An Overview of Ancient Egypt Religious Beliefs

The religious beliefs in Ancient Egypt were in fact actually similar to our own modern times. Not all Egyptians believed in or worshipped the same group of Gods, just as today, not all Christians worship God in the same way or even, for that matter do all facets of Christianity recognize the same principles. Similarly, not all people of the modern world agree on the many religions, the role that God plays, or in some instances if there is just one or any superior or supreme being. Yet again, just as in modern times, these varying beliefs did not cause the Ancient Egyptians to be less devoted or dedicated to their beliefs. They were very devout.

In Ancient Egypt, you would find individual kings worshipping their own gods. This was also true for the priests. You even found this amongst the workers, peasants and merchants. There was no complete and simple unification of a religious belief, what Gods should be worshipped, or even always what role they were playing in the Egyptian culture of that time.

The ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses. Each one with their own role to play in maintaining peace and harmony across the land. But these beliefs would be tempered and altered by many different things.

It is also interesting to know the very humanistic qualities that their Gods had. Similar to the Gods of Greek and Roman mythology, These Egyptian Gods lived, died, hunted, went to war, gave birth, ate, drank, and had all-so-human emotions. Their gods reigns overlapped, and, sometimes their reigns would be merged. Their was no organized hierarchy structure of their reign. In so many ways, the Egyptians Writings cause one to consider that their Gods could seem to be a more of an intelligent and capable group of men, not actually Gods as we might perceive them - spiritual embodiment and eternal.

It is interesting to note how the dominance of the various gods would change depending on the reigning kings interpretations. The dominance would be connected to where the King wanted his capital in the land. As the location of the gods would be aligned to the location of the king's capital, then the myths would also changed.

Also, the Egyptians had a strong belief about the power in a name. Names were considered to be both mystic and full of power. If you were to write an enemy's name on something and then break it, you could cause your enemy to become ill and perhaps even die. Knowing a name gave you power. Due to the importance of names amongst the ancient Egyptians, each God had five names. These names were associated with the elements and celestial bodies or described the God, such as strong or powerful.

To illustrate this point: The God of all Creation was Re, Amun, Ptah, Khnum or Aten. And the name that he would be called by would be dependent upon the location of the capital and the personal beliefs of the current reigning King.

One point that remained relatively consistent amongst the change was the concept that some gods and goddesses took part in creation, while others were responsible for the bringing of the annual floods, or the offering of protection and of course some took care of people after they died. Others were either local gods who represented towns, or minor gods who represented plants or animals.

There is strong consistency however in the creation story. All agree that before there were gods there was only a stagnant ocean called "Nu" and from this ocean over a very long period of time arose a hill. It is believed that the early stone step pyramids are a representation of this first hill. From this Hill came the God of Creation. It was also believed from the Ancient writings that there was a time when their Gods actually lived on earth. This in part may help to give a better understanding as to why the Pharaohs believed they would be transcended at death into a God.