The Present Pantheon
as I understood it on October 23, 2004, more recent rendering here.

The Dynamic Duo:
HRH Charles Ahriman Kolchoi Tontonon
HRH Illuminaria Hekate Aradia
Royalty of the land 'Joan-to-the-edges-of-her-mind'
who are, yes, 'plugging in' and 'goosing the juice'

ALSO STARRING:
SET:
The Egyptian God Set personifies thunder and lightning.
There be the electricity of LIGHTNING in that picture.

Charlie and Illuminaria represent the possible divinity Within Myself. They represent the masculine and feminine energies respectively within myself. Borrowing from psychology, one is more the parent, and one is more the child. Their union represents the totality of myself.

Prince Charlie is the 'wild child'.

The 'wild child' comes from a larger archetype, the 'Prince of Darkness', who has been described as:

''The Dark Lord is the spirit of freedom, ecstasy, rebellion, indulgence, self-transformation and an unbridled love for life -- both in its carnal and spiritual forms.''

In this spirit of liberation, my daimonic self came to me in dreams bearing a flower, and hinting of secrets:

5-29-03

Hunger for truth, let it drive you wild. Lost child in the Garden, which flower blooms for you? Scent intoxicating, liberating, these are the night-blooming flowers. Thus, few see them. Keep awake. JAL, 4 - 30 - 03

With these words of awakening, he came, and I soon knew him for an aspect of myself. The 'night-blooming' flowers gave hint that the secrets I sought would be found in darkness. I read of the demonized Lucifer, via Jung:

"If the name Lucifer were not prejudicial, it would be a suitable one for this archetype [the Self]." (from his Collected Works, vol. 9 i p. 567)

He goes on to explain why Lucifer is a good model for that aspect of the Self which rebels against the old stasis in order to bring new understanding:

""Therefore Lucifer was perhaps the one who best understood the divine will struggling to create a world and who carried out that will most faithfully. For, by rebelling against God, he became the active principle of a creation which opposed to God a counter-will of its own." (from his Collected Works, vol. 11 p. 290)

Thus it is, only my Dark Princely self could herald the beginning of a new path. Dark Princely he, energized by a Source also of the Dark Prince mode, immanating Power, electrical, chaotic, fierce, that which enables Worlds to be brought into being. I, as the Egyptians did 6000 years ago, call Him SET. Actually, they probably pronunced it back then more like 'Suut'.

The very respected source of National Geographic, via a booklet on the Treasures Of Egypt, describes SET (aka 'Seth'), as the God of Thunder And Lightning.

NASA has a thorough primer on the nature of lightning. Benjamin Franklin, during the second half of the 18th century, was the first to prove the electrical nature of lightning. Later, others discovered ways to measure lightning currents. Briefly explained, ''Lightning, then, is an electrical discharge between positive and negative regions of a thunderstorm.''

Lightning earns the awe it produces, for each year, it ''is responsible for the deaths of a hundred or so people, injuries to several hundred more, and millions of dollars in property damage, in the United States alone.''

Small wonder, then, that this electrical property is only attributed to the most powerful of deities. This, then, is the power of Set. It can be abused. If you stick your finger into a light socket, you will be sorry. But consider Electricity, the scientific force which makes lightning possible. This is a force which can be used for beneficial or harmful purposes. Left to the random chaos of the thunderstorm, destruction may result. Channeled, via ultimately through the skill of the human mind, all sorts of benefits are acrued. Imagine if you will, the world before electricity was discovered. Few want to return to that cold ( or hot, without air conditioning), dark world without all the mechanical devices which bring both ease and pleasure.

Set is the God of many names: Set, Sutekh, Suti, Setesh, Seth, Set-hen, Setekh, Sutekh, Setech, Sutech. However, ''Set's name originally meant "cutter" or "isolator" -- he is a personification of the process of Initiation -- of Becoming more and more your own self,'' explains Uncle Setnakt (AKA Don Webb) in ''The Black Beyond Black''.

There is another conclusion one can draw using the original meaning of Set's name. The Surgeon's knife is a 'cutter' and 'isolator', as she cuts away the diseased flesh. She brings life and healing to a patient who would otherwise die were such flesh not separated from him.

Great Power, fierce, and often feared.

"Great Is The Might Of Set, Greater Still He Through Us!"

Horus-Set

Regarding the Set-Horus union, I read in the IInd Dynasty, ''When the Two Lands were unified, both symbols of Kingship, Horus and Set, became part of the attributes of the King. Set then became the strength or power of the King, as Horus became the vision or sight of the King.''

The author of that webpage takes the later Osirian viewpoint in which Set ''was always seen as the god of power corrupted to its own ends, given to random, chaotic eruptions of pure violence, with no purpose save its own glorification.'' But even that webpage shows this view came about because of the political struggles at that time. He wasn't 'always' seen that way.

The Chaos of SET was originally regarded as a necessary part of the totality:

"According to the Egyptians, reality is not only being, but being and non-being, a current formula for totality. Here we meet with the "deeply rooted Egyptian tendency to understand the world in dualistis terms as a series of pairs of contrasts." (TeVelde, Seth, God of Confusion page 48)

The 'Contendings of Set and Horus' is a famous story illustrative of so many things. Members of the divine family have an 'intense' squabble. In this tussle, SET rips out the eyes of Horus and Horus tears off the testicles of SET. Later, the Egyptians emphasized only the healing of Horus after this incident. However Thoth had a role in healing both Set and Horus. In TeVelde's Seth, God of Confusion, the lector-priest speaking as Thoth "who reconciles the gods" declares:

The distress that causes confusion, has been driven away, and all the gods are in harmony.
I have given Horus his eye, placed the wadjet-eye in the correct position.
I have given Seth his testicles, so that the two lords are content through the work of my hands. (page 50)

TeVelde shows how these testicles are symbolic of so much more. He quotes "Griffiths [who] calls the testicles "a symbol of power". The supposed castration would mean "a loss of sovereignty" (page 53). He further explains:

"The testicles of Seth represent the savage, elementary, yet un-differentiated urges which require to be shaped and integrated before they can be truly fruitful. Kerenyi said in another connection: "Disorder belongs to the totality of life, and the spirit of this disorder is the trickster. His function ... is is add disorder to order and so make a whole, to render possible, within the fixed bounds of what is permitted, an experience of what is not permitted."(page 56)

Of course, many women will say that of the testicles of ANY man!

However, in later Egyptian history, the Osirians demonized Set when they needed a scapegoat for their failing empire. And many centuries later, Lucifer received the same treatment when Christianity forcefully took over. The earlier existing Gods often are made into 'Devils'. Those who held with them by their very nature had to be seen as 'rebelling against (g)od'.

And so anyone who dares to use their own minds, to question, to follow their Own Will, and not that of the prevailing deity of the times, can be cast into suspicion. I am one of the rebels who declare 'My Will Be Done', as opposed to the obedient who meekly whisper 'Thy Will Be Done'. This is called 'Left Hand Path', and there be a great variety of rebels upon it.

LUCIFER is simply a Latin name which means "Light-Bringer." And so it is, I call that aspect of myself which serves as Inner Parent Illuminaria. It is her task to channel all the chaotic energy into workings of beauty and intelligence.

Hekate, AKA Brigit, AKA Diana Lucifera

Illuminaria's full name is HRH Illuminaria Hekate Aradia. Notice the torch her namesake in the picture above is carrying. Hekate is Goddess of the crossroads and was considered the only Goddess powerful enough to travel the three worlds: heaven, earth and underworld, This 'can-do' Lady was known to not only the ancient Greeks, but the Celts and Egygtians as well.

Hecterion Pillar

In later times the Triple Hekate took on the form of a pillar called a Hecterion. One such statue depicts her with three heads and six arms, bearing three torches and three sacred emblems - the Key, Rope, and Dagger. With her key to the underworld, Hekate unlocks the secrets of the occult mysteries and knowledge of the afterlife. The rope, which is also a scourge or cord, symbolizes the umbilical cord of rebirth and renewal. The Dagger is related to the curved knife that cuts delusion and is a symbol of power and judgment.

With SET'S name originally meaning "cutter" or "isolator", in his function as slaying APEP, the snake of Illusion, my 'Lord and Lady' have certain duties in common.

The Egyptians having known Her, I find her a perfect pairing, Lady to the Egyptian Lord Set.

This is as I first understood the Lord and Lady. But as my understanding evolves, so I understand First Mystery better. The Egyptian Goddess Heket, pictured as a frog or a frog-headed woman, has also been given a role in creation. She is a midwife, assisting at the daily birth of the sun. An earlier Theogony made greater claims for her, saying that with Shu as husband she gave birth to the gods. However, this goddess of antiquity never ellicited a cult, and hence her role was later understood to be that of NUT's. I can't help but imagine if the Greco-Roman Hekate was an out growth from this earlier Heket. But more scholarship needs to be done in this regard.

At present, I am understanding First Mystery to be NUT:

As I read and learn, I've discovered:

"One of the most frequently employed epithets of Seth is "son of Nut", it is so widely known that it can be used without any further addition as an equivalent of the name Seth." (TeVelde, Seth, God of Confusion, page 28)

There is but one Power, Set, but there are many Mysteries, of which our own Divine selves are also part. FIRST MYSTERY, however, is called by the Egyptians, Nut. It is She who is the mother of all the Gods. They ascribe the role of fatherhood to GEB. Parthogenesis will not do for for their understanding.

With or without a father figure, out of her womb, came SET. 'As above, so below', and so Queen Illuminaria is parent to Prince Charlie.

I become Queen Illuminaria Hekate, and through the union with the Dark Power of Set, I know that Energy within myself. Set is not merely archetype, but has a personal face to me. He possesses pride of being and great strength of Will to the sum total strength of Will that can ever and has ever existed. He can be jealous if something is taken from him that belongs to him, but he has a sense of humor. His is a most masculine sort of strength and I employ my feminine strength in the channeling of it.

The duotheistic Wiccans posit a Lord and Lady. Actually they get this from the Germanic Vanic path, and their Freyr and Freyja. However, I see it opposite of their view. To them, it is "related to the way the Indian God Shiva interacts with his eternal consort Shakti. Shakti is the power, the Lord Shiva, the power-holder." ("Witchdom of the True" by 'Edred' pg. 33)

In the Germanic tradition, "the Lady is the power, and the Lord is the power-wielder" (Ibid,pg 38) . I see the reverse of this. I see ONE Lord, one power, one source of fire all consuming, of electricity all coursing, ONE. And his name is SET. The LADY, she bears many faces and one of them could be yours. Everything that has ever come into being has come from this union. These unions. There are many aspects to First Mystery. She changes face, gender and role as suits her purpose. She can be judging Ma'at, she can be angry avenging Sekhmet, she can be writing Thoth, etc. Maybe these are all archetypes for First Mystery and all subsequent Mysteries to wear as is needed.

But there is only ONE power. If not in union with that Power, the effort is like unto 'one hand clapping'. There must be the union.

Back to the personal archetypes, Charlie is the wild child of lust and passion, 'Son of Set', while Illuminaria is 'the cool-headed parent' of defining intellect, discernment, and decision making. Together, these two make the WILL that is within me. If I relate these to Don Webb's four part division of the Self in his 'Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path', Charlie is the Daimonic Self, and Illuminaria is the Core Self.

Webb, with his 'Daimonic' and 'Core' aspects, has the most recent view. Jung's aspects of 'Child' and 'Parent' are from a century earlier. However, this introspection into the Self is not something originating 'in modern times'. The ancient Egyptians identified EIGHT aspects of the self. Now exact correspondences between their views and ours might not exist. Still, that in myself which I've first called 'Prince Charlie', later recognized to be 'Daimonic aspect', may be considered the 'BA', the 'becoming active principle'. And 'Queen Illuminaria', the 'core aspect' and in the 'Parent' role, may somewhat fit the 'KA', or 'ideal of perfection' which serves as 'conscience'.

As the mythology goes, at death, the heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at, resulted recorded by Thoth, and if the heart is light, then these two aspects can be united into the 'Akh' and thus survive death. Surviving death, these are the aspects of Self which are of Divine nature. But it is only in recognizing our potential that we can truly become the 'effective spirit' that is the unified Deeper Self.

"What would Queen Illuminaria Do?"

One archetype, or 'ideal of perfection', which I become is Ma'at, the Egyptian Goddess of Order and Balance. Invoking that power, I make the judgments of what is Truth, and create Order out of the raw Chaos.

  
SET, God of Thunder and Lightning, MA'AT, Goddess of Order and Balance

Raw POWER without ORDER is CHAOS . . .

Electricity in raw form is thunder and lightning

However, Electricity Ordered can do many magical things!

But without POWER there is only NOTHING . . .

all parts not quotes by others: © JAL:

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