The best English study of Set is Te Velde's _Set, God of
Confusion_ Brill 1977. If this particular text is unavailable through your
library, I recommend a a short cheap and very
reliable book by George Hart: _A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses_,
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. This very ambiguous god was alternately deified
and demonized depending on the
cultural/political currents running through Egypt. Allow me to present here a
brief history of Set.
Predynastically: Set was an important deity appearing in the art of the Hamitic
peoples living in the Ombos and Naquada regions. Interestingly, his was the
only god-figure not composed of parts from recognizable Earth animals.
(The Hamitic speakers donated most of the terms to religious philosophy to the
Egyptian langauge that seperate it from other Semitic languages including ba,
ka, neter, etc. If somebody really wants to find the roots of the Egyptian
religion, they should go up the Nile and do some serious anthropology among
Hamitic speaking native cultures-- the roots of the Nile may hold keys to
Egyptian thought that mute stones do not).
Archaic Egypt: Set generally occupies a secondary role to his enemy Horus,
champion of the people of the North (except in the 2nd dynasty when one pharaoh
took a "Set" name rather than a Horus name.) Set is intimately connected with
teaching astronomy,the methods of agriculture, medicine, and above all magic.
He is said to have opened the mouth of the other gods, and is the patron of the
sem ritual. His cult titles include "Great of Magic" and "Eternal". There is
indeed evidence that Set is set apart from other gods to die (Bonnet's
commentaries on the
Pyramid texts).
The astronomical cult, which placed the afterlife in the region of the Northern
heavens -- particularly in and around the
constellation of the Great Bear was replaced in the Fourth
dynasty by a growing sun cult centering on Re and Horus. The great stellar
monument that Imhotep designed were replaced by the solar pyramids of the
Fourth and Fifth dynasty's. (Notably Cheops took no chances in the great
Pyramid's design -- although outwardly a solar monument he had a hole bored
through the
stones aligned with the position of Alpha Draconis (a star in the Great Bear
called Thuban = "the Subtle One" a Set cult
title?) just in case that was where his ka was heading.
During the next few dynasties (4 - 17), Set is generally
ignored. His functions are absorbed into other gods. Thoth picks up the
attributes of magic, Osiris picks up the attributes of Mysterious time _djet_
as opposed to exoteric time _neheh_. Set keeps his attributes a storm and
stellar god, and gradually comes to be associated with all night fears --
nightmares,
desert fiends, and bad animals such as the hippo and the jaguar of the South.
He is mentioned in a famous 12th dynasty writing called _The Discourse of a man
with his ba_ in which his solar aspect IAA is referred to. Bikka Reed has a
great translations of this text.
In the 18th dynasty a remarkable Pharoah Hatshepsut reintroduced the worship of
Set by building a Temple dedicated to him and Horus the Elder at Ombos. This
marked a strong interest in Set's eternal nature, for example in Hatshepsut is
the prophecy (which she had placed in her tomb at Der el-Medina) that "She will
not only enjoy the days of Horus, but the days of Set will be added to her
span."
She was also interested in the antinomian nature of the Set cult -- in fact she
preformed one of the most scandalous acts
available to a woman -- she acted as a man. This early feminist clearly found
Set, a great archetype to Work with. Set was
popular among her family until the Kingship of Akhenaton (may he be reborn
forever drowning in the jaws of Sobek the crocodile god).
The very militaristic pharaohs of the Nineteenth dynasty, who were probably
descended form a family of Set priests at Tanis, delighted in Set both in his
militaristic role and as God of Foreign places. Ramses II for example called
himself the Son of Set. The Set cult too was very popular with foreigners
coming to live in Egypt. His worship has always been connected with the
outsider.
The Twentieth Dynasty began by looking very favorably on this god, as is shown
in the name of its founder Setnakt, "Set is Mighty." There is also considerable
evidence that the set cult was favored among artisans of the time (see Romer's
_Ancient Lives_, Henry Holt, 1984, and if you've got as copy of Stephen Quirk's
_Ancient Egyptian Religion_ check out the beautiful Stella of Aapehty --
probably the most beautiful surviving
example of Setian art).
By the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, as the funerary cult of Osiris became the
dominate force in popular Egyptian religion,more and more, Set as the murderer
of Osiris became the Evil One. In fact by the Twenty Sixth dynasty it was a
common
practice to disfigure any representations of Set. He became --for all practical
purposes the Christian devil. Some scholars have even derived the name Satan
from Set-Hen, a cult title meaning the Majesty of Set, but I am dubious of this
particular derivation.
However Set was not down for the count. During the Ptolemaic period Set, merged
with the Greek titan Typhon, became the
figure for the _goes_ or sorcerer to use. After Hermes the most often invoked
god in the Magical papyri is Set-Typhon. This entity was used to bring spirit
helpers ( bird would fly down and announce that the magician was now under the
protection of a god -- a popular Typhonic practice outside of Egypt as well se
Morton Smith's _Jesus the Magician_). Set was also the god to invoke to send
dreams, perform healings on the head or spinal column, and to cause enmity
between enemies.
There seems to be a few common threads running through the Set cult: the quest
for immortality, antinomianism, and the practice of magic. Perhaps this is why
Michael Aquino's current Temple of Set finds this figure so appealing as an
archetype for the Left Hand Path. Like Hatshepsut before Aquino has Opened the
Mouth of this ancient god, and the articulation of the Principle of
Isolate Intelligence is available to us today.
