Technically the posting date was yesterday but I’m not too far off! This time I figured, I’d let you all have a peek into my slowly forming Book of Shadows that needs a better name, at the personal codes I’ve been considering or using for inspiration, the systems that will eventually hold up my path in some way or another. Codes of Ethics, of Honor, of Conduct, of whatever. These are not the finals by far, far as I know, but they’re my starting points, take from them what you will.
Most of you will know this first one, the 13 Goals of a Witch/Pagan/Wiccan/What-have-you:
1. Know Yourself
2. Know Your Craft
3. Learn
4. Apply knowledge with Wisdom
5. Achieve Balance
6. Keep Your Words in Good Order
7. Keep Yours Thoughts in Good Order
8. Celebrate Life
9. Attune with the Cycles of the Earth
10. Breath and Eat Correctly
11. Exercise the Body
12. Meditate
13. Honor the Deities
Next up is something I found called ‘The 10 Virtues of Ma’at’. I forget where I first saw it, but I liked the idea of it.
Control of Thoughts
Control of Actions
Devotion of Purpose
Have faith in the ability of your teacher to teach you the truth
Have faith in yourself to assimilate the truth
Have faith in yourself to wield the truth
Be free from resentment under the experience of persecution
Be free from the resentment under experience of wrong
Cultivate the ability to distinguish between right and wrong
Cultivate the ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal
THe last one already has a pretty solid spot as a pillar of my faith, it’s been with me since before I even realized I was on this path. I originally saw it in the movie DragonHeart, it was the Knight’s Code, and for me, it became Anpu’s Code as well, and here’s why:
A few years ago I was talking to another Jackal Daughter, and my friend, we’ll call her S for now. S was making her own book, her own version in wood from the newer Mummy Movies (You know the big black Book of the Dead, yea, she’s was making one of those with her own designs out of wood. How awesome was that? Sadly it is no more, lots of bad karma there, I’ll spare you all the unnecessary info).
For the record, it turned out great, but she wanted something special to put on the front cover in hieroglyphs. Something simple yet meaningful and I was her sounding board for it. She eventually chose a poem that meant a lot to a family member, if I remember correctly, but I had suggested the Old Code/Knights Code from the movie DragonHeart. Why? It fit pretty darn well with Daddy, that’s why!
A knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His words speak only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked.
Anpu is known as a Guardian and Protector, a Challenger and a Defender, He’s the one who makes sure the scales of Ma’at are balanced before judgement is passed on one’s heart and, from my experience, everything in that old code, made up or not, just screams ‘Anpu’s Personal Code’. I almost didn’t catch what I was telling S all that time ago when I mentioned this little snippet to her about how it fits with Daddy.
So while the other two might change before I can call this book ‘ready for use’ (as I don’t think it’ll ever be ‘done’ per se, as I plan to put lots of info in it as I grow and learn). This one, Anpu’s Code, will always be among my Core Codes. This one, will never ever change, and I’m okay with that. I even found a cool picture of Daddy to put with it in my BoS.
So that’s it for my first C post of the month. I hope you all found something interesting, as I think codes like these are sometimes overlooked when one goes searching for ‘what do I put for my Magic Rules’ for a lot of beginners like myself. I mean sure there are tons of ways to go about this – if you’re in a coven/circle/grove (did I spell that right? Sorry, if not!) then that group will have their own codes and rules, but for solitary we only have what we have, and a lot of the time, that’s a lack of knowing ‘now what?’. Least that’s been my experiences so far. Until next time!
That code could apply to virtually any Netjeru who defends maat (ie: pretty much all of them). The “his wrath undoes the wicked” line really spoke to me, because that describes Bast quite a lot. Well, except the the “his” part. Lol.
The code screams “Eye of Ra”, too. That just goes to show you it’s a fairly good code; the best of them can be widely applied.
Out of curiosity: are you purely Kemetic, or do you throw in Wiccan beliefs, too?
I’m probably, for the moment at least, a little bit of a mix. I started out with a deep love of the Greek Patheon (Hades specifically) and not knowing anyone still worked with the old deities, then I was told very little about paganism by my friend and went on an info splurge on my own,where I found Wicca, but that never really fit, y’know? I got more ‘wicca’ type books then I do kemetic ones *sighs* so yea, I’m probably a mix, influenced by a lot of stuff I picked up during my ‘what the meep am I?!’ phase that I probably didn’t realize I picked up yet. O.o scary thought, that. Why you so Ninja like that, brain?
sidenote, ‘meep’ is a word I use as a general replacer word, it can replace ‘harsher’ words or mean ‘i’m bored’ depending on the context.