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Nihilistic Seraph Vice Captain
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 Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 8:50 am
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:56 am
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:45 pm
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:37 am
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:53 pm
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I posted a few links earlier, in the "Magical Everyday" thread that you started earlier, along with an "in a nutshell" summary of Kemetic religion. Those links will help you learn more about modern Kemetic religion, which is a reconstructionist approach to living ancient Egyptian religion today.
I'm currently looking for a good "Introduction to Egyptian Religion" type of book as well, for review on my journal. I get a lot of requests for stuff like that- the main problem is that egyptologists generally don't keep those of us who'd like to practice the religion in mind when they write their books, so usually you just have to get a whole bunch of books and piece tidbits of useful information together as you go. It's hard to do this without a basic theological framework to which you can connect those tidbits as they come up, and that's where I've found Kemetic temple teachings to be helpful. They give you a basic framework of practice, and (usually) a community of folks who share that practice- with whom you may discuss the questions which arise as you read and live with the deities. The ones which I mentioned in that other post have done their homework well enough that if you stick to academically accepted modern egyptologists, you won't often be confronted with information which conflicts with their version of practice.
So far, books which I've found which are helpful to people who are becoming interested in ancient Egyptian religion are:
Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods by Dimitri Meeks and Christine Favard-Meeks
and
Magic in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pinch
There is another book which explores a lot of interesting points of theology called Egyptian Religion, and it's by Siegfried Morenz. Up through page 32 of the book can be pretty infuriating, though, since the author clearly looks down on magical thought and seems intent on drawing comparisons (usually unfavorable ones) between AE religion and Judaism, and sometimes Christianity. But if you make it through that, the rest of the book is pretty rewarding- it's also a bit of a difficult read, though, because it's written on a high academic level and the author likes to slip into Latin, German, and French from time to time.^_^'
I'm currently working on a book called Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation by Henri Frankfort, and so far this is the closest I've come to a book which I would recommend as a beginning Kemetic handbook other than the guides which are published by the modern temples. However, this book is very old- being first published in 1948, and then revised in 2000- and the older egyptology books tend to be unfortunately misinformed in several aspect of ancient Egyptian religion. Many discoveries have been made since that day, and they have affected our understanding of both the religion and the culture; I haven't finished reading this book to see if any of those missteps remained after the 2000 revision, so I can't in good conscience recommend the book quite yet.
Aside from these books I have reviewed a few others which are posted on my journal, if you're interested in looking at a few more advanced or specialized titles.^_^ When I finish Frankfort's Interpretation, my final impression will be posted there as well. If you'd like to know anything else, feel free to PM me or contact me here in the guild.^_^
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:38 pm
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:50 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:36 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:26 pm
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Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:45 am
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Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 12:46 pm
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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 11:24 am
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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:08 pm
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Vesence I know there is a lot on the internet, I've looked around before and I swear it's like trying to find a recipie for bread...there are so many different kinds and I just don't know what I'm really looking for/what's the right way to go.
LOL! A pretty apt description- I'd advise looking into the "old school" Wiccan traditions first- get an idea of what the religion was originally, before browsing through all the Do-It-Yourself synthesized trads.^_^' A lot of people have been dropping things out and tacking stuff on where ever they felt like it, and if you don't get a feel for the whole then you won't be able to properly evaluate the information that different people give you.
I'm not Wiccan myself, but I used to be and I value the time I spent on that path. So with that disclaimer, I'll list off a few books which I really liked, and hopefully some Wiccans will come on later and comment to both of us.^_~
 Buckland, Raymond. Complete Book of Witchcraft.ST. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1996.
~a.k.a. Uncle Bucky's Big Blue Book, in honor of the obnoxiously oversized blue binding, with the very conspicuous pentagram plastered on the front. Despite how annoying this book is to shelve, and the arrogance which comes across in Buckland's writing style (I swear I've never seen an author quote himself as much as this one does), it is arranged into easy-to-follow lessons, with homework projects and questions, which will acquaint you with basic Gardnerian tradition Wicca- one of those "old school" trads I mentioned earlier.
  Grimassi, Raven. The Wiccan Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1997.
Grimassi, Raven. Wiccan Magick. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1999.
I like Grimassi for the thought that he puts into his theology- I still consider his book Wiccan Magick to be one of the best descriptions of Western magical theory that I've read. It may be noted, however, that while he was writing both of these books he was actually writing about Italian witchcraft, but expressing it through a Wiccan framework. If, however, you look at the book as an exploration of that Wiccan framework than it's an excellent exercise- as he worked very hard to remain within that structure. I like most of Grimassi's stuff- he's a good writer who is well informed and takes the time to explain things quite methodically.
 Cunningham, Scott. Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
I just picked this one as an example- pretty much anything from Cunningham which starts with those magical words, "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of..." will prove to be an excellent resource book. I find most of his guides to Wicca to be a bit too encouraging to the "Do It Yourself- don't mind us we're just chucking aspects of the religion around left and right" mentality. I think that he was trying to encourage people who were mainly limited to book learning to avoid the "People of the Book" attitude which we see in Bible thumpers (and Broom beaters), but I'm afraid that the attempt backfired into the sort of problem you'll see discussed in the "Wicca- Equal Opportunity?" thread elsewhere on this forum.-_- Yep- I blame Scotty, in part. I loved him very much, as an author and as a teacher, and when I found out that he had passed on without my having the chance to write him, I was devastated- he played that much of a role in my development as a Wiccan. His encyclopedias are awesome, his books on Elemental magic are fascinating, and I'm sure his book on spellcrafts (magical home-made items) is great too (I thought I had it- can't seem to find it now...), but when you read his Guidebooks, please understand that he was trying to encourage people to develop a vital relationship with the gods- not to tear down the framework of the religion itself and put it back together however they wanted.^_^'
So by now you've probably noticed that all of those titles are from a publication company called Llewelyn. They're easy to get- most book stores which stock occult books at all have access to Llewelyn. Just be careful what you get from them- they are not a publishing company with a good reputation within the Pagan/occult community. The thing about Llewelyn is that they go for the quantity of books that they can publish, and not necessarily for the quality. So they publish a lot of worthless fluff along with the good titles. In other words, it's not that they can't publish anything good, it's just that they'll publish anything, so always check a book thoroughly before buying it from them.^_^ |
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:46 am
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:30 pm
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Vertigo_Kiwi I have a question, and if this has already been asked you can hit me with a baseball bat. twisted I feel like I have a strong, I don't know, pull or connection to the goddess Isis. I was wondering if, to honor her completely, would I have to completely change everything I believe to just be egyptian based.. or could I mix that into my eclectic pagan beliefs (which is somewhat like wicca). Basically.. if a do a ritual to talk to her, or honor her, could I still call the elements or make a circle even if that's not what egyptians did?
Personally, I feel that there is a lot of value to learning about the gods' history and the cultures/religious forms which They created. I went a long way towards my current belief system, however, while under the wing of Wicca. For a long time, in fact, I believed that there was absolutely no reason to change to anything else, because Wicca was so flexible that it seemed that you could believe almost anything you wanted to believe and still be Wiccan. As I worked toward a more intimate understanding of my gods and Their ritual forms, however, I drifted further and further away until one day I finally realized that I didn't even use my old system anymore.^_^' So I don't feel that working the the Egyptian gods under a general system is a bad thing or a waste of time, but it definitely helps to understand what was done for them in ancient times, and to incorporate that as much as possible into your current practices. The more you learn, the more effective your ritual forms will be, and the greater understanding you will have of the deity and the way that He or She functions in the world.
There are a few important things that you should remember when working with Egyptian deities, though, even if you don't switch over to an Egyptian style of worship. One thing is that food offerings which are presented to the deity must be consumed- either by yourself or someone to whom you are giving the offering as a gift. And non-food items should be used for something. The important thing is to not waste the offering- when an offering is presented to an Egyptian deity, that deity will consume the energetic/spiritual component of the offering, and leave a part of His or Her presence within the item to fill the vacuum left by the part which was consumed. It is important for us to consume/use the offering in turn, then, in order to take that blessing into ourselves. If the offering is left outside/buried as is sometimes done in non-Egyptian styles of religion, then it's like throwing away that blessing, and/or telling the deity that you felt the offering was good enough for Him/Her, but not for you or your loved ones. It's generally felt to be rude.
Another important point to bear in mind is that Egyptian deities have certain taboos against what may be brought into a ritual space where They will be invoked. Standard taboos are against blood, urea, and dung- so no approaching Her in formal ritual if you're bleeding in any way (though prayer or basic meditation is still fine), be wary of perfume oils (they frequently use urea as a sweetener), and loose incense is preferable when possible (stick and cone incense sometimes use dung as a filler). Isis in particular has a further taboo against pork, so no pork chop offerings, please.^_~
You might also want to look into the differences between Isis (Greek goddess) and Ast (Egyptian goddess). For many of the Egyptian deities, we use Their Greek names, because at the time that we first began studying Them, we could not read hieroglyphs in order to know Their names. So we went with what the Greeks said about Them, and by and large the Greek versions of the names can be rather interesting versions of the originals. However, the Greeks tended to "tweak" their views of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, so that some of them (Isis especially) are almost completely different goddesses from their Egyptian counterparts. Isis, for instance, is a combination of almost every single female Egyptian deity out there, combined with Greek ideals of femininity (which were very different from Egyptian ones), and a few Greek goddesses tossed in because the Greeks were fond of associating Egyptian deities with their own, even when all they had in common was a single attribute. The Egyptian Ast is much more regal than the Greek Isis- Ast is the throne incarnated, Maker of Kings, the ambitious mother, the grieving widow. She is a powerful user of magic, and something of a cunning trickster. This is opposed to the mystical, flowery Isis- Divine Mother, gentle, gracious, and somewhat elusive.
For a circle, it's true that the ancient Egyptians did not usually cast them- they always held their rituals in the same place (a temple), and so the ritual space was already sacred. There was no need to re-consecrate it each time by casting a circle. However, there were some cases in which a circle would be cast- usually when a person was sick, and needed priestly services, and yet could not be moved to the Temple. In these cases, a special apotropaic wand- generally carved from hippo ivory, shaped like a throwing stick/boomerang, and decorated with ferocious and protective creatures (see below), would be used to trace out a circle around the sick person.
At our annual Bast ritual, we use a circle casting so that other Neo-Pagan folks won't feel too stressed about celebrating Bast without one. I don't know exactly where our circle casting liturgy comes from, but I have sent it in to a local Egyptian museum curator and she tells me that it sounds like what an ancient Egyptian circle casting spell would have translated to, so I'll share it here. The original is meant to be cast by two people, one walking clockwise and the other walking counter clockwise, but it could be done by one person simply saying both sets of lines:
Casting the circle Priest 1: I conjure the area of this circle for I am a Wild Cat. Priest 2: I conjure the locks of this circle for I am the falcon. Priest 1: I conjure the bolts of this circle for I am Ptah. Priest 2: I conjure the hiding-place for I am the one whose name is hidden. Priest 1: I conjure the cross-timbers for I am the Master of Mysteries. Together: [We] I conjure this circle, as above, so below. Together: [We] I conjure the four Noble Ladies in whose mouths are their flames. Priest 1: Whose fire chases away all evil, all enemies, male and female, Priest 2: Living and dead, within this circle and without, Priest 1: Within our bodies and without. Priest 2: No evil and no enemies can come for us. Priest 1: No evil and No enemies can come to this circle; Priest 2: Not by day nor by night, not at any time! Together: The four Noble Ladies, with flame in their mouths, protect this place! silence for a brief momentPriest 1: Djhwty has come. Priest 2: No evil shall enter this circle. Priest 1: Ptah has closed the door. Djhwty has set it fast. Together: The circle is set fast. The circle is closed.
----And then to open the circle again, using brooms to sweep away the footprints/line created by the casting:
Opening the circle Priest 1: Evil could not come to us. Priest 2: Our enemies could not come to us. Priest 1: Evil could not enter this circle. Priest 2: Our enemies could not enter this circle. Together: We thank the Four Noble Ladies who helped to protect this place! pause briefly, then resume sweepingPriest 1: I open the area of this circle. Priest 2: I open the locks of this circle. Priest 1: I open the bolts of this circle. solemnly speaking:Priest 1: Djhwty has come. Evil has been swept away. Priest 2: Ptah opens the door. Djhwty holds it fast. both stop, and look around solemnlyTogether: The circle is open.
It is important to remember that the ancient Egyptians did not have a concept of the four elements- that's a Greek thing. Some modern occultists try to associate the four sons of Horus/Hrw with the Elemental Lords/Watchtowers, because in ancient Egyptian tombs those deities were charged with protecting the tomb from enemies approaching from any of the four directions. Modern occultists identified elements with the directions, and slapped the elements and the son of Hrw for each direction together without an apology or a second thought.^_^' But four was the number of completeness, and so ritual actions can be taken toward all four quarters of the circle if you wish, as appropriate.
If you're interesting in a kind of lay ritual for modern Egyptain practitioners, which is derived from ancient practices, you may want to check out the article I've posted on my journal, here. It includes links to a couple versions of the ritual liturgy at the end. |
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