The Notion Of Good
The Gods Seth (left) and Heru (right) engage in an eternal battle for the minds and hearts of humanity. Heru represents preservation of life, Seth represents destruction of life. Heru is humanity’s model for good.
BEFORE I JOINED the Earth Center, I thought I had a clear idea of what was right and what was wrong. I was raised to assimilate into an American society with American values and accepted what was presented to me. I could not help but observe the inconsistencies surrounding me as I came of age. I could not help but see the history of deceit cast upon people. I could not help but witness the unwillingness to change from an individual and structural level. This unsettled me. How can it be that the problems I had read about in history books still remain to this day? Did anyone really want to change? People often talk about the ideals of society but to me they became hollow. Empty. They became words with no value. I chose instead to live by my own ideals and principles. I studied what attracted my attention and created my own version of good. I thought this way I would be able to live a life of balance and integrity. It never occurred to me that even these new ideals I chose to use were based on the values I sought to redefine.
An elder once told me when I was very young to just “be good”. That has always stuck with me. I thought I understood what it meant to be good. Yet how could I be doing things that were not good and still claim to be good? Once I became exposed to the concept of purity, my perception of good and what it meant to be good was challenged. I could not call myself a good person if I was good sometimes or once in awhile but I had to strive to be good all the time. That meant good in action, in speech and in thought. It was difficult to digest because I had to reassess many of my habits as well as my reasons for them. I used to justify these habits because I thought they were based on a solid foundation of my own ideas and principles that were different from the society I wanted to distance myself from. What I was really doing was only justifying my own corruption and self-destruction. For one who is on an honest search for truth, we cannot deny that our perceptions are based on a limited experience. I had to humble myself and accept that my perception of good itself is also limited. With the tools The Earth Center has provided me, I understand now how to be able to build a life based on good qualities and good character.
Initiation teaches the origins of good and evil within the Holy Drama. The Holy Drama depicts the war Set wages against his brother Wsr and his son Heru. Set kills Wsr with the goal of conquering his kingdom, while Heru is always fighting to reclaim his father’s domain.
Set began planning his attack on Heru before he was born. As humans, we face the same dilemma as Heru. It does not help us that we were born into a society without a solid moral foundation. Before our conception, there was already a plot to teach us values that will lead us to destroy ourselves and each other. It does not help that our first teachers, our very own parents, learned these ways and were taught to teach us the same. Evil is dynamic by nature and uses any means possible to corrupt what is pure – even in taking the form of our parents. This being the case, it is not surprising to see that many people will defend destructive despite the severity of the consequences.
While Set represents what is evil, Heru represents purity and what is good. Purity by nature is fragile and must be protected, whereas evil is the most powerful and dynamic force, seeking to destroy and continually expand its territory by any means. These distinct traits call for these entities to always be separate. This aspect of the Holy Drama gave me a new perspective with which to view the world. I could no longer indulge in my destructive ways because they were not good. I could no longer associate myself with negative views because they were not good. This modern society skews the notions of good and evil by portraying good guys with bad qualities and bad guys with good qualities. That is why you have law enforcement that harm others but are portrayed as protectors and upholders of law. That is why we have politicians who propose to help people but turn around and separate and isolate and even impose death upon individuals. That is why it can be justified that a government can attack another country and disregard innocent casualties if it fits the agenda. The confusion between good and evil downplays the atrocities we can commit in the name of a greater good, but one cannot deny that the lesser of two evils is still evil.
Heru and Set represent two principles that can be seen in everything around us. For someone on a spiritual path, it is a lifelong struggle to identify these principles within the self. We are responsible only for ourselves: our own actions, our own words and our own thoughts. It is the responsibility of the spiritual pilgrim to expose the corruption within the self and to address it immediately, and to minimize and contain it with careful attention. The Earth Center really challenges each individual to inspect every aspect of themselves. It has taught me that the most important fight we have to face is within. The great attention and scrutiny required to be good and the examples of what good is have been one of the most humbling blessings the Earth Center has revealed to me.