A Hymn to Sekhmet
Mine is a heart of carnelian, crimson as murder on a holy day.
Mine is a heart of corneal, the gnarled roots of a dogwood and the bursting of flowers.
I am the broken wax seal on my lover’s letters.
I am the phoenix, the fiery sun, consuming and resuming myself.
I will what I will.
Mine is a heart of carnelian, blood red as the crest of a phoenix.
– from the Egyptian Book of the Dead
Sekhmet has been making her presence known around MotherHouse since the turn of the year. Was her presence a foreshadowing of the current situation with the pandemic, especially considering that Sekhmet is a Goddess of pestilence AND healing?
Sekhmet is an Egyptian Goddess with a woman’s body and a lioness head and depicted frequently with the sun disc on her head. Ra, the Sun God, is her Father and is called the Eye of Ra. Her name is derived from the Egyptian word “Sekhem” which means Power or Might. Sekhmet represents the searing heat of the mid-day sun and one of her names is Nesert, the Flame. Her breath is the desert wind and she is said to have created the deserts themselves.
Sekhmet is a primordial Goddess of healing, war, pestilence, creation, and destruction. Sekhmet is duality in Goddess form and sometimes the gentle Goddess Bast is referred to as her sister. She is known by many names and they reflect this duality: “The Mistress and Lady of the Tomb”, “The Powerful One”, “The Gracious One”, “The Destroyer of Rebellion”, and “The Mighty One of Enchantments” (here is a list of 100 names of Sekhmet). As a warrior Goddess, she protected the pharaohs when they went to war and sacrifices and celebrations in her honor were common after victories in war.
During the Middle Kingdom (1975 bce to 1640 bce, Sekhmet’s name was synonymous with physicians and surgeons. Throughout antiquity, many of her priesthood were physicians.
Join me on Saturday, March 28 at 3pm eastern for a free Sekhmet Healing and Meditation Circle. I am delighted to welcome Linda Lomker and Victoria Peters to share their healing practices with Sekhmet. We will be calling upon Sekhmet for global and personal protection and healing.
Register through MotherHouse Goddess Temple online space via the button above and if you cannot make the live event, there will be a recorded archive to listen to anytime.
The Egyptians loved their dualities: Upper and Lower Egypt, the Black (fertile) Land and the Red (desert land) Land, the realms of the living and the dead. Sekhmet embodied this duality perfectly: while she had the power to bring illness and destruction, she also could offer pro- tection and health. In fact, the need to appease Sekhmet resulted in the wab&(“pure”) priests of Sekhmet practis- ing medicine alongside professional physicians+b K!, swnw (although perhaps not with quite the same status).
Sekhmet evolved from a force to be reckoned with into one with a benevolent side, while still retaining elements of her destructive nature. To the Egyptians, it wasn’t at all confusing to regard Sekhmet as the “lady of terror” as well as the “lady of life”, the patron of physicians and healers.
In medical terms, her priests played an important role in healing which sometimes included magic rituals in which they would invoke Sekhmet’s powers to assist them in driving out demons that were believed to cause sickness. ~ Sofia Aziz
Sekhmet Resources:
All articles on Sekhmet on MotherHouse of the Goddess
Anne Key Sekhmet Article Series on MotherHouse of the Goddess
Feasts of Light Excerpt from Normandi Ellis on Sekhmet
In the Lap of the Lioness: Sekhmet Activation Course with Anne Key on Mystery School of the Goddess
Righteous – The Light of Sekhmet online course with Brandi Auset
Sekhmet Temple of Goddess Spirituality in Nevada
Sekhmet Books:
Desert Priestess: A Memoir by Anne Key (about her time as a Priestess at the Sekhmet Temple)
Egyptian Mythology by Geraldine Pinch
Feasts of Light by Normandi Ellis
Heart of the Sun: An Anthology in Exaltation of Sekhmet edited by Anne Key and Candace C. Kant
Sekhmet: Transformation in the Belly of the Goddess by Nicki Scully
The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way by Robert Masters
The Great Goddesses of Egypt by Barbara S. Lesko
When the Lion Roars: A Devotional to the Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet by Galina Krasskova
Linda Haack Lomker
For the past two years or so, Linda Haack Lomker has been working with Kimberly Moore and other teachers in Mystery School of the Goddess to expand her goddess knowledge and develop more spiritual practices and rituals. She is an Alchemical Creation High Priestess and Goddess and a Licensed Practitioner of Alana Fairchild’s Soul Guidance and Sacred Mentoring modality. The former was a deep dive into inner alchemy and working with the many aspects of the elemental forces of creation: earth, water, air, fire and spirit. The latter gives her powerful tools to guide people using Alana Fairchild’s books and decks. Over the years, she has dabbled in everything from energy healing to faerie shamanism, a very recent interest. Life has gifted her with many experiences. Born in the summer under a Cancer sun, she tends to be comforting and encouraging by nature.
She is available for the deep and soulful Soul Guidance and Sacred mentoring sessions and also for shorter readings using primarily Alana Fairchild’s decks. She is on Facebook as Linda Haack Lomker and can be contacted via Facebook messenger and also by email: L-Lomk@umn.edu.
An interview of Linda is available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K8V47GOe1s
Victoria Peters
Victoria is a High Priestess and Alchemical Creation Goddess in the lineage of Nicole Christine mastering the elemental forces of creation [earth, water, air, fire and spirit] in ritual and ceremony. We honor the natural cycles of our planet, and call upon the elements and goddesses to assist us in making this world a place of sacred beauty. Through Divine Alchemy, we seek to transmute our spiritual “lead into gold”.
Victoria is a certified Soul Guide and Sacred Mentor for the Crystal Mandala Oracle and Isis Oracle by Alana Fairchild, supporting you to grow and heal with Divine Feminine and angelic energies.
Contact her on FaceBook Messenger [https://www.facebook.com/vpeters88 ] or FB group, Blue Star Soul Guidance and Sacred Mentor or email to Vykwiz@hotmail.com.
Victoria is a student of Zen Buddhism, lay ordained by Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1986 ; she has studied with Genpo Merzel Roshi to practice his Big Mind process of Voice Dialogue Therapy. She is a certified Master for the Avatar Course by Harry Palmer, and also enjoys yoga, hiking, quilting, dogs, cats, and cooking nourishing foods.
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