Sometimes a simple chance conversation can have powerful consequences. This past October, I attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a very large international interfaith event. The event is amazing, with people from all over the planet and from every kind of religion/faith/tradition you can think of participating. All kinds of things happen when so many people get together who are open to sharing their insights into common problems from their individually diverse spiritual and religious perspectives.

The last formal event I attended was the “Solidarity with Indigenous Communities Plenary” on the very last day. There were many speakers from many different indigenous peoples from around the world, with one person on stage being Jean Fleury, Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Peace Ambassador and a key organizer of the Healing Hearts at Wounded Knee Global Ceremony. (Please go take a look at their mission statements and invitation to participate in healing the wounds from all Massacres and help to end them in the future). At any rate, the Plenary Session lasted longer than scheduled, and by the time it was finished the carpets were literally being rolled up in the Salt Lake City Convention Center. Luckily, the food court was still open so I rushed over for a quick lunch. Or so I thought. While getting napkins and whatnot, Jean asked if she could join me for lunch. So we sat down and started talking and sharing our paths, as people often do at the Parliament. I described my particular Kemetic path briefly and talked about my passion for speaking and singing the rituals in Egyptian, and that I was starting out with the Morning Hymn found in a number of temples and texts. She said “Well you know you have to sing it for me now!” and so I did – haltingly and only partially since it wasn’t finished by any means at that point.

And then she asked “You do know you are singing for the Ancestors from Egypt, don’t you?”. I was slightly stunned for a moment at that question. It was both a recognition and a challenge, completely serious and completely attuned to the deeper goals of what I had described, though I hadn’t actually said anything about deeper goals. She saw past the surface description and pulled out the source of those passions. My answer was and is “Yes”. Humbly, “Yes”. A yes that carries responsibilities I know I do not yet fully understand.
Then came another question that was both an invitation and a challenge – “I would love to have your song on the HHWK web site. Could you record it and allow us to post it there?” Again, after a gulp, the answer was Yes.

So here is the Morning Hymn For Seven Goddesses, as recorded in honor of and for the Healing Hearts Global Ceremony 2015 and stored on their site.

Note: Since making the recording last December (2015) I have changed the voweling in one place (many times repeated). In a subsequent post, I’ll be giving some more information on the Morning Hymn and the reconstructed forms used in it.

The Temple of Ra in San Francisco did perform a ritual on December 29th, 2015 as part of the Global Ceremony. In that ritual we sang the hymn together. The ritual itself was an Interfaith event in a way, in that we had non-members present representing non-Kemetic Polytheist, Wiccan, and Orthodox Christian traditions. That I feel was a great way to honor both the memory of Wounded Knee and the joyfully interconnected phenomenon that is the Parliament of the World’s Religions.