Commerce, protective alliances, cultural contact, and finally the unification of the entire nation ca. 3200
BCE resulted in the gradual incorporation of local gods into regional groups, and then into a loosely-knit
national pantheon. Local and regional cult centers continued to hold their respective patrons in especial
regard, however, and so the character and role of a specific god might vary remarkably from place to place.
Individual dynasties also tended to be oriented to particular cult centers, and so the gods in question would
be elevated - at least for a time - to the status of national patrons.29
The information concerning these cults which is available to modern Egyptologists is both sparse and
confusing. Since a given god could be portrayed in a number of different ways, identifying the “core god” is
difficult. The images and inscriptions concerning a god were often altered or appropriated by cultists of rival
gods.In Christian and Moslem times the old gods were considered blasphemous, and monuments to them
were regularly defaced and destroyed. By the end of the fifth century CE, knowledge of hieroglyphics had
died out, not to reappear until the nineteenth century; meanwhile many “useless” records perished through
neglect.
For two reasons the cult of Osiris ( Asar) and Isis ( Asa) has been emphasized in modern literature: First,
it was the last cult to dominate the entire Egyptian nation. Thus it was in a position to do a “final editing” of
non-Osirian manuscripts and monuments. Secondly it was described in detail by Plutarch, permitting its
study long after the hieroglyphic records of the other cults had become unreadable. 30 Observes Budge:
In the early dynasties Set was a beneficent god, and one whose favor was sought after by the
living and by the dead, and so late as the XIX Dynasty kings delighted to call themselves “Beloved of
Set”. After the cult of Osiris was firmly established and this god was the “great god” of all Egypt, it
became the fashion to regard Set as the origin of all evil, and his statues and images were so
effectively destroyed that only a few which have escaped by accident have come down to us. 31
The Osirians recast Set as Osiris’ treacherous brother and mortal enemy of Osiris’ son - for whom they
appropriated the god Horus. Not content with attacking Set personally, they further appropriated his
consort and son from the original triad of his cult - Nepthys and Anubis - whom they now described
respectively as a concubine of Osiris and a son of Osiris by Nepthys.
When the Osirian cult came to dominate Egypt after the XX Dynasty, all traces of the Set cult were
practically obliterated. “Between the XXII and the XXV Dynasties,” comments Budge, “a violent reaction set
in against this god; his statues and figures were smashed; his effigy was hammered out from the bas-reliefs
28 Budge, Sir E.A. Wallis, The Book of the Dead. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1960, page #99.
29 Ions, Veronica, Egyptian Mythology. New York: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1968, pages #11-13.
30 Budge, Egyptian Language. New York: Dover Publications, 1971, page #15.
Ions, op. cit., pages #50-55.
Fagan, Brian M., The Rape of the Nile. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975, pages #34-36.
31 Budge, The Book of the Dead, page #181.
- 41 -
and stelæ in which it appeared.” 32 We know of the Set cult through a few archæological finds that managed
to survive both the Osirian influence and the more general vandalism of the Christian/ Moslem eras. Hence
it is no small irony that the Book of Coming Forth by Night plays upon the title of the Osirian “bible”.
It is also of note that the Osirian cult in particular glorified life-after-death above life-before-death. The
Book of Coming Forth by Day is essentially a selection of spells and incantations designed to aid a newly-
dead person through the perils of the underworld. This preoccupation with death is conspicuously absent
from the Book of Coming Forth by Night, which is ultimately an incitement to and a challenge for the
enhancement of conscious life.
North Solstice Xeper
The Book of Coming Forth by Night was written during the night of the North Solstice (June 21-22)
1975 (the year X of the Age of Satan, according to the Church of Satan). Here the year is given the
hieroglyphic name Xeper, symbolized by Xepera, the scarab beetle who represents the principle of the Sun’s
“immortality” via its transition through the darkness towards another dawn.
As a god of darkness and night, Set was the complement to Horus ( Hor - god of the Sun and daylight) in
predynastic times. So integral was this relationship that the heads of the two gods were frequently shown on
a single body (hieroglyphic name: Hrwyfy “He with the Two Faces”). With regard to the annual cycle,
Horus was thought to govern the waxing of the Sun from the South Solstice, while Set governed the waning
of the Sun from the North Solstice. 33
In The Dawn of Astronomy Sir Norman Lockyer suggests that “‘Set’ seems to have been a generic name
applied to the northern (? circumpolar) constellations, perhaps because Set = darkness, and these stars,
being always visible in the night, may have in time typified it. 34 Since the northern constellations were
symbolized by the name of Set, the god of darkness, we should take Set-Horus to mean that the stars in the
Dragon ( Draco) were rising at sunrise.” 35 To support his theory, Lockyer cites the following inscription from
royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings:
The constellation of the Thigh appears at the late rising. When this constellation is in the
middle of the heavens, having come to the south where [the constellation Orion] lies, the other stars
are proceeding to the western horizon. Regarding the Thigh: It is the Thigh of Set; while it is seen in
the northern heavens, there is a band [constellation] to the two in the shape of a great bronze
chain. 36
Lockyer concludes that the constellation Draco, and in particular the star at its head ( Gamma
Draconis), represented Set. If indeed a single star were so regarded, it was probably Alpha Draconis (or
Thuban), the Polar Star at the beginning of the Egyptian civilization.
Due to the Precession of the Equinoxes, Alpha Draconis will return to the celestial pole at
approximately 24000 CE. Since its last appearance there ca. 3000 BCE coincided with the unification and
development of the world’s first advanced human culture, related calculations based upon the Precession
Circle may yield interesting results. 37
The Equinox has succumbed to my Solstice, and I, Set, am revealed in my Majesty.
The apparent reference is to the North Solstice, as explained above. There may be a second implication:
Aleister Crowley identified the events surrounding the inception of the Æon of Horus in 1904 CE as the
“Equinox of the Gods”. The Book of Coming Forth by Night heralds the eclipse of that æon in favor of the
Æon of Set.
My evocation - an effort to interpret the surprising downfall of the Church of Satan - was addressed to
“Satan” (which I believed the proper name of the Prince of Darkness). Immediately, however, he corrects
this name to that of Set. The term “Majesty” is also significant; in Egypt this honorific title was accorded
32 Budge, The Mummy. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1973, page #276.
33 Carus, Paul, The History of the Devil. New York: Land’s End Press, 1969,
page #17.
34 Lockyer, J. Norman, The Dawn of Astronomy. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1964, page #302.
35 Ibid. , page #149.
36 Ibid. , page #147.
37 Moore, Patrick, The Atlas of the Universe. New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1970, pages #216-217.
- 42 -
only two gods - Set and Ra. In hieroglyphics it is the suffix -hen. A possible phonetic origin of the Hebrew
term Satan is thus apparent. 38
The time of the Purification is past.
This period is not conclusively identified. It may refer to the Age of Satan (Set/HarWer), when all of the
Osirian death-worship and posthumous salvation cults have undergone a more-or-less final archæological
exposure and discrediting, despite lingering emotional enslavement to them of primitive intellects. Or it
may refer to the Æon of Horus (HarWer), during which time the grip of the old cults on the human mind
was gradually broken. Or it may indicate the entire passage of time since the Osirian death-worship cult
gained supremacy in Egypt and either absorbed or outlawed the life-oriented cults.
The fate of my Gifted race rests in balance, and I shall not recant my Word, spoken to my
High Priest MehenPetTha in old Khem and now again to you.
The emphasized term “Gift” refers to the non-natural expansion of human intellectual capacity that
occurred in prehistoric times, as discussed in Black Magic and The Temple of Set. “Word” refers to the
Word of Set, discussed below.
There are no records of the ancient Priesthood of Set through which “High Priest MehenPetTha” might
be identified, but the name can be rendered in hieroglyphics. Ipsissimus Don Webb has observed:
Mehen is the serpent-goddess whose “hidden” faces are those of Horus and Set. For information
on this, see my The Seven Faces of Darkness. 39 She was around from predynastic times, but was
only used in personal names during the Setian Renaissance according to George Hart, when her cult
gained a status among the tomb workers at S*t Maat - an area known for its Set chaplains and its
special devotion to Set Aaphate (“Set Strong of Foreleg”).40
Mehen shows up in the funerary decorations of people like Rameses VI and Seti I. Dr. Aquino
pointed out to me that she shows up in the Book of Gates after the Slaying of Apep.
The other nouns in the name are a bound genitive (they mean “of”), which is common in a
nominative utterance. Pet is pretty simple: Heaven. There are several words that sound like tha. Of
the nouns I choose “fire”. My reasons are magical; pursuing Rev. 13:13 will suggest them to you. 41
So I would say “Mehen of Celestial Fire” is the name. 42
“Khem” is a phonetic rendition of the hieroglyphic Xem, one of the many titles of the ancient Egyptian
nation.
Proclaim the nineteen Parts of the Word, and vanquish thus the feeble and corrupt Keys of
Enoch, which were but a shadow of my true Word and now are an affront to me.
On April 13, 1584 CE John Dee, mathematician and magician to the court of Queen Elizabeth I,
undertook a series of Workings in Cracow, Poland. With the assistance of Edward Kelley, he wrote into his
diaries a series of nineteen magical incantations in what he called the “Enochian or Angelic language”. With
each incantation or Key Dee provided an English translation, also communicated by the angels to Kelley. In
1659 the Dee diaries containing the Keys were published by Meric. Casaubon as A True and Faithful
Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits. 43
The attribution of the Keys or language to Enoch is interesting insofar as he is a remarkable individual
in legend. Described in the Old Testament as the seventh master of the world after Adam, Enoch is the
Hebrew equivalent of the Phœnician Cadmus, the Greek Hermes, and the Egyptian Thoth. As such he is the
reputed author of the Tarot, the Cabala, the Emerald Tablet of Thoth, and the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
He receives only a brief mention in “Genesis”, where the fifth chapter recounts:
38 Ions, op. cit. , page #65.
39 Webb, Don, The Seven Faces of Darkness. Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press, 1996, pages #31-32.
40 Hart, George, A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. London: Routledge & Kegal Paul, 1986.
41 “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men.”
42 Webb, Don, letter to an Adept II°, December 23, 1998.
43 Deacon, Richard, John Dee. London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1968, pages #138-156.
Casaubon, Meric., A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits.
London: Askin Publishers, 1974, Introduction.
- 43 -
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch
were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took
him.
The Book of Enoch comprises a part of what is generally called Apocalyptic literature. The Apocalyptists
were a school of pre-Rabbinical Hebrews who believed that the world was in such a hopeless mess as to be
incurable by any of man’s efforts. The name “Apocalyptist” means “revealer”, and this sect maintained that
human progress was rigidly mapped by God and was not subject to human will at all. In this the
Apocalyptists differed from the other major Hebraic branch, Pharisaism.
The Apocalyptic literature is generally fixed to the period 200-150 BCE, and the Book of Enoch is
generally regarded as the oldest such work. It seems to have been written by a number of authors, the
earliest being a Hebrew from the Land of Dan in northern Palestine. The original text was probably written
in Hebrew or Aramaic, later translated into Greek and Latin. These translations did not directly survive the
decline of the Holy Roman Empire. The Greek version had been translated into Ethiopian, however, and an
explorer named Bruce brought back a copy of it from Abyssinia in 1773 CE.
The Book of Enoch is sometimes referred to as I Enoch to distinguish it from II Enoch (or The Secrets of
Enoch), a later work executed in Slavonic. The Book of Enoch contains six sections: The Book of Enoch, the
Parables, the Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries, the Dream-Visions, the Conclusion, and the
Noah Fragments. Most are restatements of traditional Hebraic doctrine, but the first section - the Book of
Enoch - includes accounts of Enoch’s visits to certain areas of Earth and Sheol, including the following
descriptions of the Palace of the Prince of Darkness:
And I went in until I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of
fire, and it began to affright me. And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house
which was built of crystals. The walls of the house were like a tessellated floor of crystals, and its
groundwork was of crystal. Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between
them were fiery Cherubim amidst a background of water. A blazing fire surrounded the walls, and
its portals were covered with fire. And I entered into that house, and it was as hot as fire yet as cold
as ice. There were no delights of life therein. Fear covered me, and trembling gat hold of me. And I
quaked and trembled and fell down upon my face.
Sh
ortly thereafter Enoch beholds the Black Flame:
From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the Earth. And I saw a burning
fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but blazed without
respite. And I asked, saying, “What is this flame which burns unceasingly?” Then Raguel, one of the
holy Angels who was with me, said, “This is the Dark Fire in the West which persecutes all the
luminaries of Heaven.”
In the “Conclusion” the coming of a new kingdom is predicted - not in an afterlife, but here on Earth.
The destruction of the existing Earth and Heaven is foretold, followed by the institution of a “new Heaven”.
The relevance of this Book of Enoch material to the deciphered “Enochian Keys” will become apparent.
In the late nineteenth century the Casaubon text of the Enochian Keys was adopted into the magical
inventory of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a London-based Rosicrucian society. The Golden
Dawn altered and augmented the Keys in order to align them with its own emphasis on the Hebrew Cabala,
and its publications assert a mastery of the Enochian language by the leaders of the Order. 44 Aleister
Crowley later incorporated the Golden Dawn edition of the Keys into his A.'.A.'., again claiming fluency in
Enochian and constructing rituals from Enochian words and phrases. 45
The Keys next appeared in 1969 CE, when Anton LaVey took the Cabalistic version from Crowley’s
Equinox, replaced references to the Judaic/Christian God with references to Satan, and included the result
in his Satanic Bible. 46 The general sensation caused by this book, together with a considerable amount of
indignation on the part of old-line Cabalists, eventually inspired a revival of interest in John Dee and his
magical diaries. 47 In 1974 CE Stephen Skinner brought out a second (facsimile) edition of A True and
Faithful Relation, a copy of which I acquired in March of the following year.
44 Regardie, Israel, The Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1970, Volume II, pages #260-269.
45 Crowley, Aleister, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. New York: Hill & Wang, 1969, page #612.
46 LaVey, Anton Szandor, The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969, pages #155-272.
The Temple of Set II Page 9