|
Goddess Aset
"In the temple of Denderah, it is inscribed that Nut gave
birth to Aset there, and that upon her birth, Nut exclaimed: "As" (behold), "I have become thy mother." This was
the origin of the name Ast, Aset, later known to the Greeks and others. It further states that "she was a dark-skinned
child and was called Khnemet-ankhet" or the living lady of Love. Thus, Aset also symbolizes the "blackness" of the vast
unmanifset regions of existence, Asar. In this capacity she is also the ultimate expression of the African ideal prototype
of the Christian Madonna, especially in statues where she is depicted holding the baby Heru in the same manner as Mother
Mary later held baby Jesus. Her identification is also symbolized in her aspect as Amentet, the Duat, itself.
Therefore, Amentet (Aset) and the soul of Amentet (Asar) are in reality one in the same. In her aspect as Amentet, Aset
represents the subtle substance of nature, the astral plane".
Aset (Auset, Ese; GR Isis) - "The Throne," Aset is the power that
makes kings; a feminine Name appearing in texts beginning in Dynasty IV as wife and sister to Wesir and daughter of Nut and Geb. In earliest times Aset is depicted as the "mistress of magic" (see
Heka) Who learns Ra's true name and thus the secrets of the universe. In the cult of Wesir
Aset is attributed with having prepared Him for burial and conceiving a son upon His dead body, which She magically reanimates
long enough to complete (in Kemetic texts, Wesir's death is attributed to drowning; the dismemberment myth given by Plutarch
does not appear until millennia later and may not even be Kemetic in origin. See Wesir.). In later periods and particularly
after the New Kingdom, Aset was syncretized with a number of other Names, Hethert in particular, and took on "mother goddess" characteristics. During
this period, Aset's importance as mother of Heru-sa-Aset ("Horus, son of Isis", a Name intimately connected with kingship and
therefore within Aset's purview as kingmaker) became paramount, in ways strongly suggestive of the Christian cult of the Virgin
Mary. The Romans declared all feminine Names to be forms of Aset, crowning Her "Goddess of Ten Thousand Names," though Kemetic
mythology does not exhibit this specific archetype.
|
