Apep (Greek Apophis) - (actual translation unclear; the Romans believed it to mean "He Who Is Spat Out") ((Actual meaning is "active serpent power of")) While outside of the creation of Tem and thus technically not a part of Netjer, Apep is yet a part of the universe; that part which constantly tends toward dissolution and destruction. Apep is characterized as an "evil serpent" in some texts, but it must be remembered that for the Egyptians this was not a personalized evil, such as the Christian or Islamic concepts of the "devil." Apep represented the forces of Chaos as opposed to those of Order. Apep's birthday and New Year's day are marked by the performance of execration rituals to stave off "random acts of Apep" during the subsequent year. It is stated in more than one text that "Apep" is not Its actual Name, but while many other names are given for Apep, none is acknowledged to be the "true" one, possibly to avoid attracting the attention of this extremely powerful Presence.

Apophis

Apophis, cursed by the gods of darkness
mother and father of ante-primal chaos
whose coils mark the boundaries of Nu

Apophis, whose beauty exceeds the wastes
of barren egypt even in days before the headless
hounds of the dark god feasted upon a severed
scale for four hundred seasons and eighteen

Apophis, whose re-birthing startled into evolution's
aimless path a tragedy called humanity
drenched with its blood, filled with its waking dreams
as time slithers ever onward towards its destiny

Apophis, who, when eyes a-wide,
beholds the wars of emergence when slaughtered
were the millions by hands so few and dim
when the whole earth glowed with joy

Apophis, moving towards the stars sets its
morning sights on Mars in the vessel of its firstborn
the endemic human race

Apophis crawling through these veins
a mind seething with nameless visions of pain and joy
a body, whose spirit reels from ten thousand years of decay
a species whose planet their gods had long betrayed
a moment of rising, when the phoenix cries
and dare not dies
but vanishes into the skies
setting to the heavens, rending the stars ablaze
in a milk white, violet haze
coiled about the end of days.