Fame: Locally-renowed poet

Name: Yolanda Esther Badeaux
Craft Name: Qalhata en-Maetkare , bani Shaea
Shadow Name: Yolanda Qalhata Esther Badeaux en-Maetkare, bani Shaea ,She Whom The Sun Hath Loved Upon, Sebi-t, Daughter of Seven Mothers, Song of Serqet and Ministress of the Two Truths
Degree: Fifth (Initiate Exemptus)

Avatar: Serqet (Serket, Serket-hetyt, Selket, Selkis), whose name translates both as '(one who) tightens the throat' and '(one who) causes the throat to breathe,' was venerated in Egypt as a goddess who could both cure poison as well as sting the unrighteous. Also a protector of the dead and embalmers, and guardian of the canopic jar of the small intestine (Traditionally associated with poison)

In her Seekings, Yolanda finds herself underground - either buried or otherwise entombed, or at the bottom of a deep stone well. The stars that shine above her change their constellations depending on what the Avatar wishes to teach. As she digs her way from the sand or tries to find a passageway into the open, she encounters spiders, scorpions and serpents - all deadly poisonous, all obstacles she must either vanquish, carry with her or permit to sting her as she moves past. The difference in the lessons is always choice.

Foci:
All: Language (Enochian), Trance states
Time: Sand, Astrology
Spirit: Smoke, animal venom (snake, scorpion)
Mind: Meditation, altered state of consciousness, speaking
Prime: Light, gold, offerings
Entropy: Patterns, rhythm
Forces: Light, Knives

Paradigm:
Sphere Associations: Spirit and Time
Paradigm Style: Open - The world moving along similar patterns in the timestream (Time)
Avatar Essence: Primordial - Blurring the lines between the material and the sacred (Spirit)
Hooks: Blood and Entropy (Time) - The invisible threads that tie us to the past cannot be severed.
Who Shall Wear the Starry Crown?(Spirit) - Everyone stands as a crossroads between the physical world and the immaterial one; this auspicious placement allows one to reach into either realm for aid and assistance.

One of her sophomore history professors at Louisiana State University recognized some spark of talent in the dedicated woman. Monica Grant, known to the Order of Hermes as 'Maetkare ta-Sherit,' took young Yolanda aside one afternoon after class, and over several cups of coffee, gently guided the young woman towards a greater understanding of the world around her. Yolanda spent several years dancing on the precipice of Awakening, as her Mentor pushed her into trying different disciplines, or honing and refining her current ones beyond herself.

Enlightenment came during her third year of college, as she was studying abroad at the American University in Cairo. On a compulsory trip to the pyramids of Giza, she was stung by a scorpion as she carelessly kicked a desert rock aside on her way back on the tour bus. She spent the next 48 hours in her dormroom, feverish and delerious, before a classmate found her and took her to a hospital. And the Egyptian doctors were subtly amazed that she hadn't died.

After she'd recovered, the words came. In every language she had studied, and some ancient ones she hadn't. When she returned to the States, she flew through the rest of her schooling. She's taught high school and community college English in the New Orleans area, and given writing workshops at UNO. Her magical workings tend to be subtle, augmenting, or being augmented by mundane skills.