continuing exploration of ancient Egyptian religion
auf deutsch: Kuhgestaltige Gottheiten in Ägypten (übersetzt von Sati) Cow deities. What in the world were those ancient Egyptians thinking? “Cow” doesn’t have many positive associations for us today: fat, ungainly, clumsy. “Bovine” means stupid, dull, inert, stolid, and sluggish. “Bull” can have positive masculine associations, but also means destructive and angry. “Bull in a china…
Why DO we worship the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt? “Why Follow An Ancient Religion?“, from the website of the Kemetic Temple of San Jose (one of two temples that author Richard Reidy is associated with,) might be a good place to start. In modern practice, I think Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) often trumps what we…
“If Horus be respected, Seth will be divine, and vice versa.” – Book of the Dead, tr. Raymond O. Faulkner” I’ve written about Horus and Set and the balance in Set Theory 1.0 and Set Theory 1.1, and this fits the theme of balance and counters the portrayal of Set as the ‘comic book bad…
I‘ve written several times on creation, A is for Atum being the most recent. For a wider view, Kiya (Darkhawk on eCaludron) has written another excellent post on Kemetic creation, bringing Zep-Tepi into our lives: Genesis. Congratulations to her on the publication of her new book: The Traveller’s Guide to the Duat – Amenti on…
Bes, the God of Protection My friends Satsekhem and Shefytbast have already written ‘B’ posts on Bes, but he certainly deserves one more. Check them out if you haven’t read them yet. A Bes statue… Bes was one of the most popular gods in ancient Egypt. It seems like his image was in every home,…
“… you dog-faced Egyptian swathed in linens, who are you my excellent fellow? How do you claim to be a god, you with your barking? And what’s the meaning of this spotted bull from Memphis being worshiped, giving oracles and having prophets? For I’m ashamed to mention the ibises, apes, goats, and other creatures much…
There are many creation myths from Ancient Egypt. The interesting thing is that ‘competing’ ones seem to have coexisted quite well. Ptah created everything. The goddess Mut did as well. So did Atum. There’s a nice little comic by Temwa on that subject. It’s wonderful, because right from the start it short-circuits any attempt to be literal…
Nehetankh’s perspective on Ausir, in her blog Osiris, the Living God. I think she’s right on this. Can Ausir be more dead than the Akhu?
Here’s the start of an interesting series of reflections on the Wesir (Osiris) Mysteries: Day one:Day two:Day three:Day four:Day five:
Geb and Nut.. and Shu, Ra, Ma’at, Duat, and Heka One of the striking things about Kemetic rituals is that it’s common to declare yourself as one of the netjeru. It’s difficult for us to wrap our minds around that and to actually say it. “I am Sekhmet!” “I am Djehuty!” Somehow you expect a…