Kemetic Rituals

House Of Life
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What kind of Kemetic Rituals do you like to do? This can be daily, weekly or occasionally.

I have a daily ritual I’ve started doing. I do a quick morning prayer at my new shrine, burn something aromatic and read over the 42 principles of Ma’at.

Because I’m currently working from home, I tend to have another chat with deities/a moment of silence in the afternoon.

Whether I’ll be able to do that when I’m back to the office is another question. Will wait and see. Might have to switch things up a bit.

I haven’t yet done any ‘bigger’ rituals/devotionals.

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Ah routine is key. Before all of this kicked off I would do a daily call to Ra on the way to work as the road out of town would point directly at the sun much of the year so it was handy. Now I’m not seeing the sun until a good hour or so later because of the valley and in the wrong direction.

I have around 40 other festival dates through the year, most of which involve a quick water offering. Only the bigger ones like my first Wep Ron Pet for summer solstice (my second one falls when most of others do theirs in August-September) lasts around 10 days as there are a couple of other festivals following shortly after. It all becomes a bit of a mush.

I have a couple of 10 day festivals through the year too and they can be a little more intense and like the Wep Ron Pets I will often do food and water offerings along with much incense, magical working and serious chats with my deities.

I try to make sure daily life has some kind of small ritual or observance to make me feel connected, and while I don’t do my call to Ra daily at the moment, the room I’m working from home in is my temple space so I’m surrounded by my deities and will often chat to them through the day.

It does mean that I don’t quite feel the room is as pure now for ritual as it should be because I’m here working and taking up valuable floor space. That feeling may be connected with that from mid March to summer solstice I don’t really have many festival dates so it feels a bit of a void. Hopefully in the next week that will change when I make a go of things.

Keep it up. As long as you are talking to them they are happy. Most ancient Egyptian didn’t have access to temples and maybe just had a small shrine at home to any deities which they had to keep while they went about daily life.

Kev

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Thanks Kev. It’s nice to hear about your daily routines. It seems that festivals are a good thing to look into. :slightly_smiling_face:

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A word of warning about festivals. Most of the festival dates you will pick up will be collated from a number of sources. Some agree some don’t. Also the calendar system can get a little confusing since some will work translate to the Gregorian calendar or the Julian calendar which have a difference of 13 days I think.

If you go with a selection of festival dates then don’t be surprised if you are out of sync with anyone else. I know I am. You can only do what you can. Something is better than nothing :slight_smile:

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Yeah I imagine the important thing is that you’re celebrating your deities on a special day whenever that is!

I’ve found the festival of Wag and Thoth 19th August apparently. Around the AE new year? I’ve been feeling that Djehuty and Seshat are very much wanting to work with me in an ongoing fashion. Other deities have been there but tend to help then go, then come back again in small bursts.

Not quite sure what I want to do to honour the festival of Thoth, but will see! I’m sure something will come to mind.

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How about ‘The opening of the Mouth’ for statues/images of the deities? Anyone tend to do this and if so, in what way?

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Yes I do that as part of most rituals. I have use either a knife or my adaze I made and hold it to their mouth and just say ‘I open your mouth so that you may breathe’. I might also, depending on what role they are taking in the ritual: Hold it to their ears ‘I open your ears so that you may hear my words’, hold it to the heart ‘I open your heart so you may grant me wisdom’. I think you should get my drift :slight_smile:

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Cool :slightly_smiling_face:.

I don’t currently do this because I have Hieroglyphics in my shine. I’ve just done Sehsat’s name in Hieroglyphics and I have that painting I did with the eye of Djehuty.

I like the sound of it the opening of the mouth though. It sounds like it adds to the feeling of connection with the deities. Yours sounds simple and effective.

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Yes I like to keep things simple as I don’t have much patience :slight_smile: As part of the Oxford Uni online course I did, we did piece together the full ritual from various sources which as far as I can recall was like 30 different passages. Fair enough if you are sending someone on their way to the afterlife, but to reanimation of a statue perhaps a little over the top :slight_smile:

The process does help I find. I tend not to dress my statues as I have so many and being mostly modern composite materials i don’t like to dab them with oils in case of damage. My shrines too don’t close so either. Then again, all this would be in temple practice and while I have a sacred space in a room set aside I don’t consider it a full temple. I doubt extreme practices such as in the temples would have been practiced in the home. So for me, a sprinkle of water and the opening of the mouth fully re-draws the deity into a cleansed space.

Each to their own of course.

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Thanks I found that insight helpful. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’ve never opened my statues as I just don’t have the time to give an open statue the care and attention they require.

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What rituals do you find helpful @Senneferet?

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I’ve never really been one for elaborate ritual as I tend to feel a little silly. I usually just make a nice cup of tea (usually ginger and lemon) in my offering cup, light some sandalwood incense, and read some prayers before an informal chat. I think it’s also a time/energy thing as I have chronic fatigue and a 15 month old to look after! :smile:

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That is all reasonable to be honest. Ritual does not need to be 3hrs of guff. It is whatever you need it to be. And of course tea is a darn good option. There is a Zen saying that goes:

Everything has a duality
Night, day
Good, evil
Hot, cold
But to find divine oneness, there is only tea.

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That sounds good Senneferet. Sounds similar to current method.

And considering your circumstances, sounds about right!

I’m interested in learning more about AE rituals, but that will take time.

Haha Kev.

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Hey @kev,

I’m reading ‘Eternal Egypt’ by Richard J Reidy. I’ve read some of the section about the ‘Opening of the mouth ceremony’ and about other rituals.

He seems to say that when the ‘opening of the Mouth’ has been done, a person needs to upkeep ritual in a particular fashion each day. I know that is only his take on it. Out of interest, do you have the same view/particular daily ritual you undertake after the ceremony has been done?

Richard also talks about what objects to have during all ceremonies at an alter/shrine. Seems like a lot! Although he does admit that a ‘lay person’ who does not do the ‘opening of the mouth’ doesn’t need as much as that. I am aware that he headed up some temples, so he’s coming from that perspective. What is your take on what you feel you need for a regular ceremony?

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Great questions again :slight_smile: After all this time I do forget some of the basics.

The real question should be are we operating as a household practice or as temples did? Both were quite separate in approach. Temples had dedicated staff who only did this day in day out for a few months of the year before rotation. For us modern Kemetics we get to choose to do either or a bit of both.

My personal practice tends to be that for daily use, i.e. saying hi to my deities every day, I just do it and move on with no special fanfare. For the more important festivals or specific rituals where I want a deeper connection or petition to them, then I go a bit further; purification rites, careful of what I eat and do either side of the event. Such times are times of reverence and extraction from the the every day world into that ‘other-world’ where I need to pay more attention to what the deities are doing and saying.

Its perhaps not authentic to ancient Egypt but this is a reconstructionist path and therefore we do need to make some compromises to fit with work and family life.

Many who find their way into Kemetism from other pagan/spritual paths tend to bring baggage. That can be both good and bad. Ritual is about symbolism to attain a specific mindset, and in particular group ritual (where many of these come from) tools are important to provide a focus and reminder of where everyone should be. Now, as far as this goes with Kemetic practice, some will bring such practices in and I’m guilty of that from time to time.

The bonus being that with Kemetic practice we tend to be solitary and it is our own mind that needs to get where it needs to get to. In that case if you need tools then use them.

I’ve been using an ‘Opening Of The Mouth’ perhaps for over 25 years now and in that time I’ve used my finger, kitchen knives, daggers, penknives and some years ago I made a specific tool for it. All of which worked perfectly well for me to perform said ritual. Keep in mind this is all a combination of thought and action that reinforces them both.

I don’t like to have lots of things to juggle, that is a personal thing as for me it detracts from the symbolism I can form in my head. Others are different and need it. If we don’t have precisely what we need then it is perfectly OK to improvise with replacement, picture (remember many tombs had images of food etc for the after life rather than physical food), even just skip it.

What I’m perhaps saying is not having a specific tool should not stop you doing anything. Yes some rituals do require specific things and we may feel bad because we don’t have them, so find another way.

OK that was a long one. :slight_smile: sorry, you did ask!

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Oh and I should add. That is my own opinion and anyone else’s is of equal value or more. There is more than one way to do things :slight_smile:

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I absolutely love this I’m honored to be able to chime in I’m curious about your shrine I thought it was called a alter please give me ideas I want to build myself one please

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Hi.

The difference between an altar and a shrine is that the altar is like a work bench. It is used for the ritual in question, a place to put offerings, tools and whatever you are doing at the time. A shrine really tends to contain the statue of a deity. Its a house for that statue. The statue can be worked with within it’s shrine, or taken out, depends on how much room it has.

As far as building one. My shrine’s consist of a DVD book case as that has generally the height of the statues covered. I may then take them out for ritual work to place on an altar which is a small table.

How you build any of these is down to what room you have. There are no hard and fast rules for either, personal preference and what you feel you want to put on or in them is down to you. You won’t be wrong with just a leaf, or a stone or a picture al heaps of crystals and statues.