During Research I ran across the thought-proviking article about my patron which I think is so spot-on regarding my feelings regarding gratefulness, the gods and our search for "true happiness". I have found it to be 100% true that when I give thanks for my blessings and recognise them as gifts in my life, I find myself feeling much more satisfied and happy- even without any increase in my life. Also... the goddess Hathor has many names and titles, one of which is "She who answers her prayers" which rings to be SO true to me. I pray to her daily, and although my family isn't encrusted in jewels or anything... we always have just enough. We always have food for our table (even if it is just mac-n-cheese) we always have a roof over our head, and when one door is shut in our lives, another one opens. I lay my faith in the goddess and she provides. So here is an article about the 5 gifts of hathor.

http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/58/

"The Five Gifts of Hathor: Gratitude in Ancient Egypt

Hathor: The Mother Goddess

In ancient Egypt, Hathor was the goddess of old, later re-imagined as Isis, who gave all the good gifts of life to humanity. Early depictions of the goddess show a queenly woman with the sun disk and horns on her head; later she came to be seen as a woman with the head of a cow or, simply, as a cow, symbolizing her life-giving energy and bounty toward humanity. Music and dance were a large part of the worship of Hathor and, unlike other deities who had clergy of their same sex administering to them, the cult of Hathor included men and women as priests and priestesses. Though her cult center was at Dendera, worship of Hathor was widespread throughout Egypt and was especially popular among the poor.

The Poor in Ancient Egypt

The farmers who worked the land almost never owned it. "Most arable land in ancient Egypt belonged to the pharaoh, his nobles, or the religious temples; they collected the bulk of the crops and the farmers kept a modest portion for themselves and their families" (Nardo, 12). The crops included emmer wheat and barley, peas, lentils and other vegatables and fruits. Every day at harvest time, the farmers would go to the fields, reach out with their left hand to grasp a stalk of wheat, cut it with a small scythe in their right hand, and leave it for the worker behind them to pick up in a basket. All day they farmed the land they did not own and had no hope of ever owning, their left hands always before their eyes reaching for the crops to harvest.

The Five Gifts of Hathor

When a poor farmer joined the cult of Hathor the priest or priestess would take hold of their left forearm and say, "Name the five things you would miss the most if you were to die right now." The person would have to name the first five things which came to mind without thinking too precisely on them - perhaps something like, "My wife, my children, beer, my dog, the river." The priestess or priest would then raise the person's left hand in front of the person's face and say, "These are the five gifts of Hathor" and the person would look at the five fingers of their left hand as the priestess would continue, "Every day you have at least these five tings to be grateful for and, should you lose one, there will always come another." When that person went back out into the fields and reached out for the stalk of wheat to cut, under the hot sun, they would see their left hand always before them and be constantly reminded of the five gifts of Hathor. In ancient Egyptian belief, as in all pagan belief structures, gratitutde toward the gods kept one steady on the path through life while ingratitude was a `gateway sin' which then opened one up to all the other sins. As soon as one stopped feeling grateful one moved toward darkness and disbelief and bitterness in life. The Five Gifts of Hathor, which one could always remember by simply looking at the fingers of their left hand, were constant reminders of all that was good and important and worth waking up for every morning - and giving thanks for every night.

Contributor's Note:

A version of this article was first published on the site Suite 101. C. 2009, Joshua J. Mark

Written by Joshua J. Mark, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license on 18 January 2012."
So after reading that I pose a question to all of you; What are your five gifts? Regardless of who your patron deity is, what are the things you are most grateful for? Do you feel that acknowleging them helps you to find happiness?
My five gifts are
1) My husband and a happy marriage.
2) My Beautiful Daughters.
3) Having a safe home with food and electricity.
4) Good health and my husband having a good job.
5) My spirituality and the grace of the gods.
Em Hotep!
-Megan

Views: 643

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of RealPagan- Paganism for the Real World to add comments!

Join RealPagan- Paganism for the Real World

Comment by Ree on January 30, 2012 at 19:28

1) My Daughter and Son

2) My Husband and Marriage

3) Safe home, food, and electricity

4) Husband having a well paying job & I being able to go back to school

5) My religion, spirituality, practice, and my Goddess

Comment by Selenah Awrin on January 30, 2012 at 19:12

1) my fiance

2)my path

3) my friends

4)my job

5) my doll(s)

About

Steve Paine created this Ning Network.

© 2017   Created by Steve Paine.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

The Pagan Top Sites List