After my little “evacu-cation”, I realized how valuable my little emergency shrine was. It was an idea I had a while ago, which was originally much more elaborate. I had put together a little box with a white bowl, white cloths, a big bottle of water, a tealight in a holder, some matches and incense, and anything else I thought I might need. When we evacuated, I grabbed the bare-bones necessities from that box, and was left with only what I grabbed out of my shrines beyond that.
It boils down to this:
- Two 1 dram bottles full of water
- One 1 dram bottle with some natron
- One 1 dram bottle of essential oil of your preference
- 1 tea-light & book of matches OR
- 1 electric tea-light
- 1 pouch for storing
Since I am working with the Senut ritual, I based my tools on what I would need for Senut. The bottle of natron and one bottle of water are for purifications. I blessed the water and the natron and mixed them together, then wet my hands and rinsed my mouth with the natron water to purify.
The other vial of water is for the libations during the Senut rite. I had also brought a bowl from my State shrine and was able to use a bottle of water for this during Irene, but in a pinch you can use the cap of the vial as an offering dish, and offer a drop of water for each libation.
For incense, all I had was a bottle of myrrh oil. I dabbed a little oil on the top of the vial’s lid with my finger, then re-capped it and set it out as the incense. The smell was strong enough to spread over the shrine and lingered for quite some time. The fragrance is a personal choice. If you want to make your emergency shrine more personal for your gods, why not use one of the ritual oils from Of Ravens and Vultures?
For my emergency shrine I was using an electric tea-light, but you can use a real one if you wish. Personally I recommend using an electric light because you don’t know whether you’ll wind up in a place where open flames are permitted.
This may seem excessively austere, and maybe it is. My goal is to have a small, unobtrusive set of tools to tuck in a drawer and pull out in case of emergency: a hospital trip, evacuation, other unexpected travel – or even going off on a camping trip. I recommend everyone put together something like this – you never know when you will use it. 🙂
carrying their light 