My Life with the Netjeru

Image by Simon Matzinger via Pixabay

The weekend is finally here and I’m relaxing in my room, just like billions of other people on the planet, except for one difference. I’m basking in the glow of the presence of ancient Egyptian deities, the netjeru, who have gathered around me in greeting. I’m filled with a sense of wellness and peace. Everything is perfect just as it is.

I get out of bed and present offerings of fruit, cheese and cool water (it’s getting warmer this time of year, down under). I play some relaxation music. The energy builds and in my mind’s eye, I see a golden light. I could perform a more complex ritual, though it’s hardly necessary. The netjeru are here.

Messages and visions begin flitting through my consciousness and I know that if I relax even more, words will start issuing spontaneously from my mouth, channeled words, that are not mine. It’s an odd, but not altogether frightening feeling, when your somatic nervous system begins to function without conscious direction. Some might consider it a mere parlour trick. Of course, I know it’s something more profound than that. I hold off on channeling, preferring to write instead, which is honoured and respected by the deities.

Sound like a fiction story? Think again! This is a typical day in my life with the netjeru. The pesedjet or pantheon of ancient Egyptian deities are part of a living spiritual essence that remains accessible to us today. The story above is an example of what can happen when you access that essence. Everyone’s experiences may be a little different, for we all bring something unique to the table. This is simply my experience and I want to share it with other Kemetic practitioners in the community to encourage everyone to keep spending time with the netjeru, keep building your connections and your personal empowerment and see where you can go with it.

I encountered someone online at a recent Kemetic service who shared that he suffers from aphantasia, a condition that precludes him from visualising mental imagery. Wanting to be helpful, I suggested he focus on the streams of sensory input that are coming through, rather than those that are not. You don’t have to force your mind to see anything in order to meditate, raise your spiritual vibration or experience the divine. It’s the essence behind the experience that matters most and your nervous system is going to interpret that in a variety of ways. We are dealing with unorthodox intel here, you know! There’s no right or wrong way to experience it. Why put yourself down about it? 

All this I wanted to say to the person but you can only say so much in a chat box, during a live service, on someone else’s platform, with multiple things happening at once and not look like you’re trying to steal the show. So I attempted to encourage the person, while remaining respectful and honouring his self-identified condition. Whether or not my comments were indeed helpful, I do not know. It was more important, I think, for his narrative to be validated, not mine. It’s his story! I simply carry on with what I’m doing and if anyone wants to know about the information — the frequency — I broadcast, here it is, baby! My life with the netjeru.

Their spiritual essence fills my life and activates my own spiritual, or soul essence. We’re bouncing off each other and it’s amazing. If we were to analyse the experience, I suspect you could compare it to the Holy Spirit of Christianity. Since the argument exists that so many Christian beliefs can be traced back to ancient Egypt, I’ve wondered if the ancient Egyptians had an experience of this spiritual essence and if so, what did they call it? 

Kneph was originally believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the breath of life and his name meant soul-breath. As a deity, he was depicted as a winged egg and also as a ram. Interestingly enough, the word for ram is ba (yep, the ancients were a punny people, or perhaps they simply honoured animals by the sounds they made with no irony intended). Ba is also same word for the unconscious aspect of our soul. It was the breath of Kneph that gave life to humans and gods alike. Kneph was seen as life-force, an animating creative essence. Besides comparing Kneph to the Holy Spirit, he’s also been compared to the Greek Pneuma or Ayurvedic prana, a concept that is repeated through many cultures around the globe. Later in history, Kneph appears to have been incorporated into the identity of the god Amun. I would speculate that perhaps this deity evolved or so did our understanding of him.

Let me stress, I don’t want to play Egyptologist or philosopher! I’m just a guy who feels things. I work, rest, pay bills and I’m doing my best to stay balanced. At this point in my life with the netjeru, I’m happy just knowing ba from ka.

Is it really necessary to affix a label from antiquity onto our experiences, in order to authenticate ourselves as Kemetic neo-pagans? Or is it okay to say hey, I had this experience. Maybe it really is Kneph, the Egyptian equivalent of the Holy Spirit and maybe not. All I know is, I can feel a sacred, spiritual essence connected to the netjeru and it’s all around me. It’s incredibly uplifting and unwavering in its positivity. That intuitive knowing is enough for me.

From an intuitive point of view, I think it’s important for all of us to be receptive to what we feel and to document these experiences using our own frames of reference. Some of us may be more historically informed and knowledgable than others about how the ancient Egyptians actually did things and that’s great. Again, we all bring something different and of value to the table. But we shouldn’t discount an experience if it doesn’t perfectly match up with what we already know. We can always know more!

It’s the essence behind the experience we’re after. Kemetic spirituality is not and should not be a cerebral experience nor an intellectual exercise. That’s definitely not how the Egyptians did it. I think that’s something we can all agree on!

Having your own Subjective Mystical Experiences (SMEs) is something I continually bang on about and for good reason. Without personal, spiritual interaction you’re only getting second hand information and half the story. All these facts we study about ancient Egyptian religion are very likely to have originated, at some point, from someone else’s SMEs. So why not have some of your own? This is the premise of my life with the netjeru. I’m redefining concepts like myth and belief system. And you can, too! That doesn’t mean we have to re-write history, it just means we’re trusting ourselves as modern Kemetics and trusting our intuitive wisdom, something the ancient Egyptians clearly did.

From this standpoint, I would have to say, it feels as if my devotion to the netjeru is sent out like signal and now I am receiving a reply, which can be felt as their presence, their messages and so forth. Isis has also added that part of what I’m feeling is their love for us. Of course. I knew that! I mean, it’s pretty obvious, right? So this is what a deity’s love feels like.

The conclusion I’ve come to is the essence is all of these things, a current that carries and imbues love and life. It has its own consciousness and wisdom. It speaks, if we listen. It reaches out to us, to everyone and everything; there is nothing beyond its reach. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, it’s here; within and throughout.

If you’ve not yet had these types of experiences, please don’t feel discouraged. Give it time. Besides, I’m a New Age freak from way back! Seriously. I did all sorts of things on the side of light, before settling in with Kemeticism. I would say: meditate. Do body work. Get attuned to spiritual healing and energy healing. Reiki (a system of working with Universal Life Force energy for hands on healing) has a bad rep with many Westerners — get over it! Before Mikao Usui rediscovered this system and Hawayo Takata brought it to the West, there was no widely known or used hands on healing system available to the general public. At least try it before you bag it. There’s also Sekhem or Seichim but I have less experience working with this system, so I cannot comment much further. Try yoga and activate your kundalini (I haven’t tried Kemetic yoga yet). Essentially, work on healing and releasing your issues, trauma, anger and pain. We all have it. Get into the New Age stuff! Stay grounded and increase your spiritual energy and you will consciously experience more of what your soul already knows.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life with the netjeru. I would love to hear about your own thoughts and experiences. Kemeticism is such an awesome path and I enjoy connecting with others who share the same enthusiasm. Thank you for reading Kemetic Blog and as always, stay safe and well. Bye for now!

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