Calligraphy and Sekhmet

CALLIGRAPHY AND SEKHMET by Lady Sekhmet

I consider calligraphy to be a spiritual discipline. The world over, the best calligraphers have always been those people with the ability to instantly communicate the meaning of a text through the very way they write their letters or form their symbols. Locked within the aethetics is the power of the artist spontaneously using a tool, confident in the outcome. At the calligrapher's command are years of studying correct proportion and the mastery of technical dexterity. When describing the craft of calligraphy, "Disciplined Freedom" is the phrase coined by Ray Da Boll, a Chicago designer working during the 1950s who rediscovered for himself the allure of the ancient art of writing and among the first to promote this "forgotten" art in the United States.

When I was studying art in college in 1976, I learned the proper techniques of calligraphy in London through a Studies Abroad Program. Throughout the years I followed-up my inclination by studying with a variety of craftsmen considered accomplished in the field of modern calligraphy. Many of them lead deeply spiritual lives. I fondly remember a group of calligraphers in Oregon who combined their calligraphy practice with the practice of Zen. One of my teachers, a Los Angeles-based calligrapher, David Meckleburg, once told me, "The words will always come out beautiful when you love what you are writing. So calligraphy only those words and phrases which speak to your heart."

By 1986, my calligraphy work was internationally recognised and exhibited. And thus I became a world-class calligrapher. Years later, when at the Coptic Museum in Cairo, I came upon an exbibit of an original page fragment from the Nag Hammadi Gospels. Somehow, it looked very, very familiar. Then an overwhelming feeling of urgency gripped me as I 'saw,' in my mind's eye, an old man's hand quickly writing these very verses. A forboding sense of danger surrounded me. A shock jolted through my body. Finally, I understood нн the hand of that old man belonged to me! I was the one who had written that very fragment! The possession of this and other texts of secret knowledge had become very dangerous. I still hold a strong sense of duty towards retaining the knowledge of the Truth. But I also retain a feeling that I am still in peril for knowing what I know...

So here I am, many years later with words which finally speak to my heart--words of and about The Living Goddess Sekhmet. Each are inspired prayers received by Sekhmet's Chosen and gifted by them to the larger community. So, finally, I have a worthy project--to bring into form the passion and fire of Sekhmet's sacred words. In joy, esctasy, and in praise of the Living Goddess Sekhmet, I offer the fruit of our collective inspiration. See ORDER FORM.

SA SEKHEM SAHU

й1999 LADY SEKHMET

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