Akhekh by Topaz Drachen (Click image to enlarge)

A Year of Dragon Rituals

Part 4. Akhekh (Egypt)

17 May 2019, Full Moon in Scorpio

Akhekh – this dragon originates from Egypt and is otherwise known as Akhekhu. It is characterized as a fantastical beast with a long serpentine body with four legs to support it. It was believed to live in remote locations of Egypt, primarily beside the Nile Valley around the fringe desert.⁽¹⁾ Another description of it is a beast with the body of a winged antelope and a bird’s head. Three uraei crowned the head. It looked similar to a Griffin.⁽²⁾ Akhekh or Akekhu was originally recorded in Ancient Egypt as an aspect of the deity Set/Seth.⁽³⁾

Akhekh, by Topaz Drachen

The serpent and the Set animal were the common symbols of Set. As Set was the personification of the powers of darkness, and of evil, and of the forces of the waters which were supposed to resist light and order, a number of beasts which dwelt in the waters, or at least partly on land and partly in the water, were regarded as symbols of him and as beings wherein he took up his habitation. Among these were the serpent Apep, the fabulous beast, AKHEKH, which was a species of antelope with a bird’s head surmounted by three uraei, and a pair of wings, and the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the pig, the turtle, the ass, etc.⁽⁴⁾Set or Seth was called Typhon by the Greeks.⁽⁵⁾ Typhon was a monstrous serpentine giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology.⁽⁶⁾

Gerald Massey, in his 1881 book “A Book of the Beginnings” and his 1883 book, “The Natural Genesis”, wrote:

The Akhekh of darkness is the oldest personification of the Typhonian monster.⁽¹⁰⁾Typhon is the Akhekh Dragon. One form of the Egyptian Akhekh is a Gryphon with the winged body of a beast, the tail of a serpent and head of a peacock. This is the Winged Dragon, which became the mythical Cockatrice, a compound monster having the head of a cock, the wings of a fowl, and the tail of a serpent or dragon. It was said to be so named because of its origin from the egg of a cock hatched by a serpent. From this comes the cock’s egg of our Mythology. It was the egg of the Akhekh, serpent, or dragon, and allowing for the Peacock instead of the Cock, the Akhekh sign survives as the Cockatrice.⁽⁸⁾

In a hymn to the god Shu, Shu is addressed as the “valiant, who is lord of events, and overthrows the wicked every day. The (solar) barge is sailing joyfully, the (solar) ark in jubilation, as they see Shu, the son of Ra, in (his) triumph, he darts his spear against the serpent.” The ark of the sun is crossing the waters, and the crew are jubilant at the victory over the Apophis monster, the Akhekh of darkness, the dragon of the deep.⁽⁹⁾

In the Hymn to Amen-Ra the Sun-God is said to send his arrows against the Evil Serpent, to consume him. Here the typical Serpent or devouring Monster is the Naka or Naga by name. Nakak also denotes the curse, or accursed, and is associated with the Typhonian Devourer, the Crocodile-Dragon. Naka, to delude, be false, has the Dragon or Apap (Apep) Monster, the piercing Serpent of Evil, for its determinative. Now the primal monster was the Shadow of Darkness. The first type of this is the Naka, Nakak, or Akhekh. In Egyptian the Shadow of Night, the Darkness, is called Kak or Akhekh; and the Mythical Monster has the same name in the Akhekh Serpent, or Gryphon, the type of evil being primarily identical with Darkness. Akhekh is a name of the mythical Monster of the Dark, the Blackness, the devouring Dragon.⁽⁷⁾

Here then is the natural type of the Akhekh (or Nakak) of Darkness in the shape of an enormous serpent. In the solar stage of the mythos, when the sun passes down through the underworld, the Akhekh of Darkness lies in wait to swallow or pierce the god as he goes along, or it rises up and tries to overturn the solar boat. “I pass from earth to heaven, I grow like Akhekhu,” says the Osirified, using an image drawn from the sudden and huge uprising of the Gloom as the Devourer.⁽⁷⁾

Akhekh appears in one of the panels of the Metternich Stela, which is a magico-medical stele that is part of the Egyptian Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It dates to the thirtieth dynasty of Egypt around 380–342 B.C. The stela belongs to a group of stelae known as the “Cippi of Horus” or ‘Stelae of Horus on the crocodiles’. These types of stelae were used to protect the ancient Egyptian people from dangerous animals such as crocodiles and snakes. The Magical Stela is one of the largest and most complete of this kind.⁽¹¹⁾

The 4th panel down from the top of the Metternich Stela (left — click image to enlarge) shows: Horus spearing a crocodile which is led captive by Ta-urt. The four children of Horus. Neith and the two crocodile gods. Harpocrates seated upon a crocodile under a serpent. A lion, two scorpions and an oryx, symbols of Set. Seven serpents having their tails pierced by arrows or darts. A king in a chariot drawn by the fabulous AKHEKH animal which gallops over two crocodiles. Horus standing on the back of the oryx, emblem of Set.⁽¹²⁾

Akhekh represents the Typhonian powers of evil, who would disturb the established order of things and break up the harmony of creation. Akhekh is a part of the eternal conflict which was primarily that of light and darkness, the sun and the Akhekh monster, the truth and falsehood, life and death, heaven and hell, which was continued forever. The Dragon of darkness, the Akhekh Monster of Eclipse, is the primal cause of all obstruction, disorder and confusion in external phenomena! Akhekh is the Dragon, the Apophis Serpent, the opponent, the swallower of the sun or its eye, and the natural antithesis of light and life. When the sun sets it enters the dark valley where this danger lurks, waiting to attack, and twine round the sun-god Ra during the twelve hours of night. The winter sun growing weaker and diminishing daily is under this malign influence. Though wounded every night and vanquished every springtide, the dragon never dies.^(8a)

Other artists’ impressions of Akhekh…

Akhekh by Hibbary (deviantart) from realmofhistory.com/2018/03/27/10-mythical-dragon-entities-facts/