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 Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:30 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:34 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:35 pm
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About Me
My name's Christina, and I'm a 24 years old undergrad going to college full time to get a B.A. in Spanish with a philosophy or women and gender studies minor. (I haven't decided yet) I currently reside in the California bay area.
I am a hard polytheist, and have been a Reformed Kemetic Reconstructionist for about a year now, but have always been interested in Egypt since I first learned about it when I was twelve.
A Reformed Kemetic Reconstructionist is someone who tries to practice the Egyptian religion as closely to how it was historically practiced in ancient Egypt by basing practice in scholarly sources, yet allowing for modification of modern practice when older practices can no longer be accommodated, such as state wide religious festivals, part time priesthood, and a theocracy. I personally tend to stop at the Ramesside period when it comes to sources of practice and not hold much stock in Ptolemaic period changes in religion unless a practice has foundations in earlier time periods, since later developments may not be true to Egyptian thought, e.g. the changing of Bast from a solar deity to a lunar deity with her association with Artemis.
My patron goddess is Bast, whom has been with me for quite a long time, and I've recently started developing a relationship with Seshat. I cherish and honor them.
I am not part of a temple/group, and a large majority of my knowledge/practice is based on personal research.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:39 pm
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Beginning the Journey
...or as I like to say, Stuff I Wish I Knew When I First Started.
Some important things to recognize about Egyptian religion is that sources matter. I do not recommend starting with primary sources like the Coffin Texts, the Pyramid Texts, or the Book of Coming Forth By Day. (better known as the Book of the Dead) The reason for this is that these texts are not revealed texts that are comparable to, say, the Bible, for example. The books I mentioned are not meant for someone just coming into the religion. They rely on prior knowledge of concepts, symbolism, and mythology in order to make sense. If you try to read those now, you'll probably either get a headache or fall asleep. Don't do this to yourself. Instead, start with some secondary sources. I'll be putting in some recommendations in the Resource section.
Now let's talk translations. Though Budge is probably more available and more cheap, I don't recommend him. Some of his translations are not exactly accurate. I generally recommend Frankfort, as would most any recon you come across. His translations are also more recent, which is a good thing since we're still finding stuff now.
That brings up another thing- earlier sources will put a big slant on trying to justify the Egyptian gods as primarily monotheistic, and later monolatrous, but these interpetations are both incorrect. A great source that will give you the history for this is in "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many" by Erik Hornung. I'll also be adding to the same section here in this thread to go over this more.
If you're confused about why there are differences in spelling, the Egyptian written language had no vowel sounds. Whatever they're written as now are based on transliteration plus some good scholarly guessing.
As for where to get these sources: http://www.directtextbook.com is the best resource I've found if you're looking to buy cheap and used. I'll be listing some websites down in the Resource section as well. If you want to try to borrow from the library, using inter-library loan can get you scholarly journal articles and expensive books for free. Talk to your local librarian on how to set this up.
One of the biggest road blocks I had when learning about Egyptian religion is realizing how much my Western logic was getting in the way of my understanding the Egyptian multivalent logic. Western logic relies on a / not-a conclusions, and the law of the excluded middle. This allows for conclusions to be either completely true or false. Multivalent logic, however, resides in that excluded middle. You will see that Egyptian religion has many answers for the same question- and none of them were ever exclusively true...except for the Amarna period, but I don't really count that since that was the only monotheism to exist in Egypt. Once you can accept that each answer has their own portion of truth, this religion will make a lot more sense to you. I'll be going over syncretism later on, which is another thing that I had problems with, but will make sense once I explain the conception of divinity.
As for the menstrual blood taboo- well, there's not very much to it, and I'll go over that too, so you can release that breath you were holding now.
Timelines won't always agree. There are some discrepancies when it comes to periods of rule because the Egyptian Pharaoh lists were not so much based on historical accuracy so much as numerological significance. The most well known chronologist is Manetho who wrote about the Egyptian time line close to the end of the state of Egypt's existence. He also left some lesser Pharaohs out of the timeline that later archaeology has discovered. This is why when Egyptologists date certain Pharaohs they will not always agree. This kind of thing isn't necessarily exact. Most dating is usually within a range of about 100 years. Egyptian history is long! We're talking at least 4000 years.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:42 pm
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Conceptions of God
I'm going to be condensing this from a 10 page essay I wrote for my Ancient Egypt class. If you feel like there are some things that aren't explained, let me know and I can add more stuff in.
Theological Approaches
First, we define the words we'll be using. Henotheism is the belief in many deities which were generated from or ruled over by a single overarching deity. Monolatry is the belief that there are many deities, but only one worth worshiping. Hard polytheism is the belief that all deities are unique individuals.
I will go ahead and say that the ancient Egyptians were henotheistic, but it's really not that simple.
Gods by hierarchy
There were state gods, which were the official gods of Egypt. Then each nome had their patron god/dess. Temples would be dedicated to the nome god, and then would also have statues of other deities that were worshipped after the patron god/dess was given worship. Then there were family gods (that may or may not be the same as the state gods), and then gods that people worshipped depending on their craft. There were at the least 1500 various deities in the history of Egypt, just not all of them were well known or widely worshiped. Many gods were particular to certain nomes or areas.
As far as who the state gods were, that depended on the time of Egyptian history (which spanned roughly three to four thousand years!) as well as the politics in play. More on the state gods and creation myths will be covered under the Cosmogeny section.
As you can see, Egyptians were henotheistic in that there was a creator deity that auto-generated, whom then created the other main gods. These are known as the Pesedjet.
Netjer
God is just an approximate translation to the Egyptian conception. Netjer (which is translated as God for expediency) literally means "divine power." I've heard others compare Egyptian gods to the Japanese kami. One god can be more "divine" than others, so even things that we consider not-gods, like demons (although that is tricky too, since I can't think of a being that was one-dimensionally malevolent in Egypt so much as our Western conception of demons) or spirits of specific places, were also considered gods. Netjer may also be translated as "power."
The gods are both present in the physical world, and in the spiritual world. They can manifest themselves through physical phenomena, such as storms, wind, scent, bright light, etc. They can also manifest themselves through thoughts and feelings that they evoke in the supplicant.
Gods have limits. The gods are not omnipotent nor omnipresent. Their travel from one area to another can be facilitated by bringing a cult statue which has been prepared for the god to suitably imbue some of their presence in, but the gods are not thus limited. (see Story of Sinuhe) Rather conception of time and space varies depending on whether they are manifesting to us on the physical plane, or on the spiritual plane. Gods can age, and gods can die. (see myth of Osiris/Ausir)
The names of the gods that we know, such as Isis, Osiris, etc., are not actually names. What they are are titles. Their names are held in secret, since knowing their names would give whoever knows them power over them. Epithets for gods are numerous, as for every additional epithet, that god/dess gains an additional area of influence and capability.
Syncretism
Now that we understand the concept of god, syncretism might make sense.
Syncretism is when one god/dess instills hirself within another god/dess in order to function in that other god's capacity, or share in power, a.k.a. "indwelling." (though it is not limited to only two) This is what is meant when two names are connected with a hyphen, e.g. Amun-Re. Another reason why this would occur is when one god/dess is recognized within the function or capacity of another god. e.g. Amun is recognized in his creative capacity as Re, since Re is a creator god. This formula typically goes, "DeityX, in this your name of DeityY." Syncretism is not necessarily for forever, as deities are recognized in their syncretized form at the same time that they are recognized in their original form. No individuality is lost in syncretism.
A good way to think of it is by comparing it to Power Rangers. There are a few individuals who join together to make one more powerful individual, even though they retain their individual consciousness at the same time. Once a task is accomplished, they dissolve back into their singular forms.
A reason why this did not just revert into pantheism is because gods clearly had their limits. Though gods shared many epithets, this is no reason to equate one with another. For example, Thoth was associated with the moon, an ibis, a baboon, a man with the head of an ibis, and as god of knowledge and writing. These are many ways to apprehend this god, but though he might share an association with the moon with the god Khonsu, this does not mean they are equivalent, as the other roles of each god can be readily apprehended as well.
"God" in texts
The mention of God in the singular in the wisdom texts are not to be confused with a monotheistic conception of the divine in ancient Egypt. Rather, these wisdom texts were written as practical advice for students whom in their professional/official life might be expected to travel to different nomes or even neighboring countries. Each nome would have had a different patron god/dess, as well as each country their own gods. God, then, would have been a placeholder for any god that the student must be respectful of or pay homage to as a guest in a foreign nome or country.
Conclusion
While I'd like to say that Egyptian religion is hard-polytheistic, the syncretism would make this description obsolete. However, I would not call it a soft-polytheism either, since the gods are apprehended as individual and yet "one" at the same time, (only during syncretism) which is not a function of hard polytheism. Henotheism as a descriptor will have to do, as well as a discussion on the peculiarities of Egyptian religion. This should serve as a lesson as to how complex this religion really was- and to merely skim the surface and assume one thing or another to serve one's own purposes would be a disservice to all.
Sources:
Assmann, Jan. "The Search for God in Ancient Egypt."
Frankfort, Henri. "Ancient Egyptian Religion."
Hornung, Erik. "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt."
Meeks, Dimitri and Christine Favard. "Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods."
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:45 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:47 pm
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Cosmogony
There were three Egyptian creation myths. Out of all the Egyptian myths, the earliest were the cosmogonic myths associated with Hermopolis and Heliopolis, which both evolved out of the observation of nature. Both emerge from Nun, which is the primeval waters of chaos from which the created differentiates itself.
Heliopolis
In the Heliopolitan tradition, Atum emerged from Nun, sat on the primeval mound, and masturbated or spit to create the deities of air, Shu and Tefnut. From their union came their children Geb and Nut, deities of earth and sky. And from Geb and Nut came Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. This is the pesedjet, or ennead, which means nine.
Hermopolis
In the Hermopolitan tradition, we begin with Nun again. Within Nun were the Ogdoad, or the eight primal creator deities who later died and went to the underworld. Though dead, they still had the power to make the Nile flow and the sun to rise and set. This cosmogony developed in four variations. Two of these variations stressed the emergence of the world from the cosmic egg, laid by the celestial goose, or the ibis, which was sacred to Thoth. The other two versions are based on a lotus from which emerged the sun god Re, as a child or scarab beetle.
Later development of the Hermopolitan cosmogony includes Thoth whom by tradition is also self-generated. In this version, the gods of teh Ogdoad were his souls. In other statements, Re was the creator of all things.
Memphis
The Memphite theology is found on the Shabaka stone in the 25th (Nubian) dynasty. In this cosmogony, Ptah Tatenen (Ptah of the primeval mound) is the supreme creator by use of the divine mind and divine utterance. The ennead are manifestations of him.
Others
Other various cosmogony myths mention Amun-Re as divine creator at Thebes. At an early stage, Neith of Sais, a.k.a. "the mother of the gods," may have been a creator mother goddess. At Elephantine at the first cataract of the Nile, Khnum, the potter god, is said to have created man by use of a potter's wheel and mud from the Nile.
What is made clear by these myths and others is that dogmatic orthodoxy was of relatively little importance to the Egyptians, and that they were not bound by a strict doctrinal system. Instead, the mystical experience of the divine, and the power of Ma'at to sustain the cosmic and political order, were of far greater importance.
Sources:
Pinch, Geraldine. "Egyptian Mythology."
Redford, Donald B. (Ed.) "The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion."
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:50 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:52 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:55 pm
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The Souls
The ka was the vitality/energy of the person. The ba was the spiritual manifestation, or what we might faultily translate today as soul.
Not everyone was allowed a conscious ka. That was mostly reserved for the Pharaoh and the spiritual elite until the New Kingdom when it became more open to common people. "For the common people, this force was not felt as an emanation of their own personality, but rather was bestowed upon them from an extraneous source. This was the ancestral group that existed in the spirit world as a source of power, at one with the ka energy." (Naydler) Therefore when the people died, their kas merged with the ancestral group. It was not believed that common people's self-consciousness was accentuated but rather diluted by absorption into the ancestral group. This is why offerings to the dead were so important. The ancestral group was considered the custodians of the ka energy and by giving them offerings and prayers they would continue to direct the ka energy toward the world of the living, making it possible for crops to grow, etc. Thus it may be explained as "undifferentiated universal life energy." (Naydler) However, later in Egyptian history when this process became more open to common people, all that was needed to attain this conscious ka is knowledge of the Duat and how to defeat the guardians that dwell there.
The Ancestors
"The ancestors, the custodians of the source of life, were the reservoir of power and vitality, sustenance and growth. Hence they were not only departed souls but still active, the keepers of life and fortune. Whatever happened, whether for good or evil, ultimately derived from them. The sprouting of corn, the increase of the herds, potency in men, success in hunting and war, were all manifestations of their power and approval." (Rundle Clark)
Pharaohs, however, still maintained their self-consciousness when joining with their ka, which enabled him to assimilate it to himself, rather than be assimilated by it. This is where the spiritual double comes in. Because the pharaoh was able to keep his member-based self-consciousness the ka was sometimes pictured following behind the pharaoh as an exact mirror image. For example, the following is a picture of Khnum creating the pharaoh and his ka at the same time.
The hieroglyph for the ba is the jabiru bird, with the human head that looks like that of the deceased whose ba it was. The ba is a spiritual manifestation, whose role it was to go to the heavens. It seems to be an in between state, and its region is the Dwat which belongs to Osiris. "Union with Ra was considered the goal of the celestial ascent of the king in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts." (Naydler) In the Book of the Dead, Ani prays, "O make the Osiris, my ba, divine." The difference between Osiris and Ra is that Osiris cannot renew himself alone, requiring help from Isis and Horus. The akh, then, would have been imbued with the light of Ra, as Ra could self-regenerate (as he does every day he passes over the sky). This self-renewing power is an indicator of its divine state.
Sources:
Naydler, Jeremy. "Temple of the Cosmos."
Rundle Clark, R.T. "Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt."
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:57 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:59 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:01 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:03 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:06 pm
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