Making a Kemetic New Year’s Resolution

 

After Wep Ronpet this year, I decided to make my first Kemetic New Year’s resolution.

The origin of New Year’s resolutions are not credited to the ancient Egyptians but to the Babylonians and later, the Romans. It may be reasonable to infer that people in ancient Egypt had plenty of down-time to reflect on the previous year, while most of their kingdom was flooded by the annual inundation. Such an isolative period could have allowed for planning of the year ahead and a desire to take action on those goals, once the floodwaters receded and the world was born anew. We don’t know for certain though how the ancient Egyptians passed the time while the Nile was flooded. So then, despite there being no evidence: is a Kemetic New Year’s resolution a valid and authentic practice? I think so, because Kemeticism is not ancient Egyptian religion itself, nor its customs or philosophy. Rather, it is a modern form of paganism, a distilled version of ancient Egyptian religion adapted for today’s world. There’s certainly no harm in making your own Kemetic New Year’s resolution if it feels right for you.

 

In coming up with my own resolution, I asked myself questions such as, what direction do I want to go in as a Kemetic practitioner, what is my next destination, is there anything I want to move towards or away from this year?

 

My own answers were simple, almost cliché: this year, I want to steer myself and this blog away from negativity and drama because I’m tired of it, tired of thinking I’m confronting difficult and challenging issues faced by the Kemetic community, when it really just causes me to get upset, which reduces the joyfulness and lightness of the journey. Why would anyone make themselves available for that?

Over the past couple years, the ancient Egyptian deities — the netjeru — have been spiritual guides par excellence. I can’t emphasise enough all the good they’ve brought into my life and I try to share as many of those experiences here as I can. My goal is to help people build up their own practice in a way that works for them. I admit, this blog would be even richer, if I miraculously no longer had to work, pay bills and so forth! I could devote all or most of my time to the netjeru and discover more of their ever-unfolding mysteries. Alas, my spiritual growth is stunted by the necessity of adulting! At the same time, life requires a balance, which is what Ma’at is all about.

The point is, all my experiences as a Kemetic pagan, many of them mystical in their orientation, are based on having a firm grip on reality. I’m juggling a normal, modern life; slugging it out through massive, 12-hour shifts as a mental health nurse and all the demands such a career entails, planning a wedding with my partner, contending with uni and balancing all these worldly affairs along with this fantastic Kemetic journey. I’ve always assumed it’s a similar scenario with other pagans. Like, everyone is going through the same challenges as me? But I’ve learned something on this path: we can’t always assume what other people are going through. To do so is a mistake, which can lead to disappointment.

There are some really wonderful pagans on the Kemetic path, but in truth, some people are also choosing to broadcast negativity at this time and they have their own reasons for doing that. If you give them too much energy, they’ll bring you down — and that’s exactly what I’ve been allowing to happen lately. Why focus on the negatives, when you only energise more negativity?

 

This has been a massive lesson for me, which prompted my Kemetic New Year’s resolution.

I became disillusioned after hate comments I received at the blog and watching people who are supposed to be Kemetic leaders behave inappropriately not to mention, bullying in the past. Recently, I’ve been getting reader input and support on these topics, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. Thank you, so much!

Because my relationship with the ancient Egyptian deities is so good, I think perhaps I made an assumption that I could mirror the quality of those relationships back to every Kemetic I meet. My own naivety led me to hope for instant, profound connections with people online, simply because we’re both Kemetic. Of course in reality, we know it doesn’t always work out that way.

Just because you have a great relationship with the deities, does not mean other people are going to be on the same page as you. Some people have a lot of anger and aggression to work out, and they bring all their stuff with them on their spiritual path. They bring it with them in order to heal it. Inadvertently, I think some people end up transferring their pain to other people, rather than healing it themselves. Healing takes work. Sometimes, dumping on someone else seems a lot easier. Do you want to be a dumping ground?

So my Kemetic New Year’s resolution is to stop being available to negative people and situations, to stop entertaining that type of ideology and energy, and focus on the positive aspects of the Kemetic journey, because there are so many positives, and so many positive people out there. It’s a no-brainer, really. Why was I torturing myself with this? I’m mystified.

My Kemetic New Year’s resolution has given me a newfound sense of freedom and lightness, and if you make your own resolutions, I hope they leave you feeling the same, because that’s what the netjeru want for us all. Healthy positivity is really crucial on this planet, it’s the deciding factor for the future prevailing culture on Earth. Losing sight of that is something I can only offer apologies to the gods for.

Thank you for visiting Kemetic Blog. A reader named Amanda recently asked about part 4 to Kemetic Spirituality for Beginners, which I promised ages ago. I’ll work on that next. Until then, stay safe and well. In the meantime, if you made your own Kemetic New Year’s resolution, I’d love to hear about it!

 

 

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