The Poppy Garden

The California Institute of World Archaeology and the Senurset Collection brings us a virtual museum of Egyptian artifacts. It is a full museum's worth of artifacts, including several views of each artifact and a summary. And this is not a museum you can just go see; According to the site, this collection has been housed in vaults away from the public since the 1970's due to conservation and budget concerns. An online museum is a cost-effective way to make the Senurset collection open to the public while properly preserving the artifacts. Plus no bratty kids climbing on the statuary or people "forgetting" about the "no flash pictures" rule. And this collection has one of the most beautiful depictions of Sekhmet I have ever seen, from the reign of Hatshepsut, my favorite pharaoh. Isn't that a beautiful face? Locking it away would just be a crime. So go see this thing, there's Greco-Roman artifacts from Egypt, too. o} :) ---

I suppose I should probably take the time to explain why I chose to name my blog The Poppy Garden. As with the name Shepen, I have tried to make it a reflection of my personality as it is now and reflect my interests as well. The interest I took in poppies arose from two main sources: John McCrae's poem from 1915 entitled In Flanders Fields, and the primary myth of Sekhmet, the Destruction of Mankind (you have to scroll down a bit to see the translation). In his poem, McCrae describes the haunting scene of poppies blooming in a battlefield graveyard, each one blood red with a cross in the center. In the Destruction of Mankind, the Goddess Sekhmet is sent by Re to slay rebelloius humans, but goes into a blood frenzy and is only placated by being tricked into drinking a lake of beer dyed red which She mistakes for blood. In both examples you see themes of beauty, death, sleep, and rememberance, all of which can be associated with the poppy flower. And both sets of verse come from times and places that I have been intensely interested in for a long time. So here I will plant my thoughts and things that catch my interest, be they beautiful, terrible, or both. And with them my virtual garden will grow...

This is not specifically Kemetic related, but serves as a good warning about just how true to the source material some mythology books actually are.

Here is a very interesting article: Fakelore, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's Literature, by Eliot Singer. Really meaty reading, it explores how a lot of the folklore we read, particularly in children's books, has been stripped of its original cultural and religious context to appeal to middle class western values. Some myths have been edited for content, to remove elements like drunkenness, sexuality, farting, and murder to make the story "safe." (Never mind that such editing often renders such stories incomprehensible.) The article focuses mostly on Native American myths and legends, but touches of myths from around the world. The inevitable question follows: what then, is the point of teaching children about other cultures if the culture part of what you're teaching is gone and replaced with a standard childrens' book message about say, the importance sharing?

With this post I will kick off the actual blogging by giving a tour of this page, Egyptian temple style. You will notice some (hopefully successful) layout changes, and that the sidebar has names now. Per Ankh, or House of Life, is the links section, as this was the name of the part of an Egyptian temple that housed books. The Reflecting Pool is past posts by month. Pools of water were found in both Egyptian gardens and temples, as bathing and purity were essential to both religious and secular life. Look into the Reflecting pool to see what's been going on in previous months. Possible Pasts is past posts, and is from a Pink Floyd song. Because Pink Floyd is my sacred music. Hey, they can't all be deep and symbolic.

Three years ago, I made my first blog, the one you see here. Not too long after, I abandoned it, the focus was both too narrow and not narrow enough for me to figure out what I was doing for a public blog. Did I want to inform or just post random garbage I thought was neat?

Now that I have a private blog, to share said garbage with my friends, I shall completely revamp this one and truly make it an asset to the public.

Here you will find essays I have composed about Kemetic Reconstructionist religion, taken from my private blog and other places. Since some of them (I think) are worth sharing with the public for information or just discussion, you will find them here, slightly altered for quality purposes.

So enjoy.

Shepen
January 2008