Aset Oracle, Year 22

Year 22 Oracle, spoken at Aset Luminous, 2014

Awake, Children of Netjer.

Awake, to see the splendor of Ra.

Awake, to feel Shu and Tefnut.

Awake, to walk upon Geb under Nut’s belly.

Awake, to the care of Wesir, of Heru, of Nebt-het.

Awaken, to welcome the year that is coming.

Awaken, Listen, Speak, to the Year that is Mine.

I am Clever of Speech.

I am Aset, Great of heka, Mistress of Heaven.
I am all that you think you know. I am nothing like what you think you know.
So too will be this Year.

This is the year that brings its own heka.
This year will be as simple as the first breath. As simple as one word.
This year will be anything but simple.

Speech may be clever. Speech may be simple.
Speech may not be clever or simple.

In this Year, My Year, you may understand what you do, and do not do; what you speak and what you will not speak, what is appropriate for you, and what is not.

It will not be what you think.

It will not be simple.

Organized Modern Polytheism (Keynote Speech, PLC 2014)

This past weekend, I had the honor to appear as the keynote speaker (and a guest on several panel discussions) at the first Polytheist Leadership Conference, held in New York state. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with the existing and the rising young leaders in the polytheist world, and the entire experience left me humbled, surprised in some ways, and hopeful for the future of our religious organizations and our people. It was the first religious conference I have ever attended in my adult life where people were genuinely civil to each other, even in cases where there were distinct and sometimes absolutely opposed world views. There was no drama. It was a good indication that polytheists are ready to take their game to an entirely new level, and I'm delighted to have been able to contribute to that process.

I have more to say on the subject but I need to get over jet lag and really think about it before I can post more. In the meantime, though, I wanted to share some important links for those who were not able to be present, or who might like to see what I did when I was there.

You can read the keynote speech I gave here (note: it's long), and you can look at a copy of the slides that I projected while I was talking alongside it, here. I hope that we continue to dialogue and have many more opportunities not only to learn what different groups are doing, but learn more about how we can support each other in that work, and take it to the larger world.

What a busy July!

I'm finishing up the packing and work I need to do to get myself to New York and the Polytheist Leadership Conference, where I will be offering the keynote address. Once it's done, I hope to be able to post some or all of a transcript here, as well as links to any of the presentations I'm taking part in. I'm told that there are quite a few people signed up to attend and more will be signing in at the conference itself. It's not a bad turnout for this first foray into a conference format, and I'm impressed and encouraged by the response to the call for more interreligious work between the polytheistic religions. Here's to an excellent conference and a great beginning.

Some of my books have been added to the conference auction, and 100% of the proceeds will be going to RAINN. I'm honored to be able to contribute something to that cause on our behalf. If you will be at the PLC, I'll see you soon! If not, there'll be another one next year sometime.

Next weekend, I'll be celebrating my birthday with the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society of Los Angeles, at their annual Coptic Studies conference held at UCLA. This year's conference coincides with the feast day of St. Shenouda himself (Coptic for sa-Netjer, or "son of God"), and should be interesting as always. Looking forward to the lectures and connecting with new and old friends.

A few days after that, I leave for Chicago, to get ready for our House of Netjer Year 22 Wep Ronpet (Kemetic New Year) celebrations. Can't believe we're this close to the end of another Kemetic year again. Lots to do, but it's all very exciting. During this period I'm also putting the final touches on the Ancient Egyptian Daybook so it can be released with the opening of Year 22. More on that at the Kickstarter site and the Daybook official website (preorders/pledges are still available!) over the next week or two.

Polytheist Leadership Conference, July 11-13, 2014

So, this happened....

I will be the keynote speaker at the very first Polytheist Leadership Conference this summer in upstate New York, just a few weekends before Kemetic New Year and our annual retreat in Chicago.

You can read more about the conference at the official website, and about my presentation on organized modern polytheism here.

Greetings from EuroRetreat!

This morning, I'm posting from a conference room in England, during a break in our very first Kemetic Orthodox religious retreat outside of the United States.

If you'd told me in 1987 that I'd be teaching and sharing information about the ancient Egyptian religion in England, with people from all over the world, I think I would've laughed. There is no way I could've foreseen this happening. It's exciting, and a huge milestone for our religion and our religious community. We have, in one weekend, become a global organization in a literal, non-Internet-based way. I want to express my deepest gratitude to our W'ab priest, Nesyutenmutes, for all that she has done to bring this together in her country; and Rev. Tanebet, who also helped plan and put this together from Germany. Both of them have been dreaming about a European retreat for years, and we've finally made that dream reality.

So far this morning, we've had a discussion about Kemetic terminology around the deceased (specifically Akhu and Muuet, an expansion of a discussion that the wider temple was already having this past week in our official internet message forum), and some basic talk about apotropaic magic and what we'll be doing over the rest of the weekend. We have a very cozy group as we had some cancellations, but know that we're thinking fondly of everyone who isn't here, and already planning for future European gatherings.

For the ancestors (Akhu): The Wag-Festival

Tonight is the eve of the Wag festival, one of ancient Egypt's earliest-attested celebrations. Tonight and over the next two days, those who continue to honor the gods of ancient Egypt will tend to the graves of their loved ones, remember their beloved dead, and honor Wesir (Osiris) and various other gods and goddesses associated with life, death, and renewal. Kiya did an excellent job of gathering some sources about Wag (also called Wagy in some texts) last year, and it's worth a read.

Other than knowing that Wag is to be pronounced to rhyme with "dog," and not "wag" like what that dog's tail does, what else do you need to know about this festival?

It seems simple: Wag is a little like the Day of the Dead in Mexican tradition, only earlier in the year, and, perhaps sad to say, without a single pharaonic sugar skull in sight. It is a time to remember our ancestors, those who have gone before us, and to re-establish our connections with them.

Many of us will be visiting cemeteries to serve the dead, with offerings or prayers, or even just by helping clean the graves of strangers. We will gather in festival and ceremony to give honor to Wesir, called the "lord of wine" at this time of year as the grapes begin to ripen, and to bake bread and make beer from the first harvest grains. The cycle of life, of grape and wheat and sun and stars and animals and human beings, turns, and we turn with it, in praise and in wonder.

This year, Wag also coincides with the first full moon of the Kemetic Orthodox new year that began a couple of weeks ago, and thus creates a doubly-strong holiday in honor of Wesir and His silent land.

What will you do for Wag festival?

Happy Kemetic New Year! (di wep ronpet nofret)!

A little before sunrise this morning, I put on clothing and regalia that I only wear once a year. The jewelry needed polishing, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that my robes are a little tighter than they once fit, but everything was clean and in good order, and once I'd gotten myself into the official clothes, I headed out of my office and down the hallway at Tawy House to the Truth and the Mother Temple room itself.

Priests were streaming in and out of the room: bringing in the portable air conditioner, sorting out where the offering mats would go, reading through the ritual scripts to make sure no tool had been forgotten and that no part had been neglected. One of the priests, unable to serve at the altar due to ritual purity requirements, could still serve in another capacity. She stayed downstairs and greeted each member as they entered the building, directing them to where they could change into ritual whites, or wait to be allowed to enter the temple on this most special of all mornings this year. There is always much to do, and many hands to share the work, and that work has incredible meaning.

This morning, the sun rose for the first time under Kemetic Orthodox Year 21, under the zep tepi, the "first time," of the new Kemetic year.

Seven Years and Counting

Seven years ago this morning I was sitting in a very small room at a title company, talking to a lawyer and a realtor and waiting for an amazing moment, when the mother superior of the Hermanas Josefinas would hand me a tiny flowered box containing the keys to a building located at 664 Landau Avenue in Joliet, Illinois: their former convent and our future Tawy House Kemetic Orthodox Temple and Retreat Center.

Our purchase of Tawy House II, as it has come to be known (the first Tawy House was a temporary retreat center and shrine space, founded in Michigan at the location of my childhood home, and did not have a formal full-time temple space), was a major change in the history of our Kemetic Orthodox Faith.

Celebrations that Deserve Mentioning

So there was another Naming ceremony again tonight. I realized that since the blog was broken I hadn't posted a Naming announcement since 30 September of last year, so that definitely has to be remedied.

Congratulations to the following Shemsu who were Named on the various dates listed!

28 October 2009
Neshnytyinepu

30 December 2009
Djehutyimati

27 January 2010
Rootnaming Iait's children: Nekhbetemheb and Heruemhebet-fedw

24 February 2010
Nefertemketket
Rootnamed: Djaut's stepson Setemheb-ka

24 April 2010
Bekamuti
Bastmuttepta
Menemaset
A'ashemmuti
Genekhnakhtwy
Setkheni-itw
Nekhtetwepwawet
Sekhmetimyisi
Sa'aiherheru

28 April 2010
Iaityinepu (renamed in person after a 2005 proxy naming)
Nenmiaset

Nekhtet! for all the new Shemsu and Rootnamed children.

Naming is an important rite of passage in the Kemetic Orthodox Faith. It's something I need to write a lot about, and hopefully will be able to write about soon. Have questions you'd like me to address here? Send 'em to me or post them here and I'll add them to the list.

A fresh new look....and some fresh news

Now that the blog's starting to look better, perhaps I'll be able to start using it again!

There are so many options now for communication, especially via Internet. You have email, your various website(s) and now all this so-called "social media." (Isn't all media social? I digress.) For a while I couldn't decide what anyone was willing or even interested in reading or whether or not to post here or there or which computer or which gadget was going to do what. Because I did my time in the media (undergraduate degree in writing followed by about ten years in publishing and magazines before I went back to school for Egyptology), I've always felt like I kept up with the various communication media and I try not to sound like I'm too old to be "up" on whatever's being used.

I've discovered I can't really keep up with the media over the last couple of years, and mostly for two reasons:

Welcome 21 new Remetj!

Em hotep!

We've got another 21 Remetj to add to the House of Netjer membership this week. Congratulations and welcome to all of you!

Coty B. of Pennsylvania
Kel C. of New York
Carl C. of Wisconsin
Yosef C. of Louisiana
Iheb (rootnamed Robby F.) of Nevada
Paula G. of Argentina
Federico "Chay" H. of Argentina
Caleb H. of New Hampshire
Anthony I. of New Jersey
Jessica I. of Tennessee
Zurette "Sa-Ankhu" I. of South Africa
Laura K. of Pennsylvania
Mickey K. of Pennsylvania
Amber L. of North Carolina
Paul M. of Maryland
Grace P. of New York
Eldgrim S. of Sweden
Christian T. of the Netherlands
Vaalea V. of the Czech Republic
"Fern" W. of Colorado
Thea W. of England

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the PantheaCon interfaith conference next weekend. I'll be giving a lecture about ancient Egyptian prayers along with a booksigning for The Ancient Egyptian Prayerbook on Saturday morning beginning at 9am.

Dua Wesir! Nekhtet! (Mysteries of Wesir (Osiris), Sixth Hour Vigil)

The incense has been laid upon the fire and offered with the prayers. Natron and water have provided the purification, both the natron and water I poured into ritual bowls and the natural salt and water of the tears we have given to our dead and to Wesir, the Lord of Them All.

Six hours into the ceremonies Wesir is upright again, standing among the icons of the rest of the gods. We are reminded by the visual change that the god Who gave Himself utterly for us was not lost in the giving; rather He came up stronger than before and able to provide even more to us in the giving. Like that other deity to Whom He was often compared by Victorian Egyptologists, He has gone to prepare a place for us, to whence we will go someday after our final judgment to join all of those people who have gone before us. We do not have to make that journey alone. Not only does He wait there, but so do all of those who have already gone - and all of us who will someday join them have shared in that journey once again, for another year, as we keep the annual vigil.

The sun will rise in another hour or so. For now, the sky lightens and the city stirs, and the promise of life is still shrouded in darkness. But we know it is there, and we have Wesir to thank.

Mysteries of Wesir (Osiris), the Fifth Hour Vigil

"Your mouth is the mouth of a milking-calf..."

My students recognize those words as part of the Senut, or our daily ritual of prayers and offerings. They occur at the end of the personal purifications and indicate that what comes after is purely celebratory, purely stepping into the presence of Divinity.

Five hours into the vigil, we purify Wesir as He prepares to emerge with Ra.

I washed the statue, after I'd washed my hands a second time. They weren't dirty, but I'd gotten a bit of smudge on them from one of the altar candles and I didn't want to wipe soot on a clean icon. Even rituals with much preparation end up having little things go wrong, little mid-practice corrections. We're human. We make mistakes, and we fix them. Ritual purity is like this. It's not the end of the world or a moral dilemma if there's a little spot on your ka. Clean it up and get on with what you were doing. Vexing yourself about every little mistake, whether in ritual or in life, is a little like rubbing the stains in so they'll be harder to clean -- or worse yet, so they won't ever go away.

In another hour we will have completed the cycle, and then we rest, until it's time to rise and prepare the next portion of the day. We will visit with those who can't be with us, and then return for the traditional feast before we part ways until our next holiday brings us together. I'll check in again.

Water for the Dead (Mysteries of Wesir (Osiris), Fourth Hour)

We offered water to Him, among other things, in the fourth hour vigil prayers. As I stand before the shrine then back away to take my seat among the other participants I notice as if for the first time just how bright His icon's eyes are, watching me from a deep green face. It is the first time I've noticed all night that His eyes are open, even though they always have been. Earlier, in the ritual, I could not see His face.

At the head of the funeral bier stands Nebt-het (Nephthys), Her icon's arms extended in both protection and mourning, and next to Her, Her son Yinepu (Anubis). To Their right, and toward Wesir's feet, Djehuty (Thoth) and Aset (Isis) stand together, planning, waiting, speaking the words of transformation that will make Wesir change from Dead King into King of the Dead. Nebt-het and Yinepu wait silently for what has happened; Djehuty and Aset create what will be. This is how it always was, always has been and always will be. The past becomes present; the dead are restored to life. The cycle in all of its intricacies plays out there in the form of five gilded statues on a flat surface, standing at the joining point of two walls literally covered with golden stars listing the names of the blessed dead, our ancestors. We can read the names in the half-light, and add Them to the magic of becoming.

Sunrise is closer. The fourth hour of the night passes, and we pass with it. We taste the taste of the water of life and we emerge as Shemsu, His followers, refreshed with it.

Stirring in the Third Hour (Mysteries of Wesir)

"This is the Eye of Heru. Take it, that You might be refreshed with it."

I read the words, as I always do, from a hand copy made in 2003, the first year I started celebrating the Mysteries with anyone in a formal temple setting and not in private homes. About a month before we'd purchased the temple building here in Joliet, and we'd barely finished unpacking everything let alone set up the temple for use, but here we were sitting around the Holy Family Shrine saying the words that have been said for thousands of years on this most quiet night, laying the great god to rest and enabling Him to enter the world of the dead.

It's not easy to read the words in the dark, lit only by a few candles and a single string of clear lights that Nehwen and Padjai brought one year to make the shrine more festive. But they always ring out, raw in the silence, and the icons watch as the prayers are said and the incense goes up and the water and natron sprinkling goes down. By the third hour I am expected to recite on my feet and not on my knees, but it feels strange, as if my legs don't want to leave the floor. It feels odd to rise up, yet appropriate, in this third of the six hours of the night, the hour when everything changes.

The danger of death has been passed. Life shines before us, renewal and daylight. The skies outside are not yet showing dawn, but we know it is coming, from the stirrings of the neighborhood and the occasional calls of birds. Daybreak is coming. A new day will be upon us soon. And in another hour, we will pray some more.

Advancing with Your Ka: the Mystery Vigil, Second Hour

When people left the temple after the first hour's prayers it was slowly, quietly. The building was so silent I could hear the water in the heating pipes moving around and little else. Even as the participants returned to their rooms or went downstairs to find a glass of water and sit at the dining room table to wait for the next hour, it was quite a few minutes before anyone spoke. Wesir's Mysteries have that effect upon you. Nothing seems quite so important to say in the face of His holy power, after spending your time in the temple gazing upon His icon which for this event does not stand proudly as it usually does, but lies fallen upon its side within a wooden box, surrounded by the icons of each of His mourning family members.

Eventually, as the second hour nears, sounds and life return. The second hour's prayers, which we have already said, encourage Wesir to go forth into His new life with the ancestors. "Advance with Your Ka," the prayers say. Put your hands and feet out there, one after another. Move. Live again. Do not remain inert, in the place which is neither death nor life. Go forth by day and Become.

Once the third hour of the vigil has come, more will move, imperceptibly, within the shrine. The spoken words and prayers will gain length and cadence as Wesir moves through the Duat and heads for that place where He will unite with Ra and bring the sunrise, and life, to us once again. For now, though, we begin with baby steps.

God is Dead: Thoughts about the Mysteries of Wesir (Osiris)

In a few minutes, I will be entering the temple to begin the lamentations of the great god Wesir, known to the classical world and beyond as Osiris. Once again the cycle of the year turns and we honor the most quiet, most somber, most moving of holidays. Once again, God is dead.

Not dying; not about to be resurrected. Wesir is a dead god, a god that goes to the otherworld/afterlife/netherworld/whatever you want to call the place where dead people are and doesn't come back. Ever. He is as gone from us as gone can be. His voice is no longer heard among the other gods as They gather; His face no longer lit with the rosy glow of life itself. Unlike Jesus Who is returned to his place after a time of testing...Wesir will not come back to us shining in bright white robes as an angel rolls back the stone. He will not come back to us at all; only through the memory of His life, and His sacrifice, will we continue to understand Him and know Him and love Him. This god loved people so very much that He was willing to forsake His immortality to make sure they had a god wherever it is that they go when they die, and a brother Who loved Him enough to help Him achieve death. It is this selfless, permanent act that is remembered overnight in the Vigil we now face and face again one night every year.

The scope of our loss as human beings, and our gain, cannot be measured. Wesir's life and death are intertwined in such a way that He cannot truly be separated from either. What He offers us is renewal, continuance, life in the form of going on. He shows us that there is no such thing as an ending, only a change of position. He assures us that we will not go to that place alone, nor will we be forgotten or neglected once we get there. Every dead person is a Wesir, a dying and yet living one, Who is part of the eternity of life's endless cycle, reborn at dawn in the sun and in spring as the life-giving ground, emerging from the life-giving waters of Aset's tears. Where He goes, so shall we one day, and then we will understand the Mystery in full.

I will pray for all of our ancestors tonight, and all of the living: the continuous circle of beings that inhabit our planet and whom we can call family. May we all be together in the darkness, praying for them and Him as They pass.

Back to work

Back to work after time to deal with the medical tests (results: same as last year, which is both good news in that it's not any worse, and bad news in that it's not any better. Interesting feeling, to be relieved and frustrated at the same time...)

There's quite a bit going on at the temple as autumn begins. Last weekend we hosted the Wag Festival here in honor of the ancestors, or Akhu. We visited several cemeteries, including two potters' fields and the largest cemetery here in Joliet, Oakwood. Many photographs and stories were shared, and there's quite a bit of material about the blessed dead that we gathered. I may post some of it here, just for interest's sake. Gatherings are being planned and classes are resuming for our students and teachers. The Year 17 calendar is available from the Seminary, and a hardcover version of the Prayerbook is awaiting ISBN approval. There are trips later in the year, including our annual pilgrimage to Kemet and the Parliament of the World's Religions (Melbourne, Australia in December). People will be coming to visit to do work-study and share ceremonies with us and we will be visiting them too.

I'll do my best to keep up with you as we engage in all these busy things. For those who shared Retreat with me, tomorrow is the day that you want to open up your New Year's letters! (I've got those you left for me to mail you in the mail and you should receive them soon). It's been a month since the Opening of the Year. How are you doing on your resolutions and plans and challenges? My prayers, and my love, are with you all.

Year 17 - The Year of Djehuty

Di Wep Ronpet Nofret (Happy New Year!)

Welcome to Kemetic Orthodox Year 17. We brought in the new year with a really wonderful Retreat here in Joliet. Forty-five members and their families came together to perform the ceremonies and welcome the year of the god Djehuty with great excitement. Thank you to everyone who came and shared the week with us. It was a wonderful time. I'm still catching up on my sleep, but in the meantime I thought I'd share with my readers the oracle of the goddess Aset given in honor of the New Year. Each year, we receive a message from the great Lady pertaining to the god of the year and what sort of year it will be. I think this year's message is quite wonderful.

The Oracle of Aset for Year 17 (given at Aset Luminous, July 2009)

Perfection multiplied has passed, but is not gone.

I say unto you that wisdom is now required, so that you remember and repeat it. Be wise. Speak wisdom. Act wisely. Most of all, DO.

Be as wise in action as in word. The Great Ibis knows well what wisdom you require, for He writes what is in your breath, in your heart, and watches the movements of your ka. Ask Him. Heed Him.

This is a time of Decision, of Choice. Do not be content with thought.

The Year will not Become from a simple idea. To know what is needful serves you well, but thought flies all around and leaves little result in its wake. Do not be content with clever speech. This Year will not Become with simple words. Words can be quickly breathed, but with little wisdom. But words themselves are the actions of your thought.

Think. Speak. Then, Do. Be wise and do.

He Who Writes will show you and teach you. Are you yourself ready to Become wise? Are you Wise enough to know that alone, it is more difficult to Do? You need your family. You need My Son, your Mother. You need all of your brothers and sisters. You are needed by them. Each of you is far wiser than you believe. Each of you requires far more wisdom than you believe. Listen. Speak. Do.

The Great Ibis writes your Year. What will He write? Your anger? Your fear? That you are alone? That you tremble? That you can not? That you helped this one and not that one? These are not the things of the People. These are not the things with which We bless you.

Ask Djehuty for what you need to make this Year Become.

Be Clever. Speak. Do.

Decide.

Choose.

What do you hope and dream for this year? How will you make that Become?

Tell the others. Tell The Great Ibis. Tell Us all. And Do so.

May you be blessed as the people of Netjer.

Happy birthday to Heru-wer and new priesthood!

Today was the second of the Five Days Upon the Year, the days dedicated to the birthdays of gods. This one was for Heru-wer, the Greatly-Speckled Hawk Whose Eyes are the Sun and the Moon. As one of my personal gods Heru-wer gets great attention in my household and today was no exception: for His birthday I presented him with a bottle of Glenrothes Scotch that I had been saving for the occasion, and then I went and trained priests for our priesthood at the beginning of our Wep Ronpet retreat.

This morning we witnessed the vows and training of two new W'ab priests, or purity technicians, the priesthood that cares for altars and implements and makes sure that liturgies are ready to be held. A huge congrats to Hatyt'ahethert and Yinepuwaret. I'm proud of both of them and think they're going to do an extraordinary job. (And what a birthday present to yourself, Waret! More work! *grins*)

In the afternoon after we finished with the basic training we completed some advanced training. Nine priests total were recognized as Heri-sesheta, or those who are "over the secrets" of their particular god(s). These priests include Djehutymenekh, Shefytbast, Tuwerherbastmut, Qaitsenu, Kai-Imakhu Meresinepu, Wenemaset, Imakhu Asetmekti, Imakhu Senyt-menu (Senut) and Kai-Imakhu Neferu. I could not be prouder of this crowd. Each made an exemplary presentation to earn their right to bear the secrets proudly in their personal work.

Very, very soon we'll be entering the day of Set and the first open public day of our Wep Ronpet retreat here in Joliet. As is almost prophetically usual on His birthday, it's starting to rain and the storm clouds are coming in from the West. I'll try to check in as soon as I can with more news including the news you've all been waiting for on the God(s) of Year 17.

Love to you all. May you continue to have a good Intercalary season!