"She of Nekheb"









PEERING into the lush gardens surrounding the Temple,
the young priests are overwhelmed by
the beauty and tranquility that greets them.
They are expectant and thrilled
at being chosen to serve here.
Quickly they begin gathering all they need
for today's festivities:
the fragrant blooms of the sacred lotus for decoration,
succulent meats and cheeses, fine breads
oh...and they certainly can't forget
the wonderful jugs of hearty , delicious wines.
Today is going to be a most auspicious occasion.
The newly built Temple to the great Goddess Nekhbet
has just been completed and all are welcome
to come honor and celebrate.

COME with me now and let us explore this sacred and
elegant Temple in the glorious city of Nekheb
and learn much about the great Goddess Nekhbet.



NEKHBET, "She of Nekheb,"
is the Vulture Netjer associated with
both the land of Upper Kemet itself and its protection,
and the protection and symbolism of the White Crown (Hedjet).
Nekhbet is often depicted as a full vulture
flying over the head of the ruler bearing the feather
of Ma'at and a shen, the circular symbol
for eternity grasped in her claws.
On depictions of the Udjat, she is often
accompanied by Wadjet, the cobra Netjer of the North,
and symbolizes one half of the Two Lands
which make up Kemet politically.
Her head was mounted on the nemes
headdress of rulers alongside Wadjet's uraeus
or cobra head (witness the beautiful vulture on the forehead of
King Tutankhamun's funerary mask), and a
vulture headdress was worn by the chief queen/consort
from the New Kingdom forward, identifying her both
with Nekhbet and with Mut of Uaset.

PER-WER was the shrine of Nekhbet,
the vulture Goddess of southern(Upper) Egypt at the
beginning of Egyptian civilization.
The city of El-Kab (or Nekheb) honored the
Goddess Nekhbet, who was represented by a
white vulture perched on three lilies
or three stylized lotus flowers.
She holds in her claws the insignia of
royalty, recalling the ancient period when the south
was an independent kingdom fighting with the
kingdom of the North.

IN EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY, Nekhbet was invoked under the name
of the Goddess "Shetat."
Locally, she was considered to be a creation Goddess,
who created the world pronouncing seven words
and launching seven arrows.
Remember that Isis will also take the aspect
of a vulture to fly over the dead body of Osiris
and spiritually impregnate him.
Nekhbet is also equated with the Greek Eileithyia,
Goddess of childbirth and would appear to fit snugly
into the category of supernaturals, who were simply primitive
personifications of ideas or principles.

ICONOGRAPHICALLY, the Goddess is often shown with wings spread,
grasping the symbols of eternity in her claws.
She also appears as a vulture at rest
in statuary or as an element in one of the
king's titles. With one wing outstretched
before her she is a protective symbol carved above
royal or ritual scenes. She was also recognized
as one of the "two Mighty Ones",
the tutelary Goddesses of the kingdoms united
into one state around 3000 BC.



IMPORTANT EPITHETS for the understanding
of the nature of Nekhbet can be gleaned
from the Pyramid Texts. The king's mother
is named as the "Great White Cow" who
dwells in Nekheb and possesses hanging breasts.
Here the allusion is to Nekhbet
as a mother Goddess for which the cow
imagery is traditional in Egyptian thought.
In royal birth scenes Nekhbet takes the role of
protective nurse to the monarch. She can even take
the serpent form of the northern Goddess,
normally to form an heraldic device
around the sun disk or royal name.

HER CULT SANCTUARY at El-Kab is impressive
in size but devastated. The presence of a Middle Kingdom
shrine is attested as are constructions from Dynasty XVIII,
but the present ruins date to the
last native rulers, Dynasties XXIX-XXX.







A Few Passages From
The Egyptian Book Of The Dead



"What does it mean to have come home,
but to have entered the place where a man lives,
to have pierced skin and found red desire
that lingers, to know that love
is salve and salvation.
Family is all that the house may hold.
Blessings on he who enters."



"Once the world was formless and empty
with night until found by the light and filled.
Under a moon both dark and bright,
man grew half-obscured, while olive branches
bent toward the light and roots dug deep
in clay darkness. We create ourselves in
the forms we imagine. Years pass.
We are what we have spoken."



"I am air and flame, water and dust.
I am a wick burning in a blue bowl of oil,
a fiery sun rising in a tranquil sky.
I am the phoenix. I am light.
I come forth by day. I am heat burning up mist.
I am power, an ancient river overflowing.
I am love and memory and sorrow that drift away."



"My time is a reflection on the surface of water.
A leaf falls and the dream shatters,
breaks to pieces; the leaf drifts off.
Slowly the waters calm and draw themselves
together. And the leaf's life, like a thought,
passes from me on the ripple of its own vibration.
It enters the world. I am a holy man,
not because I am so wise,
but because I am a temple of God.
I am a Priest of the heart.
I know what is mine to feel.
I let the rain from heaven fill me.
I give love away as easily as water. "



"Then as men celebrate the coming light,
I shall pass into darkness.
I shall wander the night stumbling
and falling. I shall embrace the great nothing--
a shadow so deep it encompasses all,
unseen but felt in the hearts of men as the sorrow,
the loss, the death. And I shall bless the void
for it prepares me, leaves me empty so that light may enter. "



"The doors of perception open;
what was hidden has been revealed. It is myself I see
and a thousand colors swirling in liquid light.
I am where the sun sets below the mountains.
I am in this body. I am that star rising above clouds
hung by a thread from its ocean moon.
Hail myself traversing eternity walking among Gods,
a shuttle flying across the loom through the threads of time.
This is all one place, one cloth:
a man's life endures. On earth flowers
grow, snakes crawl and wisdom lies in the palm of a hand.
All that is, will be--hawks and sparrows,
the thousand lives within. May we come and go
in and out of heaven through the gates of starlight.
As the houses of earth fill with dancing and song,
so filled are the houses of heaven.
I come, in truth. I sail a long river and row back again.
It is joy to breathe under the stars.
I am the sojourner destined to walk a thousand years
until I arrive at myself. "

All passages taken from "AWAKENING OSIRIS,"
The Egyptian Book Of The Dead







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