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Khru Akhet
Newsletter of Akhet Hwt-Hrw
Volume IV, Issue 1, Page 5, Shomu 2004

Copyright 2004, all rights reserved.

The Victory of Horus
Rekh Wer 21 - 25
The following is an excerpt from
"Pillar of Ra: Ancient Egyptian Festivals for Today"
Kerry Wisner

The festival of the Victory of Horus is in reality a combination of two distinct yet related ceremonies. The first is a classic example of ritual drama. This particular drama is best preserved in the late period temple inscriptions from Edfu. There, carved into the walls are a series of reliefs depicting scenes from this ceremony along with detailed ritual instructions and liturgy. The drama itself commemorates the triumph of Heru (Horus) over Sutekh (Set). While the drama, in the form that it is best known is from the Ptolemaic period, portions of this have been traced to a New Kingdom text (1). And, in fact, some Egyptologists have suggested that its origins may extend back even further (2).

As a ritual drama this ceremony, when performed with sincerity, becomes an elaborate and powerful invocation in which the members may come into direct contact with the Neteru involved in the story. In particular this drama acts as an excellent invocation of Heru; both in the aspect of Heru-Sa-Aset (Horus the Son of Isis) as the avenger of his father Ausir/Osiris, and Heru of Behdet (often equated with Heru-Ur, "Horus the Elder" brother Ausir) as the protector of Ra.

In this drama an effigy of Sutekh in the form of a hippopotamus is ritually stabbed, dismembered and eaten. On the surface this would appear to be a representation of ‘good over evil.' However, this is a misnomer. Generally, throughout the long history of Egypt, Sutekh and Heru were seen as equally important. In fact, Heru-Ur and Sutekh are brothers both being born to Geb and Nut. The story of the conflict of Heru and Sutekh is best understood as a representation of the forces that cause division and then, through resolution, unification.

Sutekh represents strength, while Heru represents order. Both are necessary in Egyptian cosmology. This is reflected in the fact that the King was seen as the incarnation of both of these Neteru. Significantly one of the titles that the Queen was known by was "She who sees Heru and Sutekh" (3). Dr. Jan Assmann sheds light on this enigma:

"The symbol for Horus is the eye, for Seth the testicles. Aggressive force is thus associated with procreative energy. Another typically Sethian notion is ‘strength,' which - like force - has positive connotations. Seth is not Satan; rather, he embodies an indispensable feature of life - one that would be literally castrated in his absence, just as life would be blind without the Horus power of the eye. The contrast between eye and testicles represents an opposition between light (reason) and sexuality, a familiar contrast in the history of religion." (4)

So we see that Sutekh is not the embodiment of evil as some today would like to state. Rather he is unbridled power, and this vigor needs to be unified with order and law. Thus in the conflict between Heru and Sutekh, no matter the version of the myth, Sutekh is overcome however he is also "integrated, not ejected" (5). Thus we see in this myth that "order triumphs over chaos, rule over anarchy, law over force" (6). Once again the observations of Dr. Assmann are important here:

"The myth of Horus and Seth lends itself equally well to an interpretation as a myth of unification through integration: the state appears as a lawful order to which brute force must submit. The state integrates aggression and transforms it from a natural to a cultural force. The opposite of state order and culture is not cast it into darkness; it is neither demonized nor vilified" (7).

So the question is, if Sutekh is not seen as evil, but rather as a force that needs to integrated into the whole, than what are we to make out of the symbolism of stabbing, dismembering and consuming the effigy? The answer is obvious when looked in purely magical and esoteric terms. The stabbing and dismemberment is representative of brute force (Sutekh) being controlled by order (Heru). Eating the effigy is an act of sympathetic magic. By eating this image the essence of the force symbolized is absorbed by the ritualist (8). This is the esoteric basis of the Eucharist. Frances King and Stephen Skinner describe this thus:

"The Priest invokes a god to gain power in order to effect a transformation, and ‘earths' the force in the Sacrament which becomes (in Christianity) the blood and flesh of God. This then is passed on to the congregation who thereby receive the virtue of the invocation" (9).

In the ceremony of the Victory of Heru the consumption of the effigy of Sutekh is in effect an act of unification joining the ritual participants as followers of Heru with the force of Sutekh. So we see that while the uninitiated may see this ritual as a violent portrayal of the forces of ‘good' over ‘evil,' the reality is that it is an act of order and strength merging, with reason being the intelligence that guides. It is for this reason that the ritual drama culminates in the final statement of:

Heru, in his strength, unites the two lands! Sutekh is overthrown!

In contrast, the second portion of this festival is a definitive instance in which a straight forward ritualistic invocation using ceremonial definition of the Neter, in this case Heru of Behdet/Heru-Ur, is employed. This definition, or ‘calling upon,' of the Neter gives way to the ritualist identifying with the Neter himself. It is obvious from the texts involved that the individual, wether Priesthood or King, was meant to be the vehicle for Heru-Ur by the end of this second ceremony. The theme of this second portion of the festival centers around the legend of the Winged Disk. A further difference between this portion of the festival and the drama noted above is that in the Legend of the Winged Disk Heru-Ur consistently defeats the forces that would threaten the rule of Ra.

In the conflict of Heru and Sutekh we clearly saw a portrayal of unrestrained force struggling with and eventually unifying with order. In this conflict there was no threat to Ma'at or the authority of Ra. Rather this was a process of two opposing yet complementary forces merging as one.

In the Legend of the Winged Disk the forces confronted by Heru-Ur are clearly seen as a peril to the authority and role of Ra. These forces are the embodiment of the imbalance that would seek to overturn Ma'at. Thus, in this portion of the festival we see Heru-Ur as the cleansing force which upholds order through force. In this respect it seems logical that this would follow the unification of force and order portrayed in the first portion of the festival. Once Heru and Sutekh are unified as one, Heru-Ur has the strength to sustain harmony, Ma'at - the rule of Ra.

This festival itself occurs from the 21st to the 25th of Rekh Wer. Because of the elaborate nature of ritual drama, we at Akhet Hwt-Hrw perform the enactment of the victory of Heru over Sutekh on the first day of this festival. The remaining four days of the ceremony are used to invoke Heru-Ur via the legend of the Winged Disk.

To obtain a complete copy of the festival ritual itself see the book: "Pillar of Ra: Ancient Egyptian Festivals for Today"

Footnotes

1. Blackman & Fairman 1942
2. Gillam KMT Spring 2000
3. Assmann 2002.42
4. Assmann 2002.43
5. Assmann 2002.42
6. Assmann 2002.42
7. Assmann 2002.44
8. Leek 1970.52
9. King 1976.174-175

Works Cited

Assmann, Jan. The Mind of Egypt. Copyright 2002. Metropolitan Books. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.

Blackman, A.M. & H.W. Fairman. "The Consecration of an Egyptian Temple According to the Use of Edfu". 1942.

Gillam, Robin. "Restaging ‘The Triumph of Hours' or Hunting the Hippo in Toronto." KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2000. Pages 72 - 83. Sebastopol, CA, U.S.A.

King, Francis, Stephen Skinner. Techniques of High Magic. Copyright 1976. Destiny Books. New York, New York, U.S.A.

Leek, Sybil. Cast Your Own Spell. Copyright 1970. Pinnacle Books. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.

Other Pages in the Newsletter
Return to Page One
Go to Creating Meaningful Kemetic Festival Social Gatherings
Go to Astrology in Ancient Egypt
Go to The Litany of Ra and its role in Ritual