Another year begins

So, it’s been. A weird – but brilliant – start to the year. January and the last month of my Kemetic year was A Slog, and not just bc I spent most of it decluttering my room to a ridiculous extent. It was just one of those Big Years where I could tell Big Changes were coming. Personal stuff, as much as anything else. The thing that didn’t happen was rituals for Wep Ronpet, for a number of reasons, but that’s okay. That wasn’t necessarily the big priority this time, so.

I’m still figuring out a lot of what’s been going on, but one thing that is, is that I’m back on the House of Netjer forums, and intend to rejoin the House, which might come as a surprise to some of you, bc it sure as shit was to me too, but talking to another Sobek kid, Temi, reassured me that this was what Sobek wanted, so that’s where I am now.

It’s weird to feel like I can stop wandering now. Because that’s really all I’ve done for a decade. Wandered through Hekatean witchcraft, druidry, Buddhism, and god knows what else, following where Sobek led me, because that’s what I do. I never know the destination, just where I’ve been. This meandering encapsulated itself in an image I got during meditation of simply lying on His crocodilian back as He wades through the mud, forging the river in His wake, so I can see the path of the river, but not where we’re going. But I trust Him, so I let Him keep going.

But now I get to be still. No more wandering. My State of the Shrines post that’s coming up next will show you just how stable my path is at the moment. All I have to show now is my main Kemetic shrine, and my little Hellenic shrine. They’re the only two shrines I have up right now. I’ll also post my daily rites, because I have three versions that I’m using now, for various levels of ritual purity and time, and that more than anything helps me be consistent. I might not do the same thing every day, but I always turn up every day, and that’s what’s more important right now. Because I really haven’t had much of a daily practice for about two years, so it’s nice to be getting back to shrine every day.

I’m also going back to uni to do post-grad work and retrain as a librarian. Why? Because I’ve always wanted to, but it was never as much as a priority as it is now, and it might help me actually get a job and not just drift through life not getting anywhere. This definitely feels like a year of Doing Things, so I’m hoping that energy will carry through and things will genuinely change. I’m 36 now. I’m halfway through my life potentially. It’s time to get moving.

The other big life-changing news is that, after many years of being single, I am now in a relationship, thanks to Aphrodite. It’s still very new, even though we’ve been friends for a year now, because we were being Thick Oblivious Queers who were the last to figure out that we were in love, but if this is what the gods want, then I have to trust that it’s going to work out. I don’t want to write more on this yet, bc again, it’s very new and neither of us know what the fuck we’re doing, and also it’s long-distance bc ofc it is, so. But speaking as someone who had come to accept that I was going to be single for the rest of my life and I was okay with that, this is taking some time to adjust to. But they make me so happy that it’s worth it. ❤

So yeah. That’s my life right now. Big Changes. Also there are some things I can’t mention bc they are oathbound Sau things, but that’s the main gist of it. It’s been . A Time, and I’m so excited to see where this year takes me. Expect more posts as I get back into a more stable path.

#dailyshrine Challenge and Wep Ronpet Eve

Hello! It is nearly Wep Ronpet! Bwee! 😀 I finally got time to clean out all my altars and shrines, because I had been meaning to do that all week. But if the Days Upon The Year have been anything this year, it’s been very Days Upon The Year-y. Very chaotic and things not happening how they planned, etc. And then the Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse has just thrown everything out of whack. Still! I did see it tonight, and wished very much I’d had a telescope. D:

Anyway. So. I will do Wep Ronpet things tomorrow, but for now, I wanted to post about the #dailyshrine challenge Rev Jan Avende is running over at ADF. Because if you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you might have noticed that I like building shrines. 😀 So this is right up my alley. I plan to post every day over at instagram, and then write up the posts here each week, so you can see them all and have a bit more writing about why I did them the way I did.

So if you’re interested in following along, my instagram is sashataakheru. Feel free to follow me for shrine pics and cat pics, since that is basically 90% of what I post over there. 😀

Behind the cut, please see my current shrines as they are. I have video to upload tomorrow, and may post more detailed photos then, if anyone’s interested. Also, enjoy the shrines while you can, because by April, they will be totally different, because my room will be totally different. Which is why I’ll do a proper State of the Shrines when that’s all done, so you can see the new set-up then. 😀

Di Wep Ronpet Nofret!

IDK, I was going to do my State of the Shrines update post today, because I finally redid the shrines yesterday, but I have made three drafts now, and changed the shrines up just as many times since then, so. I am taking this as a sign that I need to let things sit a while before I can show them off properly.

I will say, though, that the one thing I am doing is that I am stripping the shrines back to nothing. No tools, no candles, no incense, nothing. Just the gods. I’ve had this feeling lately that my shrines are just too full. There’s just too much stuff on them, and there’s stuff there I never use. The energy was just not right.

I always redo the shrines after Wep Ronpet anyway, so that wasn’t a problem. It did take me until yesterday to actually do that. This Wep Ronpet has had a weird energy. The Epagomenal days were weird, but I expect that. They are outside time, they’re meant to be weird. I also accidentally decided to just do my rituals for the gods on each of their birthdays, and not bother with my regular rituals. My rituals were ad-libbed, for the most part. I loosely – and lazily – followed the structure of my morning ritual, but only so far as anointing myself with oil, then offering a hymn, then water libations and finally anointing their faces with oil. Then there was meditation. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and started with two rounds of chanting using the lapis mala I made for Isis. The chants varied: Dua Wesir, Dua Heru, Dua Setekh; Ama Aset; Neh-beh-tet (slowly).

Wep Ronpet Eve

Another year comes to a close, and to be honest, I’m looking forward to it. I’ve done my epagomenal days a bit different to how I normally do them. I have improv’d rituals, and then spent time in meditation, beginning with chanting twice around my mala, before going to meet Them.

It seemed to work very well for the most part, and I’m surprised about that, because Heru-Wer and Nebethet aren’t gods I am very familiar with, but both seemed to work out well. It’s nice to get to know Them, and Nebethet told me tonight that She liked the ritual I used, and that I should do it next year. So that’s promising.

Wesir, Aset, and Nebethet all gave me things this time round. Wesir gave me a long roll of papyrus and a pallet; while I was with Aset, I was given three snake wands; Nebethet gave me one of Her falcons (apparently She has falcons? IDK, I’ve never spoken to Her before) as a guide and companion. Heru-Wer and Set didn’t give me things, but we did talk a lot about the Contendings. Set also kept things short with me, and went off to do Night Boat duty. I watched it fly off into the horizon above me as the sunset grew deeper.

I’m not sure what I’ll do for Wep Ronpet tomorrow. I’m tempted to set the statues in the windowsill to greet the dawn, but as I’ll be off to work, and won’t have time to reset them until I get home, I think I’ll just leave them as they are and use the resetting the shrine as part of my celebrations. That, and I want to record my setup for this year before I take it down.

So, yeah, that’s how things are going for now. I might do something more detailed on the meditations when it’s not so late, and I don’t have to type on this crappy keyboard. Di Wep Ronpet Nofret for tomorrow! ❤

Wep Ronpet beckons again

What happens when I try to find something to do with Sobek’s (broken off) headgear to make this Herubirb into a Sobek-Heru birbcroc.

I swear it always creeps up on me, even though I know it’s coming. But anyway. It is nearly Wep Ronpet, and I am in my final week of preparation before the epagomenal days begin on Saturday. Saturday? *checks* Friday! They begin on Friday! I haven’t set up the shrine for it yet, but I’ll probably do that tomorrow, once I fish out all the little god statues I need from the box I am pretty sure they are in somewhere.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon cleaning all the shrines and redressing them. There’s an added layer of preparing because Friday is also the Deipnon, so. Doing my cleaning now seems, well. It seems to work for me. Plus, I’d rather do it today when it’s cool than wait till later when it’s going to get hot. Cleaning shrines in the heat is no fun, let me tell you.

I tried to do a room/shrine tour thing because taking +elebenty photos is tiring, but it didn’t quite work out, so. I will try again tomorrow and see if I can get something to post for you so you can see how they look now. I have been re-evaluating them all and cleaning them and making sure they are the shrines I really need, and I have put some things away, and changed some altar cloths, and moved some statues around. So it’s looking pretty good now. I have the Shedety shrine, the witchcraft shrine, the lararium, the Goddess shrine, the Masrai shrine, and the ancestor shrine for Bowie and the queer ancestors. …That seems like a lot. And it probably is, for the space I have. Anyway.

For now, have this picture of my Herubirb and His shiny new headgear. One of my Sobek statues arrived with His hat broken off, so once I gave up trying to keep gluing it back on (because resin hates glue apparently), I wasn’t sure what else to do with it. So in the middle of cleaning Heru up, I decided to see if Sobek’s hat would fit on Heru’s head, with the addition of a bit of ribbon and some blutac for stick and cushioning. And, well. It works. Enough for my purposes, even if the shadows now make Him look like an angry Herubirb. XD *pets Him*

Final preparations and offerings

Dodgy phone camera photo is dodgy, but I hope it suffices.

Everything has been cleaned and incensed to within an inch of its life. Old things have been discarded to make room for the new. A simple Kemetic High Day rite was done, just because I felt I needed to do something more significant than my evening rite. Water was offered. Incense is still burning. Everything is ready for the new year.

I did take an omen, with the Wildwood Tarot. I pulled the Four of Arrows – Rest; the Ace of Stones – The Foundation of Life; the Seven of Arrows – Insecurity; and 16 – The Blasted Oak. There’s a few familiar themes here, and I think I’ll leave it to sit for a while, and contemplate it further. That, and it’s late, and I have work tomorrow, and I have no time right now to spend pondering tarot cards at any great depth.

Have a blessed High Day, if you’re celebrating. I’m off to have supper before bed. And sit here, feeling at peace with the world as the minutes count down to midnight, and the beginning of the new year. Di Wep Ronpet Nofret! 😀

Wep Ronpet 2016

So today is the last of the epagomenal days, Nebethet’s birthday. Once I’m done with this entry, I’ll clean the shrine again in preparation for Wep Ronpet. I’m actually starting a new paid job tomorrow, so I won’t have the chance to do it then, so doing it now gives me a chance to prepare and take enough time to make sure things are properly cleaned.

Because of work, and because of my DP High Day rituals, Wep Ronpet is going to be simple. I’m not going to do much bar a libation or two during morning devotions, because I have my High Day ritual in the evening. I’ll be doing this purification ritual for Hekate, in what is a break in the streak of ADF COoR High Day rites. But it feels right, and She wants me to do it, so that’s what’s happening. I printed out the liturgy and stuck it in my ritual book today in preparation.

Shedety Scriptorium Update

Well, I’ve varnished, and photographed, and written words, and while I still have a few photos I need to retake because I am great at blurry!, I’m just about ready to begin throwing new listings up over at Etsy. I did a sneak peek over at the shop blog, if anyone’s interested, and I’ll be posting each item there as it goes up on Etsy. So keep an eye on that blog if you want to know what’s available, and what’s coming up. I have, like, 22 separate things that need to go up, though some things, I think, could be combined into one listing. But anyway. I’ll get them listed over the next few weeks, just so it’s not a flood, but more of a gentle increase.

I’ve been making a lot of little shrine kits of late, because that’s apparently the best thing to do with little tiny boxes. But I’ve also just picked up some red vinyl as well, and I want to play around with that and maybe try to make some hard-cover books with it. We’ll see. I think Hekate and Set would be interested in those if I managed to make something not shit. That, and it’s been too long since I actually made any books, so I want to make sure I can still do it. I’ve been practicing long-stitching books with leather pieces, so some of those might go up as well, once I get the hang of making sure the holes are even and in the right place. You’d be surprised at how hard that actually is. I need more practice. And perhaps more leather idk.

Anyway. It’s nearly Wep Ronpet. I might have a bit of paid work coming up, so that’s good. I still need to make new linens for the gods. And write rituals. And figure out what I’m doing for the High Day, because this’ll be my fourth DP High Day, and I can’t just skip it now. If anyone has any ideas for Hellenic New Year-ish festivals I could take inspiration from, I’m all ears. I’m so used to seasonal calendars that the non-seasonal nature of most Hellenic festivals and calendars is something I find very disconcerting. But I’ll get used to it, I think, once I have a set I’m happy with. Anyway. Imma go watch Zoolander and chill and think of more things to make.

Wep Ronpet Begins With A Storm

…As did Set’s birthday last Thursday, ngl. I hope that’s not an omen of the year to come. Not sure if happy or worried if it is.

I haven’t done much for Wep Ronpet, actually, save an improvised room cleansing this morning. Yesterday was busier than I had planned for. Had some errands and shopping to do in the morning before a friend and I headed off to the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular because free tickets from a friend of my mother’s who couldn’t go. So. That lived up to its name, and it was awesome (I think I cried most of the way through it, ngl), and then we went out for dinner, and by the time all that was done I was tired and there was no time to plan anything for Wep Ronpet, so.

I did anoint all my statues again with frankincense, just because. I also cleansed with my bells, incense, fire, and water, going east-west, then north-south, because … it seemed like the Thing to do, and I wanted to do Something other than offer water to the gods five hours or so after sunrise. I might write up that little ritual later, in case anyone else wants to play around with it.

tl;dr rambly stuff under the cut that may or may not make sense, nor have already been thought by others at some point. IDK I am playing around with things to see if they make as much sense to me as they do to someone else. Feel free to ignore them.

The New Year Beckons

Preparations for Wep Ronpet. I made some new linens for the new year for Nut and Geb’s children, all hand-sewn. The (not always well-defined) ankh in the centre holds the material together, while the edging finishes it off. Nebthet has purple thread, Set has red, Heru-wer has brown, Wesir has black, and Aset has blue.

Yas, it is time to prepare for Wep Ronpet, which, for me, starts on the 27th with the first of the Days Upon The Year. Because, for some reason, I can prepare ahead of time for Kemetic festivals, I started on some new linens for the god statues, made of some white fabric I’ve had lying around in my altar cloth box for years. I am not big on sewing, but I do find it a good method of stitching magical things together, so I do it for that reason. They’re sort of shaped like the sa amulets? Each is tailored for each statue, and they are sewn together, at the centre, with a long-stitched (not always very good) ankh shape. The edges are sewed with the same thread colour to finish it off. I think they turned out alright for someone who is not a sewer.

I also wanted to do a bit of the Feast of the Dressing stuff done early, because that day, the 26th, is not only Australia Day, but I also have a family party to go to, and who knows when that will end? So it just seems easier to slowly work through those preparations now when I have the time, rather than wait and try to fit it all in during a single day.