Uraeus

here are some articles about the protective Uraeus worn by the Pharaoh:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraeus

http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsuraeus.htm

http://www.egyptologyonline.com/uraeus.htm

the Book of Coming Forth By Day includes an invocation to the Uraeus. Here follows an excellent discussion of that particular Negative Confession, Declaration of Innocence, or Purification from the web site of the House of Netjer. Click here to see the original web page http://daily.kemet.org/2001_04_01_archive.html Many thanks to Her Holiness Nisut Hekatawy I (ankh udja seneb) for this body of work:

"Hail Fiery One, coming forth backwards, I do not speak lies.

The eighth of the purifications invokes the cobra-serpent called uraeus by most scholars: the Eye of Ra, form of Wadjet, Sekhmet, Bast, Tefnut and/or Het-hert seated upon the brow of a Nisut's crown or the crowns of certain gods and goddesses.

One of the Fiery One's main tasks, and in fact the one from which She gains this nickname, is to spit fire (or caustic venom) upon those who would harm the ones She is installed to protect: Ra, fellow divinities such as Heru, Aset, Het-hert and Wesir, the Nisut in the form of the kingly ka, or the Two Lands themselves. Her protection against harm is not limited to physical violence and often actually is not put toward such ends, for which Her wearers have many other guards and heka at their disposal.

Here, the Cobra-as-Eye of Ra is empowered to act as Ma'at, and thus lend the ability to "see through" lying to the one Who wears Her. The phrase "going forth backwards," rather than supplying a specific geographical locality, suggests this particular uraeus is not a "local god," but the one sitting on the crown of Wesir, whose chamber lies just to the West of the purification proceedings in the Pert em Hru. To "go backwards" in Kemetic also means "to go to the right" or "to go east (against the track of the sun)." So one is now made aware that his or her truth in these invocations is being checked against the Ultimate Authority: Wesir and His all-seeing Eye of Ra."