Grave Moss & Stars

Archive for the ‘In Praise & Prayer’ Category

the perspective of prayer

I have been lax in updating my prayerbook with the requests of my community and my family, so today, I carved out a block of time to catch up. I provided bread and drink, incense and fire, as offerings, and I washed my hands before I picked up book and pen.

I spent four straight hours, in the company of a diehard tealight, my gods, and my ancestors, writing out fourteen pages of prayers by hand. There is quite the stitch in my shoulders and back from the work.

What strikes me is not the physical discomfort, nor the tears I shed over the deaths I quietly recorded, but the perspective offered by being a silent witness to others’ troubles, fears, pains… and triumphs. There were remarkable and unexpected recoveries from illness and injury, just as there were worsening prognoses and deaths. There were jobs seized, along with jobs lost. Relationships and friendships forged and repaired, along with bonds broken.

And every moment, for every word I spelled out, for every prayer I scribed and spoke, I was reminded of how blessed I am, and how grateful I am for those asked and unasked-for blessings.

It’s hard to pray for others without gaining that perspective for myself. And for that, and a million other things, I am thankful.

Dua Hethert-Nut, Starry Lady!

A candle lit and thanks given to my Mother, Hethert-Nut, in Her name of Sky, in Her name of Space, in Her name of Galaxy.

We landed Curiosity on Mars. It has not killed any cats. Yet. It sent back pictures. People have wept and cheered and hugged and exulted in this success, and that was just in the first five minutes of its landing.

I am in love with this amazing, infinite universe we live in, and all the science that makes it possible and glorious and stunning, and all the heart that lets us revel in its wonder.

Dua Hethert-Nut!

Dua Nebt-het on Her day!

Today is Nebt-het’s birthday, the last of the epagomenal days, five days that fall between the end of the Kemetic year and Wep Ronpet, the Kemetic New Year on August 3rd.

Hail to the Sister of Shadows,
She Who comforts the living
and guides the dead home.

May You bless this coming year
as You blessed Your brother, Wesir,
with Your long sight and Your steadfast protection.

Greyed violet as velvet and the dusk,
as multi-faceted as the changing moon,
Dua Nebt-het, Lady of the House!

A sigil for rest in Nebt-het’s honor.

Dua Aset on Her day!

Today is Aset’s birthday, the fourth of the epagomenal days, five days that fall between the end of the Kemetic year and Wep Ronpet, the Kemetic New Year on August 3rd.

Hail to the Shining Daughter of Stars,
radiant queen upon Her throne,
most devoted mother over Her children.

May You bless this coming year
as You blessed Your son with Your heka;
protect and balm this year as You did Him.

Pure blue as the field of the sunlit sky,
as clever as He Who won this day from the moon,
Dua Aset, Great of Magic!

In Aset’s honor, a sigil for fulfilling: rising to fill the space in which you choose to stand, and to fill the role you choose to take.

Dua Set on His day!

Today is Set’s birthday, the third of the epagomenal days, five days that fall between the end of the Kemetic year and Wep Ronpet, the Kemetic New Year on August 3rd.

Hail to the Progenitor of Chaos,
standing fearless at the sun’s prow
and forever slaying the Uncreated One.

May You bless this coming year
and guard it as You guard Ma’at
in brilliant, crackling, blazing fierceness.

Red as a firestorm behind dark smoke,
as powerful as the inexorable turning of the world,
Dua Set, Great of Strength!

In Set’s honor, a sigil for ferocity.

Dua Heru-wer on His day!

Today is Heru-wer’s birthday, the second of the epagomenal days, five days that fall between the end of the Kemetic year and Wep Ronpet, the Kemetic New Year on August 3rd.

Hail to the Way-Lighting Falcon,
soaring through darkening tumult
and deterring the lightning.

May You bless this coming year
so that it may shine as brightly
and stand as tall and rightful as You.

Gold as the noonday sun,
as unerring as the hunting hawk,
Dua Heru-wer, Master of Fear!

In Heru-wer’s honor, a sigil for flight– of the falcon and of the arrow to its target. (Click here to see it in the light.)

Dua Wesir on His day!

Today is Wesir’s birthday, the first of the epagomenal days, five days that fall between the end of the Kemetic year and Wep Ronpet, the Kemetic New Year on August 3rd.

Hail to the Once-Living King,
sacrificed by His brother
so that He may lead the beloved dead.

May You bless this coming year
as You blessed Aset with Your son;
the year stands strong in ma’at as Heru does.

Green as the dancing rushes,
as fertile as the flooding Nile,
Dua Wesir, the Lord of Life!

In Wesir’s honor, the tiniest sigil I have ever painted – it is for growth.

PBP Fridays: N is for the Circle of N (Nebt-het, Nut, the Nun, and Nit)

The Circle of N

Nebt-het, She Who Borders The Sea
which was once all that existed
as the Nun, primordial ocean
which is deified as, among other Names,
Nit, the Creatrix, all-gendered
Who begat all the world
and can take the form of
the Celestial Cow
which is Nut, the starry heavens,
the uplifted sky arched over
Her lover the earth;

and this enormous divine cow
is also the goddess The Great Flood
and is a form of not only Nut
but also Nit
Who is likewise a form of Nebt-het
and is also the Nun personified;

and so we come full circle,
the proto-ocean Nun
into the creatrix Nit
into the Lady of the House, Nebt-het,
and that House is the sky, Nut.

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

my daily prayer

Slightly expanded from my original morning and nighttime prayers, since I proved incredibly bad at remembering to say the nightly prayer before sleep. This’ll be said in the morning, probably as I’m driving to work.

Good morning, Netjer and Netjeru.
Thank You for all good things of yesterday,
for all the wonderful souls I have been blessed to know,
and for the zep-tepi of each new day.

Thank Nebt-het for compassion and grace,
Hethert-Nut for joy and creativity,
Ma’ahes for strength and affection,
Serqet for guidance and protection,
Sekhmet for will and rightful action,
and my akhu for family and life.

May today be positive and productive;
may I walk with Ma’at in compassion, peace, and joy.
Today is good. Dua Netjer!

Storm Brothers

Set and Ma’ahes are brothers in the storm.
Grey clouds thick from horizon to horizon,
blotting out light like blood clots save an open wound from the kiss of cold air.
The fire-orange Eye of Ra is closed from the world,
and Ma’ahes becomes the bunching heat trapped beneath the ceiling of the sky,
no longer the distant, burning sun that sears and purifies.
Set is the storm, the fury, the wool-grey electricity of the thunderheads,
His laughter sharp and lighting the world with jagged spears.
The wind is caught, catching, drawing clouds together in great bursts of sound,
and They meet there, unlikely comrades, perfect friction,
imploding heat and crashing change.

Mother’s Day

To my Lady Mother, Nebt-het, Who fashioned my soul,
and to Mama Hethert-Nut, Who also fashioned my soul,
and to my mom, who created my body from her own,
and to my partner’s mom, who welcomed me into her family,
and to all the mothers of my blood, stretching back in time:

Thank you for my life and your love. I love you.

a short akhu prayer

I say this while pouring a libation of water for my ancestors, then lighting a white candle. The words are inspired by and in small parts taken from a beautiful Kemetic Orthodoxy rite that’s performed every month for the blessed dead.

Hail akhu, known and unknown, true of voice, shining as stars in the vault of Nut! I offer to you cool water and a thousand of all good and pure things.

May you go outdoors every morning and return every evening, in all the forms you wish to assume. May you enter this, your house of the living, in joy; I bid you welcome and burn a candle for you here.

Dua akhu!

a love poem

To the loves of my life,
my Ladies dressed in dusk,
my thousand-blessed Mothers:

I adore You.

Sweep me aloft and lift me to
the sky-Your-body, the sky-Your-home,
so I may breathe the sweet celestial wind
that is Your breath and Your laughter.

Shroud me in shadows that are Your arms
embracing me when my light is
too deep beneath the waves to be gleaned;
enwrap me and keep me from sinking, too.

Hail to my Mothers, my Makers,
the hearts beating beneath the fabric
of the universe that I know
and all the mysteries that I do not.

Dua Nebt-het! Dua Hethert-Nut!