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reincarnation in Atenism?
Topic Started: Jun 18 2013, 01:02 PM (902 Views)
AmarnaGirl
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I'm not sure if this topic has been posted yet,but it's something I've pondered over: the idea of reincarnation in present-day Atenism. I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that reincarnation was not part of Atenism in Akhenaten's time (it wasn't really a concept in ancient Egyptian religion,that I know of),however,times and ideas change,and the Atenism of today is not the same as it was back then.

There is a wide variety of beliefs in modern Atenism - there is no set structure. So I'm curious what you all think of reincarnation as a theological idea in Atenism today. (Some people may subscribe to the idea, and others may not. I'm still not sure what I think of it myself,but it's an interesting topic of discussion,as there are many faiths today that teach this concept.)

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aper_el
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Akhenaten cleaned house He did away with the different gods and life after death...that's one of the reasons you had to go through him to grasp his Aten and it's love of life...the old way had to go, Aten was ahead of it's time a wholesome giver of life. The Sun was everything.

Aper_El
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AmarnaGirl
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*nods* That is a very similar viewpoint to the Christians (you have to go through Jesus first - he's the only way to salvation,etc.) In the Atenism of Akhenaten's time it was the same type of concept: you had to go through Akhenaten to get to the Aten. But like I said,times and ideas change. So are you saying there's no room for the concept of reincarnation in today's Atenism as well? Atenism now isn't the same as it was then. (There may be some reconstructionist Atenists out there,but for the most part,Atenism has been redefined from what it used to be.)
Edited by AmarnaGirl, Jun 19 2013, 02:11 PM.
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aper_el
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AmarnaGirl
Jun 19 2013, 08:25 AM
*nods* That is a very similar viewpoint to the Christians (you have to go through Jesus first - he's the only way to salvation,etc.) In the Atenism of Akhenaten's time it was the same type of concept: you had to go through Akhenaten to get to the Aten. But like I said,times and ideas change. So are you saying there's no room for the concept of reincarnation in today's Atenism as well? Atenism now isn't the same as it was then. (There may be some reconstructionist Atenists out there,but for the most part,Atenism has been redefined from what it used to be.)

AmarnaGirl

Quote:

So are you saying there's no room for the concept of reincarnation in today's
Aten?
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Akhenaten did away with all the Gods of the Amun religion.The Sun giveth
and taketh.

Akhenaten saw how the Amun priests were making money off the Gods...different Gods for different sicknesses.

I never ran across any words of Akhenaten saying anything about the here after. At least I can't recall any.

Aper_El
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AmarnaGirl
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aper_el
Jun 24 2013, 01:13 PM

Akhenaten did away with all the Gods of the Amun religion.The Sun giveth
and taketh.

Akhenaten saw how the Amun priests were making money off the Gods...different Gods for different sicknesses.

I never ran across any words of Akhenaten saying anything about the here after. At least I can't recall any.

Aper_El



I think that's exactly the problem: there WAS no afterlife really,in Atenism. People had no afterlife to look forward to: all the traditional beliefs were eliminated,with nothing to replace them (there was some vague reference to Atenism's "afterlife" in a book about Nefertiti,by Joyce Tyldesley,if I recall.) It promised nothing to the followers,with the exception of Akhenaten himself. But my question to start this topic wasn't about Atenism in Akhenaten's time,it was about people's opinions of the idea of reincarnation for modern Atenism today,not back then. Is it a feasible theory or not? Different system in a different time and place. We really don't know a whole lot about Atenism as Akhenaten had it,and what we do know doesn't sound very appealing for his people. There were many reasons Atenism didn't "take" in Akhenatens' time,but the biggest reason for its' failure was Akhenaten himself.

Akhenaten was tolerant of other gods in his early reign (Thoth was accepted,Bes,Taweret,Ra,etc) as it was more of a henotheistic system at the start,not monotheistic. Even in the city of Amarna itself,excavations have revealed amulets and jewelry of the deities Bes and Taweret,which were still worshiped by the Egyptians under Akhenaten,even in Amarna. His main hatred was against Amun,but even he couldn't erase the familiar household deities of the people,as his own city showed.
Edited by AmarnaGirl, Jun 24 2013, 03:47 PM.
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Ankhemmaat
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Well I kind of see a problem in including reincarnation in Atenism. We have no knowledge of what the afterlife was in Atenism.
I'm not sure if there is any concept remotely related to reincarnation. Reincarnation is an Eastern Dharmic belief that goes hand in hand with karma. To introduce reincarnation into Atenism you would also have to introduce karma as well, and we may never know what Ankenaton believed, but I don't see any concepts related to karma or that would support the use of karma in Atenism. This is a problem I've seen in Wicca and other New Age traditions trying to incorporate karma and by extension reincarnation. It introduces too much foreign concepts into a tradition that may already be all over the place and would further dilute the tradition into something that it is not or that it wasn't meant to be.
The concept of "self" as a singular and coherent entity is a fictional construct, and an individual rather comprises conflicting tensions and knowledge claims (e.g. gender, class, profession, etc). The interpretation of meaning of a text is therefore dependent on a reader's own personal concept of self.
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Pharaoh
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Because one of the features of Atenism is rationality and doubt of untrue and erroneous claims, we must apply doubt to any claim which doesn't appear to be supported by the facts. So continue to doubt what cannot be proven. This is fine. However, the existence of unconditional love comes from the Aten directly. Though reincarnation is a myth it doesn't mean that consciousness/soul doesn't exist. Consciousness continues onward after death, but I highly doubt that that consciousness will again enter into another human body. There is no proof for the existence of reincarnation, as far as I know. If you wish to maintain the belief in reincarnation whilst remaining an Atenist, I ask that you provide at least some evidence and/or logic to support your claims.
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Astennu
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The topic of reincarnation has popped up periodically. Some have supported it, others a more traditional view of the afterlife based on ancient Egyptian beliefs. The problem, which someone already noted, is that we have no records specifying what Akhenaten taught in regards to the afterlife. Personally, I have gone back and forth between reincarnation and some for of afterlife based on ancient Egypt. Maybe a combination of those two somehow would work for some?
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