Please read the "What is the Kemetic Orthodox faith?" page for detailed definition.

Kemetic Orthodoxy is a modern, global religion, reviving the very ancient practices of the traditional, indigenous religion of Kemet. It was founded under the leadership and teaching of our Nisut (AUS), Her Holiness Hekatawy I (Tamara L. Siuda). Kemet is the original name of the country now known as Egypt. Kemet's traditional religion was practiced with small changes to its overall structure over more than 4,000 years, beginning in roughly 4500 BCE (Before Common Era) and without interruption until 500 CE, in the Nile Valley of north Africa. Since Kemetic Orthodoxy's inception in 1989 CE, a number of other denominations of Kemetic-based religion have been founded by independent persons, many of whom who began their spiritual journey with us.

Gradual erosion and the eventual loss of Kemetic language due to invasion and conquest through the last several centuries BCE until the Roman occupation caused a cocooning of the religion until the 18th Century CE, when scholars began to decipher texts and objects pertaining to Kemetic religious practice. Ancient adherents were alternately forcibly converted or willingly embraced other religions, including Christianity and Islam, both of which adopted Kemetic beliefs and practices. It is the understanding of the Kemetic Orthodox through researching religions in and around northern Africa that while portions of Kemetic religion were transmitted into other faiths, the religion practiced in antiquity as a coherent whole was mostly lost until the language in which it was conveyed was recovered. Kemetic Orthodoxy represents a modern revival and is in no way an unbroken transmission from antiquity.

The Kemetic people did not give a name to their religion, as spirituality was part of everyday life in a theocratic society. The closest thing to a name for the faith in Kemetic is shemsu netjer, "to follow Netjer." Netjer, (often spelled in English "Neter" -- see Netjer -- The One God of Ancient Egypt for the origin of our spelling), is a Kemetic word which can be translated either as "power" or as "divinity", the divine power within and yet transcending all creation. It is important to note that "Netjer" is not the name of the Kemetic religion, but of its form of the Divine.

Because Kemetic society predates the "Western" mode of thought that is the basis of most modern religions, it is difficult to explain Kemetic religion within a Western framework. Kemetic Orthodoxy falls between a number of dichotomies Westerners commonly draw in discussing religion. It recognizes that the human intellect is inadequate to comprehend Netjer in Its totality. Netjer is both hidden and unknowable. Yet, how can humans interact with an unknowable being? The Kemetic worldview, in similarity to Eastern systems, finds an interesting way around this limitation; the same workaround expressed in Hinduism: monolatry, or the belief that Netjer manifests in countless expressions -- where Deity is one unknowable power expressed in human terms in subjective, plural manifestations we can commune with and make sense of. There is more than one Name or "face" of Netjer; however, a practitioner prays to the Names one at a time and when working with one particular Name of Netjer understands that Name to be one reflection of Netjer's abstract totality, sometimes referred to as the Self-Created One. This concept of "the one and the many" is worthy of volumes of exposition and has been discussed at length in several books including: Siegfried Morenz's Egyptian Religion and Erik Hornung's aptly-named Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and The Many. It is important to realize that monolatry is not monotheism (one god in one form), nor is it an absolute polytheism (many independent gods in many forms). Monolatry is a special type of polytheism that permits a believer to focus on the divine either as a singularity (Netjer) or in pluralities (the Names), and sometimes both at the same time, without either being more important!

Ancient Kemetic religion and Kemetic Orthodoxy both center entirely upon the concept of Ma'at. Ma'at is both a Netjeret (goddess) and the abstract concept of order, justice, truth, and "what is right". Ma'at can be compared to the ancient Chinese concept of Tao and the Qabalistic understanding of the "machinery of the universe" -- that is to say, Ma'at is order on its most basic level -- that which causes everything to exist and to continue to exist. Ma'at is maintained in the world by the correct actions and personal piety of Her devotees.

Kemetic Orthodoxy is a ritual or cultic religion, as opposed to a revealed or scriptural religion. A revealed religion (such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism) extends from Deity to humans; the Divine speaks directly to Its practitioners via divinely-authored scripture, where the faithful are expected to follow divine instructions given in holy writ. A ritual or cultic religion, on the other hand (such as Shinto, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Vodou, Ifa, American Indian and other indigenous religions, as well as Kemetic Orthodoxy), maintains that the experience of Deity begins with humans and extends to Deity -- that humans, through correct living, correct actions and the practice of the proper liturgy, hymns and rites, can experience the Divine, Which may or may not speak in the form of scriptures and/or written dogma.

See also:
To Link Up Again: The Meaning of Religion