Hathor ( Het Heru in ancient Egyptian language), is the
beautiful, nurturing cow-headed goddess of Egypt. She is
the goddess of music, dancing, wine, joy, and love, whose
devotees celebrate her rich generative
powers through song, rhythm, and laughter. As the patron
goddess of women and beauty, Hathor presides over the sacred
feminine arts of adornment, enchantment, and lovemaking.
In the temples of Egypt, images can still be seen of Hathors
loving priestesses, their eyes ringed with kohl, their drums,
lutes, tambourines, and sistrums infusing the psychic-energetic
landscape with the abundant energy of her life-giving power.
In her divine role as the goddess of the cycles of life
and fertility, Hathor is most associated with the sistrum,
a musical instrument similar to a rattle with her face carved
on its handle. In ancient times the bells on each of the
four bars of the sistrum were tuned to the specific vibration
of one of the four elements of nature, and playing the sistrum
symbolized both Hathors generative powers and her ability
to keep the world in harmony and balance. Plutarch, the first
century Greek writer and initiate into the mysteries tells
us of the vibratory power that playing of the sistrum generates
in the warding off of evil influences.
The
sistrum also shows that existent things must be shaken up
and never have cessation from impulse, but as it were
be awakened up and agitated when they fall asleep and die
away. For they say they turn aside and beat off Typhon (Set)
with Sistra, signifying that when corruption binds nature
fast and brings her to a stand, (then) generation frees her
and raises her from death by means of motion"
As an essential part of the rites of Hathor, her priestesses
and devotees would drink wine, sing, and play their sistrums.
Moving sensuously to the compelling beat of her vital rhythms,
these worshippers would surrender themselves and become lost
in the all-consuming bliss of her divine presence as it flowed
within them. As these alternating rhythms of the cosmic goddess
swelled and abated they generated states of ecstatic frenzy
within the priestesses and devotees which brought them into
resonance with her universal cycles of nature, of birth,
growth, death and regeneration.
"Where
there is lightness of spirit, a benevolent lubrication, then
the ancient Egyptians would sense the closeness of Hathor.
Celebrants became imbued with her spirit and we may surmise
that the individual personality of the celebrant was lifted
into a state of consciousness in which he or she felt possessed
by the transpersonal energy of the Goddess."
Jeremy Naydler, Temple of the Cosmos
As the beautiful one, mistress of the
vagina, goddess of love, motherhood and female sexuality,
Hathor is a quintessential Alchemical/Tantric Goddess whose
priestesses were schooled in the sacred feminine arts of
adornment and lovemaking. They are often shown holding a
mirror with Hathors face carved on its handle. The
mirror has many symbolic meanings. At first glance, it represents
beauty, and the art of adornment. However, its meaning and
usage go much deeper. It is both a tool for perceiving the
inner working of the mind and a symbol for the act of self-observation.
In ancient Egypt, it was used by the priestesses in magical
practices for sending back negative energies to their source,
as well as a medium for seeing through time, space and the
more subtle dimensions of reality. While gazing into its
depths, they would expand their awareness to journey from
the earth to the stars and from the outer material form to
the inner spiritual essence.
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Another of Hathors
primary symbolic implements is the menat necklace.
Like the sistrum, it was used
as a percussion instrument but also as a medium through
which her divine power and energy was transmitted.
Oftentimes she is depicted offering the menat to the
pharaoh, through
which she transmits her life-enhancing gifts of feminine
power, grace and divine energy.
The
hieroglyph of the menat necklace clearly demonstrates
Hathors tantric aspect as this sacred energy is
depicted pouring into and flowing between the representation
of a phallic-like symbol representing the masculine and
the crescent moon or chalice, symbol of the feminine.
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In many paintings, Hathor, like the Great Goddess Isis is
crowned with the risen serpent, symbol of the awakened kundalini,
visionary capacity and wisdom; the horns of sacred cow signifying
the crescent moon, the chalice and the boat in which the
goddess ferries souls across the ocean of existence; and
the sun, symbol of essence, source, warmth, heat, vitality,
energy, vibration, excitation, power, and expansion.
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Hathor, womb of the origin |
Her essential hieroglyph, read as Het Heru,
which translates as the house of Horus symbolizes Hathor
in her ancient role as sky goddess. Here she is seen as,
the primeval waters or womb of space where the great illuminated
one Horus, the oldest of the sun gods, represented here by
the falcon was conceived, brought forth and dwelled
In
her form as the celestial cow that nourishes all creation,
Hathor is an ancient goddess who originates from predynastic
Egypt. Pictured in this form with stars on her belly, horns
of the crescent moon and a solar disk on her head, Hathor,
the mother of the light and golden one,
is the loving consort of the powerful sun god Ra. Throughout
the literature she is alternatively referred to as Ras
mother, daughter, and powerful shining eye. According to
the eminent scholar of Egyptian studies E. A. Wallis Budge,
Hathor was perceived as "the great Mother of the World," and
the "power of nature that was perpetually conceiving
and bringing forth, rearing and maintaining all things, both
great and small." In this role she represented the fullness
of the feminine experience. "She was the mother of her
father, and the daughter of her son. Heaven, earth and the
underworld were under her rule and she was the mother of
every god and every Goddess."
In her form as the celestial cow Hathor plays a significant
role in the Papyrus of Ani, the Book of Coming Forth by
Day, known to us as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which
was written around 1250 b.c.e. Hathor, as the lady of the
underworld, is present to receive the deceased, feed and
care for them, watch over them, and assist them in their
journey toward illumination. She is present at the critical
moment of judgment when the heart of the dead is weighed
for its purity, and she brings delight and blessings to those
whose hearts have been found pure. In the concluding scene
of the Book of the Dead, Hathor emerges from the marshes
into the light of everlasting life, in conjunction with an
epithet:
"Hathor, Lady of the West; She of the West; Lady of
the Sacred Land; Eye of Re which is on his forehead; Kindly
of countenance in the Bark of Millions of Years; A resting-place
for him who has done right with the boat of the blessed;
Who built the Great Bark of Osiris in order to cross the
Water of Truth."
Transformation into Hathor brings great feelings of joyousness,
eroticism and ecstasy into our lives. Not only does she show
us the way of truth and beauty, but provides a role model
for the most superb qualities of woman in her roles as mother,
wife, daughter and teacher. Revitalized and restored by her
powerful life-enhancing energy we begin to open ourselves
to the sacred feminine arts of adornment, music, dance and
lovemaking. As we feel her sacred rhythms of life flowing
within the temple of our physical bodies, an air of mystery
begins to surround us. We gain the ability to magnetize and
bring into our lives the people and circumstances that will
lead us to new experiences of the rich, creative power of
the divine feminine spirit.
Hieroglyphs and prayers from the Book of the Dead
courtesy
of Egyptian scholar John Nichols
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