Opet

[veggiewolf]

With Opet starting next month (September 22nd-October 15th), I thought it might be interesting to discuss this festival and how it fits into modern Kemeticism.

I know very little about Opet other than the following:

- Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were processed from Karnak to the Temple of Luxor, where they stayed for 24-28 days.
- The festival (depending on whom you read) was about kingly-ka and/or fertility (relating to the inundation of the Nile and/or the parents of the falcon god).

We discussed Opet in chat yesterday and (with an occasional comment about Amun getting lost thrown into the mix) the fact that, as we are without a king, a kingly-ka festival might now apply to self-strengthening and the bonds between the individual and the community.

So, thoughts? Suggestions?  Recipes?

[SatAset]

With Opet starting next month (September 22nd-October 15th), I thought it might be interesting to discuss this festival and how it fits into modern Kemeticism.

I know very little about Opet other than the following:

- Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were processed from Karnak to the Temple of Luxor, where they stayed for 24-28 days.
- The festival (depending on whom you read) was about kingly-ka and/or fertility (relating to the inundation of the Nile and/or the parents of the falcon god).

We discussed Opet in chat yesterday and (with an occasional comment about Amun getting lost thrown into the mix) the fact that, as we are without a king, a kingly-ka festival might now apply to self-strengthening and the bonds between the individual and the community.

So, thoughts? Suggestions?  Recipes?

 
Since there isn't a king for independent Kemetics or some temples, using the kingly ka to me is useless.  You don't have a king so therefore you don't have a kingly ka.  But you do have a ka as does everyone and everything.  

What you could do instead is use it as a ka-renewing festival of the land, of yourself and of your ancestors (because that's one way to renew your ka).  Give offerings to the gods, the land (pouring out libations renews the land/Geb), and honor your ancestors.  You could offer to the gods and pour their offerings out as libations which would renew the land and honor the gods at the same time.  

Since this is a festival about Amun/Amun-Ra, Mut and Khonsu you could also see it as a festival of the sun (Amun-Ra) and the Moon (Khonsu) and Mut renewing each as the one who holds the luminaries together.

[Setnakht]

What you could do instead is use it as a ka-renewing festival of the land, of yourself and of your ancestors (because that's one way to renew your ka).  Give offerings to the gods, the land (pouring out libations renews the land/Geb), and honor your ancestors.  You could offer to the gods and pour their offerings out as libations which would renew the land and honor the gods at the same time.  

That is such an excellent suggestion! At its heart, the Opet festival is all about renewal and transformation. In the temple of Amun at Luxor the specific form of the god was Amen-em-Opet, his animal being the ram. We have, in our own modern-day temples, used the symbology of the ram--strong, creative, powerful--to renew in our members these qualities we each need today. By identifying our own Ka with Amen-em-Opet we seek to revitalize our spirits, our resolve, and our sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves--namely, that Ka in us which unites us with our ancestors, including the ancient kings and people of Egypt.

[Darkhawk]

We discussed Opet in chat yesterday and (with an occasional comment about Amun getting lost thrown into the mix) the fact that, as we are without a king, a kingly-ka festival might now apply to self-strengthening and the bonds between the individual and the community.

So, thoughts? Suggestions?  Recipes?

 
As a tangent, since my "how I intend to celebrate Opet" this year is "figure out how to celebrate Opet", I note:

From roughly the First Intermediate Period on, various officials wrote tomb biographies indicating what they had done to demonstrate that they were good officials (and thus had appropriate divine sanction as presumed delegates of the royal ka).  These touched on a variety of subjects but included:
* keeping public order
* feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, emboatening the boatless
* public works and temple refurbishings

In diaspora and without a king, we all have a distributed portion of the responsibilities of kingship to do these things; thus, I would put forward Opet as an appropriate time for Kemetics to engage in charitable giving, volunteering, or other means of supporting others in their lives.  I would personally focus on 'feeding the hungry', as the Opet festival also included a large feast that included the common populace.  (This has the advantage for me of being a  different month from the standard USonian charitable-feeding season - I know a lot of food pantries get plenty of stuff in November but run short at other times of the year.)

(I just made a Kiva loan to a guy whose relevant small business is supplying grain and beans to an extended community.  I will probably wind up doing more with this, but that seemed like a beginning.)

[Asch]

 (This has the advantage for me of being a  different month from the standard USonian charitable-feeding season - I know a lot of food pantries get plenty of stuff in November but run short at other times of the year.)

 
IIRC summer/fall tend to be periods of very low donations as people get busy and distracted and food banks etc are used more by families with school age children at home (children that would otherwise get at least one main meal at school).

So go you!

[SunflowerP]

* feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, emboatening the boatless

 


Sunflower