Let the flickering flame of your soul play all about me,
That into my limbs may come the keenness of fire,
The life and joy of tongues of flame,
And, going out from you, tightly strung and in tune,
I may rouse the blear-eyed world,
And pour into it the beauty which you have begotten.

– Amy Lowell, “The Giver of Stars”

Before I encountered Sekhmet, nigh six years ago, I was an avid lover of Celtic mythology (even if I wasn’t a very good student of it). The two gods Who stood out to me then were Lugh and Brigid, and I want to talk about Them both as part of the Pagan Blog Project… both to remember my time with Them and to do some more thorough research that I hadn’t done when I was younger.

In fact, I think I’m going to cover the research portion with the same Cliffs Notes format as I’ve used for Nit and Nebt-het so far.

attributes

– poetry
– healing
– smithing
– fire
– all high things
— high-rising flames, highlands, hill forts, upland areas
— wisdom, excellence, perfection, intelligence, druidic knowledge
— skill in warfare, craftsmanship, medicine
—— goddess of warriors without status
– home and hearth
— protection thereof
—— protects livestock
— fertility and prosperity
—— aids women, especially in conception and childbirth
– holy wells and rivers
– goddess of the land (who would be married to the king)
— bringer of spring

relationships

– daughter of the Dagda + one of the Tuatha De Danann, a poet
– wife of Bres of the Formorians
– mother of Ruadan
– had two sisters of the same name: one was a goddess of healing, one a goddess of poetry, one a goddess of smithing
– half-sister to Cermait, Aengus, Midir, Bobd Derg
– owns two oxen, Fe and Men
– owns the “king of boars,” Torc Triath
– owns the “king of sheep,” Cirb
– equated to Minerva and Athena
– related to St. Brigid

names

– “Brigid” means “exalted one.”
– “Breo-saighit” means “a fiery arrow.”
– Other names/spellings: Brigit, Brighid, Brid, Bridget, Brighde/Bride, Fraid, Brigindu, Brigantia, Braga, Braganca, Brigantis, Bregenz, Bidang

notes

– Invented keening when mourning for Her son, who was killed in battle.
– Invented a whistle used for night travel.
– Her day is February 2, both St. Brigid’s Day and Imbolc/Imbolg.
– “At Luxeuil in the Saône valley of eastern France, … Bricta is specifically identified as the consort of Luxovius, a god of healing and light which may be cognate with Lug.”

Lady Augusta Gregory (Gods and Fighting Men, 1904):

[She is] a woman of poetry, and poets worshipped her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And she was a woman of healing along with that, and a woman of smith’s work, and it was she first made the whistle for calling one to another through the night. And the one side of her face was ugly, but the other side was very comely. And the meaning of her name was Breo-saighit, a fiery arrow.

The Second Battle of Magh Turedh:

Bríg came and keened for her son. At first she shrieked, in the end she wept. Then for the first time weeping and shrieking were heard in Ireland. (Now she is the Bríg who invented a whistle for signalling at night.)

And now for some personal recollection.

When I worshipped Brigid, I did not comprehend or interact with gods as I do now. It’s a strikingly strong difference; today, I have very tangible, palpable experiences with my gods. Some 8-10 years ago, I didn’t – I just aimed my devotion, my love, and my prayers at Them and hoped They heard me. I would occasionally feel the presence of a god, but that was usually Cernunnos, not Brigid or Lugh.

Yet Brigid remained incredibly important to me, however little I studied Her, however little I directly experienced Her. I started calling February 2 the Day of Fire and looked to it as the first hope of spring, the first landmark that winter’s hold would begin to loosen over the snow-dowsed mountains. The time between my personal new year on Jan 15 and the Day of Fire on Feb 2 was a period of incubation and preparation for steering the new year, a time of imagining and planning how I would continue to build my own self.

Brigid, first and foremost to me, was the Lady of the Forge. Hearth-fire was well and good; it protected, it gave life through its warmth and light, but it was the heat and deep color of the forge that stood out the most to me. I was, and still am, ever-changing; the forge became a way to rebuild myself. When terrible things happened and stripped away parts of me, I knew I was only being melted down, the dross removed, in order to be reforged into a stronger, different person. I found comfort and security through radical changes and hard times by knowing that I was in Brigid’s forge, being improved time and time again.

I am still very fond of Brigid and Her Day of Fire, which is coming up rather quickly. Maybe I’ll reach out to Her once more.

This post brought to you as part of the Pagan Blog Project.

I like doing art for my gods; I like being creative and listening until I can feel Their input. This weekend was particularly productive in terms of offerings for my Mothers.

For Nebt-het, I did a painting – this makes a complete set of paintings for the gods of my RPD! (Sekhmet is next, though I don’t yet have the skill to do what She wants done.) It’s a simple painting, and as usual, photographing metallics is a terrible idea; the colors and especially the backgrounds are much more subtle and dark in person, but this is the best I can do. I do like how it came out. (There’s a shinier version here if you’re curious!)

The symbols belong to Her other aspects; the red is Nit’s symbol, and the yellow is Seshat’s. Once I’ve gotten some face time with both of those deities, I’d like to do another painting with Them more fully present, but I need to know Them before I can paint them, so this will suffice for now. :)

…

For Hethert-Nut, I wanted something wearable. I love having jewelry that reminds me of my gods – I have a lion ring for Ma’ahes, a silver pendant for Sekhmet, and Serqet’s scorpion necklace. But I don’t have anything for Hethert-Nut or Nebt-het. With the help of my partner, who is both talented and experienced with making jewelry, I’m going to turn a rosary I got for Nebt-het into a wearable necklace, but that still leaves me lacking something for Hethert-Nut.

So, having no idea what I was getting into, I decided to create a pendant out of sculpey. Long story short, my partner helped me with the wire “skeleton” and was entirely responsible for weaving the cord and doing the beadwork (though I did pick out which beads to use with Hethert-Nut’s guidance). And I created and painted the pendant. It’s considerably larger than I expected, so it’ll only get ritual wear, not daily wear. And since I never quit while ahead, I’m already planning a much smaller pendant for daily wear that can be traded out on the necklace.

I love how this came out. I am, quite frankly, awed at how well the paint colors (chosen by Hethert-Nut in the store weeks ago) and the beads (picked from our existing stock) go together. They exemplify Her.

Dua Nebt-het! Dua Hethert-Nut!

This seems like a particularly apt topic to start a year of weekly explorative blogging, but bear with me as I explain just why.

Birthdays are not typically spiritual or religious events for the folks around me, so why I picked this as a topic for the Pagan Blog Project is probably not immediately obvious. I treat my own birthday as my new year and celebrate it in many ways similar to secular celebrations of the calendrical new year, Kemetic celebrations of Wep Ronpet, or Celtic celebrations of Samhain.

I like cycles. I like beginnings and endings. I like being able to leave things behind and approach the near future with a clean slate and a fresh eye. So my birthday is an important year marker, more important than almost any other holiday, secular or religious. (Christmas/Moomas and the Kemetic new year are on par, though. I also love the fact that the Kemetic new year occurs in early August, making it a great halfway point as compared to my birthday, which is Jan 15. I get two “new years”/points of renewal!)

On my birthday, at the time of my birth, I play music. In the past, it’s been a favorite radio station, a CD, Pandora, or my giant iTunes library. Whatever song is playing at/during the minute I was born, that’s the year’s theme song. This is inherently a light-hearted thing, not meant for serious divination or anything, but I’ve found that the song can be more precise than I expected. (This year’s song: Blind by Wolfsheim. It is especially nifty, I think, and may relate to my relationship with my Mother, Nebt-het.)

For my personal new year, I set intentions and goals. Some of these are one-offs, such as “start a savings account,” and others are habits I want to create and maintain (or simply keep maintaining from the previous year), such as writing regularly. I look back on last year’s, cross out the ones I’ve completed, and carry over the ones that are still valid. And periodically, I’ll review this list and remove invalid items and possibly add newly important things. I am nothing if not adaptable, and I don’t see any point to having a static list when my life is anything but.

Lastly, I do a new year divination. It’s a thirteen-card spread with my well-loved Tarot deck and has never led me wrong. I use it as a compass to see where my year is headed and what things I should pay particular attention to. Periodically, I’ll look at the results as the year progresses and see what’s come to pass. The divination is rarely done on my actual birthday, but usually within the following couple weeks, after I’ve set my intentions and goals for the year and gotten some of them rolling.

So, for me, my birthday actually is a part of my spirituality, especially with the divination for the new year; and since it’s a point of beginnings, what better topic to start the year o’ heathen blogging?

This post brought to you as part of the Pagan Blog Project.

Anhur is an obscure Egyptian god, also known as Onuris to the Greeks. He originated near Abydos as a god of war and hunting, one of the few Egyptian hunting deities. His name means He Who Leads Back The Distant One; He plays the male lead in the myth of the Distant Goddess.

The myth, in short, tells the tale of the Eye of Ra becoming angry and leaving Kemet (Egypt) to go away, often to Nubia. The reason that the Eye goddess becomes angry can vary, but a frequent version of the myth tells how Ra sends his Eye to search for Shu and Tefnut, Who have gone off wandering in the world that is not yet done being created; when the Eye finds Them and returns Them to Ra, She finds that Ra has grown another Eye in Her absence. Angry with Her replacement, She storms off and wanders the desert, hostile and disconsolate.

In order to regain His protection under the Eye goddess, Ra sends a hunter-seeker to find Her and persuade Her to return. Depending on the version, the god Ra sends accomplishes this feat by a mixture of cajoling, praise, promises of riches and joys upon Her return, and reminders of the Eye’s duty to Her father. When the Eye comes back to civilized lands, She is met with rejoicing, offerings, and festivities by the people of Kemet.

Different gods can play the roles of the Eye and the seeker in this myth. Often, it’s Shu who is sent to bring His sister-consort Tefnut back; other times, it’s Djehuty in His baboon form that teases and flatters an Eye goddess like Hethert or Tefnut until She agrees to return. However, Anhur Himself is often the hunter who finds, and the Eye Who He brings back is Mekhit/Mehit or Menhit, the lioness Who then becomes His consort and wife. The meaning of Anhur’s name suggests the myth may have originated with Him, though Shu and Djehuty are more frequently cited in the retelling.

To make the myth deeper, Mekhit, The Completed One, could symbolize the full moon, and so Anhur bringing Her back could be interpreted as restoring the lost/wounded Eye of Heru to Heru-sa-Aset and restoring balance to the world.

As a war god, Anhur bore the title Slayer Of Enemies and was a patron of the Egyptian army and the archetype of the royal warrior. He was shown standing at the forefront of Ra’s barque to defend the sun god from enemies.

As associated with Shu, Anhur’s name could also mean Sky Bearer, and He was sometimes called Anhur-Shu. Anhur was also linked to Heru-wer as a saviour-through-war deity, earning Him the name of Ari-hes-nefer, Heru Of The Beautiful House. Other epithets include Bull of Thinis, Strong of Arm, High of Feather, The Good Warrior, and the Lord of Lances.

Anhur was depicted as a bearded man in a robe, wearing a four-feathered headdress similar to Shu’s, bearing a spear or lance; He was sometimes shown as lion-headed, as well. He usually holds a length of rope in His left hand, indicating His role in bringing back the leonine Eye of Ra.

This post brought to you as part of the Pagan Blog Project.

My lady Nit, please accept my humblest of apologies that I did not celebrate Your festival yesterday. May the research I do on You now be an offering, however small.

Please note, lovely readers: All of this is a work-in-progress. It will change as I continue digging through books and other sources. Do not take this as a rock-solid encyclopedic entry at any point. :) I will be doing similar information-compilations on other deities in my sphere of interest, as well; Nit just happens to be first.

attributes

– war
— makes warriors’ weapons
— protects dead bodies
— weaves the bandages and shrouds worn by mummies
— protects jackal-headed Duamutef (one of the Four Sons of Heru Who guards the canopic jar that stores the stomach) with arrows
— Eye of Ra
– hunting
– weaving
— great creatrix
— protector of women
— guardian of marriage
— weaves the bandages and shrouds worn by mummies
– the primordial waters of creation (Nun)
— great creatrix
— genderless / he-she
— associated with the Nile perch/lates-fish
— mother of crocodiles and snakes
– wisdom
– virgin goddess
— great creatrix
— created childbirth

forms

– human wearing the red crown, a weaver’s shuttle on Her head, or two arrows crossed over a shield
– lioness-headed
– crocodile-headed
– snake
– cow

symbols

– two crossed arrows over a shield (possibly originally a click beetle, found near water)
– Her symbol and part of Her hieroglyph resembles a loom
– Egyptian goad (cow prod)
– red crown of Lower Egypt
– when referred to as creatrix, Her name is written with the hieroglyph of an ejaculating phallus

relationships

– mother of Ra
– mother of Ap-p (by spitting into the Nun)
– mother of Sobek
– wife of Khnum
– wife of Set (Old Kingdom)
– wife of Sobek (after Set)
– mother of Twtw
– may be identified with Tanit, a goddess worshipped in north Africa by Berbers (Barbary…)
— Tanit is related to Astarte/Ishtar (Phoenician)
– assimilated Anouke (Asia Minor, worshipped by immigrants to Egypt)
– identified with Athena
– identified with Nebt-het and Seshat
– equated with Nunet
– associated with other cow deities, primarily Nut and Hethert
– associated with other weaving deities, primarily Tatet
– associated with Yinepu and Wepwawet (“Opener of the Ways”)
– equated with Mehet-Weret, the Great Flood

epithets

– Who Illuminated The First Face
– Mistress of the Bow
– Ruler of Arrows
– Great Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra
– She Who Saw Tem’s Birth
– Nit the Great
– Nurse of Crocodiles
– Opener of the Ways
– The Mother and Father of All Things
– The Eldest
– Mother of the Gods
– Mistress of Mendes

notes

– A great festival, called the Feast of Lamps, was held annually in her honor and, according to Herodotus, her devotees burned a multitude of lights in the open air all night during the celebration.
– Primary cult in Sais with Twtw and Tapsais.
– One of three tutelary deities in Ta-senet/Iunyt/Esna.
– Part of Ogdoad mythology.
– Four goddesses guard the dead and the Four Sons of Heru: Nebt-het, Nit, Aset, and Serqet. (And all four of them are in my lineup…)
– In the Contendings of Heru and Set, Nit recommended Heru-sa-Aset over Set as king to replace Wesir and recommended Set be given land and two wives (Anat, Astarte) in compensation.
– Garnet is considered to be associated with Her. (My birthstone.)
– Pyramid Texts: “May the terror of you come into being … like the Nit-crown which is on the King of Lower Egypt.”
– One of the oldest deities with a very widespread cult and sphere of influence/worship.

Barbara Lesko, The Great Goddesses of Egypt:

Unique Goddess, mysterious and great who came to be in the beginning and caused everything to come to be . . . the divine mother of Re, who shines on the horizon . . .

Proclus (412-485 AD) wrote that the adyton of the temple of Nit in Sais carried the following inscription:

I am the things that are, that will be, and that have been. No one has ever laid open the garment by which I am concealed. The fruit which I brought forth was the sun.

Primary Sources:

The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (Richard H. Wilkinson)
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (Geraldine Pinch)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neith

Jan 10th Festival: Feast of Nit
Jan 16th Festival: Feast of Nit

Litany to Nit from texts at the temples of Esna:

Nit, Great One, Divine Mother, Lady of Esna,
Nit, Great One, Divine Mother, Lady of Sau (Sais), in the Chapel of the House of the Mother:
Lady of Sau, Great Ruler of Kemet;
Water that created Geb, created Ptah-tenen; Ptah-tenen Who created Him who created Geb.
Male Who made female; Female Who made male;
Wide water Who created eternity (Djet); water Who made everlastingness (Neheh);
Who rose in Nun while earth was in darkness.
Living Ancestor, Who had Her origins in Nun, before the creation of Geb and the raising of Nut.
Genetrix, Cobra Who was at the beginning, Mother of time primordial, She Who created Her own birth….
Rait, Atenet, Nunet: Shining Star at the beginning Who created those on high and those who are low,
Mysterious One Who made living beings and created all that lives by Her existence.

From temple texts at Edfu:

O Mother! Shining One Who turns back darkness,
Who illuminates everyone with Her rays,
Hail Great One of many Names,
You from Whom the gods came forth!

With love and thanks to Hemet for the translations.

I started writing this on December 11th or thereabouts, when I was sick and had lost my voice. I had invited Hethert-Nut to lend Her touch to my music-making efforts, and She gave me three words as a song-seed, which became the title of this song. I did a very weak recording to let my sister hear it, then proceeded to let my poor vocal cords recover.

And now that I can play the chord progression fairly confidently, I made a stronger recording to share with you all. =3

Click here to listen (or right-click to download the mp3)!

I’m very happy with this. It is a devotional song, a prayer-song, and it serves its purpose perfectly.

Dua Hethert-Nut!

Mother May I

Mother, may I come in
and join You in the skies
my feet are stained with dirt
from walking all these miles
and as much as I enjoy the grass
I like the feel of stardust, too
Mother, may I come in
and stay with You a while

Hethert-Nut, lady of the night sky

Mother, may I breathe here
in the vastness of Your arms
the sun’s tired out my eyes
and night’s coaxed them closed
and as much as I love the light
I like the soft, snug shadows, too
Mother, may I breathe here
and drift on solar winds

Hethert-Nut, lady of the night sky

Mother, may I borrow
some of Your boundless love
my heart is prone to aching
and it needs a tender touch
and as much as I want to care
I need someone to care for me, too
Mother, may I borrow
Your compassion and Your grace

Hethert-Nut, lady of the night sky

Mother, may I love You
without hesitation or doubt
all I want is to praise You,
to give You music and my joy
and as much as I am wary
of offering perfect trust
Mother, I want to love You
and dance within Your smile

Hethert-Nut, lady of the night sky

As a language geek, “apotropaic” is a word I absolutely love. In a pinch, it means “intended to ward off evil” – so apotropaic deities are gods and goddesses that protect against evil.

Out of the five Kemetic deities I work most closely with, a solid four of Them are or can be considered apotropaic– but They have different areas of expertise.

Sekhmet, the Red Lady that I have served for years, is an Eye of Ra. As such, She doesn’t so much “ward against evil” as “incinerate evil,” but the protective aspect remains. While I tend to pray for Her help in situations involving sickness and injury, as She is both a goddess of plagues and of healing (and of surgeons), a few years back, She did agree to ward my living space. To this day, no matter where I’m located, the walls, windows, and doors are sealed against malice with Her fire. It’s an immense comfort to me.

Nebt-het, Lady of the Dead, has also been an Eye of Ra in Her more obscure past. More commonly, though, She is invoked to protect against the Evil Eye, which, in the Kemetic definition, is coveting or malicious jealousy. (She has also been called upon to actively punish those with the Evil Eye, implying that She is more than just a passive protective force.)

Ma’ahes, the Great Protector, is one of the few male deities who can be an Eye of Ra. As usual for such a role, He can fulfill a protective capacity, especially when acting as an executioner for the enemies of Kemet (Egypt). I associate Him with the setting sun, the orange light that bridges day and night; I call on Him for protection against darkness, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.

Serqet is a goddess called on to protect against the very poison She Herself can deliver as a scorpion. Consequently, Serqet is frequently hailed to help heal and protect against spiritual and emotional venom, especially that associated with trauma. I pray to Her when I’m trying to stay unaffected by the emotional or social drama-llamas that can crop up in or out of work situations.

Other apotropaic deities worthy of mention are the sphinx-god Twtw (Tutu, Tithoes), the dwarf lion-god Bes, and any god/dess who can be an Eye of Ra, as well as any of the numerous warrior deities of the Kemetic pantheon. (If I tried to list them all, we’d be here for days, trust me. While many of our war gods and goddesses fall more into the active side of the extinguishing-evil spectrum, many double as guardians, not just executioners.)

If you have any apotropaic deities you’d like to discuss or personal experiences to share, please do feel free to speak up! This may be my journal, but it doesn’t always have to be a monologue. :)

This post brought to you as part of the Pagan Blog Project.

I think I’ve found something that tickles my fancy, and it’s called the Pagan Blog Project. The basic jist of it is that folks ’round the world post every Friday, all through 2012, about something related to their flavor of paganism. It can be experiential, theoretical, historical, factual, or anything else. The topics need to be alphabetical, though; e.g., first two weeks start with A, second two weeks start with B, etc. Read more here, if you’re curious.

I really like the idea of doing at least one post a week to explore spiritual and metaphysical topics. As you might expect, most of these posts will probably be Kemetic in nature, but I hope to stray at least a little and get to talking about other things in my experience, as well. In an attempt to hold to the overall PBP schedule, today’s post (to follow this introductory one) will be a topic starting with B. Do not be surprised if I later add two A-topics to make up for the Fridays I missed. :)

I think I will try to A) not write posts for PBP Fridays that I would’ve written anyways (That means no M for Ma’ahes, as I will be writing about him whether or not I’m participating!) and B) not do your standard 101 topics unless they’re either new to me or I have a different twist on them than most. This’ll let me have a lot of fun being quirky and left-of-center with my topics. =3

This’ll be fun.

Today, in the Kemetic calendar, is the Establishment of the Celestial Cow. As my Mother, Hethert-Nut, is Hethert-as-Nut, cow-as-sky, I feel this is particularly appropriate to continue my research into the Book of the Celestial Cow.

Snippets obtained from the links found here. I am fairly sure the person who translated these into English and German was originally a francophone, because some of the English really doesn’t match the French. When I have time, I’m going to go back through and see if I can’t reckon some slightly more accurate translations. Thank Netjer I can still read French pretty well. For now, however, the bits involving (Hethert-)Nut:

“Be not disappointed, be not weary.
You have power over all You wish.”
Then said the majesty of Re
to the majesty of Nun:
“My limbs are feeble as in primeval times,
I will not return until another cycle overtakes Me.”
Then the majesty of Nun said:
“My son Shu!
Let Your eye look upon Your father, and protect Him.
My daughter Nut,
place Him on Your back!”

Nut became a cow,
and the majesty of Re was on Her back.

Men were astonished when,
from the location to which they had fled,
they saw Him on the back of the cow.

His majesty proceeded to His palace
on the back of this cow,
and He was together with the gods.

Then this god said to Nut:
“I placed myself on Your back to be elevated, what then?”
So said He, and Nut
became the sky.
The majesty of this god begged:
“Be far from them and elevate Me, that I may see them.”
And the On High came into being.
Then the majesty of this god
looked into Her,
and She said: “Make Me into a multitude!” And stars came into being.

Then Nut began to shake, owing to the height.
And the majesty of Re said:
“Had I only the Heh gods to support Her!” And then the Heh gods came into being.
Then the majesty of Re said:
“My son Shu,
place Yourself under My daughter Nut
and guard for Me the four Heh gods of the east and the four Heh gods of the west
who live in twilight.
Place Her on your head and keep Her.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I am still sick, but I am also impatient, and while my coughing up a lung means I’m not exactly in a state of physical purity fit for ritual, I can still paint. Right? Right.

So I painted this for Hethert-Nut:

I swear to you, the stars on Her body are silver, but the camera turned them golden. I don’t know why. This is the best color-correcting I can do, and it’s still a lot more subtle and blendy in person. Nekhtet and huzzah! Thanks to Tornir’s brilliance, I got a shot with the colors far more accurate. Yay! You can see the original photo here.

It’s not the purple I associate with Her presence; I mixed the painting-purples myself, but I just didn’t have supplies to do the kind of rich, deep royal purple that I’d prefer. I may go buy a bottle of the right color and do another painting of/for Her later – we’ll see.

That said, however, I do like how this turned out. =3

Dua Hethert-Nut!

From here:

Finally, I remembered the most beautiful form of grace a Kemetic Orthodox knows, the short formula spoken over offerings right before they are presented to the gods and goddesses in Their shrines. One holds out their hands as if preparing to receive something — because you are — and says:

In Kemetic:
hotep Netjer em shabu en imenti her iabi

Or, in English:
May Netjer be satisfied with the repast to the right and to the left.

Immediately after this pronouncement, the spirit of Netjer descends upon the food, partakes of its spiritual substance, and makes the food holy, to be shared with all who were part of the ritual.