Why not come back with a bang?
I supposed I should start at the beginning…
Therefore, the only “monad” or “monistic, reductionist” force in the cosmos is Chaos, not some benevolent God like in Monotheism or the alien God in most forms of Gnosticism, not the matter of Materialism nor the mind of Idealism. This is the reason why all things tend towards entropy and destruction even within the ordered universe we inhabit, the reason why Chaos must be consistently fought against in the myths of most cultures[2] and very literally in every day life. Besides this Chaos there is a plurality - not a singularity, not a dualism, not a triple God - a plurality. Many Gods creating the many forces which eventually make up the reality we know.
Here we are speaking of Hard Polytheism[3] arising from Chaos. A pantheon of separate, distinct Gods interacting with one another. One of the deities in this pantheon is who the Gnostics recognize as the Demiurge[4]. This creature may or may not have created matter, but it places the descendants of its fellow Gods within said matter, or perhaps simply tries to instill ideals in this world to cause misery. Alternatively, it is possible some or many incarnate here willingly to illuminate others.
To break this down, we human beings have a spiritual essence that exists long before this material form we hold here[5]. Each person has a patron deity, one from the pantheon in which they come from. Think of it like a giant circle for a God within Chaos, and little circles within that God representing the individual manifestations of them, the souls of you, I, and everyone we know.
We lived with our patrons and kin in conditions perfect to us until this Demiurge saw fit to yank us from our realms and place us within matter for his own, malevolent, and sadistic amusement. (Or, alternatively again, some may choose to come here to help free others.) There are two things we can and arguably should do with our time here:
First, we should strive to find enjoyment and happiness in this world which is supposed to bring only pain and suffering. It takes effort, yes, but most would agree the effort is worth it. If matter is supposed to bring pain, then seek pleasure, why do you think the latter is a sin in the first place? If all leads to death, then strive for life, we already live many decades longer than “natural” compared to even recent ancestors. Sex is either stripped of virtue by making it a sin or stripped of meaning by making it casual and without connection, so you can be sure a good route is to see the virtues of sex and avoid treating it carelessly.
Second, we should strive to ascend beyond this realm, both in the present when we can and permanently upon death. This is not as simple as dying, one may cease to exist with death if they choose, or be reincarnated, or become a slave in another form than this material one. Rather, the time should be used in preparation and experience, the seeking of “Gnosis”, the knowledge of your true nature and Self. “Know thyself.” There is a third option, but only in cases where this option aligns with the individual will: to help others ascend as well.
So, from Chaos comes the Gods including the demiurge. From the Gods come both the Soul and likely that which we call matter. From matter the malevolent demiurge fastens a prison to feed off the suffering. From that prison our divine spark can arise to find both joy and our way back home to our patron Gods.
That said, if someone has a different patron this is not a problem for my views. I already accept Hard Polytheism, the existence of many distinct Gods, and I also accept that we are “naturally” connected to these Gods. The exception is the demiurge, for unlike other Gods he seeks to interfere with and dominate the will of all Souls. The God of Abraham exists – I simply do not believe everything it says about itself, or everything its followers say about it. Yes, I believe in a demiurge, who I would associate with the Egyptian Osiris, but not that all is misery or that we are eternal victims. Quite the opposite, there are many alternatives to this God, and we are only victims to it if we allow ourselves to be.
As for the fact that different cultures have different pantheons, this should really be expected due to cultural relativism[10]. My favorite example is that the stars objectively exist even though different cultures saw distinct, contradictory constellations in them due to cultural relativism. In other words, I believe there is one pantheon interpreted through different cultural lenses, rather than many pantheons with trillions of Gods.
I do not only associate with Set because of symbolism and ideology however, there are also the issues of my own nature and personal experience. As I have discussed elsewhere[11] and a bit here, we are of the essence of our patrons. It then follows that our inherent natures are like that of our patron, and we can find the latter using the former. This is a simple, not too personal, non-comprehensive list of traits Set and I appear to share, all of which combined seem only to describe that God in specific. I am addressing both the early and later, demonized forms of Set.
Personal experience is the one I will speak of most briefly, for I feel it convinces nobody but the one having the experience, and they are, of course, the most personal aspect of magic. Suffice to say that many people, from all around the world, in all times of human existence including this very day and age, have reported interactions with these beings.
[more below]
I supposed I should start at the beginning…
Cosmology
In the beginning there was Primordial Chaos[1], the “quantum foam” of modern science perhaps, though something much more esoteric, foundational, and immaterial. This Chaos contained all potentiality, but un-actualized. Given infinite time mixed with this infinite potentiality, some potentials inevitably (without willful choice) actualized: what we call the Gods, or at least the original, “primordial” ones like the Ogdoad of Egypt. This is where the idea of Self-Created Gods come from, though it is debatable if they had any choice or say in the matter.Therefore, the only “monad” or “monistic, reductionist” force in the cosmos is Chaos, not some benevolent God like in Monotheism or the alien God in most forms of Gnosticism, not the matter of Materialism nor the mind of Idealism. This is the reason why all things tend towards entropy and destruction even within the ordered universe we inhabit, the reason why Chaos must be consistently fought against in the myths of most cultures[2] and very literally in every day life. Besides this Chaos there is a plurality - not a singularity, not a dualism, not a triple God - a plurality. Many Gods creating the many forces which eventually make up the reality we know.
Here we are speaking of Hard Polytheism[3] arising from Chaos. A pantheon of separate, distinct Gods interacting with one another. One of the deities in this pantheon is who the Gnostics recognize as the Demiurge[4]. This creature may or may not have created matter, but it places the descendants of its fellow Gods within said matter, or perhaps simply tries to instill ideals in this world to cause misery. Alternatively, it is possible some or many incarnate here willingly to illuminate others.
To break this down, we human beings have a spiritual essence that exists long before this material form we hold here[5]. Each person has a patron deity, one from the pantheon in which they come from. Think of it like a giant circle for a God within Chaos, and little circles within that God representing the individual manifestations of them, the souls of you, I, and everyone we know.
We lived with our patrons and kin in conditions perfect to us until this Demiurge saw fit to yank us from our realms and place us within matter for his own, malevolent, and sadistic amusement. (Or, alternatively again, some may choose to come here to help free others.) There are two things we can and arguably should do with our time here:
First, we should strive to find enjoyment and happiness in this world which is supposed to bring only pain and suffering. It takes effort, yes, but most would agree the effort is worth it. If matter is supposed to bring pain, then seek pleasure, why do you think the latter is a sin in the first place? If all leads to death, then strive for life, we already live many decades longer than “natural” compared to even recent ancestors. Sex is either stripped of virtue by making it a sin or stripped of meaning by making it casual and without connection, so you can be sure a good route is to see the virtues of sex and avoid treating it carelessly.
Second, we should strive to ascend beyond this realm, both in the present when we can and permanently upon death. This is not as simple as dying, one may cease to exist with death if they choose, or be reincarnated, or become a slave in another form than this material one. Rather, the time should be used in preparation and experience, the seeking of “Gnosis”, the knowledge of your true nature and Self. “Know thyself.” There is a third option, but only in cases where this option aligns with the individual will: to help others ascend as well.
So, from Chaos comes the Gods including the demiurge. From the Gods come both the Soul and likely that which we call matter. From matter the malevolent demiurge fastens a prison to feed off the suffering. From that prison our divine spark can arise to find both joy and our way back home to our patron Gods.
The Egyptian God Set
For me that patron God is Set[6], the Egyptian God of Darkness. This means that my personal “Gnosis” does not involve reuniting with some sort of deity, as that’s not what Set is about at all. Since the earliest traditions of Egypt, he was associated with the individual becoming a literal God themselves, becoming a new member of the pantheon with their own realm to preside over, like the afterlife described by Richard Murad in the Scrolls of Set[7]. Therefore, unlike the traditions of many other Gods and many other Gnostics (which are as equally valid as mine), I walk the Left Hand Path instead of the Right[8] - I do not seek any kind of dissolution into or submission to my patron because that is not even what the patron seeks, there isn’t some essence inherent to my existence other than to “Become”, to “Kheper” and “Come into Being”[9]. In this way I am also closely related to the God Khepri, and other deities in the close sphere surrounding Set, especially Thoth the Scribe.That said, if someone has a different patron this is not a problem for my views. I already accept Hard Polytheism, the existence of many distinct Gods, and I also accept that we are “naturally” connected to these Gods. The exception is the demiurge, for unlike other Gods he seeks to interfere with and dominate the will of all Souls. The God of Abraham exists – I simply do not believe everything it says about itself, or everything its followers say about it. Yes, I believe in a demiurge, who I would associate with the Egyptian Osiris, but not that all is misery or that we are eternal victims. Quite the opposite, there are many alternatives to this God, and we are only victims to it if we allow ourselves to be.
As for the fact that different cultures have different pantheons, this should really be expected due to cultural relativism[10]. My favorite example is that the stars objectively exist even though different cultures saw distinct, contradictory constellations in them due to cultural relativism. In other words, I believe there is one pantheon interpreted through different cultural lenses, rather than many pantheons with trillions of Gods.
I do not only associate with Set because of symbolism and ideology however, there are also the issues of my own nature and personal experience. As I have discussed elsewhere[11] and a bit here, we are of the essence of our patrons. It then follows that our inherent natures are like that of our patron, and we can find the latter using the former. This is a simple, not too personal, non-comprehensive list of traits Set and I appear to share, all of which combined seem only to describe that God in specific. I am addressing both the early and later, demonized forms of Set.
- Single son of single parent
- Lived whole life in the sands of the desert rather than near the cool fertile water / desert preference
- Inherently chaotic
- Preference for the North Stars and North in general
- “Foreigner” (Ethnic Jew in a Christian Culture, LHPer in a RHP culture, etc)
- Naturally transgressive
- Infertile
- Endured many physical, literal confrontations
- Described by others as “mysterious” and “unknowable”
- Night-owl / heavy night preference
- Outsider even within the groups I “fit”
- Associated with (chronic) illness
Personal experience is the one I will speak of most briefly, for I feel it convinces nobody but the one having the experience, and they are, of course, the most personal aspect of magic. Suffice to say that many people, from all around the world, in all times of human existence including this very day and age, have reported interactions with these beings.
[more below]
