Reverend Michael Poe

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Rev. Michael Poe

High Priest of Ptah

Initiated 1975

Reverend Michael Poe leading the 1976 New Years Festival

Michael Poe was born and raised in San Diego, California. His father encouraged his two sons to follow their hearts and, in Michael’s case, this led to the study of archaeology. His father was also a rock hound and lapidarist and, on his frequent rock-hunting trips to the deserts of California and Arizona with his sons, helped develop Michael's love of deserts, history and jewelry-making.

At the age of 10 he read Lost Worlds by Anne Terry White, a book about the great discoveries by archaeologists. He was hooked. By the age of 12, having read all the books in both the children's and adult section of his local library on archaeology (and finding Egyptology and Mesoamerica the most interesting), he decided that archaeology was going to be his career. At the age of 13, he participated in his first archaeological excavation and had joined the Archaeological Institute of America. When he started college he had already been involved in seven excavations, and had been in charge of three of them.

Reverend Michael Poe on left

and the late Reverend Harold Moss on right

At the age of 19 he became the youngest paid archaeologist in the United States. He had also discovered that the ancient Egyptian religious traditions had a grip on him that would not let go.

He started practicing the ancient Egyptian religion in 1970, attended his first CES New Year's festival in the mid 1970's and was later ordained a Priest of Ptah in the CES. By the late 1970's, Michael started teaching classes in the practice of the Egyptian traditions. In the early 1980's two of his students were initiated by him into the CES – Marilee Bigelow as Priestess of Sekhmet-Bast-Ra, and Lita Reynolds as Priestess of Hathor.

In addition to teaching classes, Michael has served as President and Vice President of the CES, and serves on the Council of Priests.

After a hiatus, Michael obtained his Ph.D. in archaeology from UCLA, has worked for UNESCO's World Heritage Commission and was employed as an archaeologist for a corporation which owned a ranch with some of the finest rock art sites in the country.

Because of his archaeological background and colleagues, he has an extensive library and numerous contacts. Many of his files are copies of the papyri and osteraca from colleges, universities and museums all over the world. His friendships in the archaeological community give him access to material which is unavailable to most people – archaeologists who do research for him including the University of Southern Florida, the French Institute of Archaeology and others. He has also served on the board of directors for the Ventura County Archaeological Society and the Oregon Archaeological Society. These resources have enabled him to acquire information ranging from analysis of incense in Egypt (shipped intact from Egyptian tombs, theses, translations of foreign works on Egyptology and ancient Egyptian texts.

In addition to his religious responsibilities within the CES, Michael has engaged in teaching classes and lecturing since 1975. He was the moderator for two years on Prodigy's Archaeology and Egyptology Forum, as well as a participant in several pagan, Egyptology and Archaeology forums on the Internet.

Michael is currently authoring a series of books on the ancient Egyptian traditions and has published a number of articles on Egypt and related subjects. He has also given lectures and classes on ancient Egyptian history and religion to both spiritual and secular audiences.

Today Michael is retired and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he he currently working on the CES online class material, the CES website, and CES wordpress blog and numerous publications. His writing projects include Egyptian rituals, Egyptian festivals, and Egyptian Calendar of Festivals and a book on general ancient Egyptian magical tradition (a 'how to' book). He also does reproductions of ancient Egyptian jewelry, incense and oils. All of this in addition to working on Architectural Archaeology photography as well as wild life and outdoor photography.