Your first senut?

[Saqdiheru]

hey everyone as you all know your first senut isn't exactly going to be perfect, I know mine wasn't. so to help remove discouragement id like to know; What was your first senut like? was there any difficulties? how did you work around them?

[Temimensenu]

Ooh, hm, let me rack my brains...

I remember being incredibly nervous (sometimes I still am, I’m sure Mom is holding Her head in Her paws at this), and almost afraid of messing up?

But, even over time, I can still mess up, in my head at least. I’m sure They find it funny sometimes too, even if I do get consoling ’headpats’. But I never mean offence, any disrespect, and I try my best to remind myself of that.

I swear every Senut I do includes the words “I’m sorry” - I apologise an awful lot!

[Taswauyinepu]

I’ll be honest, as this may be an experience other new folks have, my first senut I didn’t feel a whole lot. The candle was nice, I enjoyed the incense, but I otherwise felt very little. I felt like I was talking to an empty shrine. It was kind of underwhelming for how long the process to prepare was.

I’ve found now, about a year and a half later, that treating it a bit more casually works better for me. I’m not as cautious and precise, and that makes it easier to get into a comfortable head space, which makes it easier to chat with my Family. Some folks thrive on structure - one of my beginners class mates and best friends is very structural! - but some folks find structure suffocating. I know I did. So making it less rigid where I can has helped. Don’t take it too horribly seriously - seriously as a ritual yes, but like... if you stumble over words or spill water all over yourself and the shrine, it isn’t the end of the world. Find a way to make it an enjoyable thing. The senut, not the spilling of water everywhere lol.

The big point being, if you don’t feel much, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong, or that you’re not cut out for Kemetic Orthodoxy. You just gotta find what works for you. Senut is really personal, so experiment and find what feels right.

Good journeys,
Taswau

[Taji]

I really honestly have zero memory of it. 

Huh.

I remember the first time I gave an offering to my Mother.  That was during the beginners course. I didn’t know She was Mom and had found a statue of Her at a local pagan shop.  I bought it because it was the Kemetic statue they had.  I offered Her warm milk with honey.  I got hit by so much love that it amazed me. I still have that statue.

But I don’t remember my first formal senut.

Senebty,

Taji

[Djehutyendy]

I really honestly have zero memory of it. 

I don't remember what my first Senut was like, either! In fact, I can barely even remember what my first shrine looked like...

However, I do remember my overall feeling around Senut. Taswau experienced a very similar thing as me:

I’ll be honest, as this may be an experience other new folks have, my first senut I didn’t feel a whole lot. The candle was nice, I enjoyed the incense, but I otherwise felt very little. I felt like I was talking to an empty shrine. It was kind of underwhelming for how long the process to prepare was.

I’ve found now, about a year and a half later, that treating it a bit more casually works better for me. [snip]

I lived in a dorm room when I first took the Beginner's class so I had to wait a while before actually doing Senut. I had built it up so much in my head and created such high expectations to feel something that when I finally did Senut for the first time, I felt underwhelmed. It took me way longer than Taswau to figure out that I needed to treat it more casually, though. The Senut ritual is meant to be something that is performed regularly. If the ritual were intense or super formal, it would be incredibly difficult for the average person to do this routinely. Even treating it more casually, it can still be difficult to do regularly!

Senebty,
Endy

[Shaseni]

I remember mostly the days leading up to my first Senut...

My wife and I live in a small apartment on the fifth floor of an old condominium block, with 47 sometimes-noisy neighbors. Everything seems jammed into a tiny space. My wife retired last year from being a professional artist, but she also works at home in the studio we've set up in the apartment. I mention this backstory because the first thing I had to do was to identify a place for my Senut shrine. It turned out her studio was really the only place to put the shrine, and I had to negotiate space for it! It now sits between two tall bookcases filled with art materials!

Then I had to get stuff. Something wear. Bowls for the offerings. Candles. Incense. Something to set them all on.

And having a go at making Natron! Finding out that drying it in the copious Colorado sunlight wasn't enough and that the oven was far better.

I thought all was ready, and I was going to do my first Senut, when I suddenly learned during a Sunday Beginners' Class chat that the incense that I'd chosen might not meet the purity standards required. Argh! Fortunately Rev. Tanebet suggested Nippon Kodo, and I was able to mail order some the same day. But it took a while to arrive and it delayed my first Senut by about a week.

As well as negotiating the space for the shrine, when it came to actually doing the ritual, I also had to negotiate time in a shared space. My wife and I came to an arrangement. I usually use the studio first in the late morning. She hides the phone under some cushions! When I'm done, she can use the studio for the rest of the day and the evening. We didn't know at first how long Senut would take, but it's settled down to about an hour in total: about 20 minutes for preparing the offerings and the shrine space when I'm scuttling through the apartment between the studio, the kitchen, the Akhu shrine and the bathroom; 20 minutes for the ritual washing; and 20 minutes for the main ritual itself at the shrine including any private time. Keeping it to a routine and at predictable times has helped the way she and I can work together in the same space.

Remembering back 140-or-so Senuts to the ritual itself is much harder! It's a blur. But I do keep a diary of them all, and it tells me that my first Senut was very quiet and simple. I'd managed to get the sequence right and all the logistics sorted, and Ma'at seemed pleased. What more could I want? But I wonder if all the Netjeru were looking over my shoulder, watching, and waiting to see if I would actually go through with it and then start doing it habitually, because when I did Senut again the next day my diary tells me that it seemed as though everyone turned up!

[Seshenyraheruakhety]

I ended up using one liquid offering vessel for the Akhu and the Netjer and drank out of it at the end....Rev. Tanabet kindly corrected me on that one!

Now they each have their own, and I don't drink the Akhu's water.  *blush*

Seshenyra