Second file from "Satan Wants You", by Arthur Lyons ------------------------------------------------------------- The most vociferous split from the Church of Satan was the Temple of Set. Led by Dr. Michael A. Aquino and his wife, Lilith Sinclair, its headquarters was in San Francisco. Aquino first encountered LaVey in 1968, when he attended one of LaVey's lectures. Then a lieutenant in Army Intelligence, specializing in psychological warfare, Aquino found himself immediately drawn to the Machiavellian orientation of Satanic philosophy. Soon after that first visit, both he and his first wife joined the Church of Satan. In 1970, after returning from a stint in Vietnam, Aquino was ordained into the Satanic priesthood and organized a grotto in Kentucky, where he was stationed. He gave lectures on Satanism at the University of Louisville and eventually built up a small group of a dozen or so members who attended rituals at the Aquino house.... It was while in Kentucky, fundamentalist territory, that Aquino saw his true mission and that of the Church of Satan: to destroy the influence of conventional religion in human affairs. I understand that to mean not so much that we want everyone to be converted to Satanism as an *institutional religion*, but that we want to unravel the web of fear and superstition that has perpetuated all formal beliefs. Satanism should not be just another religion, it should be an unreligion. {NOTE: Correspondence with the author, 1971.} ... [in the formation of the Temple of Set] ... Administrative decisions, including the advancement of initiates to a higher degree, issued from an inner committee of leaders called the Council of Nine, a name taken from the original officiating body of the Church of Satan. All of the initial members of Aquino's Council of Nine, in fact, were ex-priests of the Church of Satan. But while much of the structure of the Temple of Set was taken from LaVey's "The Satanic Bible", the temple teachings differed from those of the Church of Satan in several ways, most important of which was the acceptance of Set, or Satan, as a literal reality. Another main difference between the two groups was that whereas the Church of Satan exalts "egotism without tears" as the cornerstone of its philosophy, the main goal of Setians is the expansion of consciousness, through a process known as "Xeper" (pronounced keffer). Xeper, which means "becoming," is the process through which an initiate strives to evolve into a "higher man" in quest of objective and subjective knowledge. Setians believe that human intelligence was not an accident of evolution but a Promethean gift from Set, who bestowed it to enable man to manipulate nature and become a godlike being. However, to do this, man must first shake off that "sleeping state" which is his normal functioning condition, and acheive "self-consciousness," as outlined by P.D. Ouspensky in "The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution". After that he may move on to a state of "objective consciousness," in which he will be able to control all states of consciousness, know the truth about the universe, and become an immortal superbeing. This state may be achieved by dedicating oneself to reading, absorbing knowledge, and practicing rituals. Although pylon meetings are usually held once a month, the emphasis in the Temple of Set is on individual, not group, rituals. Setian rituals are geared to concentrate the will of the practitioner in order to "break down the objective and subjective worlds" and reveal the reality behind the material veil. All initiates are required to adopt a "magical name" which they fel corresponds to their "true nature." During rituals, which may vary in purpose and content, he or she strives to become this other *persona*, or *ka*, a concept taken from Egyptian theology. Once the identification is achieved, the *ka*, or magical "double," is dispatched to the astral plane to execute the Setian's will, whatever that may be. Rituals are held in a black room in front of an altar above which is a silver pentagram [point-down]. On the altar are a goblet, a bell, a central flame source, and magical paraphernalia. Setians forego naked human altars, and the ceremonial robes of the magician, while preferably black, may be of any color. He or she begins by ringing the bell nine times while turning counterclockwise. The flame is then lit, thus "opening the Gate" of communication between the magician and the Powers of Darkness. The invocation to Set is then read: In the name of Set, the Prince of Darkness, I enter into the Realm of Creation to work my Will upon the universe.... The celebrant then picks up the goblet or grail, which symbolizes truth and contains any beverage (*except* blood), and drinks. Following this, the magician performs the appropriate ritual for the occasion. The content is left pretty much up to the celebrant, including whatever deity he wishes to invoke. After the ritual, he or she closes the ceremony, reversing the opening procedure. As the Workings are supposedly magical in nature and not for the purposes of worship, the emotional response is more important than the procedure one uses summoning it. "Gods exist as they are evoked to meaningful existence by the individual psyche. {NOTE: Ibid, p. 31.} ...The only thing that is strictly prohibited by Aquino during the performance of any ritual -- following the lead of LaVey, not Crowley -- is the injury or sacrifice of any life-form. Aside from its initial renegade Church of Satan converts, Temple of Set membership has been recruited primarily through ads in the San Francisco Yellow Pages and computer bulletin boards. Initiates must be eighteen or older, and applications must be approved by the Council of Nine. Once accepted, a fifty-dollar fee (twenty-five- dollar annual renewal) will put the applicant in touch with other members. They are then sent a comprehensive reading list and a bimonthly copy of *The Scroll of Set*, the temple newsletter. Many Setians claim to have had an interest in the occult before finding their way to the temple, and quite a few are former "white lighter," or wicca, devotees. Most come from a Christian background, and while some may have joined as a reaction against their upbringing, the sentiments and philosophy of the temple, while being unChristian, do not appear to be virulently *anti*- Christian.... There are members of all ages, although the average racial and economic prfile is firmly Caucasian, white-collar, and middle- class. Considering Aquino's intellectual emphasis and his extensive required reading lists, it is not surprising that the educational level of the cult is fairly high. Typical occupations include college student, teacher, accountant, computer programmer, secretary. Yet, according to Gini Graham Scott, who studied the cult in the early 1980s, outside occupational status doesn't count for much within the group. This, she notes, is because the members consider their mundane jobs a hindrance to their magical development, and because they often feel that the jobs they have are boring, unsatisfying, and economically unrewarding. The group's emphasis on magical over worldly power, she found, enabled members to feel they were powerful beings, despite experiences outside the group which belied that. Over and over again at meetings... I heard {Setians} describe their everyday frustrations, which led them to want power -- such as problems with jobs and relationships. Then, once they joined the group, they often used the practices they learned to counter these problems or vent their frustrations and anger. These practices in turn provided them with a socially channeled form to express these feelings. {NOTE: Scott, Gini Graham, "The Magicians", Oakland: Creative Communications, 1984, p. 182.} ... by 1981 Aquino and his flock had begun to be plagued by the same problems that disrupted the Church of Satan. The same elitism that had attracted initiates in hte first place led to frequent ego clashes as members competed for godlike status, resulting in increased dropouts and purges by the leadership. In 1985, a female member, Lynn Johnson (later Butch), financee of William T. Butch, Aquino's brother-in-law and one of the Temple's higher-ups, left the group after becoming disenchanted with what she perceived to be the cult's authoritarian, anti-feminine bias, as well as its increasing emphasis on Nazi occultism. (Aquino had long been fascinated by Nazy mysticism and Hitler's political theories of crowd control). In 1986, she and William Butch incorporated the Temple of Nepthys as a non-profit church, and set up headquarters in Mill Valley, near San Francisco. The group's philosophical tenets are simlar to those of the Temple of Set, with a feminist accent (Nepthys is the female counterpart of Set). Members study the "Red Arts" (as opposed to the black or white), which Lynn Butch claims to be a more individualistic method by which "the psychecentric consciousness can evolve towards its own divinity." From nine founding members, the Temple of Nepthys soon grew to 23 full-time and 65 corresponding members. Membership is overwhelmingly female, with an average age between 18 and 34. By 1988, however, the group was experiencing financial difficulties as the $25 membership fees fail to cover expenses. Although the Temple of Nepthys has sought to form a loose affiliation with the Church of Satan, its future seems shaky.... The newest church to emerge on the Satanic scene, not surprisingly, also owes its inspiration to Anton LaVey. Founded on January 8, 1986, in New Haven, Connecticut, by Paul Douglas Valentine, a thirty-one-year-old English teacher, the Church of Satanic Liberation claims over one thousand dues-paying members worldwide. Most are recruited through magazine ads and through the Magickal Childe occult shop in New York City. According to Valentine, the majority of the membership is female and well educated, many from upper-middle-class to upper-class backgrounds. The New Haven headquarters is the only chapter where rituals are held, but Valentine intends to expand the operations soon to accommodate the widespread membership.... Before starting the Church of Satanic Liberation, Valentine, who holds a B.S. in primate paleontology as well as an M.A. in English, was involved in the occult for fifteen years, primarily in various aspects of wicca. His epiphany came when he picked up a copy of "The Satanic Bible" and realized Satanism is a viable religion quite unlike what the movies and the Christers made it out to be. {NOTE: Correspondence with the author.} Although he adopted both LaVey's Satanic calendar and his trademarked Baphomet as the new church's symbol and freely borrows from "The Satanic Bible" and "The Satanic Rituals" (both in his ceremonies and his irregular newsletter, *The Devil's Advocate*), Valentine sees his organization as taking up where LaVey's Church of Satan seems to be slacking off -- educating those people of like mind who realize there is something better, something more honest, than what the major religions are offering. Another distinction he perceives between the two organizations is his belief in the importance of traditional Satanic pageantry and blasphemy as part of ritual, although much of the content of his rituals nonetheless seems to come directly from the LaVey *Rituals*. However, one way of [sic] Valentine's group does seem to differ markedly from LaVey's is in the emphasis on sex and its incorporation into magical ritual. Valentine, in fact, goes so far as to dub himself the "Roman Polanski of the Satanic world" and freely admits that he cares little for the age of the women he uses in his sexual rituals, "as long as they coincide with any individual state's 'age of consent.'" "Satan Wants You", by Arthur Lyons, Mysterious Press, 1988; pp. 125-33. ____________________________________________________________________ ___ EOF