Egyptian Mythology

Egyptian Mythology (エジプト神話) is the mythology of the ancient Egyptians, dating from 3000 BCE.

In Toaru Majutsu no Index, Egyptian Mythology is used as a base for certain forms of Magic, and certain aspects of Thelema draw from it.

Principles
Much of the Egyptian mythology is set in the earliest times, setting the pattern for a cycle which the Egyptians believed would be repeated in the events of the present times, much like the cycles of nature they were witness to, like the course of the sun and the annual flooding of the Nile. They believed that, as the cycles were repeated, the fundamental order of the universe, called , would be renewed. The universe was not a battle between good and evil, but a balance between maat and  (chaos, injustice, etc.), which couldn't exist without the other, order being capable of emerging from chaos and chaos from order: the sun and the day died, leading to night and darkness, which was followed by the sun rising again out of the dark. The Nile flooded annually, destroying houses and lands, but at the same time said flood was what made the fields of Egypt so fertile for agriculture. Thus, order and chaos were subject to this same cycle on an universal scale.

The Pharaoh was the "Lord of Maat" who upheld both social and cosmic order through his combined political and religious authority. Without this authority, the Egyptians believed that the primordial isfet which existed before Creation would overtake the world and dissolve everything. For example, without maat, the Nile flood failed and the country fell into famine.

The Egyptian pantheon consists of numerous deities (called nṯrw, pronounced netjeru, meaning "gods" in Ancient Egyptian), who represent natural or social phenomena. With the exception of a few beings, most of the Egyptian pantheon act to maintain maat throughout the cosmos. In art, a fair number of deities were represented as a human with an animal's head, not because the Egyptians actually believed the gods had animal heads, but because the animals symbolized aspects of the deity or were sacred and thus associated to them.

Background
Rooting in prehistoric Egypt, Egyptian mythology was developed with the civilization of, which emerged around 3000 BCE, and formed its religion throughout much of its history, which lasted until around the beginning of the Common Era when Egypt was annexed by the Roman Empire.

Over time, knowledge of Egyptian mythology has been distorted by European preconceptions and misconceptions, ancient Greeks, resulting in the prevalence of twisted interpretations which differ from the original mythology.

Though the religion of Egyptian mythology was lost to history, many well preserved records were left behind. Considerable progress in their analysis meant that information on their system of gods, rituals and views of life and the soul were gathered together, and with Egypt being positioned at the top of Africa, it was geographically convenient for European magicians who had reached a dead-end in their research and sought new material elsewhere to make a breakthrough, and many monuments and burial items were preserved by museum and collectors in Europe.

Like many other magicians, Aleister Crowley traveled to Egypt and incorporated the names of Isis, Osiris and Horus into his concept of Aeons. Egyptian Mythology was one of several fields which influenced the development of Hermeticism, which would become part of the foundation of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn incorporated many elements from Egyptian mythology into their magical system, and used the names of Egyptian deities in their temple names and in a number of their ceremonies. Pieces in Enochian chess were modelled after Egyptian deities.

Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index SS
The first Egyptian magician to appear in the series is Leep, who targets Index Librorum Prohibitorum, hoping to use her knowledge to complete a version of the Book of the Dead which was missing pieces due to tomb robbers.