I completely forgot to post the announcement here, but I released the new album on Friday!
My spouse encountered the word “betweenity” in a list of unusual words that should be more common, and I agree.
I was going to use the name anyway, so it is a handy coincidence that the album was released on the last “day upon the year” of the Kemetic Orthodox calendar — a set of 5 (sometimes 6) days inserted between the end and beginning of a 360-day calendar year. In that religion, that is a time of uncertainty and disruption, but also celebration and ritual as each day celebrates the birth of one of the major gods. At dawn of the first day of the new year, everything is put right, and the Nile flood follows (allowing life-sustaining agriculture, kind of a big deal!)
I was Kemetic Orthodox for several years, a priest in fact. My religious status for the past several years could be described as betweenity. I don’t not believe, and I still love the gods, but at the same time, I am not participating as part of the temple or praying regularly. (*) This is something that I’m generally at peace with, even though I don’t particularly know why I’m at peace with it. (And I can imagine experienced Kemetic Orthodox folks nodding and saying “that sounds exactly what a Seshat child would say, if you can get them to talk in the first place,” and, well, yeah.)
Near the end of each year, there is a specific festival in which an oracle declares which god(s) will preside over the coming year. For this year, it is Nefertem, “the Beautifully Complete”, and a lot of it went right to my heart. I don’t, at this time, see myself returning to the temple but this is giving me something to think about.
(*) a bit here to make my stance clear on something. I very much dislike the closed-minded dogmatism of certain major religions. A large part of what drew me to Kemetic Orthodoxy is that it claims no exclusivity to “The Truth” — it can’t, it has multiple different creation stories, gods older than their own parents or who existed before the first god created himself, etc. It has no opposition to or denial of science, nor other religions. And the rules for being a good human all basically come down to “don’t ruin it for other people.” And it doesn’t proselytize. If I had to summarize what the point of the religion is, I would say it’s an art rather than a poor substitute for science, and it can give personal meaning, motivation, peace and strength.