Dates 23 December to 20 January

Appearance: Male human form with the head of a ram with horizontally projected horns.  

Symbols Horns, Goat
    
Principle: Fermentation
Khnum represents the procreative energies that enliven, bring the life force or excitement,; the process of kick starting an oth-erwise inanimate entity.  
Function: Embodiment
Energies: The powers of Khnum are concerned with giving tangible form.  He gives
body to; or makes perceptible, and concrete:
Procreativity in the natural world.

To represent in human or animal form or to incorporate. And to 'put health nto these bodies.' - A reference to breathing the life force into them.    

Myth:

As a creator god, Khunum is best known for his role at the potter's wheel, where he fashioned gods, mankind, cattle, birds, reptile and fish.  From calendar liturgies and hymns carved at Esna, detailed anatomical records have survived with explicit details of Khunum's actions in the formation of the human body:  For example he orientated the blood stream to flow over the bones and attached the skin to the body's frame.  He installed an apparatus for digestion, a respiratory system and vertebrae to support it.  

He is said to supervise conception in the womb and initiated the stages of labour.  Another myth states that after many years of creating and maintaining life Khnum is said to have grown tired and thought of a device to relieve himself of the task.  He set about to put a potter's wheel in the womb of the female of all creatures, and by so doing transferred his creative powers to them.  By relieving himself of creating the physical, he is able to concentrate on maintaining the creation of the life-force.

Khunum's creative forces are usually depicted as being at the behest of another deity.  As in the 'Tale of the two brothers' case where he is instructed by Ra-Herakhuti to create a wife for Bata.  Khunum proceeds to create a ravishingly beautiful woman in whose body is said to be the essence of the gods themselves.

Khunum is also said to be the Ba of the sun-god or the soul of the sun-god.   He controls the annual inundation of the Nile.  It was at his command that the god /deity / neter Hapy caused the annual Nile inundation. According to one myth, after a seven-year famine, when Khunum relents from preventing the Nile flood (on being assured that his temple will be renovated) and Egypt prospered again.  This was said to have happened during the reign of King Djoser (Dynasty III)

His importance can be traced back to the early dynastic period.  Rams sacred to Khnum- mummified, adorned with gilded head pieces and buried in sarcophagi have been discovered on Elephantine Island.

Other Titles:
"Lord of Crocodiles" - His connection to the river
"High of Plumes, Sharp of Horns"
    
Personality Traits:
Khunum's have a very confident and authoritative stature.
Those born under this sign can create opportunities from very little.  They are said to be one of the most enterprising of the zodiac signs.
    
Body parts:    Knees [functional/metaphysical = Muscular/purgation]


Other Correspondences
Neter                        Khunum
Season                    Emergence / Proyet
Month                      Jehudti / January
Planet                      Saturn
Element                   Earth
Body part                 Knees
Gemstone               Quartz, onyx, Jet, Black diamond
Tree                          Almond, yew, hemp
Food                         White grapes
Flower                      Lily
Colour(s)                 Indigo or black
Number(s)              1
Incense/Perfume   Eucalyptus
Metal                        Ram, goat

Suitable Occupations        Architecture, engineering, research, great at working under pressure

                                                and most successful when self\employed.

Famous People under this sign        

Mohammed Ali (17/01),

Mao Tse Tung,

Isaac Newton,

Elvis Pressley.

Martin Luther King Jr. (15/01)           

Yoruba Deity      Obatala