Often two or more Deities with the same general attributes were worshipped in the same area, overlapping each other. The Egyptians saw no problem with this: they were the ultimate SYNCHRETISTS. Synchretism is the idea that all religions reflect the same truths, and consequently are cognate to each other. Synchretism is one of the main pillars of Pagan thought. Thus when Ptah, Sekher, and Asar (Osiris) were all worshipped in the same region as Lord of the Otherworld the Egyptians -rather than fight about which was “right”- built a Temple to Ptah-Sekher-Asar, as all three were obviously manifestations of the same Deity.
When the followers of Amon and the followers of Ra both insisted that their God was the King of the Gods: no problem, “Praise be given unto Amon-Ra!” And later when the Greeks came the same process brought about the worship of Zeus-Amon.
This deeply philosophical and utterly civilized way of looking at religion is the very essence of higher Pagan thought –as opposed to the Book Religions sordid and eternal fighting over minor details. Unfortunately today some Pagans, making an outward conversion from the Book Religions without any real inner change, have begun to fight over minor details in just this way, and portray the ancients as being narrow-minded and hide-bound as the worst Southern Baptists (which the ancients never were) –this is an unworthy practice which it is incumbent upon true Clergy to discourage.
Perhaps the most important God of ancient Egypt was the “Good God,” that is: Pharaoh, the Divine King. Egypt was ruled by Kings from the dim recesses of PRE-DYNASTIC history, and a good argument can be made for Egypt as the birth of Kingship –although the prevailing view regards Mesopotamia as the birthplace of Kingship.
From the start the Kings of Egypt held a role as much sacerdotal as political, being considered to have one foot in the this world and the other in the Spiritworld. The Pharaoh was considered to be the physical embodiment of the spirit of the nation, and the chief intermediary between humankind and the Divine –being Himself part of both worlds.
The idea of the Divine King is often misunderstood: the Egyptians were not stupid, nor were other ancient Pagan peoples who maintained the idea of Divine Kingship. No one believed that Pharaoh could work cosmologic miracles any more than anyone really believed that King CANUTE could hold back the tide: rather they believed that the Divine King had a special connection to Deity, created and sustained through ritual, which allowed Him or sometimes Her to act as a kind of focus point between the human and the Divine. For Pharaoh this connection was the subject of frequent, even daily rituals designed to strengthen His role as Divine intermediary.
Pharaoh received His status and His powers from the Gods, Who made Him one of them, and this connection was the subject of the coronation ceremonies, and of the great SED or Jubilee ceremonies held to reaffirm and strengthen Pharaoh’s rule. In theory Pharaoh was the chief Priest of every Deity, and all the High Priesthood of Egypt carried out their duties as stand-ins for Him. AKHENATEN’S great religious “revolution” in many ways came down to little more than re-asserting this ancient role of Pharaoh as the people’s principle intermediary to the Divine. The coronation ceremony, the Sed ceremony, the many daily ceremonies which Pharaoh regularly performed in person, all stressed Pharaoh’s relationship to the Gods and His receipt from Them of Divine favor and power. When Pharaoh fell to coup or revolution, as Pharaohs sometimes did, the Egyptians felt it was because He was not a worthy vessel of the Divine favor and –as the Chinese put it regarding their own Divine Emperor- the MANDATE OF HEAVEN passed to one who was worthy.