Jocelyn Almond

A somewhat bizarre choice, perhaps, but leads to some interesting thoughts about modern “paganism” and the evolution of religion in general. Basically,this is your typical New Age “grimoire” with miscellaneous Egyptian deities substituted for the various “spirits” invoked by Wiccan practitioners. The irony is that the authors (Jocelyn Almond, an “Archpriestess-Hierophant” of Isis and Keith Seddon, a Professor of Philosophy at Warnborough University) don’t know (or at least don’t mention) that the founder of the Neopagan religion was an Egyptologist, Margaret Murray. Murray was a quite competent Egyptologist for her time, but went about a quarter bubble off level with her “witch cult” theory, arguing that witchcraft in medieval and renaissance Europe was not devil worship but actually the survival of a preChristian pagan religion. (I reviewed one of her books on this previously). Murray’s theory languished after her death until resurrected by New Age enthusiasts and renamed “Wicca”. I’ve read a couple of books on Wicca and know a couple of Wiccans; as near as I can tell the practice involves some feel-good psychology and some practices drawn from people like Alastair Crowley and Israel Regardie which in turn were adapted by what grimoires survive. (for example, The Lemegeton; I note there’s no real evidence that any of these “grimoires” are actually medieval).


So Egyptian Paganism as presented her incorporates all the Wiccan paraphernalia – a “magic circle”, candles, a wand, etc. – with some spells from one of the funerary texts, used to summon Amun or Isis or Hathor or whatever other deity might be of interest (the authors advise caution when summoning Set; I’m flattered). That brings us to the nature of Pharaonic religion (and the other religions of antiquity). The gods of Egypt were not personal; they were out there preserving the universe against the forces of chaos and had no interest or time to devote to individual problems. The great temples were not open to the public; an attempt to make some sort of personal contact with an Egyptian god would have been viewed with amazement (“Amun-Ra is up there in the Mandjet Boat trying to keep the Apep Serpent from swallowing the sun,! And you want to drop what he’s doing to help you out with your gambling? Are you nuts, or what?”) The temples can be thought of as cosmic defense installations, and trying to enter one would get you the same sort of response as attempting to enter (for example) a Minuteman silo.


There were some exceptions. Amun-Ra (and presumably the other gods; Amun has the best documentation) would come out of Karnak once a year or so to interact with the populace. At the Feast of Opet, Amun was carried around Luxor on a boat by a team of priests; onlookers could pose questions or make requests, and Amun would indicate a response by veering toward the questioner or nodding in his/her direction. I imagine sometimes the priests were actually surprised. (The temple at Luxor – just down the avenue from Karnak – has a mosque to the Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj inside. Once a year there’s a celebration for the Shaykh – which involves carrying a boat).

Another exception involves being dead. You could then directly invoke Ra or Horus or Nephthys or whoever by consulting your copy of the Pyramid Texts or Coffin Texts or Book of the Dead and reciting the appropriate spell (you needed to have the Opening of the Mouth ceremony performed first, so you could talk, and would presumably want to do some other spells to keep yourself from decaying, making your heart beat again, etc. first as well). This is the essence of the problem with Egyptian Paganism for Beginners; the “authentic” Egyptian spells cited for reciting in your magic circle while surrounded by candles and gesturing with your wand are only supposed to work after you’re dead. Maybe they do, but:


“ none returns from there to tell their conditions, to tell their state, to reassure us, until we attain the place where they have gone.”


I note with disapproval that while Egyptian Paganism for Beginners uses the Faulkner translations for the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, the thoroughly discredited Budge translation is used for the Book of the Dead. Not only was Budge a pretty despicable human being, his translation is just plain wrong; I wouldn’t have it in my tomb for anything.


As the Egyptian empire waned and Egypt began to contact the rest of the Classical world, other religions had some influence. The Phoenician goddesses Astarte and Anat show up in the New Kingdom; when the Greeks arrived they began making equivalences between their pantheon and the Egyptian (Amun=Zeus; Ptah=Haephestus; Isis=Aphrodite, etc.) Egyptian divinities don’t mesh very well this way; they don’t have assigned responsibilities. Yes, Amun is a creator god – but so are Khunm and Geb. Isis is a love goddess but so is Hathor and Bast (and so is Sekhmet, sometimes, although asking the blood-drinking goddess of infectious diseases to intervene in your love life might produce undesirable results). A lot of Egyptian magical literature comes from Hellenistic times and is written in Greek although invoking Egyptian deities. The Greek gods, of course, were personal to an extreme; in The Iliad and The Odyssey the problem isn’t trying to get the gods to intervene in your personal affairs; it’s trying to get them to stop.


That lead to the great, if temporary contribution Egypt made to personal religion – Isis. Right around the first couple of centuries AD there were three major personal religions – Christianity, Mithraism, and Isis worship. Apparently once the idea took root that it was possible to have a god that was actually interested in you as an individual, it went viral. The coupling of Isis – probably the gentlest of the Egyptian goddesses – with the Greek idea of direct divine-human contact lead to Isis giving Mithras and Jesus a run. Mithras was popular with the military; however, having to undergo the taurobolium in order to become a bona fide Mithras worshipper mitigated against him; I expect even the ancients, who were somewhat more inured to blood and gore than we are, looked with disfavor on having to crouch in a pit while a bull was butchered over them. Isis temples turn up anywhere the Roman empire went, and it’s suggested that Isis was eventually co-opted by incorporation into Mariolatry; there are reports of Isis statues being reused with a fewer minor changes as Mary statues until somebody finally figured them out. (Neopagans have argued that images of the Virgin with the Christ Child on her lap are direct copies of Isis with Horus on her lap; however, there are only so many ways to hold a baby and on your lap is the most reasonable).


So where does that leave us with Egyptian Paganism for Beginners? Well, at best it’s harmless; about half the references cited are authentic Egyptological works and I suppose someone consulting them could do worse. At worst, I suppose somebody invoking Sekhmet as a substitute for a doctor is just illustrating natural selection in action.… (mere)

Firstly this book is definitely not the sort of beginner's book that guides the reader step-by step through doing simple things. I suspect the publisher tagged it as for beginners as one of their many other books for beginners. Given the number of books for beginners I'd expect to see more intermediate or advanced books on various pagan subjects but they're quite rare by comparison with the beginner books. What it is is a book for those looking for a beginning in Kemetic paganism. It does a pretty good job of that. If you're completely new to pagan religion you may well be lost here. If you are familiar and are looking for understanding of what there is in ancient Egyptian oriented pagan religion this book may have something for you.

There are a lot of little insights that I don't see in other books on the subject as well as the connections to Christian religion that both academic Egyptologists and most pagan writers studiously avoid. I know other reviewers seem offended by this connection. It's there and I think it's nicely handled in this book. I won't take issue with it at all. I think that's one of its best qualities.

It's the sort of book where the author expects the reader to read through the book, not skip around. Many subjects are mentioned and returned to as the text goes along so I'd recommend reading cover-to-cover instead of just reading the chapters you're most interested in.

The whole thing is nicely researched and obviously written with a deep understanding of the subject. I don't say that lightly. Many similar books pretend to be Egyptian but actually have a Thelemic or Kabalistic orientation or otherwise try to put Egyptian religion into a context it doesn't belong in. This book doesn't and I'm glad. Much of the material comes from good translations of original source material and is very well chosen. It's a good read even if you aren't a beginner in this. The original insights are well worth it. If you're looking to get started on this path after being at least a bit familiar with pagan religion this is a good place to start.

What you won't find is suggestions for daily practice or step-by-step instructions like you'd find in a truly beginner's book. But you can find that on Kemetic web sites and blogs that have become common and good lately. The Kemetic Roundtable is an especially good place to begin your search online. Like many other pagan paths it's still the sort where you have to do a lot of research and still make it up as you go along to make it work.

I have to be nitpicky at the end and point out some minor errors. Some of the illustrations show Neteru holding atypical or just wrong items. For example Anpu (Anubis) holding the distinctive staff of Ptah. There's also Min holding the flail in his hand. If Min is portrayed as holding something in his hand it's never the flail. Usually this would be excusable as the illustrator's fault but the text of the chapter on Min states that he's portrayed holding it which is incorrect. In actual ancient Egyptian art the flail is invariably portrayed above his hand, not in it. I know that's nitpicky and I can't help it.… (mere)