When I was ordained as a priest of Sekhmet by Lady Olivia Robertson, she told me to "go forth and combat evil". What is evil, but a force, a construct that pulls us away from our conscience and awareness of what is right and wrong, a system that takes us away from knowledge of our Sacred Powers. The Goddess Sekhmet brings us back into this immediate sense of right and wrong, of Ma'at and consciousness, and that sometimes means tearing us to pieces in order to do it...severing the stronghold our ego and untamed mind has on us.
When I was initiated by the Dalai Lama, His Holiness spoke about our wrathful Dharma Protectors, and he said that some of them are fierce because our untamed mind is fierce. It runs like wild and prevents us from being aware of the true nature of things...things as they really are. So our fierce Dharma Protectors are there to remove the obstacles our mind creates to lucidity and awareness. So, they have to be fierce, to cut through our delusions.
Of course, Sekhmet in a purely Kemetic context cannot be called a "Dharma Protector", but the concepts are similar. Sekhmet is here to help us achieve health and clarity, to lead us away from self-destruction and delusion. She wakes us up out of our ego and wild wanderings in self-obsession, and She unites us with the Wedjat Eye, the Wholeness of the Netjer manifesting throughout the Gods and creation. She has to be fierce in order to accomplish that. We cannot honor or know Her unless we are first prepared to walk through that fire.
All text copyright © 2015 Rev. Ptahmassu Nofra-Uaa