This religious duality is still seen to a remarkable degree in present-day Egypt, where both Moslem and Christian peasant women retain a deep-rooted belief in the malignancy of certain spirits and the awesome powers of the evil eye. A village wife wishing to conceive a child, for example, is far more likely to call upon the spirits of her dead children or to obtain a spell from the local magician than to pray to Allah, and would not see this as a betrayal of her ‘official’ faith. Many modern village women feel that the ancient monuments of Egypt themselves possess magical or spiritual powers, and while walking across an archaeological site it is not unusual to find evidence for modern fertility rites – usually small heaps of recently broken pottery – associated with the ancient statues and images. Winifred Blackman observed this same phenomenon in an Egyptian village in the 1920s, where she attempted to help childless women conceive by enlisting the aid of ancient relics and modern Egyptian-style charms:
The ritual was as follows. The women first repaired to one of the ancient decorated tomb-chapels, conducted thither by one of our servants who had the key. On entering they each stepped seven times backwards and forwards over what they supposed to be the mouth of the shaft admitting to the subterranean burial chamber. When this performance was over they returned to the undecorated tomb-chapel in which I lived. Here I produced the charms, two of which were placed on the ground at a time. Then each woman solemnly stepped over them backwards and forwards seven times. Four charms in all were used, representing the head of Isis, a mummified divinity, a scarab and a cat. When this was accomplished the lower jaw-bone of an ancient Egyptian skull was placed on the ground. The same ceremony was yet again performed, being repeated with two complete ancient Egyptian heads, one a well-preserved mummified head, the other a skull. A glass of water was then brought, into which the blue glazed charms were dropped. Each woman drank some of the water, and then picked out the charms and sucked them, and some rubbed their bodies with these magical objects, and also applied the water to their persons.
Happily, Miss Blackman was able to report that at least two of the ladies helped in this way became pregnant soon after receiving their unorthodox treatment.
The state religion of ancient Egypt evolved with the unification of the country and remained relatively consistent throughout the Dynastic era, although it was at all times receptive to new ideas and flexible enough to accept foreign influences. Before unification each town or village simply worshipped its own omnipotent totem who provided a rational explanation for the puzzling and often frightening natural phenomena which would otherwise have worried the whole community. Everyone understood that neighbouring areas respected different gods, and people were happy to accept the polytheistic concept of many deities existing simultaneously while retaining their personal loyalty to one particular being. Following unification, several specific cults started to rise to prominence and, although individual communities continued to worship their own local gods, major national deities began to emerge. In particular, the cults of Re, the sun god, and Horus, the god associated with royalty, became politically very important due to the increased patronage of the king.
You are Amen, the Lord of the silent, who pays heed to the voice of the poor. When I call to you in my distress you come to rescue me. You give breath to me in my wretchedness and release me from my bondage.
New Kingdom stela from Deir el-Medina
It was not until the New Kingdom that some of the more conspicuous national gods started to take on particular specialized attributes and characteristics, a change which led directly to the development of Egyptian mythology. Meanwhile, the smaller regional cults continued to flourish under the supervision of local priestly families. Local temples and shrines were endowed with land and property by the monarch and their gods and goddesses, who were also included in the wider state pantheon, continued in their role as regional omnipotent deity. This dual role is somewhat confusing to modern observers but was perfectly acceptable to the Egyptians. For example, at Hermopolis Magna in Middle Egypt the ibis- or baboon-headed god Thoth, state god of writing and learning, was worshipped not simply because of his impressive educational skills but as the supreme deity of the region; the two distinct aspects of Thoth were certainly not felt to be mutually incompatible. The local versions of the gods and goddesses were generally far less specialized than their counterparts in the state pantheon, being more strongly associated with nature and the annual cycle of the Nile inundation which played an important part in day-to-day life.
Throughout this time the relationship between the ordinary people and the principal gods was conducted, in theory at least, exclusively through the monarch. The king, as a god himself, was the only person able to communicate with his fellow deities, and he automatically became the chief priest of all Egyptian cults. However, as he obviously could not be physically present to serve every god in every temple, priests were appointed from upper-class families to deputize for the king and perform all the necessary rituals. The monarch would normally choose to delegate much of his routine work to these deputies but would wish to be seen officiating during the important annual festivals of the major national gods, especially the Opet festival for Amen, the state god of the Egyptian Empire, when the statues of the god, his consort Mut and their child Khonsu were taken in a lengthy procession from the Luxor temple to the nearby temple of Karnak. This ritual journey was a great public spectacle, and the banks of the Nile were lined with Egyptians eager to get a glimpse of their god.