Divine Birth Mystery of Ra 2022

According to the dictionary, a mystery is something that is unknown, remains unexplained, or kept secret. The birth of Ra is no true mystery though. If you grab a dart and throw it at a board, you’ll find a creation myth that works for you. The ancient Egyptians were no slouches in the philosophizing of creation for their gods and you’re bound to find a myth that has elements that speaks to you.

My favorite birth story of Ra is a mixture. I like the cosmic egg. I have no clue why because I’m not like in love with eggs or anything. But I’ve always been partial to the idea of an egg just appearing one day and from there, the rest of us eventually came into being. But I’ve also been a huge fan of Nefertum (as a childlike form of Ra and as his own entity) with his blue lotus. I say the egg came to be on a lotus. That’s the way I see it.

So, to me, to us, the act of the birth is no true mystery. It has been whispered, spoken, and sung many times into existence. But the actual mystery of this divine birth, divine spark is the why.

The myths never get into the why, which can pose problems for people. We always want to know the why. Every child goes through a wide range of the “why” phase. I can remember my little brother asking why, why, why to every answer to his original question until my mom would say because that’s the way it is and the why questions stopped. When my son got to a similar stage, I spent time on Google trying to get to the why of his questions to the best of my abilities (with I’m sure many failures in there). Human beings need to know why.

And even to some extent, the how becomes just as important. How and why tend to be linked together because quite often to answer the why of something, you need to know the how of something. Not always, but frequently.

As I began contemplating the mystery part of Ra’s Divine Birth, the how and the why became so closely linked together that it became like one word in my mind. Howhy or maybe whyhow. (“Howhy” looks better in print, so that’s the word from now on.) Howhy did this lotus/egg birth myth combination come into being? The myths never really tell us that much.

Boredom? The Big Bang? Two [or more] limitless sparks of potential coming together in an orgy of undeveloped reality to create the lotus/egg? We will never know and that is the true mystery of this Divine Birth. How and why will never truly be answered.

Who Are You Really

The fun thing about planning the celebrations for a ☆~☆mysterious☆~☆ holiday about the sun (basically) is that you need the weather to cooperate. It did not in fact cooperate. It was rainy and cold to start before turning to hail and ice and then finally to snow. The snow is frozen now and it’s a whopping 19° right now. So, all my plans of outside activities were dashed by the shenanigans of a little rodent that predicted all this on February 2nd.

Walk in the sunshine? Canceled. Outside offerings? Canceled. Candles lit at his outside altar? Canceled. Basking in joy in the precum of spring? Canceled.

I went old school. I remembered the shenanigans and the fanart and the meme. 2015 was a wild Kemetic time where there were only two rules (give shit to the gods and don’t be a dick) and a whole lot of hubris* was had. I didn’t participate back then because I was having problems with the deity in question at the time, but I could easily pick up the shattered pieces of my nixed outside celebrations and bury the deity in chocolate.

First attempt at burying Ra in chocolate. It’s missing stuff.

This started just as the rain turned to sleet and about a half hour before it turned into snow. I didn’t like it. The cup was a nice touch for coffee later, but the chocolate didn’t really scream buried to me. So, I braved the cold and snow later to try for a second round.

What holiday isn’t complete with a shit ton of candles lit? The colors were chosen with purpose.

He seemed unenthused by the chocolate. (He had been unenthused the last time, too.) But, I think he secretly did enjoy the fact that I took my life in my hands to drive to find him a hollow chocolate bunny and more egg-shaped Reese’s. Or, maybe he just really isn’t a chocolate fan, which is the most ridiculous thing I feel that I’ve ever thought or put consideration into. But, I suppose it’s possible that this supreme commander of sun and warmth may be anti-chocolate even if that is a blasphemy if I’ve ever heard one.

* Hubris is not a concept that has any form within the ancient Egyptian cultural mindset.

Look At The Sun

This birth mystery always appears on my calendar in some close order to Daylight Savings Time. DST is a large part of my practice and has links to both Osiris and Ra. Ra’s little birth mystery invariable shows up either before or after the Sunday we change clocks. This year, it was the day before with my two final Osiris related holidays taking place the two days after DST begins.

The mug was found first with the giant serving bowl, small plate, and another plate (not shown here) found on the heels of my bee mug.

The day the clocks flip is usually a day of bright light, of promise. It licks at the skin and at the potential of the rebirth cycling grabbing hold. Depending on what the little rodent says in February, the promise may be a few weeks in coming or it might be right there. But the promises are whispers or shouts and they are always right around the corner.

We are the fire, we see how they run
See how they run, lift me higher, let me look at the sun.