This Tainted Soul of Mine: Feminine

The word Kemetic or Kemet is one that anyone that spends a length of time within the Vampire Community will come across. What does it mean though? Well in the land of Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians themselves did not use the term Egypt in reference to their own land. To them, the land they called home was known as Kemet. Sometimes they also called it Ta-mery, or "beloved land." Kemet translates as "Black Land", in reference to the fertile banks and fields surrounding the Nile (black from the soil). In contrast, "deshret" is the term for the "Red Land" or the desert (a modern term derived from "deshret") that surrounds the fertile "kemet". By using the term Kemet instead of Egypt, we refer to the country by the name its own people called it (Egypt is an English form of the Greek name for this land, Aegyptos).

The land of Kemet was one rich in the history of modern vampires everywhere. In fact the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka, also known as the Asetians are a current day group of vampires that give worship to the Kemetic Goddess Aset, often spoken of as being the mother of vampires. However, there is mention of vampires in even earlier cultures such as that of the Sumerians. The Asetians do however have much knowledge of the early days of our origins and so, to any that may be interested in learning more of their specific philosophies, they need look no further then The Asetian Bible. It is not meant as a bible of religious philosophy so much as it is called a bible in the sense that they view it as an indispensable manual that contains a large portion of their collective knowledge, with the exception of certain "trade secrets" for lack of better words. .

Aset Ka was not the only Kemetic Netjer/Netjert (or God/Goddess) that has a place in vampiric history however. There were many that have held a place in our history either as the source of symbols we currently use, customs we take on as our own, or as one of the many Netjer/Netjert that we feel personally drawn to. Below I will list a few of them, though the list is by no means limited to solely those listed.

Atum Ra/Re - Often referred to as the creator of all, this is the Sun God as known in either it's second (Atum) or third (Ra/Re) phase of eclipse (much as the Scarab Khepri was a representation of the dark new moon). In one of his many forms, Ra has the head of a falcon and the sun-disk of Wadjet (one of the patron goddesses of lower Kemet, also called the green one) resting on his head.

Horus - One of the oldest and most significant Kemetic deities. He also bares the head of a falcon. Horus is known as the son of Isis and Osiris and yet in another tradition of Kemetic philosophy, he is regarded as the son of Hathor or even at times as her husband. After Set killed Osiris, Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. One scene stated how Horus was on the verge of killing Set; but his mother (and Set's sister), Isis, stopped him. Isis injured Horus, but eventually healed him. Horus was also said to be a war god and a hunter's god. Horus has at times been also referred to as another incarnation of Ra himself.

Hathor - Often regarded as the wife of Thoth, in later references she has been also depicted as the wife of Ra-Horakhty (Ra/Horus) or in earlier references as the mother of Horus. She was the Nejert that represented the personification of feminine love, joy, music, dance, foriegn lands, and motherhood. She was believed to be the one that welcomed all into this life and the next by helping mothers through childbirth and by greeting the dead when they pass into the afterlife. She is also often depicted in animal form as a cow goddess and has had, since the days of ancient Kemet, a cult following that uses this cow as one of it's many symbols of worship. As is often the case with pantheons throughout history, there are sometimes similarities that overlap. Hathor is one of the female deities that is also associated with the greek goddess Aphrodite.

There is a story about Hathor that has particular interest to someone bearing an eye on vampiric history. Kemet had once been seperated into Upper Kemet and Lower Kemet. The unification of the two regions was the result of a twenty eight year war of brutal proportions. The casualties on both sides were high. At the end of the war, peace returned to the land of Kemet and calm resumed, laying the way for a prosperous age in which the pharaoh Mentuhotep III reigned. The tale that follows this war is the one of which I speak.

It is said that Ra (represented by the pharaoh of Upper Kemet) no longer had the respect of his people (those of Lower Kemet) and they had begun disobeying him and otherwise shirking his authority. According to the myth, Ra communicated through Hathor's third eye (or Maat) and told her of his impending assassination that was being planned by the people in the land. It angered Hathor that the people she herself had created and brought into this world would do such a thing as to plan this heinous event. She was so angered in fact that she became Sekhmet, the war goddess of Upper Kemet. Hathor (as Sekhmet) then went on what has been called a bloodthirsty slaughter that could not be stopped. Upon seeing the effect his news had on his precious Hathor, Ra became regretful of the ensuing chaos and chose to stop Sehkmet from continuing her slaughter. To do this, he decided it best to trick Sekhmet. Ra flooded the fields with beer brewed by the women of Heliopolis and dyed red on Ra's orders, from the red ochre of Elephantine (an island in the Nile), in order to stop Sekhmet's rampaging slaughter of people (as Hathor mistook it for the blood of her victims, which she craved).

Thinking that he was pouring out blood for her in reward for her service, she drank it with frenzied delight, so much of it that she became drunk and fell into a slumber. After waking from this slumber, she had once more returned to her normal, gentle, loving, joyful self as his beautiful Hathor.

What is it about tattoos that get the gears in our minds and libidos turning? There is no denying that using the human body as a canvas has a powerful effect on both the viewer of the artwork as well as the wearer of it. Since the dawn of time, we have used the combination of dyes and cuts to create permanent marks upon our bodies so why then is this most ancient of adornments still looked at as a mark of rebellion in some western cultures? What started as a trend toward the taboo here in North America has now turned into an explosion of self expression and creativity. And along with that explosion came the sexual revolution and the women of ink. Now more then ever, women are choosing to wear their hearts upon their fully colored arm sleeves.There are various reasons that these women will choose to do so and in this posting of A Study In Erotica, I thought that I would bring to you a sampling of some of this beautiful artwork being worn by women that are gorgeous in their own right. Just as their tattoos vary in meaning and purpose, so does the beauty and the personalities of these lovely ladies. Whether they chose their tattoos for the purpose of identifying themselves with a particular group, like the beautiful and deadly member of the Yakuza directly below, or if they simply chose the art they wear as a means of flirtatious playfulness, like the butterflies or fairies you will see on some of the other women further down the post, they each have a very personal and individual reason for why they chose to wear the artwork they did. So take a moment with me and enjoy what they decided to add to this world in the way of creativity. It is my hope that you will see why I chose this subject to be an extra special edition of A Study In Erotica. Please enjoy the artwork as well as the canvas it has been placed upon for they are each, in their own way, devastatingly stunning.