The+Heart-Prayer

The Heart-Prayer

"My heart ticks in my chest like a scarab. It resonates like the bow string of an archer. My heart leaps like a fish in water. It hums like the string of a lyre. My heart is a camel that carries me. My heart is a banner unfurled in winds. It is myself that speaks to my heart, my Ka, my double. The heart leaps and answers to its name. Its words are the deeds of my body. Its deeds have been my own thoughts, the river of joy and sadness.

In my heart are the names of things I have loved - the swallow, the woman, the Nile. In my heart are the deeds my body has done and my heart has been weighed in the balance. Be, I said, love and create. Beat within. Be gentle. Radiate like the sun. I am lord of my heart. I am the lion of my heart. I have lived with truth in my heart. I have lived by the words in my heart. My heart pulses with power. I am a falcon in the light of the sun. I am a lion asleep in the shade. Let me fly to the far edge of the sky. Let me rest in the folds of the earth.

Blessings on thee, my red, red heart. Beat. Beat. Beat. I am life against the hare's throat. I am a lion with pink tongue lolling. I am the heart. I rise up. I am the fighter, the fire raised against darkness, the white knife at the throat of evil. Like a knotting vine, my red blood twists through my body. It binds and strengthens me. I go on. My heart is a field above which the sun rolls. Never-ending beat, beat, beat.

May my heart increase. May it open wide as sky, enough to hold the breadth of Horus. May it shape itself into quartz. May a light shine on the hidden things that a man might know himself, his colors, songs, and days. May the Ogdoad whisper secrets. May a man grow great enough to inhabit his own heart. May his heart be wide enough to hold the hearts of others. May those he loves link hands, a chain of forever. ..

May his heart become an altar unto Ra. May all that pass through be offered to heaven. My heart, my mother; my heart, my mother! My heart whereby I came into being! My heart of my mother; my heart of my mother! My heart-case of my transformations! My heart belongs to me; it is at rest there."