 Hi, I'm Oregon with the Temple of Ascending Flame, and today I want to talk about SET. Fury of Egypt, Ancient Lord of Storms and Flame. SET's relationship with humanity is quite old. The earliest representation we have of SET is from a comb dating back to 4500 BCE. So humans have been working with or venerating SET for at least 6500 years. To put this in perspective, that's three times longer than the existence of Christianity and three times longer than the entirety of the Roman Empire from its founding to the fall of Constantinople. SET veneration originates in Upper Egypt around the city of Nubt, and during this early dynastic period SET was in fact a benevolent deity. He was a protector of the sun god's chariot. As Ra would speed through the underworld to the next dawn, it was SET that would fight off the great serpent Apophis who was trying to attack and stop Ra's chariot. At this time SET was associated with passion, love and romance, and was often invoked in love spells and as image inscribed on love charms. SET has always been responsible in aiding the deceased in one way or another in their journey and the afterlife. Even at this early time he was a deity associated with wind, storms, the desert, change, foreign lands and people, and has always been associated with the color red. In the ancient Egyptian the word for desert was quite close to the word for red and is likely that is why as a desert dweller SET was associated with the color red. SET also has a unique animal associated with him, we call it the SET animal. It's unknown whether this is some sort of amalgamation of other beasts, whether it's an ancient catonic representation of a mythological entity or real entity, or if it is perhaps an animal who has gone extinct. One thing for sure though it is quite unique, as is often the case deities and pantheons fall out of favor depending on who's writing history and who won the wars. SET was not immune to this, he was recast as a villain in later years. After the Hicksos invaded and subjugated Egypt during the second intermediate period, they took SET as their chief god. SET was already a deity of foreign lands and people and he also shared characteristics with their own Canaanite god, Baal Haddad. This of course resulted in SET falling out of favor with the native Egyptians, especially those in the lower kingdom. After the invaders were ejected and the new kingdom was established, SET had been recast as the first murderer of his brother Osiris and as a god of chaos and desolation. The Greeks also liken SET to the fallen Titan Typhon, who was cast down into the pits of Tartarus. This only furthered SET's wicked reputation. With the advent and rise of Christianity, SET's wicked reputation only accelerated. As he was the murderer of his own brother Osiris, there were immediate parallels with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. SET began to be associated with another mask of the devil. He was a being who was cast out into the desert by Horace the Younger and Satan was cast out as well. SET was associated with deceit, cunning, carnage, chaos, destruction, blood red and murder, all things that Christianity associated with the devil. In three of the Gospels, Jesus is tempted in the desert by Satan and SET being a desert dweller became associated with this as well. His reputation as a force of darkness and an allegory or mask for the devil continued onward forward into our modern times. However, as we move forward into the modern era, into the 20th century in particular, SET is worked with by many occult practitioners and later groups. For example, Alastor Crawley sees his guide Abos as a manifestation of SET on earth. Kenneth Grant describes the pathways that connect the spheres on the Clopophic Tree of Death as the tunnels of SET. Colonel Michael Aquino founds the temple of SET in 1975 as a theistic focus breakaway from Lavey's Church of Satan and the members of his temple call themselves Setians. SET was born of the God of the Earth, Geb and the goddess of the sky, Newt, and had several siblings, those being Osiris, Isis, Netus and Horace the Elder. According to the Pyramid texts, SET ripped himself from his own mother's womb rather than being born. When he comes of age he marries his sister Nephes. There are a couple different stories about Osiris and Nephes. In one story, Osiris desires her and tricks her into carnal relations. In another, it is in fact Nephes which initiates the relationship with Osiris because SET is impotent and unable to bear children with her. In either case, I would argue that SET is really the victim. As a result of the union of Nephes and Osiris, she becomes pregnant with Anubis. And SET does raise Anubis as his own, and lovingly so even though Anubis is the son of his own brother. This shows a depth of SET's commitment and love and the fact that he does not judge his son based on the sins of his mother or his actual biological father. With variations on a theme and with time, however, SET grows jealous of Osiris as Osiris is the ruler of Egypt and he plots his murder. SET is cunning in this regard in that he sets up a scenario where he tricks Osiris to get into a bejeweled box that rather perfectly matches his shape and then has his cohort seal the box and throw Osiris into the Nile River where he is to be hopefully drowned in loss forever. However, Osiris is rescued by Isis and is taken to the Swamplands in the Nile Delta. SET finds out about this, descends upon them and cuts his brother Osiris into many, many pieces. One of those pieces being his brother's phallus, which is devoured by a swampfish. Isis eventually reconstructs Osiris, but because his phallus is missing, he cannot rule any longer as the Lord of Egypt and instead descends into the underworld to act as Judge of the Dead. During the act of descent into the underworld, Isis draws out his seed, however, and becomes impregnated with Horus the Younger, who SET also tries to murder later. At this time, SET becomes ruler of Egypt. However, when Horus the Younger comes of age, he is able to defeat and drive out SET and expel him to the desert. However, SET continues to aid the dead as he always had, in this case, he stands as a counterbalance to Osiris during judgement. Now I'd like to talk about the Temple of Ascending Flames Gnosis concerning SET. For the temple, SET is a dark initiator. His black flame is the inner spark of Godhood that becomes the fiery pillar of Ascent on the path of self-initiation. As the Lord of Fire and Storm, his energy is extremely dynamic and life-changing, thus removing obstacles and clearing the way for Ascent. His forked knife cuts attachment to our mundane world, liberating the initiate from bonds of slavery and ignorance. His SET represents authority, sovereignty, and personal destiny. For the temple, SET represents the Antinomian path, going against the prevailing order, revolutionary potential, and individual transcendence. SET is by no means a gentle teacher, but his hard lesson shuttles forth the initiate on the path of apotheosis. One way I like to think about SET energy in relatable terms is to compare it to James Bond. If we think about how SET manifests, he is the storm. And when James Bond walks into a situation, he becomes the storm. If there is chaos and circling bond, he becomes the chaos. He becomes the initiator. SET can be very cunning, for example, the way that he tricked his brother Osiris to enter a bejeweled box and become entrapped. We can often associate serpentine energy with cunning, planning, and temptation. Bond is very cunning and is certainly quite the tempter. SET can be very charming and passionate. After all, he was the god of love and passion from the earliest times. And we can certainly see that James Bond is no stranger to passion and seduction. SET is also the lord of flame and storm. He is the great channeler of fire and air, and is thus a great initiator of male energy. This energy is direct, unthinking, and unyielding. It is reckless, chaotic, unpredictable, and immediate. This isn't planning energy, this is acting energy. This is also very much James Bond energy. For me, James Bond represents SET's balanced energy. He can be cunning, charming, ruthless when he needs to be, decisive, commanding, direct. And yet, when he needs to, he can infuse the element of unpredictability and chaos into a system or situation that need to become unbalanced to create an opportunity or an opening. Bond is the serpent and the dragon, and I feel that he channels SET energy. If we think about SET being banished to the desert, how many times has Bond been banished to the proverbial desert only to return triumphant? Why work with SET, or channel SET energy, or SET noses? I mean, besides the obvious reason that he spent around the block for 6,500 years and has seen it all. Well, I tried to introduce some of those reasons with the Bond analogy. One reason would be balanced energy. To channel SET is to channel both the serpentine Kundalini female energy side, that is planning, consideration, to weigh options, to look at scope, and then once that is done, to act decisively in the realm of male energy and without hesitation. So I see SET bringing balance to male and female energies. Without female energy, we can be reckless and unthinking, but without male energy, we might fail to execute on plans well devised. We can fail to pull that trigger. Another reason is culling, that is self auditing. We can't look at things in our mundane life that can be cut away. SET aids in this. He helps us to find the wheat in the shaft of our daily existence. It's no surprise that we humans are creatures of habit and we do the same things over and over again. Sometimes we do these things even though they are no longer bringing us any benefit or even worse, they're actually a detraction from our growth and happiness. SET can help with that. To cut those things away and embrace newness. Spontaneity and passion. This is particularly important in our romantic relationships and also just our standard relationships to keep them alive and fresh. SET can help us to be a little chaotic to try new things, new experiences, things we might not normally consider when we've become stuck in our ways and mired in our routines. He can reignite our passion for our hobbies, for our work, for art, for new pursuits and of course for our loved ones. Creative chaos. SET can help us question old dogma or procedures. This can be in our mundane lives, it can be in our work, it can be in our hobbies or pursuits. We need to shake things up, we need to invest some chaos into systems or procedures in order to see what new things can be created as a result. Although chaos is destruction, it is also creative in its destruction. It fosters new procedures, new approaches, new outlets, new realizations and noses. Sovereignty. SET helps us to assert ourselves in our noses, to not be trampled underfoot or pushed aside. He imbues us with confidence and strength. If you are interested in more information on SET, I recommend SET The Fury of Egypt by Asinath Mason and a Draconian Egyptian grimoire by Bill Duvendock. Both authors have many books available on Lulu and Amazon. There is a host of free gnosis and information available on the Ascending Flame website. If you are interested in more information or in doing what we do, please contact us at the emails provided.