SET SETH AND SATAN
Set was the Egyptian god of the underworld. There are many stories, myths, and fables involving Set. Set was essentially, THE embodiment of evil. In the ancient Egyptian Myth, Set killed his brother Osiris. He was the Prince of Darkness. Each evening Horus, the Sun or solar deity that ruled the day, would do battle with Set who ruled the night. Set would win this battle and send Horus into the underworld.
The two would fight throughout the night, and in the morning Horus would eventually overcome the powers of darkness to rise or ascend into heaven (Ouranos/Sky Greek: ουρανός). The next SUN/SET that you see may now have a different meaning to you.
Set had many names throughout the thousands of years that numerous forms of this myth prevailed. The following are some of the various names of Set, or that Set was identified with:
Seth
Apophis/Apop/Apap/Apepi
Anubis
Sut
Sutu
Typhon
Toth
Sata
The last name in the list should look quite familiar even among the people of today's world ... SATA (satan).
One of the Ancient Greek Myth versions of Set was Typhon or Typhoeus. Here you’ll find some mythological history:
“A monster of the primitive world, who is described sometimes as a destructive hurricane (Typhoon), and sometimes a fire-breathing giant. According to Homer, he was concealed in the earth in the country of the Arimi ... In Hesiod, Typhon (the Greek for Set/Seth) and Typhoeus are two distinct beings. Typhon is represented as the son of Typhoeus, and a fearful hurricane ... Typhoeus ... is called the youngest son of Tartarus and Gaea ... He is described as a monster with 100 heads, fearful eyes, and terrible voices, who wanted to acquire the sovereignty of the gods and men, but, after a fearful struggle, was subdued by Zeus with a thunderbolt. He begot the winds, whence he is called the father of the harpies ... he was buried in Tartarus (hell), under Mount Aetna ... Typhoeus was identified with Set, who typified the power of darkness, the same power of darkness who slew Osiris.”
Satan, as a great serpent being chained in the underworld or “bottomless pit/abyss” (Rev 20:1-3) is drawing from the Typhon and Apophis imagery. As for the pit being bottomless or a great abyss, Greek myths mention that the underworld of Tartarus is as far removed from the earth's surface, as is heaven. Ancient Greek Myth imagery is once again being borrowed here.
Another very powerful myth from ancient Egypt that fit very well into the Biblical record of creation was the legend of the rebellion of Seth against Horus. Seth, a synonym of hatred and disobedience in Egyptian mythology, caused all sorts of troubles to befall man in revenge for his banishment by Horus and the rest of the “Egyptian Ennead.” The Ennead (or Great Ennead) was a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology.
“Know that in the minds of the early Egyptian Christians, Satan, as a parallel to Seth, became a rebel and the enemy of man, who began to lurk in ambush in order to drag him (man) into disobedience.”
-Dr. Wlison B. Bishai
Professor Emeritus of Arabic for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University
And a quote from "The Christ Conspiracy"
“ ... Of course, the dualistic concepts of absolute good and evil did not originate with Christianity but are found long before the Christian era, particularly within Zoroastrianism. Satan is an adaptation of the Persian representative of evil “Ahriman,” the twin brother of “God (Ahura Mazda),” the same as the Egyptian Set, Horus's twin and principal enemy also known as “Sata,” the source of which comes “Satan.” Horus struggles with Set in the exact manner that Jesus battles with Satan, with 40 days in the wilderness, among other similarities, such as the revealing from the mount “all the kingdoms of Earth.” This myth represents the triumph of light over dark, or the sun's return to relieve the terror of the night (Darkness+Evil=Devil). Horus/Set was the god of the two horizons; hence, Horus was the rising sun, and Set the time of the Sun-SET. The origin of the “devil” also can be uncovered through etymology, in that the word comes from the Sanskrit term “deva” or the Persian “daeva,” both of which originally referred to angelic entities, usually female, who were demonized by Christian indoctrinators. In actuality, “devil” shares the same root as “divine.” In addition, “demon” is a Christian vilification of the Greek word “daemon,” which likewise referred to a divine spirit ...”
Also from “The Christ Conspiracy”
Now onto the use of the term “Lucifer (Latin).” Despite all the political intrigue, Lucifer (Greek: Phosphorus) simply means “Light bearer/bringer,” and he was in the earliest times a sun god, which is why he is called “Day Star, son of the morning/dawn.” The sun god Lucifer is “cast out of heaven” by the other angels (or stars), as night descends. This god/angel Lucifer is pre-Hebraic, found in Canaan, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and was not originally considered evil ...”
-C.C. (229)
So, those of you that are worried about Satan following you around and making people do things, as you can plainly see it was just a story that originated in ancient Egypt that sprang out of ignorance of the natural world. The church used it as a ploy to control people of the times that had no education and would easily fear these mythical entities.
In a deeper more esoteric and metaphysical level, allegorically, our ego is considered to be satan, devil, demon, anti-christ ... simply because it goes against the common good (God) for it's own ego-centric and selfish desires. So we see that satan is symbolic of the human ego, opposer to the Divine Spark of God. But more on that, in another writing.
Just a thought ...
Justin Taylor, ORDM.
