KRT: The Effect Kemeticism Has on Daily Life

For this round of the Kemetic Round Table, we are discussing the effects that Kemeticism has on your daily life, and how it has effected your life by practicing the religion. The effect that my religion has had on my life is sort of a paradox. This is because in some ways, I haven’t changed at all. In other ways, I’ve changed drastically.

The reason I chose Kemeticism is because the world view already matched my own. I already had a structure in my own brain as to how I saw the world, and part of my choosing to follow the Kemetic faith (for lack of better word) was because it more or less fit into what I already had going on. The concepts of gods, balance and a need for community were all things that I already had percolating in my brain. So in these ways- Kemeticism hasn’t changed much of anything for me. It gave me tools, terms, and a frame to hang my ideas on, but all in all I didn’t have any earth shattering changes in my life due to adopting a Kemetic religious practice.

However, its probably my relationships with the gods and other Kemetics that has done the most change for me.

I will start with the gods, because it is through them that the other aspects really came about. Initially, I only worked with Set, and through him I really gained a sense of a lot of the aspects of who I was. Without his hands in my cookie jar, I don’t know that I would have ever really gotten a good grasp on my darker aspects- or at least as quickly and early as I did. Osiris’ work with me has helped me to balance out my lighter aspects- something else I was in desperate need of as well.

However, their biggest impact on my life has been through my community and networking tasks. And I believe this is because a large part of the work I am to be doing for the gods is centered around the community (or lack thereof). In order to really be effective in this task, the gods had to fix me up- which was the Cycle I wrote on earlier this year. Then, after I learned how to be more whole as a person, Set taught me one of the most useful skills I’ve ever had- pot stirring. He has taught me how to wield a ladle for good and how to work on creating responses that are more even-keel and air tight because I didn’t reduce myself to caps locks.

 

And through that, I’ve managed to find a bunch of people who are in similar situations to me. I found a bunch of people willing to be boat paddlers with me.

And that has made all of the difference in the world for me.

Once upon a time, I said that I was half Osiris, half Set. I was the hard nosed soloist (like Set) because I had to be. But if you were looking closely, you’d often see me sitting on the edge of the desert- where the lush plants of the Nile kiss the red dirt. And I’d be hiding in these plants, watching other people play in the river (Osiris’ area). And while I’d love to join in at the river and splash around with everyone else and feel connected- it never panned out. Because at the end of the day, much like Set, everyone would resign me to the desert.

Because of this, I always felt like I was literally two different people crammed into one (hence the two halves whole stuff) and I was miserable over it regularly. I wanted a community of some sort- but there was nothing to be had and I had no way of networking with anyone. However, since finding a group of people that I can get along with- my life has become a lot more stable and happy.

Perhaps you could say that through my community, I’ve managed to find a little slice of ma’at.

And while that has nothing to do with rituals and offerings and kar shrines or anything of that nature- don’t you think that is sort of… the point of all of this?

Without the addition of Kemeticism, its gods, or my fellow practitioners, I would surely still be the fractured person I used to be. And in that regard, my Kemetic practice has made all the difference in the world.

See the other responses for this question by visiting the Master List here.