30 Days of Paganism: Sobeq Style

So there’s this other meme that’s going around the Livejournal/Dreamwidth world: 30 Days of Paganism, in which people post an entry a day for 30 days, writing about one of any number of interesting topics each day. Well, I can’t promise it’s going to be every day, but I’m embarking on a “30 Episodes of Spirituality” project, wherein I write 30 posts about different facets of my religious life. I don’t think I can really accurately call it “30 Episodes of Kemetic Orthodoxy” – because what I’m writing really isn’t a series of posts on Kemetic Orthodoxy, but a series of posts on what it’s like to be Sobeq, in the religious sense. What’s on the menu?

1. Why Kemetic Orthodoxy?
2. Beliefs – Cosmology
3. Beliefs – The Gods and the Divine
4. Beliefs – Death and the Afterlife
5. Beliefs – Spirits and Other Unseen Critters
6. Beliefs – Heka, Magic, and Personal Power
7. Beliefs – Seasons and Holidays – the Kemetic Calendar
8. Beliefs – Ma’at, aka Universal Accountability
9. How did I get involved with Kemetic Orthodoxy?
10. My Gods – Father: Wepwawet
11. My Gods – Mother: Sekhmet-Mut
12. My Gods –  Beloved: Bast
13. My Gods – Beloved: Nut
14. My Gods – Other: The Bawy
15. My Gods – Other: Khonsu
16. How I worship.
17. How I serve.
18. Community.
19. “Hierarchy” and organized religion.
20. Personal practice vs. “State Religion”.
21. Initiations: Divination and Shemsu Naming
22. Initiations: Weshem-ib and becoming Shemsu-Ankh
23. Initiations: W’ab priesthood
24. Reconstructionism vs. Revivalism vs. ???
25. Other paths I have explored.
26. Religion and daily life.
27. Divination – Fedw, dice, oracle cards, and Tarot.
28. My spiritual obstacles.
29. My spiritual advantages.
30. My aspirations and goals.

If you’re reading this with your eyes bugging out, wondering what interesting secrets I’m going to divulge about Weshem-ib or initiation to the priesthood or how to use Fedw: stop. There are secrets in my religious life; deep mysteries that I wouldn’t share if offered millions of dollars. That’s not what I plan to write about. I will write about how those initiations changed me, how they helped make me who I am today, the effect they had on me – but not about the details of anything oathbound. Sorry to disappoint.

Today I’d like to start with “Why Kemetic Orthodoxy”, but I think I’ll make that it’s own post. I’ll try to update this post with links, as I write each of these entries. This… could take a while.

Additionally, I must thank… gods I don’t even know how to identify these people. Well, suffice to say that there’s a few people I’d like to thank on LJ/DW for doing this meme, and inspiring me – their journals are mostly private, so I will let them stay that way unless they request otherwise.