Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Netflix series has had a positive impact on my life. Here is a wonderful essay about Marie Kondo’s method and polytheism.
“Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” is on Netflix right now and we’re at the time of year when a bunch of folks commit to reorganizing their homes. Put those together and people are once again talking about Kondo’s 2014 best-selling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up“.
Organizational expert Marie Kondo and the cover of her best-selling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.
Most Westerners think of this book, and the KonMari method it introduces, as just another approach to organizing the home. However, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” is one of the most prized books on my spirituality shelf.
I thought it might be helpful to explain why.
The Sacred Home
Household deities are common fixtures in polytheistic practice. For instance, like many folks I maintain a shrine for the Goddess of the Hearth. She is the flame at the heart of the home and…
The question was asked: What drew you to Kemetic religion?
This is my answer. It just kind of came out more stream of consciousness.
As for what drew me to it, Aset (Isis) did. I’ve been fascinated by her since I was nine. She was fierce, compassionate, strong, smart, loyal and clever. She was magical and had all knowledge in earth and heaven.
I love the mythology and that the cosmos is renewed everyday. The evil in the world can be fought: as the gods themselves destroy the demon serpent every day, as the gods gave humans magic to ward off events and as we humans can choose to do good or evil based on our own hearts, our own choices.
Everyday is a new dawn. And every dawn is a victory. So there is hope. Aset mourned and lost her husband Wesir (Osiris). Wesir became the King of the Ancestors and thus the dead have a home. And we are connected to our dead through our ancestral lineages. And we honor them at ancestor shrines and the ancestors help us.
Aset gained a son, Heru-sa-Aset (Horus, son of Isis). Heru stands for us. He is god of Kingship, the linchpin between the worlds so that the gods and men can co-exist; Heru stands for everyone who is ill as his mother said she will help heal her son Heru and anyone who suffers likewise (in a papyrus). Heru stands for the community, justice and strength and perseverance over adversity as he had to win the throne of Egypt through trials.
The Eye of Ra goddess (who can be many goddesses including Aset) is angry and leaves. But she is always called back and she comes back. She turns from a raging lioness into another more pacified form (like a human or a cat). She is welcomed back. This teaches us appropriate action in rage and also forgiveness. For Ra forgives her and welcomes her home. For she forgives herself and returns.
There is hope in despair. There is strength and fortitude in adversity. There is compassion in the middle of pain. And there is joy once rage is appeased. There is determination, fierce love and fortitude in hardship. And there is love. So much love.
The gods fight for us everyday as the serpent is destroyed every dawn. Aset destroys it with Her magic; Set with His spear. In tandem, entropy is destroyed.
This is my essay published in the recent Awaken the Feminineanthology. Many of the authors are sharing their essays freely on their blogs. And so am I. Feel free to share it as you wish, too. Click the book title above to go to the Amazon.com site to see the list of authors and even to buy a copy for yourself. All authors donated their work to this book. Oh, and since this essay was written for a general, if Goddessy, audience, so some of you will probably already be familiar with some of these ideas.
What if I told you that magic was real?
Would it call to mind a popular card game? Or perhaps Harry Potter and the Hogwarts gang? Would you imagine an illusionist making elephants disappear from the Las Vegas stage? Or would you have visions of witches with poppets and pins and poisons…
Shrine to Wepwawet and Yinepu (Anubis). Photo by Monica H.
Wepwawet is Your God
by Chelsea Luellon Bolton
Wepwawet wants His shrine
to be like His Mother’s (Aset)
Large with many statues
with many offerings
He has much to teach you
if you’ll listen
He wants you to honor Him
more often
with offerings and words
He loves you
that is what Beloved means
One Who is Loved
He will lead you to His statues
He will lead you on your way
Yinepu is with Him
as His Little Nephew
as His Brother
as Sons of Ra
as Sons of Wesir
They can have different parents
Wepwawet, Son of Aset and Wesir
Wepwawet, son of Nut
Wepwawet, son of Ra
Yinepu, son of Nebet Het and Ra
Yinepu, son of Hesat and Ra
Yinepu, son of Nebet Het and Set
Yinepu, son of Nebet Het and Wesir
Yinepu, son of Bast
Yinepu, son of Aset and Wesir, for the Ptolemies
But for you,
Wepwawet is dominant
Wepwawet is your God
Wepwawet is your Beloved
Wepwawet is only with Yinepu
when Yinepu needs to be
the Opener of the Way
The title brings the God forth
Wepwawet is with Yinepu when
they guide the dead
Wepwawet is with Yinepu when
their functions overlap
as a syncretism
Sometimes, they can be a syncretism
Most times they come together
For you,
Only Wepwawet
Yinepu is not the same as Wepwawet
Wepwawet is not Yinepu
Wepwawet is a standing jackal
or a sitting jackal
or rarely, a Jackal-headed man
Yinepu is a Jackal-headed man
or a recumbant jackal
or a jackal-headed man with a mummy
or a jackal-headed man ontop of a box
or a jackel-headed man weighing the heart
These are different gods
with different functions
with different parents
with different preferences
with different iconography
These gods are your gods
Wepwawet, the Jackal on the Standard
the Jackal on the Standard is your God
as Wepwawet
The Jackal is your God
as Opener of the Ways
as Lord of the Shedshed
as Lord of the Oasis
as Lord of the Necropolis
at Abydos
at Asyut
at Edfu
as Lord of Lords
as Lord of the Sky
as Lord of Asyut
as Lord of Abydos
as Lord
as Lord of the Roads
as Controller of the Two Lands
as the Son of Aset and Wesir
as the Son of Ra
as the Son of Nut
as the Guide, Guard and Protector
who shows the way to victory
for all who call upon Him
The next book I’ll hopefully finish is either Solar Lioness: Ancient Hymns for Sekhmet or Solar Flares and Sunbeams: An Anthology for Ra.
Creation Mother: Ancient Hymns for Mut (working title) is going to take longer as I’m hoping to be able to include some if not all of the Crossword Hymn to Mut in it.
Organizational expert Marie Kondo and the cover of her best-selling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. 
I am the Eye of Ra