By the time Aset reached adulthood, she had become a favorite of the gods. The moon god Khonsu and the god of wisdom Tehuti both spent much of their time teaching her the ways of Heka and how to use magical words of power. Under the divine tutelage of the gods, Aset became a renowned sorceress throughout the world.

One day, Aset heard the cries of the people of the land of Kemet. The land was parched, the crops were burning, and nothing could grow. The great drought was starving the people.

As she looked out over the kingdom, Aset suddenly realized why the land was scorched – it was Amun-Ra. Amun-Ra’s cosmic power was exceedingly great, and it was burning up his creation. So Aset devised a plan.

Aset acquired a measure of Amun-Ra’s spittle, which she mixed with dirt to create a poisonous viper of the mud mixture. Then she endowed the viper with life and set it loose in Amun-Ra’s garden.

As all the gods and mortals knew, Amun-Ra went for a walk each morning in his divine garden, so he could review his creation. The next morning, when the creator god walked in his garden, Aset’s poisonous viper bit him upon his heel. Amun-Ra used a word of power to order the poisonous venom to leave his body. But the venom would not leave.

Intrigued, the creator god used another word of power to purge his body of the viper’s poison. But the poison was stubborn and stayed within his body. After a while, Amun-Ra retired to his throne and pondered these wonders.

Over the course of many days, Amun-Ra’s health began failing because of the viper’s poison. His jaws chattered, his lips trembled, and he even lost the power of speech for a short time; never had he suffered such pain. Khonsu was called to work his magic, but the moon god could not expunge the poison from Amun-Ra’s body. Hathor was then called, but for all her healing powers, she could not remove the poison either. Tehuti was called upon, but he could find no cure in his great library. Finally, Aset was requested to assist the ailing creator god.

After examining Amun-Ra, Aset said she could cure him with a magic spell, but he must reveal his secret name to her in order to make the spell work. So Amun-Ra said, “My names are many: I am the Hidden One, Giver of Life, Grandest Creator, the Ram of the West, Ra Who Is the Heru of the Horizons, and the Complete One.”

Aset cast her spell using the names Amun-Ra had given her, but to no effect. She said to him again, “Grand Creator, the only way I can cast the venom from your body is if you tell me your secret name.”

Amun-Ra then told her, “I am Khepera in the morning; I am Ra at midday; and I am Atum at dusk.”

Aset again cast her spell using these names, but they again failed to extract the poison from Amun-Ra’s body. “O great Amun-Ra,” she said to the creator god, “tease me no more! But tell me your secret name that I might finally cure you of this affliction!”

Amun-Ra pondered Aset’s request, and as his health was failing fast, finally he decided to reveal his secret name to the goddess. “Listen with your heart,” he whispered to her.

Amun-Ra then spoke his secret name directly from his heart to the heart of Aset. Suddenly the goddess felt a surge of electricity as the creator god’s secret name imbued her with his great power.

Aset began to cast her spell using Amun-Ra’s secret name, but she suddenly stopped. “Amun-Ra,” she said to him, “everywhere you walk in the kingdom, your cosmic power burns the crops and scorches the land. Your power cannot be resisted by the fragility of your creation. Your subjects cry out in pain and agony, from the great heat.”

“I will finish my spell, and cure you of this poison,” Aset continued, “but only if you will leave the earth so that your own creation might flourish, and appoint my husband Ausar as ruler so the people will have a benevolent and wise Neteru to lead them.”

Amun-Ra’s first reaction was anger. “You insolent fool! How dare you attempt to extort the greatest of the gods!” he shouted.

But even as he pondered Aset’s wise words, he listened closely to the cries of his subjects. It became clear to him that she was right. His own cosmic power was destroying his very creation and killing his people.

“Very well,” the creator god said, at last. “After you draw this viper’s venom from my body, I shall appoint your husband Ausar as ruler of the world, and I shall leave the earth so that my creation might continue. As Amun-Ra has said it, so let it be done.”

And with that unbreakable divine oath spoken, Aset finished her spell, saying “Flow, poison, come forth from Amun-Ra. Eye of Heru, come forth from Amun-Ra and shine outside his mouth. It is I, Aset, who works, and I have made the poison to fall on the ground. Verily the name of the great god is taken from him, Amun-Ra shall live and the poison shall die; if the poison live Amun-Ra shall die.”

And with this infallible spell, used in cases of poisoning, the bite of the venomous reptile was rendered harmless. The poison was driven from Amun-Ra’s body.

The creator god immediately recovered, and true to his word, he called the Neteru and the people together, and formally appointed his great-grandson Ausar as ruler of the world. He then charged Tehuti with teaching the mortals the secrets of Weret-Hekau, the words of magic, which would protect them from poisons and afflictions which might befall them.

To fulfill his pledge, Amun-Ra called upon the goddess Hathor, and in the form of a cow, she carried him to the Atet, his great solar barge in the heavens, which he uses to cross the sky every day and the underworld of the duat each night.