The Pyramid Texts covering the walls of Egyptian pyramids of the third millennium BCE reflect the oldest traces of ancient Egyptian spirituality, written in a sacred language that seems to have been used as a performative medium to create religious reality.

It is undeniable that the oldest ancient Egyptian religious texts under discussion, demonstrate the beauty of life and the universe created by the creator god Atum.

Among the first elements brought into existence by the creator were the luminous air, namely Shu, and the life-giving moisture that also embodied the order of the world (maat), namely Tefnut. Atum makes his children from his own semen. Therefore, it is also thought-provoking to note that the “seed of a god” is invoked as the seed of various gods in the texts under study and later (e.g. in the Coffin Texts).

However, the seed of Atum seems to be the source of all light and moisture on earth. This origin of the world according to the Egyptians recorded in the Pyramid Texts, directs our perception of it towards imagery similar to that later referred to as panspermia, which will be introduced to the listeners.

The author of the paper intends to acquaint the audience with ancient “word-painted” images of the heavens according to Egyptian religious texts. The descriptions of the sowing of the stars are utterly fascinating and relevant. As stated above, Shu is the son of the creator who, as a primordial being, embodies air, wind and breath. Nevertheless, scholars have overlooked the obvious connotations of both sunlight and moonlight, as well as the light of the stars inherently implicit in the concept of Shu.

Furthermore, the author of the lecture would like to bring the poetic descriptions of the creation of the celestial bodies in contrast to the matter before the creation of the universe, the abyss, which has clear associations with the dark matter of Nu, closer to the international circle of researchers.

Emphasis will be laid on the seeming and complementary paradoxes of a multi-faceted character of particles and elements of the ancient Egyptian sky described in the perused texts.

Since the ancient Egyptians paid great attention to language, words written and spoken out loud they intensively used plays on words and ‘sportive’ writing. These linguistic and poetic treatments helped to convey the image of a complete universe with all its primordial elements, with a particular focus on astronomical imagery of the sky, which was also the beyond, where gods and deceased pharaohs were re-united with their ancestors as the Imperishable Stars.

After a meticulous scrutiny of the religious texts, it seems that almost no-one was able to transmit their knowledge of the pristine elements of the universe like the Egyptians. Thus, the aim of the lecture will be to explore these concepts and their conceptualisation in context.