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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December 24, 2009
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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December 23, 2009
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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December 22, 2009
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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December 21, 2009
Posted in Ten Days of Joy
at 8:34 pm
by Shefyt
The piercing pang of resolution. The kindling of renewal on the shortest day of the year. The sweet, brilliant light of clarity. Today’s joy is an instant of seeing things as they are, of seeing what needs to be done, of seeing all the places where I’ve fallen short and yet feeling no despair, no anger at myself — just the surety that I can do better, that the way is standing open before me, and I have only to gather myself and step forward, into that growing light.
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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Posted in Festivals, Ten Days of Joy
at 12:51 pm
by Shefyt
I spent the weekend hosting a Bast festival get-together for the House of Netjer’s Northeast region, so I wasn’t able to post for a couple of days. Time to catch up….
Day 4: The joy of sitting in the darkened shrine room with my brothers and sisters in the faith, talking quietly together about our gods and our religion, the golden glow of the candles that we’ve lit flickering across the face of the icon as She watches over us, while outside the world is perfectly silent, muffled by the swiftly falling snow.
Day 5: The joy of waking up to the aftermath of a perfect snowstorm: just enough light, powdery snow to be a significant fall but not a paralyzing one, easy to shovel and quick to clear the roads for people to travel home; a breathtakingly blue sky; the beautiful glitter of flakes blowing in white cascades from the pine trees (even though they’re cold and wet down the back of the neck! But there’s joy and laughter in that too.)
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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December 18, 2009
Posted in Ten Days of Joy
at 6:43 pm
by Shefyt
Today’s joy is stillness after constant motion: sitting on the couch with a cat and the computer, a candle burning nearby, resting now, with the whole house cleaned and tidied. Now there’s just the waiting for the guests to arrive, the hush of preparation awaiting its fulfillment, the quiet anticipation of the celebration ahead.
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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December 17, 2009
Posted in Ten Days of Joy
at 4:18 pm
by Shefyt
Today’s joy was two-fold, relating to preparations for this weekend’s festival: the feeling of clearing out old magazines that have been collecting for months, lightening the burden of clutter and letting me breathe more freely; and the discovery that it is, in fact, extremely easy to make your own candies with chocolate molds. Now I’ll have chocolate cats and udjat eyes to share with my guests!
Dua Bast! Dua Netjer! Nekhtet!
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December 16, 2009
Posted in Stalking Beauty, Ten Days of Joy, Thoughts and Reflections
at 10:38 pm
by Shefyt
[From today, the new moon, through the Feast of Bast Guards the Two Lands on December 25, I'll be doing posts for Ten Days of Joy. This was an exercise for the Shemsu and Remetj of the House of Netjer, a couple of years back, which honored Bast by sharing with each other daily that which brings us joy. It seemed like a good thing to revive.]
Today’s joy was in contrasts: sun and shadows sliding beneath bare branches as the chill wind blew, tiny pillows of intensely emerald moss nestling amidst the brown winter grasses. It feels so good to walk outside, even in winter — especially in winter, perhaps, when everything is stark and clean, and the smallest traces of life and movement stand out so vividly.
Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!
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