28 October: Wadjet

Pharoah’s Egyptian astrology (one of two known systems) honours the goddess Wadjet around this date. 10 facts about this goddess:

1. Wadjet was a snake goddess and was usually depicted as a woman with the head of a Snake (or sometimes two snake heads), sometimes as a snake with a woman's head or as a snake coiled around a papyrus stem. The snake she was generally depicted as was an Egyptian cobra, a venomous snake common to the region.
2. She was said to be the protector of Lower Egypt. When Lower and Upper Egypt unified, she teamed up with the goddess of Upper Egypt, the Vulture goddess Nekhbet, who was, according to some myths, her sister, and they became known as "The Two Ladies", who together protected the whole land and its kings. Kings would wear a snake symbol on their crowns in honour of Wadjet: the Uraeus.
3. She was also known by the names Uto, Buto, or Edjo, and nicknamed "Lady of Flame", and "Creatrix of the World".
4. As protector of Egypt, it was said she spat poison, or, according to some myths, fire, at grave robbers and enemies of Egypt.
5. While she was more than capable of fighting and killing, Wadjet was also very much associated with the land of the living. Her name derives from a word for papyrus and also greenness and freshness, so she was associated with growth and vegetation and also the marshes, the habitat of snakes. She was also the protector of women in childbirth.
6. She was the daughter of Amun-Ra, created specifically to be his "Eye" and to search for his missing son, Shu. Ra was so happy when she found him that he cried tears of joy which became the human race.
7. She was nurse to the infant god Horus and helped Isis, his mother, protect him when his uncle, Seth, wanted to kill him.
8. She may have been the origin of the caduceus symbol of a snake coiled around a staff. The symbol of her coiled around a papyrus stem may have been adopted by the Greeks. Or perhaps the Greeks came up with the idea independently. We'll never know for sure.
9. At times, Wadjet merged somewhat with the Cat goddess Bastet, and was pictured with the head of a lioness with attributes of both Lions and cobras.
10. The Oracle of Wadjet is believed to be one of the first oracles in ancient Egypt and possibly a precursor to the oracles of ancient Greece. Wadjet's statue was usually kept in a temple which was off limits to ordinary people, but several times a year there would be a festival in which the statue would be brought out and carried around the city in a procession. On those days, people could write a question, on a piece of papyrus, of course, which had a yes-no answer. One of the priests would act as the voice of Wadjet.

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