Collection: Egyptian Traditions

Most ancient Egyptians accepted many deities, and these gods could overlap, merge or take different forms. Key figures included the sun god Re and Osiris, god of the underworld. Egyptians believed the cosmos was ordered but surrounded by chaos. Gods and humanity together were thought to sustain it, through reciprocity. Ma'at stood for truth, justice, balance and the ordered structure of the world. Funerary rites such as mummification aimed to prepare the dead for the afterlife, which was believed to involve a judgment.

Many people hold that ancient Egyptian religion ceased with the end of pharaonic culture and the rise of Christianity. Since then, an organised revival has grown, now worldwide. Kemetism, or Kemetic paganism, emerged in the 1970s. Its groups range from eclectic to reconstructionist, and include a syncretic approach and the more monotheistic Kemetic Orthodoxy. Tamara Siuda founded Kemetic Orthodoxy in 1988. Its members believe the gods are manifestations of a supreme being called Netjer, meaning divine power. Some Kemetics favour a modern pharaoh, while others do not. Scholars describe the movement as a modern reconstruction rather than an unbroken continuation of one ancient faith.

In ancient Egypt, most cults centred on the daily tending of a deity's image. Priests opened the shrine at dawn, then purified, greeted, clothed and fed the deity. The image was not seen as the god itself, but as a ritually perfected home for the god's spirit or manifestation. At festivals, the image was carried out on a portable barque, so people could see it. Festivals included Opet and the Wepet-Renpet new year. Today's Kemetics light candles, build altars and shrines, and give food offerings.

Sources: Britannica: Ancient Egyptian religion · Britannica: Ancient Egyptian religion – The cult · Smarthistory: Ancient Egyptian religious life and afterlife · Kemetic Orthodoxy: About · Routledge: Profane Egyptologists (Harrison)