Atum

The first principle, the essence born from the Nun before all time.
Atum is the spark of Creation, the God who manifests himself. In him, everything begins and everything returns, like the breath of the cosmos. He represents the totality of being, the One that contains All.

Atum is the first god to emerge from the chaotic waters of Nun.
He self-generates, and from himself brings forth the divine pair Shu and Tefnut, giving rise to the entire Heliopolitan Ennead.
He is the manifestation of the original unity, the All that contemplates itself in order to know itself.

The name Atum derives from the Egyptian root tm, meaning “complete, total, finished.”
Atum is the beginning and the end, the being that contains within itself all potentiality of the manifest and the unmanifest worlds.

In the Heliopolitan Cosmogony, Atum arises alone from Nun, the primordial ocean of non-being.
There was not yet sky nor earth, no gods nor men — only the infinite waters and the desire of the All to know itself through creation.
Thus Atum generated himself, an act of pure will, symbolizing the birth of consciousness from the void.

From his essence, he created the first divine beings, Shu (Air) and Tefnut (Moisture), who initiated the generation of the gods.
Through them came Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys — the entire divine family.

Atum is therefore the root of the Ennead, but also the divine spark within every being.
As a spiritual principle, he represents the contemplation of the Self: he looks upon himself, and in that reflection, the universe comes into being.

In worship, Atum was venerated as the evening aspect of the Sun, when Ra descends into the Duat and returns to the primordial essence.
Thus, Ra at dawn is Khepri (birth), at midday is Ra (fullness), and at sunset is Atum (return to unity).

Esoterically, Atum is not merely the creator, but the awareness that creates itself — the eye that observes and, through observation, generates.