The ‘Opening of Mouth’ Ceremony is done to imbue the statue of God/dess with the energy of that God/dess.

Recently found three beautiful statues of Isis, Sekhmet, and Anubis – thanks to my Teacher in Singapore. The Opening Ceremony was just done – and I must say it went very well.

Beautiful Isis statue with the sun-disk on her head, and wings to protect her children. The blue flower mirror behind is actually a gift from an old friend a long time ago. That crystal is my Isis meditation crystal.

I perceived Isis as a silver swirling light that entered the statue.

Sekhmet’s energy, as expected, is fiery and strong – like a pyramid of fire burning around her.

A friend who was with me in the room during the ceremony ’saw’ the candle lights grow high up to the ceiling during Sekhmet’s Opening of Mouth.

Anubis’ shadow energy was a bit scarier for my friend – she perceived my shadow becoming very tall and sharp at the head – ‘like dog ears?’ I asked later. And she gasped in agreement!

Funny thing happened during the Anubis meditation, I perceived Anubis in his dog form and he waited outside my healing room door.

So I actually stood up to open the door (much to the confusion of my friend). Then I ‘carried’ the Anubis energy onto the altar to which he entered the statue. Fairly dramatic but I felt only then was the ceremony truly completed.

I would also like to thank my friends who helped me carry my new healing bed (becomes heavy after awhile!) and statues through customs and all the way from Singapore with me Thanks so much. I really could not have managed without all of you!

May Anubis, the Lord of the Underworld, Surgery, and Healing, protect us against all harm from physical injuries as well as dark forces.

I set myself down before you.
My bare skin glows in the hazy
Light that spreads down through the trees
And warms your dark, night-bound home.

Girls with twigs in the hair and clothes
Made of the finest spiders’ silks
Watch in silence; theirs is beauty
That is unmatched by all others.

Sobek, snarling god; I reach down
And let my hair fall over your
Dark, curved claws. My skin sings to be
So close to you, dangerous lord.

I brush my cheek against your throat;
I kiss your scaled skin. Smoky awe
Drifts between us. I bask in your
Divine presence, safe against you.

Maahes

Maahes was an Egyptian war god, the son of Bast in Lower Egypt and Sekhmet in Upper Egypt. His father, depending on his ascendancy at the time was either Ptah,or Ra. He may have had a foreign origin, possibly Nubian, in particular Apedemak. He was rar

ely referred to by his name instead being referred to by such monikers as “Wielder of the knife”, “The Scarlett Lord” and “Lord of the Massacre”. These monikers leave no doubt as to his avocation! Although he has these names, he was not thought of as evil per se, rather, he was seen as a sort of law enforcer, meting out ‘just desserts’ to those that warranted it. As such, he was also given the monikers of “Avenger of Wrongs”, and “Helper of Wise ones”. Even though he had these blood thirsty monikers affixed to his characteristics and name, he was seen mostly as a protective god.

As Lions were considered to be connected with pharaohs, Maahes was seen as pharaoh’s protector. His seat of power was at Nay-t

a-hut, or Leontopolis. To protect his father /Ra, he travelled into the underworld at night to battle the god Apep, and protected the Pharaoh in battle.

Shu     

Shu is a primordial god of light and air and provided illumination between the land of the living and the dead, day and night.  Being the god of air, he also gave the breath of life to all creations.  Being the god of winds, he was invoked by sailors for wind to aid their boats.  The clouds which were considered to be his bones were used as a ladder for the deceased to climb up to heaven.

Shu was a part of the Ennead of Heliopolis in Lowe Egypt.  He was created from the god Atum  whilst Atum was masturbating. There is an alternate myth which describes Atums’s wife Iusaaset, as being Shu’s mother.  His wife was Tefnut, who was also his sister.  Together, they were the parents of Geb, and Nut .  Shu protected Ra as he travelled through the night sky or underworld, from Apep thus allowing Ra to rise every morning.

It has been posited that Shu originated in Nubia.  The Egyptian and Nubian Kings sometimes depicted themselves as Shu to present themselves as the first born of the sun-god and hence divine rulers.  Shu lent credibility to the Pharaoh’s right to rule through this implication.  Shu was also depicted as wearing a feather representative of the ‘breath of life.  This could be a reference to a role of being a giver of life.  Shu for the most part was seen as a protector although he also had the role of leading the demons in the Hall of Ma’at for those soles that were to be punished.  Shu was also seen to be second only to Ra in the Ennead of Heliopolis.  Shu, although not having a definite seat of power, was very popular throughout Egypt even during the Armana period.  Apparently, Akhenaton saw Shu as the son of a solar god, perhaps a personification, and traditionally as mode of the pharaohs’

to present their own divinity.

The dead and the dying yield first to
Thanatos, and then to the Jackal Lord.
Anubis warms the shivering shades with
Amber breath; sweet promises fade away.

Wolves lounge at his feet, letting their hot breath
Slide up through the chill air of the night-world.
Wepwawet lingers here: his breath is the
Smoke of incense lit by his worshippers.

Words of the long-dead linger best on the
Lips of the immortal gods; Thoth paints his
Skin and curving beak with magic and ink,
And breathes inspiration upon the world.

On this night, I hand myself over to
The gods of life and death, of love and hate,
Of reality and the far-reaching
Imagination. I submit myself
To you, Theoi: I am your servant,
On this night and for the rest of my life.

Read Write Prompt #12: Dressing Up Your Poetry

For Bast.
Attempted in the Villanelle form.

I love
The way that silk kisses my skin;
The thousand feathers of a dove.

Alone, trapped in my rosy cove,
I dance in skirts - I spin;
I love.

The smallest of children’s gloves,
Patterned; the size of a pin.
The thousand feathers of a dove.

In the bustling streets, I do not shove.
I dance; I swallow scalding gin;
I love.

I am the sunlight streaming down from above,
I laugh, I fuck, I devour sin;
The thousand feathers of a dove.

I glow softly from the inside; I surround myself in golden love;
I am the collective: the yang and the yin.
I love
The thousand feathers of a dove

Read Write Prompt #10: Meta-whatsits?

Anubis – The transity of human effort.

In the end, you all belong to me.

The richest of kings
And the poorest slaves,
The starving artists
And those who hate art.

You can build your worlds
Of steel and glass, and
You can hide, but you
Can’t ever escape.

I am not without
Mercy, but I act
For the good of all,
I am bound by Fate.

In the end, you yield.
I crush your buildings
In my paw and smile,
Just smile, and you know.

You take my hand, and
I offer you the
Strength to do what you
Need; to say goodbye.

I take you to the
Lower world, where you
Are judged, or, perhaps,
You are smiled upon.

I soon return to
My world, the upper
World, and I leave you
Behind; forgotten.

Do not try to find
A way of cheating
Me: I am not Death,
Merely his servant.

I carry bones on
My back and stain my
Teeth with human blood:
A sign, a warning.

In the end, you all belong to me.

Read Write Prompt #1: In A Sentence.
American Sentences – one sentence, 17 syllables, direct observation.

Anubis
Wolf-boy, coyote smile - are you here to take me away from this hell?

Aphrodite
Love: glorious in the summer sun, framed by white and caramel-smiles.

Ares
Blood runs through shallow graves; water doesn’t stop, tears always fall; he smiles.

Bast
Picture perfect, perfumed air; red and gold; sex, energy, desire.

Eos
Flip a page, start again; fresh day, fresh smile, fresh love; there’s nothing better.

Eris
Spinning, laughing, mad girl, wild child; stop pointing that bloody gun at me.

Eros
Silver threads, connect the dots; fire your arrow, watch the cities burn.

Hedone
Skins itch, veins burn; croon to the air as the black doves take flight everywhere.

Helios
Flash-fire, wild boy; did you know that your soft lips are as gold as your skin?

Hera
Spread your feathers, beautiful birds; dance for your queen – she watches you now.

Hermes
Skimming over clouds, planning mischief; is there anything more perfect?

Lyssa
Spit flies, dribbles down; chain-check, too-tight; muscles burn, fire starts - she screams.

Peitho
Her lips are painted with need; the flush of longing streams over her skin.

Psykhe
Love: catch it in your hands, dandelion clock, before it blows away.

Rhea-Kybele
The earth is yours: she rumbles, pulses and thrums beneath you, smiling queen.

Selene
The moon does not care for you; she laughs at your ideas of romance.

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bast is a symbol of fertility and agriculture and civilisation

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Especially:
anubis is “the jackal”
anubis is an incredibly ancient god
anubis is represented by is unknown as well; definitely canid and most likely a jackal or a wild dog
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anubis is the ancient egyptian god of mummification and guardian of the afterlife
anubis is simply anubis
anubis is probably the last really
anubis is unknown
anubis is also the god of dreams along with his father osiris
anubis is the god of many things
anubis is portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal holding the divine scepter carried by kings and gods; or as simply a jackal or as a dog
anubis is associated with magic
anubis is the conductor of souls
anubis is also the shadow or khaibit
anubis is closely identified with thoth
anubis is on hands and knees contemplating his existence

The shop was cool and quiet, but for the tinkling of windchimes that hung beside the blue-tinted windows. The woman paused at the door, glancing around and breathing in the heavy smell of citrus lingering in the air; the small shop seemed deserted, and she was uncertain as to whether or not to continue on.

Finally, she moved forward and called out into the shop, “Hello?”

There was an immediate shuffling noise, and then a door she hadn’t noticed behind the stacks of books slid open and a man stepped out. She took an involuntary step back; the man, though extremely slender, seemed impossibly tall. He had a cruel look about his eyes — no, not cruel, she corrected herself, but calculating. He had the look of a bird about him; a cold, cunning animal.

She shivered, and he smiled. It wasn’t a reassuring smile, but rather a baring of teeth. He clicked his teeth together twice–snap-snap–then turned away and shut the door. She started, and looked again at him. He wasn’t quite as tall as she’d thought; he was barely above average height. He turned back to face her and she started again.

“Who?” he asked coolly, “are you?”

She sniffed, then shrugged her bag from her shoulder and held it securely in her arms. “A customer,” she shot back, just as icily – but she couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice, and the way her eyes skirted away from meeting his. She finally managed to hold his gaze for a split second, and realised that the skin around his eyes was marked–tattooed–with strange dark marks.

“Hieroglyphs.”

“What?” She stepped back.

He gestured at his face–at his eyes–and then smiled again. It was more human this time, and the goosebumps that had been creeping along her arms faded almost as swiftly as they had arrived. She didn’t answer, and he turned away once more. His hair was perfectly straight and so dark it seemed to be beyond black — a colour that was completely its own.

“What do you want?”

“I don’t – I just wanted to look.” Her tone was defensive, now; she scowled and tucked her chin against her chest, as if to shield herself from him, though his back was still to her.

“You came for this.” He turned back, giving his predatory smile once more: she flinched and then looked at his dark, almost feminine hands. There was a sleek book in his hands with a pale grey cover and a title obscured by his thumb. He stepped forward and held the book out until she accepted it. A gleam of silver at his throat caught her attention; he was wearing a strange cross with a loop in place of the upright point that seemed almost familiar, as if she’d seen it before – or instinctively knew it.

She looked down at the book. The title was unfamiliar, but it felt right in her hands. This, she realised, was exactly what she had come for.

“How much is it?” She turned it over in her hands; there was no sticker on it denoting a price, though, as she’d thought there would be.

“A pen.”

She blinked. “I’m sorry? A pen?”

He smiled sharply. “Yes. I like pens.” He held her gaze for as long as she dared to look; and when she glanced away, a flush creeping into her cheeks, he spoke again. “If you have a pen, you may have the book.”

She slowly pushed a hand into her bag and, after a moment, drew out a pen. She held it out, smiling uncertainly, and he took it.

“Goodbye,” he said abruptly, turning away. She followed his example, and paused only at the shop door. Beyond the door, shadows had begun to settle on the streets – it looked to be about five, six o’clock, and yet she’d set off for the shop at midday. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw the man at the door, his arms folded and his strange cross glittering at his throat.

“My name is Djehuti.” He smiled, and then the door opened behind him and he stepped back through it. It closed behind him, and she remained at the shop door for a moment, gazing in the direction he’d gone. The door, barely visible behind the books, had a strange, long-beaked bird painted on it, with more strange writing–hieroglyphs–beneath it.

“Djehuti,” she mumbled to herself, passing her free hand over her hair. She turned, shaking her head, and quickly hurried out of the shop. The darkness had truly begun to set in, now: although she’d looked out of the window only moments before, she’d have guessed that it was now perhaps ten o’clock. She looked down at the book as she walked in the direction of the bus stop, squeezing it as she walked.

Within moments she was on the bus, the book in her hand and an odd smile on her lips. If asked, she would not have known where the book came from — she would have thought she’d always had it.

The Pyramids of Giza symbolize everything that ancient Egypt stands for in the minds of the world today; advanced technology, immerse building capabilities, exact geodesy, precision geometry and astronomical knowledge far exceeding that of any other contemporary culture….

There really did appear to be some justification to link the Egyptian gods with the Watchers…But it seems absurd even to contemplate the idea that organized society , controlled by a succession of God – kings , could have existed in Egypt for tens of thousands of years before the first civilized society appeared in the near east . .

Yet the ancient Egyptians also spoke of something known as Zep teri , or the First Time , a kind of Golden Age that began at the point of the First Creation and was ruled over by the ntr – gods , such as Osiris and his son Horus .

According to the noted Egyptian language scholar, R . T , Rundle Clark , this Golden Age was viewed by the Egyptians as a time of ” absolute perfection – ” before rage or clamour or strife or uproar had come about ” . No death , disease or disaster occurred in this blissful epoch , known variously as ” the time of Re ” , ” the time of Osiris ” , or ” the time of Horus ” .

Not only were the Egyptians sure of the immense antiquity of their race , but Greek philosophers were as well. For example Plato ( 429 -347 B C ) in his Timaeus , tells the story of ” a relative and great friend of my great – grandfather ” , whose name was Solon .

This man had apparently traveled to Egypt and engaged the priests at the temple of the goodness Neith , located within the Nile delta town of Sais , in a rather enlightening conversation that had supposedly taken place some six hundred years before the Christian era . On the subject of the antiquity of the Hellenes , one very ancient priest had lectured Solon , saying :

” O Solon , Solon , you hellenes are but children , and there is never an old man who is an hellene . ” Solon, hearing this said, “What do you mean?” ” I mean to say  , he replied , ” that in mind you are all young ; therein no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition , no any science which is hoary with age .

And I will tell you the reason of this : there have been , and there will be again , many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes …..a great conflagration of thins upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time; when this happened, those who live upon the mountain and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction that those who dwell by rivers or on the sea – shore; and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never failing savior, saves and delivers us .

When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the river into the sea, but in the country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. “

The old priest at Sais goes on to tell Solon about ” the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived ” , before he recounts the story of how the fables ” island of Atlantis ” , beyond the ” Pillars of Heracles ” , were destroyed by devastating earthquakes and floods 9.000years before their age , giving an approximate date of around 9.600 B.C , exactly the time – frame of the global cataclysms and climatic changes that apparently heralded the end of the last Ice Age .

He also tells Solon that according to the ” sacred registers ” the Egyptian race was founded ” 8.000 years ago ” , in other words 1.000 years after the submergence of Atlantis and the foundation of the Hellenic race by the survivors of this ” noblest ” race :

Hand in hand with the increased popularity in fallen angels during the nineteenth century was the interest shown in the myths and legends surrounding the fabled island of Atlantis, as presented by Plato in his works Gritias and Timaeus .

The idea of an advanced civilizations having once existed in what seemed to have been the Atlantic Ocean appealed to many, especially since the old priest of Sais had informed Solon that Atlantis was lost during violent cataclysms 9.000years before their own day.

Among those who become convinced that Atlantis really had existed was an American named Ignatius Donnelly ( 1831 – 1901 ) , author of a bestselling book entitled ;

Atlantis; the Antediluvian World, first published in 1882.

In spite of its popularity Donnely went beyond simply trying to answer the question of whether or not Atlantis was fact or fantasy , reviewing – in addition to the evidence concerning this lost continent – literally hundreds of unexplained mysteries from both side of the Atlantic . These included everything from a comparison of different flood myths to the study of elongated skulls, the discovery of anomalous artifacts and the mysteries of the Great Pyramid .

At the same time as Ignatius Donnelly was publishing the mysteries of Atlantis into the popular consciousness, the influence of Eastern mysticism from India and Nepal was also beginning to introduce the idea that previously unknown human races had once existed.

One person deeply influenced by such thoughts was the Russian medium, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky . She returned from the East claiming to be in psychic communication with what she described as the Mahatmas, or Hidden Masters, who allegedly provided her with written accounts of primordial “root ” races that existed on earth long before the rise of the modern civilization .

My granny’s box room is – besides being small enough to merit that description – indeed filled with boxes, and every so often I stage a random raid in the interests of helping her clear out and keep on top of her hoarding. This week’s raid (more to follow) yielded two broiderie anglaise petticoats, a long floral cotton nightie (good fabric for M for her patchwork), an odd black satin shirt with gold trim, and a useful red linen bag with gold Egyptian-style graphics (‘Sennedjem and his wife adoring Osiris and Ra, by five genii of the underworld’, it says along the bottom. Someone’s souvenir from Sharm el Sheikh?).  I also came home with some large glass pickle jars for A to store nails, bolts and other hardware in, a cake tin, and some fitted sheets and pillowcases which I’ve given to L, who is housing foreign students this summer and needs some spare bedlinen.

Robert Wright on the Egyptian god Osiris and the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke:

Osiris bears a certain resemblance to Jesus as Christians would later come to conceive him; Osiris inhabited the afterworld and judged the recently deceased, granting eternal life to those who believed in him and lived by his code. But Osiris was doing this a long time before Jesus was born, and meanwhile he had migrated to the Roman Empire, where he had developed a following. Certainly that story in Luke about the rich man and the poor man in Hades has Osirian overtones. At the time Luke was writing, a written copy of an Egyptian story about the afterlife was circulating in the Roman Empire. It was about a rich man and a poor man who die and go to the underworld. Both are judged at the court of Osiris. The rich man’s bad deeds outweighed his good, and so he was consigned to one of the less desirable stations. (Specifically, the story explains: the “pivot of the door” to the underworld is “planted in his right eye and rotating on this eye whenever the door is closed or opened.” Understandably, his “mouth was open in great lamentation.”) In contrast, the poor man, whose good deeds outweighed his bad, got to spend eternity in the company of the “venerable souls,” near the seat of Osiris. Plus, he got the rich man’s clothes: “raiment of royal linen.” (The rich man in Luke’s story wore “purple and fine linen.”) The moral of the story, “He who is good upon earth they are good to him in Amenti (the underworld), while he that is evil they are evil to him.” Luke’s story about the rich man and the poor man seems to have no precedent in earlier Jewish or Christian tradition. So there is indeed a chance that Luke heard or read the Egyptian story and adapted it for Christian use. But we’ll probably never know, . . .

 Wright’s observations on the parallels between the two stories come from the 13th chapter of his new book, The Evolution of God.

Journal Notes on the God Horus

Horus I suspect is the oldest of Egypt’s many gods. His fame and centrality to Kingly power. He has a long history in the town of Nekhen, where he had many ancient forms stretching far back before the time of King Narmer.

He is now known as the God of the Sky, represented as a Hawk. Already his fame is such that he embodies the King in life.

I am told that Horus is the son of Isis, Goddess of motherhood and fertility and Osiris who became God of the Afterlife.  Isis charged Horus to protect the people of Egypt to protect them from tempest, desert darkness and chaos. These threats to earlthy existence were embodied by the God Set.

Hor-Aha hieroglyph

Aapep told me there was talk of even more ancient Gods worshiped in lands north of Ineb-Hed. These were Geb, god of the earth and Nut, god of the sky, who eternally entwined, gave birth to Osirus, Isis, Set and Nephthys. They in turn, legend has it, came from the sun god Atum who rose from Nun in a lotus flower, a limitless expanse of motionless water. He was not sure of this, but would attempt to discover more when he reached Ineb-Hed.

But back to Horus.  Patron of the First dynasty King Hor-Aha. Aapep vividly described a Horus of Two Eyes, who crossed the sky, representing the sun and the moon. He also spoke of how Set murdered his father, Osiris and a quest of revenge began.

It is clear in the first Dynasty, that the pantheon of Egyptian gods are already well established and entwined with the destiny of King and country. And that I have much to learn…

]]> http://egyptiandynasties.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/byte-4-priests-gods-on-the-nile-circa-3100-bc/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:05:41 +0000 Timestrider http://egyptiandynasties.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/byte-4-priests-gods-on-the-nile-circa-3100-bc/

Horus I suspect is the oldest of Egypt’s many gods. His fame and centrality to Kingly power. He has a long history in the town of Nekhen, where he had many ancient forms stretching far back before the time of King Narmer.

He is now known as the God of the Sky, represented as a Hawk. Already his fame is such that he embodies the King in life.

I am told that Horus is the son of Isis, Goddess of motherhood and fertility and Osiris who became God of the Afterlife.  Isis charged Horus to protect the people of Egypt to protect them from tempest, desert darkness and chaos. These threats to earlthy existence were embodied by the God Set.

Hor-Aha hieroglyph

Aapep told me there was talk of even more ancient Gods worshiped in lands north of Ineb-Hed. These were Geb, god of the earth and Nut, god of the sky, who eternally entwined, gave birth to Osirus, Isis, Set and Nephthys. They in turn, legend has it, came from the sun god Atum who rose from Nun in a lotus flower, a limitless expanse of motionless water. He was not sure of this, but would attempt to discover more when he reached Ineb-Hed.

But back to Horus.  Patron of the First dynasty King Hor-Aha. Aapep vividly described a Horus of Two Eyes, who crossed the sky, representing the sun and the moon. He also spoke of how Set murdered his father, Osiris and a quest of revenge began.

It is clear in the first Dynasty, that the pantheon of Egyptian gods are already well established and entwined with the destiny of King and country. And that I have much to learn…

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