In which I am ambushed by an Egyptian.

[saffronhare]

Yesterday's ritual was remarkable for so many reasons, some of which included seeing parents cry while they watched their young ones really work a ritual...singing while losing my voice (in the key of Q, according to zylch)...doing a conga line for Oshun...and having a billion little ones hopped up on honey and dancing with ribbons. Good times.

But the thing that is likely to most directly affect my life (insert heavy sigh here) is the fact that Sekhmet decided to come home with me.

Let me back up a bit.
I tasked the young ones calling the elements with decorating their own altars. The girl calling South brought an amazingly red bath towel, a couple of other fiery things...all good, fine...then, she plops the statue of Sekhmet on the table and I nearly faint. I mean, an image of Sekhmet on an altar in an Oshun ritual! After some conversation with the girl, we decided upon the second-most-disastrous option and gently removed the statue from the altar, wrapped her up and placed her someplace comfortable.

Certain disaster, to expect either of these goddesses to be pleased -- one with having another goddess sitting on an altar in her ritual; the other just sitting on the altar but not actually honored in any way. ::shudder::

Anyway, post-ritual, I converse with the girl's mother to let her know what happened...apologize for the misunderstanding...and offer sympathy for whatever extra offerings may be necessary to make up with Sekhmet. Offhand, I suggest cherry-flavor Nyquil, which I've used to some good effect in the past. (Hey, I'm a Celt.)

Mother recovers from her mild horror at such blasphemy, then says something about how she figured the statue wasn't quiet appropriate, but felt a need to send it anyway. We commisserate for a moment about how when a goddess insists upon coming to a ritual you really can't say no. We wonder together if perhaps She just wanted to be there to see the girl doing her first public ritual, and then I move on.

Not long after that, the mother and girl approach me and say they've figured out why She wanted to come. I say great, that's wonderful. Why? Because she wanted to come home with you, they say, smiling.
.
.
::blink::
.
.
At this point, I have to sit down in the middle of the room and begin laughing hysterically. People actually stop what they're doing to see if I'm okay, sitting there...laughing and choking...holding a 12" painted statue of Sekhmet in my lap. It's a beautiful statue -- marvelously painted -- and she's smiling, like she's patiently waiting for a lovely joke to be revealed. I say again, I'm a Celt. Grr. Gods are wretched.

This is me, laughing. See? Ha. Ha.

I brought her home and placed her on my dresser, which has been draped with barbaric reds and golds for a few weeks now, but with no particular icons. She looks stunningly beautiful there. (in that "looming over you while you look up in terror kind of way," according to zylch).

Darling agrnmn was kind enough to go fetch some cherry-flavored Nyquil and dark chocolate for an offering. Many hubby-points for being so non-plussed by that -- for volunteering, even. He was particularly kind when he pointed out some of the obvious reasons why She might think I'm a lot of fun to be around right now. Naturally, I had seen none of them.


Kudos to him, and all the wise folk who know me, at ritual and otherwise (most remarkably featherynscale, triadruid and zylch) for not saying, "I told you so."

Comments

[pete3great.livejournal.com]

she is fun goddess, she is a sun goddess... etc... can't really end it in "ra ra ra" now can we?

erm, no pics of cute little kids in their ritual fineries?

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Those are locked in a private post by the nice person who brought the digital camera. Since they're minors, we didn't post the pics publicly. However, you can probably look for some of the pics to appear as icons in the near future.

[pete3great.livejournal.com]

i gotcha.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Kudos to him, and all the wise folk who know me, at ritual and otherwise (most remarkably featherynscale, triadruid and zylch) for not saying, "I told you so."

That would be because we absorbed at least part of the lesson of the day and are aware that this is conduct unbecoming great queens and/or kings.

Excuse me, I think I'll go paint my toenails now.

[kcwitch.livejournal.com]

i have bast at my home for the very same reason...she decided she needed to come home with me. also got her from the same family. i'm kewl with it though...she seems to do well here.