Kemetism

Kemetism (from k.mt, the native name of Ancient Egypt) is a term for neopagan revivals of Ancient Egyptian religion which developed in the United States from the 1970s.

Kemetic Wicca (also Tameran Wicca, from t3 mry "land of two riverbanks", another native term for "Egypt") is an eclectic approach combining Ancient Egyptian elements with Wicca
Kemetic reconstructionism, a reconstructionist, academic approaches informed by Egyptology, notably Kemetic Orthodoxy of Tamara L. Siuda.
The Ausar Auset of Ra Un Nefer Amen is a syncretic Pan-Africanist approach targeted at the African diaspora.

History and demographics

Kemetic reconstructionism appears in the 1970s with the rise of neopaganism in the United States, the "Church of the Eternal Source" promoting New Age receptions of Egyptian spiritualism, founded in 1970, and the Ausar Auset Society promoting Pan-Africanism founded in 1973, Tamara Siuda's Kemetic Orthodoxy following in the late 1980s.

The movement remained very limited in size, with adherents.com citing the website of The House of Netjer stating in 1998:

"we know only of 2 temples...: the House of Netjer and Ordo Servorum Isidis, both headquartered in the United States of America. "

The House of Netjer is located in the Chicago, Illinois area (kemet.org being registered to a Toronto, Ontario address, online since 1998) Ordo Servorum Isidis is located in Rhode Island. More recent foundations include Kimata (kimata.org registered to a Camden, NJ address, online since 2000), the International Kemetic Network (Chicago, IL, since 2000), the Nuhati Temple Fellowship (Herndon, VA, since 2001), and the Per Ankh "sisterhood of temples" (per-ankh.org being registered to a Racine, Wisconsin address, online since 2002). By the mid 2000s, there is also evidence of "Kemetic" movements outside the USA, with Ta Noutri (Podensac, France, since 2004) and Kamitik (Aulnay, France, since 2004).

The movement is composed of a mixture of New Age, Wicca and Afrocentrism, the latter in the context of "Afrocentrist Egyptology" which emerged in the United States in the 1990s, making Ancient Egypt a "Black Culture". Thus, three main "Kemetic" currents can be distinguished:

1. "Ancient Egyptian" spiritual and religious organizations (Wicca and New Age)

2. The reconstructionist "Kemetic Orthodox" faith.

3 Pan-African/Afrocentric or Black separatist spiritual and religious organizations; the main proponent is the Ausar Auset Society of Ra Un Nefer Amen (born Rogelio Alcides Straughn), who states that his faith is "...a practical syncretism of the best that the Kamitic (ancient Egyptian), the Dravidian (Black India), and the Canaanite (the true authors of Kabala) religions have to offer."^[1]

Church of the Eternal Source

The Church of the Eternal Source (Burbank, California, since 1970), and the affiliated Temple of Ptah and Circle of Anubis (since 1975, based in Portland, Oregon) is "open to all interested pagans and wiccans (probably eclectic) who have an interest in the Ancient Egyptian Religions."

Kemetic Orthodoxy

File:Kemetic ritual 1.PNG

Kemetic ritual at the House of Netjer

"Kemetic Orthodoxy" is a specific tradition within Kemetic reconstructionism. It gained federal recognition in the United States of America as a religion under the name "House of Netjer" in 1994, and its tenets emphasize monolatry, ancestor veneration, and personal devotion. Although based on ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices, the religion was founded in 1988 by Tamara L. Siuda, known formally within her faith as "Her Holiness, Sekhenet-Ma'at-Ra setep-en-Ra Hekatawy I, Nisut-Bity of the Kemetic Orthodox faith." She underwent her coronation as Nisut-Bity in 1996 through ceremonies performed in Egypt, and in 2000 she achieved a master's degree in Egyptology. The organisation is centred around the Tawy House temple in Joliet, Illinois but there are followers of the faith located around the world who correspond via the internet.

The House of Netjer was legally recognized by the state of Illinois in 1993, and granted tax-exempt status in 1999. By 2002, Kemetic Orthodoxy claimed some 300 members.

One example of this style of ritual was developed by Rev. Tamara Siuda in the early 1990s. It was based upon a basic daily ritual practiced in the formal temples of antiquity and is partially translated into modern languages from those ancient rituals to that effect. The ritual is called "Senut", from an ancient word meaning "shrine," and is taught freely to all Kemetic Orthodox and is intended to be performed once daily whenever possible. It is also detailed in Rev. Siuda's book "The Ancient Egyptian Prayerbook". Other Kemetic temples, such as Per-Ankh, often refer to their forms of this ritual as the "Daily Rite."

Ausar Auset Society

The "Ausar Auset Society" is a Pan-African religious organization founded in 1973 by Ra Un Nefer Amen. It is based in Brooklyn, New York with chapters in several major cities in the United States. The organization was created for the purpose of providing members a societal framework through which the Kemetic spiritual way of life can be lived daily. The organization provides afrocentric-based spiritual training to the African American community and to the African diaspora. The religion uses the "Kemetic" Tree of Life (Paut Neteru) as the basis of its cosmogony and philosophical underpinning. It seeks to reunite the traditions of the founders of civilization into a spiritually empowering way of life that aims at the awakening of the Ausar principle (the Divine Self) within each individual.

Ausar Auset has been active in school politics in Milwaukee, propagating black segregation.

References

^ Metu Neter (1990), part 1: Introduction, p. 2

Marilyn C. Krogh; Brooke Ashley Pillifant, Kemetic Orthodoxy: Ancient Egyptian Religion on the Internet: A Research Note, Sociology of Religion (2004).
Ellen Cannon Reed, Circle of Isis: Ancient Egyptian Magic for Modern Witches (2002), ISBN 978-1564145680.
J. G. Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, 5th ed., Detroit (1996).

External links

Wiccan and esoteric

Reconstructionist

Kemetic Orthodox House of Netjer
Per-Ankh "sisterhood of temples"
Per Heh "Veridical Kemetic Faith"
Nuhati-am-Nutjeru "founded by His Holiness Ptahmassu Kaamptah Marianptah Nofra-Uaa and Brother Sonamnuhati Uwserhatuwatchit Ariaanmaat in 2001"
International Network of Kemetics
Ta Noutri french kemetic group
Kamitic - french group (Atenism, founded by Pierre Nillon)

Afrocentric

[1] Metu Neter (1990), part 1: Introduction, p. 2

[1]