According to an ancient Egyptian tale, at the beginning of time, Thoth was created and, in the form of an ibis, deposited the cosmic egg that contained all creation. In another story, Thoth emerged from the lips of the sun god Ra at the beginning of time, and in another, he was born out of the disputes of the gods Horus and Set, representing the forces of order and chaos. In all of this, however, the constant is that Thoth was born with an immense breadth of knowledge and, among the most important, the knowledge of the power of words.
Thoth gave human beings this knowledge freely, but it was a responsibility he expected them to take seriously. Words could hurt, heal, elevate, destroy, condemn, and even raise someone from death to life.
This concept is not as strange as it might first appear. Any writer knows that one often has no idea what one wants to say until the end of the first draft, and every avid reader understands the "magic" of discovering unknown worlds between the covers of a book and making that magic happen again each time the book is opened. David's reference to "concepts or events" coming into existence through writing is a common understanding among writers. American author William Faulkner stated in his Nobel Prize address that he wrote: "to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before" (1). This same motivation has been expressed in different words by many writers over the centuries, but before any of them even existed the ancient Egyptians understood this concept well. The great gift of Thoth was the ability not only to express one's self but to literally be able to change the world through the power of words. Before that could happen, however, before the gift could be put to its full use, it had to be understood.
