#factcheckingyourprophet

[setemheb]

#factcheckingyourprophet

I have a sometimes healthy, and sometimes unhealthy, interest in the cultural phenomena that emanate from Aleister Crowley.   On the positive side of things, it instilled an interest in integrating scientific approaches towards Initiatory pursuits, provided a multicultural education in religious studies and the arts, and ultimately led me to the Temple of Set. It has brought some remarkable people into my life and a handful of dubious recognitions for my understanding despite being someone with no relation to the general Thelemic plan.   On the less healthy side, it occasionally pushes into near obsession. I'm an anthropologist by background and the Thelemic movements are ripe as a largely unexplored ethnographic field. Crowley himself drives me a bit crazy for how close he gets to seeing the Setian undertone in what he experienced and then making a 180° turn towards delusion and self-dissolution. So, I keep watching it with occasionally unsavory curiosity to see what new monstrosities it is issuing forth and new confusions it is peddling. For the past few years during the anniversary of the writing of the Book of the Law. I have been in the habit of posting information under the hashtag #factcheckingyourprophet. Crowley did not come to his construction of the Aeon of Horus until nearly a decade after the reception experience in Cairo. After that point, he spent the rest of his life mythologizing what had taken place while redacting a good deal of important information. Usually, I would post factual information about the neteru associated with the Book of the Law to show that they signify beyond Crowley's limited use. This year I am largely letting this go. There seems little profit in trolling Thelemites, as they get more restricted and less capable of integrating outside perspectives. Most of the people who have been my connections to Crowley's legacy are dead or are not long for this world, and have passed what needed to be passed to me for posterity. What information and methods from this that is of value to Setians will in the coming year be entrusted to the relevant Orders. Frankly, it is time for me to leave Beastly things behind while still embracing my role as one of his successors. Mostly though, if you are a Setian with little interest in Crowley but feel for some reason as a Setian you should pursue his material, my basic advice is don't. Dr. Aquino observed in the Scroll of Set #9, #I-9, May 1976 Quote: “The position of the Temple of Set is not that it is a competitor to the A.'.A.'. & O.T.O., but rather that it is their successor [as well as the successor to the Church of Satan]. This implies that we have considered & evaluated what the old organizations had to offer, incorporated the worthwhile material into the Temple, and selectively dispensed with the obsolete and/or inaccurate material.” That was true in 1976. It is even truer today. If what attracted you to the Temple of Set is the clarity provided by the Aeon of Set than little will be gained from muddling your own clarity with a topic of little personal interest. What matters of that legacy already permeates Setian practice free of the personality cultism and tortured syncretism of those movements which consider themselves Thelemic. If you have no personal curiosity about these things, then there is no need to wade into their confusion. That being said fact-checking the mythology around Crowley's legacy may remain important for some Setians who need a shaking from the traps within Thelema. Certainly, on Crowley's Egyptian usage, Geraldine Pinch's A Handbook of Egyptian Mythology will help burst some bubbles. If you really want to go deep on the complexities of the Book of the Law and how it was transformed into Liber AL vel Legis years later Liber AL Vel Legis: The Book of the Law. An Examination of Liber XXXI & Liber CCXX. by Marlene Cornelius provides indispensable information. If you can cut through the self-aggrandizement Liber L. vel Bogus - The Real Confession of Aleister Crowley by Richard T. Cole makes a worthy companion. In the end, you may decide to toss away your Cake of Light and declare that there is at least one part of you that is not of the Gods of Nature.

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Horus

HORUS (HOR)

from A Handbook of Egyptian Mythology by Geraldine Pinch

Horus was the celestial falcon and the embodiment of kingship. The conflict between Horus and Seth, the Two Lords, was an enduring theme in Egyptian myth. The name Horus probably means the “Distant One.” Two main forms of Horus appear in the sources. These are sometimes regarded as separate gods, belonging to different epochs, and sometimes as aspects of the same deity. Horus the Great or Horus the Elder (Harwer/Haroeris) was a primeval being who initiated creation. As Lord of the Sky, his wings spanned the heavens, and his eyes were the sun and the moon. This Horus is the son of a sky goddess, either Nut or Hathor. Horus the Younger was the son of Isis who grew up to avenge his murdered father, Osiris, and take his place as ruler of Egypt. He was usually shown as a falcon-headed man. Each king of Egypt was acclaimed as a “living Horus.”

Egypt’s earliest kings were shown as hawks preying on their enemies. Many Egyptian deities could be represented by birds of the hawk family. The cults of some of these gods, such as Nekheny of Hierakonpolis and Khenty-Khety of Athribis, were gradually assimilated with that of Horus. One of the earliest divine images known from Egypt is that of a falcon in a barque. This probably represents Horus as a star or planet crossing the Winding Waterway of the sky. Later texts paint a dazzling picture of the One of Dappled Plumage who opened his eyes to dispel darkness and chaos.

Like other primeval deities, the celestial falcon coalesced with the creator sun god. He then became Ra-Horakhty (Ra-Horus of the Double Horizon) who triumphed over his enemies to rise in the east. The union of these two powers could be symbolized by a falcon crowned with a sun disk or a sun disk with falcon’s wings. When a king appeared to his subjects, it was compared with the glorious rising of Horemakhet (Horus in the Horizon). The Two Lords, Horus and Seth, were either named as brothers or as nephew and uncle. Many theories have been advanced to explain the origins of their combat, from memories of an ancient civil war to observations of storms or astronomical phenomena. When the combatants are Horus the Elder, the celestial falcon, and Seth, the chaotic god of storms, the conflict seems to belong to the primeval age when opposing elements had to come together to create the divine order.

The necessity of Horus and Seth being reconciled is stressed in many sources. One of the key images of royal art was Horus the Uniter and Seth tying together the heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt to symbolize the union of the Two Lands into one perfect kingdom. The figure of Seth is sometimes replaced by Thoth, an indication that Seth’s role as the slayer of Osiris could not always be overlooked. When the great conflict is presented as a dynastic feud between young Horus and his usurper uncle, Horus must triumph and Seth must be punished so that justice and kingship can be established for humanity. Harsiese (Horus, son of Isis) was destined to be king from the moment of conception. His epithet, “Horus who is upon the papyrus,” alludes to the myth that Isis hid the infant Horus in the papyrus thickets of Akh-bit (Chemmis), an island among the marshes. This “nest of Horus” was guarded by divine beings such as cow and scorpion goddesses. The young Horus grew up to become “the Pillar of his Mother” and the “Avenger of his Father.” Advised by Isis, Horus fought Seth in many different ways. He turned Seth’s sexual aggression to his own advantage and overcame the temporary loss of the power inherent in his eye (see “The Struggles of Horus and Seth” under “Linear Time” in “Mythical Time Lines”). Horus argued his father’s case before the Divine Tribunal led by Geb or the sun god Ra. Osiris is granted sovereignty over the dead and Horus over the living. Horus, the devoted son, becomes the prototype for all funerary priests when he performs a series of rituals to “raise up” Osiris. He also becomes an intermediary between the worlds of the living and the dead. Horus is shown in the Book of the Dead presenting deceased souls before the throne of Osiris. 

The reign of Horus as king of Egypt was considered the model for all subsequent reigns. The semidivine kings who came after him in mythical history were called the Followers of Horus. In a few magical texts a scorpion goddess called Ta-Bitjet is called the wife of Horus. A passage in the Coffin Texts makes Horus the Elder and his sister, Isis, the parents of the four protective deities known as the Sons of Horus. A festival at Edfu temple celebrated the “Beautiful Union” between Horus and Hathor, Lady of Dendara. Here, Horus is an aspect of the sun god uniting with the goddess who was his mother, his consort, and his daughter to renew the cosmos.

Texts and scenes at Edfu illustrate the diversity of myths centered on Horus. A mythical history of the temple relates how two mysterious beings subdued the primeval swamp by cutting down reeds. When they stuck a reed in the ground, it became a perch for the celestial falcon. The reed hut built to house the falcon was said to be the center of the world and the first temple. In the Legend of the Winged Disk, Horus (the Distant One) takes the role usually given to the Distant Goddess and transforms himself into a fiery disk to blind and destroy the sun god’s enemies. In the ritual drama known as the Triumph of Horus, Horus, son of Isis, harpoons Seth in hippopotamus form. After a series of battles by land and water, he drives Seth and his followers out of Egypt, just as Egyptian kings hoped to drive out foreign invaders.

See also Birds; Cattle; Djed Pillar; Eyes of Horus; Hathor; Horus the Child; Isis; Kings and Princes; Min; Osiris; Serqet; Seth; Sons of Horus; Sopdu; Stars and Planets

References and further reading: H. Frankfort. Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature. Chicago: 1948, 36–50. J. G. Griffiths. The Conflict of Horus and Seth from Egyptian and Classical Sources. Liverpool: 1960. B. Watterson. The House of Horus at Edfu. Stroud, England: 1998. Primary sources: PT 364, 540, 670; CT 148; RDP; BD 17, 78, 185a; H&S; Solar hymns; HMP; PJ; Triumph of Horus; LWD; Edfu cosmology

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Hor Behedety

from http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/horusbehedet.html

Hor Behedety (Horus of Behedet)

Hor Behedety (Horus of Behedet) Hor-sema-tawy (Horus Uniter of the Two Lands, Harsomptus) Hor-iwn-mwt-f (Horus pillar of his mother) Horus of Behdet (often known as Behdety) was a god of the midday sun. The name Behedet is rather problematic. The first time that the god "Horus of Behedet" is mentioned it is on a carving in the Step Pyramid of Djoser and the reference makes it clear that Behedet is associated with Upper Egypt. However, Behedet is also a place in Lower Egypt. In any case, Behedet soon became associated with Edfu (Upper Egypt) the location of a major cult of Horus.

Horus of Edfu was locked in a perpetual battle with Set and his army of darkness to make sure that the sun rises every morning.

In Edfu, he was considered to be the husband of Hathor and the father of Hor-sema-tawy ("Horus Uniter of the Two Lands" also known as Harsomptus). After eighty years of battle, he was awarded the kingship of Upper and Lower Egypt by the tribunal of gods. In Edfu and Kom Ombo he was also known as Panebtawy ("lord of the two lands") and in Behedet he was worshipped as Hor-Iwn-Mutef ("Horus pillar of his mother").

Horus Behdety was represented as a winged sun disk on temples all over Egypt, just as Ra had apparently decreed. However, he was also depicted as a lion, a lion with the head of a hawk and as a hawk hovering over the pharaoh during battle carrying a flail (representing royal power) and the shen (representing eternity) grasped in his claws. As a hawk he was given the epithet "Great God, Lord of Heaven, Dappled of Plumage". In addition, he was frequently depicted as a man with the head of a falcon wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. In this form he often carries a falcon-headed staff, representing the form he took when he killed Set.

Horus Behdet

According to myth it was discovered that the followers of Set were plotting against Ra during his earthly reign. Ra sent his son, Horus, who flew into the sky in the form of a winged sun disc. From the sky he could see all of Ra´s enemies and he swooped down like a falcon and attacked so ferociously that they ran away. Horus was then given the town of Edfu for his efforts. The plotters then changed themselves into crocodiles and hippopotami and attacked Ra's solar boat. Horus (and friends) drove them away with harpoons. To protect the solar boat, Horus took the form of a winged-sun disk and perched on the ships prow. This began the superstition that it was good luck to paint eyes on the bow of your ship. Horus chased the fleeing army and beheaded the leader (named as Set) before dragging him by the feet throughout Egypt.

It should be noted that this was rather a late myth, which places Set as an all out evil character and confuses Horus Behedet with Horus son of Isis. The leader was considered to be the god Set reborn and therefore the murderer of Horus´ father Osiris. The myth continues by stating that Set continued to fight in lower Egypt in the form of a serpent while Horus defended Egypt in the form of a falcon-headed staff. Horus was, of course, victorious and continued into Upper Egypt quelling rebellion as he went. Ra decreed that the winged-sun disk would hence forth be inscribed on every temple and shrine in recognition of Horus´ victory.