01.28.10
Posted in Festivals, Thoughts and Reflections at 12:59 pm by Shefyt
Earlier this week, in the wake of the torrential downpours, a beautiful, burnished evening — the trees like bronze in the westering light, the woods warm and wet, filled with numinous pools reflecting the gold-tinged sky. And I thought, can this really be January? But then I realized with a shock that January is already almost over. The snowdrops under the apple tree have been poking their stubborn heads up for a couple of weeks now; the light is noticeably stronger. Sunset is just beginning to enflame the sky at 5:00 as I walk across the parking lot to the gym to work out. The weather has turned cold once again — there was brief, startling shower of snow this morning — but spring is undeniably closer.
This has always been a special time of year for me. And conveniently, there’s a Feast of Heryshef right about where I once would have celebrated the waxing light and the first glimmers of spring with Imbolc during my semi-Wiccan days. So I’m planning to do something next week to honor Him, although I haven’t yet decided exactly what. It seems remarkably appropriate, considering that Heryshef was known as the ba of Ra and also of Wesir — a manifestation of the sun god and also of the god who brings forth the greenness of the world. I’ve been wanting to get to know Him better anyway, so this seems like an ideal opportunity.
Dua Heryshef! Nekhtet!
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01.20.10
Posted in Stalking Beauty, Thoughts and Reflections at 12:50 pm by Shefyt
I finally went to see James Cameron’s Avatar last weekend. It was splendidly done, no question, a visual spectacular, showing a satisfying triumph of beauty and spirituality over corporate greed and blindness. I enjoyed it greatly, and yet I came away from it not feeling profoundly moved. My reaction may have been colored by the issues of romanticized racism that have been raised elsewhere — the idealized and pure native peoples needing to be saved by the Great White Soldier-Hero — but it wasn’t only that. It may have been that the characters didn’t hit any of my particular triggers (aside from being felinoid, which is always an attraction, blue or not), but it seemed that there was something more. And as I thought of the luminous, otherworldly forest that the movie depicted, the vivid and brilliant wings of the irkan and the toruk flashing against the sky, the perfect union of the bond, the realization came, sudden, startling, and sure:
Beautiful, yes. But not as beautiful as my Mother’s eyes.
The green-tinged gold of the winter hillsides; the moss of my lawn, lush in the brief, damp thaw; the flawless, living clarity of the brook — the caress of the sun; the wind’s sweet, subtle stirring; the leap of my heart, the sense of presence like an embrace; Her warm and endless regard holding me, always. The kinship of those who care for me and whom I care for, of those who hear echoes of the same callings, a silver, flickering music.
I feel a little sad for the people who come out of the movie theater pining for a place that they’ll never get to. The connection to something larger, to the universal web of beauty of which the self is one part, isn’t out there, on Pandora. It’s right here, right now, in the eyes that see, in the heart that opens itself in exhilarated joy and welcome like the outstretched wings of a bird.
The day after Avatar, I went for a walk to the local nature preserve and sang an offering to the stream’s spirit; at home, I raked leaves, cut back perennials, and hauled firewood, alive to the contours of the land beneath my feet, to the fall of the light. Whatever its flaws or its virtues, I’m grateful to Avatar for this: for reminding me of what beauty truly is and where it lives.
I see you, the Na’vi greet each other.
What do you see?
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01.15.10
Posted in Books, Reviews: Nonfiction at 8:08 am by Shefyt
God’s Wife, God’s Servant: The God’s Wife of Amun
By Mariam F. Ayad. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. Hardcover, 216 pages, 51 b/w and color photos.
I pulled this from the library shelves because I was interested in the subject of women in priestly or priestlike roles in ancient Egypt. After a general historical overview of the title “God’s Wife of Amun,” the book focuses on five women from the Third Intermediate and Late Periods who held that position: Shepenwepet I, Amenirdis I, Shepenwepet II, Nitocris, and Ankhnesneferibre. For the most part, it concentrates on analyzing the iconography of depictions of the God’s Wives, and how they were shown in activities and contexts that had previously been the exclusive domain of the King — for instance, taking part in the sed festival, offering ma’at to the Gods, or being suckled by a Goddess. In exploring the evolution of the position and its associations with divine and royal authority, the book also refutes the view that the God’s Wife’s primary role was to sexually please the Gods.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was the section describing the various rites and rituals celebrated by the God’s Wife. For example, a scene from the Edifice of Taharqo by the Sacred Lake shows the God’s Wife aiming a bow and the King hitting balls with his mace. The two of them, here depicted as equals, are performing a rite of protecting the tomb of Wesir from the enemies of the four directions. (The hieroglyphic caption by the God’s Wife reads: “The God’s Wife has grasped the bow against the South and the North, the West and the East in return for what he has given her.”) I think this could be translated into a extremely fun group ritual, by the way; it’s on my list of projects. Other rites include burning fans bearing images of Kemet’s enemies, elevating the Gods, and driving four calves.
The text can get a little repetitive at times as the author describes the elements of the various represenations, many of which repeat from image to image: the costuming, the gestures, the relative positionings. Also, the proofreading is rather sketchy. (You know it’s bad when “Nitocris” is spelled three different ways — on the same page.) There’s a lot of intriguing info here, though, as well as photographs and line drawings of many obscure scenes, mostly from funerary and cultic chapels at Medinet Habu and Karnak. I don’t think it’s quite worth paying the book’s hardcover price (about $100US on Amazon at the time of this review) unless you have an extremely intense interest in the subject, but it’s definitely worth checking out of the library (or possibly getting on Kindle, where it’s only $28.76US).
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01.01.10
Posted in Thoughts and Reflections at 2:23 pm by Shefyt
Ten years ago, I was at the peak of my fandom phase, heavily engaged in writing fanfiction and moderating a mailing list, and without much at all happening in the way of spirituality. Five years ago, I was halfway through the House of Netjer’s beginners’ course, still not sure of where it was going to lead me, but finally starting to click with the sense of community and being very profoundly moved by some postings by the Imakhiu on the subject of service.
In the last decade, my father died, leaving me the only member of my family on this continent; I was divined a daughter of Bast, became a Shemsu, a Shemsu-Ankh, and then a w’ab priest; I left my job of thirteen years and found a new one, plus I started freelancing; I finished my epic fanfic and began work on an original novel; I started writing songs; I drove all across the United States by myself; I overcame two of the three addictions that had been plaguing me; I traveled to Japan and to Egypt. For much of the time I felt lost, anxious, blocked, and tremendously frustrated with my life, but I look back now and realize how much happened and how much I accomplished. And that realization gives me a sense of hope and a surge of positive energy for going forward into the next decade.
That said, my resolutions for 2010 are:
- to refine my service as a priest of my Mother
- to tend what’s mine to tend
- to make decisive progress in my writing
- to balance the opposites: strength and beauty, focus and freedom, discipline and joy
Dua Netjer! Nekhtet!
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12.29.09
Posted in Festivals, Netjeru, The Wild Sky at 2:14 pm by Shefyt
This morning, before getting in the car to go to work, I paused outside the garage to look up. Above the branches of the pine tree across the road, silhouetted against the gradually lightening sky — a pale swath of delicate cloud veil and a single star, golden and startlingly bright.
Later, during the drive, I looked up again, out the car’s window. The dawn sky was filled with clouds in serried ranks, as if marching from the east, advancing across the land. The Gods are in procession, I thought, on this day of festival, as the Divine Cow raises up the sun.
Today is a holy day, the day that Ra establishes His place in the heavens. Look up!
Dua Nut, Mother of the Gods! Dua Ra in Your rising! Nekhtet!
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12.27.09
Posted in Being Kemetic, Festivals, Ten Days of Joy, Thoughts and Reflections at 9:59 pm by Shefyt
A major part of the process of settling and growing in Kemetic religion is figuring out one’s calendar. With some hundreds of known festivals filling almost every day of the year, it can be entirely overwhelming! Most people seem to prune it down to a handful of focused observances, with at best a quick candle lighting or a moment of prayer to acknowledge some of the other days.
The festival known as Bast Guards the Two Lands (sometimes called Bast Guides the Two Lands) is one of my big ones, and this year it was even more of a production than usual, with the Northeast gathering on one weekend, my own personal observance on the following Friday, and the Ten Days of Joy meditations spanning both. It included fellowship, singing, the decoration and shaking of sistra, the lighting of candles, offerings of chocolate and flowers and cookies and oranges and roast duck (among other things), long bouts of contemplation, a renewed sense of purity and the beginnings of a shift in spiritual focus, and through it all, the overpowering warmth and presence of my Mother’s love.
Six years ago, I celebrated this festival for the very first time, although I didn’t realize it then. It was a time of deep reflection, as it still is today, a time of sitting in darkness and opening to the light, a time of stillness and profound listening. And yet it’s also a festival of song and rejoicing, of group celebration and festivity, of laughter. It was interesting to me that the Ten Days of Joy also seemed to swing between stillness and exuberance, inward and outward, contemplation and action. Perhaps one could say that joy and love both reconcile all opposites.
Praise to You, Bast, pre-eminent in the field of the god! Mistress of Heaven, O Peerless One, Firstborn of Tem! May You guide us, may You guard us, in every day and every hour, as You guide and guard the Two Lands! Nekhtet!
(The picture above is from after the group celebration, when everyone else had left and our burned-down celebrant candles were removed from the bowl of sand, leaving just Bast’s central candle in place.)
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12.25.09
Posted in Festivals, Ten Days of Joy at 9:48 pm by Shefyt
Today is the Feast of Bast Guarding the Two Lands. In the dark time of the year, She is the flame that never dies, the Eye that never ceases in Its vigilance, the great Goddess Who acts without faltering, effective in the upholding of ma’at.
Today, even while it was a day of rest and holiday, I pushed through my inertias and anxieties — not with force but gently, and yet with an engaged will. I slept in the shrine room overnight, overcoming the nervousness that comes with trying something new. I worked on craft projects, despite being tempted to procrastinate and put them off until tomorrow. I achieved a goal in my reading, rather than lying down for a nap in the afternoon. And I honored my Mother with offerings and time spent in the shrine, despite a cold that kept me from being pure enough for formal rites.
Today’s joy was the joy of a balanced strength, of inner victory without inner violence, of peace in the midst of action and action arising out of peace. Today’s joy was the grace of doing, the shining flame of desire and accomplishment.
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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12.24.09
Posted in Ten Days of Joy at 10:34 pm by Shefyt
Today’s joy was supremely simple: the joy of being at home. Holiday shopping done, presents wrapped — nowhere else that I need to go for the next day or so, nothing planned but reading, relaxing, and celebrating. I can just be here, in the place where I am. And I give thanks for my good fortune, that I have this place: my own house, my sanctuary that surrounds me with warmth and shelter, with peace and satisfaction.
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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12.23.09
Posted in Ten Days of Joy at 11:40 pm by Shefyt
Today I was out doing my holiday shopping, not at the mall (thank the Gods!), but in the artsy small village of New Hope, PA. The recession seems to be hitting the place pretty hard — a number of stores were closed, and since it was a weekday afternoon the streets and sidewalks were far less crowded than they usually are when I visit on the weekends, giving the place something of a ghost-town atmosphere. But there was a moment, picking my way along the brick sidewalk, being careful of the lingering patches of ice and slush, when I suddenly felt the quiet of the streets, the warmth of the winter sun, heard the whisper of the creek spilling over the lip of the millhouse waterfall, on its way to join the Delaware River — a moment of being perfectly awake and aware of my surroundings, not lost in distractions or busyness or priorities or plans. And with that shock of awareness, a slightly bittersweet pang of joy: the twinge of seeing the processes of time and change at work on a familiar place, wearing away some things and leaving others behind, like wind and water carving outcroppings out of layered stone, and yet at the same time a piercing sense of vibrancy. This is a place where people live, both in good circumstances and in bad. It’s real. It’s alive. And so am I!
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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12.22.09
Posted in Cats, Ten Days of Joy at 8:25 pm by Shefyt
Today’s joy was a quiet one: the peace of drowsing beneath a cluster of warm, happy, purring cats. Three cats are actually enough to make a very substantial furry blanket!
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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