SETing the Record Straight

By John Power

Many books and web sites are devoted to the work of ‘the Sleeping Prophet`, Edgar Cayce so there is no point recounting their contents here.  Suffice to say that Cayce stands out amongst those who claim psychic powers [which Cayce never did as he was entranced during his utterances] in that the bulk of data he disclosed from his Higher Self, when checked out, proved to be true.
Much of the data from the ‘Readings`, faithfully recorded by a group of followers in the Southern U.S., at the beginning of the 20th century, deal with Egypt and other ancient civilisations. Around 11-12,000 years ago Egypt was peopled by black skinned people that we would refer to as Nubians, but was simultaneously invaded by white Caucasians and received an influx of refugees of red skinned Atlantian stock as the last remaining islands became submerged by seismic activity. There is a hole in the continental drift theory the size of the Gulf of Mexico.
The dramatis personae at this critical time in history eventually became deified by subsequent Egyptians and passed into myth. Ptah, Amoun, Nut, and Geb where amongst the elder gods, but the Royal families of this time make a well known epic story: Re or Ra was said to be the indigenous leader who quickly arrived at treaties with the invaders to avoid bloodshed. He was succeeded by Osiris, of Caucasian descent, and his queen Isis, while their natural son was Horus. A troublesome Nubian priestly official, Set, was adopted into the royal family to further heal factional discord. Ultimately this move did no, work, for Set plotted to succeed Osiris and with popular native support did so. Only at some length was Isis able to prevail in restoring Osiris’ bloodline, in the form of Horus, to sovereignty. Thus began Set’s role of opposer: a role he was to assume in Middle-Eastern mythology henceforth, finding an easy slot to fill in Persian Dualism, and in Judaism as opposer to the demiurge Jehovah, a cruel and jealous god, who we would expect to encounter opposition. Here we see the difference between Middle-Eastern and Far Eastern philosophy: in the former opposites are seen as antagonistic and in the latter they are seen as symbiotic functions of the Absolute: Siva and Shakti are one in their union; Yin and Yang are balanced in the Tao.
Various heterodox dynasties looked on Set with favour and even Pharaohs bore the name, Seti. A desert demon, Shaitan, was in the course of time, merged in to the opposers role to create Satan.
In the 1970s writer Kenneth Grant, as part of his claim to be Aleister Crowley’s successor in the O.T.O., chose to seize upon Crowley’s work with Shaitan to portray Crowley as some kind of sophisticated Satanist and thereby lead a whole generation of occultists up the garden path and into the tunnels of Set, who retained his Nubian connections, even racist colouring , and came to represent the dark, nightside of existence in Egyptian myth. This is a gross misrepresentation of Crowley who transcended opposites. Grant even went as far as to try to identify Set with Indian Siva: Set-an, An being an ancient name for Siva. Although An was the sky god of Mesopotamia, there is no evidence of a connection with Set, originally a historical figure. Their natures are different: Set opposes; Siva transcends.
In his erudite commentary to the Goetia, Crowley recognises that once patriarchy had downgraded Pagan deities to the role of demons [the Fall], the interface between humans and deities causes them to act as demons. But the fearless Crowley was not afraid to summon any of these to do his bidding. Shaitan was such a downgraded god, and the function of the deity is in the eye of the beholder. Shaitanists remain in the realms of relativity: a reactionary pole in the process of the dialectic search for eternal truths.

Om Namah Sivaya.