The temples in ancient Egypt were enormous containing huge sandstone columns and many different compartments to the temple; pictures of deities lined the walls. The sacred part of the temple was the sanctuary in which stood a statue of the resident god. The statues in the temples were made of electrum, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and precious stones. The ancient Egyptians did not regard the god to be manifest in the statue; however, the statue formed a receptacle to the essence (ba) of the god. The ba would enter the statue when cult rituals were performed. The Egyptians would not describe this ba in the abstract terminology of energy, but in the concrete terms of a falcon descending into the statue. To summon the god, the Egyptians would perform the daily offering ritual by physically maintaining the statue and presenting food and drink. The chief priest would be purified and joined by the other priests, before gathering the materials required. They would then proceed to the temple sanctuary and start with a series of recitations and preparations. The priest would scatter white sand on the floor and spray the statue with perfume. Then he would offer the god lengths of red, white, and green cloth and adorn the statue with jewelry. It seems as though the general population had knowledge of the cult rituals. For example, the priests were drawn from the community so that many had first-hand experience of the rituals, and there were pictures of the rituals on temple walls accessible to the public.
The Egyptians had an close relationship with their gods and there were a variety of ways in which to contact the gods. Temples were mostly restricted to priests, however, parts of the temple were accessible to the public. Much of the worship of ordinary people took place outside the temple. For example, the triple shrine of Seti II (which was not yet enclosed in a temple at the time of its construction) was a place of assembly. Some of the walls of a shrine or temple had holes cut into them to support fabric that fit over the individual to support privacy while they prayed. These shrines were associated with the more common of gods. Since not everyone was allowed in the temple, people instantiated private statue cults to be placed in the temple. The statues were placed there to absorb and transmit the prayers and rituals to their owners. The statues would not be made to resemble the purchaser, but would be inscribed with their name, The statue cults were mostly a phenomenon of the mid and upper elite. The Egyptians also placed votive figurines of women, animals, and gods in houses, temples, and tombs as offerings to the gods in thanks to a god or to get them to act on the petitioner’s behalf. Votive figurines were used in all the dynastic periods and different votive figurines were used for different purposes. Self-devotion to a particular god was rare, but on occasion, an individual would declare special devotion to a single god.
Idealism Studies 