Review of Kemetic Orthodoxy, Part 1: Sources

[makhsihed]

When watching and researching Kemetic Orthodoxy, trying to figure out if it was right for me and if it was legit and, well, not a harmful cult, I did a lot of reading. I talked to a lot of people. Every time I ran across someone who had left the House of Netjer, I asked them questions ("What made you decide to leave?" was the primary one) and

Comments

[primaldog]

I have a very close connection to the Egyptian pantheon, but one thing I will never do is join the HoN. One, organized religious groups simply do not work for me for one, and another...the 'parent divination' thing, as well as their concept of religious/spiritual leader, does raise a fair amount of red flags for me. I'm really not surprised that some people walked away from that group exhibiting symptoms of past cult influence.

That said, I sincerely hope that you do find what you're looking for there, and don't end up walking away burned. Personally I don't require the help of anyone else, be it priest or self-appointed 'pharaoh' or religious leader to form close bonds with the divine.

[the_magpie]

In addition to the article by Krogh & Pillifant, there's also a book published by Lorne L. Dawson: _Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet_ in which a chapter is devoted to Kemetic Orthodoxy. You can find bits and pieces of it on Google Books. If you search for the book title, you get a short clip; if you search for Religion Online and Kemetic Orthodoxy, you get a little bit more, but some of the pages don't overlap, so it's worth searching both ways. It's a bit longer than article (which, incidentally, was published in a peer-reviewed journal - I don't know if you noticed the citation at the top there; my copy comes from JSTOR) and I think it's similar - Dawson's book is a bit more detailed and goes into more detail about the way the House operates online rituals and such. I suspect much of the research is the same, but Dawson's text and the Krogh article are somewhat different and both worth reading. I've ordered a copy of _Religion Online_ for myself. I'd offer to lend it to you buuuut... ~_^

[cianlegion]

I'm interested to know more about your analysis of House of Netjer. When we were younger, I went to the website and got a strange feeling (like things were out of place), and so we've avoided joining a house.

Hm. The thing about the Nisut, though, in a way makes the red flags wave, yet at the same time, it can be likened (I think) to the Priest/ess of a coven or similar. Then again, we have a deep-rooted aversion to anyone who has authority or power over us, which is another good reason why we've stayed away from joining covens or houses.

We'll definitely check out the links.

I think it's also very important to keep what people say negatively about the HoN in mind, which I'm glad you're doing. I realize that the people who are deeply devoted to HoN will typically have a completely positive attitude about it, so I'm interested to hear both sides in your entries.

This was a long-winded comment, and I hope it wasn't pointless! :P

[hylian_knight]

Sannion's post was very insightful, and I'm surprised I shared a lot of what was stated. He brought up some interesting points too

[sesha]

First, the issue of a Nisut. A lot of people think "spiritual leader", "king", "chosen by the gods to lead a people", and red flags of "cult" go off like mad.This is the main reason I was wary of the House when I first found out about it, and I think it's important to keep a skeptical viewpoint when looking into any religious group

[makhsihed]

I'm not saying they were abused. I'm saying they displayed symptoms of such. Someone can be hurt without intent or even technical abuse on the part of the one they feel hurt by. I have my own theories for this, and will go into it later. I feel it's not something I should wave off casually as being "as unlikely as being abducted by aliens" and should at least give a balanced and honest examination.

I'm pretty sure Antistoicus is a troll, yes. *heh* And his "investigation" is outdated; more on that later too. But... like I said, I want to look at all sides of the situation, and that includes the negative ones, no matter how inaccurate they might seem. I feel I should at least give it a hard look.

[sesha]

Fair enough.