There's a sharp political divide between the reconstructions and the religious witchcraft traditions in paganism, of an East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet sort of mode. The practices of reconstructions tend to be very different from those of religious witchcraft -- without the forms that most people familiar with modern paganism take as the default, sometimes with taboos or behaviour strictures that are definitively not modern.
But I am reminded . . .
A while back I said this:
If someone were to ask me what would make someone an orthodox Kemetic (not proper noun), I'd probably come up with something like "a particular relationship with Netjer that I can probably articulate better with more thought, belief in the importance [of] community construction that extends beyond the corporeal to include spirits and akhu (among others), belief in a perpetually renewed and renewable creation (as opposed to a fallen one), belief in multiplicity of form and meaning, belief in the necessity of diversity, belief in underlying unity, power of words and names as a force of creation in addition to construction and reproduction, understanding of and devotion to the balance of ma'at, belief in the importance of accurate research and good data, belief that ancient practice is a good guide for the structure of modern practice".
The thing that stalls out a lot of crossover practice is the one about "belief that ancient practice is a good guide for the structure of modern practice", in my opinion; the fact that the religious witchcraft forms are structured very differently makes the question of whether the practice can be meaningfully unified complicated.
I'm big on practice. But . . . that's not the important thing for this. And while I have started to bring practices from one into the other where they work tidily, I can still do each independently.
I look at ethos. And, to a certain extent, at symbolism and meaning through representation.
Ma'at is a system of balance, of community. It demands that a person be healthy on all levels; I have seen that divided into three: the personal, the community, and the cosmos. I often do four -- personal, family, community, and cosmos, but I'm very family-centred, so it's worth it for me to pull 'family' out as more than a subset of 'community'. None of these levels can be sacrificed for the sake of the others for the entirety to be healthy; all of them must be treated with the respect and care they need.
Feri's ethic is one that focuses, first of all, in healing and developing one's personal health, because when the self is unhealthy, then no action taken from the self can be healthy. As a person cultivates health, wholeness, balance, and personal strength, then their actions will introduce that centredness out into the world and promote it. This is much the same ethic as a dedication to ma'at, except that the Kemetic view tends to come at it from the perspective of starting in the community, and Feri comes at it from the individual.
There are ritual processes in each religion for reaching for alignment -- in Feri, explicitly bringing the souls into alignment with each other and purifying the flow of internal energies. The basic structure of core Kemetic ritual is, again, more aligned to the community and cosmos, but serves the same purpose: bringing the individual into alignment with the universe and the universe into alignment with the individual, each maintaining the other.
That core of alignment, Kemetically speaking, is Zep Tepi, the first time, the moment of creation. This is the point at which all things are aligned and are resonant with the truth of their purpose. This time, while located linearly in the past, is perpetually present: because existence is, the instant of its beginning is always present, and always accessible. Because of this, one can always pull oneself into alignment with the First Time, and thus always be in alignment, and always pull the universe into alignment. This is not merely a possibility, but an obligation.
Within Feri, the omnipresence of the moment of creation links to the Star Goddess. Her Creation is sexual, and that sexuality manifests all through existence, always accessible. Kemetically speaking, sexuality is one possible manifestation of the primal creative force, which can also be reached with crafts with the hands and the power of speech and writing. This omnipresence is as much there as Zep Tepi, with much the same reasoning.
The seat of ma'at in each individual is in the heart, the ib, in Egypt; there is discussion of allowing ma'at to ascend to this shrine. The heart is made clean, and one is judged by how well that shrine is permitted to serve the ethic of ma'at. Similarly, within Feri, one speaks of the Black Heart of Innocence, that place where the truth of the self manifests clean and clear.
Both systems deal with a multiplicity of entities. Some Feri speak of "all gods are Feri gods", so a relationship with the netjeru is certainly not problematic. Both respect and speak of the ancestors in ritual and philosophy; Feri also invites the descendants to rituals. While I know of no particular forms for recognising the presence of netjeri, they are acknowledged to exist and respected; some forms of Feri have more direct interactions with the fae. Feri also has the Guardians, with whom relationship is cultivated. In all of these, a form of community and interaction and reciprocal relationship is established.
The Feri creation myth I know describes, in part, differentiation into the other, and that differentiation leading to the expansion into the plurality of existence. Kemetic myths speak of "before there were two things", that which is outside of time and reality, because existence demands the other. Also, Feri cultivates the other, the boundary condition between here and there, demanding an awareness of the boundaries between different things, that essential component of existing.
Kemetic thought is focused on creation and recreation; the daily cycle of the sun is one of perpetual renewal. Feri, likewise, is creative, and the creative force flows through the results of being Feri. I don't know that I can speak to the greatest ills of Feri, but my fear as a Kemetic is rooted in uncreation, not merely destruction, but being unwound into never having existed at all. Creative forces are in direct opposition to this, creative forces in all forms. The ones harnessed by Kemet tend to be ordered and social; Feri's are perhaps less orderly, more chaotic, but I feel the same raw impulse in them.
I want to live in the borderland between order and chaos, individual strength and community union, past and present, Kemet and Feri.