VIDEO ASSIGNMENT
View the Class Webinar Video as you work through reading the translated texts
VIDEO DISCUSSION FORUM ASSIGNMENT:
Answer the questions:
1-List the important points covered in this lecture.
In his opening summary Sebai makes a point that really touched me. He said that Aset was asking for Ra’s essence, which is the same as saying “Who am I?” I appreciate that because entering spiritual curiosity one of the first things we hear about is this question “who am I?” Really it is the question I asked myself even without knowing it, the questions about life and spirit are questions about “who am I?” Throughout this scripture I didn’t think of this being similar to that question nor did I consider my own spiritual interest to be that question, in fact it didn’t even resonate with that question in my spiritual life. Yet, I have always believed that every question we ask we can find an answer for but you have to be clear about your deepest questions. It is not about the answer but the power of your question and the more essential the question, the better the result will be. Who am I directly relates to the essential nature of myself and it is also the question asking to the deepest part of yourself in Ra, so it brings the mind all the way to its essence and at the boundary of all you know you ask “who am I” “what is your/my true name?” I think I didn’t resonate with it because I didn’t yet have the clarity of mind and self-interest to ask that direct of a question, because really the answer didn’t mean that much when I did hear it. I had to learn more philosophy and how to do Shedy and about the teachings.
Ra was implying Aset should be satisfied with the exoteric aspects – creation. The teaching of Aset implies one should not be satisfied by the exoteric, that you can live with faith and die and go to heaven one day, and be reborn. In the creation myth you are learning about creation being made, this implies it cannot be real because if it can be made it also is unmade, but most are satisfied with the creation myth and dont ask if it can be made it can be unmade so how can this be the whole story? I never thought of that before.
Ra said all these things and wasn’t relieved. It was a wasted effort. This is like another point Sebai says later in the lecture. As an aspirant we may feel we will do some yoga and go party and hang with friends and do more yoga and this will get us to our goal. Sebai also said that a sage will go “Go do it” and then the sage’s partner in the world will provide the lessons and that can last for lifetime and all of that is like a blink of an eye to god. I did that and it was painful for me. To think positively I can say that Sebai said the alternative is to have the problems of upression build up internally, so you go and get your lessons and hopefully get them well and good. I came away with more of a human understanding, compassion, empathy and possible ability to relate to my own mind and others better. That’s to try and look at it positively because it was also painful and I still work through some of those factors, caused not by others, but my own agitated movement because I went for the world but wasn’t actually into it, so you hurt yourself and others moving back and forth. All of that activity and pursuits are pointless. I draw a comparison here to the pointlessness of Ra’s exoteric explanations of himself, he said a lot and in the end just got more fire from the poison. This is how the process works on Ra and in myself. It makes sense in that context, it makes the poison work deeper so the name can be revealed, but the Taffy Shepsy has to be properly kneaded. It is similar to the last lesson where we discussed how the kneading also had to be done gently. I think the Taffy Shepsy was being formed long before coming to this teaching but now it can be done more exactly so it can raise up and peirce.
I noticed that Aset is patient but relentless. When Ra is explaining all of his names, she doesn’t cut him off. She calmly listens, which really lets the poison and fire grow hotter. In a sense it also clarifies the initiates own personal Khak Ab because all these things the aspirant has associated with, maybe even enjoyed, are being seen in meditation to work through and not be distracted and to sit with the goal in sight. That hones and deepens the lucidity of the mind’s intent.
Verse 97
Aset presses the issue and says Ra didn’t say his name. This is like the deepening of the hekau, the way Aset listens and then says again for the name. She didn’t even give him a little antidote, pushing him all the way to death. She didnt sit and rest. There is no corner to rest like boxing match. She is not putting the poison to the side to enjoy the pleausres of life and then continuing. She is not doing that.
Verse 98
Aset asks again.
Verse 99-100
She reminds Ra the poison is removed when Ra states his true name, the divine name. She is talking not just to Ra but the spiritual aspirant. She is telling the aspirant the name they have been given is not their true name and to live – enlightenment and immortality – they have to say their true name.
We have been told that if you chant to god you will be led to enlightenment. Dua Dua Dua Dua. There is something deeper coming out in this scripture that shows that it doesn’t actually work. There is a deeper space within that is needed.
Verse 103
Ra has given up at this point. Ra opens himself up – Hehuty – a to be looked through.
Sebai explains the Taffy Shepsy is not a one time event. So if you have a glimpse, a spiritual experience, you think now you will go back to the world and have a bunch of sex and children etc. Then that glimpse will fade because you have gone back to live and affirm the illusion of creation.
In reality the Taffy Shepsy and the poison – the one pointedness – now remains perennially. That one pointedness, restlessness, etc remains in all affairs, working, with family, bathing, etc. Not dealing with all the aspects of the philosophy but holding it into the focus.
The meditation goes deeper from reflection, then into the heart, and then deeper into the Akh the peentration into spirit. Now Ra has opened himself up and Aset can go anywhere into the realm.
Sebai explains a point about the Anrutef that made me pause. In a sense I feel concerned about the ability to navigate but also makes me feel the importance of intensity, one-pointedness, exactness, relentlessness and purity. In the Prt M Hru it says you break through into the Anrutef and still not be enlightened. In the Anrutef there is a lake of fire you can fall into, a place of great joy you can get stuck in, you use the exactness and preciseness of mind to go into the Akh-spirit. If you are an unrighteous person and go into the Anrutef you can become a demon, that’s what a demon represents: a powerful person who has unrighteousness of heart. So you need the purity to go automatically to the essence of the Anrutef. This is brought about by the relentlessness of your pursuit.
So you make the Taffy Shepsy and keep going. Get the philosophy to go to the dispassion. You enter in the meditation state and begin to vibrate at higher and higher rates to break down this reality.
Verse 104
Ra says his name shall come forth from his body into Asets. So Ra says he gives up and will open up. That means the opacity of the soul has broken down. Your personality has become like a glass box, it is strong and can hold its structure, but it’s see thru.
So this name must come from body to body so there has to be a kind of merging. A merging between the individual and the spirit. So like the drop of water that is you can merge back with the ocean.
So the body of Aset’s also reverts back into Netberjet and there is no more duality.
Having done this, since Ra’s purpose has been fulfilled, the essence and the function of Ra remains. Ra- Tem has been finished, so you don’t need Ra-Tem anymore
Ra-tems existed as an external manifestation has ceased. There is no more purpose to it. This outer form has receded back into creation.
When you engage in outer myth you learn Ra is god and you adore Ra. Then in this lesson you start to go beyond Ra – different levels of consciousness – to the transcendental.
There are different ways to describe the essence of the Anrutef. This really helped me understand the different teachings I have heard.
In this teaching of Ra and Aset the essence of the Anrutef is the name of Ra.
In the Asar tradition the essence of the Anrutef is Asar
In the Anu tradition at the center of the Anrutef is the boat of Ra where there are ropes that hang for those who can see the rope and they grab it and get lifted up the Boat. This all happens in the Duat which is a kind of Pet world where if you are a worthy aspirant that adores Ra you are pulled up and if you are a righteous being you become a god yourself in the boat.
In the Temple of Aset this is highly mystical where you are looking for the name which is the knowing itself of the transcendental.
Verse 108
Aset is making a life oath that the life of Ra and Heru are tied together. If one dies the other dies too. Heru is a manifestation of the same divinity but in time-space. Ra is the same reflection of that same divinity but in the astral plane. Asar-seker is that same divinity is in the Duat – a deeper astral plane. These are all the same divinity but in different planes of creation. So when Heru is on his battle of enlightenment he will get help.
2-QUESTION FOR REFLECTION: What teaching(s) did you learn in this lesson do you need to reflect on more or start to apply or work more diligently on implementing on your personality, mentally, emotionally, metaphysically, or otherwise to emulate human Lady Aset on her path?
Sebai talked about learning the different traditions and paths of Kemetic teachings and picking the one(s) that resonates with you to focus on. Djehuty was always my main divinity and I resonated well with the GLM meditation, I didn’t have a full enough understanding of the specific Djehuty tradition or the Book of Djehuty to practice those, but I clung to the GLM as a teaching of Djehuty. I also felt Aset was a teacher for me but I didn’t feel a deep understanding of a practice of the Asarian resurrection as a meditation system. I feel very deeply that this is the teaching for me that can take me all the way to my goal. Sebai also explained that this scripture is a very clear and sequential teaching that lays out everything you need to know. So I feel coming out of this is a deep connection to the Temple of Aset and this scripture and meditation system as my focus of practice.
The teaching that came out here for me to focus on his related to Sebai’s explanations of the Anrutef as well as issues navigating the Anrutef. It makes me feel a need for a life of deepening purity, righteousness, and exactness of mind. To work this system along with purification, the disciplines of the temple of Aset, the precepts of Maat, and a perennial commitment to spiritual life with this teaching and imagery as a focus. It truly feels like an answer for a clear organized teaching that can be relied on and that tells me I did something right in my spiritual struggles and personal process of change in the last few years and in preparing for this program, so I will keep moving forward in that process.
READING ASSIGNMENT
READING DISCUSSION FORUM ASSIGNMENT :
Read the texts covered in this lesson and answer the questions:
1- Which hieroglyphic term covered in this lesson was most captivating to you personally and why?
Hehuty – a to be looked through.
