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Thursday, April 10, 2008
Golden Dawn, Horus and Set
In the traditional Golden Dawn, Horus and Set embody the struggle between good and evil. They are enemies, two diametrically opposing forces of light and darkness. However, many Egyptian texts show the two gods as companions, placing them side-by-side. Does this mean the Golden Dawn was wrong?
The mythology of Horus and Set begins in the early days of Egypt and came to evolve as religious thought and political climate changed through the millennia. Early Egypt was divided into two halves, Lower Egypt in the south and Upper Egypt in the north. The union between Upper and Lower Egypt was stable for long periods in Egypt’s history, at other times the two halves were at war with each other. We can distinguish between roughly three major epochs of high culture: The Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. At the dawn of the Old Kingdom, the worship of Horus dominated religious life in Lower Egypt, while that of Set was more prominent in the Upper Egypt. Later, Horus came to be the state-god of all of Egypt, while Set was marginalized and even reviled.
Set
Like Horus, Set was one of the earliest Egyptian deities. He was worshipped already in predynastic times, i.e. before the era of the Old Kingdom. Set ruled the dry and arid deserts that stretched east and west of the fertile Nile valley. He represented all the frightening things associated with the world outside of the valley, as an antithesis to order and civilization. Times of invasion and oppression by foreign rulers were seen as being works of Set.
The Egyptians had an ambivalent view of Set. On the one hand his power was feared and reviled, on the other respected and even admired. So it was that Set came to represent both the deadly hot desert and the life-giving oases alike. Set was regarded as a beneficent god in both Upper and Lower Egypt during several historical periods when politics and the preferences of the ruling groups dictated. At other times, Set was made to personify all that was evil and harmful. In the late period, as nationalistic tendencies grew, he was almost unanimously seen as evil and after Egypt was invaded by neighbouring countries Set became associated with foreign oppression and threats to the nation. By the rise of the Christian era, Set had transformed from a powerful deity into an evil figure. However, sects outside of the Nile valley, the place of civilized Egypt continued to worship him, particularly in his role as the slayer of Apophis.
Horus
In early Egyptian mythology Horus began as the falcon-god, lord of the sky. As with so many of the Egyptian deities, Horus appears in many different shapes and roles. He was the face of the sky at daytime, while Set was the face at night. Horus was at his strongest at mid-day, in his form of Heru-Behudeti. In the New Kingdom, his most common form was Horus the Avenger, the son of Isis and Osiris. Horus was also the god of royalty and soon became the earliest state god of the united Egypt. Within the classical Golden Dawn system, the older form of Horus (before the New Kingdom) is known as Aroueris, or Haroëris, and is employed by the Past Hierophant and also by the current Hierophant when he is not sitting on his throne.
Set and Horus were seen as enemies relatively early, competing over the sky as the gods of night and day. During the Middle Kingdom, Horus and Set became sworn enemies, as the political climate between Upper and Lower Egypt grew more hostile.
The mysteries of Isis and Osiris
The New Kingdom saw the rise of a new religious theme, the myth of the slain and risen god Osiris. In this new set of myths, the roles of the two gods were clearly divided where Horus, now Son of Isis and Osiris represented order and the forces of Light, while Set represented once more the powers of usurpation and darkness. The myth goes as follows: Osiris and Set were brothers. Osiris was the rightful king of Egypt among the gods, which made Set very jealous. Set consequently murdered Osiris and spread out his limbs over the land. Osiris was deeply mourned by his wife Isis, who charged the jackal-god Anubis with the task of finding the pieces of her dead husbands’ body. By using her magic and the breath of Thoth, she was able to bring his reassembled body back to life. Horus was outraged at his father’s death and fought Set once again, this time in his new form of Horus the Avenger. After many battles, Horus finally emerged victorious. Set was forced to admit defeat before the Ennead, the tribunal of the gods. The Ennead decided that Horus was to be the rightful ruler of entire Egypt, while Set was to sent off to live with Re-Horakhty (an amalgamate of Re and Horus of the two horizons) as his adoptive son and so became the god of thunder and lightening.
The now risen Osiris became the king of the realm of the dead and a symbol for eternal life. This powerful image gave rise to the mysteries of Isis-Osiris, which quickly became enormously popular. In the era of the New Kingdom, the worship of Isis and Osiris soon eclipsed that of all other gods. The myth of the slain and risen god Osiris came to dominate religious thought in Egypt at this time. Osiris became the object of man’s hope for eternal life, and Isis the compassionate goddess who consoles those who suffer. In this, Isis and Osiris became early divine archetypes that later appeared in Greek and Christian imagery.
With the dawn of the Isis-Osiris mysteries a new relationship between Man and the gods began to develop. Previously, this relationship was mostly dominated by the sacrificing of goods to the gods to tame them and befriend them to look with favour upon a city or region. The individual destiny of Man was of little to no interest. The rise of the new triad Osiris, Isis and Horus changed this view radically and so the mystery cults of antiquity and with them the principle of initiation were born. For the first time, every man and woman could gain eternal happiness and life after death.
The Isis cult spread quickly beyond the borders of Egypt. As early as the 5th century B.C. it was already known in Greece and with the rise of the Roman Empire it took root in Italy as well. Temples of the Isis-Osiris mysteries were known in Rome and Pompeii and as far north as Germany and France. The cult also influenced local cults and religions of other cultures to adopt that in their own “versions” of the rites, such as the Mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, those of Dionysos at Thebes, and later in Roman times Mithras and Sol Invictus. Out of these, especially the latter two were exported into the various colonies of the Roman Empire. The rise of the Isis-Osiris cult reshaped religion and mysticism in the whole known world, and many older systems were abandoned within a few centuries or even decades.
The mythology of the New Kingdom served almost as the mother of all antique mystery cults. For this reason, the Order of the Golden Dawn chose to adopt this era of Egyptian mythology to model its rituals upon at the late 19th century. In the initiations of the Golden Dawn, Osiris is the ruler of the outer temple, representing the eternal and undying light. Isis and her sister Nephtys sit on either side of him. Horus the Elder and Thoth are seated behind Osiris. Horus the Avenger, son of Isis and Osiris, defends the boundaries of the temple against the darkness. In this setting, Set is not a companion of Horus but his represents evil, defeated and subdued.
Later adaptations of the Golden Dawn system exist in which Horus and Set are not diametrically opposed. These groups draw upon earlier forms of Egyptian religion, predating the New Kingdom era. In such settings, the emphasis on the Isis-Osiris mysteries as well as mystery schools in general will necessarily be less pronounced. These groups deviate from the use of the myths of New Kingdom within the Golden Dawn as it was instituted in 1888, but in its stead employs myths from other Egyptian eras.
By Frater Barthimaeus
Sources:
Giebel, Marion, Das Geheimnis der Mysterien, Antike Kulte in Griechenland, Rom und Ägypten (1990)
Burkert, Walter, Antike Mysterien, Funktion und Gehalt (1990)
Burkert, Walter, Kulte des Altertums, Biologische Grundlagen der Religion (1998)
Belde, H. TE, Seth, God of Confusion: A study of his role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion (1967)
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