A Gift from the Goddess Hathor

The Goddess Hathor and I go back quite a few years and while I know she's always there, it's a special treat when she really makes her presence known. Not only did she make her Self known, this time she came bearing gifts. My journey into the mysteries of Egypt began with the goddess Hathor and she’s leading me deeper into its blessings….and you, too!

My newest gift from Hathor started when I visited the Cairo museum for the first time and saw the most beautiful life-sized statue of a cow situated inside a small chapel with beautifully colored paintings on the walls. It was the Goddess Hathor in her form as a cow discovered in 1906 by Henry Edouard Naville. He came upon it by accident in the side of the mountain near Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple in Deir el Bahri. She wears a double plumed crown and her body is painted with gold stars. She’s absolutely beautiful. It was this form of her that I wanted for my altar but I just hadn’t found her. Until last month, when the sun moved into Taurus and there she was in my Instagram.

I noticed someone new had “liked” one of my IG posts and the name was intriguing so I checked them out. Turns out, it’s a shop in Cairo that sells statuary of the neteru. They had various depictions of Sekhmet and Bast and Isis and Anubis…and Hathor….in this cow form! I had this overwhelming feeling of her presence beside me and knew that this was a really special gift. I also felt that there were going to be some shifts for me so I needed to be open to what that might be. Soon the statue was on her way and I was tracking her voyage, feeling as if it were the goddess statue of ancient days making its way from one temple to the other during the days of festivities. She traveled from Cairo to Bahrain to Dubai to Cincinnati then to me in Indiana.

Astrology and ritual

Later that day, after placing the order, I was so excited I called a friend to share the news with her. As we were talking she acknowledged that it was a gift from Hathor and all of a sudden, as sometimes will happen, I knew that the timing astrologically was significant. I’m not an astrologer but do find it fascinating and am often led to moon/sun phases to help bring clarity to a situation. I checked the date of my order and it was the day the sun entered the sign of Taurus….the cow….Hathor. This new realization brought tears to my eyes as I let it sink in.

My much anticipated gift from Hathor soon arrived and it may sound silly but I felt her presence in that stone statue. The Ancient Egyptians believed that statues housed the Ka, or spirit, of the one who was depicted in the statue; the statue was basically alive. There’s a special ritual you can do to “enliven” a Divine image and so I set aside special time to do this with her, even though I felt she was already filled with Hathor’s presence.

I gathered all the items and used things from my cabinet with purpose. The man in the bowl represented her consort Horus, the woman in the bowl represented her as the Great Lady, the barn in the bowl represented her as the House of Horus, and the flowery bowl represented her as a Goddess of beauty. I had her sistrum and the ankh, my wand and sand from Alexandria. It had been a while since I had performed this ritual with a statue and going through all the movements and saying all the words was a really special time with her. It was particularly powerful and touching and I felt so blessed and honored in her presence.

Guided research

What happened next is that I began to feel led to read more about her from stories and ancient texts so I scoured my bookshelf reading about her stories. I read about her temple in Dendera and about her priestesses, the way villagers came to her temple for healing. As I continued to hungrily search for things I didn’t already know about her, I came across an article about The 5 Gifts of Hathor.  The premise of it is that in the ancient times when one wanted to come to the temple of Hathor to serve the Goddess, they were asked to hold up their left hand and name 5 things that meant the most to them. Many villagers who came were farmers and whenever they reached for the stalks of wheat to cut, they did so predominately with their left hand. Once they listed these 5 things, they were reminded that all of these things were a gift from Hathor and to let this hand be a reminder to always be grateful for what she had given them.

I was so touched by the power of this simple ancient reminder of practicing gratitude that I wanted to know just where this came from, as I hadn’t heard of it before.  I couldn’t find anything in my books or ancient texts and everything online pointed to this article and references to it so I decided to go right to the source and write to the author.

That prompted a series of emails with him over the course of a few days in which he shared his stories of Hathor, Egypt and the writing of the article and how it’s touched so many over the years. As we chatted back and forth across the keyboards, Hathor came in close and the idea for an online Festival began to grow.  The festival was created and was followed by the creation of a full online course on the goddess who brought me so many blessings over the years through music, art, creativity, teaching, becoming an oracle, and meeting so many wonderful and interesting people along the way.

So, how does all of this help you?

This story is told to remind you that sometimes blessings and gifts come in some of the most mundane places….but that the impact and meaning of these gifts is just as powerful and transformative as something that may come with more “bling”. It’s my hope that you begin to open to the blessings and gifts that await you.

All of THIS happened because I felt led to check out something on Instagram! The emails I exchanged with the author of the article was a gift - I was able to chat with someone who also felt the presence of Hathor and touched the lives of many over the years just by writing about it. The online festival I had was a gift - I met people from all over and from different walks of life but who walked the same circles as I did and shared my love of Egypt and the Goddess. The gift continued during our Festival by the writing and sharing of poems bringing me to tears as I felt their energy.

And even if you didn’t sign up for my 5 Gifts of Hathor Festival, you can still look at your left hand any time and remember that you, too, have special gifts in your life, and to count them every day.

May you enjoy everything about today!

If you’d like to explore this amazing goddess Hathor more with me, join me June 15 for a 4 part online course, Hathor: The Golden One. You can register at the button below

Images of Hathor when she was discovered in the mountain below are from the book Deir el Bahari, also pictured