Odin Project: Day 19

The wise tread soft | the body of Jörð,

But fools poison their fields;

How can one eat | or drink so well

with death in every mouth?

Odin Project: Day 2

Hail to the Father | giver of breath

Who raised the trees to life

Crafter of Midgard | from Ymir’s corpse

You fashioned our home

Prayers to the Gods and Spirits of Storm, Wind, and Sky

Prayer 1

May the Gods of Storm and Sky

Dance lightly in the world

From coast to coast

Continent to continent

 

May Their steps be light

Sparing life where They may

Bringing life where They step

 

Prayer 2

Lightning, sleet, snow

Rain, hail, and winds

Gales, gusts, and forces

Be gentle to Your people

Be gentle to their homes

Be gentle to their loved ones

 

Prayer 3

Hail, Gods of Storm and Sky

Keep us in Your hearts

As You dance in the Skies and Upon ocean and land

About home and field and city

 

Prayer 4

Hail to You, Blessed Ones

Of Storm and Sky, Weather and Wind

May we remember

That many of us call You Father, Brother, Sister, Mother

Your statues grace our altars

Your Names grace our lips

Your Blood is in our veins

Your Breath is in our lungs

Your Holiness, in Its power and awe, abides in us

Even in fear may we hail You

Even as the rain falls and the snow piles may we hail You

Even as hardships come may we hail You

Knowing that You bring blessing with bane

That You bring comfort with sorrow

That through Death’s door come’s Life’s return

Hail to Lady Hel

The Halls of Helheim

Few alive have seen

Death’s home and Dead’s abode

Yet here within the splendorous Halls

We all may find a home

Perhaps on plains we take our rest

Upon grain and well-turned earth

Perhaps by river or field or fen

Our rest is finally earned

Perhaps in cave so hollow

Yet sweet-smelling and richly warm

Sweet Hel has a place for us

A place we are reborn

She tends to all the newly Dead

And old who’ve taken rest

All those who have taken leave of Life

Come to Her generous breast

We lay our head upon Her home

Some stay but for a while

When we leave She does not grieve

Her Gate it opens wide

For in Her a part of us remains

Waiting our return in time

So when the Dead leave your home

In gurney, mound or grave

Celebrate Life’s giving way

And new Life that is made

Hail to the Lady Hel

To Mordgud Guardian in black

Hail to the Dead our lives are owed

We all are coming back!

Calling

By Ash and Elm

By Root and Ice

By Water and by Flame

We call to You O Holy Ones

By all Your Holy Names

 

By grave and mound

By blood and bone

By flesh and by soul

We call to You O Ancestors

By Your generations manifold

 

By soil and seed

By scale and fur

By tooth and by nail

We call to You O Landvaettir

By Your Sacred homes we hail

 

By work and word

By death and life

By vow and by deed

We call to You O Holy Gods

By Your Holiness that we seek

A Prayer for the Aurora, Colorado Dead

May we know healing in this time of grief

Frigga, please, let us know comfort

 

May we judge in wisdom and see truth

Odin, please, give us insight

 

May we remember the names, for in remembrance these people live on

Hyndla, please, help us to remember

 

May we well mark their passage from this world

Hel, please, receive them well

 

May the victims know rest

Jörð, please, give them rest

 

May we know justice for the families and victims

Tyr, please, bring us justice

 

May we all be able to laugh again

Loki, please, help us find joy

 

May all those who feel this loss be given strength

Sigyn, please, help us bear this venom

 

Adorations of Nepthys

I adore You, Mistress of the Gods

I adore You, Great Goddess

I adore You, Goddess of Decay

I adore You, Goddess of Resurrection

I adore You, Goddess of Excellence

I adore You, Lady of Heaven

I adore You, Lady of Life

I adore You, Lady of the House

I adore You, Lady of the Temple Enclosure

I adore You, Lady of Baskets

I adore You, Lady of Tambourines

I adore You, Lady of Senu

I adore You, Lady of Hebet

I adore You, Lady of Per-mert

I adore You, Lady of Re-nefert

I adore You, Lady of Het-sekhem

I adore You, Lady of Ta-kheset

I adore You, Lady of Diospolites

I adore You, Daughter of Nut

I adore You, Daughter of Geb

I adore You, Wife of Set

I adore You, Lover of Osiris

I adore You, Sister of Isis

I adore You, Mother of Anubis

I adore You, Mother of Mourners

I adore You, Companion to the Dead

I adore You, Clother of the Dead

I adore You, Who Lives in the Sky

I adore You, Who Grieved with Isis

I adore You, Who Renewed Osiris

I adore You, Nurse of Horus

I adore You, Who Accompanies Ra

I adore You, Guardian of the Bennu

I adore You, Guardian of Hapi

I adore You, Guardian of Neferhotep

I adore You, Guard of Pharaohs

I adore You, Rainbringer

I adore You, Childbearer

I adore You, Midwife

I adore You, Goddess of the Neglected

I adore You, Protector of Corpses

I adore You, Air-dancer

I adore You, Golden-tongued

I adore You, Crow-winged

I adore You, Boundary-tester

I adore You, Killer of Hangovers

I adore You, Seer in the Dark

I adore You, Who Reveals in Moonlight

I adore You, Holy Mother

I adore You, Mother of Those Most Useful

I adore You, Of Helping Hands

I adore You, Of Healing Hands

I adore You, Of Hands That Comfort the Dying

I adore You, Of Hands That Cradle the Dead

I adore You, Who is Comfort in Darkness

I adore You, Of the Gentle Night

I adore You, Of the Bed of Life

I adore You, Giver of Life in Death

I adore You, Vulture Queen

From the Last Breaths to the New Lives,

I adore You, Nepthys

Anubis and I

I met Anubis when I first became a Wiccan in 2004.  I was having really bad dreams about my girlfriend dying in a car accident, and I was not sure what to do.  I talked with my priestess, and she referred me to her husband who is a Khemetic Pagan.  He listened to me talk about the anxiety I felt, the fear, and the uncertainty of what do with the dream, or if it was even something to worry about.  He felt there was a message in it.  He gave me a written spell I was to speak before I slept, asking Anubis to guide me in understanding the dream. 

I went home to my dorm room that night and spoke the spell.  I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw, damn near as real as I was, Anubis standing before me.  I was dumbstruck.  I had never been in the presence of a God or Goddess like this before.  For several minutes all I could do was look at Him, in all His glory.  I was feeling a mix of terror, fear, and awe.  All I had done was spoken a simple spell.  I could not fathom what could make Him appear like this to me.

I eventually looked up to Him and into His kohl-black eyes.  All He said to me was “I will help you.”  Then, as quick as He had come, He left.  I was still shaking a bit as I crawled into bed.  It didn’t take me long to knock out, though.  I eventually sorted out the dream, and from what I remember, it was something about my anxieties of losing my girlfriend, and feeling the hole of absence of a loved one in my life.  I couldn’t shake the question, for the longest time, why He would appear like that to me.

Time passed, and the eclectic Wiccan group I was involved in broke apart.  I found another group to study with.  I blew through a lot of the introductory material they had, and they put me to work to find a God to work with.  I kept getting drawn back to Anubis, but I was not sure if I should come to Him.  After a lot of hemming and hawing on my part, my priestess had me go through a guided meditation to meet the Gods that wished to work with me. 

The first part of it I was brought before an ancient Egyptian temple, censers full of incense smoking.  I entered, a person censing me, and followed a priest to the throne where Anubis sat.  He held His was staff in His right and an Ankh in His left.  The priest left me before Him, and He towered over me.  I knelt.  What else can you do in the overawing presence of a God?

In His deep voice, He asked me to approach Him.  I did, and He gave His Ankh and staff to two attendants.  They were silent as they worked, but I found I could not take my eyes off of Him.  I could smell Him, I could hear Him step towards me, could feel His breath.  He was and is a beautiful, intimidating God.  He told me to hold out my hand, that I had many years of work to make up for.  He took a curved knife from a nearby attendant, and drew it across His, then my hand.  He clasped my hand, and held it firmly there.

I do not have the words to fully describe what I felt in that moment.  It was like something of Him and I rushed into one another, that something of Him imbued itself in me with permanence.  I felt a rush of emotions so quick I wasn’t sure what I felt beyond moment to moment.  I felt bonded to Him; He greeted me as brother.  I wanted to weep, to laugh, and I embraced Him.  Then, He told me it was time to leave, that I had more Gods to meet, and we would see each other soon.  I left His temple, and everything faded as I went to meet the next God.  This is a story for another time.

Not long after this encounter with Him, I picked up every resource I could on ancient Egypt, and especially Anubis.  What time I did not spend with my girlfriend, my religious group, or at classes, I spent in research and worship.  Over the year (2005), I dug into research about His priesthood.  I knew I wasn’t going to be doing mummification.  I was told I was to work with the lost Dead when I entered His priesthood.  That intimidated me.  What was I supposed to do to prepare?  So I went back to all those resources. 

In preparation for entering His priesthood, shaved all of my body hair off, including my eyebrows.  I was told I looked something akin to Uncle Fester; all that was missing was the light bulb.  I did many prayers throughout the following week or so, asking Him to bless me, purifying myself, readying myself for what was to come.  The priestess invoked Him to bless me and invite me into His priesthood.  However, He had a challenge for me to enter His priesthood. 

I was to be ritually slain, mummified, enter the Duat and come back.  I was to go through the passage presented in The Book of Coming Forth by Day and other works, and had several spells from the Book made over me.  First, however, I was purified by incense, and spoke the Negative Confession.  I spoke words of regrets and pain that would weigh down my heart before my priestess and my girlfriend, who was assisting the priestess.  When I was ready, a knife was taken, and drawn up from my toes to the top of my head, and I fell into the arms of my girlfriend.  I felt as if I had been split open, stem to stern, my guts for the world to see.  I felt agony, but it was as though my mouth did not work.  I felt my blood spill, but my arms wouldn’t work so I could close the wound.  I was at the mercy of my priestess and her attendant to care for me. 

They removed my organs, placing them into the canopic jars, speaking blessings over them that I could not hear.  I was dismembered, I was mummified; I felt my body as though it was packed full of natron.  I felt my brain smashed, and the world went dark.  Somehow, I was still there, passively aware of what was going on.  I was ritually mourned, from what I was told, but they were just echoes as I went down, down into the Underworld to be judged.  Anubis met me, an Ankh in His left hand, scaled in the other.  He led me down a long, dark passage on either side a throng of Gods sitting, looking at me.  Torches lit the area, casting long shadows.  I approached where He stopped, a winged woman sitting on a throne.  She gave Anubis one of Her feathers, which He placed onto the scale.  Pulling my heart from my chest, He weighed it.  It was, mercifully, lighter than the feather.  A door of rock lifted on the far side of the chamber, away from the throne, and I was told to enter it.

 There was an expanse of desert before me, and a biting, blowing wind.  I entered this world.  The sun was beating down on me, and little scorpions scuttled all around.  I heard something whispering as though it were behind me as I moved into this world.  I wandered in the desert for a long time, seeing spirits I don’t have names for, and being halted at gates by various beings, asked questions by some and attacked by others.  I saw ka spirits who had made the journey and were stuck.  I saw small trees growing by oasis pools, but I did not stop.  I kept walking for what seemed to me like an eternity, and eventually saw the River.  On the other side I could see a palace, grand and golden with opened doors.  A boat was waiting, and let me on when I asked permission to board.  I reached the palace, and entered, censed by attendants on either side of the door, and my feet and body were washed.  It felt as though my soul was scrubbed clean to walk in that holy house.  I was bidden to approach the throne, and sitting there was Osiris.  He spoke words to me that I do not remember consciously, and had me cross the Duat once again to go back to my body.  When I eventually returned to the Hall of Judgment, Anubis guided me up the steps, back into consciousness.

 I felt sore as hell, like I had just come out of surgery, and just wanted to sleep.  I had to recover for about a week before I felt like doing much of anything outside of my daily grind and sleep.  That was when my Work with Him picked up.

 From then on, until about 3 years ago, I was doing regular work with Anubis on helping lost Dead find their way to wherever they needed to get to.  My Work with Anubis more or less revolved around this.  Until I set boundaries I would sometimes get woken up at 3 in the morning to go help some aimless spirit find its way.  This Work was done sometimes every night for a few weeks on end, and others maybe once every other week.  I was on call for when He needed me, whether to help lost spirits find their way, deliver a message for people, or to conduct rituals for Him.  He has pushed me to own myself more, to develop my sense of self, to trust my instincts and intuition through His Work.

 Then, without warning in 2008, He called to me and told me it was time to put down His service for awhile.  He told me that I was to enter into another’s service.  Anubis led me to Odin, and while He did not release me from His priesthood, He allowed me to put His Work on the backburner while I established my relationship with my Father, and took on His Work.  So for a long while much of my Work with Anubis has stalled, and our relationship became more lax.

 Our relationship is God and priest, but it also has an element of brotherhood to it.  When I first began working with Him I did a lot of kneeling, genuflecting and the like.  While our relationship still has elements of this, He has asked this to be less emphasized.  Nowadays there’s more emphasis towards regular interaction and conversation with Him through prayer and feeding and watering His statue on my altar.  A month or so ago He asked me to prepare to come back into His service alongside my service to Odin.  I am not sure yet what this Work will include, but I am keeping my ears open.