Subtle Vengeance

…at least for now.

Am I the only one who loved that random quote in Chrono Trigger? they retranslated for the DS and it’s different now.

So, we’ve gone over my youth and how I left the Church, we’ve touched upon my Wiccan and Eclectic periods, And I’ve related my recent epiphany at finding Sekhmet standing right behind me the whole time. And I promised to elaborate on Her and what She means to me. This could get long, but bear with me.Let’s start with Her myth. I call it Her myth because as far as I can tell, She only really has one. You’ll see why. I am going to retell it based on the multiple versions I have found. Some quotes I will paste from other sites, but all are based on differing translations of the same story. It’s entitled:

The Destruction of Mankind

It came to pass that Re saw humans disobeying his laws and plotting to overthrow him, thinking him old and powerless. Re, vexed by this discovery, called a council of the Elder Gods, his creations Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, and his creator Nun.

Re spoke to Nun before the assembled gods: “Eldest of the gods, you who made me; and you gods whom I have made: look upon mankind who came into being at a glance of my Eye. See how men plot against me; hear what they say of me; tell me what I should do to them. For I will not destroy mankind until I have heard what you advise.”

Then Nun said: “My son Re, the god greater than he who made him and mightier than those whom he has created, turn your mighty Eye upon them and send destruction upon them in the form of your daughter, the goddess Sekhmet.”

(Note: some retellings have Hathor as the daughter, and becoming Re’s eye she takes on the guise of Sekhmet. Sekhmet and Hathor, while very different, walk a strangely interconnected path)

Sekhmet took to the Earth and walked the land, slaying all who stood in Her path and drinking their blood. She was invincible and unstoppable. Even after those who had plotted against the Gods were dead, the Eye of Re continued to kill indiscriminately, punishing all the people of Kemet.

Re was horrified by his mistake and sought to correct it. He commanded the women of Heliopolis to brew beer in all day, and sent messengers to Elephantine for red ochre (or pomegranate, depending who tells the story). This he mixed with the beer, creating seven thousand jars of of liquid that gleamed red in the moonlight.

“Now take it to the place where Sekhmet proposes to slay men when the sun rises,” said Re. (It can be assumed that, drunk with power, Sekhmet at this point had taken to boasting of her destinations. It’s not like the people could have defended against her.) And while it was still night the seven thousand jars of beer were taken and poured out over the fields so that the ground was covered to the depth of nine inches — three times the measure of the palm of a man’s hand-with the strong beer, whose other name is “sleep-maker”.

Sekhmet came with the sun to the fields, and there, instead of terrified farmers, she found a field drowned in “blood”. With a shrug, perhaps assuming the people had killed themselves rather than face her, Sekhmet took to the field to drink deeply of the blood of her quarry. Her laughter rang out as a lioness’s roar, and she took so much of the blood-beer into herself that she lost her blood-lust. Not a soul had died on that day.

Re came to her in her stupor; he soothed her, and called her beautiful, and told her that she came in peace and love. It is said by some that she became Hathor again, and by others that this was the birth of Hathor, the loving bovine healer-Goddess. But Sekhmet was also worshiped in her own right; her followers forever made sacrifices to appease her and stay her wrath, and in return she used her power over death and disease to destroy the ailments that plagued her faithful.

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This is more than my very favorite story ever. It’s the backbone of my faith. I believe that Sekhmet is a Living Goddess. I believe She had a hand in my personal creation, and has been watching over me – and occasionally challenging or guiding me – for my entire life.

I take many lessons from the Destruction of Mankind. There is a lot more there than the obvious “Don’t plot against your Gods.” I mean, yeah, there IS that. DO NOT plot against your Gods. DO NOT call them old and decrepit. They WILL make you regret it.

Sekhmet is first a Goddess of Vengeance. She teaches that, when faced with a terrible wrong committed against us, or those we love, our correct action is to strike back. Sekhmet turns the other cheek to add power to her backhand. This does not mean that when someone wrongs you, you should roar, lunge at them, rip their throat with your teeth and drink deep of their lifeblood, cackling madly as the life fades from their eyes. It means you should take action against wrongdoers. Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Doing something could be as simple as calling the police, or exercising your rights as a lease-holder. When one of my roomies had her property stolen by her pot-smoking moocher friend, and I locked him out of my house and wrote down the police non-emergency number for everyone should he return, I was acting directly against someone who had wronged a person under my protection. My actions were in accordance with Sekhmet’s will, even though I did not yet know Her name.

Sekhmet’s tale also teaches us a unique form of conflict resolution, which I call the Moment of Levity. Sekhmet’s fury was like nothing before or since. It was unquenchable and inexhaustible. But it was stopped cold by a hilarious and random occurrence: she got too drunk to stand, and if you can’t stand it’s frikkin impossible to rip a peasant in twain. Can any mortal anger compare to hers? Never. So it follows that conflicts, anger, seething rage, all of these emotions can be blindsided by something random and positive – love, humor, or good fortune. At times when a conflict seems insurmountable, I turn to this both internally and externally.

Examples of conflict resolution through levity include:
-Doing something fun together
-Walking away and doing something fun (venting)
-Getting drunk together
-Walking away and getting drunk
-Saying something flattering as a non-sequiteur to throw the person’s anger offbalance
-Kissing (also known as the Bugs Bunny gambit – not advisable for most situations, use with extreme caution)
-Saying something so insanely unexpected that the person has to stop being mad long enough to stop laughing. (My favorite: “Is it because I’m black?”)
-Boobies

Fun activity: think of a time when you were furious with someone or something, or when someone else in your life was equally furious. What could you have said or done to derail that hate-train?

Sekhmet’s worship in at its height was centered in the city of Memphis. King Amonhotep III (mid-1300s BC) built a huge temple (35 hectares) in Her honour, containing over 600 statues of Sekhmet as the Lion-headed woman, either standing or seated; it is said that Her priests would leave an offering at a different shrine each day of the year. It’s also said that in some places Her faithful used poisons – possibly anthrax – on the statues so nobody would deface or desecrate them, but I only found that referenced once and uncited so I’m not certain on that one. I sure hope so!

Embedded: Amonhotep III’s temple – now undergoing excavation and restoration.

The scale of Her worship along with the awesome power Sekhmet claims reminds me to remain devout and humble before Her. I say a prayer daily to redeclare my faith and to give thanks for the day and for my fortunes. I know that if I stray from my path, She will forcefully remind me of it.

The reason I mentioned Memphis above is because of the Memphis Trio. This is not an ancient predecessor to the Rat Pack, although that’s what the name makes me think of. This is a reference to the once-prevalent worship in that place of Sekhmet as consort to Ptah and mother to Nefertem (usually. These things changed a lot over the millennia of Egyptian culture). This is important because Ptah and Nefertem have taken a role in my spirituality as well, albeit a secondary one.

Ptah is a powerful God in his own right; he was viewed as the great architect who designed the heavens and the earth, along with the pillars that held them together. He represents my tinkerer and builder aspects, and my desire to create structures and bring order to my life. As Sekhmet is my spiritual mother, Ptah is my spiritual father. This is important, because it is common in Kemetic Orthodoxy (a belief system I will not be taking on entirely, but one which has been a great help to me in developing my beliefs) for practitioners to choose Deities as spiritual parents. They have a close relationship with these Gods, jsut as one would with their own family. In my own family, I am very much a product of my mother’s upbringing, my father having been distant for much of my life. Distant, but respected, loved and looked up to as a positive example. Likewise, I consider Sekhmet my spiritual mother, the one who has watched closely over me and steered my development and choices, and Ptah my loving-but-distant father who had a major hand as my architect but allows me freedom to go my own way.

Note: I am in no way forsaking my family in favor of my faith. I love my mortal family just as much as I do my deific one. The only way I would ever disown them would be if they asked me to choose between my faith and my family, in which case my response would be, “You’ve just made the choice for me. Goodbye.”

Rounding out my little spiritual family is my God-brother, Nefertem. That’s a term I made up, but it’s how I feel. Nefertem is a God of flowers and perfumes – a way more badass thing in Kemet than it is today, as perfumes were anything but frivolous, not at all like today. He is also a God closely associated with good luck and fortunes. In accepting Nefertem’s brotherhood, I finally have an explanation for all the impossible random fortune I’ve experienced over the course of my life – from winning the first raffle I ever entered to the happenstance of meeting my best friends in University, the people who I still believe saved me from having to drop out and go home.

Jeez this is getting long, I better wrap it up.

Sekhmet’s influence can be seen all through my life. She imbued me with a temper and a tendency toward anger to challenge me. I had to learn to face my problems assertively, even aggressively, but in ways acceptable to society. I had to learn to manage a great deal of rage and channel it toward positive works. She has always provided for me, placing rewards in my path but making me climb hills to reach them, teaching me that nothing comes without a sacrifice or an effort, but also that all things are attainable to the determined (or the obstinate). She stood patiently behind me, urging me forward and steadying me whenever I faltered. And this year, when I finally stopped and called out, “Mother, who are you? Are you there?” She turned me around, looked into my eyes and said, “Here I am, my son, and here I have always been.”