TWH – Many contemporary Pagans who venerate ancient Egyptian traditions call themselves Kemetics, a term that means ancient Egypt of classical and late antiquity, the ancient Egyptian language, and the practices of that ancient culture. The Wild Hunt spoke with Holli Emore, MDiv., a practitioner of Kemetism and the Executive Director of Cherry Hill Seminary to help us better understand the practice and current issues in bringing ancient cultural and religious practices into the present.
Emore follows the practices of the Temple Osireion. Occasionally, she teaches “short courses in Egyptian spirituality for Cherry Hill Seminary.” Emore focused on two issues. First, she shared how she integrates ancient Egyptian practice into her practice. Second, Emore discussed ethical issues in Egyptian archaeology.
Holli Emore, MDiv.
Emore said, “We are fortunate to have the legacy of ancient rituals, prayers, songs, and more, thanks to the dry, moderate climate of Egypt.”
While drawing on known ancient rituals, she and other Kemetics adapt them to meet today’s needs. For example, she does “not keep my nTrw figures (pronounced netjeru, plural word for god) locked in a cabinet all night.” [Note: the Ancient Egyptian language uses vowels in speaking but not in writing.]
Nor does she go through the full traditional offering and prayer sequences. Those practices could take an hour or two, twice daily.
Emore feels that “We should study all that we can, then do our best to synthesize out a contemporary practice. This has taken me many years of experimentation, and the process is ongoing. I believe my nTrw are best served by my honoring the past as well as reinvigorating it with fresh approaches.”
Mummification
Most people today have heard of only one ancient Egyptian ritual, mummification. Emore said that she has “no interest in mummification.” Nor is she aware of other Kemetics having that interest. She continued, “Most Kemetics do not arrive at their spirituality through an interest in funerary practices.”
From Hunefer’s Book of the Dead illustrating the “Opening of the Mouth” ritual – Image credit: Hunefer – British Museum – Public Domain
Still, Emore has studied the ancient Egyptian mummification ritual. That ritual helps explain key concepts in ancient Egyptian belief. Priests would spend 70 days preserving the body. After that, they would recite extensive prayers and invocations while wrapping the mummy. During that wrapping, they would place magical objects among the wrappings. On the day of interment, a priest would conduct the “opening of the mouth” ceremony.
Emore said that ceremony reflected a couple of key concepts of Egyptian belief. First, life depends on breath. Second, in the afterlife, the soul has to say specific prayers and spells. The soul would find those prayers and in in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead. Internment would follow.
Egyptians were obsessed with life rather than death
Emore believes that Egyptian funerary practices focused on life rather than death. She finds interesting the amount of energy that Egyptians put into preserving the body. They wrote magic spells on some of the mummy’s wrappings. They inserted amulets into those wrappings at key places. The ancient Egyptians spoke and acted as if the deceased would come back to life and live on.
Relief showing a harvesting scene, Old Kingdom, 5th dynasty (2400 BC) – Image credit: Wolfgang Sauber – CC BY-SA 4.0
The priests would place offerings in front of the false door in the tomb chapel No one would describe that as a “secure location.” Local animals could and did eat those food offerings, as did living humans.
The deceased would have an afterlife, but not in this physical sphere. To Emore, this shows that the ancient Egyptians understood the universe as having many worlds, or planes of existence. As a physical object, the offering could nourish other physical beings. As a spiritual presence, it would aid the deceased in their spiritual form.
Emore stated, “The reality is that they were obsessed with life.”
After death, they expected it to continue in another form. Emore continued, “they did everything they could to maintain continuity. Some of the happiest and heartwarming memories are preserved in tomb paintings and artifacts.”
They depicted affection between family members and devotion to the nTrw. They also showed many daily activities such as birding, fishing, sailing the Nile, attending parties, as well as making bread and beer.
It’s really easy to find bad information. Consequently, Emore stays close to the surviving texts and original sources. For ten years, she has studied how to read hieroglyphics. As a result, she can translate some of the original material.
Emore’s studies have caused her to get to know a few Egyptologists. To her delight, she has learned “that some Egyptologists actually consider themselves Kemetic.” Privately, they honor the old gods and ways.
Archaeology and Ethics
However fascinating archaeology may be, ethical issues and problems permeate this field. Contemporary Pagans, dependent on ancient traditions, should be aware of these ethical issues.
Wall painting in the tomb of Horemheb Luxor, Egypt – Image credit – Chris Spencer (1997) – CC BY-SA 4.0
Archaeologists, excavators, and museums should treat remains, human and material, with respect and dignity. Those qualities separate them from tomb robbers. In the 18th, 19th, and even into the 20th Century, some Egyptologists failed to do so.
Emore continued, “Some good researcher-excavators began in the late 1800s to develop far better practices.”
These better practices include control of the export of excavated material and the ways to display those excavated materials.
Dignity and respect extend not only to material remains but also to Egypt’s cultural patrimony. It is not a commodity to be exported to foreign museums and wealthy private collectors.
Emore argued that politics and economics drive part of this problem. At one point, Egypt had been a major power in the ancient world, but, like other empires, it too fell from power. From the Persian conquest in 525 B.C.E. to its independence from the British in 1922, other empires had ruled Egypt.
Emore said, “Even in the 18th and 19th centuries, Egyptian leaders used artifacts as gifts to the colonial powers of the time.”
Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames in London, and the obelisk in Central Park in Manhattan are examples of Egypt’s exported heritage.
Poverty intensifies the problem. Egypt has widespread poverty. A poor household may find that it sits on top of valuable archaeological treasures. Emore said, “They might be more interested in feeding their families by selling the artifacts on a shady antiquities market.”
Changes in how to display excavated material involve more than what should not be done. Some changes involve how to display material to increase respect and knowledge.
“In recent years, many museums have changed their mummy display policies.” Emore said, ”There are a lot of scholarly papers written on the subject … Some of these papers discuss the impact on museum visitors of seeing an actual mummy.” She continued, “For me, getting to view such exhibits has intensified my experience of my religion as immediate, despite its antiquity.”
Emore said in Abydos, the Egyptians wrote a sentence on their tomb chapel walls and funerary stelae. In English, that sentence would read, “Say my name, you who pass by, that I may live.”
She felt that the global distribution of remains could have magical consequences. Emore said, “a great deal of heka (magic) has reconnected the long forgotten [deceased] with new life force because their names are now known and spoken.”
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