December 29, 2010
Posted in Netjeru, Stalking Beauty, The Wild Sky
at 9:37 pm
by Shefyt
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!
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October 12, 2010
Posted in Stalking Beauty
at 6:07 pm
by Shefyt
Yesterday I turned around, and suddenly all the colors of autumn were underway. As I drove the kittens to the vet for their check-ups, the slopes of Schooley’s Mountain rippled with flame; the highway was lined with shimmering, Impressionistic trees, and in the evening the dark green tunnel of my road was lit up with gold, all the west side glowing with yellow leaves in the twilight. Even the shrine to Ra was autumnal during my weekly offerings this Sunday: the golden brown of gingersnaps and the orange of mandarin slices, the red of raspberry-pomegranate juice and the darker red-maroon of a chrysanthmum in a dish of water. (Although Ra, as it turns out, would appreciate having His offering earlier, when the room isn’t quite so dark.) It all seems to have come out of nowhere, this swift, flickering fire, quick as laughter. The Wandering Goddess pounces before She heads south! And the season is upon us in all its beauty.
Dua Ra! Dua Nesret, Eye of Ra, Great of Flame! Nekhtet!
The western wall of my shrine room at twilight; from left to right, candles for the Seven Arrows of Bast, Ra, the Akhu, and Nut. (Bast and Amun-Ra’s candles are out of view to the left.)
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August 22, 2010
Posted in The Wild Sky, Thoughts and Reflections
at 9:40 pm
by Shefyt
Rain all day today, drenching at times, so for the most part I did indoor things: dusting and vacuuming the shrine room, making my weekly offerings, catching up on the House boards and reorganizing my email accounts. A good day, a gentle day — not the most productive ever, but peaceful. Among other things, I finally set up my shrine to the God of the season, Ra, which was long overdue.
In the late afternoon, though the rain kept on unabated, the sun came out, a transfiguring golden light washing over everything, filtered through the watery air. The photo does no justice to it, that heart-stopping luminosity like a glimpse of another, transcendent world, although you can catch a trace of the mystery: the mist, the shimmering rain drops, the sun dazzling through the curtain of trees in the west.
The candles glow in the shrine room; born from the flood, Ra burns with a soft, numinous flame; and my year of beginnings is finally ready to begin.
Dua Ra! O Shining One, hail and praise to You!
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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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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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