Khepri is the morning manifestation of Ra, the great scarab who pushes the newborn sun above the eastern horizon each dawn, embodying the solar cycle's eternal renewal and the power of coming-into-being.
In later New Kingdom theology, Amun-Ra incorporated Khepri's dawn aspect, the Theban state god encompassing all three solar phases — Khepri at dawn, Ra at noon, Atum at dusk.
Each dawn, Ra emerged reborn as Khepri through Aker's eastern horizon gate, the scarab god pushing the newborn sun into the sky after its passage through the underworld.
Khepri appears at the Akhet each dawn, the eastern horizon serving as the gateway through which the scarab god pushes the reborn sun into the sky.
Ra emerges from the Duat's twelfth hour reborn as Khepri, the scarab-headed morning sun, completing the nightly cycle of death and regeneration within the underworld.
The Heart Scarab takes the form of Khepri's sacred beetle, the dung scarab that rolled the morning sun into existence — embedding the god of rebirth and renewal into the very shape of the amulet that would ensure the deceased's resurrection in the afterlife.
Khepri emerged self-created from the primordial waters of Nun as the first act of becoming, the Pyramid Texts describing him as 'he who came into being by himself.'
Nut swallows the sun each evening and gives birth to it as Khepri at dawn, the sky goddess's body serving as the passage through which the sun travels from death to rebirth.
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