[from http://www.trapezoid.org/statement.html ] [Order of the Trapezoid] MISSION STATEMENT INTRODUCTION Consecrated by the Prince of Darkness, in his image as Wotan Hollenjaegerof the One Eye, the Order of the Trapezoid is a chivalric order of knighthoodwithin the Temple of Set. Its members are adept black magicians who havesworn fealty beyond death to the spirit of their higher selves. These knightsare dedicated to the quest for the Grail by seeking the angular mysteriesof the Trapezoid, partaking of the Black Flame, and achieving a highly dynamicstate of development known as Walhalla! The Order of the Trapezoid is the most culturally diverse order in theTemple of Set. A full account of its specific areas of focus, ranging fromthe magical traditions of Northern Europe and Southern Asia, to mad labexperiments and the martial arts, would fill a dozen volumes. The sectionsthat follow give a brief outline of the Order of the Trapezoid in termsof its history, essential elements, organizational structure, and criteriafor membership. HISTORY The history of the Order of the Trapezoid is that of a formula for theemergence of an unknown entity into the world of humankind. Many attemptshave been made at this formula. Yet while the formula has yet to be fullyrealized, our Knighthood has developed it to its furthest manifestationthus far. This section will trace its development through the contributionsof Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Anton Szandor Lavey, Dr. Michael A. Aquino,and Dr. Stephen E. Flowers. Our history begins with the most ancient artifact of intelligent life,the human unconscious. It is from this primal landscape that H.P. Lovecraftfound inspiration for his fantastic tales. Otherwise conservative and staunchlymaterialistic, Lovecraft allowed his deeper fears of water, dark places,and strange animals to come alive in his writings. In this, his work wasmuch like that of many other expressionists of the time. Unlike his contemporaries, however, Lovecraft was well read in the naturalsciences. He was among the first authors to explore the new physics of Planck,Einstein, and Schroedinger, and express the human implications of theirworks in fiction. By combining depth psychology with cutting edge cosmology,Lovecraft had stumbled upon the primal dreams of another world. The worldof Lovecraft struck a deep chord among his readers, reminding people ofsomething that they would rather forget; a world so real that people havebeen searching for the "real" Necronomicon ever since. Forty years after they were written, Lovecraft's tales would inspirea creative and iconoclastic showman, a Magus who proclaimed himself the"Black Pope" and gave the late sixties and early seventies a name:Indulgence. Anton Szandor LaVey ushered the Lovecraftian mythos into theritual chambers and postmodern culture of the Church of Satan. Seeing thecorrelation between the "strange angles" of H.P.L., and the "negativearchitecture" described in Lafforrest's Houses That Kill, LaVeyformulated the aesthetic function of this geometry in the Greater and LesserLaws of the Trapezoid, in which certain angles that were harmful to mostpeople, would be beneficial to those who were properly initiated into theirmysteries. The latter was visually demonstrated in the photographs of Mortensen'sThe Command to Look, and verbalized a century earlier when ImmanualKant likened the experience of the sublime to standing atop a high cliffthat simultaneously attracts us to move closer to its ledge and repels usto scramble for safety. Further inspired by a Lovecraftian tale that introduced the Order ofthe Shining Trapezohedron among its protagonists, LaVey formed the Orderof the Trapezoid within the Church of Satan. As stated in a 1970 issue ofThe Cloven Hoof: "The O.Tr. is the 'board of directors' and security staff of the Church. Its functions are many, and its members are chosen by appointment, according to the special abilities and attributes of each. All Priests and Priestesses are automatically admitted into the Order, although identities of most members of the Order are unknown even to each other. Members of the Governing or Grand Council of the Trapezoid are known only to the High Priest, who solicits their aid when required." Although LaVey grasped the aesthetic correlates of the trapezoid in Lovecraft,and the Weimar-era expressionism of pre-war Germany, the LaVey-centeredpolitical organization of the O.Tr. kept it from becoming a proper orderwithin the Church of Satan. The formula remained a thought experiment throughoutthe demise of the Church, and the ascension of the Temple of Set, whereit was alternatively used to designate the Council of Nine and the Magistry. On October 19th, 1983, Dr. Michael Aquino, Magus of Xeper, HighPriest and founder of the Temple of Set, took the thought experiment toWalhalla, the inner sanctum of the Wewelsburg Castle in Westphalia, Germany.This was the site where another experiment had gone awry: where the positiveaspects of German romanticism - dynamism, life-worship, irrationality, artisticalchemy, and xenophilia - had tragically become the tools of totalitarianism,negative tribalism, and brutal acts committed on a mass scale. Dr. Aquino performed the rites at Wewelsburg to recapture the positiveelements of this romantic stream from the place where the dark arts of theNorth were last attempted. There, he combined this stream with that of Lovecraftianexpressionism, a genre with which he was familiar having previously servedas LaVey's "lefthand man" in the Church of Satan, and writtenthe "Ceremony of the Nine Angles". The marriage of German romanticismwith Lovecraftian expressionism was a powerful one indeed, perhaps eventoo powerful. To insure that the arts which emerged from this marriage wouldnever be misused again, Dr. Aquino reestablished the Order of the Trapezoidas a chivalric order of Knights sworn to uphold standards of honor and ethicalconduct. The formula had come alive. For the first time since it was conceived, the Order of the Trapezoidhad become a working organization with a working formula. Four years later,the Grandmastership of the Order was passed to Dr. Stephen Flowers, YrminDrighten of the Rune Guild, scholar of Germanic magical traditions, andauthor of numerous books on European magical systems. During his nine yeartenure as Grandmaster, Dr. Flowers developed the IndoEuropean Northern rootsof the Order, articulating its historical sources, and establishing a rigorousmethodology for awakening traditional systems. Organizationally, he establisheda system of lodges and houses, and an inner council of advisors within theOrder. The work of Dr. Flowers gave rise to a particular school of mysticismwithin the order. This school linked concrete accomplishments in objectivereality to the knowledge of deeper mysteries which transcended rationalthought and sense perception. This combination of objective and subjectiveendeavor became known as the two-fold path of initiation. From the deepermysteries of his own work, he became the Magus of Runa, the seed of allRunes and essence of mysteries represented by a geometric yantra comprisedof the nine angles of the trapezoid, and articulated in the formula, Reyntil Runa. Central Elements The specific interests within the Order of the Trapezoid are too diverseto be generalized and too broad to be sufficiently rendered in an introductorytext. Yet despite this, all works within the O.Tr. share four major elementswhich are central to the Order: The Black Flame is the central source of the Order.Every Knight of the Trapezoid, male or female, is an Initiate of the LeftHand Path. That is, every Knight is engaged in self-directed self-deificationthrough liberating antinomianism. The Black Flame is the dark source andinspiration of the individual's own psyche as a uniquely developing deity;a kindred spirit of the Prince of Darkness. The Black Flame is signifiedby the ninth angle of the trapezoid, which at a collective level, functionsas the central pivot which binds the O.Tr. to the Temple of Set. The Grail Quest is the centralactivity of the Order. Each Knight must find his or her own path of becoming,and swear to its realization. The Grail is the ultimate truth of one's ultimateendeavor. It is a truth which is ever sought yet never found. Yet thereare ways to partake of that which cannot be fully grasped. The keys canbe found in the seeking. The Trapezoid is the central mystery of the Order.Runa, the essence of mysteries, is represented by its ultimate example.The trapezoid functions to link objective and subjective realities, justas it beckons its initiates to explore worlds where the arrow of time nolonger points in a single direction. The trapezoid is a two-dimensionalrepresentation of a three dimensional shadow. It is a prism and a gate.Most importantly, it is a mystery. Walhalla is the central state of becoming withinthe Order. The universe of the Black Magician is marked by major periodsof time called Aeons. We are currently living in the Aeon of Set, guidedby a philosophy of self-deification that is encapsulated in a Word, Xeper,meaning "become." Walhalla, the Hall of the Fallen where greatheroes live in a highly dynamic state beyond death, describes a qualitativelydistinct state of self-transformation that transcends the notion of changethrough time. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The Order of the Trapezoid is the first among the orders of the Templeof Set, subject to the by-laws therein. Internally, it is owned and operatedby its Knighthood, who are also members of the Temple. The O.Tr. is led by a Grandmaster, a spiritual monarch charged with overseeingthe Order according to his or her vision for a period of time not to exceednine years. The Grandmaster is a Master of the Trapezoid appointed by aprevious Grandmaster subject to confirmation by the Knighthood. The Trihedron is the inner council of advisors whom the Grandmaster appointsto delegate the duties of his or her office. The members of the Trihedroninclude a Chancellor in charge of internal affairs, a Herald in charge ofcommunications and insignia, and a Marshall in charge of external affairs.In addition to the Trihedron, the Grandmaster is advised by previous Grandmasters,and other Masters of the Trapezoid. Founded by Masters of the Trapezoid, the Houses of the Order are autonomousschools for specialized training in trapezoidal Initiation. They are notgeographically local, and their interactions may extend beyond the Orderand the Temple. They can be joined by any Knight according their respectivecriteria. The Temple of Set is represented among these Houses as the Houseof the Ninth Angle, which is overseen by the High Priest of the Temple ofSet. Lodges are geographically localized groups within the Order of the Trapezoid.They are led by Lodgemasters who are Knights of the Trapezoid, and conducttheir internal operations according to their own criteria. Lodges may ormay not be defined according to specialized activities. Only one Lodge,Munsalvasche, is not geographically localized. The Munsalvasche Lodge isthe banner representing the Knights Errant of the Order of the Trapezoid. The O.Tr. is an Order of leaders. Hence, it is up to the individual Knightto affiliate with a Lodge or a House, or conduct his or her affairs accordingto Knight's own will. Half the Knighthood conducts their work without anyaffiliation beyond those of the Order and Munsalvasche. The Order recognizesthat individual Knight is the highest authority for his or her own initiation.Ultimately, we must each conduct our quests alone. ENTRY The standards for entry into the Order of the Trapezoid are as follows: * The candidate must be a member of the Temple of Set who has been recognized as an Adept, second degree. * The candidate must be sponsored by a Knight of the Trapezoid who is also a Priest or Priestess of Set. The candidate is usually well-known to the sponsor, because all subsequent actions and nonactions of a Knight reflect, not only on his or her own honor, but the honor of the sponsor as well. * The candidate must participate in an induction ceremony conducted in the presence of a Master of the Trapezoid or Lodgemaster. * During the induction ceremony, the candidate must take the Oath of the Order, to which he or she will be bound beyond death. Direct any further comments or inquiries to the Heraldof the Order. [ mailto:herald@trapezoid.org ] _________________________________________________________________ The page from which this was excerpted was created by Sir Thorwald, K.Tr. All material contained herein © 1997 Temple of Set. All rights reserved. _________________________________________________________________ EOF