.... The spoken word changes reality.
The written word is manifestation of that reality.
And, the two combined cause physiological response
and affirmation of manifestation ....
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If you don’t know much about the God you want to worship, start with research, read and learn about them more. (Always a good place to study about the Netjeru is Henadology website.)
After learning more about the Deity, you can start worship. It’s not required to do any formal rituals of “introducing yourself”, however there are examples of such rituals if you feel so inclined.
You may start simply with a short prayer and offering. Or just with prayer, as prayers always is more important than material offerings.
You may start offerings with candles and incense, later offer something edible. It’s never wrong to offer Netjeru water, bread, fruits and sweets.
Kemetic offerings are usually “reverted” after some time of being presented to the Netjeru. So, offer the things you will like to consume yourself, later!
And if you already reached the God/s and established the devotional relationship - then work on this devotion more than on the offerings.
Show them your love. Think about them. Repeat their names in your mind. Say them praise. Study about them. Use the opportunities to see more of their pictures and read more about their mythology, cult, ways of worship. Contact other devotees of that God and see their experiences.
But before all, IMHO, is thinking about the God/s, keeping them in your mind, let them make a shrine in your heart.
They welcome our love and devotion more than material offerings. Material offerings are more for us than for Them, because they help us to keep our attention focused and concentrated.
The same thing is with holy images and statues. You may look at the pictures of the God on line, you may make a home shrine, but most important is to welcome them into your life and your heart.
Because what else was your goal in connecting to individual God?
You want to be their friend, perhaps. And yes, this means that they would influence your life. This does not happen in one moment. But you may find eventually that you start changing “in the likeness of the God”. Their values become your values. Their goals and agendas become yours. You start to love what they love, and reject what they reject. You think about them more and more, you wake up with first thought of saying hello to the God.
I’ve been asked all sorts of questions about Ariadne's Tribe, but the most common one is probably also the most fundamental: How do you do it? In other words, how do you actually practice this spiritual path?
To start with, I’d like to point out that Ariadne's Tribe is an inclusive tradition. It's open to people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so on. If you're interested in Minoan spirituality and are respectful of the diversity of the human experience, you're welcome in the Tribe.
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This is the second of a series of blog posts on how to move more gracefully through the turbulence of current events in the world. Each post can stand alone, and the order does not matter, but I suggest reading the whole series as they support each other. I am calling this series “patience and fury” though I could just as well call it “empathy and apathy”, “mercy and punishment”, or “hope and despair”.
...Many of us are drawn to ancient Egypt, and of those a small number linger to find and follow the spiritual path embedded there. Soon we find that for all the wealth of published material about Egypt, there is very little about modern spiritual practice. Egyptian Pagans are also a small minority in the wider Pagan world, so it can be difficult to connect, find teachers and gather for ritual.
My early years on this path were probably characterized by more bumbling and feeling alone than anything. But much of the first advice I received was to read the Egyptology literature, surely a daunting task for the non-scholar. After all, few have set out to simply write about religion; more importantly, there was no monolithic single religion in ancient Egypt, at least not as we understand religious affiliation today. Here are a few things I learned along the way.
...What does Egyptian religious practice look like in the 21st century? Maybe more to the point, why do we turn for inspiration to a culture which disappeared nearly 1800 years ago?
The second question makes me think of my friend Marion who just loves to travel. He’s been in more countries, more times, than I can count. He and I have mused together about how deeply one is changed by stepping outside of everyday life and being immersed in something completely new and different. For some of us, religious travel is just the tonic needed for a weary soul.
...In Awakening the Sacred Body, the author asks a hard question: "Who does your spiritual practice benefit?" That question isn't asked often. In fact, I can count on one finger the number of times I've come across this question in all the books I've read. It makes me wonder why this question isn't asked more often, but I think we can answer that by simply recognizing that a lot of the focus in spiritual books is on helping a person improve him/herself. Ironically, what isn't recognized is that in some ways what this encourages is a lot more focus on the self than on other people.
I think there's an assumption that goes into spirituality, which is that if a person is engaged in spiritual practices they somehow are becoming better people or more enlightened, or whatever else, but the problem with that assumption is that there is no guarantee that being engaged in any type of practice automatically makes you a better person. And that may not even be the point of the spiritual practice. Spirituality isn't always about making a person into a better person. It's a relationship, but what comes out of the relationship is also informed by what goes into it. Why we engage in spiritual practice is ultimately a personal matter.
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