#neter

6/14/2025 Waning Gibbous 🌖89%

This image is a classic alchemical illustration drawn from the Rosarium Philosophorum, a 16th-century alchemical text associated with the Hermetic and Paracelsian traditions of Western alchemy. Entitled: “Rosarium Philosophorum” (“The Rosary of the Philosophers”) Date: First published in 1550, Frankfurt

In this post, we will examine a striking alchemical diagram that evoked profound parallels to the Kemetic mystery traditions of Ausar (Osiris) and Auset (Isis). This visual encoded a universal mystery: the cyclical process of death, dismemberment, sacred reconstitution, and divine birth. In this separate sacred text, we revisit and refine our insights from that exchange, layering them with mythic resonance, esoteric symbolism, and diasporic remembrance.

Burning of the Phoenix: Echoes of Dismemberment and Restoration, The Symbolic Breakdown

First, let's decipher the meaning behind the objects displayed within the image:

Lets start from the top:

Death with scythe and compass. This represents Chronos/Saturn/Set, god of time, harvest, and death. The initiator of the Nigredo phase (the spiritual dismemberment of Ausar). The compass signals sacred geometry, measurement of soul work.

Raining of Divine Wisdom

Next to the left of Set or Father time with the Scythe, we see Seven droplets symbolizing divine wisdom, alchemical stages or planetary spheres, the seven sacred metals, and the seven holes in the human head. One may easily skip over the hidden shape being formed by the water droplets themselves. Here, we find another cube, or at least a hexagonal structure. Here's the hidden meaning: These drops are often interpreted as essences, distillates, or divine tears and are usually associated with the element of Water (🜄), or the Spiritus Mundi descending. The hexagon is the 2D projection of a cube, the very structure we see grounded at the bottom of the image. It is also the structure of ice, the crystalline form of water. It is the shape of honeycomb, the sacred architecture of nature. The hexagon often associated with the Merkaba which is the spiritual light-body vehicle in many esoteric traditions, made of interlocking tetrahedra (fire + water, spirit + matter). Heavenly water or wisdom crystallizing into divine form are what these water droplets are here to represent. Spirit into salt. Idea into matter. Emotion into structure.This is the descent of Mercury into Form. It is the spiritual wisdom (Sophia in Gnostic Traditions, Auset in the more ancient) into the crystallized cube at the bottom. These droplets form the tears of Auset as she wept Ausar's dismemberment into the sacred 13 pieces where sacred grief becomes medicine [Read Symbolism of the number 13 here]. In solid form (ice) and in structured or “coherent” water, water naturally forms hexagonal lattices due to hydrogen bonding. When water freezes under normal conditions, it forms hexagonal crystals. This is why snowflakes, without exception, have unique 6-fold (hexagonal) symmetry. This geometry maximizes space efficiency and stability. In liquid form, especially near hydrophilic (water-attracting) surfaces like biological tissues or quartz, water clusters into temporary hexagonal rings.This is the basis of “structured water” or “exclusion zone (EZ) water” as discovered by Dr. Gerald Pollack. This geometry maximizes space efficiency and stability. Hexagonal structures are believed to act as information carriers, like liquid crystals. This structure is thought to act as an electrical and vibrational medium, connecting water to memory, intention, and spiritual charge. In metaphysics, water's hexagonal structure is tied to:

Memory (water retains imprint)

Emotional resonance (moon-ruled, water = feeling)

Sacred messages (i.e. Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work)

Divine Spark: The ignition of Spirit

With the presence of the fireball, we can infer it to equate to active sulfur or divine spark (the spiritus). Here we see the shape is less static than the shape of the water droplets. Its spiraling and swirling nature mimics the calculated expansion of the Golden Phi Spiral, nature's divine ratio in motion. This flame is the force of transformation, not destruction. It subtly mirrors the kundalini coil, the ouroboric serpent, or even the internal fire of the Philosopher’s Stone. The spiral-like shape suggests motion from lower to higher planes, a kind of ascension or awakening through the fire.

The droplets and fireball echo duality in the opposite expressions found practically everywhere in nature. This image also teaches the correlation between the Feminine principle, water, the moon, and the left brain and the Masculine principle, fire, the sun, and the right brain.

Center: Triangle with Phoenix. Triangle = Fire and spiritual ascension. Sulfur (🜍)= Active male principle, willpower, the soul animating presence, combustion. Phoenix = Putrefaction → Resurrection, Symbol of Ausar reborn, soul purified by fire. Reminiscent of Ausar's rebirth and transformation into Heru. Red Cross beneath = Matter & spirit intersect, echoing Venus or sacred womb. Spiritual transformation through ordeal.

Moon and Sun flanking Mercury (☿) Sol and Luna= The Divine opposites: masculine/feminine, consciousness/subconscious, solar/lunar, light/darkness, giving/receptivity, etc. Mercury(Spirit / Mind) Mediator of opposites, the one who joins as the reconciler-androgynous spirit, the medium of transformation.This is the hieros gamos (sacred marriage) in symbolic form.

Cube on the ground: Represents Prima Materia or the base material. It is the alchemical salt 🜔, the principle of form,The body, the Earth, the vessel of transmutation, earth, matter, and body. The material world. It is fixed, crystalline, and represents the manifested world, the physical vessel, or structure through which spirit and soul move. Groundedness, the material plane ready to be transformed. It is the foundation,the stable platform for the sacred alchemical union above. The cube is geometry made matter,sacred form. It represents the perfection of structure, and symbolically it is often seen as the crystallized divine.

Together the image of sulphur (fire, mars), mercury (air) , and cube (earth) represent the Tria Prima. These three elements combine in the alchemical process of transmutation and rebirth: physically, spiritually, emotionally. Here we can interpret the alchemical symbols through a Kemetic lens to mean Sulphur= Ausar/Heru, Mercury=Tahuti, and Salt= Geb. In another way, we can decipher the relationship between sulphur, mercury, and salt to have relation to the common phrase "Mind ☿ over Matter 🧊" . But this phrase is gravely incomplete and leads those into having trouble actualizing this truth. By examining the Rosarium Philosophorum, we can extract the complete and holistic phrase to mean, "Mind ☿ over Matter 🜔/🧊, but Will 🜍 over all." This shows a deep relational understanding by an infamous occultist who came up with the phrase, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

Wild Flowers Bloom:

Fertility after transformation. Echoes Auset’s magic: life returning after dismemberment. Also relating to Ausar's known attribute as the Green Neter or the Green Man. The Neter of great harvest, who's death coincides with the flooding of the river Nile and the fertilization of the Nile Valley thereafter. These flowers are code for the fruits of this work that will be granted upon completion.

Although the flowers are not hyperealistic, here's what we can infer seeing as there is 7 of them, 4 on one side and 3 on the other starting from the far left :

1. Nigredo (Blackening) – DEATH OF THE FALSE SELF - Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii)

The Blue Flower is likely resembling Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii), especially in the flattened, wide-petal bloom and soft blue hue. Here, Baby Blue Eyes would symbolize the innocence before the work begins. It can also be interpreted as the emotional clairvoyance needed to enter the alchemical process. Possibly the aspect of the Divine Child or sacred vulnerability that precedes initiation. Baby Blue Eyes acts almost as a threshold keeper to the Work—soft, unassuming, but watching everything. Like the "seer flower" of the whole mandala.

Negredo Stage: Calcination

Planet: Saturn ♄

Metal: Lead (Pb) and Iron (Fe)

Element: Fire

Planet: Mars ♂ and/or Saturn ♄

Spiritual Action: Destruction of ego and pride

Process: Burning down the false personality and illusions of control

Symbolism: Ashes, skulls, flames—what no longer serves is burned away

Modern Inner Work: Shadow work, ego death, confrontation with anger or destructive habits

Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii) Spiritual Correspondences:

Element: Water; Planet: Neptune or Moon (depending on tradition)

Tenderness in divine sight

Innocence of the mystic child

Eyes of the spirit-world Softness as protection

A plant of emotional openness, but also psychic shielding by gentleness

Spiritual Note: Blue flowers often represent the Quest for the nearly impossible, like Blue Lotus).

2. Albedo (Whitening) – PURIFICATION THROUGH SPIRIT - Buttercup (Ranunuculeae)

Based on the positioning of the five petals of the yellow flower to the right of the baby blue eyes could be, I believe it to be Buttercup. If we place Buttercup as part of the flowers of the alchemical process, it would represent recognition of the Inner Light. This is the soul realizing it has a radiant seed within. Not yet action, but awareness of vitality.

Albedo Stage: Dissolution

Element: Water

Planet: Moon ☽

Metal: Silver (Ag)

Spiritual Action: Melting of hardened identity; releasing rigid structures

Process: Ego falls into the subconscious; emotional waters flood

Symbolism: Flood, drowning, dreams, the unconscious

Modern Inner Work: Grief release, letting go, emotional purification

Correspondences: Surrender, innocence, visionary insight, purity of perception.

Associated with spiritual opening and ego disintegration.

Buttercup carries a softening energy, befitting for the breaking down of false identities.

Spiritual Correspondences of Buttercup:

Element: Fire tempered by Water

Energy: Self-worth, perception of one's beauty/power, gentle ignition

Child-like innocence and hidden self esteem

Use in spiritual traditions for truth telling , symbolizing the light one reflects.

Appears in fields humble, but radiant.

This would correspond with the beginning of "Sublimation" or "Calcinatio", where emotional matter is heated gently by inner realization. The fire is still low, not the purification blaze yet, but you are learning to identify the golden parts of yourself.

3. Trillium (Trillium erectum)

According to its three petaled shape and red to pinkish hue, and its stamen, I believe this flower to be the Trillium. Trillium is sacred to both First Nations herbal traditions and European folkloric healing, especially among the Algonquin and Celtic peoples. It is also Known as birthroot or wake-robin. It was used for:

Protecting birthing mothers

Healing feminine wounds

Grounding spiritual initiation in embodied form

Its esoteric meaning could be interpreted as:

Triadic wholeness representing spirit–soul–body, past–present–future, maiden–mother–crone.

Initiation bloom: a signal that the soul is standing at the Threshold of Becoming

Carries the feminine trinity frequency, related to Isis/Auset, Brigid, and in neo-traditions Hekate

It resembles a spiritual doorway ora temple gate between mundane love and consecrated union. Based on its placement as the third flower to the left, Trillium marks the moment where the initiate must move from light flirtation and protection into spiritual discernment and oath-taking. This is where the Work begins. No more games. No more half-hearted offerings. This is the sacred vow point. In magic this flower can be used for:

Spiritual commitment

Soul-oath forming

Bloodline healing (especially of mother-daughter lineage)

Guardian spirit evocation

4. Blue Lotus (Nymphaea Caerulea)

Those rounded, lush petals, the radiating symmetry, and the proximity to the cube all point to something ancient and sacred. I believe this flower tk be the one and omly Blue Lotus. This is temple-born. This is sacred depth.

Stage: Conjunction

Divine union, heart-mind-spirit integration, dream wisdom

Notes: Classic alchemical symbol—bridging opposites and invoking spiritual resurrection.

Spiritual Correspondences:

Origin: Nile Valley, Kemet (Ancient Egypt)

Spiritual Awakening – the blue lotus rises from the mud, untouched by it, and opens each day with the sun. A direct metaphor for soul evolution and divine emergence from matter

Symbol of Auset (Isis) – the Netert associated with resurrection magic, sacred scent, erotic wisdom, and ecstatic trance

Bridge of Realms – blue lotus is used in spiritual rites to bridge the conscious with the subconscious, waking with dream, and mortal with divine.

In Kemetic temples, it was used in ritual to induce trance, spiritual travel, and connect to ancestral memory.

Used before initiation, divination, or ritual courtship

Planet: Moon (trance, dream, water) + Venus (beauty, erotic sacredness)

Element: Water; Chakra: Crown + Third Eye

Deities: Auset, Heket, Hathor, Nuit

This flower beside the cube is no accident. The blue lotus represents the soul’s readiness to merge with form; to manifest sacred knowledge into the material world without losing its divine source. The cube being salt (body, earth, crystalized memory) leads one to interpret the blue lotus here as the flowering of divine consciousness through the body. Where the body becomes the living temple. This is the moment in alchemy where the soul doesn’t escape matter, it suffuses it. This stage indicates one is no longer just learning, but is becoming. Anchor spirit into body, vision into breath, trance into truth.

5. Orange Rose (Rosa)

With the fifth flower, I had a bit of trouble determining if it were an orange rose or ranunuculus. Considering the fifth state of the alchemical process being Coniuncto or Hieros Gamos, also called the Sacred Union. This is the stage corresponds with:

Planet: Jupiter

Metal: Tin

Principle: Expansion, vision, wisdom

Alchemical Stage: Fermentation – spirit entering the matter

Meaning: Divine insight, higher mind, “flower of heaven”

Sulfur and Mercury unite through Salt ( or in other words where

Masculine and Feminine polarities are fused (Sol + Luna)

The Soul (represented by the Phoenix) rises from its trial by fire transformed

The cube (Salt) becomes the altar, and the Phoenix is resurrected Sovereignty

The central Mercury glyph (☿) reveals this union of opposites. It’s the stage of alchemical marriage — not courtship, not seduction, but vowed union through transmutation. For this reason, it is associated with the Orange Rose over the Ranunculus. Heres why:

Spiritually, the orange rose symbolizes sacred union, fertility, and passion made holy.

It’s a long-time emblem of Rosicrucian mysteries and the marriage of soul and spirit.

A rose is open, nothing being hidden, representing readiness, vulnerability, and divine integration.

For these reasons, I believe it properly corresponds with the fifth stage of the alchemical process or Coniuncto. When one has emerged from purification (calcination), dissolution (solution), fermentation (death of ego), and coagulation. Now comes integration and embodied love. It resonates with the cube (Salt) as the stabilizing vessel of the divine union.

6. Iris (Iris Germanica)

The petals curve downward, droop like the heavy robes of a priestess or mourning veil. The structure is upright and dignified suggesting maturity and spiritual finality. The deep indigo-blue coloration is typical of Iris flowers, especially the Iris germanica, which was used symbolically in medieval and Renaissance alchemical texts. Named after the goddess Iris, the Greek messenger between gods and mortals, often associated with rainbows this flower becomes a perfect symbol for bridging heaven and earth, soul and matter. Iris is connected with divine messages, transition, and the arrival of clarity at the end of spiritual trial. Often found near water, it maintains a symbolic bridge between purification and revelation. Iris signifies that one has passed through dissolution, death, and resurrection. The Iris represents the return of clarity, but grounded. The mind and heart are no longer in conflict. Spirit is fixed in the vessel of the self. It is the flowering of the soul after surviving fire and water. This phase of the alchemical process corresponds with:

Planet: Mercury

Metal: Quicksilver

Principle: Communication, transformation, fluidity

Alchemical Stage: Distillation

Meaning: Vitality, motion, intellectual spark

7. Snowdrop (Galanthus Nivalis)

During the final stage of the alchemical process, Coagula, the Red King is crowned; the stone is made.This final stage of alchemy represents:

Wholeness, integration, enlightenment

The soul fully incarnate in the body

Spirit and matter united, no longer in tension

The Philosopher’s Stone, truth revealed through life

While deciphering the potential candidate for the flower corresponding with stage 7, I encountered great difficulty. I could not find an exact match as to what the image could be, but based on my information gathered regarding the alchemical process, the appearance of this flower, and its properties, I have settled in the conclusion that the seventh flower could potentially be Snowdrop. Here's why. Based on the fact that snowdrop blooms through snow, it symbolizes resurrection, victory over death, the return of light. The three inner petals + three outer equate to the sacred geometry of the hexad, heaven and earth in harmony. Its drooping posture is reminiscent of humility, surrender, the enlightened soul that bends, not breaks. Its white color being a metaphor for purity, clarity, soul reborn without distortion. Because it is born from frozen ground it mirrors the spirit fully reborn within the body, despite hardship. Its bell shape is related to the call to awaken, divine signal of completion. Delicate but hardy , Integration doesn't require force, just aligned strength. Its Moon-aligned blooming Echoes divine timing and cycles.

Spiritual Correspondences:

Associated with Imbolc / Candlemas, the light returning to the world

Said to have sprung from the tears of Eve after exile from Eden; first mercy in a fallen world, which reminds one of the tears being shed by Auset after the "falling" of Ausar

In Slavic lore, represents death overcome by love and truth

In folk magic, it is a flower of protection and pure-hearted spells

Bastet

Other names:Bast

Major cult center:Bubastis

Symbol:cat, lioness, ointment jar, sistrum, solar disk

Parents:Ra and Isis

Siblings:Horus and Anhur (half-brothers)

Consort:Ptah

Offspring:Maahes

Connection to other gods:Sekhmet, Hathor, Rāt, Tem, Artemis

Celebrations

Bubastis celebrations of Bastet 'Feast of drunkenness'

Bubasteia was celebrated by intoxication,music, debauchery, children would be born without fathers on this day.

Bastet was a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion, worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty (2890 BCE). Her name also is rendered as B'sst, Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In ancient Greek religion, she was known as Ailuros (Koinē Greek: αἴλουρος "cat").

Bastet was worshipped in Bubastis in Lower Egypt, originally as a lioness goddess, a role shared by other deities such as Sekhmet. Eventually Bastet and Sekhmet were characterized as two aspects of the same goddess, with Sekhmet representing the powerful warrior and protector aspect and Bastet, who increasingly was depicted as a cat, representing a gentler aspect

Role In Ancient Egypt

Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the sun worshipped throughout most of ancient Egyptian history, but later she became the cat goddess that is familiar today. She then was depicted as the daughter of Ra and Isis, and the consort of Ptah, with whom she had a son Maahes.

As protector of Lower Egypt, she was seen as defender of the king, and consequently of the sun god, Ra. Along with other deities such as Hathor, Sekhmet, and Isis, Bastet was associated with the Eye of Ra.She has been depicted as fighting the serpent named Apep, an enemy of Ra. In addition to her solar connections, sometimes she was called "eye of the moon".

Bastet was also a goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, possibly because of the fertility of the domestic cat.

Images of Bastet were often created from alabaster. The goddess was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonial sistrum in one hand and an aegis in the other—the aegis usually resembling a collar or gorget, embellished with a lioness head.

Bastet was also depicted as the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and malicious spirits.

History

Bastet first appears in the third millennium BCE, where she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness.Two thousand years later, during the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (c. 1070–712 BC), Bastet began to be depicted as a domestic cat or a cat-headed woman.

Scribes of the New Kingdom and later eras began referring to her with an additional feminine suffix, as Bastet. The name change is thought to have been added to emphasize pronunciation of the ending t sound, often left silent.

Cats in ancient Egypt were highly revered, partly due to their ability to combat vermin such as mice, rats (which threatened key food supplies), and snakes—especially cobras. Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat from the plates of their owners. Dennis C. Turner and Patrick Bateson estimate that during the Twenty-second Dynasty (c. 945–715 BC), Bastet worship changed from being a lioness deity into being predominantly a major cat deity.Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother and sometimes was depicted with numerous kittens.

The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Ancient Egypt in the Ptolemaic Dynasty that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses, Artemis

Festival

Herodotus also relates that of the many solemn festivals held in Egypt, the most important and most popular one was that celebrated in Bubastis in honor of this goddess.Each year on the day of her festival, the town was said to have attracted some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who arrived in numerous crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place. Great sacrifices were made and prodigious amounts of wine were drunk—more than was the case throughout the year.This accords well with Egyptian sources that prescribe that lioness goddesses are to be appeased with the "feasts of drunkenness".A festival of Bastet was known to be celebrated during the New Kingdom at Bubastis. The block statue from the eighteenth dynasty (c. 1380 BC) of Nefer-ka, the wab-priest of Sekhmet,provides written evidence for this. The inscription suggests that the king, Amenhotep III, was present at the event and had great offerings made to the deity.

──────⊰In Workings⊱──────

*Please know basic protections and energy work before attempting any deity work.*

*It is important to note that everyone's experiences are different and will work with spirits for different reasons. Some people may like a spirit while others will not and that's okay. Ask these spirits what they will work with you on as well as ask them if they can help you with whatever it is you need.*

Ideas for honoring or working with/worshipping Bastet

Altar

Create an altar/sacred space for your rituals and giving offerings for Bastet. Items may include

⬩An altar cloth

⬩Black or yellow candles (you can use any color)

⬩Cup or chalice

⬩Incense and an incense burner

⬩Offering bowl

⬩Statue of Bastet, cat or lion

For more information on basic deity work and altar setups check out the deity work post.

Offering items:Bread, Catnip, Fish, Frankincense, Meats, Myrrh, Perfume bottle, Sistrum, Water

Rituals

⬩Fertility rites and rituals

⬩Protection

⬩Motherhood

⬩You can ask her what she can help you with⬩

𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠𓃠

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"The cycle of creation is caused and maintained by divine forces or energies. These energies like the perpetual cycle of creation go through a process of transformation from birth-life-aging-dying-death to rebirth. We, as human beings, have similar life forces that change throughout our lifetime. Our human bodies consist of numerous cycles that govern our life existence. All forces die out when we die.

The Egyptians called these divine forces neteru. The main theme of the universe is its cyclical nature. The NeTeRu are the forces of NaTuRe, which make the world go around—so to speak. To simply call them gods and goddesses gives a false impression.

The Divine energy that manifests itself in the creation cycle is defined by its constituent energy aspects, which were called neteru by the Ancient Egyptians. In order for creation to exist and to be maintained, this divine energy must be thought of in terms of male and female principles.

Therefore, Ancient Egyptians expressed the cosmic energy forces in the terms of netert (female principle) and neter (male principle).

The Egyptian word ‘neter’ (or nature or ‘netjer’) means a power that is able to generate life and to maintain it when generated. As all parts of creation go through the cycle of birth-life-death-rebirth, so do the driving energies, during the stages of this cycle. It is therefore that the Ancient Egyptian neteru, being divine energies, went (and continue to go) through the same cycle of birth-growth-death and renewal. Such understanding was common to all, as noted by Plutarch; that the multitude forces of nature (known as neteru) are born or created, subject to continuous changes, age and die, and are reborn."

Are you ready to set up your altar? Whether you follow all of the Netjeru, multiple, singular, or none this will work for you.

First, clear off a space for your altar to be set up. I would recommend burning a candle or incense whilst you are doing this- something that brings you happiness and helps you clear your mind. Lavender or eucalyptus would work. However, that step isn’t necessary because it’s recommended that you first use smoke cleansing to clear your palette before you start setting up. Lavender, pine, mint, eucalyptus, cedar, frankincense and myrrh all have cleansing properties to them. If you are unable to use smoke to help, wiping it down with natural oils would also work- pine sol would be great for this.

Next, set it up how you want. If you want to put down an altar cloth, go ahead and lay that down now. Candles or an incense holder would work on top of this surface too. You can add in a burning dish as well, to burn any offerings you may give or any messages to those who you want to give one too. Along with any offering plate or a libation vessel you wish to use.

If you’re following all of the gods or none of them but still want an altar- I would set up imagery of the core principle of the religion- in this case, as a kemetic pagan, I would set up something to honor *maat*. If you’re honoring just your ancestors, put up an image of them.

Lay on the items that you’ve given to whoever, as an offering, and place them around the altar as you wish. This may include imagery, crystals, stuffed animals, divination tools, jewelry, and any other non-perishable item.

For food offerings, I would, personally, leave it on an offering plate that I have dedicated solely to them; however, this isn’t feasible for everybody so it’s not mandatory. As a kemetic pagan, you may leave your food on your altar, say a prayer or say graditute to the Neter, and, depending on what type of food you’re offering, you may consume it immediately or leave it there over night.

Afro Culture (My Culture)