Signal Boost — The Ancient Egyptian Daybook Project

- Word has since gotten around about Tamara L. Siuda’s Ancient Egyptian Daybook Project, and although the initial fundraising goal has been surpassed by a little over $5,000 USD, it still needs support from donors in order to fund extended goals — one of which includes an Egyptian calendar application for portable devices!

 

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Hawkodile – Kelsey Museum, Ann Arbor, MI USA

Question: How do you survive fallow time?

Last year I wrote about “fallow times,” a period when nothing is working for us, in my Dry Spells post, so I’d like to look at this question from a different direction. You’re probably familiar with the term Esoteric:

Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek ἐσωτερικός (esôterikos), a compound of ἔσω (esô): “within”, thus “pertaining to the more inward”, mystic. Its antonym is “exoteric”…. Examples of esoteric religious movements and philosophies include Alchemy, Astrology, Anthroposophy, early Christian mysticism, Gnosticism, Magic, Mesmerism, Rosicrucianism, Taoism, Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, the Alawites, the Christian Theosophy of Jacob Böhme and his followers, and the Theosophical currents associated with Helena Blavatsky and her followers. Wikipedia: Esoteric.

But less familiar with Exoteric:

The term exoteric is mostly used in conjunction with religions and spirituality… in which the teachings shift the believer’s focus away from the exploration of the inner self and towards the adherence to rules, laws and an individual God. The term exoteric may also reflect the notion of a divine identity outside and different from the identity of a human, whereas the esoteric notion claims that the divine is to be discovered within the human identity. One step further, the pantheistic notion suggests that the divine and the material world are one and the same. Wikipedia: Exoteric.

The Esoteric side:

So, which is Kemeticism? As we’ve seen, esoteric can have many meanings. We could certainly say that modern Kemeticism is esoteric, in that it’s a rare or unusual interest. There just aren’t that many Kemetics out there! From the sense of a secret tradition revealed through initiation, a few contemporary groups do this. For example, some Kemetic Orthodox members participate in a Weshem-ib (“testing of the heart” ) Ordeal to become Shemsu-Ankh.

Historically, priests must have received some sort of special training and knowledge not available to the public, but we don’t have anything like a course of study. Training for a singer or someone who managed the clothing of the god could have been quite different from for someone who read the ritual texts. Literacy rates were extremely low, and most of the population probably picked up most of their religious knowledge through a process of folk-osmosis. We’re also not sure how much of the Mystery Cult tradition actually came from Egypt. It’s possible that parts of the Ancestor Ritual or the Twelve Hours of the Night were performed by living people, as suggested in My Heart My Mother by Alison Roberts.

But the definition of esoteric I have in mind is a focus on exploration of the inner self. This has been one of the mainstays of neo-paganism. Tess Dawson identifies it with the neo-romantic movement, and has contrasted the philosophy in Two Winding Rivers: The Changing Face of the Pagan Movement:

The majority of the Pagan movement, whether they realize it or not, tend to support a neo-romanticist philosophy. Romanticism is “a movement in literature, philosophy, and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th cc. Starting from the ideas and attitudes of Rousseau in France and from the Sturm und Drang movement in Germany, it held that classicism, dominant since 16th c., denied expression to [hu]man’s emotional nature and overlooked [her/]his profound inner forces. Romanticism is above all an exaltation of individual values and aspirations above those of society. […] Through its concern with the hidden forces in man, Romanticism exerted a profound influence on modern thought, and opened the way e.g. to psychoanalysis” (from New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language). Neo-romanticism, of course, means “new Romanticist” and follows in the footsteps of its predecessor. Neo-romanticists often focus on self, self expression, individuality, self enrichment, imagination, rebellion against the establishment, and love/worship of nature. In addition, they adopt philosophies from such thinkers as Freud, Jung, James G. Frazer, and Joseph Campbell. Often theories, or ideas based upon those theories, are considered truisms to the majority Pagans. I see this neo-romanticism is a natural reaction when people are fleeing the religion of their birth—usually Christianity, and sometimes Judaism—often a dogmatic monotheism. As refugees of one of these monotheistic religions, people have a natural desire to rebel against authority, to embrace nature since their previous religions may have shunned it, and to see deities as archetypes or facets of one overarching divine force. Instead of submitting to church authority, for the first time a Pagan has the opportunity to free expression and deciding what is spiritual to her or him.

The focus on the inner self can run the gamut from seriously working through problems in your life and gaining new perspectives to self-indulgent navel-gazing. It is widespread in modern paganism, so it’s easy to assume that it’s the norm and should be the core of everything. In many of the esoteric traditions, deities aren’t truly “real.” They’re symbols, archetypes, or a construct to focus your mind.

Another way of looking at this is that on the esoteric side, things are being done for you, either by your deities(s), yourself, or other people. All those actions focus on you.

The Exoteric dimension:

Historically-Informed religions have another dimension, an outward-focused or exoteric one. Again, to quote Tess’s article:

Reconstruction, revivalism, and polytheism often focus on deities and community and/or kinship, and their religious structure and beliefs have their foundations in history. People who practice a historic-rooted religion tend to see religion less as personal development or therapy for the individual, and more as being in the service of the deities and the community.

The focus is on things outside yourself: Service to the deities and the community. Worship, honoring, helping, building. Living in Ma’at, in the way you interact with others (what Jan Assmann calls connective justice). It also means treating the netjeru as real beings instead of archetypes or tricks to focus our minds.

There’s certainly a lot of evidence for the exoteric side of ancient Egyptian religion: Building huge temples, creating icons of the netjeru, giving them offerings, celebrating their festivals, the focus on community.

The Fallow Times / Dry Spells / Desert-Dwelling:

If the dry spells or living in a perpetual desert are times when nothing is working for us, we don’t need to sit around waiting for something to happen. Perhaps it’s an indication that our work is elsewhere- outside ourselves! Worshiping or honoring the netjeru, without expecting an immediate return, doing heka for others, adding your prayers to theirs, strengthening and improving the Kemetic community (or the world in general) are all ways we can develop the exoteric side of our practice.

Even when the esoteric side is working well, it’s probably worth balancing it with exoteric work.

Additional:

Esoteric work with a purpose: The Cycle: 1-The Pit, 2- The River, 3- Making the Halves Whole

Book reference: My Heart My Mother: Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt  by Alison Roberts (Book Depository) or (Amazon)

W’ab: Pure, Clean

How do you prepare for doing a ritual? What is “ritual purity“? To understand it, we need to understand W’ab.

What is W’ab?

“W’ab” is a term that is translated as “pure” or “clean.” ( If I understand correctly, the ‘ simply means the “a” has an “ah” sound, so it rhymes with “Bob” or  ”Mob.”) There’s a problem with this translation for us. Our interpretation and cultural baggage sends us in the wrong direction. A similar situation exists with the word “Ma’at,” which is sometimes translated as “order” or “truth.” A definition that’s good enough for an exhibit card in a museum or an “all about ancient Egypt” book will probably not be good enough for practicing Kemeticism as a living religion.

When we think “pure,” we think of something in its original, untouched state. Pure water, pure snow- they’re completely clean and fresh, with nothing else in them. Virginal. You’re either pure, or you’re not.

I’ve talked to people who can’t do a ritual because they think they can’t say the words “I am pure.” They say “It would be a lie.” That’s a completely wrong notion, caused by our misunderstanding of “pure” in this context.

W’ab

The glyph for w’ab is a jar with a stream of water coming out of it, on legs. The legs give it the sense of “to bring,” making it a process, not a fixed state! It means making pure, not being pure.

When we state “I am pure!” we are performing heka, a magical act. Our statement, and whatever other preparations we do makes it true.

I wrote a post about the process last year, called “bathtime,” which gave a few basics about “ritual purity” and preparation.

Ritual Standards

Most of what we know about Kemetic ritual comes from the walls and papyri of the huge state temples of Egypt. The temple at Karnak was said to employ 81,000 people! We do have some clues to the religion of the skilled workers at Deir el-Medina, and know that they kept shrines in their homes. From what I’ve read, they didn’t have big pools to bathe in, and the standards must have been very different from those followed by the professional priests.

In a historical context, I suspect that many of the rules and prohibitions were rooted in “no stinks in the shrine.” The netjeru were said to have a particular incense-like scent, and incense was burned to purify and “make divine.” Thorough bathing was necessary in that hot climate to avoid competing with the incense, flowers, and other sweet-smelling offerings.

Many of the temple rituals took hours to perform. It would make sense to avoid any food or drink that might have a diuretic or laxative effect to avoid interrupting a ritual.  Foods that could cause flatulence would also be bad in the ‘competing smells’ category.

A temple with a huge staff of priests can afford to be choosy about who is performing a particular ritual. If one priest had the sniffles, there were plenty of others standing by…

Purity now

Most of us have working plumbing available, so the ‘clean’ part is relatively easy. No more worrying about crocodiles getting into the sacred lake. One of the main functions I see for the bathing-and-preparing ritual is making a mental break between your daily life and ”ritual time.” It’s an extra boost that helps you align yourself for communicating with the Netjeru.

To beginners, I’d say to remember that many of these requirements came from practical concerns. If natron makes your skin break out, use something else to clean. Natron was what the Egyptians used as soap. If you want to use it ritually, a tiny pinch in a bowl of water is plenty. The same is true for having a special ritual garment. It’s a nice item to have, but you shouldn’t let a lack of one keep you from getting started.

Read more:

The other Kemetic Roundtable answers to this question are linked here!

(Thanks to the Rev. Tamara Siuda for pointing out the w’ab jar has legs in one of her teaching chats!)

This is my first post for The Kemetic RoundTable, a cooperative blog project. Every two weeks we’ll give our answers to a different question to help people to get started. The links for each question will be given in a post on the KRT website, building a beginner-friendly resource.

We hope that the variety of answers and approaches to each question will help dispel some of the fear and anxiety that newbies often feel, and help promote a more harmonious Kemetic community. If you’re interested in helping, you can learn more here.