08 January 2008

Tornadoes of Sekhmet


The night of January 7 produced a number of tornadoes in the Ozarks. Over the span of 15 hours we had over 60 tornado warnings, which is the more serious second step after a tornado watch, and probably 5 or 6 tornadoes. After stressing out all night as tornadoes bounced between my home and the homes of relatives I was amazed to learn that no more than 2 people were killed. Consulting my Pagan Book of Days I learned that January 7 is sacred to Sekhmet, Egyptian goddess of war and divine vengeance.

This fact got me thinking about the strangeness of tornadoes in January and the possible divine implications of such an event. The Egyptian sun god Re tends to send Sekhmet to punish those who show him dishonor. As the story goes she once got so carried away killing people that Re whipped up a magical brew of beer and pomegranate juice that Sekhmet mistook for human blood. She lapped up enough to get too drunk to carry on the slaughter. For this reason reddened beer is offered to her on her feast day. Interestingly enough, January 8 is sacred to Justitia, Roman goddess of justice. Were these tornadoes sent from the gods for a specific reason? And, if so, what reason could that be?

4 comments:

genexs said...

Phew! Glad you are ok.

Good Sekmet/tornado thoughts...
I did not know about the red beer.

best,
Gene

Livia Indica said...

Yeah, me and all of mine are fine, thank the Goddess. Thanks for commenting.

Leia said...

Wow. Tornadoes scare the lights out of me! These thoughts you linked up were really insightful, thank you!

Leia-Ann
http://everydayinsanity.blogspot.com

Livia Indica said...

Yeah, they're pretty terrifying, especially when they're close! Thanks for commenting.