Thanks/Praise [Bookshelf] In honor of the Egyptian God, Seth

[Saint]

The Egyptian God Seth, is quite a misunderstood and misinterpreted figure, and has much more and deeper history than what most people would expect. The God of Destruction, the God of Deserts is just as much the God of Fertility as the God of Rain and Storm. The reason why I'm telling this is going to be well explained as you may pass throught the texts I'll deliver to you, and trust me, you may feel Confusion and Chaos in your mind about Seth, getting thrown back and fort, but you know, this is a part of His very being, who protects people from Destruction the same way as he is Destruction himself.

When I was a child, there was a name continuously popping up in my mind and giving me a strange sensation. A name which I didn't even had the chance to read or hear about, especially not in my country. It was just lingered in and out in my mind like if it would have been planted in the moment I born. The intimate link between me and many things he represents became more and more clear during the years, and just a small pushwas left to realize, he definitely has a place in my life. But he didn't came because I called, he came because He wanted.

I want to dedicate this Thread to him, and fill it up with those documents I've gathered up about him, which help people to understand this amazing God, and get more insight of both his history and his role in the mythology.

Let's tart with an interesting one and I'm sure that those who managed to learn a bit about Seth and Horus, are probably heard about this one. The way how I'll introduce you him will follow similar format how I plan to introduce him in the future (the same way as I already created this Bookshelf on Tumblr), and I'll do my best to keep it clean and comfortable to read. I truly hope it'll give you some motivation to open up to Him.​

【 Seth: Phallus of Set, God of Sexuality 】​

“I am Horus, my father Osiris, who seizes
the phallus of Seth for you with his hand”​

Finger and phallus seem to be interchangeable. We surmise that it can be said that the finger of Seth lights up the eye of Horus, because it is the phallus of Seth, that is thought of. Seth’s phallus emits fire. Not only the open conflict, the homosexual play too is from the beginning of a violent nature. He who looses the finger or seizes the phallus, puts an end to the ascendancy of Seth. Elsewhere there is mention of the theft of seed. At the same time, it must be admitted that this attack on the part of Seth ultimately led to the appearance of the eye of Horus. Thus one can say: the finger or the phallus causes the eye to see or illuminates it. The familiar hieroglyph of the wd3t might be an eye overflowing with moisture or light.
In the sacrificial liturgies we find the longing for and the belief in the restoration of peace and harmony. The lector-priest who says he is Thoth, recalls discordance that was overcome:

“The distress that causes confusion, has been driven away, and all that gods in harmony.
I have given Horus his eye, placed the wd3t-eye in the correct position.
I have given Seth his testicles, so that the two lords content through the work of my hands.”​

In the “ritual of Amenophis" the offerings made are called “eyes” and “testicles”:

“come to these offerings …
I know the sky, I know the earth, I know Horus, I know Seth. Horus is appeased with his eyes, Seth is appeased with his testicles.
I am Thoth, who reconciles the gods, who makes the offerings in their correct form.”​

Horus, and no explicit mention is made of the testicles. Now the wd3t-eye in itself presupposes an integration of contrasts and a certain harmony between Horus and Seth. Such an integration, however, implies that Seth the privateer and outsider, shall be of service to others. Offerings the testicles to Seth is apparently a risky business. There seems to be some hazard attached to establishing a harmony in which Seth is so positively concerned that the testicles are independently stressed besides the eye.

Apparently it is no historical accident that the symbols “eye” and “testicles”, light and sexuality, are paired in this way in Egypt. Elsewhere too, where no historical link whatever with the Egyptian religion can be pointed out, light and sexuality are opposed to each other. According to a Tibetan myth mankind had originally no sexual desires. They bore the light within themselves and were radiant. When the sexual instinct awoke, the sexual organs originated, but the light in man was extinguished and Sun and Moon appeared in the sky. A Tibetan monk added that originally mankind propagated themselves throught contemplation and light and that physical contact and sexual union was a phenomenon of degeneration.

We are strucky by the fact that in Egyptian mythology also the light has diminished, the eye of Horus has become small owing to the homosexual relations of Horus and Seth, and that here too the light is hidden in the semen. The moon comes forth out of Seth, who has devoured the seed of Horus. Naturally there are great differences between Tibetan and the Egyptian religion. An Egyptian priest would not judge sexuality to be a phenomenon of degeneration.

Even that sexuality, which in its symbol of the testicles of Seth is shown to be by no means confined to heterosexuality, does not remain in conflict with the light. Horus and Seth light and sexuality, are reconciled. In the sacrifice eye and testicles, light and semen can be joined. Indeed, according to the Egyptian concept of life they must be joined. Such is also evident from passages not taken from sacrifical texts.

“Aten: Thy rays penetrate into the ocean. Thou dost cause the seed in women to take shape, and make moisture into men.“​

[…] the testicles of Seth were not regarded as a symbol of political power only. The impotent man can turn to Seth in his distress.

It is not by chance that dead man who desires sexual pleasure in the hereafter, identifies himself successively with Baba, the god of the phallus in erection, and with Seth:

“My phallus is Baba. I am Seth.“​

Kristensen called the testicles of Seth a fertility symbol. Now it is worth while to examine the nature of this fertility symbolised by the testicles of Seth. It would seem to us that everything is called fertility in earlier works of religious history-and that is a good deal-is not summarised in the symbol of the testicles.
Van der Leeuw’s view, that it was thought fertility would cease because if the mutilation of Seth, is not supported by texts. An interesting remark of Anthes, "the destruction of the testicles of Seth may recall the sterility of the desert”, also fails to find comfirmation in the texts.
More recently, however, Zandee has tried to show by means of a great number of texts that Seth was a fertility god. Yet the texts he adduces prove no more that Seth has greath strenght, and particularly great sexual strenght. It is true the rain, which Seth was lord of, promotes the growth of plants. Yet in Egypt vegetation and the fertility of the soil is not dependt on rain, but on the inundation of the Nile. Seth is called a bull, but in this comparison he is not a paragon of fertility.

[…] We hesitate to call Seth a god of fertility, for, precisely, his boundless energy is not productive. He is the voluptuary who is tricked, for his sexual power is taken from him. One might object that the testicles are offered to him. The sacrifice of the testicles to Seth, however, never takes place separately, as far as can be ascertained, but in conjunction, with the eye of Horus. This means that eye and testicles are sacrificed to a double-god. […] A man who is ill or dead may, in extreme need, have recourse to Seth, and identify himself with him, but Seth is not the ideal of fertility. Even lacking the support of the notorious unpublished erotic papyrus of Turin, it must be garanted in a general way to Yoyotte, who gives various examples, that Egyptian eroticism is not summed up in fertility symbolism. The points mentioned above, Seth’s homosexuality and the fact that he was credited with practices of abortion, demonstate that Seth is a god of sexuality which is not canalised into fertility. The aspect of sexual life which finds expression in marriage is not connected with Seth but with other gods.

Seth’s sexuality cannot be equated with fertility, yet we must take heed not to mark it down as homosexuality only.
He experiences heterosexual desire towards the goddes, Isis. His feelings are not returned. He is so badly deceived by Isis, that he complains in tears to Re, perhaps this passage cannot be held to constitute convincing evidence of heterosexuality as an alternative choice. The sexuality of Seth is irregular. The Sethian man is beloved of women “through the greatness of his loving them”.

Seth: God of Confusion
by. H. te Velde; pg excerpt (50, 51, 52, 54, 55)

Seth: God of Confusion | H. te Velde

• Seth: Phallus of Set, God of Sexuality
• Seth as the Demon of Death | The Sacrifical Animal

 

[stalkinghyena]

Seth: God of Confusion
by. H. te Velde; pg excerpt (50, 51, 52, 54, 55)

A really good book, I was surprised. Read in broiling heat and choking forest fire smoke (lunch break). Maybe I can share thoughts when

 

[Saint]

A really good book, I was surprised. Read in broiling heat and choking forest fire smoke (lunch break). Maybe I can share thoughts when

Oh sure, definitely! I'll plan to add a short list / URL collection to the first post anyways so these sources can be followed down easily, any discussion about him or related books are welcomed!

 

[Jk666]

@Telafiel I appreciate a fellow magician who is not deterred by the Dark Gods

 

[Saint]

@Telafiel I appreciate a fellow magician who is not deterred by the Dark Gods

I'm pleased, @Jk666. I'm aware of people, even magicians are afraid of Dark Gods - or even Darkness overall -, while in reality, the more closer you get to them the more you understand how important their role is, and they are nearly not as terrible as they're portrayed.

It's much more easier to put all of your fears and traumas on the 'Dark Side' and anything which represents or connected to this spectrum, because you also keep these emotions and energies oppressed. Of course, you'll be afraid of going down in the dark when you hide so many things there, but it also means that so many knowledge, treasure and good things lays there, if you decide to submerge, and not torture, haunt yourself with your own fears and worries.

Dark Gods are amazing when things comes to supporting you in healing your traumas and banishing your fears by making you to face with it. But of course, if you afraid of doing that, Dark Gods will be nothing more but the source of your own fears, and it's you who making it happen, not them.​

 

[Yazata]

If i may add something: Seth is thought to be depicted as having the head of an animal - most believe the head of a donkey or ass.
In Hebrew ShTh means (among other things) "buttocks" = ass.
I find that a remarkable link to the homoerotic sex you mentioned.

 

[Jk666]

@Telafiel You also appeal to the scholar
what I have is mostly UPG.

I love a good discussion, but love action much more.

you wanna participate in Aura scanning ?

 

[Saint]

If i may add something: Seth is thought to be depicted as having the head of an animal - most believe the head of a donkey or ass.
In Hebrew ShTh means (among other things) "buttocks" = ass.
I find that a remarkable link to the homoerotic sex you mentioned.

Yes, and it's also proves something really important but less known fact about Egyptian Gods.

Egyptian Gods do not have ‘animal heads’. The depictions of gods are meant to contain a duality, as is important in Egyptian Religion (life/death, red land/black land, chaos/order, human/animal). So when you see, say, Anubis with a man’s body and a Jackal head it represents both his human form and his Jackal form, meaning he might appear in either form. But never as a human with a Jackal head. That is only something you’d see on temple walls for the duality aspect.

I'd also add that these animals are usually carries a type of energy and nature, which can be a representation of the nature of these Gods, or at least a part of it, but mostly the dominant one. In Seth's case, that animal also called "Seth" animal, because in many sculptures and artworks, the head often identified as both a donkey or a anteater. Yet, none of these animals are perfectly fitting to the way how he described, so it's also assume it's an already extinct out species.

In fact, Seth is truly a sexually driven being, but not in all the way related to fertility, so it's more of a lustful way of sexual desire and not really limited to genders. I've experienced this side of him really-really often, and it wasn't always easy to handle.​

 

[Saint]

@Jk666 Now it sounds interesting. Sure, I'm eager to take a part in it, you can reach me any time in DM if you wish.

 

[Saint]

【 Seth: The Murderer of Osiris 】

Seth as the Demon of Death​

​

“O Osiris, I lit a torch for you upon the day that your mummy was wrapped.
I drove away Seth when he was on the point of stealing your body.”​

From Pyramid texts and Coffin texts it is evident the deceased was held to be in great danger of entering upon the paths of Seth. The presupposition of the well-known “Stundenwachen” at the bier of Osiris is, that also after the murder Seth seeks to harm Osiris as a destructive Demon of Death.

“ The idea that Osiris death or wounds should be hidden occurs often. In a text which is written on the mummy-mask, it is said this mask was given to Osiris by Re in order to hide what was done against him, to keep secret the blow which Seth dealt against him; to the initiated Osiris’ weariness is uncovered and he may see his blows; but else-where it is said of the enemy that he has betrayed ( ?) Osiris’ weariness to Seth and has talked about his hidden blows. ”

In the Pyramid texts Nut is called upon to stretch herself over her son Osiris and to hide him from Seth. This prayer presupposes that Seth was considered capable of doing violence to a corpse. The fear that Seth might commit an outrage upon the corpse seems to be founded on the conviction that Seth cut Osiris into pieces. in the Book of the Dead Osiris is sometimes called “the dismembered one” (01.4).6) The Egyptians hoped to see their friends and relations back in the hereafter “freed of the onus of Seth and of the count of Isis”.

The following supplication is addressed to Re:

"Deliver me from this god,
who seizes souls and licks that which is rotten,
who lives on offal and is in darkness and obscurity,
who terrifies the weary — it is Seth”.​

​

Seth not only disturbs the order of life and death by murdering Osiris so that he suffered “ein schlimmer Tod,” but even after this he tries to cause confusion. He is the griffin in whose hand Osiris is. He is the destructive Demon of Death, who “lives by robbing him (i.e. the deceased). It is notable that it is not the murdered victim, but the murderer who is generally represented as a demon of death who can find no rest.
​

The Sacrifical Animal
​

When the Osiris myth, the crucial moment of which is not murder and dismemberment but resurrection, arrives at its height, it merges into the Horus myth, with which it constantly proves to be closely linked in the texts. Griffiths 5) has acceptably argued that the two parties in the judgment of the gods are not Osiris and Seth, but Horus and Seth, for the dead person who is identified with the god who is at law and sometimes called Osiris, is given that name because everyone, once dead, is called Osiris.

Data regarding a so-called punishment of Seth do not seem to refer to an essential part of the Osiris myth, but to have resulted from specu-lations about the ritual, particularly the sacrifice. As sacrificial animals are bound, killed and cut in pieces, so we hear that Seth and his following suffer this fate.

V̲a̲n̲ d̲e̲r̲ L̲e̲e̲u̲w̲ remarked: ”That the sacrifical animal is regarded as the enemy, and vice versa the enemy as the sacrifice of the god, is a common conception both in earlier and later times.“ Van der Leeuw here seems to reject the idea that the killing of sacrificial animals was regarded as punishment or vengeance on Seth, as K̲r̲i̲s̲t̲e̲n̲s̲e̲n̲ did too.’)

The significance of Seth in the Osiris myth may, I think, be summarised as follows. Seth is he who opposes the order of life and death by murdering Osiris, who had to die. The Egyptians have hardly mentioned the motives of his act. Occasionally it is related that Seth excused himself by saying that Osiris had come too near to him and had defied him. Usually no activities towards Seth are ascribed to Osiris; he is essentially a passive god. Precisely this passivity, however, might be a defiance for Seth. Perhaps the Pyramid text mentioned above might be understood as signi-fying that Osiris had appeared to his brother Seth as the god whose essence is death and as he who must die, and that it was this which aroused the aversion and aggression of Seth, whose unbridled zest for life clashes with passivity.
I believe a better understanding of Seth’s role in the Osiris myth may be gained by looking upon this fratricide as a suicide, not so much because of a few texts which state that Osiris is the ka of Seth or that Seth came forth from Osiris! - but from general considerations.

If Osiris is the God of Absolute Life, whose essence includes Death, then the duality of Osiris and Seth is that of death and life. Osiris is death from which life arises, and Seth is life which produces death. Owing to the duality of Osiris and Seth which now came into being, death, which before had formed a unity with life, became visible separately in the strange brother. Seth attempts to get rid of death, i.e. Osiris who must die, by murdering his brother. This is the behaviour of the self-murderer, in whose life death does not remain hidden until he is completed or overtaken by it, but to whom death appears as his double or alter ego and who feels the need to murder death, so taking his own life

The Egyptians do not seem to have overlooked the suicidal character of Seth’s act.​

"Seth is in all evil which he has done.”​

…that is to say, the evil which Seth has done rebounds upon his own head. It was remarked above that in representative Osiris texts such as the great Osiris hymn Louvre C 286 and the Ikhernofret stela the murder of Osiris by Seth is not mentioned, because the chaotic is assembled into a structured order.

By killing Osiris, Seth has slain himself and given himself as a sacrifice.
The sacrifice of Seth and his following in the ritual is the dramatisation of the murder of Osiris in its true perspective. It symbolises the end of Seth the demon of death, who as a suicide could find no rest. It unites him with his brother, Osiris the god of the dead.

It confirms the cosmic order and does away with duality. Since the murder is not only the culmination, but also the end of chaos, it can be celebrated as a sacrifice. This does not mean that the Egyptians attached a positive value to the murder as such, for that remains not only the end but also the culminating point of the activities of the order- destroying Seth. "He who is mentally disordered lacks the blind spot which aids one who is mentally healthy to deny, annul and disregard as trifling, the reality of his own death and its surrounding presence, so that by far the greater part of mankind is ‘surprised’ by death.”

Funerary texts repeatedly state that Seth must carry Osiris. One of these texts hinted that after his resurrection Osiris homosexually abused the wicked Seth.

Griffiths!) rejected the view advanced by Van der Leeuw. He goes on to remark: “What is strange is that neither Rusch nor Sainte Fare Garnot in their studies of these 'carrying texts’ have recognized that Seth’s role is really that of a ship in a funerary voyage. Sainte Fare Garnet speaks of Seth as a 'mount for Osiris to ride’. But animals were not ridden.

"I have killed for you him who killed you…. You are upon the back of him who is in the form of a bull.”​

The final clause of this utterance shows, that the bull or bull’s head is connected with a ship. As the boat of Sokaris was decor-ated with the head of a gazelle and a bull, that had been sacrificed, thus it seems that the ship of Osiris could be decorated with the head of a bull, so that the sacrificial bull representing Seth must carry Osiris as a ship

No more than the binding, killing and cutting in pieces of Seth as a bull, would Seth’s carrying as a ship or a ship with a bull’s head seem to be purely a punishment or an act of vengeance upon Seth. It is indeed not only Seth, but also Horus or the children of Horus who carry Osiris. Sometimes Horns and Seth carry Osiris together.’

“It is the true saviour from the realm of the dead, because it manages to carry the god and the dead person across the waters of death … All sacred boats have the same power of resurrection, and of all it may be said that this power constitutes their most typical characte-ristic”​

Viewed in this way, Seth is not only a murderer and demon of death, but also assists the resurrection of Osiris. This would mean that he is the demonic initiator, who leads his brother to life through death by violence.

Illustration by

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​

 

[stalkinghyena]

@ Telafiel, these posts are great! A couple of thoughts on Velde's book:
I was first captured by the "Seth animal" and the comparison to other chimeras presented. The Seth hieroglyph did not match any of the "flora and fauna" of Egypt, which I found interesting. The hieroglyph always gave me a weird feeling, especially the one with the long forked tail.

I read Velde on the heels of another much older book on Egyptian society and its religion, which put a lot of early attention on the sort of Neolithic "melting pot" of the Lower Nile and Delta regions. With all the various tribes and ethnicities moving about glacially, I wondered if the story of the "contest" between Seth and Horus might have represented some dim echo of a type of initiation rite among tribal groups. Following along with Velde - it's been a while so correct me if I am wrong - Horus and Seth as lovers, or perhaps even a single being, being separated by the "contest" seemed to me to represent a sort of struggle to divide the primal unconscious from the emerging focused conscious mind. The "Eye of Horus" is opened as an act of the conscious awareness gaining control over its "disordered" unconscious impulses, represented by Seth. But Seth is not forgotten, he is "subdued" and given purpose. Just a line of thinking, I am not drawing conclusions. I ponder still, but must turn the hourglass.

 

[SkullTraill]

I love threads like this, thanks for putting in the effort to write it! Keep it up.

 

[Saint]

Thank you so much guys, I'm pleased that I manage to bring some interesting and useful readings to you and hopefully I will not run of the content any time soon.

@ Telafiel, these posts are great! A couple of thoughts on Velde's book:
I was first captured by the "Seth animal" and the comparison to other chimeras presented. The Seth hieroglyph did not match any of the "flora and fauna" of Egypt, which I found interesting. The hieroglyph always gave me a weird feeling, especially the one with the long forked tail.

Yes, I can clearly remember that hieroglyph of the Seth animal.

I have some notes about this representation of the Seth animal from a different book about Ancient Egyptial historical places and hieroglyphs, so if I manage to dig it up with the images and texts, I'll post them as well. It's really a unique animal. Seth tend to be called as the Deity of Foreigners, so some people assume that the reason why they chose such an unusual animal is because of this - or at least partially -, while we still don't have accurate details of what this animal is.
​

I read Velde on the heels of another much older book on Egyptian society and its religion, which put a lot of early attention on the sort of Neolithic "melting pot" of the Lower Nile and Delta regions. With all the various tribes and ethnicities moving about glacially, I wondered if the story of the "contest" between Seth and Horus might have represented some dim echo of a type of initiation rite among tribal groups. Following along with Velde - it's been a while so correct me if I am wrong - Horus and Seth as lovers, or perhaps even a single being, being separated by the "contest" seemed to me to represent a sort of struggle to divide the primal unconscious from the emerging focused conscious mind. The "Eye of Horus" is opened as an act of the conscious awareness gaining control over its "disordered" unconscious impulses, represented by Seth. But Seth is not forgotten, he is "subdued" and given purpose. Just a line of thinking, I am not drawing conclusions. I ponder still, but must turn the hourglass.​

Here is a thing what I've learn during the time I was diving deep in Egyptian Mythology; it's usually full of contradictions - like many other myths - and also capable of changing during the times. The more you read and learn the more you'll see why it's super hard to rely on them, because they not really rely on each other neither.

Horus and Seth's relationship is ancient, really difficult and complex relationship, full of ups and downs, full of questionable events - from both side, so do not victimize Horus, he wasn't innocent neither, and in fact, most deities are not innocent and never really was - and contradictions as well, and involves many many symbols, which are good breeding ground for theories. Let's not forget an another important thing what I realize as I was reading books about Seth and myths related to him:
Writers tend to be really harsh over Seth - the same way how most people was towards him back then -, and he've got a lot of hate and disrespect during the history, which is kinda sad, since ultimately he is not 'worse' than any other Deity.

I'll be honest with you, when I was reading Velde's book, sometimes the way how he described Seth or how he approached Seth annoyed me so much that I had to put it down and take a break. It made me so mad, and I felt real bad for Seth.

This question is no exception. It has been asked from a Kemetist who is working with Seth, so I'd like to quite this whole thing to you / of course you can reach the question directly as well /. You can tell yet again, people really have an overall negative taste of Seth.​

Question: What is the appeal in worshipping Set? He continuously tried to hurt his nephew in anyway possible (including sexual abuse), and as someone from an abusive family I cannot see what anyone could gain from him and his constant chaos (besides stepping out of boundaries)

Answer from

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: The first thing I want to clear up is that I can’t comment on the appeal of worshiping Set, as I don’t worship him. I know some people will say that that is irrelevant, but it’s a large difference for me in my own mind. I can comment on why I continue to work with him, despite his flaws, but I can’t comment on the worship thing.​

Also, to be clear, he came to me first.

From my perspective, there are always a few angles to take the sort of “why do you interact with XYZ god who has done shitty things.”

The first is “well, truth be told, all gods have done shitty things.” Our pantheon is riddled with NTRW who have done god awful things. Who have been mean to others, who have been vindictive to one another, etc. Arguably, rape has been committed by multiple gods (HSA included, Aset would have been the victim) in our pantheon. Set is by no means the only deity with a checkered past.

So, I mean, why worship any god, if they have all been jerks who have done awful things?

The second angle to take is “well the myths may not be literal.” As such, we have no real way of knowing whether a god actually did something, or if its just myth. You can see more about that

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. In this case, it’s worth mentioning that the Contendings has been changed several dozen times, and as such, it could potentially be argued that maybe perhaps there is a possibility that the mythology is inaccurate to what actually happened.

Also, I’d like to point out that the way the NTRW have treated Set in the past wasn’t always rainbows and sunshine. While that is not meant to excuse what he’s done, it does highlight that the bro was likely mentally messed up at an early age, and that that could/would affect his behaviour later on (this is, ofc, if we’re taking mythology at face value.)

The third angle to take, which is my favorite, is “things change.” Yeah, Set has been an asshole in the past. He’s done shitty things, and he was punished for those things–rightfully so. However, there has been a fuckload of time btwn then and now, so even if I take the mythology at face value, I can logically understand that he did something awful, and perhaps has changed.

As someone who has come from an abusive household and who has also experienced sexual assault firsthand, I can say that I don’t take the topic of rape lightly by any stretch of the imagination. If Set ever started acting like that was on his mind, believe me when I say that he would be cut out of my life so fast it’d make his head spin. But to my experience, he hasn’t done so.

Further, I’m going to venture out and guess that you’ve never really dealt with Set in any capacity, because anyone that has done any sort of in-depth work with him knows that he’s not all chaos all the time. He’s not there to make your life miserable, or stir shit up for the lols. Perhaps he was more prone to it in his youth, but gods (like humans) can be tempered and change over the years. It’s my belief that he has mellowed, and as such, is better able to wield his strengths (chaos) as to achieve better results (overall, obvs he can still make mistakes. no one is perfect.)

Also, for me, he hasn’t been bad at pushing boundaries (unless it was a part of shadow work.) But I’m also very strict about my boundaries and what I will and will not allow. Others may have other experiences. But still, it hints at the likely fact that you probably only have a very superficial/limited view of what Set is like as an entity.

You wanted to know what Set could offer to someone from a shit past. I can tell you a few things. He can teach you how to survive, how to be resilient, how to keep going when the world is against you, how to keep going when you don’t want to keep going, how to take care of yourself when others won’t, how to get by in bad situations, how to pushback when pushing needs to happen, how to stand your ground, how to navigate difficult situations (albeit, his methods aren’t always the best, but no one’s methods will be 100% spot on), how to value yourself, how to have discipline

like. should I keep going?

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whose main theme is something along the lines of “different stories resonate with different people” and the same could be said of gods. Set will not be everyone’s cup of tea. No one deity will be well liked or well received by everyone. It’s impossible. But there are a lot of us who have found strength and even solace (to an extent) in Set’s company. I totally get if he’s not for you, but I wouldn’t discount him simply because of his mythology. Please remember that there are a lot of factors involved in myths and pantheons, and not everything necessarily is how it appears on the surface.

TL;DR: Set is a dick, but he’s a useful dick that has enriched people’s lives.

I've noticed during the time I was getting closer to Seth more and more, that people who also approached him had similar experiences and understanding of him, much less 'hateful' and 'rejecting, contemptuous' than many writers does.
One of the reason why I tend to see Velde's getting criticized is the way how he approaches Seth. Definitely not easy to read, Velde gathered a lot of useful information regardless, but there are other books which may give you a better way insight of Seth - and I plan to list them too -.

The more and more book you read and the more time you spend on researching and thinking about them, the more you may realize that there are no correct, accurate ultimate answer if you try to truly figure out what is going on. Exactly because of the amount of symbol, representation and contradictions.​

 

[Saint]

At Seth's impulse, I replaced his statue and Anubis' tonight, and it actually turned out better than I imagine. There was an another benefit of changing their places; I got more space for the items I kept there before. I still wonder why is the this impulse came, but maybe later it'll turn out. For now I just felt like it's the least I can do.
​

In the future I'll do some proper purchases and changes to make it even better, and more organized. I know it's not related to the book section, but it's still a thread for him, and I think it has it's right place here.

 

[stalkinghyena]

I'll be honest with you, when I was reading Velde's book, sometimes the way how he described Seth or how he approached Seth annoyed me so much that I had to put it down and take a break. It made me so mad, and I felt real bad for Seth.

I get this feeling often, whether it is from academic or occult sources. I did feel that Velde was more temperate in his approach than others had been, as he was not looking at Seth merely as the "Egyptian devil" so much as a complex figure.

Horus and Seth's relationship is ancient, really difficult and complex relationship, full of ups and downs, full of questionable events - from both side, so do not victimize Horus, he wasn't innocent neither, and in fact, most deities are not innocent and never really was - and contradictions as well, and involves many many symbols, which are good breeding ground for theories.

From a practical (and perhaps sentimental) perspective, I generally hold to the Chaldean tenet that "Every god is good". But the term "good" transcends moral figures in a theurgical sense - modes of conduct of deities is a teaching tool, a shadow play of energies in us. So Seth, like all the other deities, from whatever pantheon, gives a wealth of symbolism which can inspire.
If I recall correctly, both Horus and Seth also serve militant functions in the pantheon. Horus ruthlessly bashes the heads of Ra's enemies while Seth is a "Defender of Ra" against the horrid Apep. Ra himself takes the role of the paranoid tyrant that sends a bloodthirsty Hathor to slaughter a rebellious humanity - and yet she is goddess of love. Isis underhandedly steals Ra's power through magical trickery - all these images for me form a deeper sense of the "mythic cycle". They can serve as models for modes of consciousness. The only one that doesn't seem to do anything freaky is Osiris, but he is a like passive figure, an endless potential in the flux of death and resurrection (like the Nile), or an ecstatic revelation for those who find self-recognition in Ka and Ba?

I dig the altar, BTW. I want some Egyptian statues! That planchette looks mighty fierce.