Kemet Online: Followers of The Religion of Ancient Egypt: Nebet Het: Fifth Day Upon the Year

Em hotep, everyone! <bow>

These days of the Unyear, when the energies are most fluid and the edges are most porous, have been like sailing a boat on heavy swells for Rev Renee and me. Not only must we ride the waves, but we must also try to steer the craft. In our bodies we have felt the turning of the days and, not to put a fine point on it, a getting rid of the old. We are looking forward to the sunrise tomorrow, the New Year, as a time of re-establishing stability and clarity.

We’re not the only ones around here affected by this time of pure potential. Lyon, our Sekhmet-Aset cat, was in a frenzy on Set’s day. Lyon is a little wild anyway—a lot of Sekhmet—and the most intelligent non-human animal we’ve ever met—a lot of Aset. He’s also very emotional, and on Set’s day he just couldn’t keep himself together. He needed someone bigger and stronger to protect him against himself—and the others against him. Rev Renee held him and stroked him and held him. On Aset’s day he became calmer, and on Nebet-Het’s day he is calmer still.

True Blue, our Het-Hert guy, radiates and luxuriates in his usual beauty and calm, perhaps a little more during these Days upon the Year than at other times. He is pure goodness and joy, attentive always to the well-being of everyone. Duncan, Heru-sa-Aset, became more thoughtful than he ordinarily is on Heru Wer’s day—he usually just bounces around in a carefree, boyish, “I’m in charge here” kind of way. Abandoning temporarily his highest-spot-in-the-room command post, he came to sit with Rev Renee and me alternately, simply being present, occasionally rubbing a cheek against our faces. Perhaps in this Kemetic household/temple he will blossom into the young Heru he is, maturing a little into the blithe Heru who has not yet bested Set.

Frankie, our dogcat (woof!), sticks close by Rev Renee’s side, as usual, faithful as a puppy and twice as cute. He has a lot of Yinepu energy, but we’re not quite sure whose child he is. He exercises leadership in the cuteness brigade; and while Yinepu nips you from behind, Frankie holds out hope for being king around here. We let him keep thinking that.

Thomas is our Nebet-Het guy. Very shortly after midnight this morning, he curled himself into my arms, one Nebet-Het critter to another. Like me, he dresses only in black and white; and like me, he seems to feel comfortable in Wesir’s realm. He escorted Zoe and Tristan to the boundary when they went to the West. I’m Tom’s main girl. When Duncan and Lyon are shut out of the room, he climbs immediately onto my chest or lap, coiling himself into a warm, wildly silky armful, and reaches up with his left hand to pat my cheek. That’s the signal for me to stop whatever I’m doing and pet him—a lot. He pats, I pet. That’s the way it is on ordinary days. But today is not an ordinary day, and Tom has been extraordinarily close. It’s as if somehow our affinity, on Nebet-Het’s day, will let him overcome the laws of physics and melt our bodies together.

All of this is rather cute, I suppose, but it’s more than that. Our Egyptian forebears knew very well that Netjer manifests Itself everywhere and in everything. They saw how creatures help demonstrate in concrete form Netjer’s energies. When we live closely with animals we too can learn from them. They are pure and clear, like open books when we are willing to pay attention. All of nature offers us messages from Netjer, and our animal companions are the parts of nature with whom we are most intimately acquainted.

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At childbirth, Aset stands at the foot of the birthing bed and Nebet Het at the mother’s head. When these sisters accompany the dead, Isis is at the head, Nebet Het at the feet. Thus there is a cycle of life and death, which leads to rebirth in Wesir’s realm in the West, and continued life.

Aset, Great of Magic, is pre-eminently a mother. When Set killed Wesir, she searched tirelessly for his body, and with it became pregnant with Heru. She planned and fought and schemed to ensure Heru’s assumption of the kingship; and he rewarded her by cutting off her head. By this action, he asserted his royal destiny, incorporating into himself Set’s energies, thus maturing into a balanced, disciplined king.

Nebet Het leads the newly dead to another kind of birth. She is a liminal energy: a sure guide during times of change. I have been aware of Her presence in my life since . . . well, as long as I can remember. Not as quick-witted as her sister Aset, nor as forceful as her spouse Set, nor as ferocious for justice as Sekhmet, Nebet Het is a silence pregnant with the kas of those who are birthed through her as akhu. She is a connection with those who have gone before us: not the ruler of the West, nor the Opener of the Way, but the one whose silence is the voice of those who shine like gold in the vault of Nut.

Aset bore Heru and made him king. As the throne on her head indicates, she makes the king, she establishes the king as Heru. Nebet Het meets the deceased king’s ka and rides with him on the night boat, taking him to birth in Lightland.

Aset and Nebet Het, not two sides of the same coin, are complementary energies. One without the other is unthinkable. In Per Ankh, Rev Renee is a child of Aset, Rev Sedgwick a child of Nebet Het.

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At New Year, when we have broken the red pots on which we’ve written what we want to get rid of, at sunrise we celebrate Heru’s kingship. Ra rises in glory behind the shrine, and we say:

We offer fire and fragrance and cool water, we henu and offer our lives in service to Netjer, and like Heru we are renewed. It is a new year. May it be a good one for each of us, for our Per Ankh community, and for all people, many of whose lives are permeated with violence, hatred, and fear. May it be a good year for all Netjer’s children.

Kheperu!

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Rev Sedgwick Heskett, Hemet NebetHet-Nit and Amun
Heri Tep Hem Netjer Per Ankh
Per Ankh: The Traditional Religion of Ancient Egypt
http://www.per-ankh.org