Category: quote

zephyr-rain:

i.
Your name is a whispered prayer
on the lips of the half-damned.
Honeyed tongues of embers and sandalwood kisses
ensnare the heart and loins
in sinful melody.

ii.
Divine gold dust tears,
veins of shimmering sorrow,
Sing us a song of loss and longing,
of a wandering husband who
wandered too far.

iii.
Your wings shelter the battered
and the broken.
Desperate fingers, outstretched and seeking
sparks of strength and rivers
of fervent peace.

iv.
Iron and wine.
The wildcat snarls and
the crow gravely calls.
Clash, clatter, and fall,
relinquished to the glory
of blood, dust, and bone.

he walks the lonely paths and shakes the hands of corpses, never one to shy away from death. if anything, he welcomes it, taking minute comfort in such a universal truth. he smiles sadly, feeding a darkness that hungers for more than hearts. it thrives on the complacent. but no one ever said judgement was an easy thing and not every soul can be saved. he learned that the first day he walked as a god.

a.j. reed (via blackcatwalking)

In the text, Khunanup delineates five criteria for a just leader and thereby gives us an important insight into the Maatian concept of social justice. He defmes the Maatian leader as:
1) one “without greed (Sw m rwn);”
2) one “without baseness (Sw m ndyt);”
3) “a destroyer of falsehood (shtm grg);”
4) “a creator of righteousness (sbpr mTt);” and
5) “one who comes at the voice of the caller (ii hr bnu dd-r)” (Bl, 65-68).

The meaning of the second and third criterion is worthy of note for it moves beyond internal righteousness to suggest a need not simply not to lie oneself, but to destroy falsehood in society; not simply to destroy evil (isfet, gereg), but also to create rightness (Maat) and by extension to create the conditions for its coming into being. Again, we see the essentiality of self-conscious practice to create the just and good society.
Finally, the fourth criterion is from the ethic of care and responsibility which is based on imitatio dei in his justice or irt mi Rr–acting like Ra. For it is Ra who is “prime minister of the poor,” who listens and “hears the prayers of one who calls on him,” who “comes at the call of the  humble and needy.” Truly “Amen Ra is He who knows compassion and hearkens to those who call him,” and he “rescues the oppressed from the oppressor” (Beyerlin 1978, 30ff; Assmann 1975).

Thus, the  just leader is morally compelled to imitate divine activity, which in turn is reflective of divine character, compassion, empathetic understanding and loving kindness which translates as assisting, strengthening and delivering the poor and vulnerable.

Ma’at, the Moral Ideal in AE, Karenga, pg 71
(via thetwistedrope)

It is important to note that Khonsuhotep maintains that not only is one godlike through wisdom which is a traditional view in ancient Egyptian anthropology, but all humans are like God by listening to others. This is an expression of the capacity for ethical sensitivity and what Assmann calls “communicative solidarity.” Finally, Amenomope says that “the strength of one who resembles him (God) saves the wretched from oppression”. To be like God, then, is to have his character, nature, and that requires ethical thought, emotion, speech and action.

Ma’at, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt by Karenga (via smarmychristopagan)

Another way in which the common people had access to the gods was through dreams. For Egyptians, the sleeper temporarily inhabits the world of the gods, and dreams could thus often involve contact with the gods.

P. 46 – The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H Wilkinson.
(via thewitchingcow)

still works that way

(via whorunstheworldgrills)

Moreover, as Frankfort states, “The Egyptian views his misdeeds not as sins but as aberrations. They would bring him unhappiness because they disturbed his harmonious integration with the existing world … .” Thus, “He who errs is not a sinner but a fool and his conversion to a better way of life does not require repentance but a better understanding.” Frankfort states that “lack of insight or lack of self-restraint was at the root of man’s misfortunes, but not a basic corruption.” Humans, then, are neither evil by nature nor sinfully corrupted. And thus, one is capable of self-transcendence by self-understanding in community and self-transformation rather than by grace. For it is not by the grace of God but by following his way, Maat, that is posed as the key to moral grounding and human flourishing.

Ma’at, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt by Karenga
(via smarmychristopagan)

For a long time, Seth and Hathor had been the only gods in the Egyptian pantheon to incarnate the foreign-with Seth personifying its masculine, Hathor its feminine aspects…The ambivalent status of the outside world, which had both positive and negative aspects, was reproduced in these two gods, and at the very heart of the Egyptian pantheon…  

The arrival of foreign gods tore a breach in this way of appropriating the outside, making it possible to define the attributes of both Hathor and Set with greater precision. Hathor once again discovered her inclination for gentleness and love, and without disappearing, her sexuality was more or less shorn of its excesses…Seth was progressively confined to the role of exile and intruder, or even foreigner, whereas the new arrivals came to incarnate the positive values he himself had once embodied.

P. 51-52, Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods, Dimitri Meeks and Christine Favard-Meeks. (via thewitchingcow)

The Egyptian believer displays his faith and his devotion in quiet and calm behavior during divine service. The instructions repeatedly call for silence while offering sacrifices in the temple… or while engaged in activities in the necropolis, whose epithet is ‘the place of the quiet.’ The gods – Amun, Wesir, Sobek-Ra – are ‘lords of silence’. The priest whose behavior follows this pattern may take pride in being the ‘possessor of balanced steps’ (qb nmt.t) in the holy of holies and in not ‘raising his voice’.

N. Shupak (1993) 159, H. Frankfort (1948) 66.

mfw my upg of my Father not being talkative is canon

(via trueriptide)

You’re enough. The Gods do not ask for more than we can give. Don’t be afraid to give Them those parts of your life that aren’t picture-perfect. Don’t be afraid to invite Them into the ugly moments you don’t want other people to see. You’re not going to horrify Them. These are not subpar offerings. Far from it. Remember what I said before about intimacy. Vulnerability is its coin, and there are few coins more precious when it comes to building relationships… except maybe trust. Give your Deities the chance to earn yours.

Lucy Valunos, author of “One Heart, Many Gods: The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Devotional Polytheism” (via contumaciouslittlehermit)