Grun, Bernard, The Timetables of History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.
Jerome, St., “Taceo de philosophis, astronomis, astrologis, quorum scientia mortalibus utilissima est, et in tres
partes scinditur. to dogma thnmeqodon, thn empeirian. Ad minores artes veniam,” in the Prologus galeatus to
the Bible, 1590.
Piankoff, Alexandre (Ed.), The Tomb of Ramesses VI. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1954.
Plato, The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.
Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.
Schure’, Edouard, The Ancient Mysteries of Delphi: Pythagoras. Blauvelt, New York: Rudolf Steiner Publications,
1971.
Stanley, Thomas, The History of Philosophy. Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1970 [Photofacsimile of
the Ninth Section of the 1687 edition, London].
Thorson, Thomas L., Plato: Totalitarian or Democrat? Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963.
Tompkins, Peter, Secrets of the Great Pyramid. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.
Whitrow, G.J., The Nature of Time. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1972.
Winspear, Alban D., The Genesis of Plato’s Thought. New York: S.A. Russell, 1940.
- 33 -
A2: The Book of Coming Forth by Night
The Book
of
Coming Forth
by
Night
- 34 -
The Equinox has succumbed to my Solstice, and I, Set, am revealed in
my Majesty.
The time of the Purification is past. The fate of my Gifted race rests in
balance, and I shall not recant my Word, spoken to my High Priest
MehenPetTha in old Khem and now again to you. Proclaim the
nineteen Parts of the Word, and vanquish thus the feeble and corrupt
Keys of Enoch, which were but a shadow of my true Word and now
are an affront to me.
I am the ageless Intelligence of this Universe. I created HarWer that I
might define my Self. All other gods of all other times and nations
have been created by men. This you know from the first Part of my
Word, and from my manifest semblance, which alone is not of Earth.
Known as the Hebrew Satan, I chose to bring forth a Magus,
according to the fashion of my Word. He was charged to form a
Church of Satan, that I might easily touch the minds of men in this
image they had cast for me.
In the fifth year of the Church of Satan, I gave to this Magus my
Diabolicon, that he might know the truth of my ancient Gift to
mankind, clothed though it might be in the myths of the Hebrews.
Even you, who delivered the Diabolicon from Asia, did not know it for
what it was. But he that I had fashioned a Magus knew, and he
thought often of the Diabolicon as he guided the Church of Satan.
Upon the ninth Solstice, therefore, I destroyed my pact with Anton
Szandor LaVey, and I raised him to the Will of a Daimon, unbounded
by the material dimensions. And so I thought to honor him beyond
other men. But it may have been this act of mine that ordained his fall.
Were I my Self to displace the Cosmic Inertia, I should be forced to
become a new measure of consistency. I would cease to be One, for I
should become All.
To make of man a Daimon, then, may be to break his Self- reference
to the bounds in which his semblance must exist.
- 35 -
I cannot undo the hurt that has come of this, but I shall restore to
Anton Szandor LaVey his human aspect and his degree of Magus in
my Order. Thus all may understand that he is dearly held by me, and
that the end of the Church of Satan is not a thing of shame to him.
But a new Aeon is now to begin, and the work of Anton Szandor
LaVey is done. Let him be at ease, for no other man has ever seen
with his eyes.
In April of the common year 1904, I came forth in Africa as my
Opposite Self and brought into being an Aeon to end the horrors of
the stasis of the death-gods of men. This new Aeon was a Purification,
to prepare men for that which would follow it.
And Aleister Crowley received the Book of the Law, and my Opposite
Self declared him Magus of the Aeon.
But HarWer, my Opposite Self, is a strange and fitful presence. I, Set,
am my Self distinct from the Order of the Cosmos, yet am ordered in
and of my Self. HarWer I was when I was once part of the Cosmos and
could achieve identity only by becoming what the Cosmic order was
not. By HarWer I cancelled the imbalance, leaving a Void in which true
Creation could take form as Set.
But, as I have said, I cannot destroy the Cosmic Inertia without having
to assume its place. And so HarWer must exist while Set exists.
The Aeon of HarWer endured until the Equinox of the common year
1966, when HarWer and Set were fused as one composite being. And
so commenced the time of Set- HarWer - known as the Age of Satan -
which was to bridge the expiring Aeon of HarWer and the
forthcoming Aeon of Set.
Truth there was in the words of my Opposite Self, but a truth ever
tinged with the inconsistency and irrationality of which I have spoken.
And so the Book of the Law was confusion to all who came upon it,
and the creative brilliance of the Magus Aleister Crowley was ever
flawed by mindless destructiveness. He himself could never understand
this, for he perceived HarWer as a unified Self. And so he was
perplexed by a mystery he could not identify.
- 36 -
And I, Set, spoke too in the Book of the Law - “Aye! listen to the
numbers and the words -
- “What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou
know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it.”
And many of the Aeon of HarWer sought to read this but could not.
Nor could the Magus himself, though he guessed rightly at its
simplicity. It was said that every number is infinite - hence each
number or sum of joined numbers became merely the corresponding
letter.
Even so the sequence remained unknown - and so, after its issue, to
me as well. For, while I may pass free of the boundaries of time,
memory of the future cannot exist.
Now it has come to pass, and the Book of the Law is laid bare -
Destined First Century heir - Aquino - breaking Keys by doctrines
Anton LaVey - great Magus of reconsecration coming Year Xeper -
founding his rightful Priesthood - Set - true origin Volume AL.”
Michael Aquino, you are become Magus V° of the Aeon of Set.
I, Set, am come again to my friends among mankind - Let my great
nobles be brought to me.
In Khem I remain no longer, for I am forgotten there, and my house at
PaMat-et is dust. I shall roam this world, and I shall come to those who
seek me.
Magus of my Aeon - Manifest the Will of Set.
Reconsecrate my Temple and my Order in the true name of Set. No
longer will I accept the bastard title of a Hebrew fiend.
- 37 -
When I came first to this world, I gave to you my great pentagram,
timeless measure of beauty through proportion. And it was shown
inverse, that creation and change be exalted
above rest and
preservation.
With the years my pentagram was corrupted, yet time has not the
power to destroy it.
Its position was restored by the Church of Satan, but its essence was
dimmed with a Moorish name, and the perverse letters of the Hebrews,
and the goat of decadent Khar. During the Age of Satan I allowed this
curious corruption, for it was meant to do me honor as I was then
perceived.
But this is now my Aeon, and my pentagram is again to be pure in its
splendor. Cast aside the corruptions, that the pentagram of Set may
shine forth. Let all who seek me be never without it, openly and with
pride, for by it I shall know them.
Let the one who aspires to my knowledge be called by the name
Setian.
I seek my Elect and none other, for mankind now hastens toward an
annihilation which none but the Elect may hope to avoid. And alone I
cannot preserve my Elect, but I would teach them and strengthen
their Will against the coming peril, that they and their blood may
endure. To do this I must give further of my own Essence to my Elect,
and, should they fail, the Majesty of Set shall fade and be ended.
Behold, it is I who call you, because you are the guardians of the
Aeon of Set, zealous in what you do.
The Satanist thought to approach Satan through ritual. Now let the
Setian shun all recitation, for the text of another is an affront to the
Self. Speak rather to me as to a friend, gently and without fear, and I
shall hear as a friend. Do not bend your knee nor drop your eye, for
such things were not done in my house at PaMat-et. But speak to me
at night, for the sky then becomes an entrance and not a barrier. And
those who call me the Prince of Darkness do me no dishonor.
- 38 -
The Setian need conjure neither curse nor kindness from me, for by
the magic of my great pentagram I shall see with his eyes. And then
the strength that is mine shall be the strength of the Setian, and
against the Will of Set no creature of the Universe may stand. And I
think not of those who think not of me.
The years of the Aeon of HarWer were confused, and I do not wish
to think of them save as curiosities. But I wish to remember the
Church of Satan and the Magus of that Age. Therefore let the years
of my Aeon be counted from the conception of the Church of Satan.
And now, having looked upon the past with affection and reverence,
we shall turn our gaze to the times before us. Think carefully of the
Word of Set, for it is given in witness to my Bond.
Behold, O West, I have established my Aeon. I punish the enemies who
are in it, placed in the Place of Destruction. I deliver them to the
examiners from whose guard there is no escape. Lo, I pass near to
thee, I pass near to thee!
Affix now my image as it was given to you, so that all who read of
these matters may now look upon the likeness of Set.
The Word of the Aeon of Set is
- 39 -
A3: The Book of Coming Forth by Night - Analysis and Commentary
- by Michael A. Aquino VI°
The Ides of March XL ÆS
Introduction
From 1966 to 1975 CE there existed in the United States of America a most singular organization known as the
Church of Satan. Founded by Anton Szandor LaVey in the city of San Francisco, it espoused the social doctrine of
“Indulgence”, challenging all creeds, cultures, and codes that seek virtue through abstinence from the pleasures of
mortal existence.
In its formative years the Church of Satan took an essentially metaphorical approach towards the being from
whom it took its name. “Satan” was a term representing, it was thought, simply the principle of carnality. Such
rituals and ceremonies as the Church first celebrated, therefore, were conceived as illustrative, inspirational, and
allegorical. That, at least, is the way it all began.
“When he is called,” Eliphas Levi once observed, “the Devil comes and is seen.” And in that prosaic statement
lies a truth whose implications challenge the rational constructs of the most exacting intellects. The one common
feature to all the gods of all the nations of history, it may be said, is that they do not come and are not seen.
Satan, however, did come to the Church of Satan - first as the faintest of atmospheres in its ceremonies, and
ultimately as a metaphysical presence whose expression of being was awesome, exhilarating - the very fire of life to
those who took his name as a part of their own and called themselves Satanists.
The full history of the Church of Satan is documented in The Church of Satan, which account culminates on the
North Solstice of the Satanic Year Ten, the evening of June 21-22, 1975. For the Church of Satan had fallen in ruins,
Anton LaVey having corrupted the Priesthood; and it seemed to me, at that time Magister Templi IV° and successor
by default to the Satanic High Priesthood, that only direct intervention by the Prince of Darkness himself could
provide us with a basis for a viable raison d’être.
Alone that night I called upon him, and he came forth - through a sequence of realizations within my mind that,
in a few short hours, I recorded in written text as The Book of Coming Forth by Night.
In its most immediate sense this text brought the Church of Satan to a final, dignified terminus, superseding it
with a new initiatory institution - the Temple of Set - whose history to date may be found in its various
administrative papers, newsletters, and the Jeweled Tablets of Set. Yet the Book of Coming Forth by Night was to
prove a far deeper and richer mine, as again and again I strove to explore its depths. My first comment - a single
page - was written on the morning of June 23, 1975. Over the following decades gradually-expanding ones were to
follow, and finally this one.
Since 1975 the Temple of Set has attained a far richer awareness of its identity. I myself grew to comprehend the
full meaning of the Word whereby I came into being as a Magus V°. In doing so I aided others to attune their
magical wills to ever more powerful sources of energy and inspiration that had lain dormant within them. Having
fulfilled that which was set forth for me to do upon the Earth as a Magus, I myself came into being on the Ides of
March XIV as an Ipsissimus VI°.
This, then, is an examination of the Book of Coming Forth by Night from a VI° perspective, encompassing the
key magical texts of two Æons and their intervening Age. The Book of Coming Forth by Night is no longer just a call
to arms and a charge to the fellowship of the Prince of Darkness; it is a principle which has woven itself into the
fabric of existence so thoroughly that it has become an immortal element of mankind’s higher potential. It remains
for those who seek the path to that towards which it shows the way to train themselves and refine their states of
being until this Grail appears in its truth before them. This commentary is a foretaste of the elixir of the Grail; it is to
say that Xeper is also no mere illusion - it too comes and is seen.
To what extent does the text lend itself to objective interpretation? At first reading it is both straightforward and
unambiguous. Many of the words and phrases, however, are evidently used in an emphatically precise or unique
sense.
A magician and philosopher will consider them with corresponding care. Moreover the Book of Coming Forth
by Night is not simply a compendium of abstract generalizations; its appearance was keyed to specific
circumstances, and many of its passages address them. Thus background information is important, particularly for
those unfamiliar with the events and subjects in question.
While the Book of Coming Forth by Night is sufficiently integral to be read and considered as a whole, its
statements are best treated in sequence. Hence I begin as the text itself began: with its name.
Xeper.
- 40 -
The Book of Coming Forth by Night (title)
In hieroglyphics this would be Sat Per Em Kerh. It is an evident negation of the name of the Book of
Coming Forth by Day, the Osirian funerary text that is popularly known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Persons unfamiliar with the ancient Egyptian culture often assume that the Egyptian religion, like those
of later Mediterranean civilizations, consisted of a single, integrated pantheon of anthropomorphic gods
and goddesses. It is rather the case that the earliest Egyptian god-figures were provincial, being patrons of
individual cities and districts ( Nomes). Nor, despite their famous human/beast composite appearances,
were they mere “supernatural persons” after the Greek, Mesopotamian, or Roman fashion. While popular
stories were woven about them - presumably for popular consumption - the hieroglyphic treatment of these
entities suggests that they actually represented various aspects of existence - the “Forms” or “First
Principles” discussed by Pythagoras and Plato in a more abstract manner.
The hieroglyphic term for “god” is neter, of which Sir E.A. Wallis Budge remarks:
This word has been translated “godlike”, “holy”, “divine”, “sacred”, “power”, “strength”, “force”,
“strong”, “fortify”, “mighty”, “protect”; but it is quite impossible to be certain that any word which
we may use represents the meaning of neter, because no one knows exactly what idea the ancient
Egyptians attached to the word. The truth is that the exact meaning of neter was lost at a very early
period of Egyptian history, and even the Coptic does not help us to recover it. 28
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