Introductory Workshop -
Searching for Sekhmet
Are you inspired by your experience of the Sekhmet Ritual Meditation and now want to know more about the Goddess in history?
Our connection with Sekhmet began with dreams and visions of the Lioness Goddess. Those encounters opened a doorway. But as our community grew, we began to ask: What do the ancient records say? Could we find traces of Her presence in the historical record that might validate and deepen what we had already experienced in ritual?
This three‑class workshop was born from that search. It is the next step for those who feel called to walk further with Sekhmet: an exploration that blends scholarship, archaeology, and myth with the living current of devotion.
Class One: Who Is This Goddess?
Our journey begins with the most essential questions:
Who is Sekhmet?
What is Her story?
Who are Her followers?
How is She worshiped?
What are Her holidays, and when are they celebrated?
What is the role of Her priestesses?
To seek answers, we turn to the fragments of history that remain. The record is scattered, partial, and often filtered through the lens of kings, priests, and later interpreters. Yet even in fragments, a picture begins to emerge.
The Birth of Pharaonic Egypt
Around 4000 BCE, climate change and desertification transformed North Africa. Once‑fertile grasslands dried into desert, and nomadic peoples were drawn together along the life‑giving Nile. Out of this convergence grew the first settled communities, and eventually the great civilization of Pharaonic Egypt.
This context matters: Sekhmet emerges not in isolation, but within a culture forged by the rhythms of the Nile, the cycles of flood and harvest, and the need to balance chaos with order.
Sources We Explore
In this class, we learn to trace Sekhmet’s presence through many kinds of evidence:
Monuments and temple remains inscribed with images and texts of devotion
Religious writings such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Book of the Dead
Medical papyri like the Ebers Papyrus, where ancient healing knowledge is interwoven with spells
Poetry and literature, including 18th Dynasty love poems and mythic tales preserved on papyrus
Accounts from outsiders, such as the Greek historian Herodotus (~450 BCE)
Everyday traces: ostraca (pot shards used as scrap paper), stelae, pottery, tools, and household objects that hint at ordinary devotion
The Calendar and the Cycle of the Seasons
We also study the ancient Egyptian calendar, divided into three great seasons:
Akhet (Inundation): the Nile floods, renewing the land
Peret (Emergence): crops sprout and fields flourish
Shemu (Harvest): the gathering of grain and preparation for the next cycle
Sekhmet’s festivals were placed within this cycle, often at liminal moments of danger and renewal: the turning of the year, the fierce heat of summer, the renewal that comes with the annual Nile floods. By understanding this calendar, we begin to see how ancient communities aligned their worship with cosmic and natural rhythms, and how we might do the same today.
Homework
At the close of this first class, participants are invited to take a small step into the ancient world themselves. Using the assigned textbook, you will practice writing your own name and the name of the Goddess in hieroglyphs. This exercise is not about mastering the language, but about experiencing the ancient belief that to inscribe a name is to invite its power.
From here, we move from the broad question of who Sekhmet is, into one of Her most powerful myths, the story of destruction and renewal.
Class Two: The Heavenly Cow and the Destruction of Humanity
In our second class, we step into one of the most enduring myths of Sekhmet: the Destruction of Humanity, as recorded in the Book of the Heavenly Cow.
Entering the Tomb of Seti I
We travel, through story and image, into the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I (c. 1300 BCE). On its walls is inscribed the tale of the Sun God Ra sending Sekhmet against humankind.
Ra sends Sekhmet forth as an instrument of divine justice, to punish humanity for its rebellion and failure to uphold the cosmic order. This is not a story of cruelty for its own sake. It is a myth of balance and consequence: humanity’s misdeeds disrupt Ma’at, the principle of harmony, and Goddess Sekhmet is called forth to restore it.
Together, we read an early translation of the hieroglyphs, mapping the signs to their English equivalents. This exercise shows how fragile and interpretive the process of translation can be. A single glyph may carry multiple meanings; a phrase may be rendered as either “slaughter” or “purification,” depending on the translator’s lens.
By comparing alternative translations, we see how the story itself shifts. Sekhmet may appear as a bloodthirsty destroyer in one version, or as a necessary purifier in another. These differences remind us that even the “ancient record” is not fixed, but mediated through choices, both ancient and modern.
Wrestling with Ethics
Our study also pauses to consider the ethics of engaging with ancient Egypt:
Restricted spaces: In antiquity, temple grounds and tombs were not open to all. Is it appropriate for us to enter them now, even virtually?
Sealed tombs: Tombs were closed at the wish of the deceased. Should they remain undisturbed, or is study justified once they have already been opened?
Artifacts as teachers: We rely on images, inscriptions, and grave goods to understand the past. What ethical principles should guide us as we learn from them?
These questions do not have simple answers. But by raising them, we acknowledge that our search for Sekhmet is not only historical. It also requires responsibility in how we engage with the past.
Lessons We Carry Forward
The Heavenly Cow myth is both terrifying and profound. It reveals Sekhmet as destroyer and healer, wrathful and protective, feared and beloved. It also shows how pharaohs used myth to reinforce their authority, shaping the Goddess’s image to serve political ends.
For us, the story invites careful consideration. Which parts of it do we carry forward, and which meanings do we bring into our own practice?
With this grounding in myth and meaning, we turn next to ritual - exploring the ways priests, priestesses, and entire communities sought to honor and encounter the Goddess directly.
Class Three: Daily Ritual, and the Festival of Inebriation
The third class gathers fragments of ritual practice from across Egyptian history. We look at three examples:
The Daily Temple Ritual recorded under Seti I, where the high priest alone enacted the rites on behalf of the pharaoh.
A brief era of priestess power, when women were elevated to perform the ritual with their role described in explicitly sexual terms, before being erased by later rulers.
The Festival of Inebriation, rooted in the myth of the Heavenly Cow, where communities gathered in ecstatic celebration, drinking to excess in order to honor Sekhmet and avert Her destructive power.
The Festival of Inebriation in Context
Archaeologist Prof. Betsy Bryan (Johns Hopkins University) has studied these festivals in detail. From late texts, she identifies six general requirements that defined the Festivals of Drunkenness:
Association with a leonine Sekhmet and/or Hathoric Goddess - the Eye of Ra, who maintains, protects, or avenges the Sun God’s cosmic order.
Communal ritual activity - these were not private rites, but collective experiences binding the community together.
Inebriation through beer or wine - not casual social drinking, but ritual intoxication intended to induce an altered state of consciousness.
Sexual behavior as devotion - not merely the loosening of boundaries, but a sacred act of honoring the Goddess. As one inscription at Edfu proclaims: “Hail Sekhmet, beautiful of heart, She who loves sexual desire.”
An epiphany of the Goddess - participants experienced a vision or ecstatic presence of the Goddess.
A communal request during the epiphany - once the Goddess appeared, the gathered community could petition Her together, seeking blessing, protection, or renewal.
These elements reveal the Festival as a carefully structured rite: dissolving ordinary order, opening participants to the divine presence where the Goddess was honored through embodied worship, and finally restoring balance.
Living the Pattern of Ritual Today
The fragments of ritual we inherit from temple inscriptions, from myth, and from archaeological traces, do not give us a single, complete template. But they do reveal patterns: the interplay of order and chaos, the role of altered states in devotion, the honoring of sexuality as sacred, and the communal nature of worship.
For our community, these insights invite us to ask:
How do we create ritual spaces that are both safe and transformative?
How do we honor the ecstatic, embodied dimensions of devotion while remaining grounded in ethical practice?
How do we adapt ancient patterns of communal celebration into forms that speak to our time?
Stepping Back: The Journey of the Three Classes
By the end of the workshop, participants have not only encountered Sekhmet in meditation and vision, but have also walked with Her through the corridors of history. They have seen how Her story was shaped by pharaohs, priests, and politics; and how much has been lost, buried, or deliberately erased.
This journey does not provide a single “authentic” template for worship. Instead, it offers a layered understanding: that our rituals today are both ancient and new, rooted in fragments of history, yet alive in the present.
Together, the three classes form a progression:
Class One grounds us in the question of who Sekhmet is, and how She emerges from the earliest layers of Egyptian culture.
Class Two confronts us with the power of myth, destruction, and restoration, and asks us to discern what we carry forward.
Class Three immerses us in ritual fragments, showing how communities sought to encounter the Goddess directly through devotion, ecstasy, and collective petition.
An Invitation to Join Us
This workshop is not only about history. It is about devotion. It is about how we, as a living community, choose to honor Sekhmet today.
If you feel called to walk further with the Lioness Goddess, we invite you to register for the next offering of this three‑class workshop. Together, we will continue weaving scholarship and spirit, fragments and vision, into a living practice that honors Her power and presence.
✨ Join us in devotion to Sekhmet. Step into the story, the ritual, and the community, that honors Her.
Sekhmet - Pleasure Is Our Prayer, the Body Is Our Altar.