Daily Life Questions

How does being a Kemetic affect your daily life? Does it? Do you do things differently than you used to because of your faith/religion?

I’m torn between saying that it doesn’t affect my daily life at all, and saying that it affects everything.

I rarely do rituals. I guess that makes me a “bad” Kemetic. Honestly, there are few days where I feel prepared, ready and able to step into shrine. So, I can’t rely on that standby in this post.

I do a lot of things that aren’t rituals. In the morning, when the sun rises high enough over the mountain to shine on my house, I think of Ra, whether I want to or not. Even with heavy curtains over the windows, I can feel his energy, sometimes waking me from a sound sleep. There’s nothing ritualized about it. It’s just what happens.

Once a week, I plan and write posts for the Pagan Blog Project. Every other week, I write posts for the Kemetic Round Table, like this post. Sometimes inspiration strikes, and I throw out a few extra posts in between the scheduled ones. That makes two to three posts a week, plus a few more on my private blog. I have a lot of Kemetic thinky thoughts about community, and family, and how maybe we should start making our mark in the world with something more substantial than electrons.

I’m working on a project for Sobek, which involves digging a small fish pond in the back yard. This is taking much longer than expected. Between dust storms, scheduling, and some days where I’m just not feeling well, I get out there and dig maybe a couple days a week. You would not believe the size and number of rocks I’ve pulled out of the hole. I feel for the shabti who carry sand from here to there, or the Nisut who personally digs the foundation for the new temple. I hope Sobek likes it! When summer hits and the temperature is consistently over 100F, the local birds, bees and dragonflies will thank me. Hopefully the mosquitoes won’t be thanking me after I add the fish.

I dedicate my tai chi sword practices to Heru-sa-Aset. I dedicate my attempts at the yoga Sun Salutations to Sekhmet.

And I’m making Kemetic-themed plans for what to do after the fish pond. I’m only allowed to have one expensive project going at a time. The next one will be a good one, but I shouldn’t talk too much about it until I get there. I’m trying to teach myself about taking more action beyond the bloggy words I put out. I’d rather talk about what I’m doing, or what I did, rather than what I’m planning.

And finally, almost every night before I sleep, I try to check in with my gods. I never quite know ahead of time how that is going to go or who I’m going to meet, but it’s like spending time with family.