"You are the heavenly vault in which you gave birth to the stars. You are the primeval serpent-goddess arisen before them all. You are the mysterious one who radiates with her own light. You are the one who gives renewal in its season and who makes vegetation grow (...)." Hymn to Neith - Temple of Khnum at Esna (1800 BC). Sobek was a primordial god in Egypt. He was mentioned in the oldest Egyptian text Pyramid Texts, dating back to 2400 BC. Sobek appears as the son of Neith, the great Egyptian creatrix goddess who created the world from the nothingness of primordial waters. "Sobek, green of feathers, alert-looking, broad-chested, sparkling, coming out from the legs and the tail of the Great One (Neith), who is in splendour." As the first-born son of Neith, he was seen as the god of wild nature, fertility of the land, and the rising of the Nile. He was the personification of the cycle of nature itself. The Egyptians feared and loved the crocodiles. They are unpredictable but could also lend power and strength. The gods in Egypt were called "Neteru" which means "nature" and they were personification of the power of nature itself. So Sobek, as most gods, was not "good" or "bad;" he was accepted with all of his aspect — some beneficial for humans, some not so much, just as nature can be life-giving but also destroying. In this card, Neith is represented carrying Sobek on her back. Sobek emerges from a field of reeds, which for the Egyptians represented the place of first creation. The Nile behind Neith was the kingdom of Sobek. Also called "the Lord of the Waters," he was linked to the floods and cycles of the Nile. Card: Strength, protection, and creative impulse.
