Month: January 2013

Aset, Auset, Isis, Festivals, Goddesses

PBP2013: B is for Bright One

jewelofaset

Some of Aset’s epithets are Bright One, Fiercely Bright One, Brilliant One and Bringer of Flame. She is associated with fire, solar rays, sunlight and heat. Candles and light are offered to Her during many holidays such as Wep Ronpet (New Year), Awakening of Aset by the Majesty of Ra, The Goddess Goes South to the Road (half-point of Sopdet in the sky) and Procession of Aset, the Brilliant, Mother of God (Aset Luminous).

Fire is important to this Goddess as both sun and starlight. Both are the power of the Ka, Heka and the light of the Creator. Her light. Her Power is from this source. From Him. From Herself as well. For She is a Creator too.

The flame shines, it illuminates on the shrine.

What has it shown you in the darkness of the void of the First Time? What has the First Dawn illuminated in your life? What was its focus?

Learn from what you give attention to. Learn to give attention to what you will, what you want and what you need.

For what shines on your soul, shines in the shrine.
Do what you love and shine as brightly as the Sun Goddess at dawn.

Come before Us illuminated with love for yourself and your life. Do what you love and all will be revealed.

Advertisement
Goddesses

B is for Brighid

jewelofaset

It may be weird to talk about a Celtic Goddess Brighid in a blog mostly about Aset. But Aset sent me to Brighid. I tend a Cill shift for Her once a month; I’m a part of the The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum‘s Cill that tends the flame for Brighid.

Here is a link to Aster Breo’s post about Brighid:
B is for Brighid. In this post, Aster links to an interesting website that links to an interesting article about runes that say Braido “Exalted One” aka Brighid in Sweden:
Brighid: Goddess and Saint
This is a very interesting article about Brighid attested in Sweden and how she is connected to St. Lucia. It reminds me of Frigga too, honestly.

Aset, Auset, Isis

PBP2013: B is for Bau of Aset

jewelofaset

The Ba is a part of the soul. We have bau (plural of ba). And the Gods have Bau. There is a Hymn from Philae Temple that states that the bau of Aset is a leopard/panther in every city (1).

The ba of a god is the manifestation of his or her power. Bau of Gods can be natural forces and theophanies (sacred animals). The statues of Gods can also be their bau.

Aset’s bau are numerous.

Theophanies

female panther/leopard
lioness
cobra
female hippopotamus
female scorpion
cow
falcon
hawk
kite
vulture
sow

Natural Forces

Rivers (esp. the Nile)
Rain (Tears of Aset)
Crops
Sopdet (Star Sirius)
Night Sky with stars
Sunlight

All of Her statues would be a manifestation of Herself in our world.

From the Book of the Dead:

Aset the Great, Mother of the God;
Aset the Divine,
Aset the Daughter of Nut, Aset the Great of Magic,
Aset the Possessor of Magical Proection,
Aset the Poessor of Rolls,
Aset who Protected Her Father,
Aset the Ruler of Rolls; Aset in Asyut,
Aset as the ruler of the city of Shesmin,
Aset in Bahbit (Iseum),
Aset in Pe, Aset in Dep, Aset in Coptos,
Aset in charge of Pe, Aset in Akhmin, Aset in Abyods,
Aset in King’s House;
Aset in the Sky, Aset in the earth,
Aset in the south, Aset in the north,
Aset in the west, Aset in the east,
Aset in the southern and northern chapel of Sais,
Aset in the northern chapel of Sais,
Aset in all her Manifestations,
Aset in all her characters,
Aset in all her Aspects,
Aset in every place where her Spirit desires to be (2);

Note:
1. Zabkar, Louis V. Hymns to Isis in the Temple at Philae. University Press of New England, 1988. pages 51 and 53.

2. The Book of Coming Forth By Day, trans. By James P. Allen, (Oriental Institute of Chicago, 1948), 119. BOD 142:4.

Aset, Auset, Isis

PBP 2013: A is for Aset

jewelofaset

Aset is the main Goddess of my life and this blog. If you don’t know who She is see the About Aset section of this site. She came to me in 2002 in a dream. This was one of the first times I had encountered Her. I wrote a poem about it too.

Unlike most people in the Neo-Pagan or Goddess-centered Pagan communities and even some Kemetic ones, I get Aset as a purely Ancient Egyptian Goddess. I tried calling Her Isis at first. Nothing happened. I felt no Presence, no connection with that God. But when Aset’s name passed my lips, this force, this Presence stood behind me. It was so real to me that I knew and felt I was not alone in the room.

Since then I have been studying about the Egyptian Goddess through Egyptology books and forging a relationship to Her through devotional practice. Through my devotions I was noticing that I was only getting Aset. I was not getting Isis. At all.

Finally, I asked Her about this and I got a few responses one of which was: “Isis is not your Mother. I am.”

and “Some worship Me as Isis.”

So I’m seeing this as more of a spectrum here. There is an Aset (without Isis). That’s the one I’m getting. Then there seems to be a merge between Aset-Isis (as Isis came from Aset, but morphed into a trans-cultural syncretic deity which I would just call Isis at this point).

In my written Work for Her I tend to focus on Her Egyptian attributes and the Egyptian Goddess Aset.
So this means that I don’t use the Four Greek Hymns of Isidorus (did you notice the term Greek in there?), Plutarch’s work or Apuleius’s book Metamorphosis, or the Areatologies. Instead I use Egyptian temple hymns, papyri, stela and Egyptology books to inform my knowledge of the attributes of the Goddess.

And I’m not sure if people are going to discredit my work because of this. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. I do the Work of my Goddess. I do the Work She gave me. And maybe it will help some people. And maybe it won’t.

It is the Work She has given me. And I will do Her work gladly.

The Work I do for Aset are many things, but one of those is writing. One of them is writing in this blog. I am writing four books about Aset at the moment. One of them is an scholarly study of Aset in ancient Egypt. Another one is how to worship Aset today with festivals, rituals and other resources for the modern devotee (these two may end up being one book, depending on length). The third one is a book with ancient hymns to Aset from Egyptology sources and many of them have not been previously translated into English. The fourth one is a book of Oracles I have written for Aset over the last 10 years or so.

I also do rituals and magic for Her. I do Aset Oracle Divinations for Her as well.

What Work do you do for Aset? How do you worship or honor Her in your life?

Aset, Auset, Isis, Awakening of Aset, Awakening of Auset, Awakening of Isis, Festivals

Aset is Awakened part 2

jewelofaset

So I did the ritual with a couple of friends on Tuesday.

We offered strawberries, blueberry smoothie, beef (with spices and Teriyaki sauce), vegetable medley (consisting of onions, green peppers, red peppers, mushrooms, asparagus in spices, garlic powder and Teriyaki sauce), and lots and lots of candles.

Since it was already dark out, we couldn’t take Her image outside so instead we lite tons of candles on Her shrine. Candles symbolize the dawn so I thought that was a good innovation. My friend took pictures which I’ll post once I get them.

The ritual went well. My friends seemed to like it. I’m planning on putting it in my book on Aset so I don’t want to post it here. I’d be happy to email it to anyone who is curious. Thank you to everyone’s input on the initial festival post about this.

Articles, Aset, Auset, Isis, Awakening of Aset, Awakening of Auset, Awakening of Isis, Festivals, Uncategorized

Awakening of Aset by the Majesty of Ra

jewelofaset

I am trying to write a ritual for Tuesday’s Awakening of Aset festival.

And…I can’t.

I don’t know how. I have never been trained how to write ritual.

I can tell you the basics of water, flame and fragrance in the daily ritual and Zep Tepi. I get those things.

What I don’t know what to do is write a ritual for a specific festival. How do I take “Awakening of Aset by the Majesty of Ra” and turn it into a full ritual?

Doing Senut and then taking Aset’s statue out into the sunlight or lighting candles if no sunlight is available seems like a cop-out. There needs to be something more here.

Like most uniting with Ra festivals, the Eye Goddess unifies with Ra to renew all of creation. She is His daughter here, His Eye of Ra, His Fierce Protectress and the Solar Goddess of the Dawn. She is the Leopard, the Lioness, the Cobra. She’s offered a sistrum (pl. sistra) to pacify Her rage, to dispel evil. She’s offered a mirror to gaze into Her Solar Power and Beauty. She’s offered a Menat to keep the darkness at bay with magical precious stone beads and rattling sounds. She’s praised and hailed as a Goddess whose Power is glorified when She unites with Her Father.

She is Ra’s Power. She is His Flame. He may lead, but She avenges. She destroys the enemies of Ra and Her son and brother. She is armed with a scimitar and a wailing scream that can stop the Sun God in His tracks. She owns His Name.

She is the Goddess of all Magical Power and the authority to rule.

And this is Her time in the light.

How do I even begin to capture this so that others may experience this wonder?

Note:

There are many festivals that celebrate An Eye Goddess’s unification with the Sundisk and another festival of Pacifying the Eye Goddess. Wine, sistra and menat-necklaces were offered at Eye Goddess or Distant Goddess feasts and mirrors and sistra were offered at the unification with Ra festivals.

For more information: Willems, Harco, and Filip Coppens, Marleen De Meyer and Peter Dils. The Temple of Shanhur: Volume 1. (Peeters, 2003), 40-42.

Aset, Auset, Isis, Festivals, Isidora Forrest

Aset-Sopdet Goes South to the Road

jewelofaset

There is a Kemetic Festival coming up on Friday, January 18 called “The Goddess of Heaven Goes South to the Road”. This festival celebrates Aset as the star Sopdet/Sirius at Her half-way Year point. Her helialcal rising came first at New Year in late summer (for me, in August).

Sopdet is bright in the sky this time of Year.

Here is a post by Isidora Forrest, a Priestess-Hierophant of Isis about Sopdet’s brilliance during this time of year.

Star of Isis

Aset, Auset, Isis, Oracles, Poems, Poetry,

A New Day

jewelofaset

A new day has come. Open the shrine and open the Heavens. Light the candle of dawn, awakening. Light the incense of breath and breathe in the fragrance of God and Creation. Pour the waters of the Primordial Ocean so that creation may live.

This is your task when you come to the shrine.

This is the moment where all possibility manifests.

Dawn breaks. Light pours forth, illuminating darkness.

Aset shines as Ra, as the Solar Goddess of dawn.

Her statue is in Heaven, in the Naos, in the shrine.

And all of these are true at this moment.

Sunlight beams. The Ka of creation comes.

Aset is here, now. In this moment. In all moments.

Breathe, as the Ka flows with life-power.
Light beams, so darkness is dispelled.

Creation is renewed.