#ancient kemet

[holycosmolo9y]

A kooky fly-shaped clay vessel (15th Dynasty)

With its realistic representation of a fly, it includes large eyes, wings, and legs that resemble hands

[useless-denmarkfacts]

Fun fact: Unlike most other ancient pantheons, the Nordic Gods have exactly zero instances of direct familial incest

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

Prayer to Ma’at

Notes: This is an example of the translation services I am offering! It’s quite a long bit of text but I thought it was worth sharing. There is immense trouble with trying to get Tumblr to type out hieroglyphs––at least there is on my computer––so screenshots of my translations will have to do. You are free to use this in any way (respectfully, of course) but please credit me if you do.

[ascendingaeons]

Hymn to Sekhmet

by Joey Rivers (ascendingaeons)

O Sekhmet, Great Eye of Ra, the First and the Last Healer and Destroyer, Mother and Daughter You Who accepted the Command of Ra, Your Father To cleanse the Two Lands of Isfet But Your nature was too mighty, Great of Strength as You Are Wanton and unrestrained, You ravaged Earth as a purifying flame And as Ra looked on and saw His Eye, He was stricken with pause By the Will of the Sun, Your Rage was quieted by a crimson brew And into transformative slumber You fell, Great Goddess And from Your great Rage, Het-Heru rose A new Eye was christened, of eros sublime And you, Great Mother, knew the sadness of regret

You, Great Goddess, know the measure of rage unbound And so You Stand, Great Mother of War, in defense and duty Of the Principles and Consequences of Ma’at Your Children are many, Great Lady of Life Diverse in their multitudes, empowered by their tribulation

Yours is the soldier, Your Mighty Sekhem made flesh and bone Entrenched in a maelstrom of fire and blood Returning home to a nation that does not understand him

Yours is the survivor, a living branch of Your burning Will triumphant Endeavoring to rise above the quagmire of loss and agony Through You their struggle is transmuted into the golden light of ka ascendant

Yours is the mother, she who knows sacrifice and sleepless nights A font unyielding of love and pride, of smiles and laughter perfected They who bear the weight of the world so a child can know childhood

Yours is the healer, an alchemist of the ontological persuasion He who is humbled by the frailty beholden to human experience He who ushers Your Sekhem through the riptide of transformative loss

Yours is the artist, through whose passions course Your Divine Fire Who walks the scales of inspiration and madness, knowing Creation unfiltered An alchemist versed in the milieus of perception

For You, Great Goddess, are the very Force of Change You are that which makes men tremble so Such an unnecessary fear, of wisdom and experience untouched Were I You, I would feel such sadness But how You smile, Great One! How You laugh! How You fight! You are not “she who cowers before Apep!” NO! You are the Great Lioness Who rends Chaos asunder! You fight and rage and bite and tear Passion and emotion alive and unrestrained!

You are Love, Great Goddess You are Fear, Great Goddess You are Devotion, Great Goddess You are Loss, Great Goddess You are Health, Great Goddess You are Sickness, Great Goddess This is why I call You the Mother of Life Your Ka is the very essence of experience! Your Sekhem is the very wind of change!

When I first called upon You, timid and unsure, I beheld Your Gaze, a window of fire open before my face And as quickly as You Saw me, You left And again when I called to You with offering of water and bread Exhausted by grief and devotion, tirelessly sung from a caregiver’s heart You came to me and my eyes were opened to You! As I lay without sleep, You stood at my bedside Stroking my back with strong hands of fire Whispering strength and courage into my ear As a sentinel You walked with me, a Mother Lioness guarding Her cub Such loyalty and tenderness You showed And my eyes were forever opened to Your nature

You are the very Force of Creation, the Monad of Being From which stems those primordial principalities Love and Fear, Physis and Logos, Known and Unknown Order and Disorder, Life and Death, Dynamism and Stasis

I offer henu to You, Great Goddess of Creation The endless potentiality and movement of the living cosmos The Fires Divine that Become living sinews and living earth

I offer henu to Your Husband Ptah, the Cosmic Smith Patron of artisans, of those who tirelessly toil In the pursuit of Bringing Into Being but a shard of the Sacred Unmanifest

I offer henu to Your Son, the Beautiful Nefertem The Ageless Lotus that rose from the Benben Stone The First Splendid Light to Shine in the churning Waters of Nun

It was You Who held my right hand as I accepted the mark of a healer And embraced me as a Mother would Her graduating son I offer You my pain, Great Goddess So that You may transmute it into Strength I offer You my fear, Great Goddess So that You may transmute it into Courage I offer You my uncertainty, Great Goddess So that You may transmute it into Wisdom

Into Your Belly I give of myself to unleash my greatest potential To burst from Your Bosom, shining and emboldened For there is nothing that is beyond Your Reach, Great Mother It is for me, now, to See that nothing is beyond my own

Dua Sekhmet! Dua Sekhmet! Dua Sekhmet!

[kemetic-dreams]

[servantofthegodss]

Dua Heru-sa-Aset 🙏

Praise Horus, Son of Aset

Praise Horus in the Horizon

Praise the Divine Falcon

Praise He Whose form and Whose appearance are not perceived

[artemisyates]

Khonsu, the moon and protector of travellers at night.

Painted with acrylics.

[thesirenisles]

🥀 Queen Mother of Vampires:

Akasha of Egypt

“I’d thought I knew what beauty was in women; but she’d surpassed all the language I had for it.”

-Lestat

The goddess, Aaliyah Haughton as the Kemetic (presently known as Egyptian) Queen, “Akasha” in the film “Queen of the Damned.” (2002)

[sandsunandseajourney]

One thing I absolutely adore is our creation story. In the beginning, there were only the primordial waters. There existed nothing, but in that nothingness, a potential for everything. And from that nothingness, Ptah became. He rose into existence and brought forth other Netjeru, eventually leading to humanity and our world as we know it.

One of the most popular and well accepted theories about how the universe came to be begins with a nothingness, and then from that nothingness, life came forth after the biggest event in all of space and time to ever exist.

I find this story so beautiful because it was one of the things that first drew me to Kemetism. I grew up hearing of a God that had no beginning and no end, one who the universe had never existed without. Which is fine, and I support anyone who believes that, but personally, I struggled with it. I thought about what the most scientifically accepted theories were, and I had a hard time combining the two.

In Kemetism, I find so many similarities between our creation story, and science. Our ideas of nothingness, and then that life was created after a huge, inconceivable event, are similar. Obviously they are not exactly the same, but I find so much reassurance in it.

I am not saying Kemetism can be proven through our current scientific knowledge. I have no one thing I would point to for an outsider looking in, that would make me say, "This. This is absolute proof." Because I don't believe we have any. But I do find so much comfort seeing the ways my spirituality and scientific knowledge can coexist.

[sinfullydivination]

Clothing Rituals

This type of ritual was performed daily, monthly, for special occasions, or it was done annually for the New Year in Ancient Egypt- this largely depended on the temple and the time period. They have been attested dating back to the Old Kingdom and lasted until Ptolemaic times. From the Abusir papyrus that was found in royal funerary temples- specifically from pharaohs Neferirkare and Raneferef, we can see that these rituals were done monthly; however, the deity of the temple was the deceased king. In later times, this ritual was performed daily for the main gods in the temple. What we do know from this type of ritual is best explained in pBerlin 3014, pBerlin 3053 and pBerlin 3055 (which is dated to the 22nd dynasty), along with the temple of Seti I in Abydos and Ptolemaic temples.

In the morning, the ba was reawoken for the god by unveiling them from the night before. You would say your admiration of the god with a prayer or hymn before washing off the mD.t unguent and undressing it from the mnH.t cloth. The mD.t unguent and the mnH.t cloth is speculated to help with regeneration and renewal. The mnH.t cloth was commonly “depicted as one or two stripes of cloth folded in half and often referred to as four-coloured cloths- white, green, red and blue (or dark-red). Each of these colours had its own symbolic meaning connected with protection, health, fertility, regeneration and renewal” (The Clothing Rite, 66). Next, the statue was then purified with natron and incense (perhaps myrrh, frankincense, or palmonia resin) before it was redressed in clean mnH.t cloth. The mD.t unguent was reapplied to the statue, along with green and black paints. Next, formal clothing was adorned to the statue, along with jewelry and pectorals before, lastly, the final purification and fumigation took place.

How can you implement this into your practice?

Based off of the steps known from ancient practices in temples of Egypt, it is possible to do a daily rite with this, if you choose, or on days when you want to go to your own shrine.

First, find a place for your statues so they won’t get damaged. Find a good piece of cloth, preferably linen to conceal the statues when they’re not at the forefront of your practice. When they’re not in the forefront of your practice veil the statue.

Unveil the deity’s statue.

Next, invoke the deity along with saying or singing a prayer/hymn.

Third, use natron to help purify and light some incense. You could use something universal like myrrh and frankincense or your could use UPG and choose the one you think they would like best.

Fourth, dress the deity in some new cloth and annoint the statue. I cannot find anything about mD.t ungunet at this time but you could use something that you’ve dedicated to just them- whether you make your own oil or purchase it.

Fifth, add on the regelia and jewelry. While this step isn’t always possible for everybody, I will add it. You could get Barbie jewelry to add or you could make your own to size. You could repaint on the makeup if you choose, as well.

Lastly, the final purification and fumigation. Relight your incense. This one should be more specific to cleansing.

Sources:

Coppens, Filip. Vymazalová, Hana. “Linen for the God: The Interpretation of Old Kingdom Clothing Rites in the Light of First Millennium BC Rituals (and vice versa).” 2016. https://academia.edu/resource/work/37212908

Coppens, Filip. Vymazalová, Hana. “The Clothing Rite in the Royal Temples of Abusir.” 2009. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291332482_The_clothing_rite_in_the_temples_of_Abusir

Sharpe, Samual. “The Rosetta Stone in Hieroglyphics and Greek Translations. 1807. https://www.ganino.com/anteanus/scripturam_aegyptium_rosetta_stone

[holycosmolo9y]

An Egyptian rock crystal of a chonky hinpopotamus amulet

(Middle Kingdom, ca. 2050-1650 BCE)

Amulets were worn by ancient Egyptians for their protective and regenative properties. Used in both in daily life and during funerary rites, amulets represented animals, deities, symbols or objects thought to possess the magical powers of warding off evil spirits.

As animals were popular representations, the hippopotamus was known for its apotropaic (e.g. ability to avert bad luck) qualities and was associated with rebirth.

[devontheart]

Sun God Ra

[ktempestbradford]

Proof that "Remember the Time" is still the most accurate movie set in Ancient Egypt made in the past 30 years.

[akonoadham]

Dear Hoteps,

When y’all taught us the original name of Africa was Alkebulan. You conveniently left out the fact that Alkebulan means the Garden of Eden.

I wonder why? 🥱🤔

[kemetic-dreams]

Almaqah or Almuqh was the Moon god of the ancient Yemeni kingdom of Saba'. He was also worshipped in Dʿmt and Aksum in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Almaqah is considered a moon god, but Garbini and Pirenne have shown that the bull's head and the vine motif associated with him may have solar and dionysiac attributes. He was therefore a priest of Ra, the male counterpart of the sun goddess Shamash / Ishtar / Isis, who was also venerated in Saba, but as a tutelary goddess of the royal Egyptian dynasty

The ruling dynasty of Saba' regarded themselves as his seed.Almaqah is represented on monuments by a cluster of lightning bolts surrounding a curved, sickle-like weapon. Bulls were sacred to him.

Ethiopia is dedicated to the lunar God Almaqah, and contains an altar which represents a miniature model of the Great Temple in Yeha.

[servantofthegodss]

Dua Yinepu, Khenty-Amentiu 🙏

Praise Anubis, Foremost of the Westerners

⚰️⚱️

Praise He Who Is upon His Mountain

Praise The Lord of the Sacred

Praise He Who Is in the Place of Embalming