Domain: War, plague, destruction, fierce healing Symbol: The lioness, the sun disk, the uraeus, arrows and fire
Overview
Sekhmet is the burning face of the sun — a lioness-headed goddess whose name means “the Powerful One,” and who earns it. She is the daughter and the wrath of Ra, the fire he sends out when order must be defended by force. Where Bastet is the cat purring on the hearth, Sekhmet is the same feline nature unleashed on the battlefield: plague-bringer, war-goddess, the scorching wind of the desert given teeth. The Egyptians called her “Lady of Terror” and meant it as praise.
Yet the same heat that destroys is the heat that cauterizes. Sekhmet was also the great patron of physicians; her priests were healers, and the fevers she sent she could also lift. This is the paradox the Egyptians understood better than most — that the power to burn a thing away and the power to make it whole are one power, pointed in two directions. To pray to Sekhmet was to ask the destroyer to become the mender.
Key Myths
The near-destruction of humanity. When mankind plotted against the aging Ra, he sent his Eye against them in the form of Sekhmet. She fell upon the rebels with such joy in the slaughter that she could not stop, wading through blood and threatening to annihilate the human race entirely. To save what remained, Ra had the fields flooded with beer dyed red like blood. Sekhmet drank it, mistaking it for gore, grew drunk, and slept — waking gentled, in some tellings transformed into the mild Hathor. Humanity survived on a trick and a hangover.
The seven arrows. Sekhmet was believed to loose plagues and pestilence as arrows, especially at the turning of the year. Her priests performed elaborate rituals to appease her “slaughterers,” pacifying the goddess so that her fire would warm rather than consume.
Breath of the desert. Her hot breath was said to be the desert wind, and the deserts themselves were called into being by her. She stands as the divine reminder that the sun that ripens the harvest is the same sun that kills.
Related
- Ra — Her father; she is his Eye and his wrath made flesh
- Bastet — Her gentle counterpart; the same feline power tamed
- Hathor — The goddess she becomes when pacified
- Strength — The Major Arcana card of ferocity mastered, the lion gentled
- The Tower — The card of sudden devastation she unleashes
- Egyptian Mythology Index
- Mythology