Kemeticism - why aren't I Kemetic?

When I was little, maybe around age 8 or so, I had a fascination for ancient Egypt.  I took it upon myself to put together a 'school-style' research project on the subject.  (This was despite not having been given any such instructions by the school, so this was very unusual for me.)

    The project mainly concerned the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt, and the myths surrounding them.  I recall I felt a particular affinity for the goddesses Hathor and Iset*.
    (*I'm using the spelling of her name from the Book of Coming Forth by Day, better known as the Book of the Dead.)

    Everything I researched felt so far removed from the daily life I was living as a British schoolchild.  So magically exotic.

    Later on, one of the first pieces of jewellery I purchased for myself as a young adult was an ankh pendant.  It was a symbol which held great meaning for me at that time.  I had it for years & years, until very recently when it finally went missing, sadly.

    So, it may seem odd that when I began exploring paganism I didn't even consider Kemeticism.  Partly, it's that I'd no idea modern peoples actually still worshipped the Kemetic -or Hellenic, or Roman, or Norse- pantheon(s).  It was fairly recently that I learned this is a thing.

    The other thing is that, despite my early fascination with ancient Egypt, it wasn't Kemeticism I felt calling to me.

    I'm still figuring out precisely what it was calling to me, although I keep coming back to Druidry.  And I've taken to referring to myself as Druidish.

    So why not syncretise Kemeticism with Druidry, you may ask?  Well, here's the other wrinkle: I feel like I'm non-theistic.  Not atheistic you understand -- I guess you could say I ought to use the word agnostic (and for a long time I did).
    [Ahh this is the point in my blog where I realise it's going to be really hard to articulate what I mean.  Because I can barely get my own thoughts around it.  Nevermind putting sensible language around it for a blog post...]

    There's something out there in my outlook.  Something I can't quantify.  It's not a pantheon of gods and goddesses, so far as I know.  Not in my path.  There's a universal life-force energy (referred to in my post #19 about Reincarnation, if you read that).

    This life-force energy is worthy of reverence, since it's where we all are created from.  But its not an entity you could pray to or petition, necessarily.  Well, you could if you wanted, but it might not be a productive use of time.  And it likely wouldn't produce the results you're seeking in and of itself.  You could -similarly- worship it.  But I don't believe it expects it, or even notices if you do it.

    I can only explain this as the semantic difference between the words 'cosmos' and 'universe'.

    The word cosmos carries with it the notion of order, of organisation.  The universe, on the other hand; well it's just everything, as is.  Just stuff that happened at the big bang, and here it is.

    There's not an organising force out there, or even immanent within everything (well, there might be but I've yet to encounter it).  There's just an energy source which underlies every living thing.  We come from it when we're born, we return to it when we die.

    Perhaps it's like the difference between a fire god/dess and a huge, inescapable lava flow.  Or between a god/dess of the ocean and just the vast, unfathomable ocean itself.  The former: they have consciousness and can choose to spare you and even help you if they so desire.  The latter: well if you're in their way then your time is very likely up and prayer on its own isn't going to change that.  That's just a notion that's come to me now, as I write this.

    One final point I want to make, which is related to this topic but probably requires its own post, is this:  Because this life-force energy is, well, energy, as is everything else -including our thoughts- it means we can potentially tap into and even manipulate it in our own ways (up to a point).  This is where it becomes possible to perform spells and magic.  I'm not an expert; I'm barely even starting out.  So I won't speak more about that here or now.  Maybe never.

    I probably should do more research into Kemeticism.  But I've very much got my hands full with my Druidry research and studies (when I actually get around to it, even!).  Perhaps it'll be a goal for when I retire. (Or, if I get that elusory lotto win between now and then!)

    In the meantime, being a cat-lover, I would dearly love to have some interactions with Bast.  That would obviously be enough to convince me the above hypothesis is off the mark!

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Creating junk journals

Junk journaling

    I came across the idea of junk journaling on YouTube.  And as an environmentalist it appealed to me.  I can use up items which would otherwise end up in landfill, I thought.
    In short, a junk journal is a journal which you make yourself from, e.g., junk mail and the like.

Inspiration
    After watching numerous of the YouTube videos I determined to create a 'true' junk journal.  I.e. using only things which will otherwise go to landfill.  (Hear me out, here.)

Definition
    What's the distinction, you might be wondering?  Well, lots of the existing creators use items which I don't class as junk.  Items like cardboard packaging, which can actually go in the kerbside recycling.  So to me it's not junk, it's recycling.  And people use 'digitals' (which are graphics you download and print).
    Those, to me, are supplies, not junk.  Same thing applies to scrapbooking papers.  They'd be fine if I were in fact scrapbooking, but this is junk journaling I'm talking about...

Disclaimer!
    I'm not trying to be judgmental.  You want to journal with some cardstock, shop bought scrapbooking papers and digitals?  You do you.  100%.  It's not for me to tell you that you can't.

My goal
    For me, though, I'd really wanted (initially) to focus in on those junk bits that can't currently be recycled.

    For example, although some plastic bags can now be recycled in supermarkets together with carrier bags, for food packaging that's often not the case.  Something to do with how it's made to keep the food fresh (lamination?)

    So I wanted to find a way to use some of that stuff in my journal.  And make it somewhat pretty.  (It's not going to be as pretty as the journals made out of scrapbooking papers etc, of course.  But part of the fun is the challenge of how to pretty it up!)

Broadening my definition
    I since became rather addicted!  And I therefore broadened my definition of what could be included in my journals, to improve the aesthetic of the finished item.
    For example, I really like the look of some corrugated cardboard here and there, in collages etc.  So I made an exception for that even though it could go in the kerbside recycling.

    Also, if I receive -say- a piece of junk mail or packaging which has, say, luggage tag or polaroid photo images on it...  Even though it could be recycled, I can't help myself - I gotta snip those out and use 'em.  (Luggage tags decorated up are a big thing in junk journaling, it transpires.)

Original list of materials
    So, what qualified (in my original definition) as junk for junk journaling?
    In short, it was anything which either can't be recycled (in my locality), or which I wasn't sure could be recycled.

~ Fabric scraps;
~ Gift cards (plastic);
~ Greeting cards (often having foil or glitter);
~ Jiffy bags which don't have recyclable printed on them;
~ Pearlescent paper, e.g. greeting card envelopes;
~ Plasticized, greaseproof and waxed paper & card;
~ Plastic and foil type packaging (decorative);
~ Post-it notes (not sure if they can be recycled because of the sticky);
~ Receipts;
~ Ribbon and string leftover from gifts/packaging;
~ Sticky labels (plastic and papery kinds);
~ Tissue paper;
~ Scraps too small for the recycling (paper and card -- we're told they need to be at least the size of a receipt, else they fall through the machines);
~ Stuff with paint, correction fluid etc on it;

Amended list of materials - aka: exceptions
~ Pretty or interesting paper/card from e.g. packaging, including flower images etc which I can use as focal points;
~ Anything tag shaped (from e.g. packaging - including actual tags from clothing etc);
~ Polaroid photo shaped things (from e.g. junk mail);
~ Paper and other items donated to me by friends etc, when they hear about my junk journaling;
~ Existing crafting materials from my supplies stash. 

What I don't use, for the most part
~ Store bought crafting supplies (other than 1 Distress Oxide ink pad I bought, as I couldn't work out an easy way to get the aged look I liked with other substitutes);
~ Printer paper and notebook pages (unless, perhaps, it's had something spilt on it or something);

    So anyway, this post was kind of just a roundabout way to say that I'd been enjoying the challenge of junk journaling.

Wrapping this hobby up

    I wound up rather too addicted, though, and went from 1 crate of saved up materials to 5 (actually, it's probably 7 crates worth of stuff crammed into 5 crates...).
    We live in a tiny apartment, and I'm therefore not lucky enough to have a craft room.  This unfortunately prevents me from actually indulging in my craft, because I instead spend all my time trying to sort through the stuff.  Or, I find don't know what I've got available/where to lay my hands on it.
    So that's a problem, and I'm potentially working up to giving away my stash, to focus on make-do-and-mend as my craft instead.

    It's been an enjoyable time, though.  I recommend it if you're into papercrafting and fancy something a bit different for a change.

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