The Song of Seshat

By Charlotte Babb

They have forgotten my name
But I remember
They call me The Female Scribe
As though I was not
The Original One who invented writing at the beginning
Who taught Djeuty to write

That baboon
Not the "Thrice-Great One" Ibis
So revered of the Greeks

Foremost in the Library, indeed
My pupil became my father-spouse-brother
Thus the Moon loses his face and
Nut bears her five children
On the five days added to the year.

And I am divided against myself
the Great and the Small
To hedge their bets
Do they not remember the Letter and the Spirit
The Words and the Meaning?

Forgotten, with no priests to call my name
I teach the pharaoh to face his fate
How to be born of the Mind
How to bear the weight of the Crown and the Eye
How to negotiate with those who come through me

Foremost in the House of Foreigners
I measure his reign by the words of Ra
I record his deeds
Measure his spoils of war
His inundations of the Nile

And the number of hairs on his head
His name is known
Because I have recorded it on my palm leaf
On the Ished Tree of Life
His years are long,
As many as the tadpoles in the flood
Because I have written it so.
Yet he forgets my name, calling me only Mother

Mistress of Builders
I taught my priests to measure the polar star
To find true north when no star pointed the way
The King himself Stretches the Cord
Marking the foundations of temples
To other gods and his tomb
But only with my help

Offerings to me are laid In the foundations
The builders know me
They honor me with the talismans of the tools of their trade
Because I am the one who makes the building stand
In this physical world, and in the unseen world

I am the Lady of the City of Eight,
The Birthplace of the Gods
But in the condominiums of the gods
They forget my name
They don't remember
Why I wear the leopard skin of the blessed dead
Of the funerary priests
With its markings of the myriad stars of Nut

I am the mother of the dead
The soul passes through my womb
To be born again

I am old, great-grandmother to Isis,
Who lately came to me with her brother-husband
In pieces so that I might Re-Member him
I am the Mother of the Dead
Bearing those who die into the next life
Though she forgets my name
She forgets on whom she called

Though she stole the magical name of Ra
Yet, I know, both his Name and Mine.
The mourner who remembers

But they forget my name and
Why my cartouche is the…
What? A seven-petaled flower?
I am the Lady of the House of Books
They would know that no such flower exists.
If they would read what is in the Library
I am the Right and True flower in the Hand of Ra
The blue lotus of healing
Have they also forgotten the number of months in the year,
My feathered horns?

It is then a marijuana leaf?
Hemp that makes the cord
The pharaoh and his vizier stretch?
No, that cord is leather
But they have forgotten

Yet my builders know how to use
A hempen rope to move the slabs of rock
For I have taught them physics and geometry and engineering
I am the Lady of the Builders

Can my crown then be perhaps
A star, and the horns of the crescent moon
Although they look more like the horns of the Apis bull
Or a bow?
I am She of the Seven Horns, or She who Lays by the Two Horns
Nine is my number, yet
They do not know my name


For I am she who counts the stars
I am she who knows the Secrets
The Lady of Years
The Lady of Fate

I am she who writes the deeds of the world
Recording them forever in my library of wisdom

Many call me by many names
Some call me Oyá, and they bring me nine flowers, the color purple
Some call me lwa Ayizan, the female priest,
Who keeps the tradition with her palm leaves, as I do
Some call me St. Clare of Assisi, who was given a palm branch on Palm Sunday
Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower, who wrote much and loved flowers.

Golden they call me
Great of Magic
The Lady of Heaven
The Eye of RA—

As if we goddesses were all the same
As if they cannot remember our names
Nit, Au Set, Hat-Hor, Hekt and Wadjet are my sisters,
Makers of Magic: Secret, Hidden, the Mysteries
With Nit the Creatrix and Nekt-Hebt the Death Mother
I am Time, Existence, History, and Memory
Egypt lives because I remember

And I remember
I remember Who I am
I Remember My NAME
My pen is Eternity, my ink is Forever
As long as I remember Your name
You will live

References
Djeuty. (2002) Houser of Netjer. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://www.kemet.org/glossary/djehuty.html
Seshat. (2002) Houser of Netjer. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://www.kemet.org/glossary/djehuty.html
Dean, D. (2002) Seshat: Names and Titles. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://seshat.org/seshat/page2.html
Dean, D. (2002).Seshat: Names and Titles. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://seshat.org/seshat/page3.html
Dean, D. (2002) Seshat: Symbols. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://seshat.org/seshat/page3.html
Dean, D. (2002) Seshat: Functions. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://seshat.org/seshat/page4.html
Dean, D. (2002) Seshat: Connections. Retrieved September 28, 2005 from
http://seshat.org/seshat/page5.html
Seshat (n.d.) September 28, 2005 from http://membres.lycos.fr/anacharsis/seshat.html
(automatically translated by Google)

Labels: egyptian goddess, goddess of builders, goddess of library, goddess of magic, goddess of math, goddess of writing, seshat

# posted by Charlotte Babb @ 7:03 PM