A Vision of Nephthys

As always…this is my visionary experience; your vision may (and will) vary…

When She comes, She arrives in a splendor of iridescent wings, dark and gleaming like mother-of-pearl, like a raven oil-slick. Long, black hair and dark eyes of fiery orange-gold. Her hands are twisting and weaving threads of heka, magic. “These are the relationships,” She says. “You must continue to weave them if you would live a happy life.”

“Have I not been?” I ask. “You forget, sometimes,” She says.

Her clothing is dark with stripes; the Limits that are Hers. She speaks softly, but with such kind firmness that one cannot help but listen and hear.

“Will you tell me Who You are?” I ask, meaning will She tell me about Her nature, Her powers. She indulges me with a wry look. “I am Peace. I am Solidity. I am She Who Establishes. I am the Formula, the Plan that underlies” [underlies both magic and festival rites, I intuit as She speaks].”

Of course, I say to myself. She is the One with Reasonable Plans and She is called Great of Plans. She IS the Plan. “I have helped you times before,” She says in continuation of my thought. “So…do I have this ritual right?” I ask, meaning the contact ritual I shared with you last week and which I have used to have this vision. “Mostly,” She says. “It will come.” And, of course, I knew that; both that it was not quite-quite right yet and that it will come.

“Will You tell me of Your heka?” I ask Her. She answers enigmatically, “I am the One Who is suspended; my magic is arrow-swift, yet I hover as a hummingbird.” Since I am not exactly sure what She means by this, I ask again. “The strength of My magic is held in suspense. It gathers until released.”

How does one do that? I wonder. And can I do that? “Yes,” She affirms. She is teaching me a magical technique, then…a visualization to use: “Levitation on breath,” She says. “Bones light as birds’ bones; invisible wings fanning fast. Suspend yourself by the heart between the Pillars. [She means my Hermetic/Qabalistic Pillars; since it is a paradigm I have in my head, She uses it.] “Feel Our wings beating; see slowly, but know it as speed. Gather it at the heart. When ready to ‘push the ka,’ send it out swift.”

I believe She is teaching me bird-magic as a way of using heka. The hovering, the lightness requires the magician to reach a certain state of consciousness within themselves. The beating of the wings is the gathering of heka; you envision it, “see” it, in slow motion, but know that its true rhythm is not slow at all. When ready, it is released quickly, like a hawk striking. (“Striking the ka” is one possible meaning for he-ka according to some Egyptologists I’ve been reading. (Yes, exactly; the stuff in my head also feeds into the vision.)

Personally, I have often envisioned magic/heka as a well-timed ‘push.’ She says to pay attention to the birds. Because their bones are light, they feel the vibration of heka easily. (She is a Bird Goddess.)

I ask about heka on a larger scale; to affect circumstances, for instance. Nephthys, Wise of Counsel, wisely counsels to Work with the Deities. “In relationship with Them, with offerings to Their kas, They may choose to assist you by allowing you to/helping you to push or strike Their kas.”

“Will you tell me about Your epithet, “Who Predicts Events”? I ask. “It is from Upper Egypt and relates to My Being as the Iret Eye. I send out Myself as Iret to see Tomorrow and Yesterday. It is done at the Akhet,” She says. I ask if She will tell me about Her temple and its limits. “Why do you create a magic circle?” She says. “Once created, the liminality of the circle opens to all realms of possibility.”

I am tired with the effort of vision now. Although I have not spoken, She knows and answers, “I have all patience.”

I thank Her, kiss the ground before Her beautiful face and close the ritual. As I acknowledge the Horizons, the temple of the Lady of the Temple dissolves into Light. All boundaries are crossed. All time-and-space exists forever.