Anubis

How Anubis is worshipped

Approaching Anubis requires the practitioner to be honest about the nature of what they are entering. He is a deity of thresholds, endings, transformation, and death — not in the horror-film sense, but in the sense that all real transformation requires the death of what was. Before working with Anubis, purify yourself with natron solution (baking soda and salt in water, applied to hands and face) and wear clean clothing, ideally black or white linen. The ancient Egyptians wore black in Anubis's honor — black, as noted, was the color of the fertile Nile black land and of regeneration, not of evil or mourning in the Western sense. Light black candles on your altar, or dark red ones. Burn myrrh incense — myrrh was central to the embalming process and is one of the most direct sensory invocations of his domain. If you are approaching Anubis on behalf of a deceased loved one, place a photograph or memento of that person on your altar along with offerings of food, water, and light. Speak their name aloud — in ancient Egyptian theology, to speak the name of the dead is to give them life and sustenance.

Heka — sacred performative speech — is as central to Anubis's worship as to any other Kemetic deity. The standard offering formula applies here: 'Hotep di nesu — an offering which the king gives to Anubis, He Who is Upon His Mountain, Lord of the Sacred Land, that he may grant a good burial, passage through the Duat, and the breath of life to [name of the deceased or yourself].' Speak this aloud at your altar. If you are working through grief, you may speak directly to Anubis about what you are experiencing — he is a deity who is present in the full weight of loss, not uncomfortable with it. He does not rush the passage; he accompanies it. The Opening of the Mouth ceremony — a complex funerary rite — is not something the solitary practitioner typically replicates in full, but understanding its structure (the use of sacred tools to awaken the senses of the mummified body, enabling it to receive offerings) illuminates Anubis's role: he is the deity who makes the dead capable of being nourished, honored, and ultimately transformed.

For those in Kemetic Orthodoxy, Anubis (Anpu) is a frequently named RPD deity and has an active role in the Wep Ronpet (New Year) and funerary rites. For the eclectic practitioner, Anubis is often the first Kemetic deity people encounter — his iconography is immediately recognizable, and his domain of death and transformation is one that modern people often bring to spiritual practice as a pressing personal need. If you come to Anubis through grief, through a near-death experience, through work as a hospice worker or funeral professional, or through a deep sense of standing at a threshold in your own life — you have come to the right deity. Be honest with him. Be clean. Bring what you have. He has guided far more frightened souls than yours, and he has not lost one yet that Ma'at declared true.

How do I start honoring Anubis?

If you are drawn to Anubis — perhaps because of grief, a brush with death, work in end-of-life care, or simply the profound pull of his image — begin with honesty and cleanliness. Set up a small space: a black cloth, a candle (black or dark red), a vessel of water, and if you can, a stick of myrrh incense. If you are approaching him on behalf of someone who has died, place their photograph here. Before you light the candle, wash your hands — this is the ancient gesture of purification, of declaring that what you bring to this moment is clean. Then speak aloud: say your name, say why you have come, say the name of the dead person you carry if that is your reason for being here. You do not need elaborate ritual to begin; Anubis has been present at deathbeds since before Egypt was Egypt, and he is not put off by the fact that you are new to this. He asks only for honesty and respect. Do not approach him as a novelty or out of morbid fascination — approach him because you are genuinely standing at a threshold. Read primary sources: the Book of the Dead (translations by E.A. Wallis Budge are antiquated but accessible; Raymond Faulkner's translation is more accurate). Study the images: look at the Papyrus of Ani and sit with the scene of the scales. Let the encounter be real.

A prayer to Anubis

Anpu, Lord of the Sacred Land,
Jackal upon his mountain, steady at the scales —
You who wrapped the body of Osiris with loving hands,
You who know the weight of every heart —

I come before you in clean linen and honest silence.
I burn myrrh in your honor, the fragrance of preparation,
The scent of threshold, of transformation underway.

Guide me through this passage, O Opener of the Way.
Not away from what must end —
But through it, with clear eyes and a steady step.
Let the scales of Ma'at be my measure,
Let your hand steady what trembles within me.

For the dead I carry with me, I offer this light.
Speak their names in the halls I cannot enter:
[speak the names of your dead aloud here]
May they be received. May they be nourished.
May they find the Field of Reeds that was promised.

Anpu, Foremost of the Westerners — I trust your custody.
Hotep di nesu.

Festival days

• Festival of Anubis (celebrated at the opening of the necropolis season)
• Procession of Anubis (attested in temple calendars, exact date varies by nome)
• Festival of the Dead (Wag Festival) — Anubis present as guide of the dead
• Opening of the Year (Wep Ronpet) — Anubis as guardian of the transitional moment
• Festival of Khoiak — the death and resurrection of Osiris, in which Anubis plays the embalmer
• Day of embalming the body of Osiris (mythological calendar)
• Feast of the Westerners — honoring all the dead under Anubis's protection

What people get wrong about Anubis

• Anubis is not a god of death in the sense of causing death or being a death deity who takes life — he is a god of the dead and of the passage after death. He does not decide when you die; he accompanies what happens after.
• The black color of Anubis's form does not represent evil, darkness, or malevolence in the Egyptian symbolic system. Black (kem) was the color of the fertile Nile silt, of regeneration, of the night sky full of reborn stars, and of preserved mummies. It is a color of life-within-death.
• Anubis is not Osiris, and the two should not be conflated. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the supreme funerary deity; in the Middle Kingdom, as Osirian theology became dominant, Anubis was repositioned as subordinate to Osiris and given a new mythological parentage. Both figures remain important, but they have distinct identities and domains.
• Anubis is not inherently a threatening or dangerous deity to work with. He is one of the most consistently described as patient, steady, impartial, and protective throughout ancient sources. Fear of him typically reflects Western cultural discomfort with death, not anything inherent to his character.
• Depictions of Anubis in popular media — particularly as a villain (e.g., in the film 'The Mummy' or various video games) — have no basis in ancient Egyptian religion. Anubis was universally regarded as a protector and guide, not as an adversary.
• Anubis is not 'evil' or associated with dark magic in the Kemetic tradition. While he does preside over death and the underworld, both of these were understood in ancient Egypt as necessary, natural, and ultimately benevolent aspects of cosmic order (Ma'at) rather than as forces of corruption.