NOTE: The following perspective was posted to INDICA's YouTube channel as a response to the video for day one of the Conference on Polytheism Today & Tomorrow: Dialogues on Pluralism and Polytheist Art which took place on October 28, 2021. I am reposting it here with permission from the author Brent Fraser. I am exhilarated that this dialog is happening. Thank you for all the organizers and contributors to this event. Edward, Hari, Lo and Ptahmassu, thank you for your inpu

"Give what you have. Bring what's already there, and don't put your heart into what's lacking. If you wait to serve until you have everything you think you need, you'll never serve, because we never have everything we think we need. Just bring who you are to the table. Right now."

For those who were unable to attend the live stream of Polytheisms Today & Tomorrow: Dialogues on Pluralism and Polytheist Art conference hosted by INDICA, day one of the event has been posted to INDICA's YouTube channel here. At 8:39:34 the actual launch of the polytheist artist virtual gallery occurs, during which some of my featured icons are shown and I am able to speak about aims, materials, and methods. Following the launch of the gallery, an animated discussion takes p

Yesterday evening I had the privilege of joining LO, creative visionary and founder of Numen Arts, for an energetic dialogue on some of the aims and ideals of polytheist art during the INDICA-sponsored conference Polytheisms Today & Tomorrow. I am deeply grateful to INDICA founder Hari Kiran Vadlamani, whose passion for art and philosophy, and commitment to having polytheistic voices heard on a wider forum, has launched this groundbreaking conference, and given birth to a vir

What happens when we have a crisis of faith? People often ask me how I do it...how I seem to maintain this fierce devotion and conviction I have in my priestly life, and in general as a spiritual practitioner. People look at the way I live...the beautiful shrines I maintain, the dazzling rituals I get to perform, the way I strive to maintain and restore the Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) traditions...and people seem to feel that it is effortless, or that I have the direct line

Why do we ever feel a lack of love in our life? Is it because people don't love us? Is it because someone we love doesn't love us the way we feel we should be loved? Is it because we need a new car, a fancy pair of shoes...more money? Is it because we don't love ourselves enough? I think not. When we feel a lack of love in our life it is because we are not loving enough, loving outside ourselves, finding a way to express the love we already feel deep down inside. When

People often ask me why my icons take so long to craft. We live in a society where instant gratification is taken for granted as a way of life. Everything in our modern consumer culture is governed by it; fast food, instant messaging, texting, dating, and entertainment. We expect everything we want to be delivered to us at the tap of a screen, and when it’s not, we move on to something that will. The sacred work I do as an iconographer is built on a foundation of painstaking

I am often asked how one can serve the Netjeru (Gods) or connect with Them through the ancient rites if one is not a priestess or priest. Priestess/ priesthood is far from being the only effective way to engage the Gods. What if one does not have an elaborate altar or shrine full of icons/ cult statues? What if one does not know the medu-netjer (hieroglyphs)? These are very real concerns people new to Kemeticism have. My answer to these questions may come as a surprise.

The bole colors (under painting) have been completed on the Akem-Shield of Sekhmet the Eye of Ra and Mistress of Heaven in preparation for the application of precious metals. After several layers of shellac over these colors, 22kt yellow gold, 23kt rose gold, and platinum will be applied in the thinnest leaves.

Work continues this morning on the Akem-Shield of Sekhmet Who Incinerates the Rebels. The detailed wesekh-broad collar of the Goddess is being built up still, it having placements for cabochons of semi-precious stone.

There are colors applied to my icons that are never seen by the human eye, and yet play an important role in how the completed image reads to a viewer. These are the bole colors, under painting applied to the bas-reliefs prior to the application of shellac and precious metal. Non-gilders might not be aware of the extreme thinness of gold leaves, which are several times thinner than a human hair, and actually permit light to show through the metal. Therefore, surfaces to be gi

"I am happiest when I have served my Gods well, when I have met with Them in Temple and poured out my heart before Them. Sacred service is its own reward, our lifeline to that which lives eternally and can never be extinguished."

Ganapati shows me the sun in the dead of night; He comes as Varaprada with shimmering boons in His hands, being the light of high noon when darkness abounds; but He devours the night hours like sweetmeats, and His joy is a sound that leaps through the shadows. Varaganapati, whose hands accomplish all charitable works; your kindness is the sun illuminating my midnight sky, when you come to make a bonfire of the ills at my feet. See what I offer at the table of the earth, illum

"When I was very young I realized that all my heartache, all my suffering, all my conflicting emotions could be healed through bhakti, total surrender to the Divine. Bhakti expresses the highest ideals of love for the Gods, to live for Them and serving Them."

"Some people see surrender and devotion to the Gods as groveling weakness, but I say that this is the path of the spiritual warrior, whose tools are a pure love for the Gods that can cut through ignorance and delusion, and defeat our darkest struggles."