THE REAL RA

While Truth and History can be stranger than fiction, the "Real" RA probably was NOT an androgynous alien symbiont with a thing for pyramid shaped spaceships! Originally Ra was the personification, or perhaps focus figure, for worship of the solar force - for cosmic order and creation versus the primordial chaos - the light of the sun gathered into one person. This god is said to have either been created by the Ogdoad, a group of eight creator gods,or to have spontaneously arisen from either the primordial waters or mound or from a sacred blue lotus to create the rest of the world, the heavens and elements, the other gods and humans.

CONSORTS:
His primary consort, yet also daughter in some versions of the myths, is Hathor.The Egyptians also attributed two other consorts to him: Iusaas, an feminine co-creator, and at Thebes, Ra'at, the female Ra, who may also be the same deity as one of Montu's consorts, Ra't-tawy, whose name can be translated as the Female sun of the Two Lands.

CULT:
Ra's cult was originally centred on Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, in northern Egypt, and during the Old Kingdom period this cult spread throughout the nation with Royal support as an offical State sponsored Cult, due to the idenitifcation of the Pharaoh with the Sun. By the time of the fifth Dynasty, Ra is described as the leader of the pantheon of gods and by the height of the Middle Kingdom era, Ra had merged with Amun of Thebes, into one supreme figure, Amun-RA, the offical state deity from the 12th dynasty onwards.

Ra is also identified with the solar disc itself and not just the power of the sun. His other solar aspects, originally independent deities, perhaps with regional cults? were:

Khepri the dawn scarab who beguns the sun's journey
Aten the solar disc
Atum the setting sun, the sun 's journey made complete
Osiris as lord of night after the sun sets and beguns its journey through the gates of the Other World
Horus as Solar Falcon.

In some variants of the ancient myths, Horus, or Horus the Elder (uncle of the younger son of Osiris),is the son of Ra with Hathor as his mother (Hathor's name literally means and is written in hieroglyphs as House of Horus).
Ra is also said to be the Father of MAAT (also written Maet or Mayet) the feminine principle or truth, justice, cosmic order, harmony and balance.

MYTHS:
One legend about Ra claims that his body begun to age, and in his senility, Isis tricked him into revealing various magic spells and formulae to her, by poisoning him, and then curing him in exchange for the Word of Power that would make her Mistress of Magic.
Another legend says that humans came to rebel against the gods, plotting against Ra. A council of the gods was summoned and Hathor (or in some versions Tefnut or Sekhemet) was sent to punish humans in the form of a bloodthirsty giant lioness. Hathor however refused to stop the slaughter when ordered to and Ra had to drug her, and then tired of living on earth descended into the skies, riding the goddess NUT, in cow form, and proceeded to create the Heavenly Fields and stars and became Judge of the Dead. Despite this continuous ascent/ journey through the heavens, Ra is also depicted in the Osirian cycle as being leader of the council of gods, being one of the judges in the dispute between Horus and Seth.