In the beginning, during the era known as the Zep Tepi or the First Time, the sun god Ra ruled over the world as a physical king from his magnificent throne in the city of Iunu, which the Greeks would later call Heliopolis. This was a golden age where the gods and humanity lived in close proximity, and the land of Egypt flourished under the direct radiance of the creator. Ra, who was also worshipped as Atum, had emerged from the swirling, chaotic waters of Nu to establish the first mound of earth, the Benben stone, upon which the city of Heliopolis was built. For thousands of years, his word was law, and his light maintained the balance of Ma'at throughout the cosmos. However, as the eons stretched forward, even the creator began to experience the weight of time. Ra’s divine body, though made of the essence of the stars, began to show signs of senescence. His bones grew brittle and turned into silver; his flesh became heavy and transformed into gold; and his hair took on the deep, starlit blue of lapis lazuli. The god who once strode through the heavens with the vigor of a young bull now trembled as he walked, and his once-clear voice began to falter with the weariness of ages.
Humans, born from the very tears of joy that Ra had shed during the creation of the world, were quick to notice their king's declining strength. In the markets of Heliopolis and the villages along the Nile, a spirit of dissent began to take root. They looked upon their aging sovereign not with the reverence of old, but with the cold eyes of opportunism. Whispers of rebellion turned into open conspiracies, and groups of men and women gathered in the remote regions of the desert, beyond the immediate reach of the god's palace, to plot his overthrow. They believed that a god who could grow old was a god who could be replaced, and they began to arm themselves, speaking blasphemies against the sun. Ra, though his physical form was failing, remained omniscient in his divine essence. He felt the coldness in the hearts of his subjects and heard the echoes of their treachery in the wind. The betrayal stung more than any physical ailment, for he had been their provider and protector since the dawn of time. Deeply troubled, Ra realized that the order of the world was at risk and that he must consult with the primeval forces that existed before the world began.
Ra summoned a secret council of the gods in the most secluded sanctuary of the Great Temple at Heliopolis. He called upon Nun, the personification of the abyss; Shu, the god of the air; Tefnut, the goddess of moisture; Geb, the earth; and Nut, the sky. He even summoned the Eye of Ra, the feminine aspect of his own power. The assembly was held in total silence so that humanity would not suspect the gods were aware of their plots. Ra addressed Nun, the oldest of all: 'O Nun, you who were the first of the gods, and you, my children, behold the humans who were created from my own eye. They have turned their hearts against me and are plotting evil in the high deserts. I have waited to strike until I heard your counsel, for I am loath to destroy that which I have fashioned.' Nun replied with the weight of the primeval waters: 'My son Ra, you are the god greater than he who made him and more majestic than those who created him. Stay upon your throne, but send forth your Eye to smite those who plot against you. There is no eye on earth that can resist your Eye when it descends in the form of Hathor.'