Ammut: A goddess with the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion or leopard, and the rear of a hippopotamus whose job it is to devour the hearts of the worst sinners and thus ensure their nonexistence as punishment for their deeds.

Aset: The Kemetic (i.e. original) name for the goddess Isis. Mother goddess; also, goddess of healing and magic.

Book of the Dead: Initially, a scroll with spells guaranteed to ensure that the buyer of the spells enters the Field of Reeds (heaven) in the afterlife.

Hathor: The Greek name for the goddess Het-Hert, goddess of love, marriage, fertility and all that stuff. 🙂

Heru-Wer: The Kemetic (original) name for the god known as Horus the Elder. Heru-Wer is the son of Wesir and Aset, as well as the patron of the pharaoh. Each pharaoh was considered to be “the living Horus.”

Het-Hert: The Kemetic (original) name for the goddess Hathor.

Isis: The Greek name for the goddess Aset.

Kemetic: A follower of the ancient Egyptian religion as practiced today.

Kemeticism: The ancient Egyptian religion as practiced today.

Kheperu: An expression roughly translating to the word “Hallelujah,” as in, “Hallelujah, our team won!” I’ve started using it as a synonym for such expressions as “May it be so” and “Amen.”

Nebet-Het: The original name of the goddess Nephthys.

Nephthys: The Greek name for the goddess Nebet-Het. Sister of Aset, Wesir, and Set; also, the wife of Set. Goddess of change and death.

Name of Netjer: The designation for one of the individual “aspects” (my term) of God, such as Aset, Wesir, etc. The ancient Egyptian concept of God is way more complicated than most people realize. For a deep dive (which you may or may not be able to follow in its entirety; I know I didn’t, but what I did grasp was absolutely fascinating), I recommend Erik Hornung’s book Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt.

Netjer: pl. Netjeru. The Kemetic term for God.

Osiris: The Greek name for the god Wesir.

Set: Brother of Wesir, Aset and Nebet-Het. God of chaos, and protector of Ra in his sun boat as he traverses the Underworld each night. Set gets an extremely bad rap these days, maybe due to the existence of some ancient stories that do portray Him as a villain. This is another one of those “it’s not that simple” things from ancient Egypt.

Unyear: Also called Epagomenal Days. The five days “outside” the standard, 360-day year observed by the Egyptians, yielding a total of 365. Different temples assign different gods’ birthdays to these days, but in my temple of Per Ankh, the order is as follows: Wesir’s Day, Heru-Wer’s Day, Set’s Day, Aset’s Day, and Nebet-Het’s Day. The following day is Wep Ronpet.

Wep Ronpet: The Kemetic New Year. Traditionally celebrated on the day of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius over Memphis. The rising of Sirius (called Sopdet back in the day) also signaled the coming of the Nile flood, an event that all of Egyptian society depended on. In modern times, Wep Ronpet can be celebrated whenever Sirius rises in your neck of the woods.

Wesir: The Kemetic (i.e. original) name for the god Osiris, Lord of the Underworld.