A while back, I was thinking about how Het-heru has a big festival in which she processes around places and then goes home. This is actually kind of common in ancient Egyptian festivals. There were quite a few where traveling somewhere was the point in the festival. There are over forty – I lost count actually – with the word “procession” or “processional” in the title. This doesn’t include things like the Opet Festival or any other ones where the icons of the gods were taken out of their kar-shrines to go visiting. And this got me wondering how modern Kemetics would emulate these types of rites and festivities. On the face of it, walking around the yard or the home seem appropriate, right?
But, as I was thinking about this whole thing this morning, trying to figure out what I would do for Sekhmet’s processional celebrations tonight… I realized that just walking around the yard and home seemed a little boring. The point of the procession is beyond me. I don’t have any ancient sources on festivals celebrated in Sekhmet’s name so I can’t quite say what they were processing to or what they were processing for. I can only try to recreate things as best I could and, you know, wondering around a place that may be seen on a daily basis with a little icon to hand seemed odd. And that’s when it hit me: Why not photo bomb my house with Sekhmet in those photos?
The idea was bold.
The idea was crazy.
The idea was weird.
And that’s exactly how I celebrated tonight’s festivities.
Let’s get going, shall we? We have a lot of venturing to do.
I don’t see why he has to tell me he needs chocolate…
Oh, hai, sister-self. I see you directly across from me, but let’s have an in-person visit, shall we?
Yeah… hi, Aset. In the kitchen and… no room for me.
Hm. They seem to be intent on attacking the child in this cartoon… this is appropriate for children nowadays? What happened to wooden lion toys?
BOOKS!
Oh, my. A bit of a collector, are we? (That isn’t even a fraction of TH’s video game paraphernalia collection…)
And what are we playing here? Billiards?
I’ll school your ass!
And let’s bond with the child as this will be his job one day…
Nope. There is absolutely no steak in here for a decent meal.
It’s time to freak out the barking creatures kept around here.
Hello, Hekate! I see you all the time. It’s nice to visit you, face-to-face.
And back home again. Adventures, finished.
Mystical Bewilderment 
My mother used to do something similar with her Catholic Nativity figures. She’d move the Three Wise Men down the stairs one step per day, to symbolize their following the star to find Jesus or whatever, rather than use that awesome Advent calendar thing with the chocolates and such hidden in them. Anyway, when the Three Wise Men arrived on Christmas Eve at the occasional table in the sitting room, where the Nativity was set up, BOOM, baby Jesus would appear in the manger, teleporting from the top of the television cabinet to the bed of hay near the angry Set donkey (I thought it looked like a Set donkey, anyway. Thing looked hella pissed off to be there) and the depressed Hereford cow, whose breed did not exist at the time being portrayed.
ANYWHOOOO, I don’t like to move my icons around like that for fear of them getting broken, but if one would like to do a processional in one’s home, that might be a malleable idea. Or like Devo’s wrapping of her Osiris icon during the Wesir Mysteries, rather than breaking and burying “old” Osiris icons and having new ones made during/after every Festival of Khoiak. I think that’s how it goes, and there’s certainly a lot more detail to it, but I’ll have to double-check that in Meeks’ “Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods” when I have more time (or let someone else correct me in the meantime). I’m not at all an authority on Osiris and His festivals, so please bear with my potentially faulty memory.
As a kid, we had a calendar on the door. My mom made it at some point or whatever. Anyway, there was a bear and he was looking for Christmas. And each day, you moved him to a new spot because that’s where he was looking for Christmas until, you know, he found it on Christmas day. I think it was, like, my favorite part of Christmas festivities.
I think your icons are… better than mine and less cheap. I’ve had Het-heru break because of my son, but so far, so good. I’m also obscenely careful with them since I learned it takes little for the legs to break. Thus the power of cheap craftsmanship.
You could pack your icon in a kar-box and set it in a barque, and carry that around.
OMGs. If I had a kar-shrine, I would do this. I may need to appropriate one of my son’s toy boats for this, though. Best. Idea. Ever.
All I have to say is, that is freaking awesome….and now Hermes wants to do it too lol (I think he just wants his picture taken now that he has a statue..like three or four weren’t enough) It seems like you had a lot of fun with it :)
I think it’s a little easier for me, too, because I have resin statues that aren’t nearly as heavy as yours. However. of all the Greek gods, I can see this as being workable for Hermes the best.
I did have fun. TH was cracking up at me when I told him what I was going to do. I knew, then, that it was definitely a good idea.
lmao. That’s all I can say XD
Reidy suggested something similar to this, but taking the statue outside to collect moonlight or sunlight- much like how you did at New Years.
I know once, I took an Anup statue with me on a trip, and called it Roaming Anup. I wanted to take pictures of it, but alas it didn’t pan out. Reminds me of this XD
I really didn’t realize I had done a Roamin’ Gnome impression until I got the E-mail with this comment in it. And I laughed heartily… before going to work. So thanks for that!
This, of course, means that any future Sekhmet processions are going to be as equally innovative. I started the bar too high!
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