『神』字的来源

Lightning, 申, was a very fearsome and mysterious  thing to the ancients. 

闪电，即『申』字，对于古代人来说是一种令人畏惧,神秘莫测的力量。

It frequently killed people, and it was very quick, so it is a part of many characters such as 電 which means electricity,  which means suddenly, and 神 which means God. 

它常常会让人丧命。并且它的速度极快，所以直到今日，它还是作为这些词的一部分，比如说汉字『電』指的就是电流，电力等；（同『奄』）本义是忽然；以及『神』意思是神灵。

The original character for lightning, looked like   became  became  became modern day 申.

最初的表示闪电的字形，看起来很像，变得像字，又变成最终成为今天的『申』字.

 Later it got transformed to something that looked like a hand, perhaps a hand from the sky throwing down lightning. 

之后它演变为一些东西看起来就像是一只手，可能表示天上有一只无形的手向人间投下闪电。

Finally it ended up looking like the present day 申. The present-day character does not mean lightning. It indicates the time of day from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. 

最终，它的字形渐如今天的『申』。现在它的含义已经不再表示闪电，而主要表申时，即一天当中的下午3点到5点。

It just so happens that in many parts of the country, I think ,this is the time that there are daily summer lightning storms.

为何偏偏用『申』字表示这个时间段呢？我以为，主要是因为在这个国家的相当一大部分地区，夏日时，这个时间段常出现电闪雷鸣的现象。

The character for electricity, 電, is also the character for lightning. It is 申, lightning, plus 雨, rain.

表示电力，电流的汉字『電』，也用来表示闪电。它是由『申』闪电，再加上『雨』字构成的。

 which means suddenly, originally had the lightning on top striking the man. It represented how suddenly lightning could strike a man.

  表示忽然，最初的字形上面是『申』的字形，下面则是一个人，它表示当闪电袭击人时速度之快。

神, the G word, God, was formed by adding an altar 示 to indicate that the meaning of the character 申 was to represent the original meaning of the lightning god.

『神』，即以G开头的字母God 的中文，它的字形的左侧增加了部件『示』本义指祭坛，为的是暗示汉字『申』本义就用来表达如天空中闪电般神秘莫测的神。

The character 祭jì, which means to sacrifice, also has an altar 示shì on the bottom. 

 汉字『祭』，意思是祭祀，也有一个部首『示』在下面

It has a piece of meat 肉ròu and a hand 又yòu above. That indicates that the person is making a sacrifice of meat to the gods and putting it on the altar.

在这个字形的上面有一块肉，和一只手『又』。这表示一个人正在用肉做祭品放在祭坛上献给神

The character 祀sì has a phonetic 巳sì on the side which means baby, perhaps it indicated that they were also praying for a baby. 

汉字『祀 sì』有一个表音符号『巳sì』在旁边，巳的本义是婴儿，也许表示他们在为子孙后嗣祈福。

This character used to be written 禩sì with and異 yì on the side. The character 異comes from a pictograph of a man with a mask. 

这个汉字最开始写作『禩』旁边有一个『異 yì 』，異这个字的象形文字看起来就像一个人带着面具

This indicates that the ancient Chinese used masks in their sacrificial rituals.

这暗示着 在古代中国人在祭祀仪式中常带着面具

Remember: Every part of every characteris derived from a pictograph which has a logical connection to the original meaning of the character. 

记住：每一个汉字都由一个象形文字演变而来，每一个象形文字则能表达出这个字的原始含义中的逻辑性 

Uncle Hanzi in Huangshan 2017