Sekhmet · the Lion-Headed
Warrior of Egypt

Whoever sees an Egyptian lioness with a sun-disc on her head and a uraeus-serpent on her forehead has Sekhmet before them. Her name — the same word as Sekhem, the empowered force — means simply "the Mighty". She belongs to the most striking figures of the Egyptian Neteru. And she is more uncomfortable than most others. She comes when something has to be broken open that has been held too long.

A note · Sekhmet is a Netjeret, not a Western-style "goddess". She is a cosmic warrior-principle in personal form.

The myth · the Avenger of Ra

The best-known Sekhmet story tells of a moment of Ra's anger. The humans had turned away from him, plotted against him. Ra sent Sekhmet — born from his own wrath — down upon the humans. She set to work and killed with a thoroughness that is her own. But the wrath became too much for Ra. He did not want to wipe out humanity. Yet Sekhmet was in frenzy and would not stop.

The other Neteru advised a ruse. They prepared a great basin of beer, dyed red like blood. Sekhmet saw it, took it for human blood, drank to exhaustion, and slept. When she awoke, the wrath had vanished. She was Hathor again — her softer face. Humanity was saved.

Sekhmet and Hathor are two sides of the same Netjeret. Whoever thinks them as separate misses both. The wrathful red and the loving music are in her one and the same heart.

Her functions

Sekhmet has several functions in the Egyptian tradition that seem contradictory at first glance but cohere inwardly:

Warrior and destroyer

She is invoked when enemies must be repelled. The Pharaoh called her before battle. In temples she was asked to destroy harmful influences.

Protection from sickness and attack

Paradoxically Sekhmet is also a protective Netjeret against sickness. The Egyptians often understood sickness as attack by hostile forces. Sekhmet, who had the power to destroy humans, could also destroy the forces that attacked a human. She was therefore invoked in healing contexts — with the request to destroy what makes sick.

Mistress of Sekhem-energy

Her name is identical with the word for empowered force. She embodies this force in pure form. Whoever works Sekhem — and this is the basis of many shamanic-energetic works — works implicitly in her field. See Energy in shamanic martial arts.

The thousand names

A pharaonic temple in Thebes kept seven hundred Sekhmet statues — one for each day and each night of the year, so that at every moment a Sekhmet statue could be invoked. Many of them stand today in museums across Europe. A visit to one of these statues is often deeper than expected. They radiate presence, even after three and a half millennia.

Offerings and colours

• Red · her colour · especially dark red
• Beer · referencing the myth
• Offerings are not timid · spicy foods, strong drinks
• Incense · strong, not sweet · myrrh, fiery olibanum
• Noon sunlight · when the sun shines hottest
• Music and dance · especially drum rhythms

Sekhmet for the modern practitioner

Sekhmet is not for every day. But for certain moments she is irreplaceable. Whoever stands in a situation where something wrong has been held too long — a toxic relationship, a destructive pattern, an overdue decision — can call her. Her presence helps make the decisive cut. Without circumlocution. Without sentimentality.

That has a flip side. Whoever calls Sekhmet should know what they are asking for. She is not gentle. She makes no compromises. The Western-esoteric tendency to imagine every Netjeret as a soft mother is mercilessly corrected with her. That is her gift: she teaches that feminine power is not identical with softness.

Sekhmet at Shamanic Worlds

In the Egyptian practice at Shamanic Worlds, Sekhmet is called in specific ritual contexts — particularly around boundary-setting, ending false ties, or protection from strong external influences. She is not addressed lightly — but when she is called at the right moment, her effect is often immediately felt.

For women long caught in too-gentle roles, the encounter with Sekhmet is often a moment of liberation. For men who know their inner feminine only in feminised stereotypes, she opens a new dimension. In both cases: she changes something that was previously fixed.