The Calendar Creation Project and The Furthering of a Practice.

So, on July 10th of this year, I wrote the following.

I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED BECAUSE I AM AWESOME AND I FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHERE/WHEN THE START OF MY CALENDAR IS. AND I WANTED TO SHARE. IN CAPS LOCK EVEN. IT’S JULY 30TH. KEEP WATCHING FOR A BIG HUGE BLOG ENTRY, NOT IN CAPS LOCK, THAT WILL DISCUSS THE CALENDAR CREATION.

And nary a word to comment on what the hell went on after that. We’re nearly twenty days after the initial excitement, a day away from the start of the Kemetic New Year for myself, and I still haven’t done much more than freak out that it’s so much closer than I had originally thought it was. (Isn’t it funny how you think you have all the time in the world and then, of a sudden, you realize that all of that time is gone and it’s time to get to doing instead of actually thinking? Funny how things happen like that.) So, since I am planning on snapping pictures and discussing what I did to celebrate this Kemetic new year, I figured I should probably sit my ass down and actually tell you guys what happened and explain some of the things I’m plotting to happen come the morrow.

So, this calendar project has been a thorn in my side for well over a year now. I set it on a back burner and promptly forgot about it. I tend to do that about things are actually pretty big and important. It’s part laziness (a large part) but it’s also because I tend to get confused, which leads to aggravation, which leads to anger, which leads to me getting all angry and upset that I got confused in the first place. However, in regards to the Kemetic calendar thing, I know that I’m not the only person who gets confused by this. Trying to figure out how to correlate a calendar that hasn’t been used in thousands of years, especially since it’s out of whack what with it only being a flat 365 days a year, and based on seasons that I don’t have… Well, yeah. The whole damn thing can get your most seasoned Egyptologist off hir nut if you think about how confusing it can be, so really, I’m not alone here. The thing is that this project was specifically given to me by the gods, Hetharu to be exact, and I had no idea what the fuck to do.

I knew that I wanted a functional calendar before Wep-Ronpet this year, but it was a matter of getting it there. And as I’ve said, this is one of the most confusing things about this particular practice, but it was something that my lady needed me to finish and complete. It wasn’t just about having sets days during the year that I can honor the plethora of female netjer who have come into my life – Sekhmet, Hetharu, Mut, and Aset – but also about honoring the Deadz and about remembering what the point of this path was all about. And that last bit was the most important bit. I was floating on a sea of confusion and uncertainty. In this last year, with my heavy work into what I want and where I want things to go, I’ve finally come down to realize that I need so many things put into play to have something that is both functional, capable, and something that I can pass off to my son if/when he chooses this path. But, too, I was a novice again and one of the steps beyond the apprentice is the journeyman. And it is now that I am heading into that particular aspect to this path… and with a fully functional calendar to boot.

I won’t bore you with the sweat and tears that I shed for this project, of which there was many. I won’t bore you with the gory details of how I made a decision about specifically what I wanted my calendar to look like. I won’t bore you with the details of what festivities I’ve decided to use in my practice. I won’t even bore you with the details of how to create one for yourself. I will, however, leave a link to the blog entry I utilized heavily to create mine, as seen below. And maybe one day, I’ll be intelligent enough to add to Bastemhet‘s blog entry about it at some future point. But now, just know that I have a calendar and the New Year begins tomorrow.

The Kemetic New Year is, specifically, about the realigning of the Zep Tepi with this current life. It is a recreation and a realignment of how things used to be to what they are now. A lot of people will find that just before the New Year, their lives explode into meaningless pieces. I haven’t quite had those explosions, but I have noticed that things are harder right now. And I do find it interesting that as I was re-reading the entry for Wep Ronpet from Wepwawet Wiki yesterday, I found the most interesting little thing… “On Wep Ronpet, Zep Tepi or the ‘First Time’ occurs again, renewing the year and bringing renewal to ma’at and to the world. During the end of the year, it begins to wind down and order begins to ‘fray’. The coming of Zep Tepi re-establishes cosmic order.” I know I’m not the only Kemetic to notice this trend, but I do also know that not all Kemetics feel likewise. To each their own, as I say, but I do feel like the end of this year is nothing but a knot that’s frayed to the point of being unrecognizable.

To help realign my life with ma’at, I have a number of things to see to first. Tomorrow is the actual beginning of the New Year. When I wake up in the morning, I will go out to kiss the face to Re with myself and the two ladies’ statues that share my home. According to WW, this is done at sunrise, but I won’t kid myself with the belief that I could actually arise anywhere near sunrise. I will be cleansing all around my house with salt, with sage, and a few other little things that could come in handy. I will also be setting up wards in place, strengthened by the realignment of the Zep Tepi with our time. I will be letting the extra juice from Wep Ronpet be soaked into the pendants and jewelry I hold the most dear, as well as the added juju of gods’ juju that they’ve been soaking up all week while they sit on my altar area. And I will also be doing execration rites against some of my more horrific personal faults (laziness, uncertainty) as well as some people (my ex-husband) and of course Apep as well. And when my superbly awesome bath bomb shows up, there will be some more renewal going on.

The Phoenix rises, indeed.

I am very excited about the things that I will be performing tomorrow and the next day. I am also pretty damn excited to finally be a “journeyman” on this spiritual turnpike.

Relevant Post
Kemetic Calendar by Bastemhet.