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.

November 12, 2010

Friday findings: Djehuty’s jackal slippers

Posted in Friday Findings at 2:41 pm by

Djehuty amulet
Finally getting around to posting this very cool, quirky, and unusual piece: an amulet of Djehuty wearing only a pair of jackal slippers. Click the photo to go to the Christie’s auction page for this item. There’s another nearly identical amulet (or perhaps the same one?) here, and if you scroll down to read the lot notes, you’ll see that the slippers might be meant to represent Wepwawet. What exactly it means that Djehuty is wearing Wepwawet on his feet, I leave as an exercise for your mythic imaginations.

September 29, 2009

Intention as prayer

Posted in The Wild Sky, Thoughts and Reflections at 7:39 am by

Yesterday afternoon was very dark, and then on the drive home from work it rained, but at the end there was a strange sunset light, the sky like champagne, pale gold where the clouds broke. Like that, clarity emerges, a glimpse, a snatch of music, a fleeting instant that clutches at the heart.

What is my intention? Do my actions support it or undercut it? What have I forgotten in the busyness of the day? The light breaks through, and suddenly I feel it again, that call, that promise of delight, almost near enough to touch. And I pledge myself once more.

Last night I lit candles and poured water for my Beloveds, for my Akhu, and for Djehuty, the God of the Year, even though I was tired and resistant — “I have too much to do” — but then, what more important than this? Right now, Djehuty affirms, I need two things that intertwine with each other: discipline, to settle myself to my work; and coolness, to soothe my agitation so that I can find focus and calm. It comes back to holding that energy within myself, containing it so that I can make good and appropriate use of it. So this week I work on loosening the grip of my two addictions, both of which make me restless and “hot”: caffeine and Internet surfing. And although I’ve addressed this issue before, and “forgotten” with passage of time, I haven’t given up on it, and that counts for something — a reaching for the light, however fumbling; a link in the chain of effort; a repeated opening to the brilliance of the sun.

I dreamed once of a yellow bird that was also a prayer, released to skim upward toward the sky, and of a quiet man who told me, “Keep sending it up.”

Again and again, a return to the center, to intention, to the still point of meditation, to the heart’s sweet, piercing longing.

Keep sending it up.