Temple Of Set
Post Office Box 470307
San Francisco, CA 94147
U.S.A.
MCI-Mail: 314-3953
Internet: 3143953@mcimail.com
Telex: 6503143953
Documents:
- General Information and Admissions Policies
- The Crystal Table of Set
- The Law of One
- Set in Egyption Theology
GENERAL INFORMATION & ADMISSIONS POLICIES
(c) 1986-1994CE Temple of Set
- Updated May 24, 1994 CE -
The Temple of Set is an institution unlike any you have previously encountered. Before you can make an informed decision concerning possible affiliation, it is necessary for you to consider the history of the Temple, its basic tenets, its current design and programs, and the benefits and obligations incurred by each Setian.
HISTORY OF THE TEMPLE
While the Temple of Set as an organization was formally incorporated in 1975 CE, its magical and philosophical roots are prehistoric, originating in mankind's first apprehension that there is "something different" about the human race - a sense of *self-consciousness* that places humanity apart from and above all other known forms of life.
Ancient religions - of which those of Egypt are generally acknowledged the eldest - either exalted or feared this self- consciousness. Those which exalted it took the position that the human psyche is capable of opposition to and domination of the forces of nature. Those fearing it warned man that such a presumption of independence would be sinful and dangerous. Therefore, they said, such "will to power" should be concealed, sublimated - and if necessary punished and exterminated - that mankind might return to an Eden-like "state of nature" untroubled by the burdens of having to take responsibility for decisions, judgments, and actions based upon an essentially personal determination of "good" and "evil".
The psyche-worshipping religions were more intellectually demanding than their nature-worshipping counterparts, since it is more difficult to reason a path through one's span of conscious existence than it is to be swept along by a current of semi-rational stimulus and response. The reasoning religions - or schools of initiatory philosophy - attained levels of abstract knowledge that made them mysterious to the masses. In a few societies, such as Egypt and Greece, such groups were respected and admired. More often, however, their exclusive elitism and "supernatural" activities made them objects of resentment and persecution.
While all philosophical schools embraced the psychecentric consciousness to some degree, there were a very few that made it avowedly and explicitly the focus of their attention. The divine personifications ("gods") of such schools have come down to us as symbols of what most Western religions, worshippers of non- consciousness, consider the supreme "evil": the Prince of Darkness in his many forms. Of these the most ancient is Set, whose Priesthood can be traced to predynastic times. Images of Set have been dated to ca. 3200 BCE, with astronomically-based estimates of inscriptions dating to ca. 5000 BCE.
The original Priesthood of Set in ancient Egypt survived for twenty- five recorded dynasties (ca. 3200-700 BCE). It was one of the two central priesthoods in predynastic times, the other being that of HarWer ("Horus the Elder"). Unification of Egypt under both philosophical systems resulted in the nation's being known as the "Two Kingdoms" and in its Pharaohs wearing the famous "Double Crown" of Horus and Set.
Originally a circumpolar/stellar deity portrayed as a cyclical counterpart to the Solar Horus, Set was later recast as an evil principle by the cults of Osiris and Isis. During the XIX and XX Dynasties Set returned as the Pharaonic patron, but by the XXV Dynasty (ca. 700 BCE) a new wave of Osirian persecution led to the final destruction of the original Priesthood of Set. When the Hebrews emigrated from Egypt during the XIX Dynasty, however, they took with them a caricature of Set: "Satan" (from the hieroglyphic _Set-hen_, one of the god's formal titles).
Originally a sort of "prosecuting angel for YHVH", the Hebrew Satan was changed by Christianity into a personification of everything God was not - and since God was supposed to be "good", Satan was necessarily "bad". Alluring or mysterious deities from religions competing with early Christianity - such as the Hellenic/Roman Mysteries and the Persian Mithraic faith - were also "bad", hence the Christian Satan was decorated with many of their characteristics, such as Pan's horns & cloven hoofs. Non-Christian gods generally were redefined as Christian "demons" and given a place in the Christian "Hell" (another name stolen and perverted from ancient Norse mythology).
Christian propaganda notwithstanding, there is no record of any actual "Satanic religious underground" throughout the course of Christian European history. The *myth* of such a "witch cult", however, was promoted and actively used by the Christian churches to terrorize their followers into docile obedience and to eliminate those who could not be threatened. The number of accused "Satanists" tortured and burned to death in medieval and Renaissance Europe will never be known conclusively, but estimates run as high as 13 million. Many European museums still display the grisly, almost unbelievably cruel devices used in such torture, and detailed records of the "trials" and "confessions" of the victims survive in shameful abundance.
Cases of torture, murder, and genocidal extermination of "infidels" and "heathens" in other areas of the world similarly abound - and stand collectively in testimony to the appalling legacy of the world's major monotheistic religions. It must further be remembered that the more "tolerant" climate of modern times did not come about through the wishes of conventional churches themselves, but rather through their increasing rejection by a mankind exhausted by religious warfare and terrified by the wanton viciousness of such establishments as the "Holy Office" (better known as the Inquisition).
If the "Enlightenment" of the 17th and 18th centuries succeeded in reducing Christianity - the dominant monotheism of Europe - to a secular moral metaphor, it was not until the late 19th century that the so-called "Black Arts" began to be tolerated, and then only in their most simplistic and socially innocuous forms. From Freemasonry came a ceremonial magical offshoot - Rosicrucianism - which became increasingly more sophisticated in the Rosicrucian Society of England (S.R.I.A.) and then in the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (G.'.D.'.).
In 1904 an Adept of the G.'.D.'. named Aleister Crowley broke away from that disintegrating body to form his own Order of the Astrum Argenteum (A.'.A.'.). To the Rosicrucian/ceremonial magical philosophy of the G.'.D.'., Crowley added first a strong emphasis on attainment of the highest level of self-consciousness ("Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel") and later the Masonic/sexual magic practices of Germany's Order of Oriental Templars (O.T.O.). The latter practices, together with Crowley's cavalier lifestyle, brought him public notoriety. His organizations survived his 1947 death only in highly-fragmented and doctrinarily simplistic factions.
In 1966 a San Francisco sorcerer named Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan as a medium for the study of the Black Arts and as an ethical statement repudiating the religious hypocrisy of conventional society. This event marks the creation of Satanism as a religion in its own right. Publicly its "Satan" was not the evil scarecrow of Christian myth, but rather a champion of anti-hypocrisy - a crusader against the corruption and moral bankruptcy of society, which LaVey blamed largely upon Christianity. In another, more private context, the Satan of the Church of Satan was understood to be an authentic metaphysical presence: a being not evil, but rather independent, assertive, and creative - a true Prince of Darkness after the imagery of Milton, Blake, Baudelaire, and Twain.
The Church remained principally a San Francisco phenomenon for its first four years, then during 1970-1974 branched out across the United States and Canada with local "Grottos" headed by those ordained to the Satanic Priesthood (the Priesthood of Mendes - named after a city in Ptolemaic Egypt whose hedonistic festivals particularly horrified the early Christian church).
The Church of Satan's attitude towards magic was more pragmatic and utilitarian than that of such mystically-based organizations as the G.'.D.'. and A.'.A.'. It saw no need for exhaustive studies into the often incoherent and inconsistent concepts of the Cabala, nor did it see anything extraordinarily significant in sex-magic. Rather it chose to approach the occult arts and sciences more rationally and even scientifically, employing "Occam's razor" to design and conduct Workings of ritual magic that were simple and direct, yet effective.
In this the Church was generally successful, but it continued to experience increasing difficulty with the basic nihilism and negative connotations of its religious imagery. It could not escape the self-assumed limitation of being "anti-Christian" in a society in which Christianity - and its "evil scarecrow" concept of Satan - were overwhelmingly predominant. Simultaneously the Church began to feel constrained by even its own redefinition of Satanism, as the parameters of philosophy and metaphysics extend far beyond the conceptual and symbolic limits of the Judaic/Christian tradition.
The Satanic religion proposes to raise the individual to personal godhood, free from enslavement to any other "God" [or gods]. Unfortunately this is a question not just of power, but also of ethics, morality, and psychological maturity. The Church of Satan's initial prescriptions - as outlined in LaVey's 1969 book _The Satanic Bible_ - were used by some as a basis for metaphysical growth, but by others as merely an excuse for egoistic irresponsibility. The Church suffered periodically from petty crises and scandals among the general membership, and finally Anton LaVey lost confidence in its organizational viability. In 1975 he made a decision to redesign it as a non-functional vehicle for his personal expression, exploitation, and financial income.
This decision was emphatically rejected by the majority of the Priesthood, who immediately resigned from the Church in protest and denied its legitimacy as a true Church of Satan henceforth. The senior Initiate, Michael A. Aquino, invoked the Prince of Darkness in quest of a new Mandate to preserve and enhance the more noble concepts which the Church of Satan had conceived and outlined. That Mandate was given in the form of _The Book of Coming Forth by Night_ - a statement by that entity, in his most ancient semblance as Set, ordaining the Temple of Set to succeed the Church. The Temple was incorporated in California as a non-profit church in 1975, receiving both state and federal recognition and tax-exemption later that same year. It has since remained the sole "Satanic" religious institution possessing these legal credentials.