Meeting Sekhmet: When Anger Becomes Medicine
This month we have a Full Moon in Aquarius. Full Moons occur when the Moon is opposite the Sun - this month the Sun is in Leo.
Aquarius is often associated with community, humanitarianism, equality, innovation, freedom and breaking old systems, while Leo is associated with the heart, self-expression, courage, creativity, playfulness and wholehearted living.
As such, my theme for this month revolves around how we can bring our fire, expression and courage to the world in service of the collective.
At the moment, we see a rather destructive expression of these energies in the wider world, with wars, abuse, and growing opposition and division. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can change the narrative, and that change begins within each of us.
I'd like to introduce Sekhmet as our Goddess for this midsummer peak and Leo season. The sun is still shining high in the sky, and the world out there continues to be, well... bonkers. So Sekhmet feels like a particularly helpful archetype to work with.
She also reflects a recent personal story, where anger and rage bubbled up inside me and poured out onto my (fortunately) very understanding partner. I'll share that story in the hope that it offers a small example of how we can transmute these emotions into deeper healing and growth, and perhaps, in doing so, contribute a little more peace to the world.
Sekhmet's Mythology
The Goddess Oracle by Amy Sophia Marashinsky
Sekhmet is an Egyptian Goddess symbolising fierce, untamed life-force energy. She is the daughter of the sun God, Ra, and is often seen as an extension of his will. She mirrors the intensity of the sun at its peak: radiant, fiery, uncompromising, life-giving, and potentially devastating if not respected.
Her name means 'The Powerful One', and whilst she embodies the energy of destruction, anger and rage, she is also celebrated as a healer, protector of truth and order, and Goddess of medicine.
We can remember that often healing comes through the alchemy of fire and the destruction of outdated or unhealthy structures and patterns.
It's my belief that we are seeing this in the wider sphere, as corruption is being exposed all over the world. This is a messy, devastating and uncomfortable process, but perhaps it is a necessary transition to ultimately bring healing to the world and evolve our consciousness towards something more harmonious. If this makes no sense at all, Sekhmet’s myth may help explain.
In her mythology, as humanity becomes less sacred and more arrogant, Ra employs Sekhmet as his Eye on Earth. She descends as a lioness and becomes consumed by righteous fury, hunting humanity across the land. The stories describe rivers running red with blood. Nothing can stop her. Her rage develops a momentum of its own.
In the end, Ra recognises Sekhmet's capability to destroy humanity completely, so fills a river with beer that has been dyed red. Sekhmet believes it to be blood and drinks it lustily. She becomes intoxicated and sleepy, and her fury dissipates. She sleeps, and when she awakens, she is softer and becomes associated with love, beauty, pleasure, fertility and joy.
Like many of these archetypal journeys, this myth is interesting because it is nuanced. Sekhmet is not evil, and her anger is not misplaced, but her divine rage takes over and has the potential to destroy if left unattended.
As I reflected on this myth, I realised I had experienced my own recent encounter with Sekhmet. Not on a battlefield, but around my own kitchen table.
My Soiree with Sekhmet’s Rage
I recently moved to a new country where I don't speak the language. I know three people - my partner, his mum and his sister - and I am about to have my first child. I have to build my life again from scratch.
I have been here before in my life, and last time it was an extremely traumatic experience for many reasons outside my control. This time is completely different, but my hardwiring doesn’t know that.
One evening a couple of weeks ago, I was absorbed in a somatic healing course I’m enrolled in, and, as I journeyed with my body, I felt not pleasure but anger arising within me. I noticed it, accepted it and continued with my evening. Oh hello... what are you?
The next morning, I spent time with myself, meditating, breathwork and moving my body in the way it wanted to. The element I felt drawn to work with (which has been a theme this year) was fire.
I then went to eat lunch with my partner... and I erupted.
I knew we needed to talk, and I was asking the universe for the grace to deal with the situation with maturity and kindness.
Then... BOOM.
The anger completely overtook me and lashed out (which is unusual for me, I will say). Poor Thibault!
Luckily, I am very fortunate to have a partner who is patient and understands me. It felt like he could see my inner child in pain. He was able to override his own sense of injustice at my explosion, and instead hold space for me until I was ready to talk it through.
Throughout the day I could feel all this anger in my body. He asked me what I thought it was, and then the answer came.
It was an old trigger.
The anger and frustration of feeling unempowered and dependent again.
Because of the situation I had created by moving to this new place whilst pregnant, I suddenly found myself relying on him and not really having anyone else to turn to.
This is a deep wound for me that goes right back to my childhood: a fear of feeling vulnerable or dependent at this level. So, it's no surprise that life has presented me with another situation where this theme arises. It is inviting me to heal - to look at these wounds.
This realisation allowed me to be compassionate with myself, apologise to my partner and take responsibility for the deep feelings within me.
I fought a pillow. I intentionally punched, kicked and shouted where I could. I let the anger move through me. Up and out.
I allowed the emotion (energy in motion) to move, rather than stay contained and stuck in my body, waiting for the next eruption.
It is not to say that the anger is gone.
But it has been addressed and understood.
It has been brought into the light and accepted by me (and also by my fella - what an angel he is). So it doesn't need to take over and try to destroy us anymore. Instead, it was transmuted into an opportunity for healing, deeper connection and understanding of who I am.
Now that I am aware of this strong force within me and where it comes from, I can use that energy to better my situation. Let it be the guide that encourages me to learn French faster and meet friends of my own, so I don't feel so dependent. But also to accept that I might feel that way for a while. And that's okay.
It is my wounding, not the reality of the situation, that hurt me.
And underneath that triggering, I am actually very happy to be here. I know it's where I am supposed to be.
The Moral of the Tale
We are currently witnessing an aspect of the world that is angry and destructive. A world where the people at the top are, in my opinion, largely not taking responsibility for the devastation they are unconsciously projecting onto others through their own unhealed wounds.
We all have wounds from our childhood and ancestry, no matter what that childhood looked like.
This myth is often misunderstood as simply a story about anger.
It's really about sacred power without consciousness.
Sekhmet is not "losing her temper."
She is life force itself.
When our fire becomes disconnected from the heart, it becomes destruction.
Our shadows and triggers are lessons, and if we can learn to acknowledge and accept them, they become tools for deeper transformation. Evolution. Maturity.
When that same fire is tended to, not suppressed, but balanced, it becomes creativity, healing, devotion and love.
Perhaps that is the deeper invitation of this Full Moon. To honour our own fire without letting it consume us. To have the courage to meet our shadows with compassion. To remember that every act of healing within ourselves ripples out into the collective. The world changes one heart at a time.
With love and fire,
Rebecca
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Rebecca
