Julia prepares to read from the selected readings...
©Bill, June, 2014

Julia read the address to the Ennead first:

Oh you great Ennead which is in Heliopolis,
Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys,
whom Atum, in giving birth to himself,
brought into the world through the projection of his heart,
in your name of Nine Bows -
None of You is separate from Atum.
- Pyramid Text, 6th Dynasty
Glyphs and the translation in Temple of the Cosmos, by Jeremy Nayler, (Inner Traditions, 1996), page 142.

I got out the favorite reference book, and learned Atum is "the great primeval deity of Heliopolis. His cult was a very ancient one and by the Old Kingdom he had risen to a very high level of importance in Heliopolitan theology." (Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, (Thames and Hudson 2003),page 98)

Later on, when Amun becomes perceived as a universal creator, the primeval god Atum is then considered "an aspect of Amun, the same is true of the sun god Re." (Stefan Paas, Creation and Judgement: Creation Texts in Some Eighth Century Prophets (Brill 2003), page 131.

I read the next poem, which I'd written sometime in 1993 or '94, based by my rememberance of what house we were living in, (which might have been faulty memory). I had cause to think of it when encountering a hymn to the Netjer Amun, "Unique is Amun, who is hidden before them," "He is too mysterious for his mystery to be revealed," "the ba who hides his name according to his mysteriousness." (Andreas Schweizer, The Sungod's Journey through the Netherworld, page 208, quoting Jan Assmann, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt)

If I remember correctly, I'd read this poem at my handfasting with Julia twenty years ago.

THE GREAT PRAYER

To the Great Mystery which is within and without,  
Honor be to the Spirit of Life.
May it flow like a river
Through the channels of our hearts
And branch out across the earth.
Let us find healing at the peaceful waters
And learn the love that empowers.
May the love grow as the flame
That brings light into the darkness
And melts hatred and fear,
And may we burn forever bright.
May we know the strength of our souls,
Know the worlds within us
As we know we are cells of a greater whole.
Two-fold in one, We are many fold in one.
Ah-ho, so mote it be, AMEN.

--- Joan Ann Lansberry

Julia had mentioned wanting a reading from Kahlil Gibran, and we found the perfect reading online. As she'd requested Gibran, she read that. She'd also mentioned Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but her poems seemed too 'flowerly' for me. One site had a poem by Ray Croft I liked, so I chose that and read it.

There was a page with several sample vows, one which suited with a little personalization. I assembled the selected readings into a pdf and printed them out. I read from that, while Julia read from the minister's notebook, in which she'd neatly assembled the text.