Last week on my podcast, I took a shallow dive into the major problems I see in the Kemetic/Polytheistic communities at large. One of those problems prompted some interesting discussion already, specifically surrounding the superstitious fear of saying/writing the name “Apep,” or an obsessive need to immediately censor the word, in such communities. I wanted to explicitly look at why this completely misunderstands Egyptian religion in favor of contemporary superstition, why it could be considered legitimately dangerous to modern practitioners, and why it sums up the problems I see at large.
1. The name for the force of primordial chaos we now call “Apep” is long lost. “Apep” is an English, best guess transliteration of the long dead hieroglyphic language. A language where we have literally no idea how it was supposed to sound. A language that was far more complex and spiritually charged than our joke of a language will ever be. So writing “Apep” or “Apophis” is not even close to invoking the force, unless you INTENTIONALLY go out of your way to invoke it. This is what matters, intention, which is why calling gods by their names in English still works out for us, we intend to invoke them, it is not the words or letters themselves.
2. As pointed out by a fellow practitioner (I will leave it to them to decide if they want to jump in), the very fear of the name is itself superstition rather than Kemeticism, indeed the latter had no fear of writing it, which they did often before destruction of the name in ritual. There is a serious superstitious fear in people that if they write the name and don’t cross it out, or write it at all, bad things will happen to them. It is the same paranoid, Christian-inspired, self-induced fear that we see with creeds like “harm ye none” when honestly the problem with Egypt was they were often quick to harm, or the fear that looking into anything outside of monotheism will lead to demon possession. This just is not how it worked, writing the name of a primordial force in a gross modern language is never going to have any impact on that force (nothing will, but more on that below). Further, I doubt this is ever seen through to its conclusion. For instance if you own any books on Egypt, the word Apep or other forms of it, maybe even the hieroglyphics, are already written in your home, oh no! Shall we cross out his name in all our books? Should we avoid websites that mention the name since we cannot desecrate it? Of course not.
3. Speaking of actual Egyptian practices, one must understand the effort behind ritual, and how that compares to ctrl+v-ing a crossed out name or putting slashes through it. Like if you were going to desecrate a name you'd make a pot, carve the name in, let it dry, smash it, etc. Or make sandals with the name embroidered on them. And note that the desecration would only come later on, it was meant to be desecrated in the future in such contexts, or over time. These are active ritual processes and I'd guess were often in response to something, not just out of habit or social signaling. One act is actual magic, the other is a lazy habit. And when those names were written there was no fear of them, or they would not have been written in the first place, even to be crossed out.
4. Continuing with historical Egypt, if the point of slashing-out “Apep” is to insult or attack the force, this completely misunderstands how names worked for our ancestors. The actual insult would be to not use the name at all, not even just its name (which again was not in English), but references to it, nicknames, etc., to not even think about it. But again this is not how Egypt saw Apep, they wrote about him, drew him, and SOMETIMES desecrated the name or image in rituals, which were significant events built on great effort, and not a simple keyboard habit. And it is precisely because Apep is weak that we can write about and depict him without fear.
5. This treatment of the name Apep misunderstands both what that force is, and how much power it has. For instance, as pointed out by my aforementioned peer, it makes us wary of an inaccurate name for the force, but not the force itself. To elaborate…
5a. One way to see Apep is as an always present force no matter how often you desecrate its name. You can see Apep in entropy, or in the chaos of a plagued mind, or a deteriorating body. This will literally never change, and desecrating the name Apep will have no effect on it, this is a symbolic act we as humans do to say “screw you,” not to eliminate some threat. And these are everyday threats that must be watched for, you cannot just cross out the name Apep and think you are good for the day, it remains a threat in this sense. Just take the association between Apep and entropy to its conclusion: do we also need to edit and censor the word “entropy?” Of course not!
5b. The other way to view Apep, what I lean towards, is as nothing. It is not some willful god or entity, it is just a mindless force of material nature (meaning its influence is always limited to the material realm, rather than the spiritual). In billions and billions of years Apep has not destroyed one thing, has not defeated one god (who we really should think more highly of than that they need us to cross out an english word to survive), has not ruined one life. To even suggest it does cause our problems (in my opinion since I pick 5b over 5a) not only gives Apep way more power and fear than it deserves, but takes the blame off of us when we mess things up and don’t feel like owning up to it. Apep is not our devil, is not some malevolent Abrahamic boogeyman, it is just a recognized force of nature with no will and that will never change or be influenced by the acts of humans.
6. Finally, the very idea of non-existence, of a god or individual returning to a state of primordial chaos, is a complete impossibility. Self-existence, such as that of our own and the gods, is a simple, axiomatic fact. For there to even being Apep, there must also be non-Apep, and it can never be otherwise. The very statement “I do not exist” cannot even be argued or conceived. This means that any fear of Apep, even historically speaking, is misplaced, a lack of understanding about the nature of the soul, a superstition. And that's okay, knowledge grows over time, just like we now know retainer sacrifices were wrong, and mummification/materialism is not needed for life after death. Honestly, not allowing knowledge to evolve in such a way gives Apep more praise than writing its name ever could.
Interestingly in this one topic we can see a lot of the problems I brought up manifested: the influence of Christian-based new ageism and superstition, the lack of objective/academic investigation into Egyptian belief and practices, unfamiliarity with even the basics of Egyptian beliefs and practices, the need for validation (such as a virtual pat on the back for slashing out Apep), and honestly just a plain laziness and desire to be handed everything on a silver platter immediately and without effort. These superstitious fears of Apep grant it more power over our lives than it ever could naturally have.
1. The name for the force of primordial chaos we now call “Apep” is long lost. “Apep” is an English, best guess transliteration of the long dead hieroglyphic language. A language where we have literally no idea how it was supposed to sound. A language that was far more complex and spiritually charged than our joke of a language will ever be. So writing “Apep” or “Apophis” is not even close to invoking the force, unless you INTENTIONALLY go out of your way to invoke it. This is what matters, intention, which is why calling gods by their names in English still works out for us, we intend to invoke them, it is not the words or letters themselves.
2. As pointed out by a fellow practitioner (I will leave it to them to decide if they want to jump in), the very fear of the name is itself superstition rather than Kemeticism, indeed the latter had no fear of writing it, which they did often before destruction of the name in ritual. There is a serious superstitious fear in people that if they write the name and don’t cross it out, or write it at all, bad things will happen to them. It is the same paranoid, Christian-inspired, self-induced fear that we see with creeds like “harm ye none” when honestly the problem with Egypt was they were often quick to harm, or the fear that looking into anything outside of monotheism will lead to demon possession. This just is not how it worked, writing the name of a primordial force in a gross modern language is never going to have any impact on that force (nothing will, but more on that below). Further, I doubt this is ever seen through to its conclusion. For instance if you own any books on Egypt, the word Apep or other forms of it, maybe even the hieroglyphics, are already written in your home, oh no! Shall we cross out his name in all our books? Should we avoid websites that mention the name since we cannot desecrate it? Of course not.
3. Speaking of actual Egyptian practices, one must understand the effort behind ritual, and how that compares to ctrl+v-ing a crossed out name or putting slashes through it. Like if you were going to desecrate a name you'd make a pot, carve the name in, let it dry, smash it, etc. Or make sandals with the name embroidered on them. And note that the desecration would only come later on, it was meant to be desecrated in the future in such contexts, or over time. These are active ritual processes and I'd guess were often in response to something, not just out of habit or social signaling. One act is actual magic, the other is a lazy habit. And when those names were written there was no fear of them, or they would not have been written in the first place, even to be crossed out.
4. Continuing with historical Egypt, if the point of slashing-out “Apep” is to insult or attack the force, this completely misunderstands how names worked for our ancestors. The actual insult would be to not use the name at all, not even just its name (which again was not in English), but references to it, nicknames, etc., to not even think about it. But again this is not how Egypt saw Apep, they wrote about him, drew him, and SOMETIMES desecrated the name or image in rituals, which were significant events built on great effort, and not a simple keyboard habit. And it is precisely because Apep is weak that we can write about and depict him without fear.
5. This treatment of the name Apep misunderstands both what that force is, and how much power it has. For instance, as pointed out by my aforementioned peer, it makes us wary of an inaccurate name for the force, but not the force itself. To elaborate…
5a. One way to see Apep is as an always present force no matter how often you desecrate its name. You can see Apep in entropy, or in the chaos of a plagued mind, or a deteriorating body. This will literally never change, and desecrating the name Apep will have no effect on it, this is a symbolic act we as humans do to say “screw you,” not to eliminate some threat. And these are everyday threats that must be watched for, you cannot just cross out the name Apep and think you are good for the day, it remains a threat in this sense. Just take the association between Apep and entropy to its conclusion: do we also need to edit and censor the word “entropy?” Of course not!
5b. The other way to view Apep, what I lean towards, is as nothing. It is not some willful god or entity, it is just a mindless force of material nature (meaning its influence is always limited to the material realm, rather than the spiritual). In billions and billions of years Apep has not destroyed one thing, has not defeated one god (who we really should think more highly of than that they need us to cross out an english word to survive), has not ruined one life. To even suggest it does cause our problems (in my opinion since I pick 5b over 5a) not only gives Apep way more power and fear than it deserves, but takes the blame off of us when we mess things up and don’t feel like owning up to it. Apep is not our devil, is not some malevolent Abrahamic boogeyman, it is just a recognized force of nature with no will and that will never change or be influenced by the acts of humans.
6. Finally, the very idea of non-existence, of a god or individual returning to a state of primordial chaos, is a complete impossibility. Self-existence, such as that of our own and the gods, is a simple, axiomatic fact. For there to even being Apep, there must also be non-Apep, and it can never be otherwise. The very statement “I do not exist” cannot even be argued or conceived. This means that any fear of Apep, even historically speaking, is misplaced, a lack of understanding about the nature of the soul, a superstition. And that's okay, knowledge grows over time, just like we now know retainer sacrifices were wrong, and mummification/materialism is not needed for life after death. Honestly, not allowing knowledge to evolve in such a way gives Apep more praise than writing its name ever could.
Interestingly in this one topic we can see a lot of the problems I brought up manifested: the influence of Christian-based new ageism and superstition, the lack of objective/academic investigation into Egyptian belief and practices, unfamiliarity with even the basics of Egyptian beliefs and practices, the need for validation (such as a virtual pat on the back for slashing out Apep), and honestly just a plain laziness and desire to be handed everything on a silver platter immediately and without effort. These superstitious fears of Apep grant it more power over our lives than it ever could naturally have.
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