DIY Wep Ronpet: New Year’s

Here is part two of my DIY Wep Ronpet series – New Year’s Day. There’s a few things I like to do on Wep Ronpet if I’m not at Retreat. Like with the Epagomenal day meditations, they aren’t complex, but they make the day special in small ways.

I wake up to see the sunrise, and do Senut at dawn. During Senut, I read prayers to Ra, and to any gods Who have claimed the year; I also read prayers for blessings on the new year. There are prayers that are sent to the members of the House of Netjer, so if you’re a member you can use those; I also supplement with prayers from the Ancient Egyptian Prayerbook.

I make sure to open the curtains in my shrine room so that the sunlight falls on my shrine, and I expose the images of my gods to the light. I don’t do this with any particular ceremony – I just make sure light shines on each shrine at some point.

I take a small poundcake and use colored icing to draw a snake on the top. It’s not fancy. It usually looks more like a green squiggle with a red forked tongue. As long as I know that it’s meant to represent the Uncreated and all the awful evil things in the world, that’s good enough. Then, after I draw the snake on, I cut up the cake into slices and eat it. I like to share this part with my family, especially since I can’t eat a whole cake by myself.

I also try to clean before Wep Ronpet morning, and use natron water to purify my living space. This is a tradition I’ve kind of imported from my family’s beliefs about the secular new year. It is better for your environment to be clean and tidy when the new year starts, because that first day of the year will have an influence over all the other days. I’d rather not spend an entire year in a cluttered space. Right now I’m scrambling to pack AND clean, so that my room can be clean for new year’s morning even if I’m not there.

I hope you all have a blessed New Year! On this last day of year 18, I wish you all safety in the days upon the year and all peace, joy, life, health, prosperity and stability in year 19.

I will be blogging a bit from Retreat itself – so expect to see updates here and there from me during these days as well!