Kemet Online: Followers of The Religion of Ancient Egypt: Set:Necessary Destruction.Third Day Upon The Year

Em hotep! <bow>.

Dr. Jan Assmann once said that EVERYONE loves and is fascinated with Ancient Egypt—yet very, very few know absolutely anything about Ancient Egypt.

Funny perhaps, but all too true.

The Netjer Set seems to particularly hold the fascination of many. Questions about Him get raised here often. Statements get made often. Perhaps Jan Assman’s comment is particularly relevant in our approach to Set.

With the current violence and destruction happening around the world and the constant rhetoric about "evil," some shemsu and friends have wondered if Set is at work.

Set IS at work.

The question is: Just what is He up to?

In the natural world, there are times when the existing order is completely destroyed by tornados, hurricanes etc. The destruction of such events is felt most deeply when we lose a loved one or property, or see our favorite trees on a forest path fallen, split and mangled. When a child is killed riding a bicycle in a tornado it is difficult to see this as a force of good or even a necessary violence.

Yet, as Ra shines upon the land, and new green sprouts slowly shoot up from the earth, and new forms of forest life emerge, plants that would die out without Set's actions, we see how Set has enabled Ra's lifegiving sunshine and Wesir's quiet power beneath the ground to join in creating and maintaining life and in making way for a new ecosystem, restoring Ma'at in a natural order as old as it is new.

Deep? Beautiful? . . . Yes .. Perhaps.

Yet is this the meaning of the increasingly violent hurricanes and the tsunami which took so many innocent individual lives? If so, is this a restructuring of our natural world only? Is it, as described above, part of a necessary natural cycle independent of human actions?

In our human arrogance we all too often assume that we CAN/SHOULD control everything; and often we assume that anything that happens is somehow about us.

Yet, at times we tend to just the opposite. We fail to take responsibility for harm done which we do not believe we PERSONALLY caused or contributed to.

As Kemetic Traditionalists we know that responsibility is not about individual guilt. It is about our ABILITY to RESPOND in the service of Ma'at. And we know too that we are a part of a larger whole; that we do bear RESPONSE-ABILTY for things beyond our individual control or actions.

So we must ask:

If indeed global warming is causing many natural disasters, more violent hurricanes of greater strength, the desertification and human suffering in Sudan, etc., and if products humans have created and ways of life and culture we have created have caused and/or contributed significantly to global warming, does it make sense to see Set's action in these events? Or is it Our RESPONSE-ABILITY that we must reflect upon and act to change? Could Set be present in these events in the hope of spurring us into action—into recognizing and taking our place in the world?

Might it have something to do with Ma'at in our social world as well? How so?

Is it possible that at least some of the current violence in the world is NECESSARY for the greater good? If so, which greater good?

This is certainly what George Bush and ally governments tell us. This time requires sacrifices: American troops, allied troops, and innocent civilians will die. Saddam and his sovereign government are forcibly removed from office. The United Nations must be torn down and rebuilt from scatch to confront evil in the world—both terrorism and what Prime Minister Blair calls "evil ideology.” According to supporters of this position, the right order of the world has broken down, evil has been unleashed, and only the forcible destruction of the current order and its replacement with a just order can prevent total chaos and the demise of democracy and civilization.

Is President Bush acting for Set against Apep?

This is what those who oppose Bush and allies tell us. Those he calls terrorists, those resisting the American occupation, also feel that the world must be rebuilt from scratch. That the violence and harm to innocents is necessary to turn back the forces of Isfet embodied in US actions against humanity through occupation, torture, and elimination of civil liberties; and only through feeling the effects of the violence in their own land can systematic terror on the part of the Americans and allies be overturned.

It is so easy to attack what has been labeled as "evil.” Yet there is a palpable presence of evil in many current happenings. We know it. We can taste it.

Yet WHAT IS IT?

Here we are not so sure. Must we know WHAT it is in order to act to restore Ma'at?

Set certainly recognized Apep before defeating Apep

Not all the Netjeru held a harpoon to spear the creature of uncreation. Yet all contributed to making Set’s work possible.

So what about each of us? How can we contribute to the restoration of justice in the world? What actions, words, beliefs, and attitudes enable us to participate with Set in letting Ma'at ascend? What stops us from having already taken these actions, adopted these beliefs and attitudes, and spoken these words?

What is it to which we cling like grim death—that needs to be destroyed? Let us help Set engage with us today in what in Islam is called jihad: the spiritual struggle to clear away and totally destroy what impedes our being our best self, our true self, and thus taking up our responsibility to participate with Netjer in letting Ma'at ascend and creating justice in the world.

Kheperu! Let it become!

Rev Renee with Rev Sedgwick

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Rev Sedgwick Heskett, Hemet NebetHet-Nit and Amun
Heri Tep Hem Netjer Per Ankh
Per Ankh: The Traditional Religion of Ancient Egypt
http://www.per-ankh.org