The Poppy Garden

I recently found a webpage that provoked me to re-start my sacred animals theme. It's called "Of Animals, Gods, and Men: Working With Egyptian Deities," which despite having a "no stealing" warning at the bottom, can be found in several places on the net, in its entirety. By "working with" we of course mean listing all the animals that commonly appear in Egyptian iconography, and then rattling off semi-factual information about the netjeru associated with them, and suggestions of what they can do for you. For example, "Hawk deities aid clarity of vision of purpose, giving the insight and power to overcome obstacles." (More about actual "hawk" deity symbolism below...)

Because the Egyptians worshiped animals who happened to also be gods. Or as the site puts it:

What is up with Wesir and Aset displaying lycanthropy? Lycanthropy is the magical ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf. The Online Etymology Dictionary says the word literally means: "Lykos is Greek for "wolf," anthropos for "man." So where the does one get Egyptian deity werewolves? Supposedly "Egyptologists" say that Wesir could change into a wolf, never mind I have never seen this in an Egyptological work I've read, save for references to His merging with Khentyimentiu, who is a canid god that is usually described as having a jackal form. His more well-known animal forms, such as the bull, get no mention. Aset turns into a kite, seen too the right. This is not lycanthropy per se. I have a theory as to why lycanthropy and wolves get so much press, though. Several friends of mine in the Recon community have noticed that certain animals that are chic in NeoPagan cosmology seem to be put on a pedestal when speaking of other cultures, regardless of whether or not they were actually placed on such a pedestal in their respective cultures. The fact is, wolves simply weren't a big deal to the Egyptians, despite there being a subspecies of Arabian wolf native to Egypt.

So let's fight cross cultural assumptions with facts, eh? Eric Hornung put forth a theory that the predynastic Egyptians depicted gods in animal form, then human form later. This is not, however the same as worshipping animals, a common misconception. Rather, it is theorized that wild animals were seen as manifestations of the gods, and this belief seems to have been carried on in some form or another throughout Egyptian history.

We have already covered jackals and bulls, let's go to falcons. Specifically, the peregrine falcon, seen to the right. Granted, there are 11 types of falcon found in Egypt, but most of my sources say the peregrine (or the lanner, which is to the left) is probably the falcon of Horus cult fame. The peregrine is the fastest of birds, reaching a speed of 200 mph in a dive. In Egypt, they were seen as sky and solar birds. Images of falcons appear very early in art, as this example of late dynastic (possible) royal names shows. Some are known to be dimly remembered predynastic kings (try and guess which one belongs to king Double Falcon,) and some are theorized as either place names or kings' names. Problem is, at such an early period, we simply don't know for sure. These are serekhs, which in the later true historical period were how kings' names were written before chartouches. The serekh is a king's name written inside a palace doorway, surmounted by a falcon, later identified as Horus. The two deviations from this pattern are that the serekh of Sekhemib (Powerful Heart) is topped by Set, and the serekh of Khasekemwy (the Two Powers Appear) has Horus and Set together. In late myth, the rulers of Upper Egypt are called the "Followers of Horus."

Though Horus (all of them) are far from the only falcon-associated gods. Re, Montu, (a war god), Nemty, (ferryman of the gods), Sokar (an underworld god depicted as a mummified falcon), and even early depictions of the Aten are depicted in falcon form. The Egyptians also believed that falcons, as with other animals, spoke a language that humans could not understand, but the gods could. It's always fun to read a university published book which talks about ancient references to "Falconic".

The predynastic capital of the south, Nekhen, was called by the Greeks Hierakonpolis, or City of the Hawk. It is here that the Narmer Palette was found, and here that the cult of Horus the Elder had its home. Here also is the earliest known temple in Egypt, which seems to have been dedicated to a falcon deity, and dates to 3400 b.c.e. It is thought to be the original Great Shrine of Upper Egypt, called Per Wer, "The Great House". It's reconstruction is fascinating, because it shows the original scheme of Egyptian shrines, a design duplicated throughout Egyptian history:

Nekhen has a few other Horus cult related "firsts":

But why the association? One proposed etymology for Horus's name is "Distant one". not only is this because falcons soar very high in the sky, but also because, the speckled wings of the falcon were seen as representing the starry sky, the sweeping wings thought to produce winds. Horus, Re, and other solar gods are often portrayed as falcon headed, and the Eye of Horus is interpreted as a peregrine's eye with characteristic falcon markings. As a sky falcon, Heru-Ur (Horus the Elder) is described as having one eye as the sun and one eye as the moon.

Falcons are also efficient hunters, the most prized of falconers, and I suspect this had something to do with the association with often warlike royal deities, especially when one considers that the hieroglyphic sign bin, "bad, small, pathetic" is a small bird. This is just my theory mind you . I would be interested if someone with real Egyptological experience under their belt could verify. Heru has always held an appeal to me personally, the first time was in high school, and I became very attracted to Him in His role as His father's avenger. To me He represents law, coming of age, and taking one's rightful place. Now He has a place on my altar, holding a turquoise and a lapis, both celestial-associated stones. And I have always been awestruck looking up at the sky, day or night, and envisioning myself under the gaze of a great celestial falcon.

Labels: sacredanimals

While doing an image search for jackals for some artwork I will eventually do, I came across this picture of a jackal trying to steal a morsel from a male lion, which my mind immediately captioned, in a nature show announcer voice, "The black backed jackal is easily identified by its giant balls..." It also gives a good idea of how big jackals aren't. Though they can waste a meerkat no problem, they are dwarfed by other scavenging animals like hyenas and vultures. To be fair, the black backed jackal is not found in Egypt, being more common in eastern and southern Africa. The common jackal there, and also in places like Iraq, is the golden jackal, seen below, which is slightly bigger, which means that they might just tower over the vultures, and not the other way around.

And of course the reason I like the jackals and blog about them, besides the funny photo caption, is that jackals are identified with canine netjer like Yinepu (Greek Anubis) and Wepwawet. Though one book I have actually notes differences in canine depictions of Yinepu and jackal anatomy. It refers to the "Anubis animal" because Yinepu's fully canine form seems to be a hybridization of several canines, bearing the most resemblance to a jackal. This makes sense from a magical perspective; remember that in Egypt, the way to fight a type of being or energy is with the same type of being or energy - Set is chaotic violence to turn back the chaotic violence of Apep. Jackals and other canines scavenge corpses, so who better to guard the necropoli than a being embodying characteristics of the most common scavengers. Yinepu most commonly appears as a human with a jackal's head, more rarely as a crouching black jackal, and least commonly as fully human. Wepwawet, a similar but distinct jackal god appears most commonly as a standing grey jackal, and is very old. You can actually tell the difference in iconography between the two by the fact that Wepwawet usually stands. You may have noticed if you clicked the link that the golden jackal is also not black, as Yinepu is usually portrayed. This again is magical, jackals may not be black, but mummies are, and Yinepu protects mummies. Wepwawet is usually grey, to me, closer to the appearance of Egyptian jackals.

And they were apparently a persistent problem. Khufu's mother, Queen Hetepheres, seems to have been buried twice, we found her second burial in the 1920s, which contains her jewelry, golden eating and drinking vessels, gilded furniture, and canopic jars, containing her internal organs. Her body is absent, and because treasures like the 20 silver bracelets inlaid with jewels were untouched (remember, at the time, silver was far more precious than gold; only a queen would wear such items) one theory as to what happened to her body is that it was gotten to by scavengers such as jackals, and Khufu had her and her treasures reburied near the Great Pyramid. At least that's the theory I am most familiar with, there are several others.

Labels: sacredanimals

The first installment of my series on Egyptian animals theme will be the snake. Why? Last night I saw that the largest species of spitting cobra has been discovered in Kenya (it gets to be over 9 feet long!) and I said to myself, "Hey, spitting cobras are the Eye of Re. That's pretty cool."

Snakes were incredibly important in ancient Egyptian mythology. Between 34 and 40 species of snakes inhabit Egypt, everything from sand boas to carpet vipers. I will primarily focus on the kind most commonly found in art, the cobra. Two types seem to be found most frequently in depictions: the red spitting cobra, seen below and the Egyptian Cobra.

Some sources I have say the uraeus on the brow of royals and also some gods is the Egyptian cobra. I look at some depictions and have to wonder. In myth, this snake is the Eye Goddess, a title of several aggressive goddesses, including Sekhmet, Wadjet and and Bast, who sit on the brow of the pharaoh and spit fire into his enemies' eyes. This sounds more like a spitting cobra to me, and when you compare a uraeus to a photo of a red spitting cobra, the similarity is striking. Although as with Yinepu being shown as a composite canine, it's 100% possible the Egyptian cobra is also a form the Eye of Re assumes. Red Spitting Cobras are a small, slender, not terribly poisonous species. Here is an ancient depiction of a spitting cobra, and here is a YouTube video of a man feeding and getting spat on by a Red Spitting Cobra (and then telling it to stop striking at him like it's a naughty child.)

Egyptian cobras grow as big as 8 feet long, though a more normal range is 5 to 6 feet long. They vary widely in coloration, and are nocturnal, sunning themselves in the morning sunlight. Egyptian cobras are also very deadly snakes, having the second most toxic venom of any cobra species, though it delivers more venom per bite than the Cape Cobra, which has the most toxic venom. They are found in all types of environments, from human habitation (they like the small critters who live around humans, such as rats and chickens) to swimming in the Mediterranean sea. It's not hard to see why they were associated with such a wide variety of Egyptian gods.

Wadjet is a goddess who primarily assumes cobra form. I have a image of Her on my altar. When I was at the rock show one year, I saw a tiny carved stone cobra with inlaid eyes, and had to own it. I took it home, put it on my altar, and asked, "Who are you?" The answer, Wadjet. She is one of the very old "Two Ladies", the gods of upper and lower Egypt. Her name means "Green One" and her city was Per-Wadjet, a merging of the two very ancient cities Pe and Dep in the Nile Delta. Wadjet's name either refers to the green of the delta lands, or the color of snakes. Her shrine was known as per-nu, or the House of Flame. Together with Nekhbet, the patroness of Nekhen (Nekhbet means "She of Nekhen"), who is most often found in vulture form, they protect the pharaoh and can be found on royal headdresses. In myth, Wadjet protected Horus the Child in the marshes where he grew up, thus showing Her nurturing side, as well as Her aggressive, protective side.

Other cobra goddesses are Renenutet, a harvest goddess called "The Nourishing Snake" and "Lady of the Fertile Fields", Weret-Hekau, whose name means "Great of Magic", and Meretseger, whose name means "She Loves Silence" and who both protected the Valley of the Kings and also punished trespassers there.

But it wasn't just goddesses who had snake symbolism. Apep and Yamm, the gods of chaos-as-destruction and the Mediterranean sea (respectively) were seen as either serpents or serpentine in form. Apep to me looks like an Egyptian cobra without the hood extended. Usually shown being subdued or dismembered in order to restrict his power, he is seen in the link being beheaded by Re in cat form. Yamm was originally a Canaanite god, described as greedy and chaotic. Benign gods also assumed serpent form or had serpentine characteristics: Heka, the god of what is best described as magic, and Nehebu-Kau, a helpful, protective funerary god.

Finally, a non cobra of importance, the Horned Viper (right). Another extremely venomous snake that lives in the Sahara, it is the hieroglyphic sign for "f". Most people see this sign and assume it's a slug or snail, but it is in fact a viper. It gets used a lot because the -f suffix is how one writes "his". When the horned viper wishes to scare off a predator, it scrapes its scales together to create a rasping sound. According to one site, which has information that is generally reliable, it makes kind of an "ffff" sound, and the ancient word for horned viper is "fy".

Now that we've learned about the beauty and majesty of Egyptian snakes in myth and religion, lets enjoy some bad Egyptian Snake God art.

Labels: sacredanimals

(Warning: this gets ranty)

There has been much debate recently about the status of two 5th Dynasty (c. 2445-c. 2421 b.c.e.) royal manacurists, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, who are depicted in their tomb paintings walking hand-in-hand, embracing, and touching noses as if kissing. Such depictions are normal for married heterosexual couples, but to see two men shown this way is unususal to say the least. Discovered in 1964, the men were assumed to be brothers, possibly twins. This is partly because until very recently, historians and archaeologts had a definite bias when dealing with sexuality, particularly homosexuality, in cultures that were more sexually open than ours. (Especially considering a lot of the early scholars were Victorians; for a particularly bad example of Victorian editing, look here.)

However, another thing to take into consideration is the fact that homosexuality as we define it is unique to our culture; therefore we must tread lightly when we label the sexual identities of two men living over 4000 years ago in a very different culture. So the debate has stood: Egyptologists are unwillling to say that these men were not close brothers or twins, while the gay rights community has seen this tomb as evidence of gay couples being accepted in one of our planet's first civilizations. If these men were gay partners, they would be the world's oldest example of such a couple.

With that said, a friend recently emailed me an artice about the latest news concerning Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep's tomb. It appears that new scholarship is being presented at the Swansea University in Wales that supports the theory "that a gay relationship was "probable," although nobody could be sure."

However, another argument has been put forward, that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were in fact conjoined (siamese) twins, hence their closeness in the tomb paintings. I think this argument is reaching to say the least.

First off, let's use Occam's Razor here: which do you think would have been seen as more strange in the Pharaoh's court: a same-sex couple or conjoined twins? True, Seneb the dwarf was a high-ranking official from about the same time who had a disability, but other than his stature, he was able to function normally in the noble society. I imagine twins joined at the waist were not.

Secondly, I feel there is a decent amount of evidence supporting an intimate relationship. In the picture above, the men are shown not only in an embrace, but with the belts of their kilts tied together. They also had their names written as one name, a significant thing since in Ancient Egypt, names were considered a part of the soul. They magically became one by joining their names.

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are shown in their tomb along with their wives and children, and this has been used to support the twins/brothers hypothesis. However, I have seen counter arguments to that as well. All evidence indicates that marriage in ancient Egypt was a civil affair, used to create legitimate heirs and inheritance ties. There has yet to be found an ancient Egyptian marriage ceremony, for example. The institution of marriage was not about love or the sacred union of souls, but about making babies and joining families. Having children (biological or adopted) was a duty for all Egyptians in a time and place where infant and child mortality was high. Therefore, it has been theorized that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, having fulfilled their societal obligation to reproduce, were free to pursue a romantic relationship with each other. After all, men did take female concubines in addition to their wives, and not having our own puritanical heritage, the Egyptians considered sex something healthy to be enjoyed for its own sake, not just for the making of children (although as far as they were concerned that was a nice fringe benefit.)

And finally, unlike dwarves, twins did not seem to be favored in Ancient Egypt. There is relatively little mention of them before 1000 b.c.e. (late in Egypt's history) and the Papyrus Westcar says "...we shall fill her womb with male and female children, and save her from giving birth to twins..."*

I guess what gets me the most about this whole thing is that we seem to still cling to the ethnocentric attitudes from 100 years ago when Lady Charlotte Guest translated a sex-free Mabinogion. And this is not just about ancient homosexuality, for those who would accuse me of being in league with the nefarious "Gay Agenda". Another example from Egypt is the tomb of the 1st Dynasty queen Meryt-Neith. When her tomb was first discovered in 1900, it was immediately assumed to belong to a Pharaoh, due to its size and the elaborateness of its grave goods. However, when it was discovered that Meryt-Neith is in fact a feminine name, her status dropped to that of a queen, a decision based purely on her gender. Never mind that there were female Pharaohs, most notably Hatshepsut. Had she turned out to have indeed been male, we would learn about Pharaoh Meryt-Neith.*

So a person in a kingly tomb is not a king because she turns out to have been female. Two people shown in their tomb in the manner of husband and wife are now being called conjoined twins because they are both male. The Egyptians thought and acted exactly like us, just in funny jewelry and makeup a long, long time ago, right?? What a much richer, more interesting world we could live in if we see things in the terms of other cultures and circumstances than our own?

*I could not find any good online resources, this information comes from the book Daughters of Isis by Joyce Tyldesley.

Too often, when pagan or "magickal" calendars are presented, they are the standard Wiccan "Wheel of The Year" calendars superimposed on a given ancient religion, regardless of what environmental or symbolic needs the people of said cultures had in their respective climates and time periods. For example, in the ancient Middle East, summer was not the season when the sun "represents the slow surety of spring’s coming again with gradual warmth with all the power of the sun." With temperatures reaching 104 degrees, rains scarce to non-existent, and rivers dropping to all times lows, summer was the time of drought and death.

For us modern practitioners, this presents a bit of a problem. Unless we live in a place like Arizona or California, our seasons do more closely reflect the standard Wiccan model. Our cultural festivals synch with it, too. It's easier to celebrate Yule when everyone else is celebrating Christmas; you are not doing something so different as everyone else. It's not so easy to give Wep Renpet gifts and celebrate the ancient Egyptian New Year in Early August; you'll likely be doing it alone or with family and maybe friends. Some have simply taken the Egyptian festivals and re-arranged them to fit with the flow of the seasons in a temperate climate, whereas others simply celebrate the December holidays as purely cultural ones and keep their religious holidays seperate.

Here are some ancient Middle Eastern calendars to use to see the rhythm of the seasons in that part of the world. It is interesting to note that in all three calendars, months start on the new moon.

The Mesopotamian calendar. The Mesopotamian calendar is mostly lunar (months are based on the phases of the moon), as are the modern Jewish and Muslim calendars (this is why Hanukkah seems to fall on a different day every year--it falls on the same day of the month on a lunar calendar.) To the Mesopotamians, there were two seasons, summer and winter. New Year's occurred on the Vernal Equinox, or the first day of spring as the day is also known. It was known as the Akitu festival. This is a reconstructed calendar for modern use.

The Egyptian calendars. The Egyptians used a lunar calendar at first, but quickly devised a more accurate solar calendar. As a result, the Egyptians ended up with both a secular and a religious calendar which were used simultaneously, the lunar one being used to calculate religious festivals. Periodically an extra month was added to the lunar calendar to keep it up to date, similar to our practice of having leap years. The Egyptian calendar also consisted of three seasons: Akhet, Peret, and Shomu, with New Year's occurring around the Summer Solstice in ancient times, but closer to August now due to the Earth rotating on its axis in the past few thousand years. It always coincides with the appearance of the Dog Star Sirius, associated with the ancient goddess Sopdet. New Year's was known as Wep Renpet, or "The Opening of the Year".

The Canaanite Calendar. Also a lunar calendar, this is also a reconstruction of the one used in ancient times, and it is very similar to the modern Jewish calendar. Like the Egyptian calendar, it has three seasons and three "new years" based on harvest cycles unique to the Levant. However, as with the Mesopotamian calendar, the "true" New Year falls on the new moon closest to the Vernal Equinox, called the "Head of the Year".

I wrote this a while back, and figured I should post it here, as it is something I have actually composed, and not just a cool thing I found on the 'net. Plus, in its original location, it is not very readable at all. Since it's mine, I'll put it up here too, in the hopes that perhaps it will also reach a wider audience. I know there are tens of you who read this, and you might want to know more about the Egyptian gods. There is a lot of pure nonesense about Them written on the Web, so this is also a public service of sorts. These are in no way cited, I've pretty much drawn upon a decade of serious research into the netjeru (gods) of Egypt, updated periodically as I learn more. If you want to know where I get this stuff, reply to this (reply anyway, I have no idea who reads this regularly) and I can reccommend some books and websites. Also, it is a bit tongue in cheek, those who know me well know I have a sense of humor difficult to rein in. Here is the Compenduim, version 3.5:

The Egyptian "Pantheon"
The following is a very limited listing of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. As there are hundreds of Them, and various ones were more or less important depending on the time and place one lived in Ancient Egypt, it is based on the ones my research has led me to believe are the most influential and/or popular. Also worthy of note is the fact that there are several versions of the myths, and I have tried to put forth the most common ones to the best of my knowledge. Since whole books have been written in an attempt to untangle Egyptian theology, I suggest one turn to them for more complete information. This is in no way intended to be a summary of ancient Egyptian religion. Note that the names in bold are what the gods were called in the original Ancient Egyptian language, rather than the Greco-Roman versions.
© 2005 Shepen -- http://shepengarden.blogspot.com/ Please do not copy this or any part of it without including this notice.

Creation and Elemental Gods:
Atum: a creator god. He rose out of Nun, the Primordial Abyss, on a mound of earth and created the first couple, Shu and Tefnut through an act of masturbation and/or spitting. When Shu and Tefnut left Him, He sent His eye out to look for them. He replaced the eye, and when the old one came back, it wept because it had been replaced, these tears forming the first humans. Atum and Re are often used interchangeably in this creation myth.
Shu: The air god. He holds aloft the sky goddess and forms the space in which all creatures live and breathe.
Nut: The sky goddess. She is the mother of Isis, Osiris, Set, Nepthys, and Horus the Elder (Heru-Ur). Either depicted as a nude woman or a cow. The stars adorn Her belly, and one of Her titles is "A Thousand Souls is She," referring to those stars.
Geb: The earth god. Coupled with Nut and is the father of Her children before their father, Shu separated them.
Ptah: Another creator god. In His creation story, He named everything and brought it into being. As a creator, He is also the patron of craftsmen. Ptah is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem.
Apep: Though technically a god, Apep (the "Mysterious One") is a great serpent who embodies chaos-as-destructuion and is therefore not worshipped. Apep is also the only immortal god. Though he is killed every night, he keeps on regenerating.
Osiris and Friends:
Isis (Aset): Wife of Osiris, Mother of Horus. Her name is believed to mean "Throne," and the symbol atop her head is of a stylized throne. She is the Mistress of Magic and is one of the most powerful netjeru. In Her most well-known myth, she restores Her dead husband to life, thus creating the possibility for everyone to be resurrected as Osiris was. She also protects her infant son in the marshes and later asks that her brother Set's life be spared when Horus is about to kill him, despite the fact that Set murdered her husband and created much trouble for her family. In another story, Isis tricks Re into revealing his true name (and the source of his power) to her by poisoning him with a snake made from his own drool. As one can see, Isis is a very complex goddess, caring and protective, yet at the same time cunning and willing to poison Re to gain power over him.
Nepthys (Nebet-Het): The twin sister of Isis, she used the fact that she was identical to Isis to seduce Osiris and concieved Anubis. She accompanies Isis in mourning Osiris and in the tribunal of the gods during the judging of the dead.
Osiris (Wesir): Osiris is primarily the lord of the dead, as well as a vegetation god. As Osiris died and was reborn, so too are the crops in the fields. Osiris is also the judge of the dead during the famous "weighing of the heart" in the Book of the Dead. In funerary magic, the dead are referred to as "Osiris So-and-so" to identify them with Osiris for resurrection. Legend says that Osiris is buried at Abydos, an early dynastic cemetery.
Set (Sutekh): God of chaos, storms, and the Western Desert. Also a god of Lower Egypt. It was Set who killed Osiris, and later challenged Horus for the throne for eighty years in The Contendings of Horus and Set. Set is a violent god, but this violence is often protective, as the Egyptians believed that chaos is necessary to defeat chaos. It is Set, for example, who slays the chaos serpent Apep while the Boat of Millions travels across the sky. Set is also ascociated with sterility. He has no children, rules over the desert, and lost a testicle in a fight with Horus. Set is either shown completely in the form if his animal, which appears to be a donkey-like dog, or with the head of this animal on a human body.
Horus (Heru): (There are several gods named Horus. For simplicity's sake, I will limit this entry to Horus-Son-of-Isis.) Horus is first and foremost a sky god, and his is name believed to mean "Lofty One." He is a god of Upper Egypt. Appearing first wholly in falcon form and later as a falcon-headed human, he is also the god of kingship; the Pharaoh is believed to be his living incarnation. As Osiris rules over the dead, Horus rules over the living. Horus as the Pharaoh was especially important during the Archaic period. Horus's main myths center on his battles with Set to reclaim his slain father's throne and avenge his death. As such, he is seen as a god of vengeance and justice.
National Gods:
The Two Ladies, Nekhbet and Wadjet: Very old goddesses, they are the patrons of Upper and Lower Egypt and protect the pharaoh. Nekhbet, the Goddess of Upper Egypt, assumes vulture form, and Wadjet (a.k.a. Buto) assumes cobra form and is the goddess of Lower Egypt. Wadjet is especially credited for spitting fire into the faces of the enemies of the Pharaoh, and She also protected baby Horus in the marshes while Isis was away from him. Together they adorn the crown of the Pharaoh.
Re: Re is the sun god; his sacred animals are primarily the cat and goose. Often shown as the king of the gods, He is often combined with Amun and Atum, as well as Horus to form Re-Horakhti (Horus of the Horizon.) Re rides the sun boat, known as the Boat of Millions, with a host of other gods and the souls of the dead across the sky. At night, he combines with Osiris in the underworld to be the sun of the land of the dead. He was most associated with the Pharaoh during the Old Kingdom.
Amun: His name means "Hidden One," and he is primarily an air god. As a god of air and therefore wind, he is also a god of sailors (wind being important to sailboats.) By the New Kingdom, He had become the national god of Egypt, and his influence spread to all spheres of life. Like many gods, He is often given a female counterpart, Amunet. He is often depicted as ram-headed.
Mut: Her name literally means "Mother" and she is a wife of Amun and a mother goddess. She is the queen of the gods, and her sacred animals are the cat and vulture. The famous "vulture crown" on the heads of queens of Egypt symbolize Mut.
Neith (Nit): Neith is a very old goddess of Lower Egypt, called the "oldest of the gods" in some texts. She was especially influential in predynastic times, and many early Queens' names had "Neith" in them. She is primarily a protective goddess, though also rather warlike. She is shown in human form wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt.
Montu: Montu is a falcon-headed war god who rose to national god status for a brief time at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom when Montuhotep ("Montu is Pleased") re-united the country.
Other Important Gods:
Ma'at: She is the embodiment of the concept of ma'at: divine order and all that is good and just and true in Egypt. Depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather in her hair, she is the embodiment of the state of the world at the time of creation. The concept of ma'at is difficult to define in such a limited space. It is a system of ethics defined not in a system of rules to be obeyed, but rather in portraying an idealized or virtuous life and trying to emulate that life. Humans must strive to live lives in accordance to ma'at and offer it to the gods.
Thoth (Tehuti): The god of wisdom, writing, mathematics, and the moon. His sacred animals are the ibis and the baboon. Tehuti is also the vizier and scribe of the gods. The instances of Him using his wisdom to solve problems among the gods are too numerous to relate here.
Seshat: Seshat is a godess of writing, often portrayed with Thoth, though her writing spheres apply more to architecture and surveying. She wears a leopard skin and has a star-like headdress of indeterminate meaning.
Hathor (Hrt Hrw): Her name means "House of Horus." Other titles include "Golden One," "Lady of the Vulva," and the "Lady of Turquoise." She was extremely popular throughout Egyptian history, because she is the goddess of love, beauty, music, and fertility. Besides symbolizing all things joyful, she basically embodies all things the Egyptians considered feminine. She is also the mother/wife of Horus, hence Her name. Her sacred animal is the cow, and she appears in full bovine form or with the head of the cow, although Her most common image is as a woman with cow's ears and cow-like facial features. Sycamore trees are sacred to Her. She also has sacred instruments of the sistrum, which bore Her face, and the Menat necklace, which was more of a sacred rattle than jewelry. Her main Temple was in Dendera, and Her sacred festival was called The "Festival of the Beautiful Embrace" during which Her cult statue was taken to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, where a ritual marriage took place between the two. During the 14-day festival, Hathor would make stops along the way to visit the shrines of other deities.
Sekhmet: Goddess of war, healing, and plague. Her name means "She who is Mighty". Depicted as a lioness headed human. In Her main myth, Re wanted to destroy a group of rebellious humans. He called forth Hathor, who became Sekhmet and began destroying all of humanity. Re asked her to stop, but by this time, Sekhmet was in a blood frenzy and kept on killing. In order to end the carnage, Tehuti had a lake of beer made and dyed red with hematite. Sekhmet mistook the lake for blood, drank it all, and fell asleep. Sekhmet is associated with plagues and healing, because of the belief that only the cause of the illness could cure it. (Remember the bit about chaos defeating chaos? Same principle.) Sekhmet is also in charge of a group of plague demons, called the Seven Arrows of Sekhmet and the Slaughterers of Sekhmet. Her breath was believed to spread plague. On Her more positive side however, Sekhmet is a protector of the gods and the Pharaohs, showing that like Set, She had an important place in the universe despite Her often-violent nature. On new year's day it was customary to give Sekhmet amulets to offer protection from illness in the coming year.
Min (Menu): A fertility god that appears in art very early, depicted as a man with an erect penis in one hand and a flail in his raised hand. Lettuce is sacred to him, because some kinds of lettuce have juice that resembles semen.
Bes: Depicted as an ugly, nude, lion-faced dwarf playing a tambourine, Bes is believed to be an introduced foreign deity. He is a god of music and childbirth, and also has protective attributes.
Hapy: God of the Nile's fecundity, he is depicted as a rather hermaphroditic man clad in only an apron of white strips with a beard, pregnant belly, pendulous breasts, and blue waves on his body. Also usually depicted as an offering bearer, he presents tables filled with food and flowers to the people, clearly symbolic of the Nile's flood as giver of life in Egypt.
Bast (sometimes Bastet): On of the most "fluffified" netjeru, Bast remained a relatively minor deity until the Greco-Roman period when She became hugely popular. At first a fierce protective solar goddess (She predates the domestication of the cat, so the cat she represents here is not cute and cuddly.) Bast's less warm'n'snuggly aspects have been largely ignored as of late, but in translations of Egyptian texts she can be angry, threatening, and protective; e.g. "Bastet shall not overpower him." She later became associated with fertility and music. Some translate Bast's name as Ba-Aset, or "Soul of Aset." This, as with the idea that She is a moon goddess, is a Greco-Roman one, and Her name nore likely means "She of the Perfume Jar."
Anubis (Anpu): Anubis is the "Lord of the Cemetery" and protects the dead. He is the son of Osiris and Nepthys. He is also a god of embalming. He is represented as a jackal-headed human.
Wepawet: Another jackal funerary god, similar to, but not the same as Anubis. Wepawet is the "opener of ways."
Sothis (Sopdet): Sopdet is the goddess of Sirius, the Dog Star, whose appearance on the horizon coincided with the Nile’s annual flood around the time of the Summer Solstice 4,000 years ago (due to the Earth’s habit of wobbling on its axis, this is no longer the case, unfortunately.) This event marked the Egyptian New Year, or the “Opening of the Year". Sopdet is usually shown as a woman wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt topped by a star.

I don't know how I missed this news article (I really need to keep up more), given my interest in religious discrimination. I was pleasantly surprised to find it, though. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Comission awarded a Kemetic pagan $150,000 after he was fired from his job at a burger restauraunt for not covering his religious tattoos. The restauraunt wanted a "Wholsome", "All American Kid" which by their definition evidently meant Christian and from the suburbs. Religious and economic bias! Here is the article. It is a very interesting case, and makes me feel better that members of a religion as obscure as Kemeticism can still have their day in court. Granted, I have never heard of a Kemetic group that tattoos its members as part of initiation. Regardless, ma'at (What is Right) shines through again.