The Goddess Sekhmet

Among the most powerful of all ancient Egyptian Deities was the Triad of Memphis - the Goddess Sekhmet and the Gods Ptah and Nefertem. To the extent that this Knowledge survives, it is to be found in the Path or Way of the Goddess Sekhmet, known as The Way of the Five Bodies. The Goddess Sekhmet is undoubtedly one of the most ancient Deities known to the human race. She came into Egypt from a place unknown and at a time unrecorded. Some of Her Names refer to this very great antiquity. Sekhmet is also known as Mother of All the Gods. Almost always the images of Sekhmet represent Her with the powerful but graceful body of a human female and a head of a lioness. The name Sekhmet has been derived from or is connected with the root sekhem to be strong, mighty, violent, others have added the meaning of sexual power. Sekhmet as She was the personification of the fierce, scorching and destroying heat of the sun rays. She took up her position on the head of her father Ra, and poured out from herself blazing fire which scorched and consumed his enemies who came near. She is made to say, I set the fierce heat of the fire for a distance of million cubits between Osiris and his enemy, and I keep away from him the evil ones, and remove his foes from his habitation. Flame, as a destroying element, and in texts of all periods she plays the part of a power which protects the good and annihilates the wicked. O Sekhmet- Bast- Ra, thou mistress of the gods, thou bearer of wings, thou lady of the red apparel, queen of the crowns of the South and North, mistress and lady of the tomb, Mother in the horizon of heaven, gracious one, beloved, destroyer of rebellion, offerings are in thy grasp. Praise be unto three, O Lady, who art mightier than the gods, words of adoration rise unto three from the Eight Gods of Hermopolis. O thou art their mother, thou source from which they sprang, who makest for them a place in the hidden Underworld. The views of the Goddess Sekhmet are negative, emphasizing Her destructiveness and tending to dwell almost exclusively upon a single myth or legend, one most often referred to as The Myth of the Destruction of Mankind by the Goddess Sekhmet. The Gods counseled together and it was decided that Sekhmet, the force against which no other force avails, should manifest on the earth and quell the rebellion. Sekhmet would manifest and punish all those who had held in their minds evil images and imagines wicked plots. Then Sekhmet walked among men and destroyed them, and drank their blood. Night after night Sekhmet waded in blood, slaughtering humans, tearing and rending their bodies, and drinking their blood. The other Gods decided that the slaughter was enough and should stop, but they could find no way to stop Sekhmet, who was drunk on human blood. As the carnage went on, the Gods recognized that Sekhmet, Her rage sustained by intoxication, would implacably proceed with the killing until the last human life had been extinguished.

Then Ra had brought to him from Elephantine certain plants which have been said to be of the Solanaceae family and which can be brewed as powerful mind-altering drugs. Those plants, and possibly also opium and hemp, were sent to the God Sekti at Heliopolis. Sekti added these drugs to a mixture of beer and also human blood, until seven thousand great jugs of the substance had been made. The jars were taken to a place where Sekhmet would pass and there were poured out onto the ground, inundating the fields for a great distance. And then Sekhmet came to the fields and perceived what She thought to be blood, She rejoiced and drank all of the liquid. Then Her heart was filled with joy, Her mind was changed, and She thought no more of destroying mankind. The occasion was afterwards celebrated among humans by a feast at which beautiful girls prepared a beverage containing the drugs which had been administrated to the Goddess. These girls, serving as priestess of Sekhmet, participated then with male celebrants in an orgiastic festival held in Sekhmets honor, and the most important aspect of this gathering was the experience made possible by the drinking of the substance though to be identical, save for the human blood, with that prepared for Sekhmet by the Gods. Such orgiastic festivals were also held after battles with the hope of pacifying the Goddess more destructive nature. People danced, played, and shook the sistum, celebrating Sekhmet as Beautiful, Brilliant and Adorable to sooth Her wildness. Sekhmet came eventually to represent the ecstasies of love. Sekhmet-Bast, who is higher than all the gods, and is the only one who stands above her father, is called The Lady of the Scarlet-Coloured Garment. The Only One, by the name of Sekhmet-Bast, the goddess of sexual passion and strong drink, who is the mistress of the gods, not as a wife, but as the promiscuous concubine- she who was uncreated by the gods and who is mightier than the gods, to her the eight gods offer words of adoration. To the Egyptian Sekhmet in characterizing Her as a Goddess of powerful sexual passions and with a love for intoxication states. Sekhmet is Protectress of the Divine Order and, such as, protects the Gods against whatever evil force may menace them. Ferocious though She is, Her power is never arbitrarily directed. Like the lioness, She fiercely protects what She loves and that for which she is responsible, destroying transgressors and the evildoers and enemies of the Gods or of the Pharaoh. A Goddess of Wrath, Sekhmet retaliates with total savagery whenever She or Her allies are attacked or wronged in some way. Although She may seem to welcome the opportunity to respond to aggression, there is no evidence of Her ever initiating or provoking conflict. Her great power to destroy is dedicated to righteous ends, and it is because of Her power that morally correct but destructive tasks are made Hers. Her reactions thus, no matter how violent, are essentially actions stemming from loyalty and love. The principal methods of destruction associated with the Goddess were fire, pestilence or plague, and drought. She was thought to have Her primary dwelling place in the desert, where She was thought to roam in full lioness body, and would from there send hot winds carrying disease and epidemics to destroy enemies. Bringer of diseases, Sekhmet also was the Great One of Healing. The same dualism occurs with respect to Her role as the Goddess of Fertility and the One Who Controls the Water of Life. She is both Goddess of War and Goddess of Love. And, as the Flaming One, She had the capacity to

totally destroy subtle bodies and souls so that there could be for the victim no afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation. Yet Sekhmet was also the greatest protector of the dead in the Underworld. Some of the Underworld experiences of the dead candidate were of fiends and vampires and other horrors also believed to await the actually dead. Those who could not overcome their fear of these terrifying beings were screened out since the Path of the magician-priest would only result in madness, severe physical illness and possibly death for those who could not overcome their fear in the trance-death experiences. Those who did overcome their fear of apparitions and eventually fear of death, then could penetrate still deeper into de Mysteries and, perhaps, eventually achieve full status as magician-priest of Sekhmet. There is a Tradition which says that there once existed and elaborate system of sexual mysticism and magic originating with Sekhmet and which later was lost, perhaps taken away from Her. The word shakti is itself a Hindu derivation from the name of Sekhmet. Concerning the Goddess Sekhmet, more biographical information will become available from the scrutiny of some of Her Names and Epithets. No other deity of ancient Egypt is represented by so many large statues as Sekhmet. Most of the existing large statues of the Goddess were created by order of Amenhotep III. It has been estimated that the number of statues placed there was 572. Another very great but unknown number of large Sekhmet statues were place by Amenhotep in and around his temple at Kurneh, on the opposite and western bank of the Nile at Thebes, although it is conjectured that they may have been promised to Sekhmet in Her healing role or to terminate pestilence. Such an essential statue of a Deity was kept in the innermost chamber of the temple sacred to the God or Goddess represented, and it was carefully guarded and tended by the priests. Such a statue had the capacity to heal, to overcome enemies, to perform a great many other magical and miraculous feats, but most important of all, to teach.