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The Minoans were a seafaring, trading people who traveled all over the eastern Mediterranean and points beyond. During those travels, they encountered other cultures. They brought back objects from faraway places: cylinder seals from Mesopotamia, carved stone jars and jewelry from Egypt. They probably brought back spouses/partners from the places they traveled to.

They also brought deities back with them.

Springtime has come to North Texas, which means both swathes of bluebonnets along the highways and sometimes monsoon-like rainstorms. It's a far cry from the winter storms that are gripping my home Dakota prairies, but there are times when the torrents of rain make it hard to remember that long warm Spring days are coming. But any good Texan will also tell you that we welcome these days of rain, because they both stave off that first 100-degree day and help to alleviate the period severe droughts our beautiful state experiences. The memories of the droughts of 2008-2010 are still fresh with many of us, and the rains give us hope that we won't watch our state burn and suffer under the sun this summer.

Spring rains and floods have been seen as blessings in many cultures over history, with the Nile floods being the most well known. So I was happy to see Anuket, the personification of the Nile River herself, show up in my oracle reading this week.

I am just returned from three amazing days in the Texas Hill Country, where I attended Texas SpringFest, a Goddess spirituality event. I am refreshed and renewed after spending time in a woman-centered, explicitly feminist space, communing with my Goddess and my sisterhood and the reawakening Earth. I'll be writing more about SpringFest in the next days, as I slowly return to my regular life rhythms.

I did, however, take the time to pull this week's Goddess Inspiration Oracle card, and was surprised to find Sekhmet greeting me from the deck. The Egyptian Goddess of war (among other things), Sekhmet rules our darker emotions. Known as The Mighty One, Sekhmet asks us to examine those feelings that we -- especially those of us who are women -- are encouraged to keep hidden, out of sight, out of mind. Those emotions that we are told that "nice girls" don't feel -- anger, rage, righteousness, fury.

The warm scent of sandalwood has filled this room and is working its way out through the rest of my house, dispersed from essential I have warming on an electric incense burner. After working in the yard for a while, amidst the tang of cut grass and a brewing summer storm, I walk back into a dreamy sandalwood sanctuary. The very smell turns my thoughts to the sacredness of life, the peacefulness of meditation.

Our ancient Egyptian friends put a great deal of their effort and money into perfumed oils and incenses. In the temple, the image of a god was wakened, washed, dressed and anointed with fragrant oil or ointment each morning. Ointments and oils were regular offering items, scented with selections from the profusion of flowers and plants that grew along the Nile, or valuable imports like frankincense and sandalwood. 

And speaking of flowers, it was customary to greet guests for dinner at your house by placing around their neck a garland of fresh flowers. A touching element of undisturbed tombs found in modern times is the now-dried fresh flowers which were the last thing left on the casket, much like our custom today at a cemetery burial ceremony.

Cinnamon, cassia, myrtle, balsam, myrrh, honey, sweet flag, juniper, sage, cypress, iris, rose and, of course, lotus were all ingredients prized for their scent. Still more natural ingredients were used medicinally, including acacia, camomile, basil, dill, celery, cumin, fenugreek, lily, mandrake, pine and rue. Servants circulated at dinner parties with cones of goosefat mixed with perfume for guests to put on their heads. During the course of the evening the fat melted down through those heavy wigs, releasing the scent into the banquet hall.

The psychological effects of association with a particular smell are by now well known. Take advantage of that powerful tool by using your favorite scent whenever you meditate or do other work at your altar. True essential oils are a nice break from the smoke of burned incense, particularly if you are allergy-prone or have a respiratory illness like asthma. Just a drop in a much larger quantity of almond oil will allow you to breathe in the benefits of that plant.

And if you really want to treat yourself, Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy & Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt, by Lise Manniche, is a deliciously aromatic read, plus a gorgeous coffee-table book.

Dear Readers!

I'm Sihathor, and welcome to this, the maiden post of "A Thousand of Every Good Thing"! Titles are always hard-- Names, whether of people or projects, are important to me, as a person, and as a Kemetic (being a part of the spiritual anatomy,the Ren, in the latter). The title comes from a common phrase on offering lists in Egyptian tombs. The phrase jumped out at me, and then the interpretation. On the one hand, I haven't restricted the phrase to its funerary context, and on the other, I have extended the concept of offering farther, not just to the dead, but also to you, my very-much-alive readers.