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 can discover about the Netjer. That bothers me, because people seem to forget the “personal” aspect is just that: personal. They immediately rush to claim it’s universal and incorporate it in their practice. Fred decides that Aset likes green M&M’s, and suddenly half the Kemetics in the world head to the store to buy some. Marketing departments scratch their heads trying to figure out why seventy more bags of green M&M’s sold this week.
There’s probably nothing wrong with UPG, although some of it skates very closely to what would have been considered offensive or dangerous in ancient Egypt. I’ve talked with people who only seem interested in using the name and picture of an ancient god or goddess, saying they don’t care about anything else, and making up their own mythology and religion. Why not make up your own name as well, or ask Terry Pratchett if you can use one of his gods? I’m thinking of Anoia as the Goddess of Spoons, but that’s probably another case of changing a pantheon for your own purposes. 😀
Are we offering a big juicy steak to the Dalai Lama? How many of your offerings have any sort of symbolic or ancient connection?
