Hathor Rising: Chapt 1
Everything in parenthesis is my own input and not necessarily from the author or the book.
Hathor is a “goddess of many colors” in terms of the form she takes and what falls into her domain:
Female Hawk
Cow of Gold
Gold of the Gods
Lady of the Sycamore Tree
Great Lady of Punt, and by extension, the exotic animals, incense, spices and gold they got from Punt.
She can be views as the wadjet eye, the “whole” eye or as an iyret eye, the “doer”
venerated by miners in Sinai: Lady of Turquoise
The Mistress of the Stream Who Makes The River Rise, when the Nile first rises it has a greenish tinge, harkening back to Hathor’s “green face.” The waters often turned red when they receded later in the year.
Hathor protects Ra as the ureaus, and only Ra can tolerate her “heat.” By extension, she is one of the few who can turn in rage against Ra.
She emanates radiant beauty and attraction, and her power compels the sun to rise every morning via this attraction. She is invoked in spells that involve magnetism or drawing something to you.
Her warmth is life itself, and she sparks the desire for relationships and life. If a person recites a spell over a cow of gold, they become “a lord of the phallus, a lord of transformations.”
Hathor-Sekhmet = Dreadful Desire
To shift rage into a beneficent force, or to “turn carnelian into turquoise” was at the core of the myths regarding the Eye of Ra
During the “Destruction of Mankind”, when Sekhmet is raging she is “the confused one in the night” and says that the violence is “balm for my heart.” (I posit that if the ma’at becomes unbalanced, she soothes the pain she feels through violence)
Ra delights in her, but realizes she needs to be placated (and controlled.) As such, he decrees that bacchanalic festivals should be celebrated for her throughout the year to keep her “green faced.”
Her rage mirrors summer and the rough transition from the dry season to the wet season. This is when plague was the most prominent and the increasing water often made matters worse before they were better. Roberts compares this to the Destruction of Mankind myth.
In the “Distant Goddess”, Thoth dunks her in water to cool her anger as soon as they’re back in Egypt. (I posit this relates to purity rites, which usually involve water. Perhaps heka could be made to link purification with cooling anger)
Ra requires her for his protection and the author posits that her anger must be recognized and accepted in order for her more beneficial aspects to be present. (Ignored anger likely swings ma’at out of balance, and in order to have both Hathor and Sekhmet, you need ma’at to be well established)
The Beautiful Reunion:
Third month of Shomu
The statue of Dendara sails southward to Edfu to visit Horus
Several stops along the way including Mut at Karnak, Nekhbet at Hierakonpolis
Spends 13 days in Edfu before sailing back on the 14th day
The visit is to ensure the Nile inundation returns. (Arguably, is a festival to insure ma’at over the summer)
Propitiation of Sekhmet:
Sekhmet’s got seven arrows, the propitiation is aimed at keeping these seven arrows at bay
There are seven verses recited in the final rites for this festival at Edfu
Aimed at protecting the living Horus (read: king) from the seven arrows of the year.
“Even the cycles of nature depend on this goddess of desire and love, whose influence pervades the whole of life.”