The Goddess is very much alive

What a wonderful Goddessy week this week has been.  It commenced with the first devotional service for 2012 that was held on Tuesday night in honour of the Bone Mother and the Child of Winter.  Then I received notification on Wednesday that one of the anthologies I had submitted essays for, Unto Herself: A Devotional Anthology for Indepent Goddesses was now available to purchase.  This anthology contains my essay on the ancient Goddess Neith.  I am also eagerly awaiting notification as to when the other anthologies that I have also submitted essays to will be available, and have blogged about this on my Musings of a High Priestess blog.

Sopdet, Egyptian Goddess of the New Year

With the new calendar year fast approaching, now is the time that many of us start to contemplate a fresh start and new beginnings.  To the ancient Egyptians, the Goddess who marked the coming of the new year was Sopdet ("skilled woman"), or Sothis, who is more commonly personified as the "dog star" Sirius, a star that held great importance to the ancient Egyptians.

When the heliacal rising occurred (when Sirius became visible above the eastern horizon prior to sunrise), this marked the time when the Nile River, the life blood of the country, started to flood*.  It was the silt that came from this flooding that enabled the farmers to grow their crops, and thus the flooding was associated with bringing fertility to the land.