Sekhmet Quotes

My glowing form was so heavy, its feet sank into the top of the tank. “Sekhmet!” I yelled. The lioness whirled and snarled, trying to locate my voice. “Up here, kitty!” I called. She spotted me and her ears went back. “Horus?” ‘Unless you know another guy with a falcon head.

The vulture Nekhbet, who'd one possessed my gran (long story); the crocodile Sobek, who'd tried to kill my cat (longer story); and the lion goddess Sekhmet, whom we'd once vanished in hot sauce ( don't even ask) - page 9

Years ago, Re had raged against humans for violating Ma’at, so he had sent Hathor to destroy mankind. She transformed into the lion goddess Sekhmet and Egypt’s fields ran red with the blood of her rampage. Seeing this, Re realized his mistake and ordered Sekhmet to stop, but she was too gone with bloodlust to listen. Knowing he had to halt her some other way, Re stained seven thousand jugs of beer with pomegranate juice and poured the red liquid into her path. Believing the beer to be blood, Sekhmet gorged herself and passed out in a drunken stupor. When she awoke, her bloodlust had passed and she returned to being Hathor. Thus the goddesses of love and violence shared a common history.

Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses's lap and began to purr. 'The creature oozes like a furry slug,' said Ramses, eyeing it without favor.

The whiskered goddess had two natures; as Sekhmet the lioness, she was a mighty queen of sun-fire and war, and a harbinger of raw spiritual powers. As Bast the cat, she was the gentle bringer of love and domestic joy.

I nodded dejectedly. She was right. There wasn't a thing that we could do. But perhaps burn a few bunches of incense to Sekhmet. I would utter some frantic prayers to God too even though Christianity hadn't even been thought of yet. It wouldn't hurt to cover all of my bases.

We passed through glowering statues of monsters and gods whom I'd fought in person- the vulture Nekhbet, who'd once possessed my Gran (Long story); the crocodile Sobek, who'd tried to kill my cat (longer story); and the lion goddess Sekhmet, whom we'd once vanished with hot sauce (don't even ask)

Undertaking magical work should not a hasty decision. It is vital that people appreciate what it entails and have a basic understanding of magical principals before they are thrown in at the deep end.

No longer are you Sekhmet the Slayer: you are Hathor the Lady of Love. Yet your power over mankind shall be greater even than it was – for the passion of love shall be stronger than the passion of hate, and all shall know love, and all shall be your victims.

This place smells like regret and bad decisions,

Do not run from adventures. Seek them. And when you fall, always stand up again, for there is more ahead.   -Femi

those times when uncertainty that hangs overhead that the most beautiful and unexpected parts of yourself are revealed.   Do

Apophis the god of Chaos Anubis the god of funerals and death Babi the baboon god Bast the cat goddess Bes the dwarf god Disturber a god of judgement who works for Osiris Geb the earth god Gengen-Wer the goose god Hapi the god of the Nile Heket the frog goddess Horus the war god, son of Isis and Osiris Isis the goddess of magic, wife of her brother Osiris and mother of Horus Khepri the scarab god, Ra’s aspect in the morning Khonsu the moon god Mekhit minor lion goddess, married to Onuris Neith the hunting goddess Nekhbet the vulture goddess Nut the sky goddess Osiris the god of the Underworld, husband of Isis and father of Horus Ra the sun god, the god of order; also known as Amun-Ra Sekhmet the lion goddess Serqet the scorpion goddess Set the god of evil Shu the air god, great-grandfather of Anubis Sobek the crocodile god Tawaret the hippo goddess Thoth the god of knowledge

Might I ask, what, ah, temple you belong to?” “Hathor,” Siti answered. “But I’m more partial to Sekhmet.” “Sekhmet. In theological alchemy we studied ancient and Hellenistic Egypt. If I recall, she’s a goddess of battle?” “The Eye of Ra. When humankind sought to overthrow Ra, his daughter Hathor didn’t take too kindly. In her anger, she became Sekhmet—the fiery lioness. Then broke some things.” Hadia frowned. “Didn’t she almost wipe out the world?” “The goddess really gets into her work.

Zia gasped, her face beading with sweat. “When the people needed to stop Sekhmet, they got huge vats of beer and colored them bright red with pomegranate juice.” “Yeah, I remember now,” I interrupted. “They told Sekhmet it was blood, and she drank until she passed out. Then Ra was able to recall her into the heavens. They transformed her into something gentler. A cow goddess or something.” “Hathor,” Zia said. “That is Sekhmet’s other form. The flip side of her personality.” Sadie shook her head in disbelief. “So you’re saying we offer to buy Sekhmet a few pints, and she’ll turn into a cow.” “Not exactly,” Zia said. “But salsa is red, is it not?

Living isn’t about perfection. It isn’t about always winning—a lesson that was extremely hard to learn. It is, however, about believing in yourself when no one else does. It is about standing tall and knowing that if you place one foot in front of the other, your feet will find the path they were meant to be on and the burden you carry upon your back will one day make you stronger.   The

The Egyptians had what might to us seem a strange attitude to their gods. While they were happy to sing praises to their deities in order to coerce them into manifestation, they were not able threatening them either. Many spells have survived that promise all manner of dire consequences if the deity concerned does not fulfil the practioner’s wishes. These threats included the destruction of temples, the slaughter of sacred beasts, and perhaps worst of all, the deliberate refusal to acknowledge a god’s existence.

Great Royal Wife Meritamun sat upon the Horus Throne, the gilded chair, carved and inlaid with a hundred lapis scarabs. The rightful place of the Pharaoh.

Nefertari, Ahmose’s grandmother, stood beside the king’s throne, one hand on her daughter’s shoulder. She was the God’s Wife of Amun, the highest priest in the empire, and possessed of nearly as much power as the Pharaoh himself.

I am the last Prince of the Nile, the Herald of Sekhmet! This is my temple. You may make offerings of tuna or scritches. If you touch my belly, I will kill you.

Do you hear our sacred roar? We are coming armed with ideals of the Sacred Feminine. We are carrying with us the archetypes of not just Mary and Kwan Yin but Kali, the Morrighan, Libertas and Sekhmet. We’re tired of waiting for you to evolve and do the right thing. No more will we tolerate a world of injustice and inequality. No more will we allow the destruction of Mother Earth. No more will we sit quietly and obediently as our dignity is stripped from us and our futures stolen. No more will our sexuality and reproductive rights be in the hands of religious zealots and their handmaidens. We want partnership. We want accountability. We want dignity and freedom. We want reverence for the earth and all of humanity. We want a world of compassion and empathy where we recognize our interconnection and practice caring and sharing for the 99%. There is enough for all of us if it is equitably distributed.

Anubis the god of funerals and death Apophis the god of chaos Babi the baboon god Bast the cat goddess Bes the dwarf god Geb the earth god Heket the frog goddess Horus the war god, son of Isis and Osiris Isis the goddess of magic, wife of her brother Osiris and mother of Horus Khepri the scarab god, Ra’s aspect in the morning Khnum the ram-headed god, Ra’s aspect at sunset in the underworld Khonsu the moon god Mekhit minor lion goddess, married to Onuris Nekhbet the vulture goddess Nephthys the river goddess Nut the sky goddess Osiris the god of the underworld, husband of his sister Isis and father of Horus Ptah the god of craftsmen Ra the sun god, the god of order. Also known as Amun-Ra. Sekhmet the lion goddess Set the god of evil Shu the air god Sobek the crocodile god Tawaret the hippo goddess Thoth the god of knowledge

Dating Sekhmet is like trying to romance an inferno, to clasp a creature of ancient aggression so close you either smothered its flames of carnage or were consumed by them. Either way, it's all or nothing, a conflict at turns brutal and brilliant, subtle and shocking. As real as any war, theirs is a relationship with its own particular feints, charges, tactics, and stratagems, each deployed in the hope of winning another inch of territory in the other's heart.

As is modern magical practice, the Egyptian priests believed in the inherent power of words and images, which when utilised correctly possessed their own creative force.

Both Bast and Sekhmet were often combined with the names and forms of other gods and goddesses to produce composite deities. This might have been to do with regional preferences, when the major local deity was desired to have the qualities of a number of other deities.

Although we refer to the magical ‘books’ of Ancient Egypt, these were in fact scrolls, more often lengths of papyrus stuck together and rolled up, but occasionally parchments of calf vellum. These books were regarded as extremely esoteric, and certainly not for the eyes of common people. Some were said to have been found in secret places, such as forgotten tombs and hidden caskets, and to record the actual words of Thoth or legendary sages and priests. It is likely that the priests considered their own magic to be most effective and sacred, and they kept their knowledge secret in order to make themselves appear more powerful in the eyes of less priveleged individuals. They often wrote down their spells in a kind of code, referring to their ingredients by alternative names in order to confuse any unintiated person who might try to read them.

In the hieroglyphic script, the power of the words were matched by the power of the symbols themselves. The symbols were regarded as being so powerful, precautions had to be taken to prevent them from taking on a life of their own.

Why am I attracted to magic? Write down your responses. You might find you write a poem, or even something that later you will be able to use in a ritual. No-one else will read it, so you can be as honest as you like. Date the page. It is the beginning of a mgical diary.

What's my name again?' she muttered as they closed the distance. 'Nefersekhmet,' he answered. 'Princess Nefersekhmet. Of Nubia.' She snorted. 'Jesus. How the hell do you expect me to remember all that? I don't even know what it means!' 'Sekhmet is the name of an Egyptian goddess,' Sef explained, lowering his voice to a whisper. 'Her purview was wrath and war.She was known as the Mistress of Dread. The Lady of Slaughter. She Who Mauls. Given your temper, I thought it was fitting.' Nikki sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. 'What about the other part?' 'Nefer?' he asked. 'Well, that one's simple. It means beautiful.' He offered her his arm. 'And you are.

He writes: The pacification of the untamed forces in the beast of prey, as we see it in the magical taming of the injurious powers of “poisonous” nature deities, and above all in the conquest of the Uraeus serpent as the royal diadem of Buto, is a very characteristic contribution of human thought in the historical epoch. Actually the taming of terrible deities goes back to the prehistoric age of mythology, as when the Egyptian Hathor is mollified and her “wrath” averted with the help of dancing, music, and intoxicating liquor; or when Bast, the friendly form of the lion goddess Sekhmet, becomes the goddess of healing, and her priests become physicians.

Homage to thee, 0 Sekhmet-Bast-Ra, thou mistress of the gods, thou bearer of wings, lady of the Anes bandlet, queen of the crowns of the South and of the North, only One, sovereign of her father, superior to whom the gods cannot be, thou mighty one of enchantments in the Boat of Millions of Years, thou who art pre-eminent, who risest in the seat of silence ... mistress and lady of the tomb, mother in the horizon of heaven, gracious one, beloved, destroyer of rebellion, offerings are in thy grasp, and thou art standing in the bows of the boat of thy divine father to overthrow the Fiend. Thou hast placed Maat in the bows of his boat.

Since 'Panther' is an ambiguous word that can refer to different leopards, jaguars, or mountain lions, it can also refer to a melanistic or black cat; hence, the name 'black panther'. It can also be crossed with a lioness for example which gives us an indication of the role which the lion had in ancient Egyptian symbolism in relation with the black panther on feminine figures. Panther/Lioness feminine emblems for Sekhmet, Bastet and Maftet were portaying that aggressive and wild nature of the big cats; they served as guardians and the latter was called as 'slayer of serpents' and protected against snakes. That was also a role which Atem played, therefore, they represent the perpendicular authority in contrast to that of the Sun (i.e., parallel authority). What proves my assertion that the Sun cult showed up later on in opposition to the upper heavens' authority is to be witnessed on the figurine which shows Tutankhamun subjugating a black panther using a sceptre which looks different than that of Thoth (stripped off from its fork and top ends); avenging thereby his cult. The Egyptian Museum guide does state that he is [assimilated to the Sun by the golden tan of his skin] and the [panther represented the night sky]. So it is evident that the warriors of the upper heavens on Earth were feminine who tried to resurrect their legacy in contrast to Isis who restores her husband's body to allow for his resurrection (referring to Sirius and Orion); intending probably thereby to give him back his role as a lion hunter. The task on the lionesses is therefore reduced to protection and guardianship against this scheme but there were no resurrection of some entity for them to take part into since the authority on whose behalf they fight were already present even though no complete submission to it were delivered.

Life changes fast. A single situation can go from exciting to terrifying with one single act or word. The people or places you thought would always be there are lost to time and change. There is nothing more natural in the world than change, but knowing that doesn’t take away the pain of loss when you wake up one morning and realize everything is different—or even worse, you are all alone. The feeling is suffocating. It bears down, threatening to snuff the flame of life until it feels like you will have no choice but to be extinguished. The stress becomes too much and the burden too heavy to bear. Failure is imminent, but then something amazing happens. Life carries on. You may not notice it immediately. Sometimes it takes days or weeks or even months to see that you have not been beaten down by the world, though you may have stumbled. Instead, you pick yourself up and leave the heaviest burdens behind so that you may rejoin life, hopefully smarter and stronger than the last time. It won’t keep you from falling again. The next time you might even fall harder and your burdens may be heavier than the first, but just like before, you will get up again because that is what life is. Living isn’t about perfection. It isn’t about always winning—a lesson that was extremely hard to learn. It is, however, about believing in yourself when no one else does. It is about standing tall and knowing that if you place one foot in front of the other, your feet will find the path they were meant to be on and the burden you carry upon your back will one day make you stronger. The adventures before you will be frightening, but it is in those times when uncertainty that hangs overhead that the most beautiful and unexpected parts of yourself are revealed. Do not run from adventures. Seek them. And when you fall, always stand up again, for there is more ahead. -Femi

This was why I worked alone—less complications. Less men who weren’t required to ride in my trunk.

She is so much smaller than her siblings, Set. Weaker. Let us kill her now and search for another,” the lion-headed goddess whispered, her sharp, ivory teeth sparkling as she yawned with boredom, letting out a soft roar as she licked at her companion’s ear. I must be dreaming, Aiyah thought.

It was a power grab, plain and simple. I had seen it a thousand times throughout history. Hardly anyone had other people’s best interests at heart. It wasn’t the way of the world. Not to say hope was lost or anything, but let’s call a spade a spade: people could be douches.

When the people needed to stop Sekhmet, they got huge vats of beer and colored them bright red with pomegranate juice.

It is in the role of the solar goddess that Hathor can show her more dangerous aspects. The duality of her character is emphasised, especially with the splitting off of her Sekhmet persona, reflecting the ambivalence of fire in general and the sun in particular. Although the Hathor Cow may be dangerous and unpredictable, like a wild cow, this is taken to extremes in the Solar Hathor where her protector and aggressor aspect is dominant. Like fire the sun is beneficial and dangerous, both life-giving and life-taking. It is purification and charred destruction, a nurturer of vegetation and its fierce desiccator.

From the Old Kingdom gargoyle spouts on temples often had lion heads to repel storms sent by the Chaos God Seth (the often malevolent brother of Isis and Osiris). They also allude to the inundation which occurred as the sun entered the constellation of Leo. Plutarch (46-119 CE) said “they honour the Lion, and ornament the doors of the temples with gaping lions’ mouths; since Nilus overflows: When first the Sun doth with the Lion join

The male leopard was associated with Seth and his uncontrollable rage but females had a more protective role.

Ra orders 7,000 jars of beer. 77 is associated with Ra and multiples of seven indicate an infinite number.

The absence of the Solar Eye plunges Egypt into fear and gloom. This is echoed in other tales of a departed deity, such as Demeter and Persephone and Ishtar and Tammuz. The life of the land dies when the deity departs.

The time of the absence of the Goddess – whether the Eye or another – is the season of fear and lifelessness.

In Khonsu we see a parallel with the transition of the Angry Goddess into the benevolent Bastet. He was originally a bloodthirsty God but becomes increasingly benevolent in later periods. His mother can be Bastet or Mut, and at Kom Ombo it is Hathor.

Lady Sakhmet of the lilies – yes, our Lady of Dew dwells among lily pads…Nefertem…blossoms newborn in the blue lotus. Twilight is heavy with gods.

I am Horus…sprout of Sekhmet! I am the unique one, the son of Bastet – I will not die on account of you.

The Egyptians didn’t consider the deities to be individuals the way that people are so the specific name wasn’t always as important as their characters. This made it easy for them to merge and subsume deities without encountering any theological problems. In some cases the deity could have two names or combined names such as Hathor-Sekhmet.

The Egyptians considered the colour of an object to be an integral part of it, the word for colour meant “substance”. Red is associated with Hathor, particularly in her Sekhmet aspect, and at Edfu she was called “Mistress of the red cloth”.[66] Like Hathor, red has a dual aspect in that it represents both life-giving and life-taking. Red is the colour of the Nile during the inundation which gives it connotations of fertility, it is also linked to menstruation and childbirth. Hathor has associations with all of these. Red is the colour of blood so linked with rage, injury, disease and death. For this reason it was also linked to the chaos god Seth. In all cultures, and in the natural world, red is a warning of danger. Some venomous snakes and insects use red to advertise the fact that they are venomous as a warning to potential predators.

Hathor is one of the few goddesses who carry the was-sceptre as does “Sekhmet of the was-sceptre”.[67] This is a sceptre with a head in the form of a canine and is associated with prosperity and well being. Hathor often carries a papyrus sceptre as do Bastet and the creator goddess Neith. The ukh staff is a papyrus stem crowned with two feathers and was an important object in the Hathor cult. It is similar in concept to the sekhem sceptre.[68] This sceptre hieroglyph denotes concepts such as “power” and “might”. The word sekhem could refer to deities, hence the name Sekhmet “she of might”.[69]  Hathor will also carry her cult object the sistrum

Magic takes the path of least resistance.

We may not be able to damage the sun directly but humans can cause chaos and through that threaten maat on earth. What happens on one level of creation will impact on the others.” - Sekhmet & Bastet: The Feline Powers of Egypt

I’d fought in person—the vulture Nekhbet, who’d once possessed my Gran (long story); the crocodile Sobek, who’d tried to kill my cat (longer story); and the lion goddess Sekhmet, whom we’d once vanquished with hot sauce (don’t even ask).

Many magical traditions work with the eastern belief that there are seven energy centres in the human body, each displaying a pure, vibrant colour of the spectrum. These energy centres are known as chakras, and the condition of the energy within them has direct effects upon our health and well-being.

Blue is the colour of strong passion and creativity, while green associated with the heart is seen as representative of generosity and kindness.

Purple is not only the ‘royal colour’, but is linked to spirituality, and intuition.

By closing your eyes and forming images of your choice, you begin to control your imagination. Like dreaming, when you visualize you should be able to use all of your senses to experience what you ‘see around you.

The simple act of visualization can enable you to change reality.

At the beginning of any magical working, take few minutes to concentrate on your breathing. This helps to alter your state of consciousness and also improves the flow of life energy within the body.

Just about every system magic advocates the use of a magical diary. It is important to record the results of exercises, workings and rituals, not only so you can see a progression in your work, but also as a reference book should you need to look back and repeat anything.

When the people needed to stop Sekhmet, they got huge vats of beer and colored them bright red with pomegranate

A popular nickname for young girls was miw-sheri meaning Little Cat. Pamiw’s (22nd dynasty) name translates as tomcat. There are records of some of the foreign wives of Amenhotep III taking Egyptian names which included two which translate as “the Catlike One” and “Hot-tempered like a Leopard”.

The fact that cats kill snakes makes them a highly symbolic creature especially as the main enemy of the Sun God is the Chaos Serpent Apophis. “The cat likewise is very serviceable against the venomous stings of serpents, and the deadly bite of the asp.

Hail to you, Lady of Plague, Sekhmet the Great, Lady to the Limit!

Her dress is long and often red reflecting her epithet Lady of the Bright Red Linen. This could be a reference to her warlike nature, with blood-soaked clothes, to fire and or to the colour of the crown of Lower Egypt.

Wadjet. Some other epithets of Sekhmet suggest that she had taken on Thoth’s role as mediator and peacemaker between Horus and Seth. She is the “Pacifier of Horus and Seth” and “Friend of the Two Gods”.

Offerings considered suitable for Sekhmet were similar to those offered to Hathor; geese, antelope, beer, wine, sistra and sceptres.

The Greeks associated her with Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, and called her temple Speos Artemidos – the cave of Artemis.

Bastet the Cat Goddess shows a number of traits reminiscent of Hathor. They have a number of shared aspects; love, fertility, motherhood, protection and a love of the sensual in perfume, music and dance.

Gold rises beside her father in this her name of Bastet”.

In Bubastis there was a triad of Atum, Bastet and Horhekenu (a version of Horus).

However, Hathor is unceasing energy. Without her the Sun God is devoid of power, and the cycles of life in all forms depend upon her pulsating energy.

In the crossword hymn Mut takes on the role of Creator. “Everything came into being because of her…mankind and gods are her offspring…everyone is united to her ka.

The ished-tree was a sacred tree and at Heliopolis was sacred to the Sun God. The Greeks called it the persea. Its fruit was said to ripen with the inundation making it very symbolic. It is thought that the persea was a species of Mimusops, a fruit-bearing evergreen. This tree was also sacred to Hathor and later to Isis. Its flowers were considered life-giving and called the “flowers of life”.

It was only in Greco-Roman times that Isis acquired a strong water element.

Lioness energy was important in two out of the three creation myths and one of Sekhmet’s epithets was “Mistress of the Beginning” reflecting her role in creation.

his consort Sekhmet who provides the primaeval energy for Ptah to channel into creation. The God or male principle can’t achieve anything alone but needs the Goddess or female principle to activate and energise him. Consciousness needs energy to be active and energy needs consciousness otherwise it is chaotic and aimless. The interplay of male and female energies is very prominent with the feline deities. This leads into the other concept which had long fascinated the Egyptians, that of duality. Duality fed into their beliefs with Dual Goddesses and each living being having a double or shadow of themselves.

Thy Living Eyes which emit fire, thy Heavenly Eyes which lighten the darkness, awake in peace, so thy awakening is peaceful.

The Creator contains both male and female energies and aspects but our language struggles with this concept. By giving the Sun God an independent Solar Eye Goddess the Egyptians might have been attempting to express the initial androgyny of the Creator.

But what has been split will eventually come back together. Energy and nature can’t be static and they have a natural oscillating cycle, like snakes winding around a staff.

Isis’s Egyptian name is Aset, or Ast.

Shamsiel means “Sun of El” and has mythological association with the Babylonian Deific Mask Shamas. This is a Lord of Light, Judge of the Heavens and Earth (as Shamas). The planetary associations of the Sun are traditionally creative, authoritative, courage, leadership, health and spiritual illumination. The balance of the sun is found in both its life-giving warmth and the blazing destructive heat are well noted. Solar Deific Masks such as Shamas, Ra, Apollo, Helios, Sol and in the Destructive solar heat Nergal (as the Black Sun, different power than the Mars association), SetTyphon, Apep/Apophis, Sekhmet, etc.

In the crossword hymn Mut takes on the role of Creator. “Everything came into being because of her…mankind and gods are her offspring…everyone is united to her ka.”[137]  She created through visualisation and particular emphasis is placed on her role as nourisher of vegetation. She made the “papyrus and the fruit tree through her wish”. Mut is the one who “spits out the Nile…placed plants on the entire land”. Through her light “all good plants are born”[138] and she brings prosperity to the land. Her responsibility for the essential food crops emmer and wheat are specifically named in the hymn. As the solar disc, Mut takes on the role as preserver of life for without her there would be no life. She is also referred to as Lady of the Sea and this water aspect links her to Tefnut.

The New Kingdom, and the 18th dynasty in particular, was a golden age for the Feline Goddesses. This was driven by a number of the kings who were particular devotees. Hatshepsut (18th dynasty) was especially devoted to the powerful Solar and Lioness Goddesses as was Thutmose III (18th dynasty). Amenhotep III (18th dynasty) was particularly devoted to Sekhmet and Mut as was Sety I.

The Great Mother Goddess of Catal Huyuk is shown with lions, Cybele rides a chariot drawn by lions and Ishtar “drives seven lions”. Inanna has the epithet “Divine Lioness

With Greek influence, all the Goddesses were seen as lunar rather than solar, but Tefnut always had a suggestion of lunar influence for some reason. Perhaps it was her water aspect. In later periods Bastet could assume the role of the Lunar Eye as well.

Theriocephalic images believed to date to as early as 30 000 BCE have been found, with the earliest being the lion-headed Löwenmensch (lion-person) figurine found in Germany. This icon shows a human body with the head of a European cave lion. The Egyptian pantheon had several animal-headed deities, including the lion-headed Sekhmet who resembles the Löwenmensch figurine as being a female with the head of a lion.

Each decan had an associated deity and Sekhmet was the Mistress of the Decans, controlling fate and administering divine retribution. She determined good and bad luck and could guarantee a good year with an excellent harvest by controlling the inundation.

The oldest of these texts are the Pyramid Texts which were designed solely for use by the king although by the end of the Old Kingdom they started to appear in other royal tombs. The main emphasis is on the king being reborn as a star.

When they wish to symbolise spiritedness, they draw a lion…it has fiery eyes…its mane radiates from about it, in imitation of the sun.

In the early versions of the myth the Eye can be Venus, the Morning Star which heralds the sunrise.

Sekhmet is on your head, Wadjet is on your forehead.

Wadjet is the tutelary Goddess of Lower Egypt. Her name means the Green One, possibly a reference to the snake’s colour or to the green and fertile Delta region.

Purification ceremonies depicted in some of the Greco-Roman temples invoke “Sekhmet of yesterday…Wadjet of today…protect the King with that papyrus of life which is in your hand, in this your name of Wadjet”.

Weret-Hekau personified the magic of the royal crown and the uraeus and her name means Great of Magic. This was also a common epithet of Isis, Mut, Hathor, Sekhmet and Pakhet.

symbolism. There is one story of how Seth disguised himself as a leopard to try and approach the body of Osiris. Anubis (the jackal-headed God of the Afterlife) caught him and as punishment branded him with a hot iron bar, thus explaining how the leopard got its spots. He then flayed Seth and wore his skin as a warning to others, which may explain why sem-priests wore a leopard skin. This association with Seth could also be a reason for the lack of leopard deities. The character of the leopard may not have been thought suitable for a more benevolent deity.

O cat, your eyes are the eyes of the Lord of the Glorious Eye, by whose eyes the Two Lands are lighted and who brightens the face on the dark road.

Sekhmet is the Original Power which drives creation. In an echo of creation, each individual is created at conception by that same power.

Are Bastet and Sekhmet Dual Goddesses, the dual nature of a single Goddess, or two individual Goddesses?  The same question can also be asked of Hathor and Sekhmet and Mut and Sekhmet. There is no definitive answer as the ancient texts support all views.

If it is a day of full moon when the sister (Tefnut) comes, then this lunar feast becomes a full festival day.”[253] In the Greco-Roman Period the cat was seen as lunar, another Greek influence, but the lion always retained its solar imagery and association

Nebmaatra a local version of the Lunar God Khonsu. One ritual which was held here was “joining the dais” where Nebmaatra was invoked to ensure the regular appearance of the full moon by healing the Eye of Horus.