Hathor Sekhmet

Hathor and Sekhmet are two sides of the same Goddess. Hathor is Her gentle, nurturing and life-giving aspect, while Sekhmet is Her fierce and destructive side.

Hathor, the Holy Heifer, symbolises the entire heavens including the Sun, the Moon and the stars. She is depicted as a cow, which is a symbol of nurture and life and by extension represents civilisation. Hathor reveals Her origins through Her headdress which consists of a solar disc surrounded by two lunar cow horns and the ancient wise serpent symbol, the Uraeus cobra. Hathor’s cow belly is descibed as being full of stars, which connects Her to the Goddess Neit, who is the heavens.

As the Goddess as the Sun Hathor-Sekhmet symbolises both aspects of our beautiful star. While Hathor, the Celestial Cow, represents the gentle spring Sun – note how Taurus, the Bull, is the fixed sign of spring – Her alter ego Sekhmet, the Fiery Lioness, represents the hot burning summer Sun – again, note how Leo, the Lion, is the fixed sign of summer.

Like Hathor, Sekhmet also wears the Sun disk and the Uraeus Serpent as Her headdress. She does not, however, wear the lunar cow horns, as She is solely linked to the Sun.

Sekhmet, the Mighty One, the destructive mid-summer Sun, is hot, fierce and dangerous. She is also called “Nesert”, the Flame, as the dry summer heat is often linked to destructive wild fires.

According to legend one day the Sun god Ra turned to Hathor for help and protection. Apparently he’d overheard a group of men on top of a moutain plotting a conspiracy against him. He asked Hathor to “neutralise the threat”, as it were. This is when gentle nurturing Hathor transformed Herself into the fierce lioness Sekhmet. She slayed all of Ra’s enemies, but didn’t stop there. Having got a taste for human blood, She went on a rampage that nearly killed all of humanity. In order to stop Her Ra apparently made up a brew from red ochre and barley beer to trick Sekhmet into thinking this was blood. He poured all 7,000 jugs onto the ground and the Goddess drank and drank and drank until She was so intoxicated She fell asleep and returned to being gentle Hathor.

Some people talk of Hathor and Sekhmet as being two parts of a Triple Goddess: Bast-Hathor-Sekhmet, whereby Bast is the Maiden, Hathor the Mother and Sekhmet the dark Crone aspect.