The Universe

One fundamental idea within the Setian Theory of the Universe is a distinction between the objective and subjective.

In the terms laid out in Dr. Michael A. Aquino’s “Black Magic,” now a part of his Temple of Set, “The Universe” is defined as the total of all that exists. Everything that is is a part of the Universe. Within the Universe are two primary domains, the objective and the subjective. The objective domain of the Universe is the aspects of the Universe that can be treated as “Its” and can be studied via empiricism and in the manner of physics and biology. The subjective domain arises with consciousness and covers those things that individual consciousness can perceive, feel, and experience. Each consciousness, in effect, produced its own subjective or perceptual “universe” in part from its perceptions of the objective domain and in part from its invention. 

To make this more understandable, consider yourself for a moment. If someone wanted to understand your objective aspects, they could put you in an x-ray machine to see your bones or an fMRI to see what is occurring in your soft tissue. This would show them information about you as an object. However, if they wanted to know about your experiences and perceptions, they would learn roughly nothing about that from their objective tools. To learn about your experiences, they would need to communicate with you.

If you did the exercise from “Desire in Unknown Territories,” you likely have listings of your goals and challenges, or visions and challenges if you prefer, divided into physical, emotional, and intellectual. Now it is time to reiterate them, distinguishing between your exterior, objective visions and challenges and your interior, subjective visions, and challenges. Sketch out a sheet of paper with two columns and three rows. At the top of the left column, write “Subjective,” and at the top of the right column, write “Objective.” Mark the rows as Physical, Emotional, or Mental. Now transfer your previous outline onto this new format, making changes as needed so that you can see what you are dealing with via this expanded model. You might want to use different colored pens for your goals/visions, and problems/challenges, but it is up to you.

When you have done so, take a look at your worksheet. Are there any areas in which you have nothing or nothing of significance? This is very likely, as many of those who do this exercise discover. Often this is a blind stop, an area where you have avoided thinking about or taking action.

Much like the visual blind spot in your eyes, this life blind spot has likely been glossed over and filled in by your mind as something that doesn’t matter or might be necessary to others but which you are above. Do not let this stand. Reclaim this area and start considering what you want to see and what challenges exist to fulfill them. 

When working with your visions and challenges, specificity matters and sometimes needs to be approached from a different domain. If one of your Subjective Physical challenges is “I feel fat,” consider moving it to the Objective Physical and get more specific data. In this case, “Do a 20 lb. body re-composition.” It would be best if you also were specific within a given area. If your External Mental Vision is to “Fight world hunger,” get specific about the skills you have, the skills your need, and the network of people required to do that. If you do not know what those things are, then make learning those specific things your top priority in that area. 

If you have any significant difficulties in doing this exercise, feel free to ask about it. Please do if you have any significant breakthroughs and are willing to share. 

Desire in Unknown Territories

When you are in a territory without maps, it is only by your Desire that you can orient. The best orientation on the Left Hand Path comes from having a clear sense of what you are facing and what you want at the present moment. Doing so will allow you to integrate the material in this series as a meaningful guide to your overall Work. It will allow you to focus your mind in a manner that will allow you to change yourself internally and change your circumstance externally. 

The first exercise is simple. 

Step 1. 

On a blank paper, write out nine problems you are facing in your life and nine goals you have for yourself. Do not take too much time with this. Go no longer than five minutes. Keep the descriptions in sentence form, preferably three to five words that someone else would understand if they read it. 

Do not worry about getting them perfect or complete at the present moment. We will be re-working and reiterating them throughout this series, allowing you to refine and find greater nuance. 

Step 2. 

One of the more practical “short hand” models for understanding humans is Dr. Paul MacLean’s Triune Brain Theory. MacLean identified three separate structures in the Human brain via analogies to other life forms. The most primitive section, associated with the brain stem, deals with purely physical sensations and is termed the reptile brain. The middle section, which deals with emotions and is sometimes called the Limbic System, is termed the mammalian brain. Finally, the neo-cortex, which deals with logical thinking and human cognition, is termed the human brain in this model. 

As with all models, this model relies on abstraction. It highlights specifics and simplifies other factors. Taken too literally it may blind you to more recent research. That said it can be a useful approach for getting started.

The Physical, Emotional, and Logical systems are running all the time for us internally. The Physical Brain is interested in survival, physical health, and well-being. The Emotional Brain has an interest in emotional Happiness. The Logical Brain has an interest in Intellectual Satisfaction. 

In addition to this division being useful internally, it can also be applied externally. The External Physical can include material success, personal ecology, tangible assets, and the like. External Emotional take the form of Community and Relationships. The External Logical comes from collaboration and meaning-making in the realm of culture. 

Take a look over your Problems and Goals. How can these be developed if you consider them from the standpoint of the Triune Brain model? On a new sheet of paper, make three columns. Mark them as Physical, Emotional, and Logical. Then take your Challenges and Goals, placing them in the column that they were most resonant with. Again, do not worry about making perfect matches; place things where they seem most appropriate.

Congratulations, you now have your first self-generated map of your unknown territory.

Sparks

Initiation begins with the Inner Work of disconnecting and decolonizing your subjective universe from non-beneficial forces. It is a matter of taking what you have acquired by happenstance and re-designing your inner landscape as your own. It then moves towards applying your self-designed being to the transformation of your outer world. 

Some have wondered why I am simply giving this material away. What I will post under the “sparks” tag constitutes a roadmap of the hazards you face by simply being a human. I recognize that some will benefit who are not of the disposition to become Setians or for whom an Initiatory environment like the Temple would be a poor match. While I feel the best peer group that exists to pursue these ideas is the one found within the Temple of Set, one need not be a Setian to benefit from this material.

Focus on your breathing for a moment. Feel how the breath flows in through your mouth and into your lungs. Then feel the lungs contract, squeezing the air back out the pathway until you need to take another breath.

What you just did is something presently thought to be unique to humans. You focus the mind on an unconscious process to turn it into a conscious one. You temporarily turned off your default operating settings to move it in a specific direction.

In the same way that your lungs breathe without your conscious awareness or attention, much of what you consider to be your thoughts results from a similar automatic system. Your mind “thinks” because that is simply what it is designed to do, and much of its “thinking” is of little consequence. It is on autopilot without calibrated instruments or any set direction.

Your mind is among the most adaptable and plastic things known to exist. It is also the key to the highest leverage transformations possible. A simple spark in the brain can be the start of the tremendous success that impacts the world or towards cataclysmic horrors that affect millions. The default settings of the mind created by happenstance are not empowering. They tend towards a grey average, with some good in one area and some bad in others. In no sense does this happenstance situation create a proper fit between what is in the mind and what external circumstances are required to create Victory.

When we expose ourselves to new situations and engage in new behaviors, we create new connections in the brain in a process called neurogenesis. To get the most out of this series, you should not wait before putting the ideas you find into practice. You will gain more by applying an idea half understood than you ever will waiting for complete understanding before action. The feedback from the application will inform your future application and allow for better integration of ideas by giving them something to connect with in your experience. Use what seems most interesting or scariest and try new behaviors to create tangible results.

The Aeon Enhancing Magus

Suppose you are willing to take seriously my idea that the Primary Utterance of Xeper is best understood as the Utterance of the Verb-Root itself. In that case, you quickly run into a challenge. Because of its purity and infinite ways of conjugation, the Primary Utterance can be tremendously overwhelming. It stands as a unique fire within the Amethyst Realm, drawing all that was before into its light and shining forth in all directions. This is what one would expect of an Aeon Initiating Word. 

Humans aren’t good with infinities. Having unlimited options leads to paralysis from overwhelm or a reversion to previous, more limited ways simply because they are known. On an Aeonic scale, one of the functions of an Aeon Enhancing Magus is to provide a specific conjugation of the Primary Word of that Aeon, which passes its Infinite Light through a specific lens. The Aeon Enhancing Magus’ Work is more focused than that of an Aeon Initiating Magus. Still, in most cases, it is less expansive.

The Temple of Set’s model for an Aeon Enhancing Magi resonates with Crowley and Jones’s Remanifestation of the Golden Dawn System’s Degrees within the A.’.A.’. In ”One Star In Sight,” Crowley writes of the Aeon Enhancing Magus:

This does not mean that only one man can attain this Grade in any one Aeon, so far as the Order is concerned. A man can make personal progress equivalent to that of a “Word of an Aeon”; but he will identify himself with the current word, and exert his will to establish it, lest he conflict with the work of the Magus who uttered the Word of the Aeon in which He is living.

The function of an Aeon Enhancing Magus is to provide a means of modulating, focusing, and filtering Xeper’s infinite capacities. To use the linguistic metaphors we have been working with thus far, the Work of an Aeon Enhancing Magus can be seen as presenting a specific conjugation of the Primary Word of the Aeon or providing an Object for its actions. 

Orienting via Xeper

The essence of the psyche, stated Set in the Book of Coming Forth by Night, is such that its existence is neither dependent upon the material nor imprisoned in it for testing or task-fulfilling purposed. Rather the physical body provides a vehicle in which the psyche can become aware of itself and then reach out towards the limitlessness of its conscious existence.

           Dr. Michael A. Aquino, Temple of Set



Your life is not a test. Your Work is not something you are doing in the hopes of qualifying for Immortality. Your existence, and its attendant pleasures and pains, are from the vantage point of the Eternal Word of the Aeon of Set, a means by which you can become more self-aware. By making Xeper the fundamental value that frames your entire life, by casting off the mistaken notion that “This is a Test,” you are capable of diving deeply into the experience of being alive and being willing to embrace whatever must arise as a result of your full engagement with the Real.

 This orientation provides a model of existence very different from those of conventional religions and those of conventional occultism. If taken seriously, it opens up the notion, stated by Ipsissimus Webb at the 2001 CE Conclave presentation released as “The Task of the Magus,” that one is alive to learn the nature of consequence rather than trying to bring about predetermined results.

The Setian path is not one of transcendence and exclusion. You are not looking to make this alignment with your neter to avoid the Manifest Realm, to flee from life, or to find solace from an unfulfilling existence. The task is to place yourself in your proper center to more fully include and refine the Manifest Self.

Functionally this has some implications. It is far easier to set aside a healthy, fit body than one in chronic pain. Ramana Maharshi‘s pre-modern yogic practice of sitting still until the body becomes decrepit and incapable of movement does no quantifiable good for the Setian. 

Similarly, fighting and suppressing the cycles of your emotions will only lead to significant “noise” in your being. Struggling against the mind and looking to eliminate it only hampers its proper function to no useful end. Tending to your health physically, emotionally, and cognitively becomes a powerful means of ensuring you can integrate these aspects of your Self-complex. When you need to set them aside, it can be done without their making distractions and can just as quickly be returned to.

On the Egyptian Language

The Egyptian language is first dated by inscription to circa 3400 BCE. It is one of the oldest recorded languages among humans. It is classified as an Afroasiatic language (Hamito-Semitic in older sources). It shares features with related ancient languages such as Akkadian and Biblical Hebrew and contemporary languages such as Arabic, Amharic, and Hebrew. The liturgical language of Coptic Christianity, Coptic, is a direct descendent of Egyptian.

As with any language with such a long duration of use, Egyptian underwent several changes over time. When the rule changes appear to take on clear features, Egyptian linguists make distinctions within the language. For Egyptian, there are the following divisions:

  • Archaic Egyptian (Pre- to Early Dynastic Period),
  • Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom),
  • Middle Egyptian (Middle Kingdom),
  • Late Egyptian (The Third Intermediate Period),
  • Demotic (Late Period through Roman occupation)
  • Coptic (Roman time to the present)

 Like most Afroasiatic languages, Egyptian is built around “verb roots.” In most cases, verb roots comprise three consonants that can be modified by shifting vowel sounds in speaking and specialized characters in hieroglyphic writing. There is a fairly complex system for categorizing verb roots. James P. Allen’s Middle Egyptian (2010) is one of the best learning sources for those interested in a detailed discussion.

The Eternal Word of Set, Xeper, comes from the verb root xpr or hpr. [1] The verb root hpr means most essentially “to evolve, to develop, to roll out of.” The “roll out” aspect is likely to be how the verb root became connected with its hieroglyphic counterpart representing the Scarab Beetle.

This glyph was based upon the animal Scarabaeus sacer, which is indigenous to Egypt.

Like most other scarab beetles S. sacer is a coprophagic beetle that collects dung and rolls it off to be buried and used as a food source for itself and its offspring. You can find a brief video introduction to dung beetle behavior here. For those interested in diving deep into this topic Evolutionary Biology and Conservation of Dung Beetles by Clarke H. Scholtz et al. (2009) is excellent.

[1] Both the “x” and the “h” in this case signify a phoneme similar to the Scottish “-ch” in loch or the German “-ch” in Ich. Early Egyptological Linguists, such as those working in the 19th Century, tended to favor “x” while contemporary Egyptologists favor “h.”

Saturday Quotes and Resources

“It is not what you do not know that is the problem, but what you think you know that is not so.”

– Wyatt Woodsmall, PhD

“I am often concerned to see how little knowledge many aspiring Initiates have of exoteric human history. Unless you have a reasonably solid grounding in this subject, anything you derive from the Temple of Set [and most other sensory-inputs] is going to be distorted in your mind.”

– Dr. Michael A. Aquino

[If this quote applies to you, this series will get you up to speed at least at an essential level]

“Gods exist as they are evoked to meaningful existence by the individual psyche.”

– Michael A. Aquino

The Neurology of God Making

The Primary Utterance

On the North Solstice of 1975, Magister Templi Michael A. Aquino faced a crisis. Despite having long been a supporter of the decisions made by Anton LaVey related to the activities of the Church of Satan, a decision was made regarding how the Church would issue its Degrees that he could not abide by. Anton LaVey stated that he was looking towards indicators of material contribution as a mark of the Priesthood of Mendes, opening the impression that he was interested in selling the title. Magister Aquino, who had been a primary coordinator for the then-current Priesthood of Mendes, saw this as a violation of the uniquely Initiatory aspects of the Degree and resigned from the Church of Satan. The story, and the primary materials related to the decision, can be found in Dr. Aquino’s Church of Satan.

Troubled by this seeming destruction of the Church of Satan under Anton LaVey, Magister Aquino found himself at the center of attention of the now former members of the Church of Satan, who also resigned. Initial plans were made to continue their Work as Satanists in the LaVey mold, but something did not quite seem right about doing this. On the night of the North Solistic Aquino conducted a Rite of Contact with Satan. What came was a series of insights condensed into the text known as the Book of Coming Forth by Night. 

There are a variety of implications in the relatively short text of the Book of Coming Forth by Night. The text, along with an analysis and commentary from Dr. Aquino and his reflections upon the experience and his coming to grips with it, can be found in his Temple of Set. Among its messages includes the idea that Satan was a mere caricature of something older and more robust. This being accepts the title of Prince of Darkness and, more specifically to Aquino, identifies itself with Set, the Egyptian god of expanded boundaries and transformed consciousness. He states that after a period of purification began with Aleister Crowley, there were Initiates prepared for a more significant challenge during a period of great crisis. It also stated that Aquino was now Tasked as High Priest of Set and Magus of Xeper with the ren or magical name of Ra-En-Set, “He Who Speaks as Set.”

While initially working towards a deeper understanding of Xeper a few years ago, Dr. Aquino was kind enough to indulge me by scanning the original text of the Book of Coming Forth by Night. I was interested in seeing the original version of the glyph used the night of the Aeon of Set’s opening rather than the later clip art used in The Ruby Tablet of Set. I suspected that there might be something important there. The versions of Xeper in the text are hand-drawn versions of

The text received that night contains two uses of the Egyptian glyph for Xeper. The first is to mark the Year X – Xeper at the beginning of the text. The second is at the end of the text, where the Latin characters “Xeper” flank it on the left and “Become” on the right.

This is the verb root hpr itself, with its universal mutability while remaining eternal and unchanged forever. It marked the essential idea of Xeper, which can be applied in an infinite number of ways but which forever retains its purity of essence. I can think of no better metaphor for the Utterance of Ra-En-Set as the Magus of the Aeon of Set than this. As all conjugations of hpr derive ultimately from the pure verb-root itself, so too do all Words within the Aeon of Set ultimately derive from this Unnatural Fire brought from Heaven that illuminated Ra-En-Set’s mind.

In his Analysis and Commentary, Dr. Aquino provided the most essential definition of the Primary Utterance of Xeper. “Summarily the Word Xeper refers to the transformation and evolution of the Will from a human to a divine state of being — by deliberate, conscious, individual force of mind.”