How Should Beginners Practice Kemetic Spirituality?

NPU (Anpu, Anubis) – the Kemetic Guardian Spirit of the Roads and Opener of the Way (Apuat)

So, the other day I was asked by someone “How should beginners practice Kemetic Spirituality?” or at least if they should begin by reciting the 42 Laws of Maat and reading the Pert em Hru (the Book of Coming Forth By Day also known as the so-called Kemetic Book of the Dead).

I told them that first of all, that Kemetic Spirituality differs per individual because it is based upon an individual’s spiritual maturity and understanding.   I remarked that when I started practicing Kemetic Spirituality, how I even thought that reciting the 42 Negative Confessions (also called the 42 Laws of Maat) and reading the Pert em Hru was a requirement to practicing Kemetic Spirituality.   Later on this path,  I discovered that it was not.   Reading and reciting the 42 Laws of Maat and read the Pert em Hru is an old fashion and outdated way to practice Kemetic Spirituality. What do I mean?

Let me explain.

Kemetic Spirituality is not like the Judeo-Christian religions where you read the testimonies about God and believe that the same thing will happen to you. For example, you are not going to read about how God wanted to test Abraham’s faith and asked him to sacrifice his son. Then, in return for Abraham’s obedience, he blesses Abraham, which means that if we have an undying faith God will bless us as well.

No. Not in Kemetic Spirituality.

To me, Kemetic Spirituality is about ordination and ritual. You either have gone through ordination and/or ritual, or you have not. For instance, when I tell you that whenever I feel like things are jammed up or that I feel blockage because “my way” is closed. So I call upon Npu (Anubis) to open the way for me by spraying some rum on his image, then blowing three puffs of cigar smoke, lighting a candle, and offering him some candy.

Essentially, what I have just done is 1) introduced you to Npu by presenting to you a crossroad ritual and, 2) presented you with a crossroad situation.  Npu will now speak to you intuitively and say something like, “Do you want to know more? Do the ritual.”  Then, at that moment, you have just entered a crossroad situation, which is Npu’s domain because you can either choose to do the ritual to learn more about Npu, or continue to follow your egotistical path of familiarizing yourself with definitions, descriptions, etc. that you read in books and other resources based upon fear of the unknown.

Npu (Enpu, Anubis) ApUat – the Kemetic Lord of the Roads Opening the Way to Live Truth

If you decide to take the leap of faith and do the ritual, you may not be able to explain why it works but you know that it works, and that is how you come to “know” this aspect of the Divine.  Your Ab soul ” your spiritual heart” will know Truth and will balance the feather of Maat (as depicted in the image above).

You see after you do the ritual will not stand around talking about that you believe Npu is the god of the underworld, and how he governs messages, beliefs, and all of those other descriptions that you read about him (description of Npu).  No. You will know firsthand who Npu and realize that this guardian spirit is a real entity because you had a direct experience with him.  You will also know after being introduced to him properly that the more you work with him, the better your understanding of him will be just like any other friendship and relationship you have.

This is what I mean when I say that Kemetic Spirituality is about going through ordination and/or ritual or not.  To me, Kemetic Spirituality is more about “knowing” and less about beliefs.  So, you can read the 42 Laws of Maat and the Pert em Hru, but that is just like reading the Holy Bible (Helios Biblios – Sun Book) because you are reading someone else’s testimony or scriptural account.  To be blunt, you will be reading the Scribe Ani’s scriptural account because some of these negative confessions will not relate to you in this lifetime.  For instance, “5. I have not stolen grain,” does not apply to you unless you pay people by grains,” and “34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).” We don’t have a king for one, but the modern equivalent is a president, and did you see who the president was? In fact, what president has had our best interest?  So, do you see how these statements are not really relevant to us? These were issues that Ani overcame regarding his ego.

So, I would suggest that if a beginner wants to practice Kemetic Spirituality that they begin by simply learn to listen to their true self –personified as Osar (Asar, Osiris), and discipline their lower ego self personified – as  Set because this is the basis of Kemetic Spirituality.

Interested in practicing Kemetic Spirituality?  Check out Kamta: A Practical Kemetic Path for Obtaining Power and The Kamta Primer: A Practical Shamanic Guide for Using Kemetic Ritual, Magick and Spirituality for Acquiring Power.