The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z for the Entire Magical World - Judika Illes 2005

Khnum
The Horned One and The Devil

The Egyptian deity Khnum manifests as a ram, the literal meaning of his name, or as a man with a ram’s head. The Spirit of the Nile, it was at Khnum’s command that the river rose in the annual life-giving flood.

Khnum fashions the bodies of children on his potter’s wheel and places them into their mother’s womb. In one Egyptian creation legend, Khnum creates all the Egyptian deities in this fashion. In parts of southern Egypt, Khnum was the supreme creator, shaping Earth and all its inhabitants from clay.

Khnum and his consort, the frog midwife goddess Heket, were present in the world from the beginning. Khnum is Lord of barley and wheat, flowers, fruit, birds, fish, and animals. In one creation legend, Khnum wearies of the labors of creating and maintaining life. Eventually he created a device to relieve him of the burden: by placing a replica of his potter’s wheel into the womb of female creatures, he was able to transmit his creative power.

See WOMEN’S MYSTERIES: Midwife Goddesses: Heket.