Religious paths

There are about 12-13 paths in the Egyptian "religion". There are 7 religious paths having cult centers and distinctive pantheons. In addition, there are 5-6 disciplines, each a methodology of its own, with no set pantheon or cult centers.

As time passes, these paths are being revealed as having evolved from the pre-dynastic and early dynasties' diversity of cults. There are several questions to answer to get a picture of each path.

What type of path is it?
Where and what are its centers?
What God/dess principles were used?
Who are its teachers?
How is the Path constructed?
What literature or reading material is available for the Path?
What are its specific teachings and exercise

While Egypt may not be the seed for them all, its paths encompassed most esoteric disciplines, meditations, Tantric, martial arts, ceremonial magic, Wicca, and alchemy, to name a few. Almost all sources of information are from temples, tomb walls, papyri biographical stelae, and excavations.

The pantheon of the god Ra and of the city Heliopolis (City of the Sun) is the focal point of this path. Popular in earliest times, and national force during the XVIII-XXII dynasty. It, of all the paths was a fairly complex Kabbalistic type structure. From a full size Tree of Life in the Temple courtyard, a 10 part archetype pantheon, a 21 step path, and a complete "route" through the Astral Plane and probably higher, the parallels are obvious.
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The "Royal Road" as it is known esoterically. It incorporates the God principle of Serapis and probably is the forerunner of the Tarot.

The Serapis temples have illustrations that correspond to the Major Arcana,besides being somewhat associated with alchemy. Its centers were in Memphis, Alexandria, and Italy. It originally was a meditation/ nature/ animal husbandry cult and evolved into a meditation/ alchemical path using illustrations reminiscent of and corresponding to the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
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The path of Ptah originates in Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, and comprises 4 disciplines. Exoterically, it is a path and discipline of artists and craftsmen of all sorts. Esoterically, it also was the center of pre-Pythagorean mysticism using form in the art and temples and Gematria in the hieroglyphic language to express the teachings. It also had the creative side of alchemy using the whole pantheon of Memphis as symbolic archetypes of alchemy.
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One papyrus fragment called it the Path of Resurrection, and a late dynastic Greek called it the Path of the People. The mystery tradition is one of the most published, either as translations or as a commentary. In the XVIII dynasties and later, the Book of the Dead defines Osiris mythology and His section of the astral plane. The Book of the Dead is in many instances but a revised part of special or everyday rituals. The initiation center is still at Abydos where the tomb of Osiris is secretly located.

This path is primarily of the triad Osiris, Isis, and Horus and was a forerunner of the Christian triad.
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Up until the XVIII dynasty the Path of Amon in Thebes was primarily a mystical path using meditations and mantras as the chief methods of spiritual enlightenment. Most ancient sources, mainly osteraca and papyri have an overwhelming amount of very short ritual sayings, some with directions identical to those commonly found in meditation and mantras. (editor's note: osteraca are very thin sheets of rock which were the by product of excavation and used as writing material by those who could not afford the more expensive papyrus).

In the XVIII dynasty Amon was combined with Ra, and the exoteric side of Ra was attached to Amon, thereby creating a large ceremonial - magical priesthood, and an inner core of an eastern tradition type of priest.
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It has been known for some time that the guards of many of Egyptian temples were the "Shemsu Heru" or followers of Horus. Most of them, as well as many of Egyptian officers in the army were warrior priests of Horus. Although there are other paths, (eg. astrology, alchemy, etc. -- Horus has 24 forms) the primary focus of this path was on the martial arts. Fighting techniques include hand to hand and stick combat, archery and spear throwing.
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As far back as has been researched, the god Thoth, or Tehuti from Hermopolis was considered the god of intelligence and wisdom. Wisdom is not just abstract philosophy but a working wisdom and ethic. The basic premise that affected all Egypt was to develop each individual person to his fullest potential. In the Path Of Wisdom there is some training to be a "renaissance" person. The pantheon consists of Thoth, Seshat, and Maat.

Current archeological information is occasionally circumstantial, or specific but spotty, or in some cases very complete, particularly in the philosophy texts themselves. Biographical stelae also contain much information. The center was in Hermopolis, or the City of Thoth, located between Thebes and Memphis, and slightly north of the City of Aten. Currently the temple and complex is under a town and has yet to yield its secrets. Many of the judges, most of the viziers, and all of the well known great viziers were priests of Maat. Since there is only a shrine known to Her, they must have obtained their training in Hermopolis proper. Although it has an abstract mytho-philosophical system, most of the knowledge, or wisdom texts are philosophical approaches to an individuals' relationship to the outside world, as well as within himself. It contained codes of conduct for the priest/ess, as well as the correct approach for the relationships one has with ones equals, superiors, inferiors, yourself, and the Gods themselves.
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It appears from most recent research that the center of Hermopolis taught two paths, the Path of Wisdom and the Path of Ritual Magic. Conclusive evidence points to two separate systems taught at the same time throughout most if not all of this temple. In the biographical references to the viziers and judges, there are almost no references to them being taught any form of magic, or practicing with a group that did even though they were taught at the Temple of Thoth. Magicians, on the other hand, the Setep-Sa, were also taught at the Temple of Thoth, but according to any and all biographical references, they were not taught or brought up in the wisdom classes. The Path of Ritual Magic included other occult arts such as psychometry, some forms of divination, astrology, and healing. It is closely aligned to the path of the Wise Women or the Aahti Sesheta. As god of magic Thoth taught Isis everything she knows about magic. Of the 31 known male Setep-Sa with biographical material, 22 were priests of Thoth, and 6 others spent some time in the temple.
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Here astrology and astronomy go hand in hand. In the burial monuments of the late period all astronomer/ astrologers spent time in Denderah or were priests of Hathor or Horus. The two best known centers of Egypt of this path are the temples of Horus at Edfu, and Hathor at Denderah, located on either side of Thebes. Magic was based entirely on the movements of the heavenly bodies, with gods and goddesses associated with the planets, zodiacal constellations, other constellations, and individual stars. Extremely solar and lunar oriented, the astrology/astronomy was fully developed by the 18th dynasty, about 1700 B.C. and seems to have been fairly complete as early as 2500 B.C. Whether the centers of Edfu and Denderah were just as important back 4500 years ago is not known, but it appears that charts were cast, and an accurate calendar system made.

The results of the temple schools are more evident than the school itself: Zodiac circles in the temples, astronomy texts, astrology signs on temples and tombs, etc. Sky goddesses such as Hathor and Nut figure prominately in the rites, along with invocations of particular star sign gods. Rituals, of course, were determined by solar, lunar, or zodiacal considerations.
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The following are paths which do not have an exclusive pantheon, or cult centre. They were methods or disciplines easily converted into any religious path.

"The Golden Work" said Ptahotep's father "is started by Nefertum and His priests, continued by Sekhmet and Her attendants, and ends in Ptah's laboratory..." The father of modern alchemy is Zoisomos, followed by Paracelsus. The city of Zoisomos and seat of alchemy has been located by most current alchemists and scholars in Egypt. Bolos of Mendes, Maria the Egyptian, and Hermes Trismigestus, are all late Egyptian alchemists. But alchemy started much earlier with the cults of Ptah, Thoth, Horus and later, Serapis. The associations of alchemy, the Phoenix, Secret Fire, Prime Material, distilling apparatus, and other symbology were in the Egyptian paths in a very early period (IV dynasty) the worm Ouroboros is represented by the serpent with the tail in his mouth and is the symbol of the city and nome state of Hermopolis, home of Thoth/ Hermes Trismigistus, and the earliest alchemical writing known in the last 2,000 years, the Emerald Tablet.
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All houses of families had a shrine area. The bigger the house, the larger it was. If the head was not a priest/ess then either the eldest son or daughter was in charge of the family rites, and therefore initiated into a temple, and returned to the family. Likewise in the village, people would want to work with such a person and they formed a "Circle". This path is extremely close to Wicca in style and content. Many pieces of evidence substantiate this path, Goddess and nature worship is extremely strong and all forms of magic in Wicca are reflected here. There is no "head" god or goddess, since it totally depended either on the individual or the circle which god/dess became the primary one. Sometimes the head of the pantheon of a particular circle changed with the seasons, and many circles were held in sacred groves, gardens, or trees. The most popular god/dess cult was that of Isis (which also had no central control), Thoth, Heka, Neith, Bast, and Bes.
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A cursory study seems to establish this path form the end of the IV dynasty to the XIII. Special movements and acts were used: The two people involved were initiated in their respective paths, and two sources state that the V dynasty pharoahs were established by Tantric magic "as it has been, and will continue." The Tantric act to make the V dynasty kings entailed the priest and priestess invoking their respective deities, both within and without, practicing some Kundalini and achieving climax to pinpoint their power. This took place in the temple of mystery called Sahadu.
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This discipline can be found in biographical stelae of doctors and surgeons, as well as medical papyri. Major temples: Thoth, Anubis, Sekmet, Hathor, Isis.
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Editor’s note: The particular specific paths discussed are by no means the only permissible expression of worship for that God or Goddess. For instance, no one currently involved in the CES Horus cult has any particular interest or skill in martial arts, and our Priest of Thoth is a graphic and literary artist, not a physician. The means of approaching the Gods are infinite in number, as the Gods are infinite in number.