The Temple of Set I
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around dreaming up new policies. For instance I ... I ... er ... uh ... and then ... or ... Well anyway ...
Whatever additional new policy Barrett may have had in mind, he evidently thought better of
it, and suddenly, on 5/31/82, sent the Priesthood a brief letter resigning the High Priesthood, the
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Priesthood, and the Temple of Set; and recommending Magus Lynn Norton as his successor. He
concluded:
Please honor my desire for an honorable, quiet, graceful, and quick exit by not attempting to
contact me, as it will only be futile, since I am absolutely resolved about this course of action. I am
equally resolved not to discuss this further than saying, “This is my will!”
To the entire Temple of Set, including myself, this came as a complete surprise and shock. On
6/1/82 the Council of Nine unanimously voted me back into the High Priesthood to deal with the
situation, and on 6/10/82 I sent a letter to all Setians with my initial thoughts (Appendix #56).
Indeed since relinquishing the High Priesthood to Barrett in 1979, I had largely retired from
active involvement in Temple affairs - both because I didn’t want to “step on the new High
Priest’s feet” and because I was immersed in two major research projects: my Ph.D. dissertation
for the University of California and my memoir/history The Church of Satan. So I had not been
paying much attention to Barrett’s drastic new policies or their effects upon the membership
until 6/1/82, when I suddenly found myself once again in the High Priesthood and trying to get a
grip on the situation.
In his resignation letter Barrett had recommended Magus Lynn A. Norton as his successor to
the High Priesthood. Norton had been Recognized to the V° by Barrett at the Set-3 Conclave
upon his Utterance of the Word Per-t during the main working. It would, he promised, be
explained in detail at the next (Set-4) Conclave beginning 7/1/82 in San Francisco.
On 6/1 & 6/3 I telephoned Norton in Michigan to discuss the High Priesthood with him. I
saw no reason not to go along with Barrett’s recommendation, particularly since Norton was the
Temple’s newest, and presumably most “current” Magus V°. However, I said, I was concerned
about how Barrett had arbitrarily revised Temple administrative structures and procedures, as
well as the degree-system itself. Before passing along the High Priesthood again, I first wanted to
get things stabilized, and to propose revisions to the By-Laws to prevent a future “runaway High
Priest” recurrence.
What it took me a little longer to realize was that Norton liked Barrett’s stringent and
autocratic revisions just fine, and indeed was counting on them to be there for his own use upon
becoming High Priest. As a result of this the imminent Set-4 Conclave turned into a veritable
soap opera of maneuverings attempting to remove me from the High Priesthood and install
Norton in it before the By-Laws, or any of Barrett’s High Priest policies, could be changed. In the
August 1982 Scroll I summarized the surprising, traumatic, and exhausting outcome (Appendix
#57).
What was the extended aftermath of Ronald K. Barrett’s High Priesthood? Initially a great
shock to the Temple, which in the last year before the Set-4 Conclave had almost disintegrated
from several hundred Initiates to a mere 31. Several of the Temple’s most senior, veteran, and
accomplished Initiates had either resigned in protest against Barrett’s policies, been expelled by
him, or resigned/were expelled during the stress, confusion, emotional pain, and disillusionment
surrounding Set-4. Among the departed [in various of these categories] were Masters Margaret
Wendall, Linda Thomas, Dale Seago, Lynn Norton; Priests/Priestesses Colleen Huddleston,
Linda Reynolds, Alexandra Sarris, Ricco Zapitelli, Robert Brink, Corey Cole, Philip Folkler,
Amber Seago, Michael Waters, and Alan Sturrock. Except in terms of “experience and lessons
learned”, the Temple of Set was smaller and weaker than at any other time in its history.
Those of us who survived and remained were determined to rebuild the Temple, and this
time to expand and strengthen its By-Laws to prevent such a disaster from recurring. How we
went about that is the subject of the next chapter.
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7: Remanifestation
The fall of 1982 saw the Temple of Set catching its breath after the series of surprises and
shocks accompanying the end of Ronald K. Barrett’s High Priesthood. Much as in the summer of
1975, I sensed curious eyes on me as once-again High Priest: What was I going to do now? In a
10/5/1982 letter to the Priesthood, I said:
I have done quite a bit of reflection on the phenomenon of the Temple of Set recently. My
conclusion is that it is high time for us to get our shit together. We have spent seventeen years
generating sane really good, creative, sophisticated, and conceptually advanced material in a wide
variety of forms and contexts. It is far better than anything the “outside worlds” of academia, the
occult, conventional religions, and/or conventional philosophies have to offer. In fact it is so
damned advanced that I am still astonished at it every time I ponder it.
Its one defect is that it is still largely fragmented and disorganized. We need to clean it up,
polish it, integrate, evaluate, and interrelate it. Then, as we really begin to get it together, we need
to apply it in an extremely intelligent and evolutionary manner. [For you “old-timers”, this is what
I was getting at in very rudimentary way in my original concepts of Setamorphosis; see relevant
III° letters from my original High Priesthood.]
The Church of Satan project and the Jeweled Tablets of Set project are all aspects of this
“bringing together” of the significance of the Temple and Æon of Set. If we do this successfully,
the results will be nothing short of titanic. If we drop the ball without doing it, it’s kind of like
flying the Enterprise on impulse power: It’s O.K. as far as it goes, but it just isn’t the same as warp
drive!
As you can see from something like our reading list, the scope of the Temple and Æon goes far,
far beyond what is generally considered “the occult”. It reaches out to the most ambitious frontiers
of existence - and aspires to go beyond. This is why I am so disappointed and frankly
contemptuous of those who tried to relegate the Temple to an introverted, inconsequential, and
incoherent little pageant concerned only with Aleister Crowley, Tarot cards, and Her-Bak. I am
fond of all three subjects myself - but in proportion and only insofar as they contribute to the far
greater magical and philosophical reach that is the true justification and glory of the Temple of
Set.A few days ago Lilith Sinclair and I spent a most interesting evening with an old friend, Dr.
Richard Sutter, whom you know as “Imperial General Tharrud Terclis, STF” in The Dark Side. Dr.
Sutter has never joined the Temple of Set, nor have I ever offered him honorary membership, for
much the same reasons that Terclis would not/could not became a Jedi in The Dark Side Yet, also
like Terclis, he is more sensitive to the significance and consequence of the Temple than many
who are formally affiliated with it.
His evaluation of the events surrounding Set-IV was blunt and candid: merely the failure of
Further their resentment of and antagonism towards those whose excellence is neither artificial
nor an image.
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I might add that, several years ago, Sutter predicted such a crisis for the Temple down to
extremely specific details - based upon psychological probabilities of the sort that became the
basis for The Dark Side’s MindWar concept. [I told him he was certainly mistaken.]
Our General Terclis would like to see this Jedi Order actualize its stated reasons for existence,
yet believes that its premises are too idealistic, too visionary to succeed for more than a brief
minute in the fabric of time and space. The Universe in which he has chosen to live and work is a
duller, darker, more pessimistic one than that of the Jedi; but in it he has extended his own
philosophy to remarkable limits.
Like Darth Vader and Obi-wan Kenobi, I am of the opinion that our Larger Universe is valid,
and that the initiatory process of our Jedi Order, imperfect though it may be, has something
supremely precious to impart to those whose Will it is to attain it.
So General Terclis and I disagree ... but I have learned much from our continuing dialogue.
Structurally the Temple of Set was sound enough with its legal credentials and operational
By-Laws (which had indeed been crucial in bringing the organization safely and intactly through
the RKB/Set-IV crisis). Now we turned fresh attention to our publications.
When we [re]created the Temple of Set in 1975, we thought that it should have both
temporary/periodical and permanent/reference publications. The Scroll of Set newsletter took
care of the former, and has amassed a vast amount of articles, essays, art, news, Order/Pylon/
Element reports, conclave pre/post-discussions, etc. since then. In this Internet age all of the
back-issues are downloadable by all Setians.
The Jeweled Tablets got their name-inspiration whimsically, as a takeoff on the fabled,
forbidden, and funky Emerald Tablet of Thoth, in which all great occult knowledge was
supposedly contained. So we decided to do a real collection of tablets, as it were, but aligned to
our initiatory degree system.
The Crystal Tablet (gem color of the I°) would be provided to all Setians, and issued to
entering Setians I°. It would serve as an introduction to and summary of Setian philosophy and
metaphysics, explain the various administrative systems and functional groups comprising the
Temple, and discuss opportunities for each Setian to undertake personal initiation. As it is the
Temple's “common reference document”, its contents are relevant to all Setians, not just the I°.
And, like all of the JT s, it is constantly updated. Through the 1980s it was mailed out as a loose-
leaf binder; since then it’s a CD, and all of its contents are also in the Temple’s Intranet. Excerpts
from my introductory CT essay, “Black Magic”, now appears as Part II of this The Temple of Set.
The Ruby Tablet (gem color of the II°) would be available to Adepts II°+, and would be a
repository of the Temple’s more extensive and permanent documents than would normally be
found in the Scroll of Set newsletter. Since most of the Temple of Set’s information is
intentionally for the benefit of all Adepts, the RT would be the largest, and “backbone”, volume
of the Jeweled Tablets. And so it has been. By the mid-1980s it was already about 6 large red
binders in size, and was rapidly becoming cost-daunting even at nonprofit. Happily it too has
been rescued by the Internet, and is now wholly searchable & downloadable there. [And I cannot
possibly continue further here without mentioning, with the utmost admiration and frank awe,
the years of intensive, exhaustive, and perfection-obsessed work that Magister Robert Menschel,
as Ruby Tablet Editor, invested in that publication to transform it from a bare-bones idea to an
encyclopædia of staggering dimensions and unsurpassed quality. If a massive meteor were to
strike the Earth and obliterate all traces of the Temple of Set except for one slightly-charred copy
of the Ruby Tablet, I daresay that everything could be reconstituted from that alone.]
The RT’s contents are of equal significance to all the II°+ and are contributed to by all of
them as well. The reason the RT is not available to the I° is twofold:
(1) The I° is a “mutual evaluation” degree, wherein both the individual and the Temple
have an extended [up to 2-year] opportunity to decide if they are suited for one
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another. Some join the Temple for the wrong reasons, or decide after contact with it
that it is not after all their cup of tea. And from the Temple’s perspective, some I°s
simply don’t have the aptitude, intelligence, or interest to become Black Magicians,
which is what II° Recognition is all about. So during their I° time, Setians are
expected to familiarize themselves with the Temple, its ideas, its tools, and flex
their mental & magical muscles accordingly. Think of it somewhat as the “general
education requirements” of a university, with entry-level/familiarization courses
offered by the various departments.
(2) The material in the RT is specifically written for Setians who have “passed the I°
test” and shown themselves to be competent enough to handle it. Essentially we
trust Recognized Adepts II° to use this information wisely and responsibly. We do
not trust the Great Unwashed [public] to do so, and entering I°s need to get their
“sea legs” first.
The Onyx Tablet (gem color of the III°) is available to the Priesthood of Set III°+ and
contains documents specifically pertinent to the Priesthood as a personal initiatory and
consecrating experience. [General material about the III° is contained in either the CT or RT as
appropriate.] Thus the OT is written by III° Initiates for other III°s. Articles have to do with the
essence of the III° and how it may be Recognized in Adepts.
There are two general reasons for the OT’s III°+ restriction:
(1) The authentic III° is a uniquely individual initiation if & when it occurs. If non-III°s
read existing III°+ reflections on the Priesthood, they may be tempted to artificially
imitate others’ initiation. The Priesthood of Set is not and cannot be a
“standardized office”.
(2) The Priesthood of Set is the consecrated core of the Temple of Set, and as such
desires to preserve its privacy and serenity.
The Sapphire, Amethyst, & Topaz Tablets are all accessible to the Masters of the Temple of
Set IV°+. Their distinction is simply that each contains material and commentaries specifically
pertinent to the IV°, V°, and VI° respectively; and again this is only material that, for sound
reason (such as the initiatory capability to understand it in proper context, and again deterrence
of “initiatory imitation”) should not be in the CT/RT (wherein again the vast majority of
documents pertinent to the IV°+ are contained).
Incidentally the IV°+ access to the IV°/V°/VI° volumes reflects the principle that the IV° is
the Æonic level of individual initiation. The V° and VI° are “specialized variations” of the IV°,
and are thus fully comprehensible by it. Nor are we concerned about V° or VI° imitation, becaus
e
the very nature of such Recognitions is antithetical to this.
So if you were to put all the JT s side-by-side, you'd find the RT to be huge, the CT to be a sort
of “Boy Scout Handbook”, and the other four to be very slim indeed. The main “push” in our
magical & philosophical material is always to the RT, because there it is available to all adept
Setians II°-VI°.
This structuring of the JT s’ contents and access also reflects a fundamental principle of
Setian initiation: One’s Recognition to a specific degree of initiation denotes the capacity, not
the continuity of being present in and manifesting what is signified by that Recognition. Most
adept Setians, myself included, function 95% of the time as Adepts II°. Only in certain instances
where the unique characteristics of another degree are called for does it arise in consciousness.
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I should perhaps take note in passing that today there are pirated JT s all over the Internet.
[There is pirated everything all over the Internet!] Can’t help that. Because all of the JT s are
being updated all the time, though, the pirated versions usually incomplete and obsolete; and as
you can see here, the OT, ST, AT, & TT are relatively obscure without synchronization to
individual initiation at related levels.
In Chapter #6 and Appendix #56 I discussed High Priest Barrett’s concept and introduction
of what he termed “Order Without Law”. This was a system of initiatory Orders within and
subordinate to the Temple of Set proper. All I°-III° Setians were required to be “apprenticed” to
one of these Orders, each headed by a Master of the Temple IV°, and would henceforth work
primarily, if not exclusively within it. One of the consequences of this, unfortunately, was that
such Orders, most conspicuously Barrett’s own Order of Anubis, simply became cliques
concerned with their own members and interests, not with the Temple of Set and all Setians
generally. By the Set-IV Conclave, members of the Order of Anubis knew more about Barrett’s
policies and priorities than did the Council of Nine.
On resuming the High Priesthood, therefore, I discontinued “Order Without Law”
immediately, but the basic concept of specialized Orders within the Temple was a valuable and