Post by Mysti on Jul 6, 2007 7:09:08 GMT -5
The culture of ancient Egypt was profoundly religious, but it was not religious in the sense by whice we understand it in our secular society today. One of the names for the country itself was ta neteru, "land of the gods", reflecting the fact that religion in ancient Egypt was all-pervasive to the extent that they did not even have a word for it. Religion and spirituality was intrinsic to absolutely everthing that the ancient Egyptians did. Since a word has a meaning only if it may be applied to some things to distinguish them from others, a word which applies to absolutely everthing could have no use. So, fo the ancient Egyptians, it was taken for granted that everything was of spiritual and relitious significance. The gods were everywhere, in everything, influencing everything. For the Egyptians, too, spirituality and religion were totally inseparable from magic, and for this they did have a word, and the word was heka. Heka is a spiritual force within the univers, but also a god in its own right, or, to use the Egyptian word, it was a neter--a divine principle.
Egyptian religion was above all a Pagan religion--it was a religion of nature. Nowadays there is a tendency to think of Paganism as a rustic tradition of old folk customs handed down by word of mouth, largely because this is the form in which remnants of it have survived. In the Pagan revival which is taking place in Britain and the USA today, the predominance of Wicca or witchcraft tends to confirm this view. We should not forget, however, that ancient Rome, with its urbanized culture of centrally-heated housing and public baths, was as much a Pagan civilization as was ancient Greece, with its more pastoral, idyllic image. North European Shamanism is no more Pagan just because it has rustic charm then is the religion of ancient Egypt practised with great ceremony by state officials in magnificent temples, the building of which is a feat that in some cases still defies modern engineering techniques. Some commentators, extolling the sophistication and subtlety of certain aspects of ancient Egyptian religion is Pagan through and through; but this does not mena that it is necessarily either crude or rustic, for any such view of Paganism is a misconception.
Because of the allure of Egypt, many modern Pagans are now turning there for spiritual focus, reviving the worship of the ancient deities-- the neteru, the divine principles manifesting in nature. What they find, if they know how to enter the Inner Planes (or the Neterkhert, as the Egyptians called this psychic-spiritual realm) are not weird, alien, unapproachable entities, but vibrant, living beings, the archetype of the collective unconscious, to use a Jungian term. For yes, it is true: the neteru are alive today--they are living in our very souls, they are part of our innermost being, and they can even today be our intimate companions, if we only know how to reach them.
The Book of Egyptian Ritual Jocelyn Almond and Keith Seddon
Egyptian religion was above all a Pagan religion--it was a religion of nature. Nowadays there is a tendency to think of Paganism as a rustic tradition of old folk customs handed down by word of mouth, largely because this is the form in which remnants of it have survived. In the Pagan revival which is taking place in Britain and the USA today, the predominance of Wicca or witchcraft tends to confirm this view. We should not forget, however, that ancient Rome, with its urbanized culture of centrally-heated housing and public baths, was as much a Pagan civilization as was ancient Greece, with its more pastoral, idyllic image. North European Shamanism is no more Pagan just because it has rustic charm then is the religion of ancient Egypt practised with great ceremony by state officials in magnificent temples, the building of which is a feat that in some cases still defies modern engineering techniques. Some commentators, extolling the sophistication and subtlety of certain aspects of ancient Egyptian religion is Pagan through and through; but this does not mena that it is necessarily either crude or rustic, for any such view of Paganism is a misconception.
Because of the allure of Egypt, many modern Pagans are now turning there for spiritual focus, reviving the worship of the ancient deities-- the neteru, the divine principles manifesting in nature. What they find, if they know how to enter the Inner Planes (or the Neterkhert, as the Egyptians called this psychic-spiritual realm) are not weird, alien, unapproachable entities, but vibrant, living beings, the archetype of the collective unconscious, to use a Jungian term. For yes, it is true: the neteru are alive today--they are living in our very souls, they are part of our innermost being, and they can even today be our intimate companions, if we only know how to reach them.
The Book of Egyptian Ritual Jocelyn Almond and Keith Seddon