Gathering Places

[prntrkmt]

Federal requirement to be a religion: "c. Gathering Places: Many religions designate particular structures or places as sacred, holy, or significant. These sites often serve as gathering places for believers. They include physical structures, such as churches, mosques, temples, pyramids, synagogues, or shrines; and natural places, such as springs, rivers, forests, plains, or mountains."

For those who are members of the Kemetic religion (particularly Am Khent Kemeticism), there is the advantage that the court ruling specifically names "pyramids" -- and nobody can deny that the ancient Egyptians built pyramids. The first true pyramids ever (the first architect was Imhotep). The largest pyramid ever built (Khufu or Cheops). The only surviving of the seven wonders of the ancient world (even though the Muslims DID try to tear them down -- they were so massive and so well built that the Muslims gave up).

The court also mentions "temples" and the Kemetic religion had a major influence on Western temples. The ancient Egyptians invented the column that is a feature of almost every Western temple. The ancient Egyptians initially started by cutting temples from rock formations, but soon figured out how to build with free-standing stone. The ability to build with free-standing stone is one of the four basic tests of civilization.

The court mentions "shrines". Prior to stone temples, the ancient Egyptians used wooden shrines. Every town along the Nile had a central shrine. People would leave offerings to the divine at the wooden shrines. Eventually the ancient Egyptians started placing shrines at oasis and other travel spots, allowing travellers to honor the divine while resting and drinking water. These travel shrines (and the oasis or other water spot) would be marked with a flag on a tall pole (allowing the oasis to be spotted from a distance). The heiroglyph for the divine (NTR, pronounced Neter or Netjer or Netcher) is a picture of a flag on top of a flag pole.

The court mentions "rivers". The ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile (which they called Hapi) was a God and a Goddess and that the river was divine. Hapi was depicted with both an erect penis and full breasts and held two water jars, the water spilling and merging into a single stream fo water. These two water jugs represented the twin sources of the Nile, the Blue Nile and the White Nile. This deity eventually becomes the Zodiac constellation Aquarius.

The court does not specifically mention gardens, but the temple at Per-bastet (which the Greeks called Bubastis) was famous for its magnificent garden. Gardens were extremely important to the ancient Egyptians, representative of the power of Pharaoh and symbol of the continued existence of the universe.

These holy gardens are particularly important to those who honor and worship the Goddess Bast. And the growing of cannabis is central to a garden of Bast. It is the smoke of cannabis that puts a believer directly in contact with Bast. it is under the influence of cannabis that Bast delivers Her revelations to Her followers.

It is probably wise that followers of Am Khent Kemeticism to clearly mark their gardens as "sacred, holy, and significant" to Bast.

Many garden supply stores have small "Egyptian cat" statues. Those are actually statues of Bast in cat form (in cat form this Goddess is called Bastet). Whether your garden is indoors or outdoors, you can place a Bastet statue in your garden.

You might also want to place a small cat figurine at the location where you store your sacred cannabis.
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