Happy Solstice!

Solstice offering to Heru-sa-Aset that used up the last of my gold paint gdi. Depicts the Eye of Heru. NGL, resisted the urge to give it feet as well as arms. Shorthand glyphs in the top left corner represent ‘Heru, Lord of the Two Lands’. I think you can figure out an ankh and an infinity symbol.

I shouldn’t feel like Solstice crept up on me, because I knew last week I needed to prepare, and I did fuck all, because I am clever, and did everything at the last minute like I normally do. IDK why I pretend I can actually prepare in advance anymore. But anyway. Solstice happened. Got my rituals done. Feeling good about all that. There’s a soft lingering scent in the air, too; incense I burn doesn’t usually stick around this long, but it’s nice. I’m taking that as a sign that the gods accepted the rite and the offerings.

The solstice was meant to happen at about 7am today (WAST, on the 22nd), which I promptly slept through (because who wants to get up at 7am for a long ritual? Not me!). But I’d decided to do my rituals during the day, rather than at night, so I spent last night preparing. Got the shrine all set up, picked out the offerings, did a painting (see above), etc. The plan was to do the ritual almost first thing, but I woke with a migraine, so fuck that. There was house cleaning and shopping for Christmas to do anyway, so I didn’t get around to it until about 4pm, in which I hurriedly wrote out my offering hymn and statement of purpose before I got started. But that’s alright. It went fine, though I think I did rush it a little. I need to remember to slow down when I’m doing ritual.

Also, I really, really need to get around to posting the Kemetic ADF style ritual structure I use, because I think I said that I’d do that last Solstice, and I haven’t, so. I’ll also post the two Solstice hymns I’ve written, since they’re kinda cool, and I like them anyway.

Have a cut, because rambly post is a bit rambly, and not entirely on-topic.

Artemis and Other Things

General caveat: This post is pretty much meditational logs and UPG and other assorted ~woo~ things. If you’re not interested, just skip back to the pretty shrine pictures. ❤

Specific caveat: There is discussion here about meditational things I experienced while doing the Pillars of the Naos devotions last month (March 2014), as part of the Covenant of Hekate, including the things found during the last week of meditations. If you’re currently doing the devotions, I’d avoid reading this post until you’re finished with the month-long devotions, to avoid spoilers and whatnot. Which is why it’s all under a cut, so you can’t read it unless you click through. Your choice.

And now that’s out of the way, read past the cut for epic Artemis things, and other assorted updates regarding myths, and Heru, and other things.

On Being Pagan and Energy-Blind

I feel like I’ve written about this before somewhere, but I can’t find it if it exists at all, so you’ll just have to read about it again, because it’s on my mind. I feel like I might have discussed this in a broader post about magic, but I can’t be sure. In any case, have another post on it. I feel like this is kind of related to the whole godphone/lack of godphone thing, but not really the same thing? I think it’s all the godphone discussion lately that’s made me think about this, and all the work I’ve been doing with elements and whatnot.

I’m also going to post this one, and not just spend hours writing things like this, and then not posting them because reasons. I am terrible at that. I chicken out of posting things all the time, and I feel bad about it. I feel like I shouldn’t be censoring my own blog (except if it concerns stuff I legit can’t talk about). I know I need to work on this. But anyway. I digress.

Firstly, I can’t really do anything these days without Defining My Terms (thank you, Arts degree), so for the purposes of this discussion, I’m using ‘energy-blind’ to mean someone who doesn’t sense energy, or who can’t really feel it around them in a way that others are able to do. ‘Energy’ being not just elemental or magical stuff, but also gods and spirits etc. I don’t know if ‘energy-blind’ is the best way to describe this concept, but it’s what I’ll use. If you know of a better word, I’m all for it.

Feast of Sobek

Today’s a feast day for Sobek, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time alone in ritual with Him. It did catch me somewhat off-guard, but Sobek provided inspiration enough as to what I ought to offer for Him to feast on, and it was good to spend that time with Him together. It was nearly an hour and a half, all up, and while I won’t share the details of what happened because Mysteries, I did finally nut out what it is about visualisation that I have never quite grokked.

Y’know what the problem is? It’s the lack of words. I can do visualisation just fine when I’m writing a story in my head, but I’ve never thought of it as visualisation because it never really felt like it, or how other people do it, anyway. But that works for me. Writing a story in my head, in a form of second person, that works. I can see things that way. I can feel things that way. But I can’t if I’m just meant to be ~imagining~ things. So I’m going to try the visualisation thing again that’s part of Hekate’s new moon rite and try writing it as a story, and see if that helps it work better for me. If it does, I’ll keep working on honing that skill, and maybe I won’t be quite as shit at visualisation as I thought I was, because I can just write a story in my head, and see things that way.

All this triggered by a story I was writing for Sobek in my head as He took me to His temple at Bakhu again. A poem thing did come of it, but it’s not for sharing, so it’ll go on the private blog instead. I’ve also set up a small shrine for Nit at His insistence. There’s work there to do with Hir. Weird gender stuff. IDK. Maybe I’ll talk about it later once I’ve parsed it into something coherent and feel like it’s shareable.

(This is also me trying to get more consistent at writing up rituals and festivals that I do in a bid to have a better record of them, and to update this blog more often. We’ll see how long I stick with this before I forget.)

 

De-Cluttering

There’s something to be said for the power of de-cluttering. I’ve been slowly starting to go through my accumulated mass of possessions in a bid to get rid of things I no longer need. I’ve done clean-outs before, but I feel this one needs to be much more significant, because I’ve run out of room, and I can’t just rearrange a few things and throw out a bag of rubbish.

I don’t find it surprising that this has come at the same time that I’ve stripped back my practice to the bare essentials. In some ways, it’s sort of a symptom of it. I’ve spent the last week or so thinking about my practice, and what I really need to focus on. What’s important, what needs t be let go. So with religion, as with real life. So things are being let go of, and either passed on to op shops, or thrown out.

I also think this is a significant change because I think now is the time where there is more of a requirement/necessity/obligation to focus my path solely on Sobek and the work I am meant to do for Him. It didn’t matter a couple of years ago, because I was exploring, experimenting, and learning things I needed to learn. But I’m His, and this is where the work really begins. And so my practice must duly be focussed on Him.

Bakhu

I don’t know why I feel like talking about Bakhu just now, but I’ve been doing devotional art all day*, and perhaps it’s just on my mind. It’s sort of become the place I meet Sobek in meditations, and IDK. Sometimes I get proddings to share things, so have some UPG woo. I can’t share some of what I’ve seen in Bakhu, because it’s too personal and Mystery-ish related, but there are some more general things I can talk about.

This sort of ties in a lot with my conception of Sobek as the Evening Star/Night Boat, complementing Heru-sa-Aset as the Morning Star/Day Boat. I might do a post on that at a later date, to sort of flesh that out a bit more. It’s sort of linked to the Wesir/Ra dynamic, except, not quite, if that makes sense. So yeah. Bakhu. Have some UPG meanderings on Bakhu.

* Check my dA; I’ve put some of them up. Sobek as Creator, and Sobek as the Night Boat were completed today. The rest were done a while ago.

Hymns for Sobek and Heru

I’ve started keeping a little 6inx8in sketchbook as a devotional art/prayer book thing for Heru and Sobek. It’s a smaller Strathmore journal, like the one I’m using for my epic big calendar thing, though it’s just bog standard sketching paper rather than Bristol board. I picked it over other journals because the cover has a pattern on it that reminds me of crocodile skin. It seemed appropriate. 😛

Art had been pouring out of me lately, as well as writing, so I’m taking this as a good sign that the Muses have been about lately, giving me Their gifts. That, and I’ve finally got over the burnout from writing ~60k that Harlequin fic in three weeks back in April or sommat. o.O? *collapses* Or, IDK, perhaps doing all those SDF rites has awoken up all my artistic creativity or something? *MAKES ALL THE ARTZ!*

But that’s for another post, I think. It’s a bit late to get a couple of pages scanned in, but I’ve filled about fourteen pages in about a week, with both art and writings. Been pondering Solstice!Heru as well, and getting some Heruakhety vibes. I’ve been connecting better with Heru lately, as well, since I was going to honour Him at Solstice and whatnot. Like, actually feeling Heru’s presence, slight and subtle that it is. More than once. And knowing it’s really Him. It’s like I finally found the right frequency, and He’s been coming in strong at last. So clearly I’m getting somewhere!

(I feel like I should make some sort of snide comment about how this wouldn’t be a problem if there weren’t +ELEBENTY different Herus to deal with, but…)

The Night Vigil

I took several photos of the shrine throughout the night, but this one is my favourite. Wesir standing tall again, showing us His face. Welcome back, my Lord. It is good to see Your beautiful face. ❤ I like that there’s still a little water caught in His eye from the purifications.

So the Night Vigil is done, and the shrine redressed for the feast of Sokar-Wesir today. In some ways, it wasn’t as long a night as if I’d kept vigil from midnight to 6am, but it was still long. The first hour is always hardest, though it became easier after the first three were over. Wanted to read out the names of my ancestors during the first hour as well, but I just didn’t have the voice for it. Did some blogging at my private WP blog during the vigil, because I was in my room and it was nice to have my computer near by to keep my thoughts in order as I waited and watched. I’ll stick ’em behind a cut, because they got quite long, though some are rather shorter than others. All are unedited.

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.

Sobek Research and Other Ramblings

I was doing a bit of googling last night, looking for any ancient Sobek hymns that might possibly if I’m lucky actually exist that I can base a litany around. I didn’t find any hymns, but I did find a couple of articles that talked about His Graeco-Roman cult, particularly around the Faiyyum region, as well as one article talking about Sobek, Ra, and Wesir. I even found an actualfax book on Sobek and the Faiyyum, though sadly I can’t find a copy to buy that is definitely in English rather than in Italian, and not going to cost me a lot of money I don’t have right now. (I found three for sale: one for £68 (~AU$103), one for US$150 (~AU$142), and another for US$200 (~AU$189). Sans how much I’d have to pay for shipping. *cries* I would probably buy it if I had the money, though. Just because omg an actualfax book all about Sobek omg I must have it!) I can’t even find it in any university libraries here, so I can’t even go and borrow it. 😦 (It’s too niche and academic for public libraries, so I’m not bothering to look there.)

The reference I found regarding Sobek, Ra, and Wesir, talked about Sobek-Ra being seen as something like a nighttime form of Ra, like Wesir sometimes is, and emerging from the waters at dawn is like the sun being renewed for another day. Syncretising Sobek to both Temu-Ra and Wesir I find very interesting, and I’ll be chewing on that for a while. I’d already seen some parallels in my UPG, with Sobek-Ra, and Wesir and Ra and Their duality, and I know Sobek is sometimes referenced as guarding Ra’s boat in the Duat, but I hadn’t considered Sobek being syncretised to Temu-Ra and Wesir. Perhaps Djehuty was right when He told me that Sobek is Amun is Ra is Ptah is Wesir, though I still don’t know how Ptah fits in. He’s the only God in that list I haven’t met yet.

(I am planning to add these to the History of Sobek page when I have a spare five minutes to turn them into something other than copypasted sentences and a pile of notes. Well. Everything except the Sobek book, because I can’t reference a book I haven’t read.)