hii! i'm not a kemetic pagan at all but was just wondering about the "sn/ake deity" (Ap3p)(idk if its disrespectful to mention) of the pantheon. is it disrespectful to worship him? i remember watching an actual academic kemetic pagan talk about this but i lost the video. so, i saw a draconic witch work with them and say stuff like "i'm tired of pleasing other kemetics and i'm gonna do my own thing by worshipping the sn/ake". just want your opinion on that sorry if this is confusing i can clarify😭
It's that you specified because there are a lot of snake deities (Wadjet, Renenutet, Mehen, Meretseger, etc.) which are perfectly fine to worship (I would also argue that A/p/e/p isn't really a deity and there's some evidence that this is true historically (1), but enough scholarly sources call him that, so I understand why people refer to him as such). Generally, kemetic polytheists slash out his name in someway because of ancient practices to deface his name in someway as a way of removing his power (2). Generally it's considered polite to disrupt the name in online kemetic polytheist spaces.
Worshiping A/p/e/p is at best is disrespectful and at worse actively malicious. A/p/e/p is the force that fights against the Netjeru (gods) and seeks to bring about the end of the world. (3) (4) So by worshipping him one is seeking to destroy the entire universe and everyone and everything in it. And this is explicitly not a destruction and rebirth cycle. A/p/e/p seeks to unmake the world and brings about nonexsistance. (3) (4)
Here's some posts by other kemetic polytheists on A/p/e/p and worshipping him that you might find useful one of which go into detail on A/p/e/p as a manifestation of isfet which I didn't here since the concepts can be quite complicated and to me at least are secondary to A/p/e/p's intention of unmaking the universe: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Morenz, Ludwig D. “Apophis: On the Origin, Name, and Nature of an Ancient Egyptian Anti‐God.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 63, no. 3, 2004, pp. 201–05, page 202.
Kousoulis, Panagiotis I. "Magic and Religion as a Preformative Theological Unity: the Apotropaic 'Ritual of Overthrowing Apophis'". 1999. pages 211-212.
Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. pages 221-221.
Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. pages 31-32.