July: Wrath and Intoxication

Most commonly described as the daughter of Ra, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet was a warrior, and her ruthlessness was feared. She is able to cause - or prevent - all forms of pestilence: natural disasters, epidemics, famine. Her particular association with illness and its cure gives her an authority over those who practice medicine, the skilled physicians and healers of Egypt.

Don't go to her for mercy and kindness. She's not going to coddle you, unless you are the infant Horus, whom she was charged to protect during his 'vulnerable infancy' in the marshes(1). She is said to have seven arrows, and destroys those who dishonor the gods, and those who refuse to live by Ma'at (I suspect that those seven arrows ARE the principles of Ma'at: truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice).

The story goes that Ra got to feeling neglected by humans, so he dispatched Sekhmet to deliver some punishment. Becoming a bit too enthusiastic, she began slaughtering people at random, until a plan was made to stop her: a field was flooded with Khakadi (a mix of beer and red color, to look like blood). She drank, and, becoming intoxicated, passed out; she had to be entertained with jokes and stories while recuperating from the hangover.

As the vengeful daughter of Ra, Sekhmet is essentially a Solar deity (masculine), rather than a lunar goddess. Atypically in this case, alcohol was the remedy, not the cause, of the slaughter, which was dictated and guided by an abusive patriarchal authority. When the Seven Arrows - the sacred principles of Ma'at  - are ignored, anger contaminates justice in the service of personal, selfish interests. Sekhmet makes a statement to us about the proper use of power, which here went terribly wrong, as it so often does.

But what were you expecting, from a woman who wears a cobra snake for a hair tie?

(1) https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/sekhmet/
https://krasskova.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/sekhmet-is-not-a-mother-goddess/
http://www.read-legends-and-myths.com/sekhmet.html