In addition to the concept of Aeons, Dr. Aquino would also bring his new vision to the Degree of Magus. This would transform the concept with greater clarity and allow it to be used as a tool for greater understanding and innovation.
Crowley had felt that each Aeon only had one true Magus: the one who Uttered it into Being. Others could, in theory, become something “Magus-like” provided they were willing to subordinate themselves to the true Magus. Dr. Aquino would elevate the dignity of this notion without the sense of subordination. While it might be true that each Aeon would only have one Utterer who called the Aeon into interaction with Time, other Magi would, and should, develop within an Aeon. Their Words that shift the balance of Understanding within the Aeon and enhance the application of the Aeon’s Primary Word. His term for this would be an “Aeon Enhancing” Magus.
Reflecting the seriousness of the Magus V° within the Temple of Set’s structure, Dr. Aquino would create a system of Recognition that requires the High Priest or High Priestess of Set* to evaluate if the proposed individual as pushed beyond the Temple’s present Understanding in a manner which could enhance Xeper. For the High Priest’s or Priestess’ Recognition to be valid, it requires the confirmation of the entire Council of Nine, the Temple of Set’s board of directors made up of its senior Initaites, to affirm it so. This is the only unanimous vote required by the Temple’s By-Laws and, thus, the most difficult, reflecting the seriousness by which the V° is held.
Dr. Aquino would embrace the total synthesis of ideas I have been discussing with a tremendous force of clarity. The Prince of Darkness was, in fact, the “God of Magicians,” as some had claimed, but he was not the simple malevolent character of the Christian Satan. Instead, the Prince was a figure who philosophically could be seen as the Platonic First Form of Isolate Intelligence, a consciousness that arises distinct from all else in its uniqueness. From this First Form, each individual was shaped by and resonant with it and could become more resonant by its own development. In the mythological image of Set, the Egyptian God of expanding barriers and overcoming delusion, it would be primarily explored as the Temple’s Patron. This philosophical identification of Isolate Intelligence would also open the door for all other human apprehensions of this Principle, whether mythological or fictional, to be studied and explored as models of Xeper.
The misrepresentations of the Messianic Kabbalah of the 19th Century occult world were dismissed as essentially a collection of overstuffed and distracting images. However, the Enochian material of John Dee would be retained in the new Setian vision. This material would be restored to the initially transmitted orthography that Dee and Kelly had received rather than The Golden Dawn’s speculative Elemental and Kabbalistic re-interpretations. The English translations of the Enochian were subject to an Initiatory re-evaluation, leading to the 19 Parts of the Word of Set. The Word of Set would outline the emergence of life on Earth, of early human consciousness, of a flourishing of that consciousness in interaction with the Prince of Darkness, and the eventual enhanced remanifestation of this interaction under the guise of Four Orderings. Here it was not an Apocalypse that the Keys foretold but a time when a newly emerging human consciousness would come into being, seeming as distant to present man as present man’s condition would seem distant to Australopithecus.
In an act of Play, Dr. Aquino integrates the Apocalypse of John of Patmos by accepting Crowley’s identification with the Beast of the Sea by taking on the title of the Second Beast, the Beast from the Earth. This Second Beast of “two horns” would heal the crippling wounds of the First Beast and begin the Reign of the Dragon. Thus there was an Initiatory succession from the Work of the Aeon of Horus. Still, this feature was secondary to the greater Work of the Aeon of Set.
Most importantly, Dr. Aquino, reflected in Xeper, would make the individual’s transformations central to the Aeon of Set. He saw no need to announce the Aeon from every hilltop or to amass followers. Aside from the minimal information about what it was and how to contact it, there is little in the way of advertisement for the Temple of Set. It would not be by media solicitation that the Temple would become known but by the tales of individual transformations of those it had helped develop. In this manner, the Temple of Set would act as a beacon to those most dedicated to their development from all walks of life and stations in culture for the mutual benefit of their development.
By the Work and Word of the Magus Ra-En-Set, it has become possible for Setians to integrate and enhance all that had come before in the ways of human development. No culture was considered out of bounds, nor were they limited to purely “occult” topics to find the tools they needed for the Xeper. The emergence of the Aeon of Set was seen as a kind of transformative “reset” of the human condition, making all that humanity was and had been subject to the need for a new evaluation to find those tools, ideas, and methods that would allow for a reshaping of the future.
In terms of the general orientation of Setian thought it would be a break from much of the occult past, including its own. While Aleister Crowley has created a largely confrontational atmosphere around his Work, and Anton LaVey had taken a relatively cynical and pessimistic view of humanity as he aged, Dr. Aquino would bring to Setian thought a remarkable exuberance, an electrifying optimism, and a promise of wonders and marvels to be enjoyed by all who dared to pursue Xeper.
*Only one person holds the High Priesthood of the Temple of Set at a time. This role is not “for life” but rather for the period it is productive to the individual engaged in the Work of the High Priesthood and to the Temple of Set. The High Priesthood is not based upon gender, though the gendered title will be used as appropriate. At the time of this writing, six individuals have acted in this capacity, four masculine-identified and two feminine-identified.
Setemheb 