This morning, a new website for interreligious education and community, Polytheist.com , went live.
I am honored to report that I am among the first ten contributors to this new venture, and that Kemet Today will be hosted at Polytheist.com from now on. As a result of the community encouragement (read: outside pressure to meet posting deadlines), I also expect that I'll be posting on a much more regular basis than I have managed here. This is an excellent thing and I'm very excited for it.
I encourage you to check out the entire website, but if you want to link directly to my personal page, you can do so via this link:
http://polytheist.com/kemet-today/
Hoping that this is a Zep Tepi and a new beginning for cooperation and understanding between the various polytheists online, and continues to spread to offline and real world interaction as it already started to do this summer. It's about time we began such a journey.
September 8, 2014
July 31, 2014
Aset Oracle, Year 22
Year 22 Oracle, spoken at Aset Luminous, 2014
Awake, Children of Netjer.
Awake, to see the splendor of Ra.
Awake, to feel Shu and Tefnut.
Awake, to walk upon Geb under Nut’s belly.
Awake, to the care of Wesir, of Heru, of Nebt-het.
Awaken, to welcome the year that is coming.
Awaken, Listen, Speak, to the Year that is Mine.
I am Clever of Speech.
I am Aset, Great of heka, Mistress of Heaven.
I am all that you think you know. I am nothing like what you think you know.
So too will be this Year.
This is the year that brings its own heka.
This year will be as simple as the first breath. As simple as one word.
This year will be anything but simple.
Speech may be clever. Speech may be simple.
Speech may not be clever or simple.
In this Year, My Year, you may understand what you do, and do not do; what you speak and what you will not speak, what is appropriate for you, and what is not.
It will not be what you think.
It will not be simple.
Awake, Children of Netjer.
Awake, to see the splendor of Ra.
Awake, to feel Shu and Tefnut.
Awake, to walk upon Geb under Nut’s belly.
Awake, to the care of Wesir, of Heru, of Nebt-het.
Awaken, to welcome the year that is coming.
Awaken, Listen, Speak, to the Year that is Mine.
I am Clever of Speech.
I am Aset, Great of heka, Mistress of Heaven.
I am all that you think you know. I am nothing like what you think you know.
So too will be this Year.
This is the year that brings its own heka.
This year will be as simple as the first breath. As simple as one word.
This year will be anything but simple.
Speech may be clever. Speech may be simple.
Speech may not be clever or simple.
In this Year, My Year, you may understand what you do, and do not do; what you speak and what you will not speak, what is appropriate for you, and what is not.
It will not be what you think.
It will not be simple.
July 16, 2014
Organized Modern Polytheism (Keynote Speech, PLC 2014)
This past weekend, I had the honor to appear as the keynote speaker (and a guest on several panel discussions) at the first Polytheist Leadership Conference, held in New York state. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with the existing and the rising young leaders in the polytheist world, and the entire experience left me humbled, surprised in some ways, and hopeful for the future of our religious organizations and our people. It was the first religious conference I have ever attended in my adult life where people were genuinely civil to each other, even in cases where there were distinct and sometimes absolutely opposed world views. There was no drama. It was a good indication that polytheists are ready to take their game to an entirely new level, and I'm delighted to have been able to contribute to that process.
I have more to say on the subject but I need to get over jet lag and really think about it before I can post more. In the meantime, though, I wanted to share some important links for those who were not able to be present, or who might like to see what I did when I was there.
You can read the keynote speech I gave here (note: it's long), and you can look at a copy of the slides that I projected while I was talking alongside it, here. I hope that we continue to dialogue and have many more opportunities not only to learn what different groups are doing, but learn more about how we can support each other in that work, and take it to the larger world.
I have more to say on the subject but I need to get over jet lag and really think about it before I can post more. In the meantime, though, I wanted to share some important links for those who were not able to be present, or who might like to see what I did when I was there.
You can read the keynote speech I gave here (note: it's long), and you can look at a copy of the slides that I projected while I was talking alongside it, here. I hope that we continue to dialogue and have many more opportunities not only to learn what different groups are doing, but learn more about how we can support each other in that work, and take it to the larger world.
July 9, 2014
What a busy July!
I'm finishing up the packing and work I need to do to get myself to New York and the Polytheist Leadership Conference, where I will be offering the keynote address. Once it's done, I hope to be able to post some or all of a transcript here, as well as links to any of the presentations I'm taking part in. I'm told that there are quite a few people signed up to attend and more will be signing in at the conference itself. It's not a bad turnout for this first foray into a conference format, and I'm impressed and encouraged by the response to the call for more interreligious work between the polytheistic religions. Here's to an excellent conference and a great beginning.
Some of my books have been added to the conference auction, and 100% of the proceeds will be going to RAINN. I'm honored to be able to contribute something to that cause on our behalf. If you will be at the PLC, I'll see you soon! If not, there'll be another one next year sometime.
Next weekend, I'll be celebrating my birthday with the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society of Los Angeles, at their annual Coptic Studies conference held at UCLA. This year's conference coincides with the feast day of St. Shenouda himself (Coptic for sa-Netjer, or "son of God"), and should be interesting as always. Looking forward to the lectures and connecting with new and old friends.
A few days after that, I leave for Chicago, to get ready for our House of Netjer Year 22 Wep Ronpet (Kemetic New Year) celebrations. Can't believe we're this close to the end of another Kemetic year again. Lots to do, but it's all very exciting. During this period I'm also putting the final touches on the Ancient Egyptian Daybook so it can be released with the opening of Year 22. More on that at the Kickstarter site and the Daybook official website (preorders/pledges are still available!) over the next week or two.
Some of my books have been added to the conference auction, and 100% of the proceeds will be going to RAINN. I'm honored to be able to contribute something to that cause on our behalf. If you will be at the PLC, I'll see you soon! If not, there'll be another one next year sometime.
Next weekend, I'll be celebrating my birthday with the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society of Los Angeles, at their annual Coptic Studies conference held at UCLA. This year's conference coincides with the feast day of St. Shenouda himself (Coptic for sa-Netjer, or "son of God"), and should be interesting as always. Looking forward to the lectures and connecting with new and old friends.
A few days after that, I leave for Chicago, to get ready for our House of Netjer Year 22 Wep Ronpet (Kemetic New Year) celebrations. Can't believe we're this close to the end of another Kemetic year again. Lots to do, but it's all very exciting. During this period I'm also putting the final touches on the Ancient Egyptian Daybook so it can be released with the opening of Year 22. More on that at the Kickstarter site and the Daybook official website (preorders/pledges are still available!) over the next week or two.
May 5, 2014
Polytheist Leadership Conference, July 11-13, 2014
So, this happened....
I will be the keynote speaker at the very first Polytheist Leadership Conference this summer in upstate New York, just a few weekends before Kemetic New Year and our annual retreat in Chicago.
You can read more about the conference at the official website, and about my presentation on organized modern polytheism here.
I will be the keynote speaker at the very first Polytheist Leadership Conference this summer in upstate New York, just a few weekends before Kemetic New Year and our annual retreat in Chicago.
You can read more about the conference at the official website, and about my presentation on organized modern polytheism here.
April 11, 2014
Greetings from EuroRetreat!
This morning, I'm posting from a conference room in England, during a break in our very first Kemetic Orthodox religious retreat outside of the United States.
If you'd told me in 1987 that I'd be teaching and sharing information about the ancient Egyptian religion in England, with people from all over the world, I think I would've laughed. There is no way I could've foreseen this happening. It's exciting, and a huge milestone for our religion and our religious community. We have, in one weekend, become a global organization in a literal, non-Internet-based way. I want to express my deepest gratitude to our W'ab priest, Nesyutenmutes, for all that she has done to bring this together in her country; and Rev. Tanebet, who also helped plan and put this together from Germany. Both of them have been dreaming about a European retreat for years, and we've finally made that dream reality.
So far this morning, we've had a discussion about Kemetic terminology around the deceased (specifically Akhu and Muuet, an expansion of a discussion that the wider temple was already having this past week in our official internet message forum), and some basic talk about apotropaic magic and what we'll be doing over the rest of the weekend. We have a very cozy group as we had some cancellations, but know that we're thinking fondly of everyone who isn't here, and already planning for future European gatherings.
If you'd told me in 1987 that I'd be teaching and sharing information about the ancient Egyptian religion in England, with people from all over the world, I think I would've laughed. There is no way I could've foreseen this happening. It's exciting, and a huge milestone for our religion and our religious community. We have, in one weekend, become a global organization in a literal, non-Internet-based way. I want to express my deepest gratitude to our W'ab priest, Nesyutenmutes, for all that she has done to bring this together in her country; and Rev. Tanebet, who also helped plan and put this together from Germany. Both of them have been dreaming about a European retreat for years, and we've finally made that dream reality.
So far this morning, we've had a discussion about Kemetic terminology around the deceased (specifically Akhu and Muuet, an expansion of a discussion that the wider temple was already having this past week in our official internet message forum), and some basic talk about apotropaic magic and what we'll be doing over the rest of the weekend. We have a very cozy group as we had some cancellations, but know that we're thinking fondly of everyone who isn't here, and already planning for future European gatherings.
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