30 Days of Sobek: Day 23 – My Own Composition about Sobek

Okay, so this took a while, because I wanted to write something new, rather than post something I’d already written, and I couldn’t think of anything until Sobek suggested SPACE GOD COWBOYS IN SPACE or something like that, so. This is silly and occaisonally serious, and has more Heru in it than I intended, but there you go. That’s Sobek for you.

This is nearly 1600 words of mostly unedited stuff I wrote over the past three hours or so, so don’t expect a brilliantly detailed plot. Sobek, I think, just wanted something fun, and I didn’t want to rewrite the myths again. Because I’ve done that already. So this is a little gem of Sobek’s sense of humour. Enjoy. 😀

30 Days of Sobek: Day 4 – Myths about Sobek

As far as I’m aware, there are no surviving myths about Sobek, save for the Roman period Book of the Faiyum, which centred around Sobek-Ra and His journey through the sky. It’s very much Sobek-as-Ra in the Faiyum, and it is a fascinating text, from the snippets I’ve read about it. The book is as much a map of the Faiyum as it is a religious text. It has to explain the sun differently because it sits to the west of the Nile, and the sun rises and falls over the lake, not the Nile. So there’s some fascinating concepts and imagery that I would love to explore more deeply, including Nit as a hippopotamus, protecting Sobek as a crocodile on Her back.

But this is a hard text to study, simply because hardly anyone publishes any research on it (in an accessible-to-me way), and a full translation in English is nowhere to be found. So most of what I know about this text comes from a 51 page article by Horst Beinlich, which seems to have been part of a larger book I can’t find anywhere, that breaks down the text and describes each of the sections and what they contain. What’s in that article from 2013 is literally all I know, and all my google-fu can turn up.

Fiction: Waiting For The Night

Since I’m in the mood for posting fiction, I thought I’d finally get around to posting the short story I submitted to Askei Kataskei months ago. I always meant to post it here after AK had come out, but with everything else going on in my life, that sort of didn’t happen. So here, have some more Hekate fic.

This was written for the March creative project, in which we were asked to write a short story choosing one of four scenarios/prompts. I chose the last, which included an opening line (“We will never know what is on the mind of the Goddess Hekate”), and another line (“she tied her red cord from her Covenant of Hekate devotion around her ankle, lit the red candle, recited her hymn and began the ritual as planned”), which we had to include somewhere else in the text. Length was limited to 4 pages, which I just managed to hit.

I don’t know where this world is, or what else might happen here, but maybe I’ll play around with it some more. I met some interesting characters here.

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“We will never know what is on the mind of the Goddess Hekate,” the Oracle intoned. “Even I, Her Oracle, sees nothing. She reveals nothing of Her mind to me. All I see are Her visions for us.”

“And what do you see?”

The Oracle closed Their eyes, and stirred a finger through the waters in the cauldron, chanting under Their breath. “I see two roads. One leads into the desert. The other leads into the ocean.”

“Does She indicate which we should take?”

The Oracle raised a finger, asking for silence. More incense was thrown on the fire, and a libation of wine poured into the earth. “The red cord will guide us. That is all She says.”

Fiction: Fingerprints

In which, fic for a song that is basically all Hekate’s fault. Written for the Spook Me 2016 Hallowe’en Ficathon. The fic itself is inspired by ‘Fingerprints’, but as I’ve listened to nothing but Sparkadia for the past three months or so, the backstory is drawn from a bunch of their other songs as well; it’s arguably got more from ‘The Great Impression’ than ‘Postcards’, but both albums are there to a certain degree. Written from Hekate’s POV, speaking to the protagonist, who is intersex and genderfluid. -text- is protag’s thoughts, because italics was taken. This is where this year’s NaNo is going to jump off from.

Prompts used: Ghost (creature prompt), image prompt 1, image prompt 2

Word Count Number Sequence: A073240 – Decimal expansion of (1/Pi)^(1/Pi) (x10, to get usable word counts) (because I am a nerd). 0s are treated as new lines/scene breaks, though I couldn’t quite get them to translate as well on WP as I could get them to translate on AO3. Boo

Summary: Someone once told you that Hekate is the catalyst for stripping your life of all the things you should’ve dealt with by now, whether you’ve asked her to or not. You didn’t believe them until it happened to you, when you were trying to run from a mess only partly of your own making, and I decided it was time for you to face your demons at last and chase away the ghosts you can’t seem to banish from your life.

Askei Kataskei is out!

And apart from being an excellent zine, you should also go read it because I wrote a Thing and it is in this issue 4 realz. I think I mentioned ages ago that I’d written this Hekate short story for one of the Covenant of Hekate’s monthly creative projects. Well, once it was done, I had the option of submitting it to AK, and so I did, and it was accepted, and now it is in the zine for all you lovely people to read. ❤

There are actually two short stories from that project in this issue, mine and one by Sara Buastis, as well as a bunch of other great articles and hymns and other things. It is worth your time to read it if you are interested in Hekate and other related things and like reading fiction.

Go read it here and share it around if you like it plz and thank you. ❤

Also, I have been messing about with my Hekate shrine, and added a bull/cow skull. I’ll do a separate post for that, and maybe go over why it’s become a Hekate shrine at the expense of pretty much everything else. But in the meantime, go read AK, if you like, and enjoy. Otherwise, have a good day. ❤

Myth: Sobek Shedety, He Who Rises Like Ra

I’ve been contemplating Shedety myths, and this idea of Sobek rising out of the lake like Ra, of being renewed in the waters before rising at dawn. I find it to be very beautiful imagery, and I’ve been thinking about it mostly because I started writing this other story, set in an alternate universe, where Egypt has been invaded and all the temples and priests are being destroyed. The one that’s left is one of Sobek’s, and His priests decide to escape, refusing to let their gods die with them.

And so along with that comes the development of what Sobek Shedety’s cult and worship would look like. What the rituals would look like. What other gods would be with Him. What stories would shape the way they see the world. And this idea of Sobek as Ra resonated, and it’s been sitting with me ever since.

And so I come to this myth. I’ve been working on what I will refer to as a Book of Shadows, for lack of a better conceptual description for it, and I wanted to include not just the Celestial Twins myth, but also one for Shedet, because even in three years, that’s how far my cosmology has shifted, so. This is what I ended up writing. I’ve only made minor edits in the process of typing it up; otherwise, it’s as it was originally written.

New stock on Etsy + actually writing books omg

Just a quick update for you to let you know I’ve put some new stock up on Etsy today. It’s a few altar tiles, and a pair of shrine kits. Check them out in the shop, or over at the blog.

Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see go up there, and I’ll see what I can do.

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Also, I am not just pondering writing books anymore, I am actually going to do it. I’ve been pondering writing books, particularly a Sobek devotional, for years now, but I made a promise to myself late last year that book-writing is what I’m going to focus on this year, and as of now, that seems a lot more possible due to, well. Things are in the works. I’ll post more about this when things are more certain, and I’m closer to having finished manuscripts.

So the books I’m going to be working on are Pasithea’s City, and the accompanying book of Masrai’s myths, hymns, and rituals. (She wants rituals now, so. That’s a thing.) I’m in the process of typing up Masrai’s myths now, and getting them out of the journal and onto the computer. I did 4.6k last night, and I’m taking the opportunity to expand and edit the myths as I go, so I can shape them into something more substantial than what they are now, as they won’t be confined to the page limit of a paper journal.

I’m also going to be working on a Sobek book, this one focusing perhaps more on the whole Sobek of Shedet thing, and the Sobek/Heru thing, along with rituals and hymns and other stuff I’ve gathered over the years. I’m still sketching out the structure for that, but that’s the other major project. More updates on that when it’s more than a bunch of notes and scattered files on my computer.

Other than that, I’m working, dreading the oncoming heat wave, and generally getting on with life.

On Hermes and Hekate

Well, I said I was going to write about Hermes, and Hekate, and that time is now, so. Strap yourselves in, this might get long and rambly wooo. My posts generally get a bit long and rambly when I try to explain how I met a god because I started writing A Thing, and there is a lot of backstory to this, so. :D?

*grumbles about how this isn’t even the first time being a god’s scribe is hard u guise*

Also, I think I’ve covered everything, but if I’ve missed anything important along the way, I’m sure I’ll post about it later. :D?

The Pagan Experience – Week 7 – Hermes

Deity and the Divine- This will be the third week’s topic every month and an opportunity for you to share with everyone those who guide, inspire and inform you.

I thought about using these monthly god posts to talk about all the gods I work with, but tbh, I think it’s more interesting to talk about which gods have been most present or on my mind during the month, so that’s what I’m going to do. I think that offers a better insight into my practice and what I do than just rambling on about all my gods.

So. This month, it can only be one god: Hermes.

An Account of Creation by Sobek and Heru-sa-Aset

A/N: Written for the prompt ‘myth’ for AU bingo round two; and also because Sobek told me to. This is my/His version of creation; it isn’t an authentic Egyptian myth, but it is inspired by them.

Creation:
An Account of the Creation of the Cosmos
by Sobek the Crocodile God, and His Twin/Son Heru-sa-Aset, the Shining Sun.

At first, there was nothingness. It is easy to imagine it as pure darkness, but that is not entirely accurate. It is easy to think of it as dark matter, but that is not entirely accurate either. It is matter, in a manner of speaking, and yet it is nothingness. The Creator had created Zirself, had come into being by thought alone, and now the Creator existed in the nothingness of space, from nothingness into nothingness.
The Creator did not yet have a name. At least, Zie did not have a name or form that had been revealed. The Creator knew it in Zir heart, but did not speak it. The sound was not to be heard yet, so it was hidden away. Zie was the Hidden One1.
At the centre of this nothingness sat the great Cosmic Egg2, which had been laid moments after the Creator had come into existence. It contained the Creator’s twinned spirit, Zir child, and Zie would tend to it with dedication and care until it was time for Zir to be born.

For a long time, and for a moment of time, this was all that existed. Until the Egg hatched.