['The Book' is the text that forms the basis of The Temple of Set, both philosophical point of view, and the Occult. From it, the Temple claims a mandate and thus a "Satanic" authority.]
The text gives several clues from which its Occult significance can be deduced. First, it purports to be a communication from a supra-personal being (Set); second, its style and content; third, the ‘entity’ confers upon the scribe the magickal Grade of “Magus”; fourth, the ‘entity’ confers (or seems to confer) upon this “Magus” an authority – to ‘reconsecrate my Temple..’; fifth, various ‘aeons’ are mentioned.
The information contained in the text about aeons’is very interesting – it states that an aeon was begun in 1904 (eh) by Crowley, and that this aeon ended in 1966 [a period of some 62 years]. It also announces another new aeon with the announcement of Aquino as ‘magus’. This information is interesting, from an Initiated Satanic viewpoint, because it reveals a total lack of Initiated insight – instead, it seems to continue with the obfuscations of the like of ‘The Golden Dawn’ regarding “aeons”, something continued by Crowley with his description of the ‘magus’ (a description which seems to have been used by the ‘entity’ in the text).
The reality is that an aeon is a causal manifestation of acausal energy – an intrusion, into the ‘everyday’ world, of the creative, evolutionary force which has been described as ‘Satan’. Such manifestations occur about every two millennia – and give rise to higher or aeonic civilizations, which civilizations give form to the acausal energies. That is, such a civilization is means whereby evolutionary changes occur. These civilizations are organic – they grow, and then they wane and die. This takes a period of causal time – generally, one and a half millennia. At any one time, there is only one aeonic civilization – and of course only one aeon. An aeon means the presencing of acaual energies over a certain period of time in the form of a civilization: and each aeon is a ‘new’ manifestation of the acausal: i.e. it is apprehended, magickally, through new forms, symbols, words and so on. A genuine Magus does indeed re-present an Aeon.
Expressed simply, an aeon cannot last for a mere 62 years. A new aeon means a new civilization, in the real world: a new ordering of societies a new ethos within those societies. It means a process of organic growth over many centuries. It means the changing of individuals – a more conscious awareness – over centuries. Anything less than this is not, magickally, an aeon.
Thus, either the word ‘aeon’ is used, in the text, in the wrong sense – or the text itself reveals a lack of genuine magickal understanding.
° The text itself, in both its style and its content, is reminiscent of a working done by a Satanic Initiate following the seven-fold way – i.e. a working with one of the pathways that link the spheres of the Tree of Wyrd when various ‘entities’ are invoked. [An example of one such working has been published, in 1974 eh - 'The Message of the One of Thoth']. Such workings are generally understood to be learning experiences – when the Satanic novice is exploring, via archetypal symbolism and archetypal forms, their own psyche. Most magickians, of whatever path or tradition, produce such ‘communications’ in their learning years. Those who are insightful, learn from these – and then the novice moves on: the workings are seen as merely explorations of the unconscious. Those who are not insightful, dwell upon such workings – they fail to objectify them, they fail to integrate them via a conscious understanding of what they really are: merely workings with various archetypal symbols. [A classic case is John Dee.] Those who fail to integrate them, usually see such workings as ‘pronouncements’ by some supra-personal being or entity: that is, they are seen as actual and important revelations of some ‘deity’. Accordingly, a lot of time is spent ‘understanding’ what the often cryptic ‘communication(s)’ means, and in writing “commentaries” upon them.
Thus, either the text is an example of one such working by someone not yet achieved real Adeptship, or it is an actual “communication” from an entity.
° The ‘entity’ confers upon the scribe the title of ‘magus’ and instructs the scribe to re-consecrate the Temple, and so on. In the real world, the magickal Grades are understood as personal achievements, and represent the gaining of knowledge, experience, insight and skills by the individual magickian – a learning of wisdom by the overcoming of adversities; a transformation of the personality via both magickal and real-life achievements.
As such, the Grades apart from the first (i.e. Initiation) – are never awarded or conferred by others. They are only and always achieved, by each individual: by that individual attaining the level of personal development – each Grade re-presents. The aim of a genuine Occult path is the liberation of the individual – to progress to a higher stage of personal evolution: to go beyond the inertia of the herd. That is, the individual works at their development, perhaps aided and guided by others who have gone that way before. In a sense, genuine Occult paths are means whereby evolutionary advance can be consciously achieved: they represent the knowledge and insights of the current and previous Aeons. What is evolutionary is individuality – the coming into existence of unique individuals who can reason, who can judge, who can act, who possess insight. What is de-evolutionary (or just a stasis) is conformity – allowing others to do the reasoning, the judging, to inform one what `insight’ (and such like) are: i.e. to accept the solutions of others, the answers of others, rather than work these out for oneself.
In a real sense, the magickal Grades represent the stages of an individual’s coming into being: of them appropriating more and more of the acausal (or ‘expanding their consciousness more and more into the acausal’ in a rather inexact way). This cannot be done for them – at any stage. Thus, for anyone, or ‘anything’ to confer upon anyone else a particular magickal Grade, is a sign that those so conferring and so accepting, do not fundamentally understand what the Grades represent – in effect, they lack an understanding of what genuine Occultism is all about. Those so accepting, allow someone else to judge and decide for them; those who confer, maintain the illusions of those upon whom they confer Grades.
This is so even (or rather, particularly so) in the case of a Magus – that Grade is achieved by an individual as a result of that individual going further along the Occult path chosen than anyone else: achieving more, appropriating to themselves more of the acausal (or ‘the sinister’ if one prefers). At this stage, this means opening/creating a nexion to bring forth into the causal world, acausal energies: i.e. channeling aeonic energies and presencing them. This of course requires an understanding of aeons, and how aeonic energies are or can be presenced in the causal, via civilizations, ethos, wyrd and so on. This is manifestly not the case for the scribe of the text under consideration.
For this person accepts the conferring of the Grade by what is alleged to be ‘Set’ and accepts that being a ‘magus’ means manifesting, via a mandate, the ‘will’ of this entity, via a ‘word’ (and a ‘consecrated Temple’ and thus Priesthood).
° The mention of Crowley and his ‘law’ is interesting in that it shows that there is no real insight into the forces which have and do shape the present Aeon. Crowley’s ‘Law’ and `magick’ were manifestations of that distortion of the aeonic energies which has affected the Western aeon – one aspect of which is the Nazarene religion. Other aspects are the ‘qabala’, the ‘demonology’ of the Grimoires, the glorification of the ego at the expense of insight, and a lack of genuine reasoning.
The work of Crowley continued the distortion – it was not a cure for it. Crowley’s understanding of real magick was minimal – and he possessed no insight into either aeons or aeonic energies. In fact, his life and work show that he never achieved real Adeptshlp, let alone Mastery.
If the ‘entity’ from which the scribe received the text was as that scribe described him – the Prince of Darkness – then one might expect an understanding of aeons and Crowley’s essential irrelevance. Instead, there are some rather pseudo-mystical, pseudo-philosophical statements regarding the “Aeon of HarWer” and “Opposite Self”: i.e. a clear, concise, rational account is not given. What is given, requires ‘interpretation’.
A consideration of the text reveals it as in essence a working done by someone who has absorbed what has hitherto been accepted as the ‘Western’ tradition of Occultism – as exemplfied by John Dee, the Golden Dawn, Crowley et al – where communication with extra-terrestrial/supra-personal entities is accepted, and where such communications tend to be accepted as mandates, authorizing those who receive them to found Temples/Lodges/inaugurate an ‘aeon’ and so on. This `tradition’ – which is actually a part of the distortion exemplified by revelatory religions like that of the Nazarene – accepts such revelations and the individuals receiving them. The scribes of such communications treat them with respect – often as ’sacred’, and interpret them via numerous commentaries for the benefit of the initiated and un-initiated alike. This tradition thus fosters a certain mentality – the religious attitude, where revelation, mandates and ‘interpretations’ are seen as not only of great value but also as more important than real understanding and rational knowledge; where the notion of exclusivity, of ‘electness’ is preserved. There is acceptance of a ‘mandate’ which gives authority – and members are expected to be obedient to that authority, which reserves for itself the right to decide who is acceptable, and what ethic/doctrines/views are acceptable/’right’.
The whole text reveals this religious attitude and approach. Internal revelations are considered more important than the insight and judgment born via practical experience. It is indicative of the pseudo-intellectual approach which has so come to dominate present day societies thanks to the distortion of the aeonic energies – individual character has less importance than assumed, pretentious ‘knowledge’. A mass of useless ‘esoteric’ and non-esoteric (historical, philosophical and so on) knowledge is valued more highly than deeds, than learning via practical experience. This is evident in the “Commentary” on the text. In short – the text and the forms erected around it (the Temple etc.) appeal to a certain type of individual: those who need the comforts of old aeon values where there is affectation and delusion of attainment via the amassing of meaningless ‘facts’ and where those ordeals and experiences which can really change and provide self-insight are shied away from; where the individual delegates to someone else the task of providing answers and judgments.
One final consideration – from an entity described as the Prince of Darkness, there is no consideration given in the text to what actually is evil, sinister. Once again, there are only pseudo-mystical, pseudo-philosophical ramblings of the kind familiar from Blavatsky and other charlatans. One would have thought the ‘Prince of Darkness’ could have provided a clear, precise, concise, unambiguous statement which made sense to both a Doctor of Philosophy (if for the moment one assumes a Doctor of Philosophy would know sense if it hit him on the head) and a non-academic, but literate, person.
In summary, the text makes sense as, and is a good example of, a working done by someone striving to achieve Adeptship – to integrate within themselves archetypal opposites. If it is not this, then it can only be a conscious creation by an individual to enhance the image of that individual for the purpose of manipulating others, and possibly thereby achieving some sinister goals.
If the scribe of such a text believed it to be a genuine communication from a supra-personal entity, then that scribe had obviously not attained genuine Adeptship*. If the scribe believed that such a communication was however from his own ‘higher self’ or something of that nature [i.e. he did not posit it as originating in another, discarnate, entity] then that scribe had obviously not attained Adeptship and the understanding which goes with it – as is evident from the content of the text. If the scribe consciously constructed the text to use it as a means to create and maintain a Temple and his own standing in that Temple, then that scribe might just be said to possibly be an Adept – but certainly no further along the Left Hand Path [a Master has no need of such trickery - to pretend he has some 'Mandate' from someone/some entity; or has received some kind of 'revelatory knowledge'].
In essence, the text represents – both in its content/style and in the use made of it – everything that is wrong and has been wrong with what has and does pass for ‘Occultism’, as far as initiates of genuine traditions are concerned. As a document of Satanism (or even of the Left Hand Path) it is of interest as a curiosity – an example of what Satanism and the Left Hand Path are not. Risum teneatis, amici?
ONA lO4yf
* Judged both by the belief itself and the specious content imparted by the entity: a content replete with the use of past aeonic forms (Egyptian, here) and an intent to revive them: something that has blighted the fake Occultists since Romantic times.
