More Setian Philosophy ~ Shopenhauer, and the Temple of Set

 Analyzing Philosophical quotes

“The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” - Arthur Shopenhauer

The latest stop on my philosophical binge takes me to German philosopher Arthur Shopenhauer. He has a great deal to say about how stupid people advance easily through society while intelligent people are alienated from it. I call myself Siamanto the Foreigner (Otaruh) because not only have I always felt like an outsider in American culture, I don’t even fully fit in with my ethnic identity of Armenian. Religion is my biggest point of disagreement with the majority of Armenians; pagan Armenians exist, but are a very, very tiny minority. And even then, many of the ones I know of are overly nationalistic and socially conservative. I don’t fit in with American pagans either, who by and large are either Wiccan or follow only European deities (Greek, Norse or Celtic). I’m too “out there” with my Armeno-Kemetic path.  I’ve joined a coven twice in my life, and both times it ended badly. I’m at the point of my life where I feel like I’m better off on my own than joining a group of any kind, even if I agree with them by and large. 

I remember in school being baffled by calls for “school pride”, with mascots and football games. I hated school, because I was always bullied, and I hated being bossed around. Why would I have pride in the very thing that imprisons me? Might as well have pride in a prison. But people still fell for it, despite it obviously being only a way to insure obedience. And that’s what nationalism is. As long as your chains are in the color of your flag you’re supposed to be proud. But there was definitely a time in my early adult years where I was falling into the trap of nationalism. I’m not so above it all, truth be told. Armenian nationalism is different in character from American nationalism, but it’s still nationalism at the end of the day. When American nationalists call for closed borders and arming the military, they’re being bullies, because the US is under no real danger from outside countries. In Armenia’s case, it borders two countries which would love to see it erased from the map, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and have committed genocide against the Armenians on multiple occasions, while the international community ignores it. If Armenia stops militarizing their borders they’re done for. Armenia always seems to be hanging by a thread. But how much militarism is too much? Therein lies the rub. This constant state of conflict means social problems get dismissed, saved for some arbitrary “later” date that never comes. It’s never “now” when dealing with wealth inequality, sexism and homophobia, things of that nature. We have enemies to worry about first. The church sees to that. And they’re the ones who contributed to the defeatist attitudes that got Armenia into this situation in the first place. 

I think it’s okay to be proud of your heritage and culture to a degree, until it starts to cost you your individuality and you get absorbed into the herd. 

———

Apparently in 1987 the FBI investigated the Temple of Set, as part of a wider crackdown on “Satanism”, which was at the time the US conservative’s Boogieman of the Week. Some people, including those in the FBI, apparently still think Set and Satan are the same dude. At most they’re just drinking buddies. The Set-to-Satan pipeline definitely exists, in the same way I can find links between Set and the Armenian thunder God Vahagn via both of them having been seen as Ba’al to foreigners, but that doesn’t make them the same deity. Anyway, back on topic, I unexpectedly came across some notes from the FBI vault during an innocent internet search on the concept of Xeper as it relates to Set. It mainly has basic information about the history and beliefs of the Temple of Set. They were asked if they were “corrupting the youth” a key accusation of the Satanic Panic, and the Temple replied that you have to be an adult to even join because they don’t believe in indoctrinating children. You know, unlike some religions, namely the ones behind the Satanic Panic in the first place. Seems like every accusation is a confession. 

It’s a pretty interesting read though. I’m not sure if I would ever actually join, but I agree with basically all of their key tenets. It originally branched off Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. The ones who jumped ship to the Temple of Set rightly felt limited in the Church of Satan’s philosophy, founded on being only “anti-Christian”, which is exactly why I never considered Satanism either, despite agreeing with a lot of it. It still tethers it to the Abrahamic religions, and if that’s what you’re trying to get away from, you’re better off looking at completely unrelated traditions. I went from Christianity to Wicca initially, but that was kind of a stepping stone religion for me. I started incorporating Kemetic elements pretty much right away because of a fascination I’ve had with Egypt since childhood. I found what I was looking for in Kemeticism and gradually drifted away from Wicca, expunging any modern elements from my practice, and later learning about and incorporated elements from my ancestral Armenian paganism. But Kemeticism still has as many paths within it as there are Netjeru. Sutekh’s path ended up appealing to me the most, after the illusions I grew up with finally fell away. 

The document gets more interesting when they discuss Setian philosophy, as you can see in the screenshots I provided. I find that a lot of it is conclusions I was already coming to on my own. It’s a religion dedicated to self-improvement, and experiencing a sort of rebirth of the soul, the Xeper, by following one’s passions. Which reminds me a lot of what Carl Jung and Nietzsche talk about, the process of individuation and coming into your own by integrating the darker parts of your psyche. Breaking the psychological chains of society on one’s self. But it has structure, there’s a “Council of Nine” and a High Priest and Priestess. It sounds fun, but I’m kind of over hierarchies and lables that people put on themselves so they can feel important. I could just call myself a priest and get pretty far before someone actually tried to do some kind of check to see if that was true. In ancient Egyptian a priest was called Hem-Netjer, roughly translated as “Friend of the God”. That should be all it takes to become a priest; consider your God a friend, emulate that God, and help others to do so as well. We should all be the High Priest or High Priestess of our own individual paths.

https://vault.fbi.gov/temple-of-set/temple-of-set-part-01

May Set rise and A𓌜p𓌜e𓌜p𓌜 fall.  𓇼𓀢𓏛𓃪

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀 

Սիամանթօ Օտարը