Sisters
of the Burning Branch Goddess Gallery Presents...
The Egyptian
Goddess
About Goddess Sekhmet
Sekhmet is known in many different myths
as many different personifications some of which are “The one who was
Before
the Gods Were”, “The Lady of the Place of the Beginning of Time,” “The
Mistress
of Life,” and “The Great one of healing” She was a very important
leonine
deities of Egypt but is the least studied which has led to her myths
being very
contradictory with many interpretations. She was the most significant
manifestation of the Eye of Re, embodying the aspects of danger,
destruction,
as well as protection and healing.
Realizing that
Sekhmet
will destroy the rest of humanity, Re has a change of heart. He
commands his
chief priest to grind red ochre to mix with 7,000 jars of barley beer
being
brewed by women. On the eve of Sekhmet’s planned destruction of
humanity, the
intoxicating draught is completed and poured into the fields where She
will
arrive. In the morning, Sekhmet finds the fields brimming with the red
beer.
Seeing Her own reflection in the flooded plains, She is delighted and
drinks
Her fill. She is then too intoxicated to even recognize humans, and the
destruction of humanity is averted 4. She is subdued by an
intoxicant
because She cannot be subdued by force. Re greets Sekhmet with the
words “Twice
welcome in peace, O Charming One” and decrees that every year women
will brew
intoxicating draughts for a great feast in Her honor.5
“The
Destruction of
Humanity” story recurs frequently in Egyptian mythology with different
deities
and different rebellions, which causes this narrative to be viewed as a
repeating pattern of events.6 This myth shares many
similarities with other myths that depict deities creating humans and
then
ultimately destroying them because they were dissatisfied with their
creation.
This supports the principle that a deity that is powerful enough to
create life
is also powerful enough to destroy life. And in this Ancient Egyptian
myth,
that power resides with female deities. The Eye is a symbol of power,
the
awesome and awe-ful power of the sun. This power spans the destructive
acts of
creation and the creative acts of destruction. The power of Sekhmet is
beyond the
male gods’ control; She is a force of nature, wild and indiscriminate.
Ancient
Egyptians
reenacted the myth of “The Destruction of Humanity” in an annual
festival held
in the first month of the year, immediately after the flooding of the
Nile.
These feasts are well-documented at the temple of Mut during the reign
of
Hatshepsut and well into the Ptolemaic era. The temple inscriptions
describe
continual singing, dancing, drinking, and music-making as acts of
propitiation
of Mut in Her form as Sekhmet. This New Year festival occurred after
the
hottest days of summer had finally ended, the rains arrived, and the
Nile
flooded. Ochre-colored beer, brewed by women, flowed in an ecstatic
ritual of
propitiation to the power of the female divine.7. The flooding of the
Nile
brought the promise of the continuation of life in an annual cycle.
The early
floods would
flush more clay, silt and sand down the river, creating rich and
fertile
sediment. With the mythic identification of the Nile and menstruation,
this
festival certainly honored the power of the female in all aspects. As
Ellis
states, “Sekhmet embodies the cyclical blood that flows at birth and
death; the
blood that flows from mother to child in the womb; the blood on the
battlefields, and the menstrual blood or the blood of circumcision that
separates the budding young adult from childhood.” Regeneration of the
land,
the continuation of life, was intricately tied to the cycles of the
Nile. “It
is the cyclical red flood of the River Nile that became equated with
the red,
renewing menstrual blood that cleanses and prepares the way for renewal
and
regenesis. This blood is a kind of communion, in which humankind
partakes of
the divine drink of the gods. That is the mystery of
transubstantiation.”
The New Year
festival
was one of the primary transition periods for the Ancient Egyptians.
Sekhmet
was invoked and propitiated as Her immense power could be wielded in
many directions.
A recitation of a spell called “The Book of the Last Day of the Year”
was
performed over a piece of cloth which was then worn as an amulet during
the
days leading up to the New Year. Prayers were recited to gain the
protection of
Sekhmet, and tokens of Sekhmet and Bastet were liberally bestowed.
The clergy of
Sekhmet,
the “Uab,” were famed as healers and surgeons. One of the few surviving
Ancient
Egyptian medical books, the Papyrus Ebers, contains many spells written
expressly for the use of the clergy of Sekhmet. A comprehensive
knowledge of
the heart and circulation was attributed to the Uab. The heart
reflected the
solar attributes of regeneration. Heart scarabs, placed on the chest of
the
deceased, manifested the revitalizing powers of the sun, aiding the
transformation of the deceased. Some heart scarabs were made of
carnelian; this
passage from The Egyptian Book of the Dead, beautifully translated by
Normandi
Ellis, refers to the stone’s regenerative and solar qualities: “Mine is
a heart
of carnelian…I am the phoenix, the fiery sun, consuming and resuming
myself.”11
“The Devouring
One,”
“Warrior Goddess,” “Protectress of the Divine Order,” “Lady of
Jubilation” and
“The Beautiful Light,” Sekhmet, the divine manifestation of the
lioness-woman,
encompassed all of these aspects. She was called upon by queens and
kings,
warriors and healers, priestesses and priests, for Her strength and
power. She
was truly “The Incomparable One.”
Sacred connections
to her..
Lioness
Images especially ones with a
lion with it which represent her with a masculine image.
The
numbers 7 and 5 represent her, this
is true because there are 7 stones that correspond with this Sekhmet.
these
numbers are relevant because they are used in Numerology as 2 of the 11
numbers
used in this type of divination to create numerology charts.
Ritual
By J. Jing Link
Credited Below in Sources
Before
you
begin find an object
that symbolizes your intention to
be used in this ritual of the strong
and mighty to shore up my strength and power.
“Sekhmet,
the goddess of the strong and
mighty, I call upon you to come with your lion and lend me your
strength and
power. Help me rise above the old tendencies and see myself in a new
light of
feminine strength.
“Let
me have the courage, strength,
patience and perseverance to carry out my mission, attract new
opportunities,
abundance and prosperity, and enriching relationships.
“Let
me be stronger, physically,
mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And so be it.”
2. I then
meditate for a while,
visualizing and feeling that every cell of my being is getting stronger
and
filled up with enormous power. I also quiet my mind to receive any
specific
message that’s sent my way.
3. At the
end, I use the following
“devocation” (to thank her and say farewell to her) to close my ritual.
“Sekhmet,
I have received your message.
Thank you for being with me. May you give strength to anyone who needs
support
on his or her journey. And I ask that your strength remain in my heart.
Farewell. And love and peace to all.”
In her Image
By Lady
Lydia Marie
July 2016
I/We call
upon you this night in your
name the moon is full of fire red with desire what a perfect night to
call to
you to protect us, nurture us, and teach us how to be powerful and
protect
ourselves.
Noon is
your witching hour and we think
of you when this time of day strikes, as the color red is not just
beauty but
the strength you show us every day.
Blessed
Be dear goddess Sekhmet and join
us to celebrate your presence in our circle tonight.
Sources:
http://www.goddessalive.co.uk/issue-20-home/sekhmet-the-incomparable-one/
http://www.cycleharmony.com/stories/menstrual-myths-a-rituals/full-moon-ritual-with-goddess-sekhmet
2. Normandi Ellis, Feasts of Light: Celebrations
for the
Seasons of Life based on the Egyptian Goddess Mysteries (Wheaton,
IL: Quest
Books, 1999), 58.
3. Lesko, The Great Goddesses of Egypt, 145.
4. Edward F. Wente Jr., trans. “The Book of the
Heavenly Cow,” in
The Literature of Ancient Egypt, edited by William Kelly Simpson
(New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 289-292.
5. Kaster, The Wisdom of Ancient Egypt, 70.
6. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to
the Gods,
Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (New York: Oxford
University
Press, 2004), 125.
7. Pinkowski, “Egypt’s Ageless Goddess,”45-49.
8.
Jaana Toivari-Viitala, Women at Deir el-Medina. A Study of the
Status and Roles of the Female Inhabitants at the Workmen’s Community
during
the Ramesside Period (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor Het Nabije
Oosten,
2001), 162; Judy Grahn, Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation
Created the
World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), 225.
9. Ellis, “Sekhmet, Bast, and Hathor,” 206.
10.
Ibid.
11.Normandi
Ellis, Awakening Osiris: A New Translation of the
Egyptian Book of the Dead (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988),
178.
Excerpted
from Heart of the Sun: An Anthology in Exaltation of Sekhmet
(Goddess Ink, 2011).
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=
0ahUKEwjv96rN0fjNAhUY2WMKHQmhCZgQjhwIBQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Ffannyfae%2F
sekhmet-the-beauty-the-terror%2F&psig=AFQjCNHs_m-347hNLAMxWk9M8ougoh2YVg&ust=1468780960373030
http://www.welcomethelight.com/category/channels/m-z/mother-sekhmet/
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/interesting-facts-about-the-ancient-egyptian-goddess-bastet.html
http://www.egyptian-witchcraft.com/the-goddess-sekhmet/
http://www.deviantart.com/tag/sekhmet