COMPARATIVE RELIGION 4
ISIANISM AND KEMETISM
-VARIETIES OF EGYPTIAN SPIRITUALITY
Since ancient times the religion and magic of Egypt has operated a fascination upon the minds of other peoples. Known from their earliest history as past-masters of magic, especially in matters of the Afterlife, the Egyptians have been and are enveloped by an aura of mystery and power which has always attracted others to study their beliefs. Even after the knowledge of how to read and write their distinctive hieroglyphs was lost, and with it most real knowledge of their civilization and its metaphysical beliefs, their artifacts were still regarded as supremely magical and sought after by other peoples for magical uses of their own –even the mummified bodies of the Egyptians themselves, which were ground into powder and used for “medicine” by medieval doctors and sorcerers.
The religion of ancient Egypt is in a way a perfect microcosm of Pagan belief, at least as regards structure and function. It is perhaps the most important of the ancient Western forms of Paganism for our modern Priesthood to study, because the forces at work in Egyptian religion are so clear –uncluttered by the self-conscious intellectual glosses of later academics which make it necessary to always read between the lines of Greek and Roman religion, or the general lack of information which makes it almost impossible not to read between the lines of ancient European religions.
The most important aspect of ancient Egyptian religion, which must be understood in order to make any headway in studying it, it that it was intensely local, with many hundred of Deities Whose primary worship was confined to a specific area. Some, especially as Egyptian history progressed, were worshipped nation-wide, but even these had once been of local provenance: for example the great God Ptah was worshipped in Nopf (Memphis) and became nationally prominent only when Nopf became Egypt’s capitol and Ptah a Patron of the ruling house. The same was true for mighty Amon Who was a God of the south centered at Wast (Thebes) and Whose worship became a national phenomenon only when Wast became the nations capitol after the end of the HYKSOS era.
Because of this intensely local nature, each area had its local Deities Who were dominant in the region and might not be known –or if known, might be thought of differently- elsewhere. These were basically the same Deities repeated in dozens and hundreds of local variations: Goddesses and Gods of creation, of wisdom, of specific skills, of fecundity and prosperity, of birth and death and the Otherworld.
Thus mighty Aset (Isis) was the Mother Goddess: but so was Hat-Hor, and so was Winged Nuit, and in the South the Goddess Mut.
Everyone knows that Ptah was the Egyptian Creator God –but this was not true for all Egyptians, for some of whom Knum was the Creator, or Khepera, or Temu, or Amon. Thehut (Thoth) was the God of the Moon and of wisdom, but in Wast the Moon God was Khonsu, son of Amon and Mut.
Consequently you can never read an Egyptian text thinking that it is the sole expression of their theology. In Judeo-Christianity there was the bible, which was the sole standard for theological expression with which in theory all Judeo-Christians must agree –even though they may interpret it differently. There are no similar books in the ancient Pagan religions, for such sacred scriptures as they produced, such as the Peret Em Heru (The Book of the Dead) express only one of a number of beliefs which vary widely and are subject to change and growth.
Even that most quintessential of Egyptian Deties, Osiris the Lord of the Dead, was not the only Lord of the Dead for Ptah, Sekher, and Sobek were also all Gods of the Dead worshipped in different regions.
The religion of ancient Egypt is in a way a perfect microcosm of Pagan belief, at least as regards structure and function. It is perhaps the most important of the ancient Western forms of Paganism for our modern Priesthood to study, because the forces at work in Egyptian religion are so clear –uncluttered by the self-conscious intellectual glosses of later academics which make it necessary to always read between the lines of Greek and Roman religion, or the general lack of information which makes it almost impossible not to read between the lines of ancient European religions.
The most important aspect of ancient Egyptian religion, which must be understood in order to make any headway in studying it, it that it was intensely local, with many hundred of Deities Whose primary worship was confined to a specific area. Some, especially as Egyptian history progressed, were worshipped nation-wide, but even these had once been of local provenance: for example the great God Ptah was worshipped in Nopf (Memphis) and became nationally prominent only when Nopf became Egypt’s capitol and Ptah a Patron of the ruling house. The same was true for mighty Amon Who was a God of the south centered at Wast (Thebes) and Whose worship became a national phenomenon only when Wast became the nations capitol after the end of the HYKSOS era.
Because of this intensely local nature, each area had its local Deities Who were dominant in the region and might not be known –or if known, might be thought of differently- elsewhere. These were basically the same Deities repeated in dozens and hundreds of local variations: Goddesses and Gods of creation, of wisdom, of specific skills, of fecundity and prosperity, of birth and death and the Otherworld.
Thus mighty Aset (Isis) was the Mother Goddess: but so was Hat-Hor, and so was Winged Nuit, and in the South the Goddess Mut.
Everyone knows that Ptah was the Egyptian Creator God –but this was not true for all Egyptians, for some of whom Knum was the Creator, or Khepera, or Temu, or Amon. Thehut (Thoth) was the God of the Moon and of wisdom, but in Wast the Moon God was Khonsu, son of Amon and Mut.
Consequently you can never read an Egyptian text thinking that it is the sole expression of their theology. In Judeo-Christianity there was the bible, which was the sole standard for theological expression with which in theory all Judeo-Christians must agree –even though they may interpret it differently. There are no similar books in the ancient Pagan religions, for such sacred scriptures as they produced, such as the Peret Em Heru (The Book of the Dead) express only one of a number of beliefs which vary widely and are subject to change and growth.
Even that most quintessential of Egyptian Deties, Osiris the Lord of the Dead, was not the only Lord of the Dead for Ptah, Sekher, and Sobek were also all Gods of the Dead worshipped in different regions.