Emily Guenther, Sekhmet, and The Broom Closet – Ep. 1

Rev. Emily Guenther is the High Priestess of the Fellowship of Avalon – ATC, as well as the co-owner The Broom Closet, a metaphysical store located in Memphis, TN. She also has a blog on Patheos and writes articles for the Memphis Flyer.

In this episode, we talk about Ancient Egypt, Sekhmet, mixing pantheons, Tarot, her store, and more!

Oh boy. Did I just start a new season? Yes, yes I did. Welcome to Season 3 of M3!

As always, here you can find the written highlights of this episode.

Background

I frequently ask people about their background during an interview. In this instance, however, that question might have escaped the conversation. Nonetheless, here’s a little bio on Emily that I nabbed from her chuch’s website (more on that later).

Rev. Emily Guenther is the High Priestess of The Fellowship of Avalon – ATC in Memphis, TN. Emily is a witch and experienced reader of Tarot, a Reiki Master, and a priestess of Sekhmet and Odin. Emily follows an eclectic tradition and communicates with her guides and deities for insight and guidance. Emily is author of the Patheos Pagan Light Your Path blog and her column Metaphysical Connection appears in the Memphis Flyer. She is a proud voice for paganism and conducts workshops and panels at conventions across the country. 

You can, of course, learn plenty more about her and her beliefs by watching the full episode on YouTube. But I know, I know… you’re here for highlights. And I promised to give them to you.

Sekhmet and Ancient Egypt

At Summer Magick Fest later this year, Emily will be presenting “The Sekhmet Experience Ritual.” Sekhmet is an Ancient Egyptian goddess of both destruction and healing, frequently portrayed with the head of a lion and body of a woman.

Here’s the workshop description:

Experience the majesty, power and healing of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet in this meditative ritual. Rev. Emily, a devotee of Sekhmet, will lead us in an Ancient Egyptian style ritual that honors the lioness goddess of Egypt. You will have the opportunity to experience Sekhmet’s power first hand in this ritual through a chance to meet Sekhmet and learn more about Her and how She can help you in your daily life.

Sounds pretty cool, right? I’m definitely looking forward to it. When I asked Emily for a little bit more info, she politely declined. She’s keeping this one a secret! You’ll just have to be there to experience it.

Emily and I spent a significant portion of the interview chatting about Ancient Egypt. She said every kid goes through a dinosaur phase and an Egypt phase… and that she just never grew out of her Egypt phase. For a while, in fact, she even thought she wanted to be an Egyptologist. Looking back on my own childhood, I can definitely relate to that — books about dinosaurs and Egypt lined my shelves and I can remember staying up late reading them over and over. I grew out of it, but now my Egypt phase is catching a second wind in my adulthood… you know, since basically all of the cool things in magick somehow trace themselves back there (like the idea of encirclement, for instance).

Oh, and if you think that Sekhmet is part of a “triplicity” of goddesses that includes Hathor and Bastet… Emily has some thoughts on that, too! Check out the video for the full details.

A Mix of Pantheons

Since Sehkmet is Emily’s patron goddess, I was curious who her patron god would be. I think I was expecting another character from the Egyptian mythos; however, she actually turns to Odin in the Norse pantheon.

Although some purists may disagree, I’m personally a fan of mixing and matching an arsenal of deities from different pantheons. And I love opportunities to bring them all together! In our coven, we do this during our Summer Solstice celebrations, where we evoke every solar deity we can think of, one after another.

Emily does something like this during Mother’s Night, which she explains is an observance from Norse traditions that typically happens the night before Yule. During these rites, she calls in every deity that has ever “mothered” her. Typically, this would include Frigg and Freya, but for Emily, it also includes — you guessed it: Sekhmet.

What a lovely blend of traditions!

The Fellowship of Avalon, ATC

The Fellowship of Avalon is an affiliate of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) and is headed by Rev. Emily Geunther as High Priestess and Rev. Stephen Guenther as High Priest. They hold monthly rituals in Memphis.

Emily says they are an open and welcoming group of professional adults. Sometimes they get together for rituals and sometimes they get together to just hang out or play games. If you’d like learn more about them, their website would be a great place to look!

The Broom Closet

If you’re looking to catch Emily in person, the best place to do it is probably her store, The Broom Closet. They have two locations — one is in Memphis and the other is in Jackson.

I spent quite a while browsing through their website and taking a lot at all the different things that they offer. There’s a lot! There are sound baths, cacao ceremonies, reiki sessions, and more. You can also get Tarot readings.

Finding Emily Online

Outside of the store, you can find Emily online through her socials…

• Instagram – @emily_omma_guenther
• Facebook – @bewitchedemm

And you can also check out her blog on Patheos or articles that she writes for the Memphis Flyer.

Shorts

If you’ve got less than a minute, but want to catch some highlights… check out some of these short clips from Emily’s interview.

Songs for Spells

In Emily’s answer to my signature question (come on, you all should know what it is by now… “how do you use sound or music in your personal magickal practice”), she described using songs as a form of spellwork. I absolutely love this technique — and actually, a few people have reported to me that they do something similar. If you hear a song and it reminds you of a magickal intention, even if you have to tweak the words just a little bit, it will probably be a powerful ally for you in ritual! Try it and see.

Want to hear what songs she chose? Well, you’ll have to watch the whole interview for that!

Conclusions

I had a great time getting to know Emily and hear all of her thoughts. I’m definitely looking forward to meeting her in person at Summer Magick Fest this year — and also very excited to attend her Sekhmet ritual.

As always, these highlights are no substitute for the full episodes. So run on over to my YouTube channel and give it a watch when you have a moment. Oh, and while you’re over there… please make sure you’re subscribed, too. When you subscribe, it tells the gods of the internet that at least someone finds my videos interesting… and it increases the likelihood that the almighty algorithm will help me connect to a new person. Thus, you make the internet a better place. And I appreciate you.

PS – You can get your tickets to Summer Magick Fest 2025 by going to their website and clicking the “register” button. You won’t regret it! It’ll be taking place from June 12 – 15. Hope to see you there!