Incantation to Channel Lord Sutekh

 

I wrote this incantation some months ago during a meditation. I've written it, and now I've spoken it out loud for this video, but I can't say I've actually tried channeling Lord Sutekh, yet anyway. According to the Kemetic Orthodoxy channeling an Egyptian God was done in ancient times and was called a "Saq" or "Sahk". From Kemet.org:

"Saq (sahk) or "appearance" is the full possession of a trained priest by the ka of a Name (their Parent God or Goddess) during a state ritual. To say "a priest is in saq" is to say that (s)he is currently possessed by Netjer. Saq is one of the most immediate and profound ritual experiences of Kemetic Orthodoxy."

I am not a trained priest, but I do enjoy some creative writing, which is why I wrote this.

The background music again comes to us from Alone in the Hollow Garden, from the song "Aeon of Set". The art is by me, from my webcomic Alcatraz High School.

𓋹֍֎𓋹

Incantation to Channel Lord Sutekh

The Sky is my mother. The Earth is my father. I am a man of infinite cubits, whose name is Adverse Day. 

The Foreigner who wanders in the desert, searching for his oasis. 

Who nightly battles unspeakable monsters so that those he loves may sleep soundly. 

Who defends Ra on his solar barque and upholds Ma’at. 

I am the sha that perches atop a sand dune and howls at the incoming sandstorm.

Who forever carries the weight of his brother on his back, but still goes forth with strength.

If ever I taste defeat, I come back stronger.

For I am of the imperishable stars which circle above the northern skies. I cannot, and will not die.

In your moments of greatest trevail, I am the whisper that tells you to keep going. Because you can, and you must.

Such are the words of the eternal Sutekh, Lord of the Seven Stars! I am mighty, and so are you.

(audience)

dѡ'ä Sἐѡteƙḫ

Dua Sutekh!

ίânŭn mä'ą

Truly it is so...

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

Սիամանթօ Օտարը

https://youtu.be/tpsXBzKTVuQ?si=BlnWSvMzEfTSA4g9

Xeper Xepera Xeperu ~ The Mantra of Set

 “Xeper Xepera Xeperu. Խեպեր Խեպերա Խեպերու:”

Early in my journey with Lord Sutekh I learned of His mantra, Xeper Xepera Xeperu. Much like Sekhmet’s “Sa Sekhem Sahu”. But somehow it got filed away in the back of my mind in the face of a constant flow of new information, thanks to my ongoing addiction to books and term papers about Egyptian mythology. It was brought to my attention again when I read J.M. Dupree’s “Morning Hymn to Seth”. 

“Xeper” is an Egyptian verb meaning “to come into being”, or even deeper, to become aware of your own existence, or to will one’s own self into existence, the way Sutekh did when He split open His mother Nut’s womb at His birth. The phrase consists of three conjugations of this verb. I suppose I have an advantage over other English-speakers in that I already know how to pronounce the hard H that the “x” in “xeper” makes, as it’s the same sound as the Armenian letter Խ, and in hieroglyphs is represented by a circle with four horizontal lines through it (𓐍). It’s not a “K” nor a normal “x” sound. It would be nice to see the word spelled in heiroglyphs so I could get an even better idea of how to pronounce it. The “p” may have been pronounced as an “f” according to some sources, although “p” just feels more right to me. I wonder if it was that sneaky little horned-viper glyph that looks like a slug and makes a “v/f” sound (𓆑). I have seem some spellings of the Netjer Khepri as 𓐍𓊪𓂋𓆣, who I will get to later, and the little square definitely makes a “p” sound. So it might be spelled “𓐍𓊪𓂋”. 

Xeper, in a sense, is much like the concept of self-actualization, to come into the concept of one’s own self, or the concept of individuation, seen in Carl Jung’s Anatomy of the Self as the process by which one integrates various aspects of their personality, which will often involve confrontations with the “shadow self”. It will occur once you have stopped basing your identity on that which society has assigned you, and come into your own self. This will involve letting go of old biases, outdated ways of thought, questioning everything, and dispelling the lies you may have been raised believing. This is not an easy process, you will end up feeling very disillusioned, maybe even detached from not only those around you but from yourself, in fact you may need to undergo an ego death. 

We can see Set’s killing of Osiris as a metaphor for this process. Here Osiris represents the established order, the status quo of a rigid, heirarchical society which values conformity and obedience over individual expressions of self. I don’t know if it would even be possible to truly reach Xeper while following Abrahamic monotheism, as it runs counter to what seems to be the core of their beliefs, at least in practice, if not as a rule in their holy books. I think most of those who come to Set and make Him their patron have either already started or completed the process of reaching Xeper, even if they don’t have a word for what they’ve been through and how they have had to transform their way of thinking to survive. Reaching Xeper is like when new saplings sprout in the spring after a forest fire the previous summer. It’s a painful, destructive process but it yeilds fruit in the end. 

Another interesting aspect to Xeper, and this is kind of an unverified personal gnosis; it sounds like it has similar roots to the name of the Netjer Khepri, Ra’s scarab-headed form, symbolic of the sunrise. This is a divine state that Ra can only reach after being led through Duat by Set and fighting A𓌜p𓌜e𓌜p𓌜, along with a slew of other demons. Set leads all of His followers through the dark similarly, so that they can emerge in Xeper.  

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

Սիամանթօ Օտարը

Further Reading:

https://xeper.info/pub/pub_dw_xeper.html

Notes on Supay, Incan God of the Underworld, Ruler of Ukhu Pacha

 

Art by Adrian Castro

Note: This was written on November 8.

Prayers and Spells to Supay  Սուպեյ, 𓇓𓊪𓂝𓏭

Holidays:

November 8 - Día de las Ñatitas

Epithets:

Ukhu Pacha (the name of the underworld He rules but also an epithet, not unlike Hades)

El Tio

Offerings:

Note: He, like most Gods of the Incan pntheon, prefers his offerings to be buried, not consumed.

Gems

Cigars

Cigarettes 

Liquor 

Beer

Greetings, and happy Dia de las Ñatitas. This holiday dates back to the Incan empire. Around the time of autumn planting, the Aymara people–under Inca rule after the fall of the Tiwanaku empire–would call upon Supay, the God of death and ruler of the Ukhu Pacha, the Inca underworld, splashing alcohol on the fields “to give more fertility to the soil and humans, and to be more productive in mining.” Upon arrival in the 16th century, the Spanish tried to suppress these practices which they considered veneration of the devil. The expression of beliefs persisted, but underground. The festival involves carrying the skulls of deceased loved ones dug up from their graves and decorating them as well as giving them offerings, in irder to give the dead one more day among the living. While there are a lot of key differences in how they are celebrated, in principle, it is much like Mexico’s Dia de las Muertos. In Andean culture there is an attitude of acceptance about death that may even rival that of the ancient Egyptians. It is customary for example, to keep the skull of a loved one on display in your home to ward off evil spirits. You can read more about it in this article:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/la-paz-natitas-things-to-do-skull-festival-cemetery

I have not a drop of Andean blood in me, nor do I speak Spanish, besides what I picked up through cultural osmosis growing up in California. But my wife is half-Peruvian, making my son a quarter Peruvian, so I thought it behooves me to learn about their culture. Both the Armenians, Egyptians, and the Incans called themselves Children of the Sun, which kind of makes us distant siblings in a weird way. And one God of their pantheon I gravitate toward is Supay, God of the Underworld. He is still venerated today, particularly by people working in mines. The underground is His domain, and often a statue of Supay will be set up at the entrance to a mine, which will be gifted cigars, cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol among other things, in hopes that he will protect the miners from disaster. It is said though, tht once you enter an agreement with Supay, you had better not go back on it. The repercussions can be deadly. 

If you have the time, I recommend reading this short story collection, told to the author by Peruvian miners. Read these and you may see why I feel like Supay and Set would probably see eye to eye on a lot of things. They’ve both been accused of being Satan, for one thing. My favorite is the story about a young miner who didn’t believe in Supay and disrespects the statue, only to receive comeuppance from Supay Himself. 

https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2220&context=isp_collection

To Curse or Not to Curse?

The following is a post for my new spiritual blog on Facebook, Set of the Oasis. 

 To Curse or Not to Curse

𓋹֍֎𓋹

An interesting post on the Kemetic subreddit, asking whether or not casting a curse was within Ma’at, got me thinking about where I stand on curses. A lot of Wiccans and pagans will caution against doing curses due to the “Three-Fold Law” or whatever number-fold law they believe in, and some will carry this belief with them into Kemeticism. In my experience, karma doesn’t work that way. In fact I sometimes wonder if you first have to believe you’ve done something bad before you recieve negative karma for your actions, but I don’t know if that’s true. It just seems to me that people completely get away with committing all sorts of deplorable acts in this cold and indifferent world. I say this as someone who’s people, the Armenians, have endured centuries of continuous genocide with seemingly no external force choosing to step in to help the victims or punish the perpetrators, which was exact thing that made me first question monotheism. 

In Kemeticism there is no particular taboo against casting a curse. I find that a lot of the ancient Egyptian curses are of the “if you do x, all this bad stuff will happen to you” variety. Maybe that protects the caster from karmic backlash, at least partially, because it depends on the target committing a wrongdoing for it to be activated, so it’s not really an attack, it’s more like setting a trap. They had lots of curses that were more like the attack variety too, but I think I like the style of the Egyptian curses you would often find in tombs or on sarcophagi. Many Set followers I’ve spoken to have said that Set does not discourage His followers from casting curses, or in some cases actively encourages it. While it is like Set to go against the grain and never “turn the other cheek”, this hasn’t been my particular experience. Perhaps that’s because I haven’t really been compelled to cast a curse since making Him my patron. 

You see, the one time I decided to outright curse someone, I got negative backlash. Several years ago I was mistreated and fired from a workplace, and I was so furious that I cast a curse on the business. My wife and I were keeping hamsters as pets, and within the week, all four of our hamsters died of wet tail, a normally fatal disease they can get. I never got to revel in whatever negative consequences the curse may have caused the business either, all I was left with were dead pets. Since then I’ve found it safer to do binding spells, execration rituals, wear a protection amulet, or ask the Gods for help in exchange for offerings and hymns, and it’s worked for me thus far.  My life has improved since Set helped me climb out of the abyss that I was in. While there are people I know of who probably deserve to be cursed, I have not felt the need to curse anyone. I merely list those names during execration rituals to repel them from me, which is more of a binding spell than a curse. 

I think that rather than the “three-fold law”, a better way to understand karmic backlash from casting a curse is the Hermetic Principle of Rythm. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Like a pendulum. However, you can always choose to reach out and stop the pendulum, by not retaliating against every little slight, and making peace with an adversary, as Set and Horus did once their battles were over. That may not work for every situation, but perhaps there are other methods to stop the pendulum besides an attack or a curse. I see it as a last resort, a self-defense. I consider self-defense to be within Ma’at. Walking around cursing people left and right for every little offense would be isfet. While curses have their time and place, never curse someone over something petty, first think about the consequences of your actions. That’s my stance on curses. 

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

Սիամանթօ Օտարը

A Kemetic Halloween

 

A Setian Halloween Story

When I first converted away from Christianity, I joined my friends in their Wiccan coven. I never really felt 100% commited to Wicca, perhaps I never really could get behind duotheism, I was mainly using it to lay the groundwork for a more modern pagan practice, which I think it is very useful for. And this was when I learned about the Wheel of the Year, and Samhain. Halloween is my favorite holiday, but it’s not all slasher films and candy to me, it is a spiritual experience. It’s the day we honor our ancestors, the “akhu” in ancient Egyptian. Honoring the akhu is a big deal in Kemeticism as well as Armenian paganism, so I feel no need to drop the holiday. Not to mention, I do have some Scottish, Irish and English in my background on my mother’s side. 

How to tie it in properly with Kemeticism, though? Kemetic Orthodoxy came up with “Moomas” as a replacement for Christmas/Yule based on the Ascension of the Celestial Cow (while Anpu and Wepwawet deliver presents to Kemetic kids around the world from a flying chariot pulled by jackals). I thought I might come up with a Kemetic, or better yet a Setian, Halloween. I call this holiday Magaween. 

—————

The story is based on the birth of Maga, the Son of Set (no relation to American right-wing nutjobs). To explain, Set, famously infertile, managed to impregnate Astarte and Anat using forbidden Heka from the Book of Thoth, after the botched attempt in the Story of the Seed Goddess. Astarte birthed the Ka, and Anat birthed the Ba, which came together into the crocodile netjer Maga. Maga was born knowing what injustice had befallen Set, and immediately escaped to exact revenge on Set’s enemies, against Set’s will. Maga has the power to cross through dimensions, and escaped to Duat, where Osiris was sailing in his underworld barge with His entourage, including the mysterious demon Medjed. Catching everyone by surprise, Maga lept out of the water and bit a chunk out of Osiris’ shoulder, disappearing into the inky black waters before anyone could retaliate. Osiris was rushed to Heliopolis and treated for His wounds. He declared that Maga must be killed on the spot if seen again, and tasked Medjed with this. That night as Osiris slept, Maga climbed through the window, and tried to finish Osiris off. He screamed, and Medjed breathed fire and shot light from His eyes at Maga, who retreated out the window and back into the celestial Nile. 

The next day, Horus, son of Osiris and Pharaoh of the Netjeru, was sailing the Nile with His entourge, spearing river animals for sport. Maga knew that Horus was also His father’s enemy, so he again leaped from the water and bit off part of Horus’ shoulder, disappearing before anyone could fight back. Now the Netjeru were on high alert, after the attack on Horus. Even Ra knew to be on the lookout for this dangerous menace. No one expected that this menace was the son of Set. 

Eventually news of the attacks reached Set’s oasis. Set and His consorts had been distraught at Maga’s disappearance, and unable to find Him anywhere else, Set knew and dreaded that he would have to descend into Duat, the realm of His brother, as this was the only clue they had about Maga’s whereabouts. Set went to Duat with his consorts Astarte, Anat, Nephthys, and Ash. The five of them encountered many obstacles, but Set and His consorts were all formidable opponents and made short work of the many demons They encountered, until they reached the Burning Pits of Duat, a large lake of fire, and were confronted by the shrouded figure of Medjed, also looking for Maga. Medjed was dressed in a white sheet with holes cut out for His eyes, His bare feet the only part of His body that was exposed. Despite this mysterious but somewhat comical appearance, Medjed was one of the most feared entities of the House of Osiris. His name means “the Smiter”. When Osiris threatened to send his minions to the mortal realm to terrorize the living if His son Horus was not put on the throne, He was talking about Medjed. Medjed knew that Set was enemy number one as far as Osiris was concerned, and was about to shoot light from His eyes and cut Set to pieces when Ash approached Medjed with a gift basket, filled with delicious offerings of bread, fruit, treats and wine. Medjed glared at this basket, and asked if this were some kind of trick, or was it a treat? Set and His consorts insisted it was a treat. Ash soothingly told Medjed that it was about time someone gave an offering to such a mighty and impressive netjer. Medjed never had a temple to Himself, only appearing once in the Book of Going Forth by Day, the humans barely knew who He was. So to receive offerings after so many centuries, even from another netjer, melted Medjed’s heart. 

Set explained that they were only there to retrieve His son Maga, that he meant no harm to Osiris and they would be on their way once Maga was found. He promised to discipline Maga and keep Him in the oasis where Set and His consorts made their home, beyond the Big Dipper and the Field of Reeds. Medjed agreed to help them, and after a long journey through Duat, they eventually found Maga. Medjed used His power of invisibility to startle Maga while Set snuck up from behind and wrestled His son into submission; a difficult feat. Set performed a powerful binding spell on Maga, so that Maga could not bite Him, and gaining Maga’s obedience, left back to His oasis with thanks to Medjed.  As a result the Netjeru banned Maga from leaving the oasis, and it was after this incident that Set became further villified and demonized, as most of the Netjeru believed Set had sent His son to attack Osiris and Horus on purpose. But, at least Set and His consorts finally had their son, handful that Maga was. 

Because of this story, we dress in disguises like Medjed, and anyone who is dressed up in costume should be offered treats, in honor of Medjed and of Ash, whose quick thinking and ability to calm and refresh anyone was able to pacifiy the mighty Medjed. 

80s Underground Vol. 4 ~ Experiments with Cassette J-Card Generators

 

I have been sick this past week. I think it might be bronchitis. I’m not diagnosed yet but I went by the color of what I’m coughing up (stop me if this is too much info, lol). It could also be pneumonia too. Woo hoo. I will be seeing a doctor hopefully today. It’s been a week of insomnia, fevers, headaches, and excruciating throat pain due to coughing up my lungs every few minutes. A little bug my son brought home with him from school; he bounced back after a couple days, fortunately, meanwhile a week later and I’m still like the walking dead.  Anyway, being in bed a lot, I’ve been focusing on my mixtape hobby. 

Someone in one of my cassette groups on Facebook was showing off a mixtape he did of obscure 80s music. I was thinking “wow, a kindred spirit, I already have three mixtapes like that”. He went the extra mile by generating a custom j-card, which for those not in the know is the name for those labels on the inside of a cassette case. I decided to be a copycat and make my fourth 80s Underground mixtape using his method. Of course, I’m going to have to wait a while to share it in any cassette groups so I don’t look like a complete copycat of that other person, even though I am. After a bit of searching and checking a few different websites out, I settled on this one. 

Here is the template of the website. You have to be careful switching tabs in your browser because it will lose all your hard work. Best thing to do is type the track listing out in a word document and then copy and paste it in. I looked through lots of pictures of 80s goths for the cover. The one I settled on is a portrait of Rozz Williams, singer of the band Christian Death. I made sure to include at least one song from the band to justify using it. As for the songs, they’re mostly selections from my YouTube playlist The 1980s in Music. I made sure not to pick anything that was already on the other three tapes. To fit the whole track listing on the cover I had to use a small font. The template seems like it was designed for short album cassettes that only have like ten songs, but you can make it work if you shrink the font down and forgo a few unnecessary additions like what type the cassette is. I can’t imagine using a tape any longer than 90 minutes though, unless you have a lot of long songs on there to bring the track listing down. Another thing to think about if you’re going to do this is that your playlist is going to be pretty much set in stone, you can’t decide to record over a song with another song or else you’ll screw up the J-card. With a normal J-card I don’t mind putting little sticker labels over my writing or white-out when I make an edit, but that wouldn’t work with this. You could just print out a whole new J-card, but that would be a pain. 

Hopefully you can already read the track listing on the cover, but since I still have it typed out I might as well copy and paste it here:

Side A

Fehlfarben - Paul Ist Tot

Dance Macabre - No Answers

The Pulse - Plastic Man

Donación Agnelli - Lo Antiguo

Pornografia - Electrownie Atomwe

The Klinik - Murder

Vomito Negro - Fire Burns

Blood and Roses - Enough is Never Enough 

Blood Fetish - Cause Mistress

Fear Condition - Black and White

Smirnov - Savé

Side B

SigloXX - Sister Suicide

Christian Death - Deathwish

Altar Ego - Altar Ego

Threshold - I Want You

Vivabeat - Working for William

Voodoo Church - Egypt

Lost Loved Ones - The Dark

Magnum - Sacred Hour

A Scanner Darkly - Cigarette in the Rain

XDavis - Window to the World

Kill the Messenger - This is America

Sculpteurs D’Ombres - L’Ange Noir

A nice mix of post-punk, new wave, early industrial, and a little bit of metal. Here is how the spine came out:

It even let me add Armenian letters. Unicode hieroglyphs work too, I tested it out but I didn’t print the results. That opens up lots of possibilities. You can change the text and background colors too. One of these times I’ll use a black background with red letters. But white worked better with this particular photo. 

Here’s the whole happy family, 80s Underground Volumes 1-4:

 

I will have to marathon these tapes again. Plenty of time for that when I have bronchitis and can’t do much of anything else. I’ll be making some even prettier J-cards once I really get the hang of it. But I don’t think I want to do it for every single mixtape, just special themed ones like this.