continuing exploration of ancient Egyptian religion
In part 1, I shared some photos of the Heqet statue in the Cleveland Museum of art. Now we’ll talk about some of her aspects. One of Heqet’s associations is with fertility, probably because of the large number of eggs frogs lay. She’s associated with childbirth, and hastening childbirth, and is identified with midwives. She…
As an update to Bes, the Little God. (Pagan Blog Project 2012 #3), I noticed that the Kalamazoo Valley Museum has this Bes standard. Presumably it would have been mounted on a pole and carried in procession.
The Forge of the Coppersmiths! Execration. It’s the more precise term for ‘curse.’ It comes from the Latin word “execrare.” “Ex” meaning “out” (as in exterior) and “sacrare” meaning to make sacred (as in consecrate.) Tomb curses The most famous ancient Egyptian curse is the one on King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The excavators ignored the warning:…
Shefytbast is a W’ab priest of Bast in Kemetic Orthodoxy. She’s participating in the Pagan Blog Project as well, and this is her latest entry. Highly recommended!
The ancient Egyptians went to a lot of trouble for their religion. Herodotus certainly thought so, and said they were “religious to a higher degree than any other people.” The temple complex at Karnak, dedicated to Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, covered 200 acres. It’s one of the largest religious sites in the world. There were…
Dry spells. The Fallow Times. Times when you have absolutely no contact with gods or goddesses. You don’t often hear about them unless you really dig in some of the forums. Why? They’re not that interesting to talk about. “I got nothing today” isn’t worth posting on a forum. It’s even too dull to use…
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…
Tabauamunet’s ‘B’ entry for the Pagan Blog Project, Being Kemetic Ain’t Easy. She shares the basics of Kemetic Orthodoxy, and some mishaps that probably didn’t seem funny at the time. Her last paragraph sums things up pretty well.
Wash before doing a ritual. In fact, do a ritual for washing! That’s the usual Kemetic practice. Before giving some specifics, let’s take a look at the reasoning behind it. Ritual is something that follows a pattern, and it’s done on a regular or semi-regular basis. Perhaps you have a ritual for turning on your…
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,…