Hathor

Hathor was a goddess often celebrated in joyful music and dance.

Once described as The Mother of Mothers she embodied fertility: her bovine face was symbolic of a womb, with her ears depicted where the fallopian tubes enter the uterus. A cervix and vagina were implied beneath her chin. Can you see these above and below?

Hathor’s “hippo” ears betrayed her love of SOUND—a trait borrowed from the hippopotamus (a descendent of whales) because this nocturnal mammal is extremely vocal. Yet despite being doting mothers, hippos can be aggressive, ruthless and unpredictable—accounting for more human fatalities each year than lions and leopards combined. In recognition of this, Hathor was often depicted with tusks above her head (below). Hippos also secrete a florid substance called “blood sweat” that acts as a moisturiser, water repellent and antibiotic. Hathor therefore, was often depicted in red:

Above: Élodie Yung played the Red Queen in “Gods of Egypt”

So Hathor’s temples were deeply connected with water and this life-blood of the Nile became synonymous with the abundance of “Mother Earth”. Due to this, the flood of the Nile was equated with the “flood” of a woman. Even the Milky Way was seen as a heavenly river, leading the ancient Egyptians to describe it as The Nile in the Sky. The white sap of the sycamore tree (regarded as a symbol of life) was also likened to Hathor as a reflection of the Milky Way but also as a sign of fertility (breast milk).

Hathor was the oldest Egyptian deity depicted in the ancient reliefs. She was worshipped at Denderah, a temple at the edge of the desert along the banks of the Nile. Although this retreat was built in the first century BC the site has been sacred to Hathor for over ten thousand years. Most of her priests and followers were musicians, dancers and artists. As a river goddess, Hathor was also aligned with lotus flowers and the four that adorn her head (at top) represent the position of the heart chakra and Denderah’s location on the Nile.

As the goddess of joy, Hathor and was deeply loved by the general population (particularly women) who aspired to embody her multifaceted role as lover, mother and wife. In this capacity she gained the title of The One Who Fills the Sanctuary with Joy. The worship of Hathor was so popular that more festivals were dedicated in her honour that to any other Egyptian deity; more children were named after her than anyone else. Here are the lyrics of an ancient hymn to Hathor:

Thou art the Mistress of Jubilation, the Queen of the Dance, the Mistress of Music, the Queen of the Harp Playing, the Lady of the Choral Dance, the Queen of Wreath Weaving, the Mistress of Inebriety Without End.

Denderah faces the rising of the star Sirius. After 70 days below the horizon this star would reappear at dawn upon the summer solstice. Typically this was the time when the Nile began to flood, depositing new layers of rich mud upon the banks of the Nile. This heralded the greening of the desert and so became symbolic of rebirth. Hathor then, reminds us of the first day of the New Year and the combined love of aligned Suns.

The musical instrument associated with Hathor was the sistrum. It resembled the Ankh, the symbol of life. As an ascension tool connected with the balance points of our hearts and minds, the vibrations it produces assist with the rising of energies within an initiate’s body. Sistrums give off significant levels of ultrasound—a beneficial high frequency sound beyond the range of human hearing.

To this day, Hathor reminds us that music predated language—that sound is the primordial basis of creation. She sees humans as standing wave patterns of energy; as a complex series of harmonics. From her perspective, our auras emit sound that aligns with the wavelength of different organs. If there is a block, Hathor can see this and produce a sound frequency that can move it. When it begins to move, the subject may experience emotions, memories and feelings they have repressed for their entire life. The result is that the subject experiences powerful changes sexually, emotionally and spiritually.

One Christian legend states that Mary conceived Jesus with her ears. Why? Because they are the purest of our sense organs and they connect us with primal sound. But there is another meaning here that points to the fallopian tubes as ears—the resonant organs of life that herald the beginning of time.

But Denderah was more than a temple: it was a place to be nourished in body and soul. As a centre for healing and learning it housed a birthing chapel, a sanatorium and a sacred well. At one time harps, lyres, flutes, pan pipes, drums and rattles sounded within. As the archetype of fertility, sexual ecstasy and bliss, Hathor taught the use of sacred dance and music to create healing wave forms.

GODDESS OF LOVE
GODDESS OF LUST

Indeed, Hathor taught that sex was one of the most exciting parts of the human experience and an area of our greatest vitality and beauty. As the mistress of tantric sex, Hathor showed us how to tune in to our emotional and sexual desires. Romantic love then, was more than just carnal pleasure—it was a way of reaching a higher state of mind-body consciousness and creating a deeper, more harmonious bond with our partners.  Here we are reminded of the Song of Songs:

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,
Fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun
And terrible as an army with banners?

In a carnal sense, Hathor represented the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman. As a sexual archetype, Hathor occupied the inflamed aspect of the Scarlet Harlot. If the adept gave himself totally to her—the pouring of his blood into her graal—he became impregnated in her and was then reborn as the Master of the Temple. Sex magick then, was a powerful religious sacrament.

Above: the heptagram inspired the facades of Egyptian temples

Despite this, when the Coptic Christians arrived in Egypt they defaced many figures of Hathor, labelling her blasphemous. Like the Romans before them, the Copts did not understand how sexuality, ecstasy and bliss were heralds of the divine rapture.

If you shy away from love, then open your heart.
If you shy away from lust, then open your legs.
Then know that they are one and the same.