Set was associated with the planet Mercury in ancient Egyptian cosmology. It makes sense for the closest planet to the Sun to be associated with Set, who is always at the bow of Ra’s Solar Barge, even though I thought it would be Mars, since it’s red and it’s a desert, doesn’t get much more Setian than that. But the ancients couldn’t have known it was a desert; still they should have noticed it was red. Instead they have Horus hogging most of the known planets, as He was associated with Mars, Jupiter and Saturn under different epithets, while Venus was associated both with the Bennu bird (Egyptian phoenix) and with Osiris. Just as the Egyptian religion is one of the only ones to see the Earth as male (Geb) and the Moon as male (Thoth, Iah, Khonsu, the Eye of Horus, etc.), it is also one of the only ones to see Venus as male. Most contemporary cultures would associate the planet with whichever form of Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte/Astghik they had. After Set became demonized Mercury would be given to Thoth, perhaps due to Greco-Roman influence as that was also the planet of Hermes/Mercury. The Dendera Temple has a famous depiction of Ancient Egyptian astrology, as well as personifications of all the known planets. Therefore this fully-human depiction of Mercury may be seen as Set in His human form (don’t all faint at once, ladies). There’s a famous depiction of Anpu in His human form but I know of no others of Set.
I like to incorporate modern astronomical knowledge into my practice, as surely Egyptians would have done too if it weren’t for Abrahamic religions (and they probably would have figured things out centuries earlier than the West did too, without those terrible monotheistic theologies slowing humanity’s progress down; maybe we would be traveling to the stars by now if it wasn’t for that). I wonder what the people of Kemet would have called Uranus, Neptune and Pluto? Which of the Netjeru is associated with those planets? We can only get the answers through Unverified Personal Gnosis at this point. If I were naming them, firstly Horus would only get one planet, not three. I like having Set associated with Mercury, but if we are doing one Netjer per planet maybe Set could trade Mercury to Thoth in exchange for Mars.
So let see;
Mercury =Djehuti
Venus = Nebet-Het in the evening, Aset in the morning
Earth = Geb
Mars = Set
Jupiter = Horus
Saturn = Hathor
Uranus = ,Shu Neptune = Tefnut,
Pluto = Osiris
(a dwarf planet is still a type of planet, dammit. Maybe Pluto’s moon could be named after Medjed.)
To me, Nut is the personification of our galaxy. Perhaps in my version She predates Ra by a lot, who is a creator deity only for our solar system. We are all Children of the Sun. But the Sun is still much younger than the rest of the universe. In some forms of the mythology Neith is the mother of Ra. Perhaps She embodies the creative force that causes star clusters to form. Ra has siblings somewhere from the star cluster in which He was born. Around our Sun, rocky planets began to form. Early Earth is like the Benben, the mound which rose from the seas of Nun, which symbolizes space itself (full of light waves, radio waves, just like waves in the ocean).
There is a hypothesis in astronomy called panpsychism, which states that there is consciousness in all things, including stars. This hypothesis is an alternative to the dark energy hypothesis, which was created to explain why stars orbit their galaxies faster than can be accounted for by gravity alone. Under pansychism, the stars are rotating around the galaxy not because they are being pushed by some invisible force, but of their own volition, because they are alive and choosing to orbit the galaxy. Stars are born, grow old and die, just like any lifeform. What else would you call such a living thing but a God?
Further Reading:
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