I've also been trying to research Mafdet for several years. The one actual academic reference I've found is an article in German, and this is its information:
Magazine of the German Morgenlaendi society, Wiesbaden (ZDMG) die Pantherkatze Mafdet, ZDMG 118, number 2, 1968, 248-256
Hope that helps -- you know -- a tiny bit. It is from 1968, so not up-to-date ...
Oh! Also an article by one G. D. Hornblower, The Divine Cat and the Snake in Egypt. That's even older, from a 1943 volume of a journal called Man. (?) If you have access to JSTOR, you might have seen it already on a cursory search for 'mafdet,' but I figured I'd put that down too.
Contact profmurphy She is a PhD in Anthropology studying pagan communities. She has read more books and knows more obscure deities than you can poke a Ritual dagger at.
I can pretty much only speak for Wepwawet here, I don't know much about Mafdet.
There's a book I'm looking at right now which includes Wepwawet: Swifter Than the Arrow: The Golden Hunting Hounds of Ancient Egypt, by Michael Rice - I have no idea how academic it is, though, as I have only had access to it via Google Books. You can also look in The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Wilkinson, and find some good information. Other than that, most of my research has been piecemeal - little bits and snatches of information picked up here and there
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I'd be more than happy to chat to a fellow follower of Wepwawet, as I am the only person I know (apart from a couple of others) who have even heard of Him, let alaone have spent any time in his service. One of my covensisters is a long time devotee of Anpu, and it's always nice to talk to her, as we seem to be part of a small minority in our particular community who see Them as seperate entities in their own right.
I know a little about Wepwawet as he's a form of Apnu that I follow. Different academics say different things about him. I fear I don't have actual books at had so perhaps my words can lead you down the right roads. With that said you probably know more about him than I :-D
Wepwawet is sometimes seen as the winter form of Anubis. While Anubis takes hold in the summer, Wepwawet rules the winter months. Other research states that Wepwawet is Anubis's son, born from a mother I can't seem to find. One Authority said Anput was his wife, but they only mention a daughter out of them called Kebechet. Wepwawet is a white jackal. He's a warrior and leads warriors into battle. He helps Anubis when he's king of the underworld or aids when Anubis is out protecting Isis. It appears differences and contradictory information comes from different parts of egypt and according to when the cults formed. Most of the information I've given comes from Northern Egypt.
Hopefully I've helped a little. Good luck in your search :-)
As for Wepwawet, the author to look for is Terrence duQuesne - a professor of Egyptology who has recently had an exhibition in the Cairo museum on the jackal deities and also authored a massive book on the jackal stelae with lots of information on Wepwawet therein. If you can get hold of Discussion in Egyptology, this article
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If you don't mind and have the time I would very much like that translation. I don't have a hope at being able to get hold of that and even if I did I can't understand Czech!
If you've worked with these dieties for some time then why do you need academic validation? If you like what you've 'seen' then take what you want. The academics can only give their best guess based on relics and trends.
Not professor DuQuesne. I might be wrong, but from what I've read, I have a strong feeling he is actually working with Wepwawet in the pagan sense of the word. Or at least magical. Until relatively recently, that would have been the norm among intellectuals - the founder of Czech Egyptology was involved in magic and was quite famous in those circles :o)
I get the feeling you're new to this community... :-)
I'll say this a little more gently than others might: part of being a responsible and intellectually honest pagan is making at least some sort of effort to see if your personal UPG actually accords with historically known reality.
Personal spiritual experience is inherently subjective, and before being too hasty to accept it as "reality", it's a good idea to fact-check your impressions and see if they are actually consistent to any degree with the reality that exists outside your head.
That'd be where the "nonfluffy" part of nonfluffypagans comes in.
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Magazine of the German Morgenlaendi society, Wiesbaden (ZDMG)
die Pantherkatze Mafdet, ZDMG 118, number 2, 1968, 248-256
Hope that helps -- you know -- a tiny bit. It is from 1968, so not up-to-date ...
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There's a book I'm looking at right now which includes Wepwawet: Swifter Than the Arrow: The Golden Hunting Hounds of Ancient Egypt, by Michael Rice - I have no idea how academic it is, though, as I have only had access to it via Google Books. You can also look in The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Wilkinson, and find some good information. Other than that, most of my research has been piecemeal - little bits and snatches of information picked up here and there ( ... )
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I work with both Yinepu and Wepwawet
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Wepwawet is sometimes seen as the winter form of Anubis. While Anubis takes hold in the summer, Wepwawet rules the winter months. Other research states that Wepwawet is Anubis's son, born from a mother I can't seem to find. One Authority said Anput was his wife, but they only mention a daughter out of them called Kebechet. Wepwawet is a white jackal. He's a warrior and leads warriors into battle. He helps Anubis when he's king of the underworld or aids when Anubis is out protecting Isis. It appears differences and contradictory information comes from different parts of egypt and according to when the cults formed. Most of the information I've given comes from Northern Egypt.
Hopefully I've helped a little. Good luck in your search :-)
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Bonnett, Hans 2000: Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte, Berlin - New York: Walet de Gruyter.
and recall there's a lot here too:
Griffiths, J. Gwyn 1960: The Origins of Osiris [MÄS 9], Berlin: Bruno Hessling.
Griffiths, J. Gwyn 1980: The Origins of Osiris and his Cult, Brill.
The older one is available online through google books.
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I'll say this a little more gently than others might: part of being a responsible and intellectually honest pagan is making at least some sort of effort to see if your personal UPG actually accords with historically known reality.
Personal spiritual experience is inherently subjective, and before being too hasty to accept it as "reality", it's a good idea to fact-check your impressions and see if they are actually consistent to any degree with the reality that exists outside your head.
That'd be where the "nonfluffy" part of nonfluffypagans comes in.
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