Pathworking with the Egyptian Gods by Judith Page

Author:Judith Page
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: egypt, pathworking, egyptian, mysticism, deity, ancient, rites, ritual, meditation, spirituality
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2010-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

LEGEND OF HATHOR

O thou beautiful Being, thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk, within thy mother Hathor.

PAPRYUS OF NEKHT

Hathor was known as Het-Hert and Hetheru, Athyr, Lady of Malachite, and Lady of Turquoise. Her worship originated in predynastic times (fourth millennium BC).

She was the matron and embodiment of what were considered the pleasures of life five thousand years ago, and which for many continue so to this very day: joy, love, romance, fertility, dance, music, alcohol, and perfume.

Although she was inherently connected to the female of the species, Hathor cannot be considered only a women’s deity as she also had a large and devoted following among men.

As she was associated with metal, she held spiritual dominion over the Sinai Peninsula, and was responsible for the success and well-being of the mines in that area. Hathor was intensely worshipped by male miners and soldiers, as she was by women in childbirth or young girls wishing for husbands. Both genders readily recognized the sacred divine within her seductively vibrant, joyous beauty.

The name Hathor means “Hut of Horus,” but it may not be her original name. The link with Horus can be traced back to the Narmer Palette, where Hathor is depicted at the top of the famous palette overseeing the events detailed therein. In the centre of the palette is Narmer wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, whose symbol is the flowering lotus. To the right of the king is kneeling a prisoner, who is about to be struck by the king. Above the prisoner is a falcon, representing Horus, perched above a set of papyrus flowers, the symbol of Lower Egypt.

Since that time, Hathor’s principal form was that of the cow, and was strongly associated with motherhood. At the temple of Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbal, the queen is depicted as Hathor on many of the wall reliefs, and in another sanctuary Rameses II, her husband, is shown receiving milk from Hathor the cow.

When a child was born in ancient Egypt, seven Hathors (somewhat like fairy godmothers) would appear to “speak with one mouth,” and decide the child’s destiny.

Hathor’s own child was Ihy, who was worshipped in Denderah with her and Horus-Behdety. Like his mother, Ihy was a god of music and dancing, and was always depicted as a child bearing a sistrum.

Hathor, the female companion of Apis the Bull, was often pictured as a naked lady, having horns and holding the sun on her head. Like Sekhmet, Hathor was closely connected with the sun god Ra of Heliopolis, whose “eye” or daughter she was said to have been.

In her cult centre at Denderah in Upper Egypt, she was worshipped with Horus. At Dehr el-Bahri, in the necropolis of Thebes, she became “Lady of the West” and patroness of the region of the dead.

Her other title, “Lady to the Limit,” means in every sense “limit” to the edges of the known universe, and “Lady of the West ” is a perfect devotional title in her funerary stance behind Osiris, welcoming the dead to their new home.

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