SEKHMET

SEKHMET

Sekhmet was the fierce lion-headed Goddess of healing and retribution, from ancient Egypt, who wore the solar globe surrounded by a uraeus (fire-spitting cobra) on her head. Her great power as both healer and destroyer paralleled that of the desert sun and her breath produced the hot desert winds. She was a Goddess more ancient than the myths that told her story, described by 4000 different names. She also ruled over the Tablets of Destiny, holding everyone's fate in her hands. She stands in front of the Sacred Lake at Karnak and holds an ankh, symbolizing life, with a scarab beetle, symbolizing the sun, from Tutankhamun's Tomb, Valley of the Kings, 14th century BCE; she is also holding a papyrus plant, the symbol of Lower Egypt, and is wearing a necklace after one from Tutankhamun's Tomb with an inset from a pectoral depicting herself, same location, c. 1330 BCE. The statue behind her is from Karnak.

Art by Sandra M. Stanton