Kemetic, Heka Magic

So I drew a tyet on my arm for the first time :D It was easier than I thought. BUT. I had just washed that part of my arm beforehand (gotta be clean for Isis) so the marker got all puffy.

For most of us, the modern Pagan community is mainly an online thing. Most of us have never met many Pagans in person, and most of our interactions with “like minded” folks happens online. And yet, despite having most of our actions online, we seemingly suck at using our words, our heka properly in a written format.

A good point in case of this happened last night and spilled over to this morning. Someone asks a question. There is no baggage placed on this question by the OP, but inevitably, someone on Tumblr has to place baggage on this post because that’s what Tumblr does.

It assumes.

It assumes that you mean X when you really mean Y. It assumes that you are a Rede-thumper or that you are a stupid white girl who appropriates everything because reasons.

I mean, come on. Let’s get real here- this is the community we often find ourselves in. And like always, it happened last night. One person decided they were going to write and record rants in response to a post that has absolutely no baggage on it, and the whole thing exploded in a matter of minutes because someone couldn’t bother to take a second and think about what they were slamming into the keyboard or screeching (yes, screeching) into their microphone.

This morning, after all those hours, it seems that they realized that hey, maybe I was a bit over-zealous. Maybe I should have thought before saying those things. Maybe I didn’t word things as well as I should have.

And then my dash gets filled with all of these “omg I fucked up” posts.

Yes, in my opinion, you did.

For those who see us Kemetics harping on heka- this is why. Words are potent. Words are powerful. Words can take a prominent person in the community and make them look stupid. Sure, there are folks that will always agree. Anyone who is popular will have groupies that agree because groupies.

But for those of us who are a bit more removed, it makes me shake my head because to me- your words and your anger in your harsh and quick actions regarding a post that has nothing to do with anything you spouted off makes you look like you truly are. And anyone with any eyes that aren’t glazed over from groupie syndrome can see it..

Words are powerful. They reflect things about us that might not be evident at first glance. The emotions we spout into the keyboard and send off across the Interwebz at a million miles per second reflect something about us.

On the internet, all we have are our words. Our words are our armor. Our beautiful pieces that adorn us to let others know who and what we are.

And when you act out and lash out like a child, it creates holes in your armor (and coats them in fingerpaint and scribbles).

Further more, when you profess to be sorry, but send someone else to do your prostrations (and when they do those prostrations poorly, to boot) that only reflects further, because heka doesn’t stop at words.

It moves beyond words into actions.

Our actions define us.

So yes, it’s easy to sit here and profess “omg I messed up” and “omg I didn’t mean it like that” but let’s move beyond that.

What are you going to do about it?

Being sorry means nothing if nothing is ever done to fix it. In this day and age it’s not acceptable to fly off the handle, break everything in the room and then have a simple “oops” fix it after the fact.

What is the point in being sorry if it never changes? What is the point if the Tumblr community never changes? The answer is, there is no point.

So the answer to this could probably be a couple of miles long, tbh. But I’m going to try and give you guys a concise list of some of the most common themes I’ve seen over the years while reading up on ma’at. Most of this stuff comes from Karenga, Quirke and Muhlenstein. I’ve bolded the key points to help for readability.

So, to start off with…

Humility. You are supposed to be humble. Conversely, you’re supposed to not be arrogant or overly prideful.

Moderation is another common theme. This is why Set is often othered, because he lacks moderation in many respects. This is reflected in what you consume, how you respond to people, how you act, etc. I would also argue that it’s also about how you live (aka the wealth you obtain), but I don’t know that that is historically corroborated (probably not, tbh, because you were supposed to give your wealth to those who had less, and so long as you were giving back, you’d be golden afaict).

Giving to those who have less than you. This is commonly worded as “clothing the naked, giving a home to the homeless, a boat to the boatless, feeding the hungry, etc.” It’s about giving to those who have less than you. Egypt failed on this a lot. A lot of modern practitioners also fail on it.

Not being a jerk to other people. Esp. if they have less than you. It’s written in the wisdom texts that if someone who is of lesser rank than you spouts off, it’ll do you well to listen to them, but not to berate them. Leave that to someone who is of an authority to do so. This also goes back to moderation.

All in all, finding your place within your community, and doing what you can to help the community. This is probably because before the modern era, humans truly required their fellows to help them survive. No man was an island before the modern era, and everyone was needed to help keep everything running smoothly. Hence the emphasis on community in the here and now. This, ofc, means more than just the Kemetic community, but also the ppl you live next to. Conversely, it also seems to tie into not suffering people who would destroy your community.

Doing your job well, being a hard worker, having a good work ethic. Not being a cheating, swindling jerkface.

Self-reflection and making self-awareness and growth something of a priority. Taking the time to look at yourself and being honest with what you need to improve, and working to make improvements as you are able.

Maintaining the cult of the gods. This is arguably more relevant to the people whose jobs it was to do this on the regular (aka the king, priests), but it still deserves a place on the list. The gods helped us maintain Order, maintain our world. As such, it benefited us to take care of them. Conversely, if the gods weren’t fulfilling their roles, it was also within ma’at to call them on it (see my point about doing your job well) and refuse to take care of their needs until your needs (or the community’s needs) are met.

These all seem pretty self-explanatory, imo. And they are probably the most commonly sighted tenets of ma’at. The rules shift, however, when ma’at is threatened. Muhlenstein writes about this extensively in his text “Violence in the Service of Order.” In order to get a complete idea of what ma’at entails, we need to examine this side of things, too:

Being willing to smite isfet when it shows up. This is often referred to as “smiting Set’s confederates” or something similar. Ma’at is all about creating something, and maintaining that creation–which means defending it when necessary. So when someone shows up and tries to wreck the party, you wreck that person’s face and send them packing.

Once any isfet is eradicated, you are supposed to replace it with ma’at. It’s not good enough to just cut down isfet where it stands. You need to replace that void with ma’at, otherwise the isfet will return to fill the void.

Taking care of your community is another aspect of this. Egypt used this as an excuse to go conquesting. Pretty sure most of us know that colonialism is bad and would add in extra caveats on what is acceptable for “taking care of your own”, but from a purely historical standpoint, this meant beating down anyone who had stuff you wanted so that you could bring more resources back to your home. In a more modern context, I would argue that it means helping your fellows to succeed and to be safe. This is also more than just our Kemetic community, and should include people who are a part of your life or in-person community.

Protecting what you have built (usually referred to as Order, protecting Order.) This honestly is just a succinct way of saying what I said in the last three bullets.

Now, obvs, not everyone is cut out to smite isfet or help defend things on the regular. And that’s fine. However, just because you’re not able or not necessarily comfortable with it doesn’t mean that you should get in the way of those who are willing and able to do so. I think that’s honestly one of the largest issues I see in most situations. “I’m made uncomfortable by this, and therefore you shouldn’t do the thing, because I personally wouldn’t want the thing done.” Even though defending the community and those who are adherents of ma’at is part and parcel with ma’at in certain contexts.

In the Old Kingdom, you find that an ideally-balanced king will have received tutelage from Set and Horus equally, so I mean. It shows that he has beneficial qualities, even if he can be an absolute turd sometimes. 

I’ve seen heka that was meant to help keep pestilence away, to help crops grow, etc. So to me, that’s “nature” and “weather” magix in a way.

I was driving to work, thinking about stuff. And then I remembered that there is someone at work that I need to bind from doing harm to others. She’s a higher up who wants to fire employees who have been here 20+ years because of a “language barrier”, amongst other things.

Anyway, I was thinking about binding her when I though “but you’ve packed up all of your altar and magic stuff, you can’t do it until after the move!”

And then I hear Heka, pretty clearly, “What the fuck kind of witch are you, to not do magic without an altar and tools!” And I felt chastised, but I understood.

I am more than my ingredients and candles and rocks. They do not give me magic, I give them their power because I AM MAGIC.

Pretty much 99% of the heka being used today is modern. While some rubrics/rituals may have bits from the past, almost nothing that we’re using is a direct pull from antiquity. That’s largely because we either 1. don’t have the rubrics in their entirety (large portions of materials have been destroyed by time, so most stuff is semi-incomplete) or 2. most of the stuff that the Egyptians used involved a lot more resources than most of us have access to. As such, things have to be modified.

So yeah, its possible to create new stuff, and its largely what anything you’ve interacted with up and to this point probably was.

I personally don’t think so, no. Some may argue that replicating the statues with missing limbs is bad news, though. I am personally on the fence about it.

Most of those things deal specifically with execrations. There is a lot more to heka than just execrations, though. iirc, Ritner listed several different aspects to heka- things like licking, spitting, circumambulation, gestures, intonation/words, writing, etc.

There are a lot of aspects that can be utilized for heka, and I personally feel like modern people could push heka into new places if we wanted to- since we have access to resources and things that the ancients wouldn’t have had.

As for forms of ritual heka, I’m not entirely sure what to classify other forms as, tbh. Most heka dealt with a few things- protection, making things go your way, getting rid of bad stuff, and appeasing entities/gods. However, heka can (imo) span even more than that- and can really bleed into almost anything and everything you can shake a stick at if you wanted it to. But I don’t know that there is like.. an official list of different kinds of heka? or if I’m possibly misunderstanding what you’re asking.

I’m not entirely sure what to clarify for declaring yourself as a god, either. It’s pretty straight forward, imo. “I am Set, whose Strong Arm defeats all that would stand in my path.” “I am Djehuty who reconciles the Netjeru, who makes offerings in their correct form.” Both of these would be examples of declaring yourself as a god, and using that authority to make shit happen. It’s about aligning yourself with whoever has a big stick, and using that big stick to make your heka effective. Whatever you’re looking to achieve, find a god who is good at doing that thing, and align yourself with them- that’s how I’ve always gone about it. So if I want to smash things, I might align with Sekhmet or Set. If I want to be stable and reliable, I might align with Osiris. If I wanted to be cunning or quick, I might align with Thoth, etc.