The question of how wiccans in the Southern Hemisphere should celebrate the seasonal festivals is an old one on here (ie: whether to have Beltane in November, etc
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Re: Not a Kemetic Recon, but...tyrellFebruary 8 2008, 15:44:58 UTC
I can see that working fine when you have roughly the same agricultural cycle going on - Europe and (some parts of) the US aren’t that different for Wiccan purposes. The edge of a desert has its own ecosystem and rising/falling life levels in the land though, and rain brings a different physical response there. I’d assume even that can be dealt with through strong enough visualisation/astral work as you say, but Egyptian paths go further. There the colours are the way they are directly because of the landscape. Not just the shape of it, but the heat of it. The Nile flood is an extremely specific movement, which is evidence of the actions of the Gods. Can we really grasp the instinctive reactions to the colours etc without having experienced that danger, the hope for flood to bring fertility to the land, etc?
Probably yes :) I’m just curious as to whether anyone has whacky stories or experiences about it.
I've thought about this before to a certain extent, even just contemplating the different traditions and how some people start in the North instead of the East, or even the North-East, and how some use different colours for each of the cardinal directions, etc. I've reflected on my own current geography and how it would almost make more sense to switch the Air/Water associations because of the Westerlies and the Atlantic (relatively close by, compared to the Pacific, and ignoring Lake Ontario to my immediate South). However I understand that the East is also associated with Dawn, which wouldn't have to change. Also geographically, the cold barren Earth is to the North in the tundra, and to the South is the equator where it certainly gets Hot, hence fire
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As a sort of aside, you know the old saying "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight.. etc?"
I'm pretty sure that originated in the Northern Hemisphere (shepherding here being a relatively new (~150 years) pastime), right?
Well, in New Zealand, pretty much all our weather comes from the west. So a red sky at night, showing light refracting through water in the atmosphere, would be a warning that wet weather is on the way. And red sky in the morning is a sign that wet weather has just been over. Whether the wetness would bring delight or warning is another matter (we're in drought here so rain=dancing farmers).
Of course, it doesn't rhyme if you say it the way it actually works here, so people still use it. ;-)
I think that if the colors are that important to Khemetic Recon, then when one utilizes those colors in ritual, one is symbolically constructing that landscape for the duration of it. If the colors come about because of the landscape, can the inverse also be true?
I use the myth of the Sun Eye as a way to learn about wrath and appropriateness and also the sun's course from longer and shorter days of the year.
As for the inundation, you could use it as a metaphor for brining in things, planting, growing, harvesting etc. You could use it to understand the culture of AEs, but not exactly doing that part as an AE would have. We don't live in Egypt. We don't need to.
Also Kemetic ritual had more to do with the sunrise and set, the initial creation of the world and the rejuvenation of Wesir than the Black or Red Lands specifically. The dichtomy between Heru and Set can be used in many ways (order vs something to challenge that order, community vs the outsider, etc).
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Probably yes :) I’m just curious as to whether anyone has whacky stories or experiences about it.
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As a sort of aside, you know the old saying "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight.. etc?"
I'm pretty sure that originated in the Northern Hemisphere (shepherding here being a relatively new (~150 years) pastime), right?
Well, in New Zealand, pretty much all our weather comes from the west. So a red sky at night, showing light refracting through water in the atmosphere, would be a warning that wet weather is on the way. And red sky in the morning is a sign that wet weather has just been over. Whether the wetness would bring delight or warning is another matter (we're in drought here so rain=dancing farmers).
Of course, it doesn't rhyme if you say it the way it actually works here, so people still use it. ;-)
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I think that if the colors are that important to Khemetic Recon, then when one utilizes those colors in ritual, one is symbolically constructing that landscape for the duration of it. If the colors come about because of the landscape, can the inverse also be true?
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oh dearie me
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As for the inundation, you could use it as a metaphor for brining in things, planting, growing, harvesting etc. You could use it to understand the culture of AEs, but not exactly doing that part as an AE would have. We don't live in Egypt. We don't need to.
Also Kemetic ritual had more to do with the sunrise and set, the initial creation of the world and the rejuvenation of Wesir than the Black or Red Lands specifically. The dichtomy between Heru and Set can be used in many ways (order vs something to challenge that order, community vs the outsider, etc).
Darkhawk's Essays may help you with this:
http://www.bunny-puppy.net/folk/nature.html
and
http://www.bunny-puppy.net/folk/seasons.html
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