27 November: Sekhmet

According to Pharoah’s Egyptian astrology, we are currently entering the sign of Sekhmet. Here are 10 things you might not know about this Egyptian deity:

1. Her name is derived from the Egyptian word “Sekhem” meaning “power” or “might”, and so is often translated as the “Powerful One” or “She who is Powerful”. Other names she was given include the "(One) Before Whom Evil Trembles", "Mistress of Dread", “Lady of Pestilence”, "Lady of Slaughter" and "She Who Mauls".
2. She is said to be the daughter of Ra and wife of Ptah.
3. The most famous story about her involves Ra sending her to punish humanity for not doing what they were told. However, Sekhmet developed a lust for Blood in the process and went way over the top. It looked like she wasn’t going to stop at Ra’s proscribed punishment, but to eradicate humans completely and feast on their blood. She was so inflamed with the blood lust that Ra’s pleas for her to stop fell on deaf ears, so a new strategy was needed to slow her down. Ra collected huge amounts of Beer which he mixed with red ochre or Pomegranate juice so that it looked like human blood. Sekhmet gorged herself on this concoction and became totally intoxicated and passed out for three days. When she woke, the blood lust had passed. In some versions of the story, the first thing she saw on awakening was Ptah, and she became inflamed with lust for him instead.
4. A yearly celebration was held in Egypt to remember the saving of humanity. Beer stained with pomegranate juice was drunk and a statue of Sekhmet was dressed in red facing west.
5. Sekhmet is pictured as a woman with the head of a Lion, dressed in Red, the colour of blood. Sometimes she has a sun disc on her head. When seated, she holds the ankh of life; when standing she holds a sceptre made from papyrus.
6. She and Hathor were often depicted as partners and temples built to honour them both. Hathor was a popular deity, the goddess of joy, music, dance, sexual love, pregnancy and birth, while Sekhmet was said to breathe Fire and send plagues against those who angered her. Good cop/bad cop.
7. While Sekhmet could send plagues if she got angry, she could also cure them, when people were on her good side. She was the patron of Physicians and Healers. Her priests were skilled doctors.
8. She was also said to breathe fire, which accounted for the searing hot winds of the desert.
9. Author Margaret Atwood wrote a poem about her called Sekhmet, the Lion-headed Goddess of War.
10. There’s an Asteroid named after her, too. 5381 Sekhmet was discovered in 1991 by Carolyn Shoemaker. The diameter of the asteroid is estimated to be about 1.4 km, and it may even have a moon, 300m in diameter which orbits approximately 1.5 km from it, although this is yet to be confirmed.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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