monism of darkness and the dualism of limit and ...

MONISM OF DARKNESS - DUALISM OF LIMIT AND INDETERMINACY 63
On the other hand, one finds in Egypt (especially in
Hermoupolitan theology) the coordination of Spiritual Air into precosmic
Chaos either as a member of the Ogdoad or as its capital
epitomy. The pre-eminence of Amun as begetter of the Ogdoad or his
being the Ogdoad’s son are typical examples of Egyptian syncretism of
different local theologies and of the no less typical Egyptian theocracy,
in our case of Amun to (or prior to) Ptah of Memphis or the
Heliopolitic Atum and to Re respectively. In Egyptian religion and
theology opposite tendencies and determinations co-exist. The
Ogdoad seems to signify the role of two poles, of moisture (Nyn-
Naunet) and of spiritual wind (Amun-Amaunet) in this order initially.
To the basic polarity the contrariety of male and female is superadded
and the Ogdoad is completed with the further addition of the other
two necessary parameters for Amun’s existence (Huh and Hauhet,
spatial limitlessness) and for a sufficient characterization of primordial
Chaos (Kuk and Kauket, the gloom of darkness). The bipolarity of
water and breath is not definitely or unambiguously dualistic since
Amun sometimes belongs to the Ogdoad as the male figure in its
fourth couple and sometimes transcends it as its genitor. In
Hermoupolis, however, the tendency was for both liquidity and
airness to be regarded as aspects of precosmic dark Chaos; though in
Heliopolitan theology the dualistic tendency assumed the upper hand:
by means of self-fertilization the divine creator Atum brings forth the
Ennead the first couple of which consists of Schu (Air) and Tefnut
(wetness) (v. Bonnet op. cit. s. vv.). Here also functions the familiar
Egyptian tendency of simultaneous co-projection and accumulation
of differing and opposing perspectives: Atum, thought self-begotten,
appears from out of the primordial Ocean (Nun), as incomplete, semifinished
and the one to be perfected (v. Bonnet op. cit. s.v. Atum p.
71). In a similar manner, in the Ogdoad of Chaos there exists prior to
order a dichotomy of masculine and feminine as well as the distinction
between a moving-active (air) and a immobile-passive (water)
principle.
Viewed from this perspective of unintegrated mutual
superimposition of different experiences and outlooks even the
Phoenician Dualism loses its sharpness. For Wind and Water, Breath
and Abyss equally well characterize precosmic Chaos and primordial
Darkness, belonging therefore to the jurisdiction of Indeterminacy