Magic Forums

One of the paths that I follow is Egyptian Paganism. I know several people when they get into magick a lot of them, not all, will look into the Greek and Egyptian culture. This is primarily because it's one of the first cultures they learn about rather it be in or outside of school. Plus they're more common to children.

This path is also considered Kemetism in today's modern times. Egyptian Paganism focuses on the practices of ancient Egypt and what the main beliefs use to be. My best guess is that in today's world these beliefs are not as common with in the country do to the number of religions that have spread from Europe, the Middle East, and some parts of Asia. In the Kemetic path they also follow a good number of Egyptian mythology. I've seen several people in the path call them by their Egyptian name whether than their common names people mainly know them as. An example of this: The main goddess I work with is Aset and most modern day people call her Isis. Though it is not her only name. She can be consider a big part of the Kemetic culture, but she is not the only one. A lot of the gods that are within this path are very common ones like Ra, Wesir (Osiris), Horus, Bast, Set, and more. Some believe the gods are very understanding as well, but in cases with a god like Set if you say something bad about him intentionally something bad might happen to you. I've once had that experience where I wanted to test it and spiders would not leave me alone. It was like one spider pops up and then I turn around there was another one. I eat a few hours later and I see one crawling down right next to me. That was one crazy experience. However, it is common to see spiders where I live, but it's not usually like this situation. However, more spiders are moving up North because of snakes in the South. I do believe these gods might try to use natural occupancies for their own will sometimes too.

A lot of the beliefs within the creation of the universe is different in some form or another. I don't focus on the Egyptian belief of creation myself, but according to something I read it is most likely people who follow the path today might have a scientific view of it. With the creation story we probably know the most common one but I won't explain it here. If you are interested you can look it up on YouTube. It isn't very long so you should be fine. It is said that the big Netjer is thought as the creator as well. A little Netjer is basically any god.

The Kemtic/Egyptian path also believes in a balance like several other paths as well. It's part of some basic understandings of the path itself. Others include things like Neteru as well. If you didn't know, Neteru can have several meanings. Some include spirits and others may include guardians as well. The main meaning I have read is that it means deities. Each god in the Kemetic path has their on personalty as well. They have different jobs yet they will share them as well. These things have no complete meaning to them because some believe they can thousands of names too. There are other groups within the path as well as some outside it that work with neopagan stuff as well. Another basic principle would be that we all have our own interactions with the universe. You should get closer with the gods you follow as well. Understand them more. Get closer to them by yourself. The path can also be complicated as you first look into it also and can be hard to explain so it is best for you to look into it yourself sometimes.

There are also certain items used in this path, but I won't discuss them here because if you know some common ones like an Ankh then you should be able to find the rest and can go into farther understanding and different opinions about them as well.

Yes, several people do believe in an afterlife but not all. They believe in a Duat which is the underworld. There are several test you follow after you die. To my best knowledge, there are muliple beliefs about the afterlife and getting into to it. A common one includes The Weight of the Heart which is to decide if the person is basically worthy or not. If they succeed in the test become Akhu (a blessed ancestor) and will live in the Duat can come in contact with humans on Earth as well. Someone who flees the test will become a Muet (an angry dead person that terrorizes people). An interesting topic in the Kemetic Orthodoxy is that we have divine parents that actually created our ba (our eternal soul) and beloved ones which created our ka (kind if like us having a life in the afterlife and we need food to survive in it). It is believed we have one parent, but we can have up to two and gender does not matter. This means we can have like two moms or two dads. We sometimes have suspicions of who our parents are, but we don't know until we die. The Rite of Parent Divination is just a ritual for members with in the Kemetic Orthodoxy who wish to find out, but it is not fully determine and just gives possibilities. Hence the word "divination". Several people disagree with this type of practice though. They believe it gets rid of the purpose of someone's experience. What is said that people don't know is that many know who their parents are before the rite takes place. In the modern day some Kemetics actually believe in reincarnation until all lessons are learned or it is just continuous. It is believe if someone is not mummified that their soul will stay alive so people need a picture or family memories.

There is more to this but this is a brief summary of some topics of the Egyptian path from my knowledge and my research as well. Google is your friend, but don't always trust the internet. If you have any other useful information, opinions based on your belief, and more please do reply. I'm sure people would like to learn.

Sources and other helpful links:

http://www.wepwawet.org/wiki/index.php?title=Rite_of_Parent_Divination

http://pagan.wikia.com/wiki/Egyptian_Paganism

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/pagantraditions/p/EgyptianPagan.htm

http://www.sekhmetspride.com/tamera/netjeru.html