Imentet
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.
Imentet is a personified place and a title as much as an individual goddess — 'Lady of the West' is an epithet of Hathor and of Isis, and most texts that name Imentet could equally be naming one of them. Her name is transliterated Imentet, Amentet, Amentit, Imentit and Ament, and no connected myth survives. The planetary, zodiac, tarot and sabbat correspondences here are a modern Western overlay with no ancient Egyptian basis; the Egyptian sources themselves work with decans, nome cults and festival calendars, not with planets or zodiac signs.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Saturn
Offerings
- Offerings
- Cool waterBreadBeerIncenseHonouring the deadA place set at the tableThe naming of the dead aloud
Sacred timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- AmentetAmentitImentitAmentShe of the West
- Gender Expression
- Feminine
- Titles
- Lady of the WestShe of the WestThe Western LandMistress of the NecropolisThe Welcomer
- Symbols
- Westward sunTombOffering tableThe west hieroglyph
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- ToneQuiet and welcomingAddressImentetLady of the WestMistress of the WestRelationshipThe hand that meets you at the end of the dayWarningShe is a place as much as a person and her welcome is not a postponement of deathResonanceThe dying the grieving those sitting with the dead
- 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.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- The westThe necropolisDeathThe welcome of the deadThe setting sunThe tombThe threshold of the otherworld
- 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.
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