Another year draws to a close, and once again, the waters are churning.
This fall I began grad school. So much of my time has been spent on school these past few months, although much of it not in productive ways. I have definitely fallen behind on daily devotion, but that’s okay – grad school itself was devotion to Hermes and to the gods in general (as well as my own life goal!) Since I’ve last been here, I’ve become a remetj in Kemetic Orthodoxy, and moved closer and closer to the ‘Iluma and the Mesopotamian gods. It’s been a challenging year, but one of development, and for that I’m satisfied.
2017 has already promised to be the year of the Near East gods. Nothing has “changed” – every year the weight of my practice tends to settle on one pantheon more than the others, and the ‘Iluma (and perhaps the Anunnaki) have demanded their first year. The Anunnaki were some of the first gods I ever researched years ago, and it is interesting to be asked to seriously research them finally, even if leads to no more than my own new knowledge.
(I sometimes wonder what people think when they see the long list of gods from intersecting pantheons I pay my respects to. I wonder if my recent research of the Anunnaki makes some people scoff at the breadth of my practice – because how can there be depth with so many deities? I wonder, but find that I don’t really care.)
Top level of the ancestor shrine on Wag Festival.
In honor of the end of the year, I’m posting pictures of the current shrine setups in my apartment. Since I live alone, I get to spread out; the ancestors get a shrine in the living room, where they can see everything going on, and the god-shrine is tucked away in my bedroom. The Netjeru have the top shelf, the Theoi have the second, and the ‘Iluma have the third (the bottom being books and tools). When I return home from winter vacation, the god-shrine is getting its seasonal winter revamps!
The god-shrine on the November Super Moon. Above the shrine hangs the mask and the shrine snake spirit. (That tupperware on the bottom shelf was bone-cleaning!)
Happy New Years and see y’all in 2017!
antlered 