The Temple of Set II
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develop. [Remember that Pythagoras and his school were destroyed by a mob led by and consisting largely of
persons who had been dismissed from that school as being intellectually inadequate.]
At all times we must be careful to explain the Temple to curious humans in such a way that they understand its
non-interference with their affairs. Only if we fail to do this are we asking for trouble by permitting a polarization to
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solidify against us. Make no mistake: If such a polarization should transpire, our chances of surviving it are
nebulous indeed.
This is a good time to explain a few things about the First Foundation of the Temple, that “super-sinister”
element that you have heard described as everything from an Orwellian “Thought Police” to a paramilitary variant
on the Nazi SS. 1F is neither. Rather it is a task force with the specific mission of forecasting the social environment
in which the Temple will be existing within the near- and medium-range future [up to about 50 years ahead], and of
recommending timely preparations which the Temple should make to exist comfortably under such circumstances.
It is really as simple as that.
The rumors get started for the simple reason that some of the alternative factors which must be evaluated in an
objective forecast imply rather ugly future situations, which would call for correspondingly substantial
reconfigurations of the Temple. But forecasting is a long way from established fact, and is by no means a
justification for over-reaction on our part. It is a research tool, not a crystal ball. [I don’t mind saying that the
forecasting technique to be tested by 1F is conceptually the most advanced - and accurate - in existence.]
The third part of the answer is that the Temple of Set is not a “thing in itself” to whose benefit the efforts of its
Initiates are directed. Using the analogy of Metropolis, it is not a machine feeding upon the energy of its tenders.
Put more precisely, it is a collection of systems designed to maximize the individual Setian’s expenditure of energy
for magical ends.
Let us examine this point carefully. The vast number of factors and the great personal expertise which a
magician must bring to bear upon a given problem make the probability of error and/or inaccuracy very high.
Accordingly a lone practitioner will spend a great deal of time and effort on wild-goose chases, or in repeating the
processes of elimination that many another magician has laboriously pursued before [or may be pursuing
simultaneously]. Efficient communication of past and present techniques will go a long way towards eliminating this
problem.
The magician’s work may be directed towards uncomprehending recipients, of course, but within the Temple an
increasing percentage of it is undertaken with the object of communicating the results to minds capable of
appreciating them. Here the Temple membership structure serves a second function - that of identifying such minds
at levels of initiatory awareness recognized by the degree-system. By recourse to this reference structure, a magician
may direct efforts to where they will achieve the maximum results with the minimum waste.
The research-oriented machinery within the Temple is being designed with a similar economy and simplicity in
mind. According to the present concept, it boils down to four distinct yet interlocking areas: (1) The Scroll, (2) The
Ruby Tablet, (3) Data Processing, and (4) Personal Contact.
The Scroll of Set is designed to convey information of time-value to the entire Temple at short notice, as well as
to to introduce ideas for general consideration which have not been researched in depth. Purely-administrative
articles and notices are kept to a minimum, so that philosophical & magical material may be given priority.
Contributions from I°-IV° Initiates are all encouraged. [I deliberately avoid sending material other than these
annual reports in order to maximize the space available to others.]
The size, composition, weight, and length of the Scroll are all designed to maximize information. Expensive frills
such as multicolor printing and heavyweight paper are avoided. Bound volumes of the newsletter are available at a
low price to new Setians [or to current ones who desire a bound set].
A measure of the Scroll is that, in the two years of its existence, the volume and scientific/intellectual value of its
contents have easily surpassed the precision, scope, and timeliness of all other occult/religious/magical literature in
existence.
The Ruby Tablet of Set, presently scheduled for initial release this summer, will be a Setian encyclopædia
designed for reference material of a longer and more complex nature than is suitable for the Scroll. It will serve as a
repository for some of the most advanced philosophy of the Temple and, like the Scroll, it will not be available to
non-Setians. [In fact, because of the nature of many of its contents, it will be available only to those who have been
recognized as II° or above.] It will be produced in loose-leaf, so that additions and modifications to the contents can
be made frequently - even monthly - without necessitating wasteful, tedious overhauls of the entire encyclopædia.
Via a system designed by its Editor, Magister Robert Ethel, the various essays are extensively footnoted, cross-
referenced, and indexed to a master bibliography - which itself will be keyed to a new Temple Reading List about
2-3 times the size, detail, and sophistication of the present one. The Ruby Tablet will gradually expand into a work
covering the entire scope of the Temple and completely surpassing such prior efforts as the Equinox, the Golden
Bough, etc. in length, organization, and timeliness of data.
[So that the Temple will not become bogged down in storing and distributing a variety of books, the idea is to
consolidate the contents of as many papers as possible in the Ruby Tablet. For example, The Book of Coming Forth
by Night: Analysis & Commentary will not be reprinted as a single volume; its pages will eventually be reprinted as
a section of the Ruby Tablet.]
To date our Data Processing element, overseen from Detroit by Magister Michael Grumboski, has been used in
only a limited fashion - for membership records and cross-referencing of statistical and demographic data. In the
future this element will gradually assume a role of greater and greater importance to the Temple. Computers have
the ability to store, process, transmit, and refine immense amounts of data at incredibly high speeds. For an
operation of our projected scope, computer technology will be absolutely indispensable.
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As the logical criteria for our magical operations, forecasting procedures, and cooperative projects are
determined in greater and greater detail, it will be to our advantage to key them into software programs that can be
applied to computer modules at momentary notice for the solution of specific problems. Coding systems for such
data may be developed which will enable Setians with personal hand-calculators to decipher numerical print-outs
into readable documents. These are not pipe dreams; they are concepts which are on the drawing boards right now.
The final component of our research/ communications network is as crucial as the others: personal contact.
Printed material can accomplish a great deal, but it cannot capture the essence of the Setian mind in the way that
personal communication can. Indeed the very process of initiatory recognition of the Temple depends comp
letely
upon personal evaluation. Appropriately emphasis will always be placed in this area.
Conclaves, personal meetings, Pylon activities, newsletters, bulletins, and individual letters all form a part of
this process. From Santa Barbara alone more than eight good-sized “telephone books” of letters have gone out in the
past two years - twice the output of six years’ correspondence for the old Church of Satan. Forty-one bulletins of up
to ten single-spaced pages apiece have gone out to the Priesthood, frequently accompanied by voluminous
enclosures as well - all to ensure that every Priest and Priestess of Set is completely up-to-date on the “nerve center”
workings of the Temple. All this is to ensure that when you contact one of these officials - any one - he or she will
have immediate access to the same data that I do.
There is an extremely important reason for this stress upon personal contact. As you know, Setians I° face a
time-limit of two years in which they must demonstrate their ability to be recognized as II°. This is not something
which they can achieve by memorizing and parroting Temple documents. [Indeed little more than the Scroll is even
made available to a I°.]
Rather this ability will be recognized in a I° by a III° in the course of normal, systematic dialogue between them.
It is a quality which is not the product of “occult book-learning”, but of an individual’s presence of mind in the
strictest possible sense.
Another effect of this practice is that persons who join the Temple with the idea of gaining access to its archives
while remaining mute and unseen themselves will discover that the majority of Temple texts will be unavailable to
them - and that within two years they will be gently but firmly disengaged from the Temple altogether. The time and
energy of the Elect are precious and will not be wasted on parasites. They are reserved for those who are also Elect -
who will continue to find their way to us and to Come Into Being as the first manifestations of the Third Stage of
human evolution.
This, then, is a working profile of the Temple of Set - an organization which is at once based on principles older
than the Pyramids and yet developing concepts far ahead of conventional science. Indeed it is “Alpha and Omega” -
possible by Xeper.
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A27: Rituals Without Chambers
- by L. Dale Seago IV°
Scroll of Set #II-11, July 1977
In the writings and teachings of traditional occult philosophy, one encounters constant references to an “astral
body” and an “astral plane” (or equivalent terms such as “etheric”). The astral is described as a finer, more
“spiritualized” state of matter than that with which the profane are familiar, and the most marvelously mutable
qualities are ascribed to it.
The traveler on the astral plane is free from ordinary spatial restrictions. He may walk, in his astral body, right
through a wall of his house, since he can perceive and function within a different “universe”. However, he will not
necessarily be able to perceive the ordinary, objective universe. Thus, having passed through the wall of his home,
he may not be aware that it is raining outside. In Magick in Theory and Practice Aleister Crowley observed that:
This astral plane is so varied and so changeable that several clairvoyants looking at the same thing
might give totally different accounts of what they saw; yet they might each make correct deductions. (page
#145)
And then again, they might not. Thus it can be seen that the astral observations or creations of two or more
individuals will correspond to each other only by chance or by predetermined collaboration, which makes the idea of
effective communication or conference on the astral plane an invalid concept. This by no means rules out telepathy
or clairvoyance, but these phenomena do not necessarily have anything to do with the astral plane per se - if they
did, we would find less divergence in accounts of astral experiences.
Since the nature and details of experiences on the astral plane are so varied among individuals and so closely
related to individual consciousness, it should be glaringly obvious [though most occultists are too blinded by the
conditioning influence of tradition to see the connection] that the astral plane is actually a product of the human
mind. It has no objective existence. The astral plane is not a place, but a state of consciousness. Yet its nonexistence
does not really matter. It is irrelevant as long as the concept of an astral plane has a personal value for the individual
magician. Astral projection and creation still have their uses.
[A contemporary occultist who has kept up with current parapsychological research would probably argue at
this point that the bioluminescent energy fields photographed by the Kirlian process are the astral bodies of occult
tradition, and that the existence of an astral body implies the existence of an astral state. If this complex of energies
is in fact the astral body, one would expect to be able to photograph a projecting yogi or magician and not see the
field. However, the emanations cease upon the physical death of an organism, and only then. Likewise, since the
astral plane is said to be on a higher vibratory level than the physical, if the photographs are of the astral doubles of
physical organisms, we would expect to see occasional intrusions of physically-discarnate astral entities or objects
into the photographs - which does not occur.]
What exactly is astral projection? In a certain philosophical sense it is a flagrant violation of the laws of the
physical universe/God. In the normal, “physical” plane one receives sensory input which triggers one’s mental and
physical conditioned-response mechanisms, leading to creation of mental images and to physical actions as
reactions to external stimuli.
Astral projection is a total inversion of this process, enabling the magician to create and control private universe
of his own design. It is the next step upward in sophistication and complexity from the concentration exercises
described by Priest Holt in “The Yoga From Yuggoth”. There is little difference in kind between this sort of
projection and imagination; the distinction is a crucial one of degree. A conventional daydream is an example of
what is meant by imagination in this context; it is far too crude in detail, aimless in purpose,lacking in directed will
to qualify as projection.
Mental projection requires an effort of the will sufficient to enable the magician to literally forget the existence
of the physical body and environment. One creates from within instead of reacting to stimuli from without. Once
one is able to reach this state, it makes no difference “where” the physical body is, since one’s sphere of attention can
be projected to the other end of the universe. Mastery of astral technique is obviously difficult to acquire, but it has a
tremendous advantage in that it can be used under almost any physical conditions, with or without the facilities of a
ritual chamber or a library of reference materials. Indeed one can create one’s own astral Temple, as lavishly
appointed as can be desired, complete with Daimonic servitors and familiars, and retire into it for the performance
of one’s rituals.
Astral technique is a key to the control of time. Conventional concepts of linear time do not apply in mental
projection, just as a tremendously complex dream may take place in only a minu
te or two. Far from being a fixed
law, time can be accelerated or decelerated by the magician. The implications of this alone make projection a
technique of incalculable value.
An excellent example of astral creation is Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. While he uses the
term “dream” rather than astral projection, the result is the same. A more recent example is Priest Holt’s “A
Fantasy” in Voice of the Dragon #II-2. Personal experimentation is strongly recommended, for it will be found that
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frequent exercise of this technique will have an abnormally-strengthening effect upon the ability of the mind to
create - not only on the astral plane, but on the physical as well.
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A28: Film Review: Star Wars
- by Alexandra Sarris II°
Scroll of Set #II-11, July 1977
Coming to your local theater sometime in the near future will be the space epic Star Wars, the newest and most
spectacular science fiction movie to come down the pike since 2001. Time and Newsweek have hailed Star Wars as
“this year’s best movie”, “spectacular”, whose special effects “outdo 2001”. Well, they’re absolutely right. Don’t miss
this movie. The special effects alone [costing $9.5 million] will boggle your mind; the battle scenes and the
spacecraft are absolutely spectacular; and when the hero’s ship jumps into hyperspace, the audience cheers [not the
maneuver - the special effect]. The miniatures are outstanding, and they’re all from the studio that brought you
2001 - Elstree.
The story is pure space opera. The evil Empire and its minion Darth Vader try to crush the rebel forces with the
ultimate weapon, a planet destroyer called the Death Star (a spherical, inhabited doomsday machine). The dewy-
eyed young hero, Luke Skywalker, his friend smuggler Han Solo, Solo’s copilot Chewbacca (an eight-foot high
walking rug), the brave and brainy Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, the last Jedi Knight, combine to
destroy the Death Star. You hiss the villains, cheer the heroes, and applaud when the Death Star explodes.
But the battle is not won by the spectacular pyrotechnics of the rebel firepower, but rather by Luke’s reliance on
the “Force”. The Jedi Knights, an organization that had kept peace in the galaxy for thousands of years, tapped into