Sat-An

[Zephonith Serpent Woman]

 

"Set, or Sutekh, the eighth member of the company of the Gods of Xemennu,

was the son of Seb and Nut,

and the husband of his sister Nebt-Het.

The worship of this god is exceedingly old, and in the pyramid texts we find that he is often mentioned with Horus and the other gods of the Heliopolitan company in terms of reverence...

...He is also believed to perform friendly offices for the deceased, and to be a god of the Sekhet-Aaru, or abode of the blessed dead...

...about the 22nd dynasty, however, it became the fashion to regard the god as the origin of all evil and his images and statues were so effectively destroyed that only a few which escaped by accident or design have come down to us....

...In the early dynasties he was a beneficent god;

and one whose favour was sought after by the living and the dead

and so, as late as the 19th dynasty,

kings delighted to call themselves

 'Beloved of Set'...

...Originally, Set, or Sut,

represented the natural night and was the opposite of Horus; that Horus and Set

were opposite forms or aspects of the same god is proved by the figure given by

Lanzone(...), where we see the head of Set and the head of Horus

upon the same body....

...The natural opposition of the day and night was at an early period confounded with the battle which took place between Horus, the son of Isis, and Set, wherein Isis intervened,

and it seems the moral idea of the battle of right and wrong became attached to the latter combat, which was undertaken by Horus to avenge his father's murder by Set."

~ EA Wallace-Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead

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The Ancient Egyptian Family Tree begins with Nun;  The Great Goddess.

 Nun is Chaos, The Dark Goddess of the formless Dark Energies, the Aether of the greater universe, the Abyss from which all creation originates, the Crone Goddess unto whose Cauldron, or Lake of Fire, all things return at the natural conclusion of the life cycle to be purified, rejuvenated and reborn into a new form.

Names of Nun include Tiamat, Eurynome, Gaia and Tao

In the image above it becomes clear that the worship of the Great Mother precedes any other.

The Goddess is depicted in the centre of the image.

Horus and Set,  in the form of Sacred Beasts sit on either side of the Goddess and represent the God in twin aspects of Death and Love, Night and Day, Winter and Summer, negative and positive, Yin and Yang. This imagery and symbolism is common to the Tree of Life, The Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate and the Caduceus.

 The symbolism of the Great Goddess of infinite Names and Forms and Her twin Lions or sacredbeasts is widespread throughout ancient, or so-called prehistoric cultures from around the world. The Lions represent Time; Past and Present Future. As the symbol of the God of Nature, the Lion is the King of Beasts and is naturally the support and protector of the Great Goddess, Queen of Heaven and the Underworld.

The Ancestors knew that our survival  depends on the type of relationship we have with our environment -  the Elements, causes and forces of Nature.

The inner harmony which is achieved through finding the balance of female and male energies within as without, and rediscovering the balance between ourselves and our environment is of the Great Mother, the Tao and Great Spirit.

This balance was so important to our Ancestors, that they  repeated the same common symbolism in art and imagery wherever they happened to live, throughout the ages.

Set is the brother of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys. Set loves Isis, yet Isis loves Osiris, Nephthys also loves Osiris, and their son is Anubis. Nephthys, the Dark Goddess, the inseparable twin sister of Isis and sister of Osiris and Set, is wed to Set as the God of the Night, of Water and of Death; while Nephthys, the Lady of the House, is the helpful Goddess, always works together with Isis, and is the Crone Goddess, the power behind the throne. Set kills his brother Osiris, whose body is scattered and then by magick, put together again. Confusing?

The legends of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and from all over the world are very confusing and ultimately contradictory to the reckoning of the uninitiated, where superficial and subjective moral judgements are applied to what is essentially a very special and beautiful human way of beginning to understand the infinitely complex and interconnected nature of the Divine, manifest in Nature and within and without of every being.

The Ancestors were more in touch with Nature, and all of the powers and potential inherent in the natural world. So, what may seem like incest, murder and vengeance for moral wrongs; is in fact an intricate cosmic allegory of the natural cycles and seasons of an ever changing, dynamic universe; and to the worthy, a gateway to a higher overstanding of themselves and thus, the Divine.

Art thou ready to Know Thyself?

 

'The greatest adventure of a lifetime, is the Mystery'

-Albert Einstein

Sutekh and Heru are one God, which is the many.

When God sits down He is known as Set; when God stands, He is Horus.

The very Names Set (sit, rest, potential) and Heru (Upright, hero, activity) define the relationship between the two polar opposite Gods. It is of the Yin and Yang; Potential/Action; Night/Day - and is thus complementary; and displays synergy, as it is in Nature.

In the natural world nothing is above anything else, and there is balance.

The veneration of Set as the benevolent God of Death and the Night, of Desert and Winter; and the God of Storms as Typhon Set, far precedes any patriarchal confusions with a devil of punishment.

There was never any Devil before the advent of the male-dominated religions, only the taking on of full responsibility for one's own actions.

The ongoing battles and struggles between Set, the King of Night, Winter and decrease - The Holly King; and Horus, The Oak King; the King of the Day, Summer and increase, are refereed

by Queen Isis.

Night, Day and Balance

 

The Goddess is the Tao and the Central Pillar of Moderation which balances the pillars of Yin and Yang as the natural struggles and friction between equal and opposite, yet complementary, forces of Yin and Yang continue year after year, season upon season. This natural friction is what produces life in all abundance.

In the legends, the rivalry between Set and Horus ends at a Heavenly Tribunal in a stalemate. Set was initially to be given the throne with the support of Ra, as he was the more experienced ruler. The final decision was made by Neith, though, and Horus succeeded Ra on the throne of Egypt. As compensation, Set was to receive substantial property and two new wives.These wives are the Goddess Anat and Goddess Astarte. It is remarkable that El is also the consort of Anat; that Solomon is wed to Asherah; and that Set was also venerated by many Semitic peoples.

Set was petitioned to protect farmers and the people against the adverse effects of unstable weather; Seth is the Lord of Storms. 

Set as well as other Gods and Goddesses are adept at working with the forces of Nature and also personify these.

In this image, Heru is petitioned by a farmer, to increase his harvest and to protect the crops from natural disasters such as drought, irregular flooding, or insect pests

Ra in the form of the sacred Crocodile and Set, in the image of the Chthonic Serpent represent the primal forces of Nature on land and in water respectively.

Heru, son of Ra and Azar confers with Set, and having agreed to reward this farmer for his hard work, Sutekh proceeds with the channelling of the natural energies of the Earth, the Chthonic serpent Apep - so as to lower production costs and overheads, whilst maximising the harvest potential and rewards and minimizing the risks.

To Be Continued...

 

 

[Zephonith Serpent Woman]

Absolutely Robert.

The classical tales of the ongoing struggles between Set and Horus relate to celestial phenomena associated with the precession of the equinoxes; the changing of the seasons, and really all to do with the successive stages of vegetative growth and decline.

They apply to all aspects of existence, on all levels, if one moves away from the superficial approach of dualism and analyzes the tales from the nature-based perspective of the Yin and Yang.

Likewise the tale of the murder of Azar by Set deserves a more in-depth discussion all of it's own. I have just recently posted an article on the Legend of Isis and Osiris in the Triple Goddess Group...please feel free to pop in and have a read if you wish, you are very welcome :)

BB