Chnoumis
(Gr.)
The same as Chnouphis and Kneph. A symbol of creative force ; Chnoumis or Kneph is “the unmade and eternal deity” according to Plutarch. He is represented as blue (ether), and with his ram’s head with an asp between the horns, he might be taken for Ammon or Chnouphis (.q.v’. ). The fact is that all these gods are solar, and represent under various aspects the phases of generation and impregna tion. Their ram’s heads denote this meaning, a ram ever symbolizing generative energy in the abstract, while the bull was the symbol of strength and the creative function. All were one god, whose attributes were individualised and personified. According to Sir G. Wilkinsen, Kneph or Chnoumis was “the idea of the Spirit of God” ; and Bonwick explains that, as Av, “matter” or “flesh”, he was criocephalic (ram‐ headed), wearing a solar disk on the head, standing on the Serpent Mehen, with a viper in his left and a cross in his right hand, and bent upon the function of creation in the underworld (the earth, esoterically). The Kabbalists identify him with “Binah, the third Sephira of the Sephirothal Tree, or Binah, represented by the Divine name of Jehovah”. If as Chnoumis‐Kneph, he represents the Indian Narayâna, the Spirit of ( moving on the waters of space, as Eichton or Ether he holds in his mouth an Egg, the symbol of evolution ; and as Av he is Siva, the Destroyer and the Regenerator ; for, as Deveria explains:“His Journey to the lower hemispheres appears to symbolize the evolutions of substances, which are born to die and to be reborn.” Esoterically, however, and as taught by the Initiates of the inner temple, Chnoumis‐ Kneph was pre‐eminently the god of reincarnation. Says an inscription: “I am Chnoumis, Son of the Universe, 700”, a mystery having a direct reference to the reincarnating EGO (TG).
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Shortly: The same as Chnouphis and Kneph. A symbol of creative force ; Chnoumis or Kneph is “the unmade and e...