Category: Priesthood

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

Aset Oracle: Mantle of Priesthood

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The Mantle of Priesthood
by TahekerutAset

The First Maxim of being a Priest or Priestess is to Know Yourself

The Second is to Serve your Gods

What are you doing, dear child?

What are you doing?

You cast Us away and push Us aside.

You do not integrate Us into your life.

You leave Us in shrine as if We are only located there.

We are everywhere.

Let Us in.

Let Us in.

We are interwoven through the World and through the lives of Our Priests.

We are everywhere.

Not just in shrine.

When it gets to be too much, tell Us.

When you need a break, let Us know.

These are your boundaries.

Know them and We will work within them.

A broken Priest serves no one.

A half-assed Priest serves none.

Know who you are and what you want.

Know who you are and what you want.

Know who you are and what you want.

In all you are

In all your parts

Align your souls.

Align your ka, ba and heart.

Align all the elements.

Align your souls in anyway you can.

And know who you are.

If you have not forgiven yourself for past mistakes,

or purged your self-loathing or doubt or fear.

If you have not faced down the darkest parts of your souls,

ripped them from their roots and burned them clean away

through flame;

If you have not cleansed or cleaned out your soul

through a flood of tears that drown your very heart

If you have not been through the crucible of Set,

or the transformation of Aset,

then how do you know who you are?

The ritual is not enough.

They do not know who they are in order to perform it.

They come to you asking for this mantle, this job, this honor,

not knowing what it means.

Not knowing what it means.

Not knowing what is expected.

Not knowing what is being asked or accepted.

A weekend alone does not make you a Priest.

This is absurd.

How can one become a Priest in three days?

This is not enough.

They do not understand.

And I am done.

I am done.

I am done with accepting Priests with these low standards.

They do not know who they are.

They have not worshiped Me long enough to know who they are.

And this is a task for those who honor Me and for those who are My children.

You are not the Ancient Egyptians.

You are not prepared as they were to perform this task.

The ritual is not enough–it never was.

The House of Life taught them for years in ancient times.

You have done this in three days. A weekend. A short time.

This takes years to prepare for.

Years.

This is not enough.

Another has left the fold.

Another has fled the mantle that We have bestowed upon them.

Because of whimsy or self doubt or other tasks took precedence.

Or wanting to serve Us and not knowing what to do,

and thinking Priesthood is the only answer.

It is not.

It is a vocation.

It is a calling.

It is a damn job.

And this is not something you can have if you do not know who you are.

And this is not something that you can leave

because of whimsy or self-doubt or other insecurities

that should have been purged before you took on the mantle.

You took this mantle and threw it away.

Threw it back in Our faces.

Do not come to Us asking for Priesthood

if you do not know who you are.

If you have not been purged of the shadows in yourself,

If you have not gone through the crucible of Set,

Or My tears or flame–

then do not ask.

We will say no.

Not yes. Not anymore.

We will say no.

This is enough.

You are not ancient Egyptians.

Stop acting like it!

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Aset, Auset, Isis, Books, Magic, Priesthood

Aset, Mistress of Magic and Knowledge

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There was a small room in temples set aside for the scrolls that were used for daily ritual or for other functions of the temple. These places were called Pr Md3t or “House of the Papyrus Rolls” or Pr Md3t Pr ‘3 “House of the Papyrus Rolls of the Great House/Palace”.

Some deities were said to be patrons of these areas. Some you’d expect like Seshat, Mistress of the Library, Who Loosens Impurity or Djehuty who was the inventor of writing and patron of scribes. Khnum, Wesir, Heru, and Aset are listed as well.

“Aset is the Mistress of Magic, the magic infused in knowledge as it helps heal and even revive, as Aset did when She revived Wesir to conceive their child Heru who inherited the knowledge of His Mother and benefited from Her infinite protection. As for Wesir Himself, he is the one who taught mankind civilization when he was ruling upon Earth.”

Haikal, Fayza M. “Private Collections and Temple Libraries in Ancient Egypt,” in What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?. Mostafa A. El-Abbadi and Omnia M. Fathallah, ed. (Brill Academic Publishers, 2008), 44 and 45-46.

Aset, Auset, Isis, Goddesses, Isidora Forrest, Links, Priesthood

Priestess of Isis Series by Isidora Forrest

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Here is the complete list of the Priestess of Isis Series by Isidora Forrest. This series is a series of blog posts. Not a book.

Here is the link: What Does It Mean to be a Priestess of Isis?

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to be a Priestess or Priest of Isis: A Responsibility to Gain Knowledge/Experience

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to be a Priestess or Priest of Isis?: The Art of Ritual

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to Be a Priestess or Priest of Isis?: Worship

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to Be a Priestess or Priest of Isis?: Spiritual Growth

Aset, Auset, Isis, Devotional Practice, Goddesses, Isidora Forrest, Links, Priesthood

Priestess of Isis Series

jewelofaset

Here is the almost complete list of the Priestess of Isis Series by Isidora Forrest. This series is a series of blog posts. Not a book.

Here is the link: What Does It Mean to be a Priestess of Isis?

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to be a Priestess or Priest of Isis: A Responsibility to Gain Knowledge/Experience

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to be a Priestess or Priest of Isis?: The Art of Ritual

Here is the link: What Does it Mean to Be a Priestess or Priest of Isis?: Worship

Articles, Devotional Practice, Festivals, Priesthood, Ritual Protocol, Shrine

Menstruation Taboo

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Question: I’ve heard you are not allowed to worship Aset when you have your menses. Is this true?

A: The taboo is against all blood in the shrine, not just menstruating women. The animals that were sacrificed in ancient Kemet were slaughtered in a slaughter area and then the meat was brought to the gods in the inner sanctum. Notice that the meat was offered to the deity and not the blood (1). Given this and the fact that the priests did their best to be clean, it is speculated that blood was taboo within the temple complex during the rites to the gods.

There are ancient purity texts with menstruating women added to the list as taboo to keep away from the open statues in temples. But this does not appear on all of them so this may have been a practice that depended on the local and the deities of that town (2). Also, much of these guidelines are from the later periods so some content may be suspect of foreign influence. It is interesting to note that ancient Hellenic practices did not include a blood or menstruation taboo so this would add more credence to this being a Kemetic practice.

Hsmn is the ancient Egyptian word for menstruation and it also can mean “purification”; this may be a euphemism where the ancient Egyptians thought that the process of menses was a form of bodily purification (3). In spells, the menstrual blood flow is compared to the overflowing Nile flood and the linen tampons were compared to a temple of the goddess Tayet or a dam (4). The tomb was thought to be the womb of the sky goddess where the dead were reborn into the afterlife. Since menstruation was thought of as the absence of fertility and is essentially “dead”, then in order to preserve the cosmic balance, menstruating women were not allowed near the tombs or the cult areas of the gods during their menstruation (5). It is inappropriate to bring the dead blood into contact with the deities and ancestors in their sacred spaces.

Because of this, many priests do not do formal ritual when they are menstruating. But this does not mean that they can not worship their gods. They can give offerings and light candles or incense, but not within the formal structure of the rite. They can also do a number of other things which we think are mundane that when dedicated to a deity could be acts of worship.

Some non-priest Kemetics do perform ritual during their menses and repurify the shrine after their menses are over. There are others that look to what the rite is doing and modify the rite to respect the menstrual taboo while still honoring the gods.

Kiya Nicoll has come up with a way to do this. The ritual itself is lighting candles and incense and pouring libations. Lighting candles and incense are universal practices in almost every religion and can be done at any time. The pouring out of libations (and in one version Wepwawet is called to Open the Way) is connecting the worlds together. During menses, a woman could do the purification rite, light the candles and incense and skip the pouring of libations.

The reason for this is that blood flowing outside the body has its own energy and this can attract harmful unseen forces which you don’t want in your shrine space. Another reason is that leaking blood is a leakage of life-force.

Also, the menses blood is a waste product, and just as you would not urinate or go to the bathroom in shrine, you wouldn’t bring the discarded waste from your uterine lining into shrine either. The fourth reason is this is not about us. This is about what the gods have asked of us and they have asked not to be honored in a formal, priestly ritual officiated by menstruating women or someone who is bleeding.

There are some exceptions to this. Medical conditions that cause bleeding (not just of menses) to happen chronically would require the person to be as clean as possible in order to do ritual. If you come to an event and you have your menstruation, the only thing you would be barred from doing is officiating the ritual or touching the opened icons.

Aset tends to be stricter about purity guidelines than other deities may be in personal worship. I’d ask Her before performing ritual to Her during your period.

Notes

1) Sauneron, Serge. Priests in Ancient Egypt, (Cornell University Press, 2000), 159-160. Gertie Englund. “Offerings”, in Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion. Ed. By Donald Redford, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 284.

2) Frandsen, Paul John. “Taboo,” in Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion. Ed. By Donald Redford, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 349-351. Frandsen, Paul John. “The Menstrual ‘Taboo’ in Ancient Egypt,” in The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 66, no. 2, (Univ. of Copenhagen, 2007), 88-89. Blackman, Aylward M. Gods, Priests and Men. (New York: Kegan Paul International, 1998), 17-18. Wilforg, Terry, G. “Menstrual Syncrony and the Place of Women in Ancient Egypt,” in Gold of Praise: Studies in Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward Wente. (Michigan: University of Michigan, 1999), 422 and 431.

3) Frandsen, Paul John. “The Menstrual ‘Taboo’ in Ancient Egypt,” in The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 66, no. 2, (Univ. of Copenhagen, 2007), 84.

4) Frandsen, Paul John. “The Menstrual ‘Taboo’ in Ancient Egypt,” in The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 66, no. 2, (Univ. of Copenhagen, 2007), 86.

5) Frandsen, Paul John. “The Menstrual ‘Taboo’ in Ancient Egypt,” in The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 66, no. 2, (Univ. of Copenhagen, 2007), 101-103.