Rosemary Clark

Rosemary Clark is an independent scholar and interpreter of Egypt’s sacred legacy. Her study of the religious canons and metaphysical traditions of antiquity encompass a lifetime of historical research, Mideast travel, and the development of a repertoire of unique skills in the re-creation of temple ritual and ceremony. She is well versed in the reading and writing of hieroglyphic script and articulating the heritage of the pharaonic and Hermetic traditions. These have coalesced in the publication of several books and the founding of a modern temple school dedicated to guiding students of metaphysics and alternative religions toward discovering the perennial wisdom of Egypt’s spiritual past. “The Egyptian world view is as relevant today as it was centuries ago,” she explains. “The unity of life and our role in it is an approach the ancients understood in profound ways, and it encompassed knowledge of the immaterial worlds, including death.”

Ms. Clark’s work includes the following:
• Publication of a two-volume series, The Sacred Tradition in Ancient Egypt: The Esoteric Wisdom Revealed (Llewellyn Worldwide 2000) and The Sacred Magic of Ancient Egypt: The Spiritual Practice Restored (Llewellyn Worldwide 2003). These works outline the philosophic basis of ancient Egyptian spirituality and the re-creation of its practices for modern aspirants. Clark’s knowledge of many world spiritual traditions is also presented in The Everything Meditation Book (Adams Media 2002) and excerpted in The Dream Dictionary (Adams Media 2005).
• Founder of Temple Harakhte (1976), originally a U.S. organization devoted to the experiential religious practices of Egypt’s historical period and now an international correspondence school. Featured on the NBC network and numerous newspaper and radio venues.
• Creator of the temple’s Praxis (2003), a correspondence course that provides a comprehensive syllabus for seminarians of ancient Egyptian temple traditions. Students worldwide subscribe to the program and participate in Egypt expeditions to perform ceremonies on site.
• Instructor of an annual six-week course on Egypt: Magic & Metaphysics (2005–2010) at the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning, a foundation supported by the University of Virginia. Cited as the most popular program offered by the Institute.
• Program facilitator for on-site expeditions to Egypt with American and European groups since the 1970’s. Her expert site plans and architectural illustrations are published in The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt (Knopf 1986 and Quest 1994), a guidebook featured by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the catalogue of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Exhibit Guide the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago during the 1977 American tour of Treasures of Tutankhamun.

From 1976–1981, Ms. Clark was associated with Omm Seti of Abydos, Egypt – the Englishwoman whose memories of ancient temple life have been documented on film and books in recent times. After their initial meeting in 1976, both Rosemary and Omm Seti recalled their former relationship as mother and daughter in ancient Egypt. Through meetings and conversations they communicated during Clark’s pilgrimages to Egypt that lasted until their final reunion, three weeks prior to Omm Set’s passing in March, 1981.
“In the years that I have traveled and taught about ancient Egypt,” she says, “there is one universal sentiment that people express, no matter their age or background. And that is a deep feeling of being connected to Egypt, spiritually and emotionally, throughout their lives.”
Rosemary Clark’s work has been devoted to encouraging, cultivating, and reawakening the Egypt connection that so many pursue through her teachings and writings. She demonstrates how the re-creation of Egypt’s spiritual practices in the everyday, modern world can enrich the present and give life once more to the past. rclark@cherryhillseminary.org