Tamara Siuda

Tamara Siuda
Born (1969-07-19)July 19, 1969
New Buffalo, MI
Residence Los Angeles, CA
Religion Kemetic Orthodoxy

Tamara L. Siuda (born 1969) is an American Egyptologist and author of nonfiction, historical and religious books. She is also the founder and current spiritual leader of Kemetic Orthodoxy and the House of Netjer Temple, and since July 2000, she is an initiated priestess (or mambo) in Haitian Vodou.

Education

Siuda graduated summa cum laude from Mundelein College (now part of Loyola University) in Chicago in 1991 with a B.A. in Writing (English). In 1998, she enrolled in the Egyptology program at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, obtaining a master's degree in Egyptology with a concentration in ancient Egyptian Philology in August 2000.[1] She earned a second master's degree in December 2007 through the Coptic Studies program at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia,[2] and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Coptic Studies via Claremont Graduate University.

Involvement with Kemetic Orthodoxy

Siuda founded the group that would become the Kemetic Orthodox Faith in 1988. She reports that she had prevously had an experience during a Wiccan initiation ritual in which she was called by the ancient Egyptian deities to revive their worship. After that experience, she left Wicca immediately, and began study and worship in ancient Egyptian religion with friends and students.[3] In 1993, this group of people had grown substantially, and gained legal recognition in the state of Illinois as the House of Netjer Kemetic Orthodox Temple. In 1999, the House of Netjer, and the Kemetic Orthodox Faith, was granted nonprofit 501(c)(3) status by the federal government.[1]

In October 1996, having received, according to her testimony, divine approval via oracles and ritual, Siuda traveled to Egypt and underwent coronation rituals to assume the religious title of Nisut, meaning "Authority" or "Incarnation".[1] In this capacity she is considered the vicar of a divine spirit,[4] by way of an aspect of the god Horus, referred to by Egyptologists as the "kingly ka." As Nisut, Siuda provides spiritual guidance and leadership to the members of Kemetic Orthodoxy. Siuda represented the House of Netjer and Kemetic Orthodoxy at the 1993, 1999, and 2004 Parliament of World Religions, and acts as the faith’s delegate to the World Interfaith Congress.

Involvement in Vodou

Siuda has been a mambo in Haitian Vodou since July 2001. She initiated as a mambo asogwe (the highest rank of Haitian Vodou initiation) as part of La Sosyete Racine Sans Bout in Jacmel, Haiti. She left her first house in 2003 and was re-initiated as a mambo asogwe in another Vodou lineage, the Sosyete La Fraicheur Belle Fleur Guinea of Pétionville and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2006. Siuda's own Vodou house in the lineage of Belle Fleur Guinea is called La Sosyete Fòs Fè Yo Wè. It permits her to have students in the Haitian Vodou tradition separately from her role as Nisut of Kemetic Orthodoxy. As a mambo she is known as "Mambo T", or by her public initiatory name of Mambo Chita Tann.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Krogh 2004, p.168
  2. ↑ First Students to Graduate with M.A. Degree in Coptic Studies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia | Scholarships and Education Online.
  3. ↑ Dawson 2004, p.211.
  4. ↑ Krogh 2004 p.171.
  5. ↑ Mambo Chita Tann (Mambo T) and La Sosyete Fòs Fè Yo Wè.

Bibliography

External links

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