The Almost Deal-breaker in Kemetic Neo-paganism

 

Originally, there wasn’t an almost in this post. There was only a big, fat deal-breaker. Let’s just say, the almost deal-breaker in Kemetic neo-paganism really got under my skin a couple months ago, and I nearly called it quits. But I’m back now and it’s all good — I think. (I have a lot going on: two prac placement this semester, so seven weeks of placement back to back. I’m on leave at half-pay from work to get it done, plus I’m squeezing in a quick holiday to Mt Buller near Melbourne before uni starts, so my husband can see snow for the first time. Most people worry about having a work-life balance, but spiritual people also have to factor in a balanced spiritual life, i.e., caring for and maintaining your energy. Where’s the allowance for that? There isn’t one. If you want to achieve balance, you have to maintain it yourself). Alas, I digress.

In a reply to a comment on Safe Pagans, I admitted to readers that I had begun to consider other spiritual paths to pursue besides Kemeticism. In this post, I will highlight what the almost deal-breaker was for me, in the hopes of forewarning and forearming other Kemetic neo-pagans, who are bound to encounter similar challenges.

First, let me just say, the ancient Egyptian deities constitute a pantheon par excellence; a tour de force who, in my perception of reality, work tirelessly and often anonymously to assist humanity in achieving Ma’at (or simply, to do good in the world and evolve). The deities themselves are not the almost deal-breaker here. They are deserving of perpetual offerings and accolades. Dua, netjeru!

The almost deal-breaker were some (but not all) of the people I encountered on the Kemetic path and more specifically, how these people treat others. The problem is so significant that it sometimes affects my ability to navigate forward on a Kemetic pathway. Often, I’m not getting the sense of community I need from Kemeticism. I’m a co-operative person — not a combative person nor a competitive person — and while I’m a solitary practitioner, like so many others, I still need to connect with the outside world via community. Without a sense of community, I don’t think we can grow in the directions we need, in order to thrive.

For a while, I thought this path would be fine with just myself and the netjeru. I’ve had numerous Subjective Mystical Experiences and Encounters on my Kemetic journey, and I advocate for others to do the same. Yet as life changing as those experiences have been, the gods are up there and we’re down here. Humans need each other just as much as we need the netjeru. I don’t think everyone gets that and it’s sad.

Kemetics are already scant in numbers. Most of us are scattered throughout the globe. Many subscribe to specialised ideologies and have become vehemently opposed to other Kemetics who don’t follow the exact same code. That’s not even getting into the racial divisions and ancestral claims that are often a cause of friction for Afrocentrists, who I’ve voiced support for in the past.

Another almost deal-breaker: Kemetic practice, in my opinion, is too highly influenced by academics, who have their own agendas and usually, those agendas are not taking present-day pagans into consideration. Why on Earth would they? We’re illegitimate heretics, with no place in Egyptological society. That knowledge — I believe — sparks conflict among Kemetics who compete over whose version of ancient Egyptian religion is the most accurate, the most correct, the most legit among the illegitimate in the hopes that one day, they will be embraced by society and become valued, respected and consulted.

As a result of the above conundrum, Kemetics tend to over-emphasise a strict following of what remnants of historical evidence we have, with little regard to spontaneity, creativity or intuition. Kemeticism then becomes a cerebral task of “doing it the right way” rather than a spiritual experience of being at one with deity and each other.

 

My religion is a two-way conversation between humanity and the divine. And I would rather burn than shut myself down simply to make other people more comfortable.

 

This, I feel, is the current Kemetic climate. Sometimes it fuels my defiance, other times my departure. I teeter somewhere in between. My new coping strategy is to kill ’em with kindness or to simply ignore them altogether, probably the latter, because I’m feeling rather compassion-fatigued when it comes to dealing with a–holes, to be honest.

I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me on the bum — if it does, so be it — I have to deal with enough personality disorders in my work but when it comes to my own personal life (and especially my spiritual life), I have to draw the line. I have to have boundaries and have my own space that’s about me and my path, for my own sanity. That means, I don’t care if you don’t like what I’m doing, or if you disagree with how I’m doing it. That sounds like a ‘you’ problem, Snowflake! Not a ‘me’ problem. Suck it up, Buttercup!

Oh, my gods that was liberating! And to think I allowed it to become an almost deal-breaker! In the future, I want to get more organised, reach out and connect and form a group of non-toxic, non-extremist, safe Kemetics who are doing what they’re doing for the right reasons, which would be, of course for the netjeru and for each other. If I do anything like that, it will have to be after my degree. If anyone is doing that now — forming a non-judgemental, non-toxic, open-minded and open-hearted Kemetic group, I would love to hear about it.

 

 

:: Acknowledgement of African Origin The author of Kemetic Blog acknowledges and respects the African ancestral origins of ancient Egypt, and recognises the practice of Kemetic paganism as a modern reflection of Traditional African Religion. ::

 

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