THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

                               [tos.gif]
                                   
                             Temple of Set
                                   
    Post Office Box 470307, San Francisco, California 94147, U.S.A.
            Internet: SetExec@jps.net World Wide Web Site:
                         http://www.xeper.org/
                                   
                   - Updated January 1, 1997 - 1999
                                   
    This document is subject to periodic updating. If this copy is
            over a year old, please request a current one.
                                   
   Thank you for your inquiry. The Temple of Set is an institution
   unlike any you have previously encountered. The Temple is
   designed as a tool for personal empowerment and self cultivation.
   To decide whether such a tool is a valuable one for you, you
   should consider the philosophy of the Temple, the concept of Set,
   the obligations and responsibilities which a Setian assumes, and
   what the Temple looks for in a candidate.
   
Subject: SETIAN PHILOSOPHY
   
   All schools of introspective inquiry [as opposed to those of
   faith] address the one difference that distinguishes mankind from
   the rest of the cosmos: the feature of being, of conscious
   willful existence. This self-awareness makes possible all of our
   arts, our sciences, our notions of "good" and "evil". It
   necessitates free will and each individual's ability to assign
   meaning to thoughts, statements, and actions.
   
   Various religions confront this phenomenon of individual
   consciousness in various ways. Some - for example, the Buddhist
   quest for nirvana - endeavor to extinguish it outright. Others
   choose to label it the soul and hope that somebody else will take
   care of it - such as IHVH or Christ. Still others deny it
   altogether, relegating man to the same status as an animal.
   Nevertheless there have also been consciousness-worshiping (or
   -respecting) religions throughout all historical civilizations
   and cultures.
   
   Historically consciousness-worshiping religions have been more
   intellectually demanding than their nature-worshiping
   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. Such schools
   were admired in certain societies, such as ancient Egypt and
   Greece, but generally their exclusive elitism and "supernatural"
   activities made them objects of resentment and persecution.
   
   Temple of Set seeks above all to honor and enshrine
   consciousness. We wish to apprehend what makes us each
   individually unique and use this gift to make ourselves stronger
   in all facets of our being. To do this we preserve and improve
   the tradition of spiritual distinction from the natural universe,
   which in the Judaeo/Christian West has been called Satanism, but
   which is more generally known as the Left-Hand Path.
   
   The Left-Hand Path is a process for creating an individual,
   powerful essence that exists above and beyond animal life. It is
   thus the true vehicle for personal immortality. It has certain
   components:
   
     ANTINOMIANISM
     
   Initiation begins with denial and rejection of the
   herd-mentality. The cultural and social values of the masses,
   whether propounded by conventional religions or by mass media,
   are recognized as obstacles to individual spiritual development.
   Human society values predictability, stability, or stasis above
   all things. The Initiate, by contrast, seeks continuous, positive
   self-evolution.
   
   Objective understanding and evaluation of the host society's
   values are necessary in order to intelligently formulate one's
   own. In Western conventional religions such independence is
   called "Satanism". [It was in a 1960's antinomian experiment, the
   Church of Satan, that contemporary principles foreshadowing the
   Temple of Set were explored and evaluated, resulting in the more
   sophisticated formulation of the Temple of Set in 1975. We remain
   the only legally recognized "Satanic" institution in the world.]
   But the Initiate is rebelling against more than the idea of an
   external "god": In secular life he seeks freedom from such
   external controlling forces as propaganda, custom, and habit as
   well.
   
   To work magic that evolves the self, the magician's will must
   prevail in the subjective universe as the massed wills of others
   do in the objective one. Once such strength of individual will is
   obtained, it can be extended into objective environments as well.
   But as long as an individual allows himself to be governed by
   animal emotions such as shame, fear, or the desire for social
   acceptance, he cannot become an Adept of Black Magic.
   
   Conventional society instinctively fears and often hates what it
   cannot easily understand. If you seek out the Temple, you may
   find yourself senselessly accused of popular conventional evils
   of the day: racism, sexism, anti-this or pro-that. When you can
   look around with your own eyes and see that the Temple embodies
   and promotes none of these things, you will realize a great deal
   about the suspicion and antipathy with which conventional
   social/religious cultures regard any manifestation of
   intellectual independence of consciousness.
   
     INDIVIDUALITY
     
   No one can do the work of self-change for you. The intensity and
   pace of your own initiation will be up to you, not the Temple of
   Set. Nor can the Temple dictate your personal goals. You yourself
   must do so, again with wisdom rather than emotion or impulse.
   
     CONTROL
     
   The world is a chaotic environment characterized by the masses'
   lack of intelligent goals and the discipline necessary for their
   attainment. The Initiate must have a strong sense of personal
   discipline before embarking on any adventure. The ability to
   recognize, start, and complete great quests distinguishes the
   Initiate from the "occultnik" who seeks to parody greatness by
   mindlessly muttering a few incoherent "spells".
   
     BLACK MAGIC
     
   Followers of the Left-Hand Path practice what, in a very
   specially-defined sense, we term "Black Magic". Black Magic
   focuses on self-determined goals. Its formula is "my will be
   done", as opposed to the White Magic of the Right-Hand Path,
   whose formula is "thy will be done".
   
   Black Magic is shunned and feared because to do Black Magic is to
   take full responsibility for one's actions, evolution, and
   effectiveness.
   
   Since magic enables you to influence or change events in ways not
   understood nor anticipated by society, you must first develop a
   sound and sophisticated appreciation for the ethics governing
   your own motives, decisions, and actions before you put it to
   use. Merely using magic for impulsive, trivial, or egoistic
   desires is not Setian. It must become second-nature to you to

   carefully pre-evaluate the consequences of what you wish to do,
   then choose the course of wisdom, justice, and creative
   improvement.
   
   The Temple of Set utilizes a wide cultural and conceptual
   spectrum of magical tools, far beyond just the "Egyptian", and is
   always seeking new approaches and techniques.
   
   Magic may either be operative - to cure your mother's illness,
   get a better job, strengthen your memory, etc. - or
   illustrative/initiatory. The latter magical workings seek to
   enable and enact the lifetime process of Initiation. They are
   like the "rites of passage" of many primitive cultures and
   conventional religions, but they are distinguished from these by
   an important factor: They represent individual rather than social
   change. Initiatory workings thus represent the actualization of
   self-deification, while social "rites of passage" integrate an
   individual into society. A "rite of passage" communicating
   passage into adulthood establishes that the individual involved
   is now possessed of certain dignity and responsibilities. An
   initiatory working awakens oneself to certain individual powers
   [and responsibilities], which may or may not be used in a social
   context.
   
   Initiatory magic, which is necessarily individual, places the
   practitioner at a conceptual distance from society. Initiation
   does not occur within a ritual chamber, but it is illustrated
   there.
   
   Black Magic is the means by which Initiates of the Left-Hand Path
   experience being gods, rather than praying to imaginary images of
   gods.
   
   SET
   
   The oldest known form of the Prince of Darkness, the archetype of
   isolate self-consciousness, is the Egyptian god 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 5000 BCE.
   
   Set is a more complex, less stereotypical metaphysical image than
   that of the Judaeo/Christian Satan. Satan, the archetype of
   rebellion against cosmic order and stasis, may be the symbol for
   many people's initial commitment to initiation, but this symbol
   is too tied to conventional religions and their moral codes to be
   an effective representation of the richness, subtlety, and
   complexity of the Left-Hand Path.
   
   In ancient Egyptian culture Set went through periods of immense
   popularity alternating with total denunciation. Set in the
   Predynastic and Archaic periods was an essentially positive deity
   introduced from the east as a god of the extension of existence.
   He is therefore god of expanding borders and radical changes of
   being - particularly birth, circumcision/initiation, death in
   battle, and rebirth through the Opening of the Mouth ceremony.

   
   Popular among easterners - his first cult site being Pelusium in
   the eastern Nile Delta - Set's worship quickly spread to border
   areas, where he was identified with local gods of initiation. Two
   examples of such cult sites are Kharga in the south, which has
   always been primarily a Nilotic culture area, and the Libyan
   settlement of Ombos, wherein Set was identified with the local
   god Ash in the II Dynasty.
   
   Set's original worship as a circumpolar/stellar deity suffered a
   decline with the rise of solar worship in the IV Dynasty. The
   Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the last early monuments
   connected with the idea of a Setian afterlife as well as a solar
   one. The Great Pyramid had a special air shaft for the king's akh
   to fly to the star Alpha Draconis, which is the star of Set in
   the Constellation of the Thigh (today's "Big Dipper").
   
   During the Middle Kingdom Set was reduced to a symbol of Upper
   Egypt and apparently seen only during the Setian festival of
   heb-sed ("tying together"). It was during this time that Set was
   first blamed for the murder of Osiris, a Semitic corn god who had
   arrived in the III Dynasty. Previously Osiris had died of
   drowning.
   
   No matter how "evil" Osirians might now portray Set as being, his
   essential function of going out and expanding the borders of
   existence and then returning that Chaotic energy to the center
   always continued. It is the darkness that binds together the
   Egyptian light. The murder of Osiris is the destruction of the
   fetters of society, of accepting self-change and cultivation over
   the forces that lead to self-stagnation.
   
   The Hyksos, foreigners who invaded and ruled Egypt during the
   Second Intermediate Period (Dynasties XIII-XVII, roughly
   1785-1580 BCE) actively identified themselves with Set and
   established their capital at an ancient Setian site, Avaris. Very
   little is known about their religious or magical practices,
   though excavations going on at the time of this writing may prove
   informative. The Hyksos were great horsemen, and the horse (like
   the ass) had became identified with Set. Indeed not until the
   Hyksos dynasties was the horse, which had been known in Egypt for
   at least the prior two centuries, permitted to be portrayed in
   Egyptian art.
   
   The second native blooming of Setian thinking may have begun in
   the XVIII Dynasty, but certainly it reached its peak in the XIX
   and XX Dynasties, when a family of Setian Priests from Tanis
   became the pharaonic line. During this time of expanding borders,
   Set was extraordinarily popular, as can be seen from pharaohs'
   names such as Seti ("Set's man") and Setnakt ("Set is Mighty").
   
   Two important Setian texts were produced: First, the Tale of Two
   Brothers tells how Set (identified with the god Bata) undergoes a
   series of metamorphoses (Xeperu) that change him from a farmhand
   to a star in the Constellation of the Thigh. Thus Set represents
   the individual who through his own hard work, magical skill, and
   the use of the resistance of the world Becomes divine.
   
   The second text is the Book of Knowing the Spiral Force of Ra and
   the Felling of Apep. This protective formula, which Rameses III,
   son of Setnakt, inscribed on certain border monuments, shows two
   Setian particularities. First, it recounts how an unnamed god
   comes into being in the psychic (subjective) realm as the god
   Xepera. Second, the spell gives the magician one of the powers
   of Set, which is to slay Apep, the dragon of delusion. Set again
   serves as a role model, in that each Setian seeks to end
   delusions in life.
   
   With the coming of the XXII Dynasty, Egypt entered its long
   decline. Set became a tremendously unpopular deity. His worship
   ceased everywhere except the oases and the city of Thebes, where
   his cult was absorbed into the cult of Montu, the warlord of
   Thebes. The negative aspects of isolation and destruction were
   emphasized. As Egypt turned more to an idealized past, Set-heh,
   the god of the void called the future, came more to resemble what
   the eventual Judaeo/Christian Satan.
   
   The third blooming came with the coming of the Greeks to Egypt.
   It is from this period that the Hellenic notions of independence
   and self-worth began to revive both the operant and initiatory
   aspects of the New Kingdom Set cult. The success of
   Graeco-Egyptian magic, despite Roman persecution, saw an
   expansion of both the philosophical and magical aspects of this
   tradition as far north as Britain.
   
   The Third Century of the Common Era was the height of Setian
   Hermeticism. But with the imposition of Christianity as the Roman
   imperial religion, individualism was again despised. Egyptian
   (Coptic) Christianity identified Set with Satan, and he almost
   disappeared as a figure in Egyptian magic.
   
   The fourth blooming of Setian thought began in the nineteenth
   century with certain archaeological discoveries, but it reached
   an explicit stage with the reconsecration and founding of the
   Temple of Set in 1975, accompanied by the Word of the AEon of Set
   Xeper ("kheffer"), an Egyptian verb which means I Have Come Into
   Being. This word, which is the eternal Word of Set, reflects the
   consciousness-worshiping nature of our religion and the source of
   ultimate responsibility in all things - the self.
   
   STRUCTURE AND OPERATION OF THE TEMPLE
   
   The deliberately individualistic atmosphere of the Temple of Set
   is not easily conducive to group activities on a routine or
   programmed basis. There are no congregations of docile
   "followers" - only cooperative philosophers and magicians.
   
   Executive authority in the Temple is held by the Council of Nine,
   which appoints both the High Priest of Set and the Executive
   Director. Initiates are Recognized according to six degrees:
   Setian I*, Adept II*, Priest/Priestess of Set III*,
   Magister/Magistra Templi IV*, Magus/Maga V*, and
   Ipsissimus/Ipsissima VI*.
   
   Recognition as an Adept II* constitutes certification by the
   Temple that one has in fact mastered and successfully applied the
   essential principles of Black Magic. The bulk of Temple systems
   are geared to attainment of and subsequent support for the II*,
   and that is the level of affiliation which most Setians will
   maintain. It is understood that this is an organizational point
   of reference, as each Adept's magical and philosophical evolution
   will certainly continue as he or she continues to energize and
   actualize it. The III*-VI* are properly seen not as further
   benchmarks of individual attainment, but as specialized religious
   offices conferred by Set alone, and Recognized within the Temple
   according to his Will.
   
   The design, care, and operation of the Temple are entrusted by
   Set to his Priesthood. All Initiates of the Priesthood are
   originally highly-qualified Adepts in the Black Arts. Most of
   your contact with them will be in this context. Because they are
   responsible for the integrity of the Temple as a whole, however,
   they have the authority both to evaluate and Recognize Initiates'
   competence and, if necessary, to suspend or expel individuals who
   have proven themselves incapable of maintaining Setian standards
   of dignity and excellence.
   
   The Priesthood takes all of these responsibilities extremely
   seriously, since it regards its name literally and its trust as
   sacred. In this respect it stands significantly apart from
   conventional religious clergy, who de facto consider their
   "priesthoods" as social professions and their deities as mere
   symbols and metaphors for their institutional or personal
   exploitation.
   
   The knowledge of the Temple of Set is made available through four
   principal avenues: an extensive reading list of published works
   in twenty-four specialized fields, the newsletter Scroll of Set,
   the publications of the Temple's various specialized Orders, and
   the series of encyclopaedias entitled the Jeweled Tablets of Set.
   The contents of the Scroll and the Order periodicals are
   time-dated, of course, but those of the Tablets change
   periodically as ideas are advanced, improved, or disproved; or as
   they become more or less relevant to the Temple's areas of
   concern. The Scroll, Order newsletters, and Tablets are
   reproduced simply and inexpensively [similar to this letter] to
   preclude excessive membership expenditure for frequently-revised
   publications.
   
   Many Initiates are geographically distant from one another. This
   necessitates an organizational design geared more towards
   services to the individual than to localized congregations.
   Recognizing the value and fellowship of a seminar environment,
   however, the Temple provides for "Pylons" (named after the unique
   gates of ancient Egyptian temples). Pylons are often
   geographically localized, but some are "correspondence" Pylons
   with global membership and interaction. While each Pylon is under
   the trust and responsibility of a II*+ Sentinel, they are
   emphatically not "leader/follower congregations", but rather
   cooperative and interactive forums for individual Initiates.
   
   Each new Setian is expected to affiliate with at least one Pylon
   within a year of admission to the Temple, and Recognition to the
   II* will normally be recommended and/or formalized by that Pylon.
   Recognitions to the II* generally occur after the first year of
   membership.
   
   Individuals admitted to the Temple are provided with a personal
   copy of the Crystal Tablet of Set, which contains a wide range of
   organizational, philosophical, and magical information pertinent
   to qualification as an Adept. There is a two-year time-limit for
   each new Setian to qualify for Adept Recognition. If such
   Recognition is not received by that time, affiliation is
   canceled.
   
   The Orders of the Temple are entirely different in concept and
   operation from its Pylons. Each Order specializes in one or more
   particular fields of the magical arts and sciences. Such a
   specialization may be transcultural or oriented to a specific
   geographic area, time-period, or conceptual tradition. Within one
   year after II* Recognition, each Adept is expected to affiliate
   with an Order reflective of his or her personal interests and
   aptitudes. The collective knowledge of all of the Orders is
   available to the Temple membership generally.
   
   Setians are encouraged to communicate with one another by means
   of a regularly-updated InterCommunication Roster, contained in
   the Crystal Tablet, and periodic Conclaves are scheduled on a
   regional, national, and international basis. A recent addition to
   the Temple's structure is Glinda, a computer database and
   bulletin-board system accessible by Setians only. Besides
   offering a means for electronic mail and conferencing, Glinda
   serves as a repository for a constantly growing library of Temple
   documents which Setians can download at their convenience.
   
   Personal affiliation with the Temple is kept confidential; your
   admission is known only to the Priesthood. You may apply the
   services and systems of the Temple as you wish, and as you deem
   most complementary to your Xeper; otherwise they will not intrude
   upon you.
   
   AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION
   
   Regretfully there still exist some individuals whose idea of
   "Satanism" is largely a simple-minded synthesis of Christian
   propaganda and Hollywood horror movies. The Temple of Set enjoys
   the colorful legacy of the Black Arts, and we use many forms of
   historical Satanic imagery for our artistic stimulation and
   pleasure. But we have not found that any interest or activity
   which an enlightened, mature intellect would regard as
   undignified, sadistic, criminal, or depraved is desirable, much
   less essential to our work.
   
   The Temple of Set is an evolutionary product of human experience.
   Such experience includes the magical and philosophical work of
   many occult individuals and organizations which have preceded us.
   Some of these were socially acceptable by contemporary or modern
   standards; others were not. Some made brilliant discoveries in
   one field of interest while blighting their reputations with
   shocking excesses or tragic failures in others. In examining the
   secret and suppressed corners of history for valuable and useful
   material, the Temple insists upon ethical presentation and use of
   such discoveries as it makes. Setians who are in any doubt as to
   the ethics involved in any of the fields which we explore should
   seek counsel from the Priesthood. All Setians are further
   expected to display a high measure of maturity and common sense
   in this area.
   
   The Black Arts are dangerous in the same way that working with
   volatile chemicals is dangerous. This is most emphatically not a
   field for unstable, immature, or otherwise emotionally or
   intellectually weak-minded people. Such are a hazard to
   themselves and to others with whom they come into contact. The
   Temple endeavors to not admit them to begin with. If such an
   individual should gain admittance and later be exposed, he will
   be summarily expelled. In cases of doubt the Temple may be
   expected to place the burden of proof on the individual, for the
   sake of all Setians and the Temple's integrity.
   
   The Temple of Set evaluates conventional religions as erroneous
   in principle and therefore unworthy of peer status. We feel no
   need to concern ourselves with their activities, nor for that
   matter to maintain any sort of "diplomatic relations" with them
   [as in councils of churches]. Our position is that they may serve
   a useful social function as purveyors of soothing myths and
   fantasies to humans unable to attain Setian levels of
   self-consciousness. Hence we ignore conventional religious
   organizations unless they intrude upon our affairs.
   
   These warnings are not intended to be oppressive or intimidating,
   but they should be taken seriously. The Temple is a forum for the
   investigation of many subjects which conventional society finds
   odd, mysterious, and even extremely frightening. The Temple will
   be tolerated only to the extent that it is known to be pursuing
   its interests carefully, expertly, and responsibly. It occupies a
   delicate position in a world which is largely unhappy with
   itself, and which is ceaselessly searching for scapegoats. Hence
   the Temple must take care to maintain its social balance with
   prudence and dignity.
   
   AFFILIATION
   
   The key to philosophy is not reading about it, it is practicing
   it. Abstract ideas are not enough; it is only through lived
   experience that Initiation occurs. Such experience is the
   mediator between the realm of consciousness and the world.
   
   Therefore the Temple of Set does not provide services to the
   casually interested. Its activities, publications, knowledge, and
   services are reserved for those who affiliate with it - or on an
   individual-case basis for non-Setians who request assistance from
   the Temple which we deem to be in our interests or in the
   interests of the community as a whole.
   
   The First Degree (I*) of Temple affiliation is regarded as a
   "status of mutual evaluation" wherein the Initiate and the Temple
   can assess one another's merit from the standpoint of minimum
   investment and involvement. If a I* Initiate should decide that
   the Temple is not, after all, appropriate to his wants or needs,
   he is welcome to depart with our good wishes for satisfaction
   elsewhere.
   
   Aspirants to the Temple should understand that it is not a club
   or fraternal society whose tokens may be "collected" along with
   those of other social affiliations, occult or otherwise.
   Membership in the Temple of Set beyond the I* precludes
   membership in any other religious organization.
   
   Members or former members of non-religious occult organizations
   should understand that within the Temple of Set they will be
   expected to respect and observe the Temple's protocol, and that
   literature and other information from the Temple is not to be
   passed to non-Temple individuals or organizations without prior
   approval of the Priesthood.
   
   If the Temple of Set can assist other deserving organizations or
   individuals on occasion, it will be pleased to do so. But it must
   exercise reasonable care over the Temple materials that are made
   available - both so that our own Initiates may enjoy the fruits
   of their honest labor [and that of their predecessors] and so
   that the Temple of Set may continue to enjoy its exclusive
   reputation for excellence in the disciplines it has pioneered.
   
   Should you have questions which are reasonably pertinent to your
   serious consideration whether or not to apply for admission to
   the Temple, you are welcome to address them to the Executive
   Director of the Temple.
   
   If you wish to apply for admission as a Setian I*, there are two
   avenues of approach available to you:
   
   (1) If you are in contact with a Priest or Priestess of Set, you
   may request him or her to sponsor your application. In that case
   you may send a letter to the Executive Director mentioning this
   sponsorship. With your letter enclose a check, money order, or
   credit card authorization for US$65 (US$75 for overseas
   applicants), payable to the Temple of Set. [Please note that this
   amount must be in U.S. dollars, either drawn on a U.S. bank or as
   an international money order only. Or it may be charged to a Visa
   or MasterCard only.] If Priesthood sponsorship is verified,
   approval is automatic.
   
   Important note: If you are admitted, and if you are an overseas
   resident, your admission packet will be sent to you by surface
   mail. Depending upon the destination, this can take as long as
   two months. If you wish the packet sent via air mail, your
   application fee should be for the amount of US$105 to cover the
   extra air mail postage.
   
   (2) If you are not known to a member of the Priesthood, write a
   letter to the Executive Director introducing yourself,
   summarizing whatever aspects of your background you feel to be
   relevant, and stating your reasons for deciding to seek entrance
   into the Temple. Enclose the admission fee/card authorization.
   The Temple will make a decision and respond to you accordingly.
   If necessary you will be asked for additional information. Should
   your application not be approved for any reason, the fee will be
   refunded. Persons applying for admission via this procedure
   should be as objective and candid as possible in their
   self-assessment. There is no point in misleading the Temple
   concerning one's suitability for admission, which will only
   result sooner or later in the truth coming to light - with the
   consequent waste of both the individual's and the Temple's time.
   If there are crucial areas of possible incompatibility, it is
   incumbent on the applicant to identify them before affiliation so
   that they may be addressed and, if possible, resolved.
   
   Whichever method you apply through, please be certain to include:
   (1) Your full legal name [no pseudonyms] and sex. (2) Your
   complete mailing address. (3) Internet (electronic mail) address
   if you have one. (4) Daytime and evening telephone numbers. (5) A
   photocopy of an identity card (such as a driver's license) that
   shows your date of birth. (6) Present organizational
   affiliations. (7) Visa/Mastercard authorization below if you use
   either card.
   
   Annual renewal fee for all Initiates is US$60 (US$65 overseas).
   [The first year is pro-rated from the month of your entry.] These
   fees are designed, as is the admissions fee, to cover the cost of
   mailings to you and the administration of the Temple.
   
   As a matter of policy the Temple is not designed to make a profit
   on its operations, and its assets are used exclusively for
   benefits to its Initiates as a whole. There are no other regular
   or recurring fees, save that Orders and Pylons may set reasonable
   charges for their newsletters or other time/effort services.
   Special publications of the Temple and events scheduled by the
   Temple are customarily made available on a non-profit basis to
   Initiates who are interested.
   
   The only physical requirement for admission is that the aspirant
   be at least 18 years of age. Those below the age of 18 may not
   visit Temple functions, ceremonial or otherwise, whether or not
   they are relatives of Initiates. The Temple has no programs for
   children. It is our position that children and adolescents should
   not be indoctrinated into the assumptions and prescriptions of
   any suprarational system, whether it be our own philosophy or
   the faiths and superstitions of conventional religions. Rather
   their youthful years should be a time of exclusively rational
   training and education, giving them a sound and meaningful basis
   by which, as adults, they may consider and choose whatever
   philosophy or faith seems most meaningful to them.
   
   If your application is approved, you will receive notification
   from the Executive Director's office, together with membership
   identification, certificate, copy of the Crystal Tablet of Set
   [including the current reading list intercommunication roster],
   most recent issues of the Scroll of Set and Setian I* pendant
   medallion.
   
   WHAT THE TEMPLE LOOKS FOR
   
   Every Initiate of the Temple is unique, but there are certain
   qualities that distinguish a potential Setian from religious or
   secular followers of stasis-oriented cults/ideologies.
   
   * A realization that the world isn't fair or loving. Only if
   you've been shocked by the unfairness of the world can you be
   awakened. The shock must tell you that you are on your own, that
   things are tough, and that if you want the world around you to be
   better, you've got to work for it.
   
   * A sense of wonder at one's own being. You must be convinced
   that there is more to you - to your sense of ultimate identity -
   than the materialist world says there is. This will awaken the
   magical curiosity which will impel you on your quest.
   
   * A willingness to learn, to go to school. If you are accustomed
   to having everything you want spoon-fed to you, or doled out just
   because you wait around long enough, the Temple of Set is not for
   you. You must want to learn, to listen to other Initiates, to
   weigh and apply both their advice and the good sense of your own
   higher self.
   
   * A desire to make yourself into something better. You must be
   dissatisfied with your current state of self-awareness and
   presence, both privately and insofar as you interact with
   society. If you intend to use the teachings of the Temple to
   strengthen only your social-influence skills, however, you will
   find the internally-oriented concepts of Setian philosophy
   irritating and disturbing, and ultimately painful to any "hollow
   shell" you have built up to deny or conceal your true self.
   Correspondingly, if you focus only on your personal individuality
   without attempting to express it in beyond-personal environments,
   you also will experience frustration. Change in yourself is
   manifested in part by your ability to cause change elsewhere.
   
   * Intellectual ability as well as access to the best scholarly
   data you are capable of handling. Just as not everyone who
   admires a champion martial artist can emulate such physical
   prowess, not everyone who admires "philosophy" can "do" that
   either. If you do not possess high intelligence, the exercises of
   initiation will simply be beyond your capacity, and you must have
   the common sense and honesty to recognize that and seek personal
   happiness elsewhere.
   
   * Magical ability. When learning to ride a bicycle, One needs a
   sense of balance to keep one upright when the training-wheels are
   eventually taken away. The test of your magical ability will be
   not your absorption and recitation of principles, but your skill
   and wisdom in applying them.
   
   * A sense of humor.
   
   * An ability to privately acknowledge your fears, prejudices, and
   problems, as well as to forgive your honest mistakes.
   
   * A willingness to share with others what you have found, in the
   right place and time - and to be silent when it is not the right
   place and time.
   
   The initiative is yours. The Temple of Set is designed to assist
   you in the ways we have found to be the most practical,
   productive, and factual. But, as versatile as the Temple may be,
   and as proud of it as we are, it is nevertheless properly
   understood as a tool. You are the one who must put that tool to
   use in a way that will enable you to Xeper. Such is the Word of
   the AEon of Set.
   
   -----------------------------------------------------------------
   ---
   
   To: The Temple of Set
   
   I hereby authorize my application fee of US$______ to be charged
   to my: Visa [ ] or MasterCard [ ]
   
   Card Number: _________________________ Expiration date:
   ____________
   
   Signature: _________________________ Application date:
   ___________