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May 16, 2025 34 mins

Embark on an ancient journey across golden sands and starlit skies with the first chapter of our Myths of Egypt series. Witness the birth of creation itself as Ra, the self-created sun god, emerges from the boundless darkness and sails his golden solar bark across the heavens each day, bringing life and light to ancient Egypt. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams. 

The music in this episode is Enlightened Drift by Amber Glow. 

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Dreamful is produced and hosted by Jordan Blair. Edited by Katie Sokolovska. Theme song by Joshua Snodgrass. Cover art by Jordan Blair. ©️ Dreamful LLC

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to Dreamful Podcast bedtime stories for
slumber.
I would like to start off thisepisode by thanking our newest
supporter, catherine Broom.
Thank you so much, catherine,and I hope you have the sweetest
of dreams.
If you'd like to support theshow and gain access to over 110

(00:44):
subscriber-only episodes whilereceiving a shout-out, visit
dreamfellstoriescom and, on thesupport page, find a link to
become a Buzzsprout supporter orsubscribe via Supercast.
If you listen on Spotify, youcan also subscribe on Apple
Podcasts, though I can't seeyour name, so it's really
difficult for me to giveshout-outs, though I can't see
your name, so it's reallydifficult for me to give

(01:05):
shoutouts.
Though I do appreciate everysingle one of you for helping to
support the show.
It's been a while since I'vedone a series and while I've
heard your requests to bringback constellations, there's
another kind of mythology I'vebeen longing to explore.
Of mythology I've been longingto explore Once steeped in

(01:27):
golden sand, starlit sky andstories older than memory.
Welcome to the Myths of Egypt.
In this series, we'll stepquietly back in time and follow
the myth that shaped acivilization this is the first
chapter A tale of light bornfrom darkness, of a god who rose

(01:49):
alone and spoke the world intobeing.
This is Ra, born of silence,crowned in flame.
So snuggle up in your blanketsand have sweet dreams.
Before the first grain of sand,before the Nile carved its path

(02:45):
through the land, even beforethe stars had names, there was
only noon A vast, boundless seanot made of water but of
infinite darkness and stillness.
It was formless, motionless.
It was formless, motionless andyet full of potential.

(03:08):
Imagine it a world withouthorizon, no sky, no land, no
time.
But then a shimmer, a pulse,and from the heart of that

(03:35):
silence, something stirred, notborn, not shaped, but willed
into existence Raw, the firstlight, the self-created one.
He rose, golden and luminousfrom the surface of noon, like a
flame kindling in the dark.
He did not walk or speak, notat first.

(03:56):
He simply existed and the worldbegan to awaken around him.
With thought alone, he formedcreation.
From that divine solitude camea desire, a longing to bring
forth order from the endlessdark.

(04:16):
So Ra lifted his voice andspoke, not with words as we know
them, but with sounds that heldwithin them the shape of life.
First came Shu, the air, lightand invisible, but strong enough

(04:41):
to hold apart the earth and thesky, but strong enough to hold
apart the earth and the sky.
He rose as wind and breath,laughter and sigh, the very
space between things.
Then Tefnut, his twin moistureand mist, the wetness of morning

(05:03):
, the soft fall of rain on stone.
She danced across the surfaceof the world, shaping rivers and
dew, touching the skin of allthings.
From their union, geb was born,the god of the earth, with a

(05:24):
body of stone and fertile soil,veins of gold and copper running
deep through his flesh, and Nutthe sky, her body stretched in
an arc across him, adorned withstars, her limbs touching the

(05:44):
horizon at each end.
It is said that Shu lifted Nuthigh above Geb, separating them
forever, so that night and daycould be born and so that Ra
might have a place to sailacross the heavens.

(06:06):
With each divine act, the worldtook shape.
Trees rose from the soil, birdsleapt into the sky and waters
churned with unseen life.
From Ra's heart came Maat, agoddess of balance.

(06:28):
She was truth, justice, the waythings were meant to be.
Ma'at was a heartbeat of theworld, the harmony between wind
and wave, between king andservant, between life and death.

(06:49):
Without her, the world wouldcrack and the serpent of chaos
would rise.
Ra placed Ma'at beside him onhis bark, where she would travel
with him, always guiding thecourse of the sun, measuring

(07:11):
every breath, every hour, everychoice.
And thus the world was made notin a single moment, but as a
song of names, spoken by a Godwho burned with creation.

(07:32):
A world of light and rhythm, ofgods and stars, of life and law
.
A world where Ra reigned asboth flame and father, the first
to rise, the one who gave orderto the formless dark.

(07:58):
In time, the Gauls multiplied.
From the first divine family,shu and Havnut, geb and Nut,
came new gods, osiris, isis, set, nephthys, but all bowed to the

(08:21):
light of Ra.
For he was not only the first,he was the strongest, the
brightest and the most feared Inevery temple.
From the southern reaches ofNining One, the All-Seeing, the
Flame that Burns Eternal.

(08:51):
He ruled not from a palace butfrom the sky.
Each day, he climbed aboard hisgolden solar bark and from the
eastern horizon he began hisjourney across the heavens.
Below him, egypt bloomed, theNile sparkled, fields of barley

(09:17):
swayed beneath his gaze and ashe passed overhead, the world
moved to his rhythm.
Crops grew, children were born,kings ruled.

(09:40):
And when the sun dipped low atthe day's end, ra's journey did
not end.
He entered the hidden realm ofthe Duat, the underworld, where
shadows waited and dangersstirred.
In the hours of deepest nighthe sailed through caverns lit by

(10:03):
fire and guarded by spiritswith dark coils.
Of the underworld was a greatserpent, apep.
Chaos coiled, a hunger with noname, no face, only teeth and
shadow.
And yet Ra did not travel alone.

(10:26):
At his side stood Maat, stilland steady, her feathered beacon
in the dark, and Toth, the godof wisdom and speech, sailed
beside them, scribe, magicianand guardian of divine law.

(10:49):
Together they steered the barkof millions through every trial
and with each victorious dawn.
Ra was reborn as a falconcrowned with fire soaring once
more into the blue.
So radiant was his power, sovast his light, that even other

(11:19):
gods began to merge with him.
In Thebes, he became Amun-Ra,the Hidden One who Shines.
In Heliopolis, he rose asRa-Atum, the Setting Sun who
closes the day.
In Horus, the Falcon God ofKingship.

(11:44):
In Horus, the falcon god ofkingship, he became Ra Herakti,
the sun on both horizons.
Even mighty Montu, god of war,bore his name Montu-Ra, the

(12:08):
fierce sun who rides into battle.
Ra was not just a god of thesky, he became the sun itself,
and every king who took thethrone of Egypt, was called the
son of Ra, for, in the eyes ofthe people, only a child of the
sun could hold the land togetherand keep darkness at bay.

(12:32):
Though Ra reigned by day, it wasin the night that his courage
was tested.
Each evening, as the sun sankinto the western horizon, he
stepped down from the visiblesky and into the Duat, the
hidden realm beneath the world.
The Duat was not hell, butsomething older, deeper A vast,

(13:01):
shifting landscape of flame-littunnels, silent waters, stone
gates and beings born fromdreams and fear.
Stone gates and beings bornfrom dreams and fear.
Here, ra was no longeruntouchable.
He was a traveler, a light inthe dark, sailing his bark

(13:28):
through a place where even godscould falter.
At the helm stood his defenders,ma'at, ever steady and Hoth,
with spells written in starlightand ink.
And yet none were enough toface the ancient thing that
waited in the blackness Apep,serpent of the deep, enemy of Ra

(13:54):
, enemy of life.
Some said he stretched formiles, his coils curled beneath
the foundations of the world.
Others whispered that he had nobeginning or end, only hunger
spurt.
That he had no beginning or end, only hunger.

(14:19):
Each night, apep would rise fromthe depths of the Duat, his
massive body blocking the bark'spath.
His jaws open wide, drippingwith venom, ready to swallow the
sun whole.
Sometimes he succeeded, if onlyfor a moment.

(14:41):
On those nights, the starsflickered, the wind held his
breath and even the gods grewstill.
But Ra, ma'at and Toth were notalone.
Set, god of storms and strength, stood at the bow, though Set

(15:02):
would one day betray his brotherOsiris.
Here in the Duat, he served ahigher purpose to strike down
Apep with spear and thunder, toprotect the light from being
devoured.
Hour by hour, gate by gate, thebark pressed forward.

(15:30):
Gate by gate, the bark pressedforward through darkness,
through flame, through the jawsof death itself.
And when, at last, the serpentwas cast down, when Ra's light
had pierced the final veil ofshadow, the horizon blushed, the

(16:01):
birds stirred and dawn oncemore returned.
Even gods grow.
Old Ra, who had spoken the worldinto being, who rode across the
sky in glory and lit theunderworld with fire, now walked
the earth in the shape of anold man.
His limbs were weary, hisbreath was shallow and from the

(16:23):
corners of his lips saliva fell.
Droplets of golden dew castupon the dust.
Still, his light burned.
Still the gods obeyed.
But one among them began towonder Isis.

(16:46):
She was clever, radiant andfilled with ambition, not for
herself but for the world shewished to protect.
She had watched Ra from adistance, she had learned the
names he gave to others, but onename remained hidden, one that

(17:13):
held the secret of his truenature, his power, his soul, his
ren, his secret name.
In Egyptian belief, to know abeing's true name was to hold
sway over them, to shape them,to heal them, to command them.

(17:37):
And so Isis devised a plan.
She gathered the dust of theearth, fine and dry, and mixed
it with Ra's fallen saliva, fineand dry, and mixed it with Ra's
fallen saliva.
From this she molded a creature, a serpent, silent, venomous,

(18:09):
alive with magic.
She laid it upon the path whereRa would pass, and when the sun
god stepped forward, theserpent struck His fangs,
perceived divine flesh and, forthe first time since creation,

(18:29):
ra cried out in pain.
The gods gathered, confused andfearful, but no one could ease
his suffering.
Only Isis came forward, calmand steady.
She said Tell me your name, ra.
Only then can I draw the poisonfrom your blood.

(18:50):
Ra resisted.
He listed titles, glories,praises.
I am the maker of heaven, thelord of light, the flame that
burns I am Kebara at dawn, ra atnoon and Tam in the evening.

(19:11):
The flame that burns.
I am Kebara at dawn, rotnum andTem in the evening.
But Isis shook her head.
Those are names given, she said, not the name hidden within you
.
And the pain grew.
The venom coiled through hisbody like fire.

(19:36):
At last, trembling and exhausted, ra whispered his true name.
No mortal ever heard it.
No other god dare speak it.
Isis alone received it, held itgently, like a flame cupped in

(19:56):
her hands, and in that momentshe became equal to him.
She spoke words of healing,drew the venom out and restored
Ra to life.
But the balance had shifted.
The god who created the worldhad given part of himself away,

(20:22):
and the goddess who healed himwould one day pass that power to
her son, horus, who wouldchallenge the throne of Egypt
itself.
The world was made, the godshad taken their places, the sky

(20:46):
arched high above the earth, theNile flowed winding through
fertile land and the voice thathad spoken it all into being
grew quiet.
Ra, once radiant andunchallenged, had become a god

(21:06):
of flame and shadow, eternal butchanged.
He had poured his strength intothe cycle of light, into the
balance of Maat, into theshaping of the stars, the
seasons, the hours of the day,and he was tired.

(21:33):
So Ra withdrew, not in defeatbut in peace.
He rose higher into the sky,beyond reach, no longer a king
who walked among the gods, butthe sun itself, watching,

(21:54):
guiding, burning.
He left behind his light, hislaws and his legacy.
To Toth he entrusted wisdom,the keeper of names, the scribe

(22:22):
of truth, to Ma'at he gave thegods who came after Osiris, isis
Horus said.
He gave the space to act, toshape, to struggle and to teach
the mortals who had risen fromhis tears.

(22:43):
And thus the great drama beganof life and death, of vengeance
and justice, of kingship andbetrayal, but above it all,
still raw, journeyed.
Each morning he rose, brightand golden, falcon-eyed, silent.

(23:12):
Each night he sailed into theDuat, bearing the world's light
through fire and shadow, neverceasing, never faltering.
Through fire and shadow, neverceasing, never faltering.
A god who had stepped back butnever truly left, even now when

(23:40):
dawn brushes the sky with roseand gold, the ancients would say
no-transcript.
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