Shu

Shu is the god of the air and of light, first child (with his sister Tefnut) of the creator Atum. His great cosmic act is to stand between his children Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), holding the heavens aloft and apart from the ground — the dry, life-giving space of air in which the world can exist and breathe.

As the principle of air and the gap between earth and heaven, Shu is the Egyptian counterpart to the elemental powers the Greek philosophers numbered among the roots of all things — the breath that separates and sustains the ordered world.