January 22, 2012

B is for Bast

Posted in Netjeru, Pagan Blog Project 2012, Thoughts and Reflections at 9:00 pm by

I debated whether I should do a PBP post on Bast. For one thing, this blog is already largely about my relationship with Her and my experiences as Her priest. For another, Bast is so multifaceted for me that I could probably write a whole book just on Her. But since She is so central to my religious practice, it seemed inescapable that I should write something about Her. So last night, while I was in the shrine, I asked for Her guidance on how to focus this piece.

Bast who lives in the heart.

So. Picture the heart as a flower, a rose, fragrant and lovely. Trace the inner curves of its petals, winding deeper into their labyrinth, traveling in your mind toward its center as the flower slowly unfolds and unfolds, opening ever further, layer after layer of sensuous richness, seemingly endless. Until at last you find, at the very center, the darkness of the deepest night, velvet black, a place of perfect peace and stillness. And as you rest in that darkness, eventually there is a flicker of gold, of flame, two golden eyes growing larger, coming closer, the gold of the Great Lioness emerging from the night like sunrise. Until you are washed in gold, the light of the sun filling you, widening your heart until that light spills over and shines out from you. Breathe out the golden light of the sun, illuminating the world. Breathe out the fragrance of the heart, delighting the Gods. Breathe in the love of Bast that makes the soul tremble and sing. Breathe in the beauty that feeds the ka.

For Bast is the Mistress of Joy, and joy dwells within the heart. The ancient Kemetic word for joy was in fact awt-ib, “the widening of the heart”; a close friend was called “one who has entered the heart.” For the people of Kemet, the heart was the seat of intelligence, emotion, inner mind, and soul. It is in the heart that we remember, that we feel love and loss and delight — and the pricking claws of conscience when we step outside ma’at. In all of these, Bast is there.

O Bast, Beautiful Lady, may You open our hearts to joy. Your perfume comes to me, O Bast. May my perfume go to You.

Dua Bast — nekhtet!

Awt-ib

An amulet composed of the hieroglyphs for awt-ib, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

December 21, 2011

Ten Days of Joy (2011): Day Ten

Posted in Ten Days of Joy at 10:25 pm by

Today was the Feast of Bast Guards the Two Lands, the last of the Ten Days of Joy. My housemate and I are celebrating the Feast part this weekend, when I’ll be home and can roast the duck, but tonight I offered shrimp tempura sushi at dinner and then, during Senut, Belgian chocolate mousse cake.

Today’s joy was that moment, waiting in darkness in front of the shrine before lighting the candle and beginning the rite, when I felt that silent shift of Presence, that certainty, the answer echoing back from out of the night: I am here.

Dua Bast, Eye of Ra, Mistress of Joy! In darkness and light, in song and silence, You are always by our side. May You bless us with love and protection through the winter and always. Nekhtet!

December 12, 2011

Ten Days of Joy (2011): Day One

Posted in Ten Days of Joy at 8:08 pm by

It’s time once again for the annual Ten Days of Joy, a celebration of the unique joy of each day as we approach the Festival of Bast Guards the Two Lands.

Today’s joy is the joy of strength and will unlooked-for, of rising to meet a challenge rather than surrendering to inertia.

Dua Bast, Mistress of Joy, O Strong Lady, hail and praise to You! May You bless me in Your season. May You lift me up!

June 25, 2011

The year’s end and the power of heka

Posted in Being Kemetic, Doing Heka at 10:11 am by

In a previous post, I mentioned the chaos of the end of the year. The idea is that as the year winds down, things everywhere begin to unravel, including in our personal lives. This disarray reaches its peak in the five epagomenal days, the Days upon the Year that stand outside the rest of the Kemetic calendar. In myth, Nut was forbidden from giving birth to her children on any day of the year; feeling sympathy for her, Djehuty gambled with the moon and won five extra days upon which Nut’s children could be born: Wesir, Heru-wer, Set, Aset, and Nebt-het. These days, being outside the year, and further being a time of birth (always fraught with peril), are considered to be both extraordinary and dangerous. Typically we make amulets at each New Year’s retreat, to help protect us from the demons of plague, ill luck, and despair that haunt the year’s end.

In any case, after making that other post, I found myself regretting it. How am I staying in the moment when I’m pining for the next season? Far better to remain present and to deal with what is. So the other night I asked Bast for some heka that I could use to protect myself. I wanted to exercise my own strength against any threat to my well-being, especially to my inner, spiritual well-being, so that I can better live in the now, without fear or sadness.

She granted my desire, and I wish I could share what she gave me, because it was awesome, and I can already feel its effectiveness. And I think a large part of the experience’s power came from the fact that instead of asking for Her to step in and help me, to save me, I asked for the means to help myself. Clearly I need to do more heka.

Dua Bast! Your words are Your heka, and Your magic is great! May You bless me with Your wisdom, now and always.

June 19, 2011

Thoughts before the solstice

Posted in Being Kemetic, Netjeru, Tending the Shrine, Thoughts and Reflections at 8:37 pm by

I spent a little time outside today, enjoying the dappled sunlight under the trees, the gentle wind, the sweet, green smell of early summer. It’s nearly the solstice, the peak of the Eye of Ra’s presence before She turns toward the south. And although my Mother isn’t the face of the Eye who departs for other regions, Her presence was strong today as well.

As I sat outside, I was thinking and writing in my journal on what my work for Her truly is. My train of thought was inspired by reading Dver’s blog post on mysticism as vocation. I’m one of those who struggle to balance priest work with the demands of being a home owner and having a full-time job. (I don’t have family commitments to further complicate the issue, fortunately, but I do have four rather demanding furry children, in the persons of my cats.) And I often wonder, should I be making other choices? Is it possible to be a real and proper priest under these conditions, when in ancient times being a priest was a full-time vocation? On top of that, I’ve been badly off-kilter the last few months, wrestling with galloping anxiety that’s affected all aspects of my life, to the point where I was barely functional on any level and was seriously considering leaving the priesthood. But somehow I’ve hung on, and with a new therapy program and medication I’m slowly beginning to regain that precarious balance, and to be able to think again about where and how to best put my energy and attention.

What I hold onto is that Bast seems to be satisfied with my service. There are things that She would like me to do, but as far as the more complicated ones are concerned, She appears content to wait until I get other parts of my life sorted out. And as I’m getting better, my ability to hear Her directives has been improving once more — and this time, so has my will and focus to actually follow them! At least this is some progress on the path.

Speaking of the path, what is it, then, that I need to be doing in order to be Her priest? Trance work, spirit work, oracles and prophecy don’t seem to be my primary tasks. I’ve been through an ordeal of late, which has taught me lasting lessons, but my work isn’t the work of ordeals. I’m not the edgewalker, bridging the liminal gap between worlds. I read the blogs of other people, who do perform such functions, and I sigh with relief: This is someone else’s task, not mine. It’s a good feeling to realize that I don’t have to do everything, that there are many ways to serve as there are practitioners, as many as there are Gods.

So what work does Bast desire of me? Tending this place, my home and Her temple. Making my offerings. Blogging for Her. Lighting candles — bringing the flame into my life, and the sweetness of perfume. Praying for the benefit of others. Bringing Her Name before the ears and eyes of all the people.

The last couple of days, Bast has wanted me to dance in shrine, to be present there in movement and in great joy. This is the most important thing, I think — to move, to live, to love life, to dance to Netjer’s song of creation. And this, I think, I can do — I only have to remember, to open the space in the midst of all the other commitments and complications in my life. If I am truly living, alight with my love for Her and my appreciation of all Her gifts, then I am indeed serving as Her priest. In fact, I can do nothing else.

O Bast, may I live, may I dance for You, may I serve as Your priest in Your temple, now and always!

June 10, 2011

Fire in the west

Posted in Netjeru, The Wild Sky at 7:26 pm by

Last night, the drive home in a thunderstorm, the sky above dark rosy gray, split by threads of lightning, and in the west the eye of the sun blazing red through the clouds, turning them to carnelian: the fire of the goddess, dangerous, fierce, and fulfilled. Tonight, strong heka: a silver bowl filled with white sand, with flame and incense, words spoken ringing to the sky. It’s time for change.

O Bast, put your Strength into me, send Your strength into me, may I live in Your gaze, in the sight of the Eye of Ra. Dua Bast!

December 29, 2010

In all Their Names

Posted in Netjeru, Stalking Beauty, The Wild Sky at 9:37 pm by

On Monday, shoveling my driveway after the season’s first blizzard, I paused to look up into a sky of the most extraordinary blue, only a couple of shades lighter than lapis. I murmured a prayer to Hethert, the Lady of Heaven. Only a moment or two later, I glanced up again to see a hawk riding the tumbling currents of the air, the pale undersides of its wings flashing as they flared first to one side and then the other, like a dancer’s fans.

Dua to Heru, dwelling in joy in His House; dua to She Who Takes Wing as the Female Falcon.

Yesterday, as I was driving to work in the morning, the sky was overcast with rumpled red clouds, like a sailor’s warning. The sun hadn’t yet risen, when from behind the eastern horizon a pillar of red light reared upward, striking across the face of those clouds like a searchlight’s beam.

Dua to Ra in His sun barque; dua to Set standing upon the prow, spear raised against the uncreated one.

This afternoon, on the way to order more tile for the ongoing bathroom project, I was stopped at a traffic signal, and the westering sun blazed in through my car’s rear window, pouring the warm beauty of its light across my dashboard. I reached out to cup a handful of gold.

Dua to Tem in His completeness; dua to the Peaceful One, His firstborn Daughter.

Hail and praise to all the Gods, who ensoul the world.

Dua Netjer! Nekhtet!

December 23, 2010

Ten days of joy (2010): Day 10

Posted in Ten Days of Joy at 11:13 pm by

Today was a perfect day, from walking out my front door this morning into bright, silvery sunlight and a whirl of the tiniest snowflakes, to finding exactly the right last-minute holiday gifts in the artsy little town of New Hope, to celebrating my Mother’s festival, the Feast of Bast Guards the Two Lands, with special offerings and powerful heka.

I give thanks for all the many joys that Bast has sent to me — for Her blessings today and always.

Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!

December 22, 2010

Ten days of joy (2010): Day 9

Posted in Festivals, Ten Days of Joy at 9:09 pm by

Today is the festival of the Procession of Bast, and today’s joy has been the joy of understanding at last and letting go — of a lesson finally sliding home as I knelt before the shrine in prayer.

May Bast walk through your day and your nighttime in this season of Her festivals, bringing Her insight and wisdom.

Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!

December 20, 2010

Ten days of joy (2010): Days 4-7

Posted in Festivals, Ten Days of Joy at 9:28 pm by

I fell a bit behind due to the Northeast region’s Bast festival last weekend, so it’s time to catch up.

Day 4: The joy of a truly luxuriant shower, warm and fragrant and soothing. O great gift of cleansing waters!

Day 5: The joy of a shiver of ecstasy, the ringing of the sistra loud and silvery in the silent night, the singing for Bast as the candle flames burn brightly, the Shemsu gathered together in devotion.

Day 6: The joy of accomplishment, of getting all the necessary things done and then resting in satisfaction.

Day 7: The joy of seeing the full moon floating above the horizon, palest rose in twilight sky, and then golden ivory once the sun has set — of walking in the night, all senses alive, caressed by beauty.

Dua Netjer! Dua Bast! Nekhtet!


The shrine just after our ritual for the Festival of Bast Guards the Two Lands