Cool waterBreadBeerIncenseHonouring the deadA place set at the tableThe naming of the dead aloud
Invocation Approach
Tone
Quiet and welcoming
Address
ImentetLady of the WestMistress of the West
Relationship
The hand that meets you at the end of the day
Warning
She is a place as much as a person and her welcome is not a postponement of death
Resonance
The dying the grieving those sitting with the dead
Symbols
Westward sunTombOffering tableThe west hieroglyph
Mythology Summary
Imentet is the personification of the west — the land of the dead, where the sun sets — and her name is simply 'the West'; she is shown as a woman wearing the west hieroglyph on her head, standing at the edge of the tomb to receive the dead. She appears in New Kingdom tomb and coffin decoration and in the Books of the Underworld, welcoming the deceased and the setting sun, and in the Book of the Dead she is among the goddesses who greet the justified dead. She was early absorbed into Hathor and Isis, both of whom carry the title 'Lady of the West', so that most of her later appearances are as an aspect of one of them.
Modern Practice
Imentet is worked with in death-tending and in the welcome of the dead: the practice is the place set at the table, the name spoken aloud, and the unhurried sitting-with. She is not asked for things; she is met.