Sa Bast
© 2013 Natalie Baan
Nefer neb, sa Bast,
shining like the plume of Ma’at.
Sa Bast, neb awt-ib,
Khonsu-Heru, You make us live!
Lift our hearts so that we might live!
Notes: Written in January 2013, after an experience with Khonsu-Heru during the Senut rite. Nefer neb = “beautiful/good lord”; sa Bast = “son of Bast”; neb awt-ib = “lord of joy.”
Mighty Bast, Send Your Arrows!
© 2010 Natalie Baan
Great of love, living passionately,
rise in strength to slay anxiety.
When I’m afraid Your power sets me free.
Mighty Bast, send Your Arrows!
Nefertem, Your perfume comes to me.
Heru-hekenu, spread Your wings above me.
Khonsu-Heru, shining beautifully —
Mighty Bast, send Your Arrows!
Gracious Wadjet, come in peace for me.
Wenut, Eye of Ra, come joyfully.
Heryshef, crowned with majesty —
Mighty Bast, send Your Arrows!
Lift me up into the sunlight.
Walk with me by moon and starlight.
Teach me how to defeat my sorrows!
Send Your, send Your, send Your Arrows!
Mighty Bast, O You send Your Arrows!
Notes: Written in June 2010 for the Seven Arrows of Bast. Excellent heka against fear and depression.
Hymn to Khonsu-Heru
© 2011 Natalie Baan
Lord of the changing moon,
Exquisite God Khonsu,
Falcon feathered in white,
Rising across the night.
You are the child of promise,
You are the hope of life.
Master of joy and healing,
Bring us the waxing light,
make us whole.
Facing the sun
In the twilight —
Two eyes as one
In the horizon….
Notes: Written in December 2009. Khonsu-Heru, the syncretism of Khonsu and Heru, is referenced on a Ptolemaic gate at Karnak, as well as in Bubastis, where He’s identified as “master of joy” and one of the Seven Arrows of Bast. The last verse references the “opposition” of the sun and the moon, the moment on the day after the full moon when the rising moon and the setting sun balance on opposite horizons. It was seen as the transition of divine rulership from father to son: from Osiris to Heru, from Amun-Ra to Khonsu. (O. E. Kaper, “The Astronomical Ceiling of Deir el-Haggar in the Dakhleh Oasis,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 81 (1995), 192.)