Sobek and Wesir

Yeah, I know, I haven’t posted enough tonight, but I have Thinky Thoughts I kind of want to play with, just to see if they go anywhere. Mostly from reading Sobek’s henadology entry, but also related to other various things.

Sobek’s role in the Duat is one I am still getting a handle on, because He doesn’t always seem like a Duat-y kind of God. I relate to Him mostly as a solar creature, who is very much not Duat-y. But He’s in the Book of the Dead, and there are epithets and spells related to Sobek being there in the Duat, navigating the waters.

I’ve had that rolling around with that snippet of a reference to Set killing Sobek in defence of Ra’s boat, and how that might be why He can navigate the Duat like no other can, because He knows it as well as He knows the Nile. Sobek being something like the embodiment of Wesir-Ra, holding that dual life/death, light/dark, kind of dynamic within Himself.

Um. This isn’t really going anywhere, in case you’re expecting something more coherent. It’s an idea that’s sitting in my head right now, thinking about how Sobek is (like) Wesir. Perhaps if Sobek has suffered death, while not being a Dead God because that’s what Wesir is, perhaps it is one of those aspects that isn’t really thought about much. (Was that sentence going somewhere, self? Because I think I lost my point halfway there.)

I’m still thinking about that transcendent comment from Ra in the Contendings, and how Sobek and Nit are somehow old enough to be outside the … outside the ‘civilisation’ of the newer gods, for lack of a better way to phrase it? Who can transgress or uphold the law as He sees fit? I feel like this is His Amun-y side, the more abstract and primeval Creator God part of Him. (Sobek is Amun is Ra is Ptah is Wesir, said Djehuty one afternoon.)

IDK. It’s late, and I’m not sure if these thoughts are as clear in my head as I want them to be. I’ll be revisiting this later anyway, so for now, have my half-formed thoughts.

[Myth] Sobek Writes Of The Birth Of Heru

This is what Sobek’s been chattering to me about all afternoon. I finally got around to writing it. Not quite what I originally had in mind, but it’s still pretty damn good, I think.

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Sobek sits in the shade of a large willow tree, the waters of the Nile lapping gently against the banks. He takes up parchment, ink, and reed pen, and begins to write:

I have lived my life in the Nile. I know it as Hapi knows it, as if it were part of me. I swim its waters endlessly. I know every creature, god, and netjeri who lives in these waters. It is my life blood as it is the lifeblood of the people who live beside it. When the floods come, I ride their energy to the Delta, watching the life-giving silt spread all over the land, taking back the red land for Wesir.

I am the Lord of Kom Ombo, who lives in his carnelian temple at Bakhu. He who rages against isfet, and who guards the night boat from the demons of the Duat. I am the crocodile in the Nile, the strength of the King, and the one who forever watches. My eyes see all that exists. My teeth are sharp and brutal. I can tear flesh and bone, break bodies, and expel all that is no longer wanted. I am the fastest swimmer; none can beat me as I move through the waters. No one can navigate these waters as I can. I am Sobek, and I have seen the very first Zep Tepi.

Festival Shrine: Mysteries of Wesir

Yeah, it’s kind of not for another couple of weeks for me, but I wanted to set it up now before my period turns up and I have to abstain from touching shrine things until it’s over. It’s been on my mind anyway, and it’s nice to have it all done so I can worry about other preparations, like the litany-story-thing Sobek has been prodding me about this afternoon, which I think He wants me to use for the Mysteries at some point? IDK, anyway, have some photos.

The shrine as a whole, with statues, and offering bowl, candles, incense burner, and other assorted things.

Wesir-Ra <3

Picked up this lovely seated Wesir today. <3 My local New Age/Pagan shop is finally beginning to get Egyptian stuff in, which I have whole-heardedly encouraged, and I saw Him in the window. <3 I have been looking for the right sort of Wesir statue for a while, and I’m glad I found Him. Just in time for the Mysteries at the end of the month.

Still using Khonsu icons for Ra, which are invariably named as Horus. But it’s what Ra wants, so I feel no need to stop. Besides, it all looks balanced now. My ickle Ra/Wesir statues now have larger ones to complement them.

Project – Perpetual Festival Calendar Book Thing

So, I picked up this visual journal at Jacksons, which does art supplies and such, and felt it was just right for this project. I got one with Bristol board/paper, mostly because I wanted to try it out. That, and I knew I wasn’t going to use much more than pens and coloured pencils, and felt the mixed media one could wait for another more appropriate project.

This journal has 24 pages in it, and I felt that was just right for a calendar. I decided it was time to put together something of a proper festival calendar, since I use a fixed calendar, and I wanted something of a perpetual reference. I will still do up calendars every year, because the moons and such change every year, but the bones of the festival calendar remain the same, and I wanted somewhere I could list each month, and all the festivals in it, with perhaps suggestions on what to do for each one, just to make me feel like it’s not just a day on a calendar.

I’ve finished January, which took me three hours or so, and I’ve done basic pencil work for February-June on the first pages of those months. Still have a lot of work to do on it, but it’ll get there. In the meantime, have some photos of my progress. <3

Late Night Thoughts

I’ve wanted to post here for weeks, but I just haven’t had the inspiration. It’s partly due to uni taking over most of my brain’s capacity to think, which leaves me with less capacity to think about religion. Which is why I’m behind on my Kemetic Round Table posts. And my Pagan Blog Project posts. That, and the fact I’ve been dealing with two big bang novellas since IDK January and my brain is, like, totally stuffed full, and there is no room for other things.

Such is mundane modern life, of course, though that is not an excuse.

That said, I have been keeping up with everyone else’s blogs that I’m following, and it has given me some pause for thought, though I hardly think I’ll write anything myself, as I feel like it’s already been said ten times before and better than I could manage. The posts about community, and the recent KRT ones about daily life, they’ve been on my mind the most.

Kemetic Round Table: How To Survive Fallow Time

This is the latest in a series of posts that is part of a (new) Kemetic blogging project called the Kemetic Round Table that aims to provide practical, useful information for Kemetic practitioners of any stripe from beginners to more experienced practitioners. Check the link here for more information.

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I must admit this topic threw me a little. It’s a fairly new concept to me, and trying to relate it back to my own experiences that I may not have coded as fallow time is an imprecise artform. So you will excuse me if this post is perhaps not the best, and may wander into strange territory, given my not-so-great understanding of the concept.

When I saw the topic, I first thought it was referring to that time between Samhain and Yule. It was only when I thought about it a little more that I connected it to those periods when gods don’t talk to you, and you feel somewhat disconnected from your path. I also understand this is a different thing than a ‘dark night of the soul’? Though I can imagine that both may overlap to some degree, though more in a Venn diagram kind of way than anything more significant. I can’t say it applies to every experience, though.

Kemetic Round Table: Ritual Purity

This is the first in a series of posts that is part of a new Kemetic blogging project called the Kemetic Round Table that aims to provide practical, useful information for Kemetic practitioners of any stripe from beginners to more experienced practitioners. Check the link here for more information about the project, and click here to see responses to this topic from the other bloggers taking part in this project.

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Ritual purity is a common thing in many religious traditions. Indeed, many Pagan ritual formats include pre-ritual purifications, and modern Kemetic practices are no different. It’s something I got used to when I became Wiccan over a decade ago, and continued doing as I wandered around as an eclectic Kemetic Pagan for a while, and then as a Kemetic Orthodox shemsu for six years. I’ve done it in many ways, using oils in bath water to herbal rinses to incense and water and salt, to the Senut purifications that are part of the Kemetic Orthodox tradition.

Ritual purity is important, and being physically and mentally clean before approaching shrine is a good thing to do regularly. It’s something I’ve had drilled into me since I became Kemetic Orthodox, and I’ve brought that with me when I left the House a couple of years ago.

There were many ancient prohibitions and purity rules that we know of today, mainly from the Temple cults. These included rules about body hair, physical cleanliness, blood, dietary, and sexual rules, as well as what to not wear, and how to dress and prepare yourself. Shadows of the Sun has done an excellent overview of historical purity rules, so I’ll point you over there, rather than repeat them here.

For those new to this blog, while I am mostly Kemetic in my practices, I practice a Graeco-Roman-Kemetic polytheistic syncetism, and what I do will not always be strictly Kemetic, nor particularly reconstructionist. Any non-Kemetic aspects to my practice will be stated as such, so no one’s confused. Not everyone wants to do syncretism like I do, but I still think it’s important to talk about how I do things, because I think even fewer syncretists talk about this sort of thing than Kemetics do.

General Shortform Solitary Kemetic Rite is done!

Had a bit of inspiration at last, and have written up the short form of the general solitary Kemetic rite I did a while back. I haven’t tested out the short form ritual yet, but I’ve tried to make it as short as possible, while still containing the basic elements of the longer rite. I wrote up a very short and simple purification sequence, just so there’s something there to begin with.

I wanted the short form to be useful for daily devotions, still with traditional elements, but without the trappings of a State rite, so someone who’s just starting out could use it as a base to work from as they start getting used to Kemetic ritual style. I can’t really vouch for its effectiveness just yet, because I haven’t tested it out, and I don’t like putting rites up I haven’t done yet, but I’ll do that sometime in the next week and modify it after that, if it needs it.

I have also edited the long form rite, as well, just a little bit. Mostly formatting, and a couple of optional additions.

The Call To Serve

(Revised slightly and reposted PBP post for this week, because I felt it was Relevant To Your Interests. And to this blog, ngl. Apologies in advance if you get two notifications of this one.)

I don’t think I’ve done much on this topic, now that I think about it. I feel like I’ve skirted around it, or not really mentioned it. Sobek did wait six years for me to finally figure out that’s what He was asking me to do, though. Perhaps it deserves more of a contemplation.

…Ohwait. I did talk about priesting, but that was on my private blog, rather than my public one. WELL THERE YOU GO THEN. Maybe it is time to talk about it publicly then.