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Sekhmet
I love to explore the Divine Feminine and write about Goddesses. For a list of those, click on the link: Goddesses. In order to become more balanced within ourselves and, through that, to bring greater balance and harmony to the world around us, we must find greater balance between the masculine and feminine energies within ourselves that each one of us possesses, regardless of physical gender or any other ways of self-identification.
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Why, for Goddess’ Sake?
As written in my blog What Is Divine? I have explained what the word means and how you are therefore divine. The Goddess, in all her aspects, is in each a symbol, a personification, of your own divinity, helping you to focus on that aspect within yourself and drawing on its power.
Deities are archetypes that are a personification of various aspects of our own Source. They help us to focus on and discover our innate powers, our creative forces and the ability we have to harness and utilize them in a way to express the highest version of ourselves, our essence made manifest in the flesh on our human lifepath. (Also read my blog What Are Deities?)
To bring these aspects closer to your awareness, it is useful to look at the various high-vibrational beings and I have chosen to focus on goddesses as the Divine Feminine is still often suppressed in modern society. It is therefore helpful to learn more about Goddesses in order to connect more deeply and strongly with our own divine feminine qualities.
Sekhmet is an Ancient Egyptian Lion Goddess. Her name means The Power or The Mighty One. Sekhmet symbolises the inherent feminine strength and power in our psychic makeup and is thus, in my view, one of the best Goddesses to start with to show you that the feminine aspect is in no way weaker or inferior to the masculine - nor is it superior.
In order to lead a balanced life, the foundation has to be one of inner balance and acceptance of all aspects of ourselves and turn that which we deem as less-than or not-good-enough into tools and sources of great power. Then we can shape our reality, our emotional and physical experiences in a way that brings us the greatest joy, satisfaction and fulfilment.
A Powerful Hunter
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Sekhmet is a Lion Goddess and the Lion is the most powerful hunter that was known to the Egyptians. She is depicted as a lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness. Sekhmet knows what she wants and will pursue it relentlessly and with a single-minded focus that is as laser-sharp as it is efficient. Nothing can distract her from her goal – or target.
Wikipedia informs us that her other titles were such fearsome ones as (One) Before Whom Evil Trembles, Mistress of Dread, Lady of Slaughter and She Who Mauls. This shows how volatile her energy and persona are. Sekhmet is passion, fire, it can be the spark of inspiration, but also a destructive force that burns everything in its wake, once aroused. She is both, the healer and the inspiration, but also the destroyer and an angry, wrathful and raging inferno.
In order to appease her, Egyptian priestesses would perform rituals in front of another statue of the Goddess each day of the year. Sekhmet’s powers were so mighty that she didn’t have a single festival or two, perhaps. In the Egyptian world, every single day was Sekhmet’s day.
Being depicted with a solar disc and a uraeus, we know that Sekhmet has been closely associated with the Goddesses Wadjet and Bastet, and she was also believed to be the daughter of the Sun God Ra. When she was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, she was wearing a red dress in art, the colour of blood, which was to show her warlike and feral nature, but also symbolised the life force and strength of this exceptional Goddess.
After a battle, there would also be a festival held in Sekhmet’s honour in order to placate her and bring an end to the destruction. At the beginning of the year, there was another one where everyone got drunk ritually to imitate the drunkenness that stopped Sekhmet once from eradicating all of humanity. As the Nile inundation brings with it red soil as well, Sekhmet is believed to have been linked to this also. There is a mythological story in which she has to swallow all excess water in order to prevent a flood which would have caused maximum destruction in Egypt.
The Destructive Force of the Lioness
The above-mentioned story tells of Ra who, at the end of his rule, sends Sekhmet to earth in order to destroy all mortals who conspired against him. However, even at the end of the battle, Sekhmet is still on a killing spree and her bloodlust is not quenched. When she destroyed nearly all of humanity, and there is still no end in sight, Ra pours out beer that has been died with red earth or Hematite in order to resemble blood. Sekhmet falls for this trick and gets completely drunk, thus falling into an alcohol-induced coma which effectively saved humanity from becoming extinct.
Sekhmet was the protector of Pharaoh in battle and was said to have created the desert with her fiery breath. She also stalks the land and destroys Pharaoh’s enemies with arrows of fire. As a solar deity, her body takes on the colour and light of the midday sun, thus earning her the title Lady of the Flame.
Her breath was the hot desert winds and killing, destruction and war were balm for her warrior’s heart. But Sekhmet is also the patron of women and closely associated with menstruation, as this is another form of blood flowing. In this way, she lends women her power, symbolising the great magical and transformational powers of a menstruating woman and, indeed, her blood.
Throughout the 3,000 years of Ancient Egyptian history, Sekhmet has undergone many changes. However, she always remained the fierce, feral warrior Goddess, blood-thirsty and dangerous, volatile and destructive, the bringer of plagues and retribution, as well as being seen as Ra’s eye, a laser lens of solar fire that was so intense that it could nearly have been equated with pure chaos.
This aspect has changed considerably in the modern era of the 21st century. Sekhmet now encompasses a woman’s solar strength, assertiveness and independence. She is seen as a protector, bringer of justice and an ideal of modern womanhood, rather than a wildly destructive force. However, she still carries both of these energies within her and it is to each individual who works with her energy to learn to utilise it correctly without being consumed by it. Passion is wonderful, turning into a stark raving b**ch from hell who carelessly destroys all in her path is not.
Thus, Sekhmet teaches us to curb our temper, control our baser instincts and learn to govern them with discipline and discernment. We can set our whole house on fire, or kindle a flame in the hearth to use as a source of warmth, power and as a tool to build great things. The metalsmith works with fire at great temperatures in order to melt, alloy and form metal into tools, weapons and other wonderfully useful things like door hinges, nails and screws. In spite of her fierceness and readiness to attack and slay those who oppose her, however, Sekhmet also possesses the qualities of compassion and healing.
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In my book of spiritual poetry, My Spirit Song, which comprises 176 poems, Sekhmet’s channellings, both of which I have already received in 2014, as she is one of my closest guides after Anubis and has also been the first Goddess I wrote about, which I have subsequently re-written and added to extensively, can be found in the section on deities. The poems are entitled Sekhmet Speaks and Sekhmet.
In the first, she speaks of her aspects as destroyer and healer and explains how this is not a contradiction, but merely aspects of the same energy, being the destroyer and resurrector. The second poem is a channelling of my Higher Being identifying with the Goddess Sekhmet and counting all the ways in which the Goddess’s qualities coincide with my own innate powers. At the time, still believing myself to be separate from deities and Source, inferior, too. I needed to be told this clearly.
Sekhmet has been my great supporter, my fierce teacher who will not shy from whacking me over the head with her giant energetic paw when I am being obstinate and resist her teachings. She has lent me her strength so often, in other words, she has shown me the way to access this strength that is her personified within me.
Facing the Fire
Sekhmet’s touch is not a gentle, but an infinitely loving one. She will push you past the boundaries of your comfort zone in order to destroy that within you that no longer serves you and create the space and atmosphere for great healing to take place. In this transformation, forgiveness and sacred purpose can emerge. But when you don’t follow her lead, a very likely outcome can be burnout because you exert all your energy into resisting her mighty pull.
Many fear her for her destructive capacities, but they disregard the fact that a tumour must be removed and destroyed in order for healthy cells and tissue to grow and renew themselves. She is, therefore, the quintessential Goddess of Healing. She is also the spark that ignites the process of manifestation through her fire that fuels alchemical transformation.
She is a staunch protector of truth and justice and will push your nose into any lies, which means, she will not allow you to deceive yourself and keep on ignoring the truth in favour of living an illusion. She will rub your nose in it for your own good. With a sledgehammer.
However, there is no need to be scared because Sekhmet is the representation of your own power and strength (also its destructive side) and thus, assures you that you have all you need at your disposal to emerge unscathed and victorious in the end by transforming into an ever more authentic version of yourself, if you follow, rather than resist and oppose the call.
When you work with Sekhmet and her energies, it is also a good time to journal to become, stay aware of, and track your own progress in reaching the next step to level up in our consciousness. Take note of the visions of who you will become as they occur and tap into that power to reach your goal, one step at a time.