Daily Devotions from Her Holiness
Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb)
February 16, 2001

Bless all the children of Netjer, known and unknown!
May your coming be peaceful.

Last night, I enjoyed fellowship and conversation with 24 of our Remetj and Shemsu. Our topic of discussion was one that isn't generally something people would put on the top of their list as a hot topic. We talked about death, the afterlife, and the Kemetic concepts of both. We talked about ceremonies held the night before in honor of a family member of one of our Shemsu. We talked about the larger questions of life that could be some of the reason why religions of all kinds flourish in an otherwise "godless" world.

What does it mean, to die? Why do bad things like death (and other bad things that aren't fatal) happen to people? Is there an overarching or ultimate purpose to it all? Does (insert name of deity here) care about us? About me? Or, as one of our Shemsu put it, "am I just screwed?" She joked (or perhaps not) about taking a big stick and hitting the Universe back when it hit her.

Far from being horrified at her "bad attitude," or even wondering if she was being heretical or irreverent, I smiled. Absolutely when the Universe "hits" you for no reason that you can make out, you should be fighting back. As long as you keep getting back up when circumstances knock you down, you cannot lose.

It is a lesson for all of us. There are no perfect extremes. Life is neither all good nor all horrible. It is not about how many good things happen or how many bad things happen, who they happen to or even why they happen. Ma'at, the balance in our universe, is about the space between these things: what we do when we've been knocked down, or even when we've been lifted up. It is about whacking the Universe with a stick when we aren't getting what we deserve as children of Netjer; or being whacked ourselves by that same stick if we're not being responsible about swinging it. It is the equilibrium, the swinging place between the highs and the lows, which we seek and, should we not be blessed with finding it in life, that we shall certainly ultimately find at the judgment before Wesir.

May Ma'at, She Who is Balance, provide peace and silence to all conflict and noise in your lives. I pray for Her blessing in all that you do, say and are.

Dua Netjer! Nekhtet!

Thought for the Day:
"Adversity is the first path to truth."
Byron

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Daily Devotions from Her Holiness
Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb)
February 15, 2001

Bless all the children of Netjer, known and unknown!
May your coming be peaceful.

We honor the festival of the half-month today. How are you coming with your personal monthly goals?

Yesterday evening in our biweekly Dua session we honored the ka of Marcella Agnes Tiemann Yates, grandmother of Shemsu Heru-em-peryt, as the 70 days were marked following Marcella's journey West. In honoring her as a family the rites of death (and rebirth) are truly noted. Nekhtet! It was as always a blessing to spend an evening in ritual with Netjer's children, and last night was no exception, the day also being the Day of Making Health and Long Life. I regret that the computer system that provides our devotions was down or I would have had much to say on the subject. In any case, make sure to take time to contemplate your health and your life in physical terms. One day a year is hardly enough for something that important!

Today I pray also to Heru-Behdety, the Winged Disk, to protect all of the people of my faith, and their loved ones and friends. May He offer His wide wings as comfort and guard always.

Dua Behdety! Nekhtet!

Thought for the Day:
"Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by."
John Sales

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Daily Devotions from Her Holiness
Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb)
February 13, 2001

Bless all the children of Netjer, known and unknown!
May your coming be peaceful.

Djehuty appears with His spirits today.

The bas (spirits) of Djehuty are baboons, honored in ancient Egypt as symbols of wisdom and the first of Netjer's creations to praise the rising sun with singing and waving their arms. Be on the lookout today for wisdom in unusual "packages," from unusual sources. Offer the first two words you write on any piece of paper in shrine as an offering to He Who Made Words, as scribes of old often dipped their inkwells in libation to Him.

Dua Djehuty! Nekhtet!

Thought for the Day:
"You can tell whether a man is clever from his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise from his questions."
Naguib Mahfouz

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Daily Devotions from Her Holiness
Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb)
February 12, 2001

Bless all the children of Netjer, known and unknown!
May your coming be peaceful.

Today we honor the ritual appearance of Wesir in His sacred barque, as He traverses the Duat. Pour a water libation in His honor and for your Akhu in shrine today. Use the day also to consider how you can emerge into the second half of the year from old habits or outdated ways of being.

I would like to ask all of you to also remember our Shemsu, Amunemma'atef, in that shrine time today, as we mark the anniversary of his journey West. (See yesterday's devotion for more information). As the first of the modern Kemetic Orthodox to become an Akh, he has a special honor in our shrine and in our hearts.

Dua Wesir! Nekhtet!

Thought for the Day:
"The body says what words cannot."
Martha Graham

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Daily Devotions from Her Holiness
Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb)
February 11, 2001

Bless all the children of Netjer, known and unknown!
May your coming be peaceful.

It's hard to believe it's been two years tomorrow morning that the call came and pulled me out of a class I was taking, to receive the news you never want to hear. Terry, one of the House's Shemsu, one of the people I spoke to almost every day, had gone west the day before -- not peacefully, not in his sleep or with his loving family encircling him -- but had been killed, in a violent, senseless, and completely avoidable situation.

Remembering the day someone died is often difficult, even when you are Kemetic Orthodox and you know that person is still with you as an Akh. Even when you still have the ability to speak to that person every day, the memory of the event of death, especially when the event was unexpected and unpleasant, remains. Many of the children of Netjer in our House will be remembering Terry's senseless death two years ago today. Many more, who were not even here when it happened, will hear stories retold -- not of Amunemma'atef's death, but of his life. Joyous, amusing, even miraculous stories will be shared. Smiles will be had, laughs will be heard. And tears will be shed -- tears of water and natron, Netjer's most precious gift for us, to give to our Blessed Dead, shared with his ka and his memorial stela made lovingly by our own Imakhu-Wenut Djehutymose, which sits atop the Akhu shrine of the House.

Honor to your ka, Terry. Look down upon your family from your star and bring us peace.

Dua Netjer! Nekhtet!

Thought for the Day:
"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea."
Medgar Evers

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