Soft Moon Shining

My beloved Divine Mother
  Dance with me
    under the soft moon shining
    in the wide open fields
      far beyond the toil and trouble
      of my busy mind

  Dance with me
    before the night grows old
      while the winds of love
      still bow the grasses
        and the coyotes howl for you
        to step their way

  Dance with me my beloved
    while the Mystery's Edge
      still flirts in the shadow
        of your radiant light

By Ethan Walker III from his beautiful devotional book Soft Moon Shining

Goddess of Autumn

A poem by Viviane Crowley

I am the Waning Moon, the Goddess who is fading from the land

In the Springtime I sought my Lord and mated with him beneath the trees and stars

At Bealtaine I wed my Lord beneath the first blossoms of the hawthorn tree

And in the Summertime I ripened the apples in the orchards and the fruit grew round and strong

At the corn harvest I cut down my Lord that by his death our people might be fed

And now in the Autumn time I descend beneath the Earth

To dwell with my Lord in his dark kingdom until our child is born

At the Winter Solstice I will bring forth the child and renew your hope

And at Candlemas I myself will return to renew the land.

Shedding Light on Ourselves

When we choose that which is not best for us,

there can be a deep seated part of us that does not want to heal.

In almost every case, we know what is best for us in our lives, from the relationships we create to the food we eat. Still, somewhat mysteriously, it is often difficult to make the right choices for ourselves. We find ourselves hanging out with someone who leaves us feeling drained or choosing to eat fast food over a salad. We go through phases where we stop doing yoga or taking vitamins, even though we feel so much better when we do. Often we have no idea why we continue to make the less enlightened choice, but it is important that we inquire into ourselves to find out.

Embracing Your Muse

Nearly all creative possibilities are related to the Muses that inspire us.

Inspiration is an intangible yet inseparable part of the creative process.  The ancient Greeks believed that all creation, whether artistic or scientific in nature, was motivated by Goddesses who served as the literal embodiment of inspiration.  These were the Muses—the givers of the creative spark.

We still rely on Muses to drive the creative process, though ours may take a diverse range of forms. People we meet, intriguing ideas, movies, books, nature, and cultural ideals all have the potential to awaken our imaginative minds. When we are touched by our muses, we understand viscerally that we are capable of producing our own unique kind of greatness.

Invocation to Sekhmet

As it was at Memphis,

So be it now!

Hear me, I beseech Thee,

O Powerful One!

Lady of Rekht,

Lady of Pekhet,

Lady of Set,

Lady of Rehesaui,

Lady of Tchar and of Sehert!

Mother in the Horizon of Heaven,

In the Boat of Millions of Years,

Thou art the Great Defender!

Thou art Overthrower of Qetu!

Preserve us from the evil chamber

of the souls of Hes-hra!

Deliver us from

the abode of Fiends!

O Thou Who Art

Messengers from the Wilderness

A plant is a weed only within a certain context;

one person's weed is another person’s wildflower.

Simply expressed, a weed is any plant that grows where it is not wanted. Weeds are defined by their tendency to flourish at the expense of a gardener’s overall vision, and we tend to battle their presence in our yards. It is interesting to consider, though, that a plant is a weed only within a certain context, which is to say that one person’s weed is another person’s wildflower.

Invocation to Bast

You move silently in the night
When shadows shift in dim moonlight
You lie in ambush biding your time
You are Bast, the cat divine

The enemies of Light and Ma'at
Are desperate not to cross your path
For while you move on velvet paws
You rend your foes with deadly claws

Only fools judge you by your size
Thinking you naught but the doom of mice
While you slay creatures of decay and strife
You are Bast, the Daughter of the Light

 

(Copyright © Avalon Sakti 2006)

Bast - a Solar and Lunar Goddess

Bast is a Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) Goddess worshiped at Bubastis in the Nile Delta where she was enthroned as the cat-headed incarnation of Isis, or alternately as the seated sacred cat. In ancient artwork, Bast is typically shown as a beautiful girl with the head of a cat.  she is commonly shown with black, white, yellow, or glowing skin, but often she is depicted fully in cat form.

Bast was said to be the daughter of Ra, though long after he created the primal Gods. She was originally a sun goddess, but after contact with the Greeks, she changed to a Moon Goddess, probably due to the Greeks associating her with Artemis, although some sources connect Bast with the ancient Egyptian Godddess Neith.  Like Artemis, Bast was a wild Goddess. To those who were in her favour, she gave great blessings, but her wrath was legendary and she was sometimes listed as one of Ra's avenging Deities who punish the sinful and the enemies of Egypt.

She was also the Egyptian Goddess of pleasure, music, dancing and joy, associated with cats, the rising sun, the moon, truth, enlightenment, lesbians, sexuality, physical pleasures, fertility, bounty, birth, plenty, the household and protector of the home, civilization, creation, music, dance, the arts, hemp, and the battler of serpents which attack the Sun God.  Bast also viewed as the beneficent side of the lioness Goddess Sekhmet.