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Post by satsekhem on Jan 27, 2015 9:58:46 GMT -6
I think a lot of us come into Kemeticism, looking around in a sort of bewildered fashion. (Yes, that's partially where I came up with the name for my blog.) I know that when I stopped and looked around, I realized that it all made sense since ancient Egypt had been a passion of mine since I was a child. But not everyone really comes into this with that sort of background. So, what brought you here? What about Kemeticism (if any one thing caused it) made you sit up and say, "Yes, this is where I need to be"?
For me - it was always Sekhmet. I've detailed in blog posts but for those who haven't read those, I'll just let you know that everywhere I went and everywhere I looked, Sekhmet was always just... there.
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bayoread
Newbie
Posts: 13 
Pronouns: she/her
Religion: Hellenic Polytheist
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Post by bayoread on Jan 27, 2015 13:47:56 GMT -6
I'm not Kemetic but Ma'ahes was just there one day, sitting his tawny lion man butt down and like hi. I think the gods are messing with me because I was adamant I wasn't going to venture into the Egyptian pantheon.
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obsydian
Newbie
Posts: 4
Religion: Kemetic Orthodox
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Post by obsydian on Jan 27, 2015 14:26:40 GMT -6
I had a huge fondness for the gods of ancient Egypt since I was a child. I especially loved Bast and Horus (Heru).
I hated world history until the AE section came up!
The catalyst (ha, cat..) was when I lost a bunch of my outside cats. They were from a feral mom so they wouldn't get along inside, but they were very friendly little kittens and I loved them to bits. Well our cats started going missing, including some of my favorites, and these kittens included. We saved one, who later died from unknown causes.
I was in a lot of distress, especially when a neighbor spoke to my father that there was a police car looking around our neighborhood on reports of kids catching cats and shooting them...
I was broken and hurt and angry at the world, but then Bast came to me and made me feel alright. I've had a love of ancient egyptian gods since I was a small child, but nothing had really happened until then. She comforted me and helped me to heal during that time. If this was the fate of my cats, they were safely with her now. I worked with her on and off, and I knew about the KO but never ever thought I'd get into some organized temple.
Some time passed and I felt suddenly DRAWN to the KO. With Bast's nudging, I joined, and here I am.
That was kind of long and depressing, I'm sorry.
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druvian
Newbie
Posts: 6
Pronouns: She/her
Religion: Kemetic
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Post by druvian on Jan 27, 2015 15:04:15 GMT -6
I was going through a really rough time and saw a tumblr user who started working with witchcraft and Bast. It wasn't Kemetic and didn't know a thing about Kemetism, it mostly did tarot and spells...but seeing its change in attitude after working with Bast and the descriptions of the relationship and how she helped it so I reached out to Bast. No clue about anything but basic witchcraft...no altar, had never even heard the word Kemetic. It was sort of off-and-on until a certain...emotional overhaul, I guess, and I decided to look into Bast and realized duh, there's a whole lot of context I'm missing. So I lurked TTR, set up a shrine, and eventually deleted my old blog and redid it and I mostly follow religious blogs now.
And it just feels...right. I've thought about working more with the Theoi time and time again - aside from the Dionysus thing I've always had this huge pull to Persephone since childhood. Even dabbled with Laveyan Satanism and Heathenism for a bit...nothing ever felt as right as the Netjer.
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Post by All Those Other Worlds on Jan 27, 2015 18:51:19 GMT -6
I've been poking at different religions for most of my life, since my Mom's an Atheist but wanted to give me and my brother exposure to a variety of religions "just in case". Which means that I've had the obligatory neowiccan phase (I was twelve. It was embarrassing), several pokes into recon, the generic New Age Reiki and stuff phase, a few years of "I'm into Science and stuff I can't do anything spiritual", and then a stint in Buddhism because my uncle had died and it reminded me of him. Once I realized that and drifted away from Buddhism after a few months, I still felt like I wanted to be more involved in spirituality, and found myself looking into Kemeticism again, because I'd always been interested in AE mythology, and the only reason I was driven away from it initially was because recon kinda scared me. This time around, it feels more right than anything else has so far, so I'm really hoping that I can make this work. The problem, of course, is that I'm generally a bit lax about stuff, and mostly just talk for a little bit every day or two. But it's something, and I'm trying to learn Tarot so I have some way to at least try to contact the Netjeru.
Of course, since I've been into and out of so many paths, it gets harder and harder each time to really believe that this is the one (or lack of one) that will stick.
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Post by Mivi on Jan 28, 2015 2:31:06 GMT -6
I also was always interested in the Ancient Egyptian pantheon growing up. I was staunchly agnostic for a good long time (except I would continue to pray to Aphrodite throughout those years .. mostly for self-confidence issues) and then my life flipped and I got pushed HARD into kemeticism. Wow, that was already about two years ago. Damn. I saw KO and remembered finding it when I was sixteen (and there was no way I was asking my parents to sign a consent form) so I just forgot about it until then.
Sobek-Ra has been a constant figure.
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venn
Newbie
Posts: 5
Pronouns: Any
Religion: Kemetic
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Post by venn on Jan 28, 2015 16:28:50 GMT -6
I was never religious, although I went to church and did all the things expected of young christians, but I did it for my mom, not because I was personally christian. I tried to believe, I really did, but I just didn't and it was so disappointing to me, because I was really interested in religion, but not the ones that were modern (I had no idea there were still people who worshipped ''older'' gods). I looked around, tried Wicca, tried Buddhism but nothing really stuck. I dropped it and two months ago have found the pagan side of tumblr and I found Kemeticism and I have never felt so at home in a spiritual way.
I'm hoping this time is the good one and that I'll stay in Kemeticism.
It's the only the start of a journey and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one!
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Post by devo on Jan 29, 2015 19:04:14 GMT -6
I've been poking at different religions for most of my life, since my Mom's an Atheist but wanted to give me and my brother exposure to a variety of religions "just in case". Which means that I've had the obligatory neowiccan phase (I was twelve. It was embarrassing), several pokes into recon, the generic New Age Reiki and stuff phase, a few years of "I'm into Science and stuff I can't do anything spiritual", and then a stint in Buddhism because my uncle had died and it reminded me of him. Once I realized that and drifted away from Buddhism after a few months, I still felt like I wanted to be more involved in spirituality, and found myself looking into Kemeticism again, because I'd always been interested in AE mythology, and the only reason I was driven away from it initially was because recon kinda scared me. This time around, it feels more right than anything else has so far, so I'm really hoping that I can make this work. The problem, of course, is that I'm generally a bit lax about stuff, and mostly just talk for a little bit every day or two. But it's something, and I'm trying to learn Tarot so I have some way to at least try to contact the Netjeru. Of course, since I've been into and out of so many paths, it gets harder and harder each time to really believe that this is the one (or lack of one) that will stick. Fwiw, I don't think that being lax is necessarily a bad thing. Many Kemetics are lax, and it still works out. I know I'm rather lackluster in a lot of ways with my practice. So long as you're doing the living in ma'at thing, it all seems to work out, afaict. -Devo |
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Post by All Those Other Worlds on Jan 30, 2015 12:51:58 GMT -6
I've been poking at different religions for most of my life, since my Mom's an Atheist but wanted to give me and my brother exposure to a variety of religions "just in case". Which means that I've had the obligatory neowiccan phase (I was twelve. It was embarrassing), several pokes into recon, the generic New Age Reiki and stuff phase, a few years of "I'm into Science and stuff I can't do anything spiritual", and then a stint in Buddhism because my uncle had died and it reminded me of him. Once I realized that and drifted away from Buddhism after a few months, I still felt like I wanted to be more involved in spirituality, and found myself looking into Kemeticism again, because I'd always been interested in AE mythology, and the only reason I was driven away from it initially was because recon kinda scared me. This time around, it feels more right than anything else has so far, so I'm really hoping that I can make this work. The problem, of course, is that I'm generally a bit lax about stuff, and mostly just talk for a little bit every day or two. But it's something, and I'm trying to learn Tarot so I have some way to at least try to contact the Netjeru. Of course, since I've been into and out of so many paths, it gets harder and harder each time to really believe that this is the one (or lack of one) that will stick. Fwiw, I don't think that being lax is necessarily a bad thing. Many Kemetics are lax, and it still works out. I know I'm rather lackluster in a lot of ways with my practice. So long as you're doing the living in ma'at thing, it all seems to work out, afaict. -Devo Thanks. I think part of the problem is that I'm easily influenced by other people's opinions, so I have a tendency to leave something - even if it's working out for me - and go into "nothing can exist unless it has been accepted by Science" mode. Well, that and the fact that I tend to get really excited about and into something at first, and then I get caught up in something else. This actually still working out for me though, which is good. |
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ekunyi
Newbie
Posts: 5
Pronouns: she/her
Religion: Kemetic Orthodox
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Post by ekunyi on Jan 31, 2015 8:32:01 GMT -6
My journey into Kemeticism happened only about four years ago. I found Ancient Egypt extremely interesting growing up, (Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians, anyone?) but wasn't drawn to it spiritually until my 20s.
I was raised Methodist, loosely at first, and then with a much stronger bent sometime in Middle School when my "Human Beliefs" course (i.e. Learn about all the different forms of Christianity, plus one rabbi, and oops, the Hindu representative can't make it today) scared my eleven year old self into believing I was going straight to hell. One miserable confirmation class and roughly three years of trying to make it work later, I found myself following a few other friends into Wicca. Yet every time I attempted to call quarters and welcome the Goddess, she was a dark skinned woman with a black feline head, while everyone else was getting Greco-Roman/Celtic figures. At first I attributed this to the black leopard who'd been an "imaginary friend" growing up, but it kept happening, so I ran with it.
Wicca gave way to following "Black leopard woman" (creative name, I know) into fairly open ended meditative journeys. These predominated my highschool spiritual experience, and continued into college where severe depression and anxiety kicked me out of believing anything at all. Fast forward to my first year living alone in D.C., at a critical point both professionally and personally, and suddenly I'm having dreams of a red "greyhound" with a too-long face and weird, square ears. Having Kemetic friends helped, they directed me to read about Set. Research on Bast came later, things started falling into place, and I haven't really looked back.
It has meant I've been playing a lot of catch-up, when many folks in the community seem to have spent much of their lives reading and living this stuff. But I've never been happier, or more fulfilled, since those two came into my life/showed me that She'd always been there.
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Post by Intaier on Feb 22, 2015 13:32:23 GMT -6
Short answer: Djehuty :))
Long answer:
I fall into category of people who were attracted to Egypt from childhood. I always loved the art and culture; probably it was intense aesthetic attraction that was driving me. I loved history of Egypt too, and I still remember the classes in 5th grade (but I’ve read the textbooks for 5th and 6th grade (Ancient World and Middle Ages) a year ahead before these classes were in the school.
My interest and love to the country as a whole always was very intense. I grabbed all the books I was able to acquire – remember, this was pre-internet era. My love to Egypt sometimes was more quiet, sometimes intensified greatly. In 1995, this love intensified to a whole new peak level: first, I started writing a cycle of poetry about AE, often imitating ancient lyric style. Second, I made a life-changing decision to study hieroglyphics. Third, I also wrote two historical novels, both stories set in AE (however, they will not be published as I was very young and my writing skills were far from perfect yet :)
And so I was amazed by language and by wonderful discovery that yes it is possible to learn it! I rushed into study. I found friends between egyptology students. As soon as there were books about AE mythology and culture newly printed in Russia – I hurried to get them all. In one of these books, I first encountered the legend of the Book of Thoth. Another life-changing event :)
This myth became my favorite. And I guess is how I caught Djehuty’s attention :) as someone who enthusiastically studied hieroglyphics, his perfect creation, and who was so much attracted to his myths…
So I really always loved “everything about Egypt” and it was natural as breathing. And of course I had favorites between the Netjeru (first, as mythology figures only; later, discovering the spiritual reality).
When I started studying hieroglyphics, I've been keeping in mind, how many signs should I memorize to succesfully apply for a job in a temple of Thoth.
Even if, back that time, I've been thinking about this as about "Mythology I so wish to be true". It was dangerous area for a christian, to explore egyptian religion and *wanting* it to be true. I've been translating ancient egyptian inscriptions with russian poetry, drawing inspiration from them, admiring ancient egyptians' devotion and trying to figure out how all these wonderful people would reach their desired afterlife, as christian [russian orthodox] ideas of afterlife fates of ancient "pagans" were not satisfactory.
I've been drawn to Anubis first, mostly for aesthetic reasons [his handsomeness and my love to dogs and jackals], and to Djehuty, because of hieroglyphics and... just because of everything he is. =)
[but of course I liked all the pantheon as a whole]
It was a long journey, and I tried very different approaches to religion and spirituality and mind-play with different theories, feeling obliged to stay with Christianity and experiencing the obvious reality of the Netjeru in the same time.
Only after my [second] journey to Egypt in 2012, after visiting Thoth' sanctuaries in Dakka and Hermopolis, I said to myself "I will follow the desire of my heart. My True will. And if my heart longs to Djehuty, so be it" :)
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Post by Intaier on Apr 14, 2015 13:31:15 GMT -6
(I'll copy-paste it from my tumblr here, because why not - answer to a roll-call question "what's so awesome in kemeticism")
There are many awesome things. One of them is that the world, through kemetic view of it, is much better place than the world pictured by christian religions, especially fundamentalistic ones.
The world is good. The people are good and welcome to join the company of the Gods in making the world a better place. Also, the Netjeru don’t look at the humans down as at unworthy creatures, sinners, “energy food source” or lowly servants.
And so, they don’t really demand worship. You may just live and maintain Ma’at and that’s awesome, because the Netjeru live on Ma’at.
You don’t have to feel yourself like a sinner who worth nothing unless believes in Savior.
You don’t need to feel guilty for some mythological ancestors from one particular nation holy book who ate the fruit and disobeyed their God.
And you are responsible for your own “deeds and misdeeds” and for your choices and mistakes, and the judgement is just.
Also, the afterlife is *interesting* and contains many, many amazing options.
And the kemetic pantheon together with the akhu and living followers of the religion, sometimes I think of them as about “final frontier” of battling the World Enthropy and Isfet …
Imagine the barque of Ra as one giant Enterprise :)
* Thoth is mr.Spock of course
+++
I don’t have enough words to describe HOW awesome Djehuty is :)
But for me, the most amazing thing about him is, that he knows The Things As They Are. The “Source code of the Universe” and how *everything* works. The whole universe. The energy and the matter. All the planets and stars. All the hidden movements of human souls.
And he invented hieroglyphics :)
And all tools of measurement and communication.
And all languages.
Universal benefactor and benevolent Lord-of-Terror.
I saw the sparks of his splendour with mortal eyes. I can’t count his blessings. He never left any of my prayers unheard and he gave me everything I even asked for.
He gave me signs I didn’t dare to ask for, and he gave me signs when I asked for them. He led me through the darkness. He led me through harsh ordeals.
You have been for me a craftsman,
You have diminished my trouble,
You have taken control of my…
You have been for me a farmer,
I being like a field,
I being dry,
You have been for me [water]
They have given me to you,
I being worthy,
You opened me in your image…
To cause him [it] to live…
You have separated for me my tongue,
You have opened for me
You have given me the possibility for going and coming.
You have lessened hatred of me,
You have brought love of me,
You have caused that my praise come quickly.
[…]
You have given flame /moisture of your mouth
Reveal to me sustenance
the beneficent power of your body has flowed over me.
…for the benefaction
You have acted for me,
I being a living image eternally.
I will stand as a statue
I will make (or “be”) for you a divine statue (or “monument”),
I being an image of the foremost (or “before”) his…
I will have power over your papyrus roll
I will worship your teaching
I being protected by your beautiful name
(* quoted from : The Demotic book of Thoth - the Initiate’s hymn)
His love is absolutely wonderful.
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Post by Intaier on Dec 30, 2015 7:03:20 GMT -6
Adding a little more... =) A path chosen freelyI think it always was more than “just the mythology” for me. Funnily, I can’t say that I really loved egyptian *mythology*. However I liked egyptian art and culture in general, and I was fascinated by hieroglyphics. It was a life-changing decision when I got the thought that I actually can make a try to study ancient egyptian. And yes, I was not really excited about all the myths (despite my good knowledge of them). I was excited about the ancient religion itself, about live experiences and interactions between people of Ancient Egypt and the Netjeru. I was amazed by their devotion and dedication, seeing Egypt as mysterious mirror of Heaven. I can’t bring up any stories that would reveal Djehuty’s presence in my life “before I knew it was him”. I had no mysterious, psychic “experiences” in the childhood, I had no feelings that someone is watching me or is present in the room, whatever. I’m sure, though, that he was always watching and handing the helping hand, unnoticed, invisible, when I needed help in studies, - was that languages, or school courses, or university courses. He’s God of Knowledge and he loves those “who love knowledge” * and this is a pun reference to the “Demotic Book of Thoth” :) And he has been waiting quietly, until the right time came - first for my soul to touch one of his most mysterious myths; then, for the moments when I called him to hear and come. Probably many things happened exactly according his design; but I never was “tricked” or “cheated”, and I never was “dragged, kicking and screaming”, as sometimes happens with people on their roads to Deities. I walked my path, by my own choices, always free, in all choices I made, in all vows I’ve taken, in all dedications and promises I’ve given. (And “ I take pride in my religion today” , citing my favorite Vacuum song…) (Also: my long blog post " Why kemeticism") |
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Post by hellslittleexile on Feb 1, 2016 23:11:07 GMT -6
Personally I got into it on a fluke! My partner (then just best friend) was a pagan/witch/Something In That Sphere, but I came from a hardcore atheist family. Like, I got lessons in how religion was bullshit meant to manipulate the masses, hardcore atheist. And I bought it for a long time. I saw a bunch of people working with ancient Egyptian deities on Tumblr from following some blogs my partner suggested as I got more into basic witchcraft, eventually ended up perusing the online writings of Desh, Devo, Sek ( satsekhem I dunno if that's how you go by but the similarity between you and Desh's urls makes me think of you like that aha), Tatiana, etc. Eventually from reading about their experiences, I did my own research and was... mutually approached by Aset. I think she'd been low-key calling me for a while, I just was a clueless aut atheist and didn't notice, and ended up approaching her on my own terms. I said yes because she was the first one to show me the kind of maternal affection I'd never had and it had been what I needed then, and it never really stopped being so. I've since been "passed on" to Anupet (I've been assured there's some sort of plan with my being the ball in the Great Netjer Volleyball Tournament, which I'm only just beginning to see, and am best buddies with Djehuty. So, everything's worked out, pretty much. |
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