Sekhmet and the Spirit of Ma'at with Nicki Scully by Susan Barber

Nicki Scully, a healer, teacher, writer, and powerful voice for the new consciousness of female energy, claims to have taken "probably thirty groups" to Egypt since she first started doing that about fifteen years ago. Nicki sees the future of the feminine energy in terms of balance rather than the dominance of either male or female. Her vision asks the question: "What would it be like if we were living in the spirit of Ma'at."

The spirit of Ma'at embodies a very special kind of truth. For Ma'at was the goddess whose feather was weighed against a person's heart to decide if the soul could go on to be with the gods or needed to return to Earth. The lightness of soul was about being true to self and to Cosmic Law.

And it was Ma'at who had in her care the yearly cycles of the Nile. The Nile flooded in winter, its waters destroying everything in their wake. Then, in the spring, the Nile receded, leaving behind the rich soil to grow Egyptian crops. It was a cycle of creation and destruction, and each phase of the cycle was "true" to its season. Each part was an element of the whole. Each part was in balance.

That wholeness, that balance, is the kind of truth that Ma'at stands for, and it is that wholeness and balance which are lacking when either feminine or masculine energy is dishonored.

Susan: Nicki, I understand that your teaching is strongly informed by the Egyptian pantheon. How did that connection happen?

Nicki: It started in 1978 when the Grateful Dead played in Egypt, and I was part of that. Something happened to me. I had no comprehension of what it was. I just knew that I was in the presence of a magic that I had not experienced before, and I wanted more.

I returned to Egypt within three weeks. In all, I went to Egypt four times that year, trying to understand what the attraction was. And I finally realized that, whatever it was, I wasn't ready for it yet. The doors to the understanding of that awakening were not yet ready to open.

But the whole vector of my life shifted. I came home from that fourth trip and looked around and decided I was done with certain things in my life. My commitment was to being of service, and it became apparent that, for me, being a healer was central to that commitment.

So I moved from the Bay Area to Eugene, Oregon, and found a spiritual teacher who worked through the teaching of healing. She was focused in the Huna perspective, but she also called upon the Egyptian mysteries and the western magical tradition. In this way, I was introduced to the Egyptian pantheon. And Thoth became my mentor.

Ten years later, I brought my first group to Egypt. And all the things that had been hidden before — all the doors that had been closed to me — were opened. I've been enjoying a banquet of gifts and experiences and spiritual nourishment from Egypt ever since.

Susan: Have you always related to the Goddess energy in your spiritual studies and practices?

Nicki: Actually, coming from a Jewish background, I used to be a bit taken aback at the idea of gods and goddesses — it just was not within the realm of my perception to engage in a conversation that used that kind of language. And so I was in denial about it. I avoided it, danced around it — thought it was silly. But it was pervasive around me.

And I remember the point at which I realized I was going to have to take it seriously and find out what it was about. My husband and I were lying in bed discussing what we'd been experiencing and noticing and learning, and he asked the question, "What is the Goddess, anyway?"

And I said, "You know, I don't know, but I have a feeling we're going to find out."

That question opened the door to experiences that allowed us to comprehend the Divine Feminine. And it has greatly enriched our experience of life to consciously acknowledge that part of ourselves and make relationship with that in ourselves and in our work.

Susan: I understand that besides Thoth, you have a special relationship with the goddess Sekhmet. What is Sekhmet's importance in your teachings?

Nicki: Somehow, Sekhmet carries the feminine energy that is needed right now. I was led to her through a pivotal experience at the chapel of Ptah and Sekhmet in Karnak.

I entered that chapel and stood before this eight- or nine-foot basalt statue of Sekhmet — and saw a tear come out of her eye! And I felt her literally penetrating me with her presence. It was a moment where matter was infused with spirit and expressed itself in this profound way.

I'm not a supersensitive. I'm not a visionary seer. That's not how I work. I'm very much rooted in the real, physical world. So when I had this experience, my mind was blown. In that moment, my worldview was altered.

I had to return to that temple, to see if there was some consistency to this experience with the statue, or if it was an aberration. And I found — and keep finding, after all these years and taking so many groups to Egypt — that a variation of my experience with that statue happens to almost every person I take to this chapel.

And I think this spark of inspiration that Sekhmet gives is the essence of the feminine fire — the powerful, not the passive, aspect of femininity — and that it is this essence that is calling to be awakened at this time. It's to the point where I think this is one of the primary reasons I take people to Egypt.

When we embrace this power, something happens to us at a cellular level. It's as though the energy enters into our field and then into our very cells. A person who is receiving this feels as though every molecule and cell is suddenly coming out of an ancient atrophy and malaise, and awakening — becoming alert.

I believe this awakening is a part of the conscious evolutionary process we're engaged in, bringing forth the aspects of the power of the Divine Feminine that are required in order to achieve the balance we're seeking at this time. It is part of our return to Ma'at — our return to order and natural law, Cosmic Law.

But not everybody can go to Egypt, and I think we all need to learn how to embrace, welcome, and allow Sekhmet's archetypal feminine power. So I've also found ways to introduce her in seminars and workshops and retreats, so that she can be awakened in people without their having to go to Egypt.

Susan: How does this feminine power express itself. How can we recognize it?

Nicki: What's coming to mind is a person who studied Sekhmet with me who had to deal with her community government on a level where she had to face tremendous antagonism to make something right in her community.

And after feeling this Sekhmet energy, feeling empowered from that awakening, she realized that she could call upon that power — invite that into her — as she stood before her city council. And she realized that when she did this, expressing in all her strength and power, she would not be denied.

And that's what happened. The timidity that would have held her from the action required to make things right was replaced by a courage, a strength, a discriminatory faculty that allowed her to act in a powerful manner — and change things.

We recognize the response to suffering that is considered innately feminine, that underlying and overarching compassion. This aspect of female energy is expressed in archetypes and deities like Quan Yin and Mary and White Buffalo Calf Woman. It's also part of the deeper level of Sekhmet. It's that essence that responds, that brings comfort and hope and nourishment where it's needed in the most despairing of places. When ravaged cultures continue to exist, regardless of the punishment that's heaped upon them, that feminine thread of compassion is what sustains them.

There is also a feminine aspect of resiliency, the regenerative quality.

But what we are needing to understand now is feminine qualities of strength and power.

Susan: But does this mean we're going to replace masculine dominance with feminine dominance? Is that kind of dynamic inevitable?

Nicki: No, I don't think so. It's true, we have been in cycles where the pendulum swings, where we would be matriarchal or patriarchal, swinging from one extreme to another. But now, I think it's time for us to ask: "What would it be like to live in true harmony and balance. To really live with the spirit of Ma'at?"

That's what I'm looking for, the power of Ma'at. It's the power of truth. When Ma'at is about, there is a natural order that functions and within which joy and harmony is the natural state of being.

When Ma'at is denied, everything falls apart. That's Cosmic Law.

Susan: I understand you have an approach, a kind of exercise, to help people to harmonize polarities within themselves. Could you explain how that works?

Nicki: The idea is that if you take opposite emotions and you hold them both inside yourself — allow them to be — they will collapse into something entirely different.

For example, if you feel hate, you look at that hate, and you completely recognize and honor it. And then you take the complete opposite of that, the love, and you recognize and honor that. And you go back and forth. "Okay, this is what hate feels like. And this is what love feels like." You have to be able to completely drop the idea of judgment, just recognizing that what is, is.

If you do that intensely enough, not rejecting either one but just looking at what is there and recognizing and honoring and fully uttering each viewpoint — if you do that, something will shift. And something new will arise out of that. And what arises out of that is the nectar of the Goddess. That's where you'll be, right in the center, that most central place of your being, where the nectar is.

I imagine there is also something physiological that happens when we collapse polarities like that. I think all levels are integrated. I think that's why it works.

Susan: Why do you think this new feminine energy is coming in right now?

Nicki: Because it has to. Because if it doesn't, we'll all die. We're on the brink, and that's when the true guardians of Ma'at awaken and respond to take us back to order again, back to life.

Again, the problem in the past has been that we have so much momentum pulling us back from the brink that we fly right past center and wind up on the other side.

But if we can make the movement from our ego to our essence — from our will to our heart — and put the power in our heart, where the true intelligence resides, then the problem of ego isn't going to be there.

It's not something you work toward. You simply get it. It's an epiphany.

We have some pretty powerful "forget mechanisms" in place, which is why I think enlightenment is not sustained. But once the epiphany happens for someone, the more it happens, the easier it is to remember it — to get back to that place.

We're always a breath away.

Nicki Scully is an author and teacher in the fields of metaphysics and shamanism. Besides her work with the ancient Egyptian mysteries, Nicki is known for her alchemical healing teachings, the result of years of research and practice in a field where many ancient traditions and all the resources of nature become accessible to assist in the healing process.

Nicki currently gives lectures and seminars internationally, and specializes in leading spiritual tours to Egypt, Peru, Tibet/Nepal, and other power centers. Her books include The Golden Cauldron, Shamanic Journeys on the Path to Wisdom; Power Animal Meditations, Shamanic Journeys with your Spirit Allies; and Alchemical Healing, a Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine. She also makes available a variety of audiocasettes, with her guided imagery set to music.

Nicki has an Egyptian tour coming up in October. To find out more about her work, we encourage you to visit her website at ShamanicJourneys.com. She can be reached by email at NScully@ShamanicJourneys.com.