August 12, 2010
Posted in Festivals, Thoughts and Reflections
at 8:47 pm
by Shefyt
Today: the smell of rain on hot pavement, a blissful breath of cooler air, the hope that this long, sweltering summer might finally be drawing to a close. The House of Netjer’s New Year celebration was last week, so we’ve just entered the season of the Inundation, the rising of the great river, when a fresh surge of energy sweeps through the world and everything is washed clean and made new. Each year the House receives an oracle from Aset that provides a sort of theme for the upcoming year and also names the God or Gods Who is over that year and receives special offerings and prayers. This year is the year of Zep Tepi, the first time — the instant of creation — which belongs to all of the Gods and none of the Gods, but to make things easier for our poor human brains each season has been declared to be under the auspices of a single divinity: Ra for the first season, Mut for the second, and Mehet Weret, the cow-goddess Who embodies the primordial waters, for the third. And so the year goes from flood to flood, a perfect circle.
May it be a good year, this year of Zep Tepi, filled with prosperity and power and love. And may it bring renewal beyond anything we’ve ever dreamed of.
Di wep ronpet nofret! Nekhtet!
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May 31, 2010
Posted in Festivals, Netjeru, Poetry and Prayers
at 11:27 am
by Shefyt
This morning I got up at the crack of dawn to do a small ritual for Memorial Day (as I’d mentioned previously). Out on the front lawn, I set up a little shrine with offerings and read the following prayer out loud at sunrise:
A Memorial Day Prayer for Heru-hekenu and the Akhu
Dua Heru-hekenu! O Son of Bast,
You Who travel with Ra through the Duat,
You Who journey on the night barque through the land of Wesir,
You Who preserve the body and protect the soul,
may You preserve and protect all those who have died in service:
our soldiers, our police and rescue workers, our heroes.
May You bring light for their eyes.
May You bring breath for their nostrils.
May You bring fragrant unguents for their bodies and their kas
and every good thing so that they might live.
Great solider, Master of Protection,
may You spread Your wings out above the living as well,
may You bless the ones who put themselves in danger,
fighting to protect all that they love.
May their bodies be strengthened,
may their hearts be pure,
and may they return home safely at the end of their service,
until the day when all the lands are forever at peace.
May there be rest and healing for all the veterans
and great glory for the courage that they have shown.
An offering which the King gives to Heru-hekenu, Son of Bast, at the shrine of Saut-sen Iryt Ra: a thousand of bread, a thousand of barbecue, incense, flame, and cool water for the honored dead of this nation, true of voice. Dua Akhu! May you give your protection and guidance to those who fight today and to all the veterans who have served in the past. May you be remembered for as long as the stars shine in the sky. And may you live.
Dua Heru-hekenu! Dua Akhu! Nekhtet!
Afterward I sang “Taps” and then sat in meditation until the incense had burned down.
It was unusual for me, because I don’t usually do anything to celebrate Memorial Day. But this year it seemed right and necessary, as a sort of follow-on to the celebrations of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. And it was a lovely moment, sitting outside in the early morning, in the cool air touched by the scent of sandalwood incense, feeling a sense of things in harmony, of ma’at in this kind of remembrance.
Heru-hekenu may seem an odd (and obscure!) choice of deity to petition in a ritual like this. It was an intuitive jump at first, but upon further thought it made reasonable sense. As mentioned in the prayer, Heru-hekenu does sail on the night barque with Ra. (In the picture at the head of this page, Heru-hekenu is the hawk-headed figure standing directly behind the ram-headed Ra.) The journey of the sun into darkness and ultimately to regeneration and renewal is also the journey of the deceased; thus Heru-hekenu could be seen in the role of a funerary protector and assistant. According to the Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen, He lights the way for the ba of the dead, and He does actually receive offerings in a hotep di Nisut formula (although I’ve written my own here, not having tracked down the original yet). His name is also another indicator — Heru-hekenu can mean “Heru of the unguent” as well as “Heru of praises.” Just as oils and lotions were used to protect the living body against the ravages of a hot, harsh climate, so they were also used to protect the body of the deceased, preparing it for the tomb and its former inhabitant for the journey through the afterworld. Thus Heru-hekenu would be a protector of both the living and the dead.
So He seems to have a somewhat more liminal nature than some of the other forms of Heru. Yet he also has that warrior quality, as well as a very primal-seeming raptorial nature, which fits in well with one associated with battle and soldiers. It seemed appropriate, in the end, to call upon Him in remembrance of those who have fought and died for their country, and to ask Him to guard our living heroes as well.
A close-up of the statue I’m currently using for Heru-hekenu. The double crown is appropriate — He appears with it in reliefs from per-Bast — and the pots are about as close as one’s likely to find to perfume jars. The necklace draped around Him is one that I made for Him, and the red tissue-paper poppy came from a veterans’ organization.
Dua Heru-hekenu! Nekhtet!
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May 27, 2010
Posted in Being Kemetic, Festivals
at 1:24 pm
by Shefyt
The Beautiful Feast of the Valley has just ended, the great twelve-day festival during which the holy triad of Gods from Uaset, the city of Thebes — Amun, Mut, and Khonsu — sail to the western bank of the river to pay Their respects to Hethert and Wesir, and during which the people of Kemet would honor their Akhu, their beloved dead, with picnic feasts among the tombs. I think this is one of the festivals that loses a lot in the modern day — even if we could take a twelve-day holiday from work or other responsibilities, most of us would still be missing out on the processions, the revelry, the sheer emotional force of an entire populace joined in rituals of celebration and remembrance.
That said, it’s still worth celebrating. Last weekend, I enjoyed a lunchtime feast before my Akhu shrine, during which I talked with them about the past and also about my life right now. I actually spent quite a bit of time talking to my mother; and I was finally able to express my regrets that we probably had never understood each other very well, and to work through some of the ambivalence that I’ve been feeling toward her lately. At the end of the feast, I played my sistrum for the Akhu, which she seemed to think was a fun idea — I had the sudden mental impression of her shaking her own sistrum and doing the funny, awkward little bobbing dance that she used to do. It made me laugh. I’m not particularly adept at communicating with the dead, but I feel that we made a connection there, or perhaps cleared up a connection that was in danger of growing occluded.
Last night there was an online celebration in the House of Netjer chatroom, during which we named all of our Akhu and made offerings to them. Not quite the same as a live ritual, but powerful nonetheless to see that list of names scroll upward, to speak aloud the names of my own Akhu as I typed them in, the ripples of single drops falling into that great river. This year, unfortunately, daily life caught up with the Northeast region and we weren’t able to organize a get-together for the festival, but I hope we’ll be able to manage it again next year. The more that we can share in the great festivals of our religion, the better.
I’m also planning a personal Kemetic Memorial Day observance for this coming Monday, as a sort of addendum to the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. I’ll post about it here afterward.
May you and your dead be at peace, and may they bless you with good fortune and the everlasting comfort of their love.
Dua Akhu! Nekhtet!
A shrine for the online Beautiful Feast of the Valley ritual, featuring offerings of peonies from the garden, cool water (three glasses for the Theban triad, and a shot glass for the Akhu), and white chocolate (divided as well between the Gods and the Akhu). Note too the modern appurtenances: a binder serving as a windbreak to keep the air conditioner from blowing out the candles and a squirt bottle to chase away the cats.
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March 30, 2010
Posted in Festivals, Netjeru
at 8:00 am
by Shefyt
Two weeks ago, witch hazel and white crocus were ablaze all along Shapiro Walk. Last week, those fiery explosions had already faded and dried to a dark maroon, and the crocuses had slumped down onto the mulch, their lightless petals shriveled and translucent. This week the forsythia are in full cry, and the lily-flowered magnolias are just cracking their buds, clouds of pale pink and ivory rising up against the rain-dark trees and the pale stone of the university buildings. The beauties of the season pass so quickly, it seems as though we barely glimpse them before they’re gone.
Yesterday and today comprise the Festival of Set, Lord of the Oasis. It’s oddly appropriate for this time of year in the northeastern United States — for, if you think about it, winter is our desert, ruled by the Lord of Storms, with the green world’s life locked away in dormant trees and frozen earth. But now the winter’s grip has (hopefully!) loosened, the rains of renewal are falling, and the land is bursting forth into brief-lived, frenetic blooms, just as the desert blooms for mere hours after its own rare rain showers. And if Set is Lord of Change, then He is there, too, in the wild and fleeting flowers, in the splitting open of the buds, in the wind-shaken cherry blossoms’ fluttering fall.
The oasis is the place of reprieve from harshness, of the irrepressible arising of life from the depths of the earth. And although it’s limited by the desert that surrounds it and by the finite length of this stage in our journey, it’s a place that we can always find and return to.
Yesterday I made offerings and sang for Set, thanking Him for sparing my house and household during the winter storms and asking Him to smile upon us for the rest of the year. May the Lord of the Oasis grant you a peaceful spring as well!
Dua Set! Nekhtet!
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March 23, 2010
Posted in Being Kemetic, Festivals, Home and Temple
at 9:35 pm
by Shefyt
Last weekend was the spring equinox, and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so I spent a large chunk of time outside…doing yard work. (Which I actually do enjoy, although right now I have more tasks than I do energy.) At any rate, my plan on Saturday was to begin by picking up some pine cones out the back, and then move on to clearing up around the driveway. So I picked up cones and raked up pine needles and raked out a lot of old, dead grass, and over an hour later, I found myself asking, “Why am I still working on this one slope at the back of the house, instead of giving more attention to the front areas?”
And a few minutes later, I realized, “…oh. It’s because this is ‘the Door of the Sun,’ where I sometimes stand to salute Bast and Atum at sunset, especially during the lighter months of the year.” And thus reminded, on Sunday evening I did just that, acknowledging the next tick of the year’s clock and the ending of the Feast of Zep Tepi, to the trills of spring peepers and evening bird songs — adding in Heru-hekenu for the first time, to honor the full holy triad of per-Bast.
The Gods have a way of reordering one’s priorities.
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March 10, 2010
Posted in Festivals
at 8:40 pm
by Shefyt
The snow crocuses are blooming, gold, pale blue, white, and lavender on the southern slope of the lawn. The willows are showing the first tinge of yellow-green along the lake shore. The earliest hints of spring that I mentioned in my last post have become more than mere hints as warmth settles over the land. There may be snow and storms yet to come, but for this week at least we can revel in the signs of newly awakening life.
Last weekend I celebrated the Feast of Ra and the Eye of Ra and the Day of Chewing Onions for Bast with some other members of the Northeast region of the House of Netjer. We put together a shrine filled with flowers and other offerings, did a little heka to cleanse our lives of unwanted things, and made prayers to Bast, the Lady of Joy. After that, we retired to the local Outback Steakhouse to feast on steak and a bloomin’ onion (at least, those of us who can and will eat onions).
This post is a little late, but still — happy Onion Day! May all good things come to you, and may you find renewal in the turning of the season.
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January 28, 2010
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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December 29, 2009
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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December 27, 2009
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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December 25, 2009
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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