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Ancient Egyptian Gods/Goddesses?

cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
This is a free discussion or an opened poll to discuss what is the most lovable Egyptian god or goddess. So tell me what is your favorite Egyptian god or goddess and why?
 

cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
FYI



In ancient (Pharaonic) Egypt, the pinnacle of Egyptian society, and indeed of religion, was the king. Below him were the layers of the educated bureaucracy which consisted of nobles, priests and civil servants, and under them were the great mass of common people, usually living very poor, agricultural based lives. Except during the earliest of themes, when the highest official was apparently a Chancellor, for most of Egyptian history, the man or men just under the king were Viziers, (tjaty), a position that was roughly similar to a modern Prime Minister.
 

cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
I do love Ra too not just because it shines so bright but also because Re (Ra) was the Egyptian sun god who was also often referred to as Re-Horakhty, meaning Re (is) Horus of the Horizon, referring to the god's character. The early Egyptians believed that he created the world, and the rising sun was, for them, the symbol of creation. The daily cycle, as the sun rose, then set only to rise again the next morning, symbolized renewal and so Re was seen as the paramount force of creation and master of life. His closest ally is Ma'at, the embodiment of order and truth.


An Overview of the Ancient Egyptian Religion
by John Watson taken from Egypt Travel, Tours, Vacations, Ancient Egypt from Tour Egypt
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
For me, I have three major Egyptian Neteru that I personally Work with on a Magical level:

Set - the Prince or Lord of Darkness in his/its most ancient and noble semblance. The supreme manifestation of Isolate Self-centered Intellect within the Macrocosmos. The primordial source of metaphysical being and Isolate Self-centered intellect within the Microcosm i.e. humankind. The god of the Sky by Night, and disruption of the Cosmic stasis i.e. Black Magic.

Khepera - the winged scarab, the Self-Created One, the dawning sun of Re-Birth, and the divine principle of Self-Regeneration, Initiated Self-Transformation, and Self-Creation i.e. Setamorphosis - the resultant synthesis of the Aeonic Formulae: Xepera-Xeper-Xeperu= "I Am Come Into Being and by the Process of my Becoming I Am Become the Creator of That which Has Come Into Being."

Ma'at - the goddess of Justice, Truth of Being, and Balance in Xeper. In Setian Magic, and for that matter in all forms of the Black Arts, Ma'at is to me an essential Principle.

/Adramelek\
 
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cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
Hello Adramelek,

You seem to be workin' with the super gods from these mysterious times. The first one you mentioned; Set, Seth, or Sutekh. Patron of: winds, storms, chaos, evil, darkness, strength, war, conflict, Upper Egypt.

Appearance: A man with the head of a jackal-like animal. In depictions of his battle with Horus he is often shown as a black pig or hippopotamus. Sometimes he is shown as a crocodile, perhaps a combination of him and the original god of evil, Apep. He is also shown as a man with red hair and eyes, or wearing a red mantle, the Egyptians believing that bright red was a color of evil.

Description: In early times Set was worshipped as the god of wind and the desert storms, and prayed to that he would grant the strength of the storms to his followers. Although he was always a dark and moody god, he was believed to be the ally of his brother and sister, Osiris and Isis, the counterpart to his sister-wife Nephthys, and the defender of their father, Ra.

But somewhere along the line the view of Set changed. He became a god of evil, in eternal conflict with the gods of light, and especially with Horus, the son of Osiris. Set became identified with his former enemy, the serpent Apep. By the XXVI Dynasty, Set was the major antagonist and embodiment of evil to the Egyptians. Why this change came about is unknown, but it is thought that some time after the unification of Egypt, the religion of Set fell into disfavor with the state religion, the worship of Ra and Osiris. It may be that there was open rebellion against the pharaoh Narmer (Menes) who unified Egypt under his rule, the rebellion failed and their beliefs were effectively quashed. Victors are known to rewrite history, it may be that they also rewrote the religion. It is an interesting idea to think that the struggle for the control of Egypt might have found its way into their core beliefs.

In the Legend of Osiris, Set kills Osiris and scatters his body, then claims the throne of the gods for his own. He is later struck down by Horus, the son of Osiris, who restores order to the world and sets up the pharaohs as the guardians of Maat. Set and Horus continue to battle for control of the world, setting up an epic conflict of good versus evil.

Worship: Not really worshipped after becoming a god of evil, but his religion was the major one for Upper Egypt until after the unification.

Variants:

Lord of Upper Egypt
An older form of Set in which he is seen to be a companion and ally to Osiris and Isis. He is depicted defending the Sun Boat from demons and revered as the patron of Upper Egypt. In this form Horus is his brother and is the patron of Lower Egypt.

A very depictive description I got from Set
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
Thanks cashwright ;). Also, it should be noted that during the off and on times in Egypt when Set was revered and honored as a beneficial god, he was also known as the Slayer of Apep. Apep being the demon of Cosmic Stasis and the serpent of delusion and/or "evil". This is why Set, in a symbolic sense, to me is the Slayer or disruptor of the Cosmic Stasis, which can also be defined as the very Act of Black Magic.

Xeper!
/Adramelek\
 

Parzival

Member
Ra, as others have said, also holds a special place in my heart, as do Thoth and indeed all of the faces of deity in the Egyptian pantheon in one form or another, but for me personally, Isis will always be the one I have the strongest connection to me. As I once heard it said by devotees of Isis, "Isis is all things, and all things are Isis."
 

cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
Hello again Adramelek and hi T.E. Apollonius,

I really liked your definition about Set as the very act of Black Magic. So relative and full of depiction definition. The second one you mentioned was Khepara (also named Khephri and Kheper); patron of the sun, creation, life and resurrection.Khepara appears asa scarab-headed man, a scarab, and a man wearing a scarab as a crown.

This is MY PERSONAL FAVORITE ONE. By the way, I do have a great collection of scarabs I got from Egypt with different shapes and colors exactly as those found in the paintings and tombs.

khephir4.jpg


Kheper, the word, means scarab, and as the animal was associated with life and rebirth, so was Khephri. The scarab lays its eggs in a ball of dung and rolls it to hide in a safe place. From this unlikely substance the Egyptians observed new life emerging. Similarly, they believed that Khephri, in the form of a gigantic scarab, rolled the sun like a huge ball through the sky, then rolled it through the underworld to the eastern horizon. Each morning Khephri would renew the sun so that it could give life to all the world.


khephir2.jpg



As a deity closely associated with resurrection, Khephir was believed to be swallowed by his mother, Nut each evening and passed through her body to be reborn each morning. Therefore he is also closely associated with Ra (your favourite god T.E. Apollonius) and Atum. Later funerary texts combine Khephra (scarab) with Atum (ram) into a ram-headed beetle, a portrayal of the supreme god overseeing the cycle of life and death (and Afterlife).


khephir1.jpg




Egyptologists believe that there was probably a colossal stone scarab on a plinth at most if not all Egyptian temples. In this configuration Phephir represented the temple as the Primeval Mound from which the sun-god emerged to begin the process of cosmogony. The word Khepri was also often used in the titulary of the king. As an amulet, the scarab representation of Khephir was by far the most important. It might be viewed as being similar to a cross for a Christian. There were ornamental scarabs, heart scarabs, winged scarabs, marriage scarabs, lion hunt scarabs and many other such amulets.


khephir2heart.jpg




I resorted to Khephir, God of the Sun, Creation, Life and Resurrection and Khephri
 

cashwright

Ancient Egyptomaniac
Hello Adramelek :) I will discuss some facts about Ma'at in this post to complete this cluster of ancient Egyptian gods you're in love with and use in your black magic. Please read the following

Other Names: Ma'at Patron of: truth, law and universal order.

Appearance: A woman wearing a crown surmounted by a huge ostrich feather. Her totem symbol is a stone platform or foundation, representing the stable base on which order is built.

Description: Maat was the personification of the fundamental order of the universe, without which all of creation would perish. The primary duty of the pharaoh was to uphold this order by maintaining the law and administering justice. To reflect this, many pharaohs took the title "Beloved of Maat," emphasizing their focus on justice and truth.

At any event in which something would be judged, Maat was said to be present, and her name would be invoked so that the judge involved would rule correctly and impartially. In the underworld, the heart of the deceased was weighed by Anubis against Maat's feather. If the heart was heavy with wicked deeds, it would outweigh the feather, and the soul would be fed to Ammit. But if the scales were balanced, indicating that the deceased was a just and honorable person in life, he would be welcomed by Osiris into the Blessed Land. Maat's presence in all worlds was universal, and all the gods deferred to her.

Worship: Worshipped and revered widely throughout all of Egypt. Even the gods are shown praising Maat.

maat1.jpg


Because of Ma'at, the Egyptians knew that the universe, that everything in the universe, worked on a pattern, just as, later on, the Greeks called the underlying order of the universe logos (meaning, order, pattern).

Ma'at was reality, the solid grounding of reality that made the Sun rise, the stars shine, the river flood and mankind think. The universe itself, all the world around them, was sacred in the ancient view. "Ethics" is an issue of human will and human permission. It is a function of the human world of duality. What is "ethical" for one group is sin for another. But Ma'at, the reality that made all groups what they are is transcendent of ethics, just as a rock or a flower is amoral, a-ethical, without "truth or falsehood." How can a flower be "false" or "ethical." It just is. How can the universe be "ethical or moral, right or wrong"? It simply is. That is Ma'at.
Despite being a winged goddess (like Nephthys), she was judge at the Egyptian underworld at the Halls of Ma'ati or Halls of the Double Ma'at.

I resorted to my pages Ma'at and Ma'at, Goddess of Truth, Balance, Order... by Caroline Seawright
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
Thanks cashwright, you seem to be very educated on the subject of the gods and goddess of ancient Egypt, a subject which I have found fascinating and have studied for over 20 years. As a Setian Magician I wouldn't say I "love" them, however, I do respect and Work with these Neteru on a very personal and Magical level - I know Them and They exist within my Ab/Heart. ;)

Xeper= Become.
/Adramelek\
 
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egy king

New Member
I wrote an article about Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

When we try to make some sense out of the many Egyptian gods and goddesses, we must keep two important facts in mind. First, early in Egyptian history lower (north) and upper (south) Egypt were unified under one ruler. This union resulted in the merging of several cultural traditions. Second, because ancient Egyptian civilization existed for more than three thousand years, the deities and myths gradually changed over time as a result of new ideas, contact with other peoples, and changing cultural values.

Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses ~ EGY-KING
 

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
This is a free discussion or an opened poll to discuss what is the most lovable Egyptian god or goddess. So tell me what is your favorite Egyptian god or goddess and why?

My primary pantheon is Egypt, though I have others.

Sekhmet-Mut is my patron deity. I admire that she is the strong female, and also that she doesn't cut me any slack. Her own strength she gives to her devotees. She believes in our ability and wants us to.

I also venerate Heru or Horus, the son of Aset/Isis.

I honor Tehuti/Thoth the philosopher scholar of the gods and patron of magic. He admires the critical thinkers, as he is himself.

Others I venerate or honor to some degree are Ra, Bast, Hathor, Osiris, Anubis, and Set
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
Now that I think about it, indeed I do Love Set, Khepera, Ma'at, Sekhmet, Bast, Khnum, Amon, Anubis, and Thoth.

Xeper.
/Adramelek\
 

Hail-Seth :)

New Member
Seth he is awesome
also Amon,Horus, Anubis and Thoth ... Ptah also Osiris they are ******* awesome :D

But Seth is my favorite .

I mixed up Anubis and Seth also Osiris and Ptah and Amon and Horus :eek:

but than i ended up like Seth haha :D but others are awesome too
Thoth God of Wisdom is also really interesting, he have like charisma :D
and Khepu and Khnum are Awesome too :eek:
Also Sobek is not bad :D
 
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Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Thanks cashwright ;). Also, it should be noted that during the off and on times in Egypt when Set was revered and honored as a beneficial god, he was also known as the Slayer of Apep. Apep being the demon of Cosmic Stasis and the serpent of delusion and/or "evil". This is why Set, in a symbolic sense, to me is the Slayer or disruptor of the Cosmic Stasis, which can also be defined as the very Act of Black Magic.

Xeper!
/Adramelek\

I know this is really old, but I felt I should reply.

Apep has nothing to do with stasis. He's a Primordial Chaos Serpent. He aims to destroy the stasis of Ra - order. So he's the opposite of any stasis. He is Destruction, Chaos and the Undoing of Being. He is the Egyptian counterpart of the Persian Angra Mainyu/Ahriman, the Greek Typhon and the Semitic Tiamat.

Set and Apep were later on identified with each other.

I like Apep a lot. :D
 
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