The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've recently gone solo with my faith practices and rituals, Ing been tied down to a specific group for the past few years and I was curious about a few things. I'm a firm believer in what I think is called a upg or unverified parent gnosis. I have an inclination to mix and blend diifferent themes and practices with my current kemetic beliefs. It feels tight for me to start doing this. I was wondering if anyone has ever done anything similar? How did it work for you?

 
Hi! If you haven't already found the Reformed Kemeticism SIG folder on the forum, you might want to spend some time looking through threads in there - plenty of people doing various things.

(I'm suggesting that as well as whatever conversation you get here, because that forum will also have posts from people no longer active on the board that I think may have good stuff for you.)

UPG usually stands for "Unverified Personal Gnosis", and it's a common term among a number of different paths, talking about things that we don't have documentation for in historical religious practice, but which seem to be true to our experiences. For example, that a given deity is perfectly happy to have chocolate as an offering, even though modern chocolate as a food is a very recent thing, comparatively.

Some people use the term 'Shared Personal Gnosis' or SPG for things that have come up independently for different people at different times (i.e. without them knowing about each other) about the same deity or entity.

There's some interesting discussion of applications of the term in an older thread.

One thing to think about, as a place to start, is that Egypt historically had interactions wtih a number of other countries. For some people, starting with those (Rome, Greece, etc.) can make a lot more sense than something further away, because there's a fair amount of information out there about the interactions, and it can help you sort out details.

Em hotep!

I've recently gone solo with my faith practices and rituals, Ing been tied down to a specific group for the past few years and I was curious about a few things. I'm a firm believer in what I think is called a upg or unverified parent gnosis. I have an inclination to mix and blend diifferent themes and practices with my current kemetic beliefs. It feels tight for me to start doing this. I was wondering if anyone has ever done anything similar? How did it work for you?

Senebty!

Whale

To begin with, I am not a Kemetic. I practice (among others) the religion of Alexander's Empire and the Roman Empire, but since Egypt was one of the provinces within these empires, I worship Egyptian deities of that era. Yesterday was the Roman festival dedicated to Serapis, for instance.

I share Jennet's view, that it is easier to combine Egyptian religion with the religions it was historically combined with.

Trade contacts between Syria/Phoenicia and Egypt began already in about 2500 BCE (give or take a century or two in each direction). From 2500-1200 BCE several West Asian deities were imported, and was incorporated into Kemetic religion, and during that time some Egyptian deities rose in devotional popularity in Syria/Phoenicia, or were identified with West Asian deities. The Syrian god of craftsmanship, Kothar wa Hasis or Chusor, and the Egyptian (Memphitic) creator god Ptah were interchangeably identified with each other, for instance. The goddess Qadesh/Qetesh was exported from Syria to Egypt. Egyptians sent offerings to be sacrificed to Ashtarte in the Phoenician city states. In the late New Kingdom, Egypt ruled over parts of West Asia (now Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, southern Syria, and perhaps some parts of modern Jordan), with some border disputes with the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, so Egypt didn't rest in some sort of pristine cultural isolation.

The decades around 1200 BCE the civilizations of the entire eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea collapsed. For some centuries, trade was of very low intensity, until it regained again from the 850s BCE onwards. Egypt lost its provinces in West Asia around 1200 BCE (or shortly thereafter). Cultural interaction froze for a while.

From 664 BCE Egypt began cultural interaction with the Greek city states and islands, by hiring Greek mercenaries. On an on-and-off basis, Egypt became a Persian province for a while, but the Persian political influence in Egypt was broken in the 330s BCE, because of Alexander the Great.

Alexander's successors, the kings and queens of the Ptolemaean family, continued to be benefactors of the indigenous Egyptian temples, and upheld the traditional religious role of pharaos, but they also added temples to Greek deities and temples dedicated to deities of mixed Egyptian-Greek background. The two most famous examples are probably Serapis and Aion.

Ptolemaean rule ended with Cleopatra VII's suicide in 30 BCE. The god Tithoës (Tutu) took over some of the pharao's religious functions, while some - more mundane - functions were taken over by the Roman emperors. The hybrid Greek-Egyptian religion of Ptolemaean Egypt continued. Mithraism spread in Egypt from about 100 CE, but fell out of fashion before 300 CE. Among the Egyptian priesthood themselves, Stoicism came in fashion, and the famous Chaeremon of Alexandria interpreted Egyptian religion in a Stoic way.

The goddess known as Isis among Greeks and Romans (Aset for the Copts) became popular all over the Roman Empire, as far north as northern Britain and what is now Romania, but in the process she was re-interpreted: Her role as protector of mariners was heightened, her increased function as a Lunar goddess (clashing with her original connection to the star Sirius) came at the fore-front, and, in the work of Apuleius, she is the goddess of all goddesses, the origin of them all, and known under their names all over the world. If there is any one particular historical root to the conception of THE Goddess prevalent among Cunningham-reading types of Wiccans, the late Roman view of Isis is probably the one to look for.

A Jewish influence is visible in the magical papyri of late antiquity: Mixed with names of Egyptian, Greek and even Mesopotamian deities, one find names like Iao, Abrasax, Sabaoth, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel and several other angelic beings ending with the syllable -el . A very interesting polytheistic scripture from Egypt (PGM XIII. 343-646) is ascribed to Moses!

Hermeticism was a cultural synthesis of indigenous Egyptian religious philosophy, Greek philosophy and some traces of Judaism.

The Graeco-Syrian philosopher Iamblichus interpreted Egyptian religion in a Neo-Platonic way, and this interpretation was continued and further developed by Proclus and Damascius.

As other people upthread have pointed out, Kemetic religion has a longstanding history of appearing in syncretisms, so you're definitely not alone.

 
Sorry for the late reply. I appreciate the responses. I am familiar with syncretic forms of the NAmes of Netjer (God). My Mother is Sekhmet-Hethert and my Father is Ra-Herakhety so it helps to learn about them right of the bat. Thanks for the advice everyone, I appreciate it!