Modern Egyptian Ritual Magick
Editor's Note: The content on this page was never a part of Ander's Mage Page. The linked page is no longer online so it has been recreated here for your reading pleasure.
Introduction
Few can admit to less than a fascination with the enigma of ancient Egypt. Something haunts the Black Land, something that colours the imagination of whoever seeks out her silent temples and monolithic monuments.
Scholars of the last two centuries have consistently striven to understand Egypt on its own terms, by holographically reconstructing its religion and culture, its political and sociological history. But Egypt doesn't speak to the outsider. Its monuments were not erected to advertise its splendour to generations of tourists. Its temples were not raised to be raided and catalogued. Its glory belongs to the Time of the Gods, its wealth and wisdom to the children of the Neter.
Our understanding of Kemet must come through immersion in the religion of its people. As we learn to read the heiroglyphs painted and carved on the walls, ceilings, and appointments of the tombs and temples, instructions for the dead in their own survival, we come to understand the Neter (gods) and their faithful, how they relied on one another for their existence. In time we begin to think of the Neter as distinct, living entities, no longer just strange syllables attached to animal-headed bodies. Their expressionless faces speak to something in us. The voices of the faithful rise once more, lamenting the dead and calling for the remembrance of their names-- of our names.
A man who dies and whose name is forgotten is forever lost to this world and the next. Only memory's power of evocation stands between a soul and its oblivion. The dead of the Black Land are starving, fading, and reaching for us in desperation. We must recite their names, give them food and drink, and make a place for them in our hearts. We must call to their gods, to remind them of their duty to their voiceless children lost both in the whispering sands of the desert and the glass cases of the museums. We give them life, and in return they give us meaning.
Wisdom is a reaction to fear, a long-term strategy for the survival of the intellectual and spiritual creations of the human race. We understand our world only when we understand what has shaped it thus far. More than this, though, we make our place in the continuum of sentience meaningful by respectfully adhering to the spiritual imperative of synergy that is our birthright.
Scholars look at the long, narrow beam of time and stake out their specialties, studying the progress of mankind in a linear fashion. The mystic looks straight down the beam to its point of origin, seeing that we are all one, that throughout time our dreams and our selves have risen from the same source. We must not fall prey to the pseudo-objective stupor of the scholar. We cannot simply study; we must become.
This site is intended to serve both as an introduction and a guide to a way of life that serves this end. It also stands as a chronicle of my own progress in this endeavor. I have a great love and respect for the ancient Egyptians, but I live in a modern world. It is necessary that we translate who and what they were into a context that is suited to our place in the continuum. This having been said, understand that the liberties that I have taken with their deities, customs, rituals, and language are not the injustices inflicted by the dull knives of the character assassins of history. Rather, the materials on this site should reflect an introspective approach to the modernization of Egyptian spirituality-- a living, breathing system of myth and ritual that stands as an incredibly forward-thinking and concise approach to the archetypal elements of existence.
I have developed a personal relationship with every god or goddess mentioned on this site, through the devotion of countless hours of meditation, ritual, and reading. Each god or goddess is depicted as I myself perceive him or her. The ritual work that I outline is the very approach that has allowed me to come as close to the Neter as I have.
It is my sincere hope that my work will open the way for others who seek to fall under the spell of the Black Land, to answer the call down the ages and to take possesion of their spiritual birthright.
My eternal gratitude goes out to my wife Lisa, without whose support and assistance my work and my life would be devoid of passion and soul.
Maintained by the Rev. Dr. Corey Bantik
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