Nuit (alternatively Nu, Nut, or Nuith) is a goddess in
Thelema, the speaker in the first chapter of ''
The Book of the Law'', the sacred text written or received in 1904 by
Aleister Crowley. Nuit is based on the
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
sky goddess
Nut, who in Egyptian mythology arches over her
brother/husband,
Geb (
Earth god). She is usually depicted as a naked woman who is covered with stars.
In ''The Book of the Law''
In Aleister Crowley’s The Book of the Law, the central
sacred text of Thelema, Nuit is one part of a triad of deities, along with
Hadit (her masculine counterpart), and
Ra-Hoor-Khuit, or “the Crowned and Conquering Child”, who Thelemites believe are depicted on the
Stele of Revealing. She has several titles, including "
Our Lady of the Stars", and "Lady of the Starry Heaven". In ''
The Book of the Law'' she says of herself: "I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and in other verses she is called "
Queen of Heaven", and "Queen of Space". Nuit is symbolized by a sphere whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere. Hadit is the infinitely small point at the center of the sphere of Nuit.
In Thelemic theology
Manon Hedenborg-White writes that "
..Nuit and Hadit are constructed as gendered opposites in ritual and literature, and their divine functions and attributes are linked to their sex." She observes that
She goes on to note the practitioners of Thelema may subvert this view through polytheism, incorporating deities such as
Kali from
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
as well as the Greek god
Pan to represent different forms of femininity and masculinity. She also notes that one of her Thelemic informants questions the gendering of Nuit, calling it "merely a convenient metaphor". Another called the model "overly simplistic" and has devised their own more complex gender formulation. Hedenborg-White goes on to note that "studying contemporary Thelema requires sensitivity to the fact that Thelemites are not passively bound to orthodoxy in their religious practice."
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{{Thelema series
Magic goddesses
Mother goddesses
Mythological queens
New religious movement deities
Night goddesses
Sky and weather goddesses
Stellar goddesses
Thelema