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Recently, I attended the Servants of the Light (SOL) workshop, The Four Faces of the Pyramid, in London with some twenty-six SOL members, and folk from various schools and traditions. The weekend was a lively discussion centred on the four key members of the Ancient Egyptian family from which our school’s lineage extends. Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys came to life in the storytelling of Director of Studies, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. Dolores helped shape the people that this ancient family might have been, albeit most extraordinary people. We brought them to life, feeling their motives, understanding their desires, embodying them with empathy, pride, respect; championing them and coming to appreciate the profound role each played, and continues to play within us and as part of the Divine Plan that is Atum-Ra’s, the Creator’s, unfolding masterpiece.
We sat in a large ground-floor room of the London Theosophical Society, Madame Blavatsky’s portrait brooding over us, and unexpectedly, our sympathies and understanding rang loud for Set. Dolores posited that if the Ennead four were the incredible family that we believe them to be, it was largely to do with Set’s life being bound as it was to his brother’s destiny. Set, would likely have known that he would be a catalyst for all that was preordained. He would have felt that immense weight and the awesome power of Atum propelling him forward, knowing that his actions would cast him into darkness as betrayer, brother-slayer, and more.
We understand that Set is the force of Geburah in the Qabalistic tradition. He is the figure of Judas in Christianity. He is the Tower of the Tarot or at least the force behind the shattering. Yet in this seemingly destructive image lies the enabler. Without such force there would be no Osiris or Jesus in the way that we know them. Set puts into motion and clears the way for the Creator’s Light to come into the world. In many ways, he is the crack in the dark through which the Light is let in.
Osiris had to be sacrificed in order that he could become all that he might. Set, his brother, had to be the slayer, the one to cast the blood upon the earth; only someone so close and loved could perform such a sacred act. And it is only in the sacrifice, only in the dis-membering, that the pieces of Osiris, re-membered, could produce the being we know. As Dolores noted: ‘The slayer makes the slain the God.’ For those of us in the Light work, the slaying of Osiris by Set is a familiar tale, not only as part of the Pantheonic forces we draw on in ritual, but within our own psychological and spiritual journeys. And though the characters, the archetypes or frameworks differ among traditions, the energies continue to hold their own. In offering its Light, the new Age will also bring forth Set and demand much of us, not the least that we do more than know our truths and Truth, but that we awake! and begin to live them.
Some of you will know that I work with an Inner Plane entity, Heru, who, as a consciousness of The Bringer, has the task of helping in the remembering that is an aspect of the Age to come. The Age of Horus that is the Age of Aquarius will be a time for those able to see to turn their face to their own Sun, and in so doing, to be the bringers of their Truth and Divinity into the world. In preparation for my mediating role, it required that I too turn within, and in the meeting of what I saw there, elect to act. I recognise the Geburic force, the Divine hand that can be slayer, clearer of decks, Set visiting.
Early in our union, Heru communicated ‘This flesh is in the wrong place’ and laid before me a map of our work. It became clear that I was to leave Australia. I had been ignorant and over eager to service and had no idea what it might mean to host. I offered myself not knowing what it meant to offer, and certainly not understanding what it took to serve. And I had little awareness about the deeper layers of sacrifice.
I think it was when the plane was somewhere over Uzbekistan, having left Hong Kong on route to London from Melbourne, that I realised what I’d done: at forty-four with no employment, with no permanent accommodation, no insurance and few savings, I left my family, friends, community, job and all that was familiar because of the communications of Inner Plane guides and a deep faith and Love. And the thought past through my mind: what was I thinking!
And I will say that there have been moments, when fear has held me in its mighty grip, when I have held doubts. Yet, over and over, and over again, my Knowing is validated and my faith upheld. And if ever I am tempted to bemoan what at times feels like great sacrifice, I am reminded of a communication Heru sent through early in our relationship:
When you know that sacrifice is given freely you understand that there is no sacrifice; that there is no pain; that there is no fear. That only there is holding to the one Truth: that there is only Love; that the Divine blessing comes through you, touches you, knows you. Every fibre of your being, your true being, is alight, alive with that touch. No sacrifice can be had from that. It is anathema. It is redundant. Because in that joy, in that Holy bliss, in that knowing beyond all knowing, one gives of oneself freely.
His words help me to appreciate that there was and is no sacrifice; that what is given is done so freely, with an understanding that what becomes or is made possible, could be brought about little other way. His words remind me of what I know but sometimes forget, what I feel deeply, but at times lose sight of in the details of living the experience: that all is well in the face of the Divine and enduring higher Love.
I have thought much about the importance of the figure of Set in our world, and the force that he represents. I have considered my own dismembering and remembering path, and how the latter continues. I have thought about what must be left behind, let go of or changed in order that the Light of Truth can prevail. I have acknowledged Set’s great courage, and my own, and I have wondered who or what might be other people’s experience of this figure?
When thoughts are stilled and a quiet, deep, nakedly honest look is cast within, what is seen that might require dismembering in order to re-member, and remember, that the Light can shine through? Whatever it is, I realise that though we may kick and scream and cling to what is known, though to lose such may bring more pain than we think we can bear, when we look back with awareness, we would invite the dismembering, we would welcome Set into our lives over and over again, for we know that the deep rightness that we now experience was made way for by that slaying force. It is then that we have clear sight, ‘A knowing beyond all science knowing’ , and an understanding of Truth. Fear cannot and does not exist in that place, because Truth won’t permit it; its beacon shines more brightly than anything else.
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