So, Iāve been thinking about the recent upsurge in the poop execration talk again.Ā And I will admit to having a bit of a concern about it.Ā Iām going to ramble about this under the read more and it can either be discussed or ignored.
Iām down with execrating things on a monthly basis.Ā I think itās a good community building project and I also feel like it gives people more reason to execrate.Ā There are a lot of people who, except for big festivals (cough ā like myself ā cough), may not take on the rigmarole of what an execration may entail for a lot of reasons. Ā By having an open and ongoing project of this size, it gives those of us who donāt do this on the regular such as myself reason enough to actively participate and to actually feel as if weāre doing something constructive against some shitty stuff.
I think my concern is that we need to keep in mind that we also have to actively do when it comes to execrations. Ā We canāt just rely on pieces of paper or pots of clay that have been smashed, stepped on, spat upon, and burned to a crisp to get something we want done.Ā We also have to go out there and fight the daily battles against the things we execrate: from the personal items that we add to our monthly execrations to the bigger and overarching things, like isfet and the poop.
Letās talk about Zep Tepi for a moment. Ā I swear this relates.
So, I talked about this in a post two years ago and Iām just going to recreate the pertinent statements here:
But as Warboar mentions here,Ā āWep Ronpet itself is a reenactment of Zep-Tepi, also known as āThe First Occasion,ā when the sun first dawned over the new Creation, when all created things were in their purest state, and the Creator was at His strongest and most youthful.āĀ Or, as the KO website, WW Wiki states,Ā āOn Wep Ronpet, Zep Tepi or the āFirst Timeā occurs again, renewing the year and bringing renewal to maāat and to the world.ā
What I failed to realize immediately upon writing the above was that Zep Tepi is a renewal of maāat and the worldā¦ and it occurs every morning.Ā We tend to see it in relation to larger things ā Wep Ronpet, specifically as the quotes above would have us believe.Ā But itās more than that.Ā Each morning, the solar barque successfully passes through the twelfth gate of the Duat and enters the world. Ā Ra has rejuvenated both the Duat and himself to undertake the new day, the new cycle, and prepare for the upcoming battle that will occur again the next evening.
I think thatās something that we must also keep in mind when we do these execrations against things that we are seeing in the world today and that we are experiencing in our personal lives: each day is a new cycle and it is up to us to battle anew.Ā In effect, what Iām saying is that we need to embody Ra, Set, Bast, Sekhmet and all of the other netjeru who battle the poop each evening as the solar barque passes through the seventh gate of the Duat.Ā And we must not only embody them when we execrate the poop, but also in the daily battles we have against the things that we execrate along with the poop each month.
I say this a lot during my monthly heka for all of you to Sekhmet: you must do in order to see the change you are asking her to help you with.Ā If there is anything that I have learned from my time with Sekhmet and from watching my friends in their relationships with the gods, they will not help those who canāt be bothered to help themselves.Ā Itās one thing to ask for help if you are actively working on whatever it is you are looking for help with, but itās another to look to a deity in the hopes that they will magically cure it for you without you having to do the hard work entailed.
None of the things we are execrating will be easily won against with a simple pot smash and a few small words.Ā These are major undertakings to help ourselves and to help our gods.
In many cases, we arenāt just execrating that big fuckface in the seventh hour, but we are also adding things that have caused us pain: the way the world has been flowing lately and the politics that dishearten us; personal demons and failures; mental health issues; emotional health issues; physical health issues; blocks that we view as preventing us from moving forward, etc.Ā These are all things that are going to take more than a simple act ā no matter how much heka is raised with all the other Kemetics swooping in and doing their rituals as well.
We have to constantly work at it to see the changes we want to manifest.
Ā Letās also keep in mind that, especially with regard to the poop, even the gods have not been able to prevent it from resurfacing each evening; it always reappears at the seventh hour.Ā Think about that: the very netjeru to whom we give our attentions to do battle against the poop every night, without fail.Ā This is something that will eventually win when all of existence is flushed down the cosmic toiletā¦ only to lose out when it is started all over again.Ā And still the netjeru have been unable to make the bitch get gone.
So, what Iām trying to get at here is the fact that, in many cases, it could be a long time before we see the change we are hoping to promote with our monthly execrations. Ā We must be patient when it comes to the personal things that we are execrating: we may not execrate it at the exact right time to manifest the change we are hoping the spitting, stomping, breaking, and burning will enact the first time around, the second time around, etc.Ā We may need to keep at it, not just with our execrations, but with our ongoing personal battles as well. Ā Each day, we must be renewed and ready to take on the battle or as much of the battle as we possibly can.
And we must remember that isfet and the poop are two things that thousands of years of execrations at the hands of the ancient Egyptians ā a populace who lived and breathed their religion ā did not bring about its downfall.Ā They only helped to keep the tide back long enough for the netjeru to battle again and again and again.
That is something that we must keep in mind, as well, when doing these execrations.Ā It isnāt an end game for all the poop for all eternity that we are aiming for here. Ā We are only helping the gods to stem the tide so that they may go through the seventh hour battle each night while we wait patiently to see if the sun will rise, to see if they won yet another night.
TL;DRĀ Donāt forget that execrations are only a part of the whole that weāre aiming for here. Ā Donāt forget that you must also actively fight against the things you are execrating, each day, as the gods do against the poop each night.Ā Donāt forget that no matter how many execrations you may undertake against the poop, it will still be there.Ā And above all, do not look to this as a magical cure as there isnāt one. I know; Iāve looked.
