The Goddess Neith, Spinner of Destiny

The Ancient Egyptians worshipped the primordial creator Goddess Neith, the spinner and weaver of destiny, who was associated with the spider. She was often depicted with a weaving shuttle in her hand, or a bow and arrows, demonstrating her hunting abilities.

As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to re-weave the world on her loom daily.

Plutarch (46 – 120 A.D.), said the Temple of Neith had the inscription:

I am All That Has Been, That Is, and That Will Be.
No mortal has yet been able to lift the veil that covers Me.

Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC), noted that the Egyptian citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped Neith, her clergy were female, and her temple at Sais was one of the most impressive in all of Egypt.

Litanies of Neith

Neith, the Great, the Divine Mother, Lady of the country of Esna,
The great Cow, the fashioner of Ra,
Greater is her name than of all gods and goddesses…
All belongs to her; life and death are under her surveillance;
The earth is under her order….

She the cobra who rose in Nun, the living Ancestor, the sovereign;
The length of the Earth is under her orders;
She who came solemnly, she who created the million;
She who has no equal, not one god is not within her form;
She who knows that which came before; she who was at the beginning…

The primordial One, eldest of the primeval gods,
She who made that which is, she who created that which exists…
She who rises in the primal Waters,
She who fills Heaven and Earth with her beauty,
The mother of millions, the mother of heaven,
She who supplies Earth with good grain,
Who contains in herself her son as a light illuminating the Two Lands
Neith, the great Lady of Sais…

To Neith who rose in Nun while the Earth was in darkness.
To Neith the living ancestor who took origin in Nun,
Before the creation of Earth and the raising of Heaven.
To Neith the Creatrix, the One who was in the beginning,
The Mother of the primordial time, she who created her own birth…

To Neith who was at the origin and created those who are on high
and those who are below.
To Neith the mysterious who made the beings
And created all that which is by her existence.
To Neith who made eternity, whose mystery is in her form, who created…
To Neith in all her names. To Neith in all her forms.
To Neith in all her mysteries.

~from ancient Egyptian inscriptions at the Temple of Sais