Followers of Netjer's Journal

(mccunt)

1:52PM - Intro / Race & Kemet

Hi, my name is Renee.  Like a lot of followers, my faith began with a love for all things Ancient Egyptian, and morphed when fascination lead to a deeper realization, yada yada yada.   I started a sort of Dianic Isis/Aset-in-all-her-aspects worshipper, but soon after began to gravitate toward the entire pantheon (although with monolatry, "pantheon" is an iffy term).

Anyway, I came here to discuss something  I think a lot of Kemetics deem "uncomfortable."  In this system, there seem to be three prominent types of Kemetics:  members of the Kemetic Orthodoxy, Kemetic flavored Wiccans, and part of the African- Revivalist movement (I don't, by the way, fall under any of the above.  I'm kind of a "freelance"  worshipper, hehe). 

How do you all feel about the latter movement?  I love revivals and "taking back identity" as much as the next person, but I've seen some sites take it far into a direction that almost seems.... well counter-racist.   I know, I know.....   Curious about the specifics, I joined a "Black people only" forum, and posted this thread:



http://www.destee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55329


How do you all feel about this?  Did I make any valid points or did I come off as a complete idiot? (I'm kohlminer, obviously, by the way)  Because judging by some of the responses, I wonder if I should have bothered.

I'd love to know what everyone thinks, even if it's just to say, "Renee, you're an ass."

Anyway, I look forward to hearing your opinions.


in peace,


- R

Current mood: curious

Current music: Radiohead - House of Cards (I'm in love with this song)

(muffinlips146)

2:59PM - a quick question

There seems to be a lot of people following Kemetic religions that are also in the academic field studying ancient Egypt.

I was wondering, did the job lead to the faith or vice versa?

(ahemait)

8:57PM - Newbie

Hello. I have been incredibly interested in Egyptian culture and Deities for as long as I can remember. I have called myself a Pagan for around 5 years, because Paganism's general ideals appeal to me. I have a few questions for you. I have always been highly drawn to Anubis and Bast... and to a lesser degree Thoth, I even have a Bast statue that I bought from a museum when I was a small child. Recently I've been yearning to create an alter, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I will admit right now, the thought of starting to worship or speak to a certain God or Goddess is kind of frightening to me. I'm a very worrisome person and I often wonder, "what if I anger said Deity?" "what if I am not good enough?" "what if I worship wrong?" "what if I don't worship enough?". These are the number 1 reasons I have not started yet.

My genetic background is extremely Celtic in nature, and I am very drawn to the whole crystal-gazing, pendulum, circle drawing, tarot sort of thing. Like Wicca but not. I am not interested in any of the Wiccan or Celtic Deities but I am highly interested in the way they go about rituals and alters. Is this an issue? I am not entirely well read on Wiccan/Celtic alter setups. May I create an alter that is my own and not orthodox, and go about ritual as I personally see fit? May I incorporate Anubis and Bast into a more European ritual?

I've put a lot of thought into the Divine and the way I personally feel about it is best said with a pentagram. I personally believe that all things are connected with each other, and that each thing has some sort of life essence within it. I believe that *all* Gods and Goddesses exist because if enough energy is put into a being then it will come into existence and function on it's own. Are these beliefs an issue with the Gods and Goddesses that I am highly drawn to from Egyptian culture?

I just feel a little intimidated. I have studied Pagan topics off and on for years but I'm just scared to take that first leap. If any of you can answer my questions on these topics I will love you forever :)

Thank you very much!

(starryeyedlion)

11:28PM - Where is Netjer/Netcher/GOD

Hello everybody, I have a simple question: Where is Netjer/Netcher/massive kemetic godhead from. While I accept many Kemetic polytheists believe in soft polytheist or Monolatrism, and do have evidence to back this up, I can’t find where this particular belief that all gods are Netjer comes from. Sure there was the belief that all gods were part of Amun or Atum or even Nit I have found no textual or modern archeological evidence. In fact Netjer from what I have found is simply equates to “a god” with Netjeret meaning a goddess and Netjeru as the plural, their appears to be no great GOD Netjer/netcher. So where does this belief come from, am I just missing something.

(motleycrue)

9:49PM - A find!

Family Dollar is selling African-themed shadowboxes and some of them have Djehuty!

I bought one myself a few months ago and it was two dollars. My store still has some, so check out one near you and see if you can find one! :) Figured you all might find this to be interesting.

(motleycrue)

12:55AM - A question for the more knowledgeable.

Greetings everyone. I just joined to ask a question that I hope you can provide answers and insight to.

I was browsing through The Oxford Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology when I found this:

"Seth, god of exuberant male sexuality not yet channeled into fertility, induced Horus to take part in pederastic acts and homosexual violation. The fruit of their relationship was the moon god Thoth, the son of the two lords." -- pg 332

I have never heard of Djehuty being the offspring of Set and Heru. Could anyone please tell me if this has any accuracy? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Current mood: confused

(fyrekat)

7:59PM - Akhw Offerings

Hello everyone!

I just placed a post to my journal on an issue which has been giving me significant mental exercise lately, heh. It involves the treatment of offerings to our Beloved Dead after we've made them. I'd appreciate your views- to avoid crossposting, I'll just put a link here:

http://fyrekat.livejournal.com/82676.html

(fyrekat)

8:04PM - Talk on Kemetic Reconstructionism at Ancient Ways

Apologies if you have already read about this on my journal, but I am just so excited!^_^

For all those who are in the San Francisco Bay Area, there will be a talk on Kemetic Reconstructionism at Ancient Ways this Thursday! May 8th at 7:30 PM in the Ancient Ways store of Oakland, Richard Reidy will be speaking on the concept and practice of being a modern person living true to ancient Egyptian religious, traditional ideals.

Richard Reidy is a member of the Temple of Ra, and author of several of the ritual works which were at one time published through Akhet Hwt-Hrw but are now slowly being released in actual book form. I have his first book, "Ancient Egyptian Rituals for the Modern World" and love it. This is just from me personally, but what I have seen and heard from this man has really struck a chord with what I value in the reconstructionist approach- more so even than most of the temples with which I have studied thus far, lol. Anyway, if you're in the area I really hope that you can come! The talk is open to all Kemetics, and pretty much anyone who's honestly interested in hearing another view on the subject.^_^

Current mood: excited

(ieros)

4:48PM - Hello All, I thought this might be of interest to the people here.

Hello my fellow practitioners of Kemeticism I thought that this project being done by Neos Alexandria (http://www.neosalexandria.org/) might be of interest to the members of this community.

Copied from sannion’s LJ:

Em Hotep!

I am pleased to announce that the members of Neos Alexandria have begun work on the second volume in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

To help promote the revival of traditional polytheistic religions we are launching a series of books dedicated to the ancient gods of Greece and Egypt. Volumes will contain essays, poetry, devotional material, original artwork, etc focused on a particular divinity. The library will be a collaborative effort drawing on the combined resources of the different elements within the modern Hellenic and Kemetic communities, in the hope that we can come together to praise our gods and share our diverse understandings, experiences and approaches to the divine. All of the proceeds for these books will go to help promote the worship of the gods of Greece and Egypt, by being used to put on a Greco-Egyptian religious gathering in 2009, bring out further volumes in the series, or given to charitable causes in the name of the gods.

This volume will be dedicated to Thoth (Egyptian Djehuti) the inventor of writing, the scribe of the gods, the lord of wisdom and magic, and the establisher of peaceful concord in the world.

Please consider submitting your work to this worthy cause!

Send submissions to submissions@neosalexandria.org

* All submissions must be received no later than July 31st, 2008.
* All submissions must be the original work of the author – plagiarism
is strongly frowned upon!
* Multiple submissions by the same author are fine – and encouraged!
* Material that has been published in other places will still be
considered, provided the author retains their copyright to the work.
* The author retains all rights to their work after publication.
* Contact the editors for information on format, length, and other
requirements if you have any questions.

Feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think might be
interested in this project.

Sincerely,
The Editorial Board of the Library of Neos Alexandria
submissions@neosalexandria.org

(starryeyedlion)

2:20AM - Theism type.

What kind of theist (atheist, pantheist, polytheist, ect…) are you and why? Also based upon this theistic type do you have a concept of The One? (which can be many things, for example some hard Hellenic polytheists still have a The One concept).

(starryeyedlion)

10:37PM - Kemetic Recon

How do we reconstruct the religion of Egypt? Unlike other Recon paths their isn’t a lot of information other than for temples, funerary functions, and the pharaoh.  Unfortunately in this day and age, a true Egyptian temples would be impossible to support and while some groups do have a Pharaoh they function more as high priests and not mighty lords.

So what things do we reconstruct. While there are plenty of calendars out there, I can’t find a single source detailing how the celebrations were done, not to mention how to recalibrate it based on the stars.  So holy days are out for the most part. Additionally hardly anything is known about how your average Egyptian worshiped. We know they probably had an shrine at home, open public shrines, and ear stellas at the temple walls but not what they actually did with them. Also what about the average or poor persons afterlife, quite a few of them weren’t mummified.

All we know is that most Egyptians were pious and we can get a rough idea of their ethics from the wisdom texts.

(starryeyedlion)

1:09AM - Two simple theological questions.

Do you believe in gods as actual beings (or being)?

 
Do you love your gods? (or other strong emotion)

(ieros)

12:23AM - Re and Het-Heret as a couple.

When people think of Het-Heret having a spouse the most common pairing is with Heru-sa-aset. This is a logical connection with a wide variety of historical evidence backing it up, especially at Edfu. However there is another possibility, Het-Heret as the wife of Re. Het-Heret throughout history is always associated as the hand-goddess, the feminine aspect of the creation. Though many goddesses were paired with Re, they ultimately borrowed and were eventually absorbed by Het-Heret leading me to feel they were all her anyway. Het-Heret in this cosmology is the mother rather than wife of Heru, as she is the sky Heru can be seen flying in her womb, resulting in her name. This has lead me to in my personal faith to pair them rather than Heru.

(ieros)

1:21PM - Translation help.

I was hoping someone linguistically gifted could help me. I want to translate my name which means “Remembered by the Lord” into Egyptian and from using the internet I got Sekha in neb or Sekhainneb. I was just hoping someone could confirm that I did this correctly. Any help is appreciated.

(jayed)

6:17PM - Question about Anubis/Anpu/Inpu what ever you want to call him..:)

Evening all!!

I have a few questions and I am hoping that someone will be able to help.

I am currently in my 4th year of my Egyptology Diploma, and I am writing my dissertation..:) The title of which is provisionally Changing aspects of Jackal Gods, from pre-dynastic period to Greaco-Roman Egypt. This dissertation will concentrate on Anubis and His role in Egypt, which is not only interesting from a religious point of view, but also an academic point of view.

What I am looking for is academic evidence of the melding of Wepwawet and Anubis (as is traditional in HoN). I've not found any relgious text, nor historical evidence to back this up.. I have found a relationship between Wep and Khenti-Amentiu though.

What Jackal Gods are there? I have found the following:-
Wepwawet
Khenti-Amentiu
Duamutef
Input (female form of Anubis)
Anubis
I am 100% sure that there is another form of Wep called Seb? Seq? Sed?

Thanks guys..:)

*Cross posted*

(jayed)

11:04PM - Nehebkau

A little while ago someone was asking about Nehebkau (and his female form). This weekend I was in Oxford, and we visited the Ashmolean (http://www.ashmolean.org/), which has an amazing Egypt section!!!

But, while I was wandering around taking photo's I came across a statue of Nehebkau and a drawing of a female snake Netjer and I thought of the discussion here.

So here they are:-



Male form



Female form suckling a child, according to the description (below) its a totally different Netjer!

(train_in_vain)

10:08PM

Hello, all!

I'm excited to say that I've been accepted into the next cycle of beginners' classes. I'm at the forums as well, lurking for the most part, though. It's been a long time since I've affiliated myself with any specific faith; I grew up Roman Catholic, complete with the plaid skirts and nuns whacking you on the knuckles, and during my first go-round at college I did the customary rebellion against just about everything, including God. So I'm a little nervous to be making this leap. I stumbled across the House of Netjer website over a year ago, but it wasn't until September when I finally mustered up the courage to apply for the beginners' classes. I'm really glad that in addition to the forums, there's also a Livejournal community, because I'm basically going it alone. My family, of course, is Christian, and my friends are a mix of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and assorted Pagan; nobody else I know believes in Netjer.

I've always been interested in the history of Egypt ever since I was small. It always held my interest more than anything else I read about. I think the best moment of the third grade was when my next-door neighbor went on a trip to Egypt and brought back a necklace for me of my name in hieroglyphics. I know, that's a bit silly, but it was so thrilling at the time. I don't know who or what it was that rekindled my interest in Egypt, or what propelled me into study and research again that night last October, but I'm grateful.

I can't wait for classes to start and to meet everyone.

(kohlminer)

11:49AM - 4 [naive?] questions

 
Hi, me again.

Well, it seems the more I'm learning, the more I'm realizing there's so much I don't know!
I spent some time on Kemet.org, and signed up for the beginner's class (last one started in September - I don't know when the next one is, do you?), as I figured it was a good place to start.

here are some questions.

1) As you probably know, they give you a pretty hefty questionnaire as to why you are interested in Kemetic Orthodoxy, and one of the questions says, "Are you prepared to learn about and potentially join a fairly conservative religion, having both a strict ethical code and a hierarchical structure?" 
Not that this is a deterrent, but could anyone tell me the specifics of this?  In what ways is it conservative and strict?  I do know that there were stigmas attached to eating pork and seafood then as there is now in the Near East - would that be part of it?  Or is it more sexually conservative?  I'm so, so sorry if this is naive or just screams, "NOOB."  Again, just figured I ought to know before I dedicate myself. 

2) Also, I'm reading a lot about dedicating yourself specifically to one or two Netjer, and giving yourself a Shemsu name.   Are either necessary?  I'm perfectly comfortable with my own name [Renee] unless it is displeasing to Netjer.  Also, I really wouldn't mind worshiping all of them equally (well, not *all* right away, since there are hundreds, but rather all of which I know well).  Years before I was into Kemetic Religion I was strictly Aset-based, though more Greco-Roman all-encompassing-goddess Isis, than Aset.  Could that be a sign that she is already picked out for me, or would choosing one require much longer study?

3) I was pleased to find out that having an ancestral altar is part of it, because I find a lot of joy in making altars.  I know aspects of KO are very specific - so is there a certain color scheme (is black too predictable, or pitch perfect?) I want to look for, or is it more of a "whatever you feel speaks to you" thing?  Are there certain smells, fabrics, food offerings, prayers that I want to use/keep away in using this altar?

4) Ok, last one, I promise.  I know the Ancient Egyptians were big on dream interpretations, especially if they were expecting the Netjer to give them information or insight that night.   However, my dreams [like many peoples'] are often disjointed, and incoherent.  Is there a way to decipher them and find any relevance?  Will any New Age dream book do, or did the Egyptians have particular associations and correlations in terms of dream content?


Phew.  Again - I apologize if I used the wrong term, mixed up my facts, or asked anything blatantly obvious.  I just feel that one never knows until one asks :)  

Thanks in advance!

hotep.

Renee

Current mood: confused

Current music: the shins - wincing the night away

(kestrelct)

2:38AM - question on the "eye of horus"

Hi folks, my name is Allie. I'd describe myself most generally as an eclectic pagan, particularly drawn to Hermes from the Greek pantheon. I recently came into possession of an Eye of Horus necklace, fairly similar to my icon, and I'm interested in learning more about what the symbol means and how it was originally used. Unfortunately, the internet is full of about a paragraph of real information, and pages and pages of terrible web design, cheesy graphics, and what I suspect is outright misinformation, but may just be ... fluff. In reading back through the entries in this community, I've been really impressed with the quality of information y'all have, and I would really appreciate a nudge in the right direction on this symbol. I historically have difficulty with nineteenth-century hyperacademic texts, but I'd certainly prefer dry and difficult (serious and, well, researched) to the sorts of things I'm turning up in a google search. My apologies if this is not the right venue for this question, and thanks very much in advance.

(pr0metheusbound)

3:03PM - Beginner

Hi all.

What is a good introductory book for someone who wants to learn about Kemetic Orthodoxy?

Thanks in advance.