Protecting Our Fathers Work
Imhotep is said to have been one of the greatest priests and healers of Kemet. We give honor to the legacy of such people by trying to follow their example. However, claiming to have such qualities ourselves, without putting in the work to achieve them, will only lead to their disgrace.
Kaherumeritef stirred in his bed. He had returned after a night of traveling to far lands, learning lessons by some of the masters he studied under in childhood. He saw one of his wives who he sometimes traveled with. She said a few words to him in an old language spoken by his fathers, and reminded him of the offering that his ancestors needed for the project he would be undertaking in the city. He awoke and recalled his experiences before opening his eyes and sitting up. He had been sleeping for a long time having fell asleep earlier than usual the night before. It is said that the priests do not really ever rest, for even in their sleep they are working hard. Nonetheless, he felt refreshed and rose after meditating on the lessons taught to him in the dreams his ancestors showed him.
He walked straight towards the well at his small unassuming house in the city, picking up his ablutions can on his way. The first light of the sun still behind the horizon had just peeked from its hiding spot, returning as well from its nightly travels to fill the city and enliven its inhabitants. Kaherumeritef washed himself quickly and then did the ceremonial purification in the name of his ancestral Neteru (Gods) and the Divine Elements. He said a prayer to the Neter (God) Ra and went into his daily prayers, chanting the names of the Neteru that are accessible when the sun is on the horizon. He asked for the assistance of his ancestors in the day ahead, and gave his allegiance to them and their Neteru as he did every morning. Asking that he continue to build upon their work and be of assistance to his fellow man in the world of the living as they assisted him from the world of pure souls. He closed his prayers with chanting and body movements that harmonized his energies.
He closed the curtain of his djengili (alter) behind him and called to his eldest daughter who was preparing his tea and breakfast. He drank, took his time to eat as he listened to the news his first wife brought when she greeted him in the traditional manner, kneeling before him awaiting for his permission to rise and begin her day. He smiled at her report, he appreciated the hard work and sacrifices she made for the family, for it is said that if a man's business is successful, he has his wife to thank, he therefore knew that he had a gift with her from his ancestors and hers, ancestors now shared by the children they had. She gave him a bowl of porridge in which she mixed medicines to help maintain his body against the long hours he kept in his work.
He began his day with the offerings shown to him which were needed by his mothers to open the good fortune that he had set out for. He then had his eldest son bring in a visitor who had traveled far to come and see him. This visitor had heard of the work of Kaherumeritef and that of his fathers. When all else failed in alleviating the pain from this new disease that baffled the healers of her tribe in trying to rid her body of, she decided to travel to the home of this well respected priest and healer. Many others in need filled the workday of Kaherumeritef. He was left only with breaks to nourish his body with the food made by his daughters.
Before he slept, as always he purified himself of the experiences of his day before speaking to his ancestors. He spends his days working to clean negative energies from his clients, but he keeps in mind that those negative energies are everywhere and that his human nature is always vulnerable to them. He thanked his mothers for the experiences he had that day, knowing that every experience rather seemingly fortunate or disastrous is sent by them in order to build his Ka towards its perfection in contributing to the harmony of the existence. He asked for their assistance that night when he would resume the work he did in his sleep. Before he closed his prayers he weighed his actions against the 77 Commandments that the Neteru gave his ancestors to serve as their guide. He checked his day against the obligations he had to his ancestors, the entities and Neteru that his ancestors worked with and for. He knew that if he did not uphold these obligations he would pay for it by severe punishment.
He interrogated the sand for the days ahead, checking on the energies of his family and the lives of the priests he would be working with in the project he had given offerings for that morning. His work as a priest was hard but he knew that it was not for him to question or entertain emotional conversations about easier tasks he could be taking up. He only sought a way to look positively upon his experiences and do his work to the best of his limited abilities, and to have the humility to go to powers higher than he when he came across problems that were beyond his own capabilities to face. For this is how his fathers did it before him, a life good enough for his fathers is good enough for him, he told himself as he laid his head on his mat.
This story can be told of the Kem priests of antiquity or of a Kem priest in Merita today. The Kemetic traditions are very great. Though many are unaware that these traditions have been persevered to the present day, their greatness is known throughout the whole world. It is often the wealth and power of the Pharaoh and Kings that are mentioned in the stories of Kemet heard in the colonial areas of the world, but the priests are extremely important to the Kemetic structure. "If those called 'prophets' are considered great because they led people the right way, what can be said about those individuals who these prophets consulted who informed them of the future to come." Kemetic High Priest, Naba Lamoussa Morodenibig would always say.
It is only expected that misunderstandings of the realities of the Kem priests are abound. Since the last heliacal rising (409 years ago) many descendants of Kemet have lived disconnected from their culture and ancestral legacy. The previous Kemetic Great Year (1461 year period) was full of attempted invasions, suppression and a strategical misrepresentation of the Kemetic civilization. The last two millennia have left many unaware of the fact that the Kemetic traditions, language and spiritual system has survived unbroken since the Pharaonic age. We have accepted the myth that our language was lost in the winds of history and on the crumbling stones of our ancestral lands.
These are the consequences of a battle that have been taught by the Kemetic priests of antiquity. The modern Kemetic priests continue to expose to their initiates the human dilemma: the assassin of our father will ensure his escape if he can succeed in one thing: He will guarantee that we will join him in his mission against our father's legacy if he can have a hand in raising and educating us. When that enemy succeeds, we will not see him as our enemy at all. We will see him as a savior and question the motives, customs and legitimacy of our own father. We will be so built up on the opinions, judgments and false pride of our father's assassin that we won't be able to see his image in ourselves or realize that it is he who has defined our world.
The real enemy of the human being, the spirit of evil, has no pity or mercy. He will relentlessly plot against the orphaned Kem, those victims to four centuries of slavery and genocide. He will make sure that for those who are wishing to return to their culture, it is his mind, and perspectives that they will be carrying with them. This way, he ensures that the path back home is infected and redirected. This is what so many seekers fail to realize.
If just by calling yourself a priest or priestess and offering to teach others Kemetic spirituality, you think you are contributing to your father's legacy, you are mistaken. It is the humility shown to the rigidity and discipline of the Kemetic spiritual system that defines the Kemetic priests, but only after it has first defined the Kemetic initiate. If one has never set foot on Kemetic soil (African soil) outside of a colonial city or away from a colonial tour and into an initiatic community, one is not respecting their father's culture.
Our dreams, visions and meditations can be very dangerous if not handled appropriately. They exist only in the fantastical worlds of our minds. Our ancestral heritage is beautiful but its beauty must not hypnotize us so that we lose sight of protecting its integrity. We must not seek to profit from it like crazed capitalists. Our first step must be to unlearn the evil we have been trained for. Our second step is to seek out an authentic school of study where we can humbly learn the traditions of our ancestors in the order and fashion as they taught it.
If we are lucky, we will set our children on a path where they will not need to clean the corruption of our enemy's lifestyle before they begin their work, but it will depend on our honesty and hard work. We must keep in mind them and their future. Our actions cannot seek only to serve us and our desires today. We will all die one day. If we will all inevitably walk through the doorway of death greeted by our ancestors in the world of the dead, we should be smart enough to prepare for this day now. How will we face them, if we spend our lives ruining the integrity of the legacy our ancestors have left us, how do we imagine we will be received? Any real priest knows that it is for them that he/she is living to impress and not for the praise or glory of our brothers and sisters beside us facing the same spirit of evil in the world of the living.
Priesthood is a very serious work that is not done for money or fame. It is something that men and women are called to and obligated to by the very blood that flows through their veins. To all of those who are illegitimately claiming to be priests without proper initiations; to those who offer false paths to priesthood to other people who are feeling their blood pull on them... what will you say when you go home and greet those ancestors? What can you say now, knowing that they are always watching you?