#osirian myth

[akhret]

The djed pillar is used to represent the terms ‘stability’ or ‘enduring.’

This was often placed near the spines of mummified bodies, across their lower torso, or around their necks, so the dead could reuse their spines in the afterlife. When this was worn as an amulet, it would help invoke the regenerative powers of Osiris. It was most commonly depicted as blue or green to symbolize the ability to give the deceased a new life- making them become Osiris-NN. Thd djed representing the spine comes from the Osirian myth.

When Osiris’s body was sent down the Nile in a coffin, after being murdered by his brother, a tree started to grow atop of his coffin quickly, enclosing Osiris’s body within the truck. The pharaoh of the land was perplexed by its unnatural growth and ordered his people to cut down this tree to use as a pillar within his palace.

Isis had found his body at Byblos. She petitioned the pharaoh and his wife for a favor, which they had granted. She asked for the pillar within their palace. When this favor was granted, she extracted the coffin from the pillar, anointing it with myrrh and wrapping it with linen.

The djed has incredibly important connotations for religious purposes in accordance to ceremonial and religious usages, along with festival usage. The djed was associated with Osiris, Ptah, and Sokar.

The djed was also used at the sed festival in a cermony called ‘raising the djed,’ which represented Osiris having victory over his brother Set.

Image from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djed#/media/File%3AAmulette_en_forme_de_pilier_Djed_au_nom_de_Ramsès_IX_(Louvre).jpg

[causalityparadoxes]

I think Mrs. Flood may be an Osirian. Specifically, Isis / Alozza

If they focus on the Osirian/Egyptian Mythology side of Sutekh, it would make sense: Isis is a goddess that has been associated with a million things. Importantly for this, she is connected to the sky, to rain, and to fate. She was also the sister-wife of Osiris, who himself is associated with cycles of nature. Including, the annual flooding of the Nile.

From there, the name 'Mrs. Flood' tracks! She is both the flood of rain and the wife of its endless cycle. She's also a widow, so of course she would have a married title yet no spouse.

It would make sense to include her specifically, as she is important to the Osiris Myth that Sutekh's history is based on. In it she collects pieces of Osiris that Sutekh/Set scatters after murdering him. After finding them, she resurrects Osiris for long enough to have Horus (or an aspect of him at least). Horus then 'defeats' Set. Which parallels the story in Pyramids of Mars.

Being an Osirian would explain her creepily ominous warning to Cherry. As while she would not be with Sutekh, she would still be a higher being with alien priorities. Her being on earth would also somewhat fit with the dweu. Where Isis waited on earth for Sutekh's awakening. Though not 1-1.

It could also connect back to Ruby, as Isis' has strong connections to motherhood. If Ruby was say, secretly an Osirian, there are options. Especially considering her name's reference to both the Sun and the colour red, like girl is nearly a verbal description of the Eye of Ra. She could be the daughter of Isis herself, maybe a younger aspect of Horus (God of Light but also a god of the Sunday), hidden away as a human. Though that would be a very literal take. Honestly, when it comes to Ruby I'm not sold on anything specific.

Lastly, If they go this direction, I'm guessing the "vital object on a distant planet with no name" that rtd teased, will be related to the Osirians. Since they've already used the Eye of Horus, perhaps the Eye of Ra? It is has been depicted in relation to Isis. It's also often personified as a Goddess so, maybe Ruby herself? A living trap/weapon, idk). Whatever it is though, Mrs. Flood would be instrumental in defeating Sutekh. We'll see.

(Also: disclaimer and apology in advance to both people who actually know about the religions I'm mentioning, and to EU/Faction Paradox fans. For anything I may have got wrong 🙏)

[wolfblood-of-anubis]

Eddie: Where's Nina?

Amber: Don't worry about Nina.

Eddie: Oh I'm sorry, have you met me?

[flowers-of-io]

I *can* tell you why Neztea: When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, Osiris' wife Isis assembled all the pieces and wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life.

I *can't* tell you why it was Mithrax and us collecting the bits of Nezarec instead of Saint. I *can't* tell you why it was bits of Nezzy in the canopic jars instead of bits of Osiris himself.

I *can* tell you we went through the whole song and dance of Osiris being functionally dead and then functionally revived, as tedious as it may have been, simply because that's the myth of Osiris and that's what Bungie does.

Full disclosure: I'm still perplexed about why it was Nez brew as well, but I personally call as of yet unclear Savathûn shenanigans. One of the biggest motifs associated with her specifically is tea and teacups. Don't believe me? Go do a search on ishtar. Saint's got his suspicious mystery teacup. You know what bone china is made from? Literal bones.

(There's also the Calix Summus emblem, which once again points us back towards the hive and their alchemy and nezzy (with the pyramid line thingy coming out of the cup). Calix = cup, but calix also = calx, one of the products of calcination (if that doesn't ring a bell, look back at the context of the calcified fragments). Summus here probably means something like key or paramount, so... the most importantest cup. Check out the secondary part of them emblem! That's a syzygy!)

If I sound like a lunatic, well... that's fine. The fun thing about Destiny lore is that it *does* reward you for putting in legwork to understand the mythologies and theologies and philosophies it draws from, even if you sound like a maniac to most people.

If you're really curious and want to figure out what happened or is going to happen with Osiris, I'd start looking into the history of Osirian cults and their practices. You might find absolutely fuck all, but you might also find something interesting. I'd do it myself, but I'm balls deep in Hive names and writing systems for the foreseeable future. Oh, and keep an eye on Saint. I'm still not convinced he's gonna make it all the way to the end based on what we know about the story of the phoenix and the turtle dove pigeon

Last thing: If a garden grows in both directions and that garden is a metaphor for the story told in a parable, then the story probably requires as much tending in the past as it does the present.

Good luck, I love you, have fun, pirate books if you have to, and keep your third eye wide fucking open.

(A reply to this post)

First of all, I'm so sorry for missing this message somehow. I've been having issues with not getting (or overlooking?) notifications about new asks and it's driving me a little mad by now.

(Putting the rest under a read more, because it's A LOT)

Second of all, I feel so stupid lmao. Of COURSE it's the Osiris myth eh? I genuinely didn't make the connection AT ALL, despite noticing the damn canoptic jars and being like, huh, interesting! And then my brain didn't follow on it ever. What probably threw me off is what you mention, the fact it was Misraaks and us, and not Saint, collecting the pieces, and that these weren't even Osiris' pieces to begin with. And besides, he wasn't even dead.

There's quite a mix of symbolism in the whole thing here, overall? Nezarec is the Nightmares guy, which makes sense in terms of him being the cure for a guy stuck in a coma--but this acknowledges Osiris' status as *asleep*, not dead, which then throws off the whole myth thing. And remember that one piece of Nezarec is, or is in, the Delicate Tomb--and that gun is very long-time nuclear waste warnings-coded, y'know, the whole "This is not a place of honour" thing. "The danger within is repulsive to us" is as far as you could go referencing to "What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us" while not quoting it verbatim. (And also the Delicate Tomb states "within" because the danger--Nezarec--is literally inside the gun.) The name of the catalyst quest, The Form of the Danger, is a direct quote.

What interests me is the thought process Misraaks and Eido must've gone through to arrive at the conclusion that they should brew this ancient corpse and serve it as tea, but okay, let's suspend our disbelief and say they just studied the remains for a long time (which they did) and within the context of Nezarec being the Nightmares dude, it made some sense.

It's also really funny of Savathûn making *that* the cure for the coma, and very 5D chess for her. She could have reasonably assumed the Witness would go looking for Nezarec's remains when shit hit the fan, in order to have its powerful Disciple back; though how it wanted to revive him I'm not sure, seeing as it was the Traveler's laser beam that inadvertently did the job. But then of course we Guardians would try to stop it, and most likely succeeded, and once Nez's remains were in our hands, we'd obviously study them. And so we'd find the cure. It's so brilliant and so, so unserious.

And yeah, her and tea!!! I'm not sure how to connect Saint's teacup (if you mean the one from Quintessence) here, but "Dûl Incaru serves you poison in a fine tea set of Ahamkara bone" from Truth to Power is iconic. *Ahamkara* bone china!!

You're also so big brained about Calix Summus because I literally didn't know this emblem existed. (For the record, it was included in the January 2024 Prime Gaming bundle.) And yeah if we interpret the graphic as planets and orbits, that is indeed a syzygy... And yeah. Calcified fragments. Gosh this rabbit hole runs so deep.

Bro I NEED to know about what you're cooking regarding Hive names and writing systems!!!!! Your brain is so big and I want to pick it about everything lol.

Oh, I never interpreted the garden growing in both directions as a metaphor for the story told in a parable, but rather the paracausal forces' ability to change past and future + the Black Garden being a four-dimensional thing where space is time, but. BUT. The thing about parables and myths is they bend time, in a way. They connect the past to the present, and so by extension the future. Time there is always circular; they keep happening over and over, regardless of linear history. They aren't physically *real*, but they are true. (Also paging @svedupelle here bc I know he'll be interested.)

Thank you!!! My third eye is so open it's like half of my forehead now.

[a-gnosis]

12: Isis and Osiris, part 3

This great one is fallen on his side, he who is in Nedyt is cast down. Your arm is taken by Ra, your head is lifted up by the two enneads. Behold he has come as Orion, behold, Osiris has come as Orion, Lord of wine at the wag-festival. 'Perfect one,' said his mother; 'Heir,' said his father. Conceived by heaven, born of the underworld: Heaven conceived you together with Orion; The underworld bore you together with Orion. Whoever lives, lives by the gods' commands: you shall live! You shall set forth with Orion in the eastern part of heaven; You shall descend with Orion in the western part of heaven. Making three of you is Sirius, pure of thrones: She is your guide on the goodly parts of heaven, In the Field of Reeds.

From the Pyramid Texts of Pepi I translated by Toby Wilkinson.

The Pyramid Texts are a diverse group of hymns, incantations and spells, composed to assist the deceased king in his resurrection, ascension to the sky and admission into the company of gods. In the Sixth Dynasty the cult of Osiris was on the rise, thus Osiris began to play a key role in this transition from death to rebirth, and the texts make explicit references to the Osiris myth. Nedyt is the mythical location where Osiris was slain by his brother Seth. The Field of Reeds is a concept associated with the Osirian model of the afterlife: an agricultural idyll where the deceased could live an eternal life of fertility and abundance.

[blackrainbowblade]

The Solar-Osirian Union, one of the most enigmatic moments in Egyptian myth. At midnight, each night, Ra and Osiris are united - "Ra is within Osiris and Osiris is within Ra". At this moment, the world is renewed and reborn in readiness for a new day. In the Underworld, the dead are revived. At the same time, the new sun is conceived, ready to be born from the body of Nut at dawn.

Ra, as the creator-god, can be seen as a father to Osiris. At the same time, Osiris is the father of Horus, another solar deity. As such, both are the other's father and both the other's son, both are the one who conceives and the one who is conceived, creator and created. It's from this logic-defying circularity that time itself is born, ensuring that, for both mankind and the gods, another day will dawn and with it, a new solar cycle will begin.

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

Slamming my two niche fixations into one super niche fixation with my House of Anubis kids but if they went to Ravenwood Academy in the 2008 MMO Wizard101:

Nina is definitely a Balance wizard through and through, which means she draws upon all the elemental schools to perform her magic (this is also lowkey the ancient Egyptian theme school so…). It’s not super powerful, but she’s very good at it. She also is a master at the Celestial schools of Sun, Moon, and Star. She definitely gets sucked into the whole Shadow magic debacle as well, because she’s Nina.

Fabian, my beloved Storm and Myth double major wizard. He was definitely a Diviner to start out, since they’re all about scientific discovery, but the moment Nina came crashing into his world, he definitely fell down a rabbit hole into the School of Myth. He’s also, begrudgingly, way better at being a Conjurer than he was with anything to do with Storm magic. Still, he sticks with both.

Patricia is the most Pyromancer to have ever Pyromanced. Her fire burns bright; she’s quick to anger, completely fixated on whatever currently has her attention. She’s also really into the Gravulum Order, because it feeds the little beast of paranoia in her by having to get readings on chaos magic from places and creatures

Amber is also a Pyromancer. Much like Patricia, the flames of her magic are bright and hot. She also cares a lot about how she looks— a common trait of the Fire School. She’s also almost always found in the Shopping District, particularly the dye shop. She dabbled in Storm magic for a little bit but after she nearly blew up the school, she was asked to switch.

Alfie is a Conjurer. The Myth school feeds into his fantastical whimsy, and he loves learning about all the different creatures and stories. He loves Monstrology, and fills his dorm with all sorts of conjured critters.

Jerome is a Necromancer, but he sucks at it— not because he doesn’t have the affinity for it, but because he doesn’t pay attention in class, way more inclined to be plotting his next prank. He’d actually be very good at Death magic if he could put that mind of his to his studies instead of being a menace.

Joy is a Storm wizard. She’s addicted to tech and pop culture and she loves an aesthetic. Just ask after something (or someone) she likes, and she will go on about it for days and days. She’s a very talented Diviner, and her magic is strong. Don’t cross Joy.

Mara is a Thaumaturge with Storm as a secondary school. As an Ice wizard, she exhibits great patience and strength, but she’s rigid and inflexible in her beliefs. She has a very clear sense of right and wrong, and she will call you on it. It also takes a lot to break her down. Sometimes when she’s upset about something, it starts to snow in a little cloud over her head.

Mick: Mick is a Fire wizard for a lot of the same reasons Patricia is. He’s a hothead, and his flames are absolutely lethal. He can burn opponents to a crisp in moments. Definitely not lacking in the raw magic department.

Eddie: Eddie also starts off solely as a Fire wizard, but once he discovers he’s the Osirian, he takes up Balance magic as a secondary school. He’s not as skilled at the detail work as Nina is, but what he lacks in finesse he makes up for in raw power. He and Patricia sometimes duel for fun, but he only ever wins when he combines Balance magic with his Pyromancy. She insists it’s cheating, but he maintains that it’s “strategic”

KT: KT is a Necromancer. She’s always been drawn to Death magic, ever since she was a child. Her grandfather was a Necromancer and he taught her everything she knows. She’s not super good at speaking with the dead, but she’s amazing at resurrecting them. Sometimes, she helps Fabian study Myth in the school library, and sort of picked it up as an unofficial secondary school.

Willow: Without a doubt, this girl is a Life wizard. Her singing makes the flowers grow, animals flock to her, and her magic is pure healing energy. Much like most Life wizards, her head is in the clouds and she’s a little strange, but you can’t help but love her. She’s also very skilled at Astral magic.

[thetwistedrope]

No disrespect intended but I have a question I need answered. Sekhmet is Goddess of plagues and pestilence which leads to death. How does this pertain to Ma'at if she is of the Netjer? Isn't death and disease the opposite of Ma'at? Just need an explanation and this cleared up. Thanks!

She is the bringer of plagues, and that's why the ancient Egyptians were so fixated on keeping her green and placated. they propitiated her daily to help keep the country in her good favor. in fact, a lot of ntrw worship and veneration was rooted in that. each ntr has the capability to both be benevolent and be a bringer of isfet.

isfet can be broken down into two categories: naturally occurring and manufactured/man-made. naturally occurring isfet is stuff like disease and death. they are part of existence and they are part of ma'at. when the gods are acting upon this type of isfet, they are usually reframed as being acts of ma'at, and so the transgression becomes acceptable as part of maintaining a larger ecosystem or balance.

f'ex, no human (or ntr) can survive without committing isfet. to live is to consume, and food is a double-edged sword of both isfet and ma'at. this is true for every living thing on this planet, to sustain creation is to commit certain acts of isfet. when you eat, you could frame it as isfet for whatever you're eating, but it could also be framed as creating ma'at so that you can sustain yourself. in this way, the two are interlinked. this is why the Osirian myth cycle is as important as it is: it creates a framework that allows us to take such violent acts of isfet (albeit, fully natural forms of isfet that /will/ happen to all of us eventually), and convert these acts into ma'at.

it's the manufactured isfet that is particularly destructive. wanton, meaningless destruction. capitalism. exploitation. oppression. all of these are human-made forms of isfet that shouldn't exist. whenever the gods partake in this sort of isfet, they often experience some sort of negative effect (such as Osiris bleeding out his stupid head for being an egotistical jerk when he received the atef). these sorts of isfet are regarded as worth destruction in totality. or in other words, there is no upside to this form of isfet, and so we work to eradicate it.

it's hard to be succinct about this topic, so i would recommend reading this post about isfet and this post about ma'at. these two posts are part of a larger series that you could read to get a more nuanced understanding of ma'at in general.

[milky-rozen]

Main cast completed!

The characters from the Osirian myth is finally here, although there are still lot of other deities on their way, and lots of ideas I still need to work on.

So stay tuned for the next part! Suggestions and opinions are warmly welcomed!

[mask131]

Egyptian gods - The Ennead, Seth

To begin this brief and synthetized exploration of the deities and myths of Ancient Egypt, what better start than with the villain of the Ennead, the evil (but quite nuanced) antagonist of the Osirian myth – I am talking, of course, of everybody’s favorite hated god, Seth.

Seth is often compared to Hades from Greek mythology because both are “gods that keep being portrayed by those dumb Americans as a god of evil and the ultimate bad guy when in fact they originally weren’t all bad and just neutral”. Which is partially true… but very partially. Because unlike Hades, who REALLY wasn’t evil, Seth was actually a wicked deity. He was a bad guy, a nasty god, a massive jerk, and, yes, he was quite close to what a “devil” in Egyptian mythology would be.

I) Seth: The uncle that makes everything awkward at parties

Set is one of the four children of Geb, god of the earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky, forming the last generation of the Ennead alongside his brother Osiris and their sisters, Isis and Nephthys. Set married Nephthys, whereas Osiris married Isis. Seth’s most famous role in Egyptian mythology was being the villain of the “legend of Osiris”. Now… given this myth is VERY long I will try to simplify it as much as I can. Also note that the only complete and full record we had of this legend was a Greek translation by Plutarch – which was itself an attempt at compiling the various contradicting Egyptian stories about the Osiris myth. We do have some Egyptians versions of the “Osiris legend”, but they are all fragmentary and incomplete. So let’s try to shorten and simply MASSIVELY this whole mess.

In these early days of the world, the gods still walked on the Earth and ruled over humankind as pharaohs. Geb, the earth-god, was the pharaoh of humanity for a time, but then it came time for him to pass on the crown – and he selected his elder son, Osiris, as the new ruler of the world (the human world being just Egypt, because you know – Egypt is the entire world, of course). Osiris was a good ruler beloved and adored by all – and Seth didn’t like it. Seth was not only a jealous brother who disliked seeing all the love Osiris received, but also a power-hungry god who wanted to be the stole ruler of the world. At least this is the “Cain and Abel” dynamic of the most widespread and popular version of the myth – there are several alternative telling giving other reasons for the animosity between the siblings. Some say Osiris received the good lands of the north of Egypt, with its fertile valley and the Delta, while Seth received the more hostile and arid lands of the south, and Seth disliked this very much. Other claim that Seth actually was trying to get back at Osiris because he had an affair with Nephthys behind Seth’s back. And some make Seth massively petty and say he did all of his vile crimes because Osiris had kicked him once and he felt so humiliated he swore to destroy him…

All in all, Seth decided to take over his brother’s throne, and since Osiris wasn’t going to just nicely give it up, Seth decided to murder him. The Egyptian records we have of the murder all differ and contradict each other: sometimes Seth drowned Osiris in the Nile, other times he cut his body into little pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt, in a third he turned into an animal (a bull or a crocodile) to kill his brother… Plutarch tried to gather all of these stories into one narrative, which became the most famous one: Seth gathered a great number of co-conspirators to get rid of Osiris, threw with them a fake banquet/treacherous feast to which Osiris was invited, there was a game involving trying to see who would fit perfectly into a lavishly-decorated box, and when it came to Osiris’ turn (the box was of course a perfect fit for him), Seth and his allies sealed the coffin with melted lead and threw it into the Nile. But later, when the spies and servants of Seth informed him Isis had discovered her husband’s corpse and hid it in the swamps of the Delta, the treacherous brother took it back, cut into little pieces, and scattered it throughout the Nile (he did so because he knew the tricks of his cunning sister, and he knew she had great magical powers able to resurrect the dead). By cutting the corpse into little pieces, he hoped to destroy him entirely.

Problem is: Osiris left a son behind, young Horus, who was raised secretly by his mother in the swamps. When he came to age, he made himself known to the world and demanded the throne of his father back (since, of course, Seth had usurped it as soon as Osiris “went missing”). Seth, being the wicked uncle that he is, refused to give the throne back – and this started the greatest court case of all of Egypt’s history. A trial organized by a tribunal of the gods, and that went on for more than EIGHTY YEARS to settle the legal question: who, of Seth or Horus, should inherit the throne of Egypt (aka the world)? Technically Horus should have received it, since all of the gods agreed that he was the rightful heir, that his grievances against Seth was legitimate, and that Seth was a very poor ruler compared to the universally beloved Geb and Osiris. But Seth had one massive ally with him: the very president of the séances, the overseer of the entire trial, the Master of the Universe and Creator God, Ra (well I say “Ra”, but note that in the original text the identity of this “Universal Master” is left unclear - for the sake of simplicity I will call him Ra from now on, but know it should technically be “The Master of the Universe”). Every time the gods seem to arrive at a consensus (even the ones where they attempt to please Seth, for example giving the throne to Horus, but offering Seth in compensation two new wives, Anat and Astarte), Ra, who likes Seth and doesn’t want to make an enemy out of him (for reasons I’ll describe later), started again the debate, all so that Seth could obtain the only thing he ever wanted, the sole and absolute power over Egypt. Ra, the supreme master of the universe, even complied to every whim and tantrum of Seth – for example ending up banishing Isis from the debates when Seth grew tired of her constantly defending her son. However Seth’s own flaws lost him: seduced by a beautiful woman he had never seen before, he was so charmed by the sexy temptress that he confessed to her everything. Blinded by his lust, he answered to her questions, revealing that yes, he was the murder of Osiris, and yes, he had no legal right for the throne as Horus was the only true heir. He only realized afterward that the “sexy woman” was none other than Isis in disguise – and this time not even Ra could help Seth, since he had foolishly revealed on his own that he was an usurper and a criminal…

However Seth, always quarrelsome and full of hatred, was ready to stay down even after this legal defeat, and he challenged his newly-crowned nephew to a strange competition: see which of the two would hold their breath the longest under water when turned into hippopotami. During this competition, an incident causes Horus to kill his own mother in a fit of anger. She gets better later, as gods do, but this still makes Horus a criminal in the eyes of Ra, and Seth is of course the first one to volunteer to punish Horus, by removing his eyes (there’s a lot of stories about how, during a challenge or competition or duel, Seth was responsible for removing or destroying one or all of Horus’ eyes, which then became celestial bodies in the sky). This “hippopotami competition” and what ensues is but the first of a series of trials and challenges the two rival gods inflict on each other. The next famous episode is the one of the “homosexual meal” – as Seth and Horus are invited to share a meal, Seth tries and almost succeeds in raping Horus, an action that would have “degraded” his nephew as a weak bottom, so to speak, unfit for the crown, while the dominating, virile, “top” that is Seth would deserve the crown. [If you are familiar with Norse views on homosexuality, we are in a similar case, tops are good, bottoms are bad]. But learning about this, Isis reverse the situation by placing some of Horus’ semen into Seth’s salad (his favorite dish), so that when Seth brings the story in front of the tribunal of the gods, Horus calls forward his semen which manifests itself inside Seth’s belly, making it seem that it was Horus that topped his uncle, thus humiliating him in front of all the deities. In some fragmentary records, the semen actually makes Seth “pregnant” in an abstract way, as he “gives birth” to a golden disk which manifests on his forehead, or is taken by Horus to wear on his forehead. Another fragmentary record also depicts a different origin of the semen incident, as Seth actually expressed honestly his lust for his nephew and asked Horus to have sex with him, something Horus only agreed to if Seth gave him a portion of his divine strength and power – only for Horus to then fall ill, as the semen – especially the one of Seth – was perceived as a toxic, poisonous product by Egyptians). Many more challenges and episodes would be intertwined with this story, such as a boat race in which Horus cheats, prompting Seth to become an hippopotamus to try to kill his nephew, or an episode of Horus emasculating, taking or destroying one or all of his uncle’s testicles…

Ultimately, after more rigged games, mutual humiliations, many co-mutilations, it is said that this endless conflict between the two only ended up when Osiris himself was summoned from the Underworld to give his opinion to the tribunal of the gods concerning the matter… Only for Osiris to explain that it was ridiculous to doubt that Horus, his only son and direct heir, shouldn’t have his throne, that the entire harassment and bullying of the young god was absurd and unfair – and the new ruler of the underworld, doubling as a god of vegetation, ended up with huge threats to the divine court (such as causing massive famines or an invasion of undeads) if his son wasn’t left alone as the legal ruler of Egypt. This is what forced the gods and the Master of the Universe to finally declare Horus as the undisputable divine Pharaoh of Egypt, to forbid Seth from making any more claim to the throne or attempt at taking the crown, and some even say to banish the treacherous murderer to the depths of the desert.

II) Seth, the most ambiguous of the gods

As you can gather from this story, Seth is a bad guy. He is the jealous and bitter brother, the wicked and scheming uncle, the murderer and usurper, the fake king and the rapist. Seth was thought to be a god of all things bad, wicked, dangerous or hostile in Ancient Egypt. He ruled over the desert and sterility, he was the god that caused storms and thunder. He was a god of war and violence, a troublemaker and disturber, the sower of discord and troubler of peace, an herald of disorder and unreason. He symbolized the foreigner and the invader, and all those that were hated and distrusted. The Greeks even identified him to the monster Typhon out of all beings! 

However, Seth isn’t all bad… or rather, wasn’t all bad. We know that there was a process of “demonization” of Seth, who went from an unpleasant and morally-gray deity, to a full on “devil before Christianity”. Take the Osirian myth for example: in the legend of Osiris, Seth is seen as a rival and usurper, opposed to  the “hero/good prince/legal heir” that is Horus, and the conflict is only settled when Horus becomes the absolute ruler and Seth is banished. This is one of the key parts of the Heliopolis cosmogony, the one of the Ennead. BUT in an older theology, the one of Memphis, from the Old Empire, it was implied that Horus and Seth co-ruled over Egypt somehow, since they were the “Two Lords” of which the pharaoh was the heir: from Horus he inherited Lower-Egypt, and from Seth he received Upper-Egypt. Seth was in fact glorified during some eras of Egyptian history, such as the Ramesside era during which numerous shrines and sanctuaries were raised to him near the various oasis, so he could protect them. The various Thutmoses kings had an habit of invoking Seth during times of war, for their army, so he could transmit to the soldier his desire to win and his rage in battle ; and the Ramesside dynasty, originating from Avaris, the sacred town of Seth, (and in general the 19th and 20th dynasties rulers) took the habit of naming themselves “Sethi” in honor of the god. Another sacred town of Seth was Nagada, in Upper Egypt - it was believed that Nagada was the place where Nut (violently and painfully) gave birth to Seth. It seems that in this “original” perception of Seth, he was seen as a “needed evil”, in a “yin and yang” logic: he was the south whereas Horus was the north, and while Egypt had all sorts of pleasant things (Horus) Egyptians themselves recognized it had a lot of dangers that were part of its very nature (Seth). The Egyptians did recognize that disorder and chaos, as manifested by Seth, did exist before the order of Horus, and was needed to maintain some sort of balance - plus, while the desert that Seth personified was thought of as an arid and dangerous place, it also was recognized by the Ancient Egyptians as a source of wealth. The desert was the place that gave Ancient Egypt many of its riches - most notably gold, amethysts and turquoises. So Seth wasn’t all-bad, or rather he was a “necessary evil”. 

However, this glory-age of Seth took an end starting with the Late Period of Egypt, as from a “complementary” god of Horus, the yang to his yin, a key god in the balance of the world, he grew to a hated and reviled figure, and the enemy of the Egyptian gods. Hymns only sung of his defeat at the hands of Horus, his name became the one of a demon and was removed from all sacred texts, and by the 7th century BC, his statues and depictions were being destroyed. It was during this whole era that his association with the “foreigners”, as the god of everything foreign, became honestly xenophobic, since in the Egyptian mind “foreigner” became equivalent to “invader” and “oppressor” thanks to the various political and historical events (the Kushite and Persian Empires and they relationship with Egypt are sometimes invoked).

But one key feature of the “ambiguity” of Seth remained, an element that was even included in the Osirian myth and was invoked as the reason Ra had such a fondness and liking for Seth. Despite seemingly being the god of all things negative and destructive, Seth is actually one of the guardians of the existence of the world – as in, he is one of the protectors of the solar boat. Ra, the sun god, crosses the sky during the day on a boat, and when night falls, still on a boat, he travels throughout the depths of the underworld, until he can reach the surface again (sunrise). This travel into the bowels of the universe is extremely dangerous, as numerous vile beasts, demons and monsters try to attack Ra and his boat, and so Ra needs a whole host of deities to fight by his side during his nocturnal travels. Seth is the most prominent and bravest of those defenders of the Sun – for it is he that, armed with a spear or a knife, faces the monstrous Apophis, a gigantic snake that tries to attack Ra at his weakest with only one goal, devour the Sun so that the world may be plunged into eternal darkness. It is Seth, the warrior-god, that battles ferociously the primordial snake each night to make sure the sun may rise once more, and it is he that kills the beast of darkness each night – only to see the beast resurrect by the next day, and ready to swallow the Sun again… As such, Seth shows that while he might be a murderer, a power-hungry usurper and the divine patron of all rapist uncles, he is still one of the first defenders of the universe, and one of the sacred warriors that fight to prevent the end of all things. He might be the god of hostile and dangerous elements of the world, he still doesn’t seek its destruction. He is the kind of villain that wants to rule over the world, not ruin it. And in a strange, paradoxical double-play, while Seth is the one sowing discord and disorder among the civilization of the gods and the realm of mankind, he is actually during the nocturnal travels in the underworld a champion of order against the primal, world-ending chaos that is Apophis…

III) More weird things

The ambiguity of Seth doesn’t just rely in his mysterious dual role, but also in his very depiction. Seth, like most of the Egyptian gods, is depicted alternatively as a human with the head of an animal, or as said animal fully-bodied. But the animal that represents Seth is so bizarre and so unique that nobody knows exactly WHAT it is. This strange creature is mostly referred today as the “Set animal”, or the “Typhonian beast” (in reference to how Seth is perceived as Typhon by the Ancient Greeks). Many MANY theories and interpretations have been pushed forward. A first theory is that the Set animal was a creature that lived in Ancient Egypt but went extinct today. A second theory is that this animal is actually an artificial creature, invented exclusively to symbolize the disconcerting and disquieting nature of this god of chaos, trouble and stereility. And finally a third theory is that this animal is simply an hyper-stylized depiction of an actual animal. A lot of different options were brought forward: it could be a hyena, a wild dog, a giraffe, an okapi, a fox, a pig, an aardvark... A prominent candidate is the donkey, as we know the donkey was one of the sacred animals of Seth, and the most common beast to sacrifice to him. If you were quite rich or part of the upper-class, the sacrifice rather involved more extravagant or dangerous beast, such as the oryx antelope or an hippopotamus (a beast that, as you can see with the Osirian legend, was strongly tied to Seth, who was said to regularly take his shape). In fact we do have several Late Period depictions of Seth with a donkey head instead of his bizarre Typhonian beast head... But at the same time the Late Period depictions of Seth were quite bizarre and crazy in the middle of this big demonization and censorship-wave ; heck, we have a Late Period depiction of Seth with a FLAMINGO HEAD! Overall the Set animal is still a mystery today, though it only adds to the charm and charisma of this ambiguous god.

Seth was strongly associated with the color red. On top of it being a color of danger and aggression, Seth was also called the “Red Lord” or the “Red God” because he was supposed to rule over the “Red Land”, aka the desert with its burning sands, opposite to the “Black Land” of the “Black Lord”, aka the fertile, silt-filled lands of Horus. Among his many titles were included: Seth gateway to the desert ; Seth powerful-in-his-mighty-arm, or Seth lord of the oasis. In Egyptian astronomy, Seth was associated with the planet Mercury. Final trivia: “Seth” is actually the Ancient Greek spelling and transliteration of the deity’s name. Most of the Egyptian gods we know today by their Greek name – the actual, original Egyptian name of the god would be written Sutekh.

WARNING NOTE: This is by no mean an expert speaking about a well-known subject. It is just a random fan of Egyptian mythology putting together the things he knows, I might be dead wrong, this is just a “here’s what I know” post. There is also a lot of info I cut out for the sake of simplicity.

[house-of-the-sun-project]

WELCOME TO THE [HOUSE OF THE SUN] PROJECT!

Hi there! I'm @milky-rozen, and this is the official dedicated blog for my original project! Here you can find all the artworks and related posts!

In this master list below I'll collect all the work done so far, including the updates, and a Q&A section for those who want to contribute with suggestions or comments of all sorts (criticism is widely welcome, for as long as it's shared politely).

Now, time for a little introduction!

[What is House of the Sun?]:

House of the Sun (HoS, for short), is the author's personal take on the story of the Sun God Ra and his family. From the Tales of creation, to the Osirian Myth and beyond, the story is told and unveiled by the points of view of the two main characters: Thoth and Horus the Younger.

MASTER LIST:

[ CHARACTERS ]

[ UPDATES ]

[ COMICS: Young Horus ]

[ COMICS: Thoth's Library ]

[ LECTURE SERIES ]

[ Q&A ]

[ ART DUMP ]

(note: the blog is under construction, therefore this section and all of its links will change often. I apologize for all the inconveniences!)

[akhret]

Past life regression

Have you ever been inside a body that wasn’t your own but felt so familar? You knew this body, you knew this mind. You could operate it, you being the puppet master. This body still had a mind of it’s own- it wanted to show you something. This was the first past life regression I did. I had spoken to a practitioner who had helped me with this.

I open my eyes to see people around me incredibly sick, some dying. They’re laying in cot-like beds around you, some on the floor, some standing. I look around in anguish to the people around me, wanting to help them, needing to help them. There was no cure for the sick and dying.

Why are there so many? Why can’t I help them? Why aren’t the gods answering my prayers? Somebody please, answer me! Why won’t you answer me? I’m doing my best to tend to all of them, praying to Sekhmet to cure their ills, praying to Bes to fight off the evil entities inside of them that are causing this.

I head to a local temple, asking for the priests and priestesses to help. To get the gods attention. I’m not fulfilling my duty if this mass amount of people are sick. They ignore me, i’m just an average healer, there’s nothing special about me. Especially since I cannot get the gods attention by myself. They shrug me off, telling me to find help elsewhere. There’s a local temple that’s open to the public, I must go there.

I bring an offering of water to the gods. I get down on my knees, praying to any god that may hear me. Inpw is the one who answers my prayers. “You have a task before you. If you complete these tasks, I will help your people,” he says to me. His voice is loud, it’s clear- strong but soft. “Go to the river and catch me a fish.”

“I will, Great god.” I pack up my things and head to the Nile.

The vision blurs for a moment and i’m standing in front of a large body of water. The first are upturned, their bellies floating at the surface. Inpw kneels beside me. “There is something within our life force that is affecting everything around you. Speak with Auset and I shall help reverse this curse that has fallen upon our people and revive our life force.”

I am standing inside another temple. This one larger than the first, the floor is sandstone, along with the walls. I kneel upon the floor, in front of the Great Lady’s statue. “Please help me, Great Goddess, please help me save our people- my people. They are sick. They are dying.” Lady Auset materalizes in front of me. Her eyes are heavily kholed, her hair as black as night, her skin golden. She does not wear her headdress but instead a diadem covered in jewels and crystals.

“I shall help you, healer, but you must do a task for me. Help me revive my husband, my love. I have gathered his pieces, I have flown upon the land finding his scattered pieces. Healer, help me bring him back to the land of the living.”

I stand in front of the body of Lord Asar. I tried helping her with the revival of Lord Asar, yet it would not work. His chest would not move- his lungs would not take in oxygen, his heart would not pump. Lady Auset starts crying, she starts pounding on his chest. “Husband, come back to me. Come back” She wails. I start crying next to her, my large body heaving.

“I am sorry, my Lady, I cannot bring him back to the land of the living. I cannot. I have failed you, Goddess Auset, please forgive me.” She wraps her arms around me, drying my tears. “Alas, you cannot bring back what has been taken from me; you cannot bring back what has been taken from you. This is the way it has been and shall always be.

“I know our life force has been tainted. I know it is taking our people away; however, this is the way it must be. Our people are sick but we cannot bring back what is gone. I have accepted my husband’s fate, you must accept the fate of others around you.”

The vision blurs once more. I am standing inside of a temple with the Abydos triad- Lady Auset, Lord Asar, and Lord Heru stand before me.

“We shall help your village,” they say in unison. “You have faced us with courage and vallor. You did not accomplish our challenges but you have learned our wisdom. Understand the necessity of death, you cannot save all of those around you. You cannot bring back those who are gone. Help those who still live and breathe.”

I am back in my village’s medical hut. My patients, my community, my people are starting to heal. They are getting well again.

[alephskoteinos]

When Don Webb's Grand Initiation rite involves calling upon a goddess named Shamsan Tara (presumably a form of the Hindu goddess Tara but I have no idea where Webb gets that from) as a form of the Prince of Darkness, who he describes as "the dark goddess who causes the Self to pass beyond the grave into the next life" actually makes it hard for me to believe that the Left Hand Path would be thought of as something dogmatically opposed to what others call "ego death". Yes yes there is a certain truth to the stereotype in that there are LHP orders and doctrines that emphasize a static individuality, and ironically I think Setians are among those notorious for it, but in Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path we seem to see the self being presented as something that ritually "dies" in order to become something else. It is this version of dying to yourself that links naturally with certain forms of pagan mysticism, what with the ritual journeys to the underworld, the ritual "death" that leads to rebirth.

"The Death of my old way of life is a Shock that awakens me, and I find myself clothed in Darkness wherein all Secrets reside". "Knowledge lets me die to my old life". Now why would that kind of talk? Because the ritual death and rebirth isn't an oblivion of personality of the kind that the baby Satanist or baby LHP occultnik inwardly fears when considering the premise of oneness, but is instead a process of the divine being and becoming that the LHP initiate aspires to. In the Egyptian myths we see that the sun, that most sovereign of beings, descends into the underworld, to our eyes descending into darkness, and regenerates, each day, without end. And when initiates in mystery traditions go down into the underworld and arise again it's like they're really making the same journey. In Webb's terms, that's the death of one's old life, dying to your old life, dying to yourself, in order to be spiritually reborn as a divine potentiality acting upon the world. There's a harmony between that and what Webb calls the "Secret of Satan": that by rebelling against God (the embodiment of our mechanistic image of the universe) you become able to remake the cosmos in the shape of your will. The Image of the World is destroyed and this act frees up space for a new one to be made.

Ironically, for a Setian, something of this links back to the Osirian cult and mythos, at least in that Ra, in the underworld, was thought to have merged with Osiris. This merge is called Ra-Osiris, whose "corpse" is Osiris and whose "soul" is Ra. Here we can get into something I derived from Georges Bataille's The Use Value of D. A. F. De Sade. This is one of texts in which Bataille seems to elaborate a notion of the "left" side of the sacred, which seems to identify divine splendour with objects of repulsion and thus obliterates the boundaries set between the divine and the impure as well as the sacred and the profane by social homogeneity - that is, the profane world of work. Bataille interprets the corpse or holy cadaver as a symbol of that kind of sacredness and its seemingly apophatic quality. In the case of Ra-Osiris, the utmost divinity is literally identified with a divine cadaver. The identity between the marvellous divinity and the dead, as heterogeneous matter, is the basic principle of Bataille's notion of the left sacred. It is also the dark solar presence in the underworld. Of course, if you want to follow the interpretation that Set, by dismembering Osiris, "initiated" him, having brought him to life by killing him, or that his severed head became the place of an invisible sun, then perhaps he won't be boxed out of the equation. It's an imaginative stretch though, and at any rate I somehow can't take for granted the thought that Webb would have known.

But the operative point is not that the LHP initiate ought to transform themselves into a corpse. It's that, in order to apprehend the divine state they must follow the course of the sun: that is, to descend into their own rebirth. That's the mystic passion that can be gleamed from things like "who causes the Self to pass beyond the grave into the next life". It's also the destruction wrought by the "names of the Prince of Darkness" in their own ways, though not so much because of their dying to themselves (although the Fall of Lucifer or even Satan might, in their own sacrificial terms, be seen in that light), but rather because Webb's death and rebirth is part of the movement of destruction they represent (Satan, Set, Saturn, and Shiva, all representing their own affirmative movements of destruction).

[normally0]

🚀 **Unveiling Nifduat: The Underground City Beneath London** 🌍

In 2142, London transforms as we discover Nifduat, an underground city inspired by Norse Niflheim and Egyptian Duat. Spearheaded by visionary Alaric Llosa, this self-sustaining sanctuary combines mythological heritage with cutting-edge technology.

🔸 **Llosa Space Machine:** The heart of Nifduat, blending quantum computing and biotechnology to power the city.

🔸 **Yggdrasil's Heart:** A bioluminescent central pillar providing light, energy, and life.

🔸 **Helheim District:** Tranquil, climate-controlled residential areas.

🔸 **Osirian Quarter:** Sustainable agriculture and AI-driven justice.

🔸 **Elysian Caverns:** Leisure and relaxation with geothermal spas and gardens.

🔸 **Mystic Archives:** A library of ancient wisdom and modern innovation.

Nifduat is a testament to the harmony of myth and futurism, offering a utopian vision for humanity beneath the streets of London.

#Innovation #Sustainability #SmartCities #Futurism #UrbanDevelopment #MythologyMeetsTech

[sudsana]

The importance of Wedjat eyes in Ancient Egypt.

Pictured above: Mummy bandage inscribed with a wadjet eye. ca. 1000–945 B.C. Third Intermediate Period. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 126

Henettawy's unembalmed body was wrapped in bandages of fine linen, inscribed in places with protective emblems. This fringed square bears a wadjet, the healed eye of Horus, roughly drawn in ink. Wounded in battle and then made whole again, this eye was a potent symbol of regeneration. In this context, it indicated that the linen was of very fine quality.

So what is a Wedjat eye?

One of the most popular symbols connected to ancient Egypt is the wedjat eye. This is because the eye had a variety of functions in Egyptian mythology, making it suitable for a wide range of amuletic uses.

Wedjat eyes could be either left or right eyes. The left lunar eye belongs to the mighty falcon-headed god Horus, and the right solar eye belongs to the sun god Re.

As the eye of completion, the lunar eye of Horus is a regenerating and healing force that is supposed to provide health and security upon its bearer. Similarly, it was believed that the regeneration eye of Horus would guide the deceased into the afterlife, and wedjat eye amulets were frequently tucked inside of mummies to aid the dead.

A vengeful but protective feline goddess was considered to represent the right wedjat eye, also known as the sun eye of Re. The eye of Re was seen as a protective entity, much like the Horus eye. Her ferocity repelled evil, safeguarding those who employed apotropaic uses of the picture.

In particular in an Osirian myth, the ancient Egyptians associated the colour green with fertility and rebirth. That's why the most popular colours for wedjat eyes were green and blue-green faience.

 Very specific proportions were ideally maintained by artists in rendering wedjat eyes, but these were not always upheld.

via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

okay so like the sparknotes version of the iphigenia story is that iphy's father agamemnon accidentally pissed off the goddess artemis by hunting and killing a sacred deer, and because of this, artemis said, i will not let the winds blow your fleet to victory in the war with the country of troy unless you sacrifice your daughter iphigenia to appease my hurt. and agamemnon agrees, in some versions tricking his daughter by saying she's going to be marrying achilles, and in other versions she finds out but agrees to go willingly as a martyr for greece. either way, her mother clytemnestra is PISSED about it and actively tries to save her child, and when she can't, vows revenge on her husband. in some versions, iphigenia is sacrificed and that's the end of it, but in others, artemis is horrified by the fact that agamemnon was actually going to go through with it, and at the last minute saves her life by replacing her body with that of a deer and whisking her away to live as a priestess in the land of the taurians (where she actually suffers way more, but that's the second half of the iphigenia myth that we're not talking about right now).

the second version (the one where she decides that she'd rather die willingly as a martyr than be dragged to the altar and slaughtered by the entire grecian army, but then is also rescued by artemis at the end at a cost to her own autonomy/personhood) is the one i'm most familiar with, and the one i think fits eddie's fate in TOR the best.

ra (artemis) is furious and demands a sacrifice; victor (agamemnon) basically lays it out for him that he has to die, and while i don't think anyone was going to drag him to his death, victor didn't really give eddie (iphigenia) a choice. eddie decides he'd rather die a hero and ensure his friends' victory than die gruesomely and fail anyway. so he makes that long walk to the pyramid of ra (the altar of artemis) willingly, despite his father's (clytemnestra's) desperate and furious protests against both victor and the situation in general. at the last minute, the gods take pity and spare the boy while killing the osirian. the god's wrath is appeased, and they essentially are able to save the day from sophia (win the war against troy).

it's not a one-to-one obviously, but it definitely bears some resemblance. i wonder if there was any inspiration from other mythos in the writing of the series finale (and just the show in general).

eddie’s sacrifice in the touchstone of ra is a (probably unintentional) allusion to the ancient greek story of iphigenia, with eddie obvi being iphigenia, mr. sweet as clytemnestra, victor as agamemnon, and ra being the artemis figure. i will elaborate more tomorrow when it’s not 3am <3