“Dry” One of the two first creations of the Self-Created One, Tem, Shu is twin to Tefnut and embodies the concept of air, wind or atmosphere (Tefnut embodies the concept of airborne moisture, clouds, dew, or rain). Shu was invoked in antiquity to give a good wind to boats and metaphorically to “lift up” the spirits of the deceased in order that they might rise to the afterlife, depicted in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom as “lightland” existing above a “ladder” which Shu (or alternately, Heru and Set or Wesir and Set) held up. Shu is generally shown as a man with a single ostrich feather (the hieroglyph of His name, “shu”) on His head; He is sometimes shown as a lion along with His sister/twin Tefnut. Shu’s action to divide Geb and Nut allowed the creation of earthly life to occur. And so, symbolically, the ancient myths explain why there is wind/atmosphere (Shu) between the earth (Geb) and sky (Nut).
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