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Dear Friends,
When I became a Magister Templi of the Temple of Set, I decided to write a book
about the magical practices of Late Antiquity, especially 200-400 C.E. when the
name of Set-Typhon was powerful force in the Roman empire, and the Egyptian
traction of the spell book was being transplanted to Europe, where it became the
grimoire. I did a survey of the magical papyri of Thebes, and I wrote a book both on
the cultural and philosophical background for the material, as well as suggestion for
the modern (or postmodern) magician. The book,
The Seven Faces of Darkness:
Practical Typhonian Magic
is available form Runa-Raven Press, and is also
distributed by Weiser and Abyss.
The book's ISBN is 1-885972-07 -5. Runa Raven Press is at Runa-Raven/ POB
557/ Smithville, Texas 78957. They'll send you a catalog of their titles for a $1.00
Here is chapter one of the book, which explains both its philosophy and that of
the Order I head in the Temple of Set, the Order of Setne Khamuast.
Why This Book Came Into Being
I've wandered between two camps all my life. One is the camp of practicing
occultists, people who seek to use magic as a way of exploring and manipulating
the world, but who shun logic, research, and precision. The other camp is the camp
of the scholar who values precision and research, but fears to actually put into
practice the methods they discover. My meeting with Edred Thorsson/Stephen
Flowers convinced me that a practical synthesis of the two camps could be
achieved, as well as providing a practical methodology for such a synthesis. With
the best scholarly sources I could find, I began a study of the god Set-Typhon, one
of the most frequently appearing figures in the magical papyri of Thebes and whose
name is found in curse tablets around the Mediterranean.
Set-Typhon drew my attention for several reasons. The Egyptian god Set, who
represented a fierce separateness -- an individual drive for power and knowledge,
was largely a suppressed "forbidden" deity of the Egyptians. He had been a patron
of the pharaohs of the XIX and XXth dynasties. I was curious why this god had
(then as now) a remanifestation, and why he was coupled with a Greek monster.
Why did literate, well-educated men of late antiquity came to this particular
synthesis? It seemed at best unlikely. As I began to answer these questions, I
discovered deeper cultural and historical realities ranging from hitherto unexplored
aspects of the survival of Egyptian practices, to the discovery of attitudes toward
magic and philosophy that impacted my own becoming. I would like to share the
beginnings of my understanding of Set-Typhon in the Hermetic tradition, so that
others may make use of tools I've found and of the method of discovery.
The majority of operant texts available to us come from the third to fifth centuries
of the Common Era. Most were found in Thebes, a collection whose history, whose
magical and cultural significance has generally been overlooked. This key
collection, which escaped the Roman persecution of magical texts, can be tied in
with similar spells on curse tablets found around the Mediterranean. The practices
of the Theban library are the key to a widespread magical/philosophical view of the
universe which shaped the thought of Late Antiquity, and which in a Hidden manner
have shaped and are reshaping magical practices of the Twentieth Century.
What I wish to do in this book is examine the papyri and tablets, the Egyptian
contribution to the papyri, the Greek contribution. Then on a more operative level, I
wish to show the postmodern magician how he or she may use this technology, its
presence in the world, and sources to deepen his or her understanding. The most
perceptive of my readers will see this entire Work as a demonstration of method,
which they may use to rewin whatever mysteries the world holds for them, whether
it be Mayan sorcery, the Oghams, or the intricacies of the Tao.
The process I used in reconstructing the darker operant side of Hermeticism
was a threefold process which I initially read of in a paper by Edred Thorsson with
special emphasis on the semiotic model of magic. I feel that the process has been
valuable in both personal transformation as well as giving me clear results through
the activation of existing scholarly material. I think the process the Mr. Thorsson
has developed has the potential of changing the way we do both magic and
scholarship in our world, and is of special significance at this time of ideational shift.
The process is one of objective analysis, followed by subjective synthesis, and
finally enactment. Let's examine the phases.
Objective analysis
. If I wish to re-create the practices of others, the first place
to start is the hard facts. I am fortunate at the wealth of operant material available
to me, the papyri and tablets. Likewise a surprising number of primary texts dealing
with the illustrative magic of Hermeticism has likewise survived such as the
Enneads
of Plotinus or the
Hermetica
. These primary texts combined with the
archaeological and historical records available give us an accurate picture of what
these magicians did -- not only in the material sense, but in terms of there social
and linguistic milieus.
The later material is necessary to discover how these individuals perceived
the
order of their worlds
. Magic, the art of changing the subjective universe in order to
produce a proportionate change in the objective universe depending on the passion
and precision of the operator, begins with a received world view (through by
necessity this world view individuates with the practice of magic). For an
understanding of the world view as many factors as can be handled by the
reconstructionist should be handled. If you want to make the same journey as the
original operators, you must start as close to the same place as they started as you
can, and you must arrive at the same destination. In determining the destination,
which must by necessity be individual given the nature of magic, we do have the
popular accounts of the lives of practicing Hermeticists. Indeed such accounts may
have already shaped our minds about the nature of magicians, the popular Greek
novels of late antiquity had a strong effect on Goethe's
Faust
and the emergence of
the magic story in modern times.
This emphasis on objective data gathering is also an emphasis on
self-reliance
.
The current magical practice of relying on the channelings or revelations of others
bespeak a spiritual laziness. Rather than seeking out the beginning and ending
points, many prefer to take the half-cooked models of another individual's mind --
an individual who may or may not have achieved that transformation of magic.
It might be argued that the magician who does not engage in objective analysis
and merely creates his or her own system is more self-reliant than the researcher.
However, the totally self-created system will rarely challenge one's blind spots,
rarely present you with mysteries to be solved, rarely present you with confirmation
that you're on the right track. The difficult process of seeking the objective data
allows you in a very real way to remanifest the way of learning that various
successful schools have possessed. This may not provide the entertainment of
spending a weekend listening to someone channel a kazillion-year-old Lemurian,
but it will provide you with one of the closest things available to time travel. The last
chapter of this book provides the dedicated seeker some resources if they wish to
make the journey I have.
Subjective synthesis
. The Hermetic tradition is above all a tradition of
individualism, the Setian current within it particularly so. Once adequate research
has been begun, questions arise that can only be answered by relating the process
to the understanding of the individual. A model, as appropriate to Hermes god of
communication as it is to current linguistic thinking, emerges. Having considered
the traditions it factually developed through time (diachronically), how does the
individual make use of it in the here and now (synchronically)?
Having learned the language, what do you choose to say?
An example would be the common practice of dream-sending, an important tool
in the Setian toolkit. The questions as to the
meanings
and
ethics
are many. Each
individual must come up with her or his own answers as I did. The process of
discovery has a twofold thirst. Firstly, it lets you observe, test, and articulate what is
hidden in your personality. Secondly, applying your personality to the external
tradition then allows you to take the facet of the tradition into your sphere of being.
You have claimed it for your subjective universe. Once again, you are repeating the
process of the writers of the papyri, and like them using this process to lead to an
individual enlightenment.
The actions of my subjective synthesis will not appear directly in this book. But
since I realize that I have transformed myself through the use of these techniques, I
am aware that the transformation will effect what I emphasize and point out. In this
way I am become an authentic teacher/student of this tradition. If you wish a similar
position, you must apply these steps. Then you will
know
what is true, not because
you read it in my book, but because your soul has discovered it for itself.
Enactment
. The magical practices of the papyri are geared for practicality --
whether to gain gold and women or the answers to the toughest of the soul's
questions. The test for understanding a practical system comes from doing. One
doesn't read computer manuals for their prose, nor study surgery for amusement.
The test of understanding is in getting the results.
Only when the circuit becomes self-sustaining have you obtained the goals of
the system. When you have changed the subjective universe, produced the change
in the objective, and then integrated the new fact into the subjective have you
obtained to magic. Then you have taken the dry bones of the past and made it into
a living system that enables you to communicate with the hidden secret side of the
universe. When you achieve results, you have Opened the Mouths of the Gods.
A distillation of the above threefold system could be contained int eh Egyptian
sentence
Ir shti shta-tu!
which could be translated variously as "Inquire of the books
of magic!" or "Seek the Mysteries!" or "Travel through difficult territory!" The
Egyptian word shta -ti may have been etymologically connected with certain
forms of the name of Set. By the time of the magical papyri the words meaning
"belonging to Set" or "of the secret place" had coalesced in the common tongue.
The Egyptians associated certain night sky features with Set, particularly the
constellation
Ursa Major
and the planet Mercury. They called Mercury
Sbq
which
simply means "the Unknown."
In
The Book of Coming Forth by Day
, the afterlife book of the Osiris cult, there is
an interesting confession of the good followers of Osiris:
I have come hither to see thy beauty, my hands raised in praise of thy true
name ... If I enter the secret seat, I speak with Set... but if One veils his face when
his glance falls upon secret things, he may enter the house of Osiris and see the
secret things that are therein.
This book is not for the pious who would veil their gaze, and trust to have secret
things revealed to them in a later life. It is for those who would seek after the hidden
things now. It is not for those who would come forth by daylight to see what is
revealed by the light of another, but for those who would come forth by night and
see by their own light.
An excerpt from Chapter One:
The Nature and Goals of the Left Hand Path
Sovereignty and the Stages of Initiation
The Left Hand Path is a quest for Sovereignty. It seeks four types of rulership:
Rulership of the Inner World
Rulership of the Outer World
Royal Power in the Outer World
Royal Power in the Inner World
There are two types of rulership beyond this, which are Docetic Rulership and
Formatory Rulership, both of which are beyond the scope of this book.
These types of rulership may be engaged in simultaneously, but in general they are
gained in the order listed above. They require hard work, mental reflection, and
magical prowess to obtain, and are sought both in this life and the after life. Let us
examine each of these types of rulership, and then compare the concept of
Sovereignty to the Right Hand Path concept of Submission.
Commanding Rulership of the Inner World
The basis of the Left Hand Path is that humans are but machines, but may in
potential become gods. The first aspect that a human has to change is their inner
world. They have been taught -- or rather acquired -- a series of randomly assorted
thoughts, notions, and behaviors, most of which either actively hinder them, or at
best lull them into a sleeplike state. These stultifying forces mainly group
themselves into forces that oppose the body, the mind, the emotions, and the will.
Each of these must be overcome.
The forces that oppose the body are those things which shorten life, remove
energy, or dull the senses. Most recreational drugs, legal or illegal, fall in this
category as does most fast food. Certain cultural attitudes, such as the forces that
make many young women anorexic, are likewise of such a nature. The
environmental factors that may surround people (from toxic wastes, to certain types
of fluorescent lighting) also can weaken. The Initiate discovers these factors by life
analysis and removes them from his of her life. In their place he or she will adopt a
training program to make the body do what he or she wishes. The best sort of
training is one that either increases self defense, such as the martial arts; or grace,
such as dance.
The forces that oppose the mind are those habits of non-thinking that we have
adopted, believing them to be thought. We read the newspapers, watch TV, and
surf the Net, learning what to run through our minds in imitation of thought. The
Initiate begins by limiting his media input, and by looking for media which challenge
his existing thinking. Thus the liberal buys a conservative newspaper, the
paranormal buff looks for the Skeptical Inquirer, and so forth. This deliberate
challenging is a first step. The second step is thought training, learning to
concentrate, learning to have certain thoughts at certain times of day, and above all
increasing memory.
The forces that oppose the emotions are those habits of feeling generally created
by external sources for economic reasons. We love to cry, laugh, or be scared at
movies for which we will pay good money. Learning not to cry, laugh, or be scared
at any media presentation is a beginning. The LHP Initiate has to overcome those
phobias (e.g., fear of flying, fear of dogs, fear of flying dogs) that hinder him of her.
She or he learns to invoke certain emotional states by careful self knowledge and
control of symbol systems. The average human being follows his or her emotions,
for the LHP initiate, emotions follow him or her.
The forces that oppose the will are those habits of blind obedience to external
symbols and signals. The LHP initiate begins his or her quest not only by rejecting
sentimental attachments to cultural norms, which most non-thinking people call
"good," but by actively making fun of such attachments in Symbolic ways such as a
Black Mass, a Black Seder, eating beef (if raised Hindu), and so forth. This
antinomian stance is no different than the stances above, but it draws the most fire
from the public, because it is a reminder to the sleepers that they could awaken,
and such reminders are always painful. For those of us along the LHP, we often
forget how painful the light was to our eyes when we first left the cave. After the
Initiate has broken with the symbol systems that teach obedience, he or she must
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