The Seba library treats Sekhmet in 6 passages, across 5 authors (including Campbell, Joseph, Greene, Liz; Sasportas, Howard, Liz Greene).
the great and terrible lion-goddess Sekhmet, whose name means the ‘Powerful One.’ Her Indian counterpart is called the ‘power’ (śakti) of Śiva, and, as we have seen, she is insatiable in her thirst for the ambrosia of blood.
Campbell identifies Sekhmet as the archetypal insatiable goddess of destruction, cognate with Indian Shakti, whose uncontrollable blood-thirst required divine intervention to prevent the annihilation of humanity.
, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume II, 1962thesis
One example is the Egyptian solar goddess Sekhmet, daughter of the Sun god Ra, who was called the ‘Eye of Ra.’ She was portrayed with a lion’s head crowned by the disc of the Sun, and was a deity of battle and bloodshed.
Greene positions Sekhmet as a psychologically significant instance of the solar principle embodied in feminine form, her lion-headed, battle-oriented nature expressing the Sun’s dynamic and aggressive qualities.
, The Luminaries: The Psychology of the Sun and Moon in the Horoscope, 1992thesis
Sekhmet, as we have seen, typifies the aggressive, fiery nature of the lion. Kybele, the Great Goddess of Asia Minor, rides on a chariot drawn by
Greene invokes Sekhmet as the defining mythological embodiment of leonine aggression and fiery instinctual energy that the hero ego must encounter and overcome.
, The Astrology of Fate, 1984thesis
the marks of the lion-goddess Sekhmet are more strongly emphasized. Thus the devourer of the dead is the Terrible Mother of death and the underworld, though not in her splendid original form.
Neumann reads Sekhmet’s lion attributes as concentrated in composite devouring figures like Ta-urt and Amam, identifying her as a component of the repressed Terrible Mother archetype presiding over death and judgment.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019supporting
In this form as primary creator, like the god Ptah in Memphis, everything that she imagined or conceived in her heart instantly became manifest.
Campbell describes Hathor’s creative omnipotence at Memphis, the very cult center with which Sekhmet as consort of Ptah is associated, providing contextual framing for Sekhmet’s mythological milieu.
, Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, 2013aside
like the god Ptah in Memphis, everything that she imagined or conceived in her heart instantly became manifest.
Harvey and Baring describe the Memphis theological context in which Ptah’s consort Sekhmet functioned, situating her within the creative-destructive polarity of the Egyptian feminine divine.
, The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Throughout the World, 1996aside