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.
Fiercely Bright One 
I’ve found it easier if I have a ritual structure to work from. I can just ‘fill in the blanks’, so to speak, and tailor the ritual to suit the occasion. I used the daily temple rite for Amun-Ra at Karnak as a base to work from when I was writing a weekly rite for Ra. (I can’t find the site I found that rite on, though, so I can’t offer a link.) Would you like me to send you the ritual and the outline I used? When I perform it, it takes about an hour? Maybe forty-five minutes? It depends on how long you take for purifications, mostly. It might not be perfectly suited to your tastes, but I would advise you to modify it to suit your needs. You might want to make it much shorter, if you don’t want to spend an hour in shrine, for example. I’ve also heard that Richard Reidy’s Eternal Egypt book is good for temple-style Egyptian rites. You might also find that a good resource too, if you don’t already have it. (I don’t have it yet; I’m still dithering over whether I really want a whole book on temple rites, which don’t particularly interest me as a potential aspect of my religious practice.)
Thank you. That was helpful.
I do have Eternal Egypt by Richard Reidy.
Thing is, we don’t have any rituals recorded for this festival. The closest I could get to a framework would be a ritual to Hetharu uniting with Her Father.
I think there is one in one of Kerry Wisner’s books. I unfortunately don’t have those anymore.
Goes over to peek at Amazon or Lulu.
I love Tamara Siuda’s rituals for the New Year and Aset Luminous festivals. They have the spirit of the ancients, the application of powerful Heka and being concise enough that they don’t take forever to do. I think she’s writing a book of festival rituals. I can’t wait until she gets that published.
Books of festival rituals would be awesome.
Kerry Wisner has one out called the Pillar of Ra. It has two Aset feasts in it. And a few to Hetharu. And others.
Here is the link: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kerry-wisner/pillar-of-ra-ancient-egyptian-festivals-for-today/paperback/product-16323555.html
I think his may be more “temple” structured than say Siuda’s rituals for non-priests. If that helps any.
Threading too deep, alas.
I have complicated mixed feelings about Wisner’s work. When he’s working from ancient sources it feels solid and real.
And then he starts doing original poetry….
I found this book too.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/kerry-wisner/pillar-of-ra-ancient-egyptian-festivals-for-today/paperback/product-16323555.html
I think that going outside might be a good idea. Perhaps doing initial rituals inside (a call to awake in peace, offerings of incense, water, food, etc- basically think of the first parts of Reidy’s rites). Then take her statue outside- whether on a barque, or something special- or just in your hands. Place her outside somewhere nice where she can get some sun. Maybe offer her sistra and menit- music and such. Maybe use the mirror to reflect some light on her. Sit out there and soak up some rays with her – hell you colud share a meal with her out there if you wanted, and then bring her inside, finish with the typical stuff for afterwards (I also would pull from Reidy for this sort of thing).
That’s a good idea. I just translated an Awakening hymn for Aset from al-Qal’a Temple a week or so ago. I was thinking of using that.
Thank you. I’ll look again at Reidy’s book and see if something jogs my brain.
So my ritual may look something like:
Awakening Aset
Offer incense, candles and libation
Aset’s solar hymn
Offer offerings
Offer Sistrum, Menat and Mirror
Take Her outside in the sunlight
Bring Her inside and finish the ritual
Thank you for your help.
You’ll have to let me know how it goes š