Heqet is associated with fertility, health of the land and people, germination of corn, the last stages of childbirth and the last stage of the flooding of the Nile. The Nile floods are an annual event celebrated for two weeks starting August 15 with the festivities of Wafaa-El-Nil.
See also:
The Frog Goddess signifies luck, good health, medicine, prosperity, creation and metamorphosis. Frog statuettes and amulets of Heqet are popular in the ancient world. It's thought birthing mothers wore frog amulets to ease childbirth.
Frogs have been associated with medicine since the time of the early humankind. Although they have lungs frogs also breath through the skin. No frog can live in salt water or water with high pollution levels.
See also:
The skin of the frog is sensitive and in some cases, produces toxins. Tribal shamans use the skins of frogs in medicine riturals. An area of no frogs signifies poor envirornmental health.
Before she becomes an independent Goddess, Heqet is the female counterpart of Khnum, a primordial creator god associated with the annual Nile floods. She splits off early in deific history to form her own identity, with Khnum as her husband or consort.
See also:
She is considered the mother of falcon-headed god Horus. In the Osiris myth, Heqet breathes life essence or ka into the new body of Horus at birth. Heqet is one of the deities, with Goddess Meskhenet, who bestows ka at the moment a child is being born.
As the birth of Horus becomes linked to the resurrection of Osiris, Heqet's role is more closely associated with rebirth or creation of life from death. Heqet becomes a goddess of childbirth in the Middle Kingdom, 2040 - 1782 BCE.
See also:
The flooding of the Nile is part of the planting and harvest cycles. The floods begin as heavy tropical rainfall in Ethiopia. The mating seasons of frogs depend on plenty of fresh water. They lay eggs in water and tadpoles, the children of frogs, are completely aquatic.
The Nile brings much-needed water into Egypt and deposits layers of nutrient rich silt. The Egyptians hold silt in high regard because not only is it essential to the fertility of the land, it's also the substance from which the first humans are made.
See also:
The Nile Floods must be in a natural state of balance. The Egyptians practice a method of basin irrigation to conserve the soils, their fertility sustained by the annual silt deposit of the Nile floods.
If a flood is small, water doesn't reach the upper basins, resulting in poor crop irrigation, drought and famine. If a flood is too large it devastates villages, dams and canals.
See also:
During and after the floods, the land is literally hopping with frogs. It's a sure sign of health and prosperity to come. Frogs are also common prey for fish, herons, snakes and other aquatic or semi-aquatic predators.
Amphibians such as the marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus), Nile Valley Toad (Sclerophrys kassasii) and Nile Delta Toad (Amietophrynus kassasii) are at home in the reedy rivers of Egypt. They mate and lay eggs as the flood waters rise.
See also:
The Frog is associated with creation and feminine or yin energy. As ancient Egyptians depend on the Nile floods each year to infuse the lands with vigor and health, frogs are a sign of luck and prosperity. In China the money frog / toad Chan Chu is said to attract wealth.
Frogs relate to the night and moon magic, vocalization and singing. In the Lora Ley novels riverbank frogs sing out the news every night.
See also:
In some depictions Heqet is shown seated on a shen ring or shenu. Due to her connection with nature magic, scholars suggest the name Heqet is a precursor to Hekate, goddess of witchcraft, moon and night. Both relate to Heka, ancient Egyptian personification of magic.
See also: