Each of the past five years Temple Osireion has remembered the journey of the soul through the Duat with a ritual drama. We do this around the first of November, a time when it is natural to embrace the darker season, ponder the afterlife, and imagine meeting the gods. The journey through the Duat is one of the grand myths which provides a metaphor for personal and community growth. It is arduous, confusing, transforming and, ultimately, regenerative.
With the regeneration comes a rebirth into the dawn of a new day. The ancient texts tell of Osiris’ transformation into Ra, of Ra’s transformation from an old, dying neteru back into the young hawk that bursts from the eastern akhet (horizon) into flight across the day.
Pool of Lotus has for three years brought messages that we hope have shed a bit of light on new Egyptian practice, encouraged those on a Kemetic-inspired path, and better connected Egyptian religion to the contemporary Pagan movement. As with many journeys, it is time to look ahead to a new morning, a next new way of being.
In the coming year I will be directing my focus on finishing my graduate degree at Cherry Hill Seminary, so it seems wise to bring Pool of Lotus to a close. My heartfelt thanks goes to the editor of Witches and Pagans, Anne Niven, for opening this opportunity to me in 2012. Your encouragement, advice and support are a treasure for which I will always be grateful. Blessings of peace to all.
A god has been born now that I have been born:
I see and have sight,
I have my existence,
I am lifted up upon my place,
I have accomplished what has been decreed . . .
(Book of the Dead, 174)
Come, come in peace, O glorious Eye of Heru.
Be strong and renew your youth in peace,
for the flame shines like Ra on the double horizon.
I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure.
(From “Great Rite Honoring Djehuty,” Eternal Egypt by Richard Reidy)
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Thank you for reading and for your kind comment, Brea.
