The following is an excerpt from

Our Final Word on the Temple of Set, Inc.: To Current or Former Temple of Set Members

Seeking Affiliation with the Sethian Liberation Movement Revised Version 21 June 2005 e.v. A Collaboration of the Hemu-Seth With Contributions from the Companions of Seth Zeena, Hemet-neter tepi Seth, Sethian Liberation Movement www.zeena.eu

On the O.Tr.: Knights in White Satan

One of the most flagrant examples of the Satanic fantasies endemic to ToS is their emphasis on a wholly imagined left-hand path and Sethian component to Nazism, an idea the Sethian Liberation Movement refutes as a subjective chimera with no basis in fact. The ToS fantasy of a hidden stream of knightly and honorable Nazi occultism is embodied in its Order of the Trapezoid, yet another fictional Church of Satan construct re-instituted by Aquino in his own organization. The Order of the Trapezoid, or O.Tr., presented as an elite within an elite and governing core of the TOS, was primarily inspired by Aquinos gullible reading of LaVeys The Satanic Rituals (1972), which posits, without any evidence, the existence of a secret cabal of Nazi Satanists and an invented rite called Die Elektrischen Vorspiele, authored by LaVey, still practiced by ToS to this day. 1 The ToS Order of the Trapezoid combines this with an idealized and naive interpretation of Heinrich Himmlers cranky SS race-mysticism, motifs and invented language drawn from author H.P. Lovecrafts horror fiction, a penchant for pseudoArthurian pomposity, an ahistorical and subjective rendition of Odinic runology, and even elements from the science fiction films Forbidden Planet and Star Wars. The result is an occult role-playing game of such incoherence it almost defies description. Some current and former ToS members seeking affiliation with the Sethian Liberation Movement falsely assume that such ideas have relevance to our movement, necessitating our disavowal of this notion. We mention this because its safe to say that if, during your time in ToS, you found the above ideas appealing, you would find the Sethian Liberation Movements insistence on rigorous historical verification and research to be daunting. At the very least, you might find our standards not fair to the sense of ones own cherished post-modern individual versions of reality, history and theology. The Sethian Liberation Movements objection to the ToS promulgation of fanciful Nazi-Satanic ideas is not based on moral grounds or political correctness. Rather, we reject these concepts on the basis of historical inaccuracy and theological inconsistency with our religion. There are no forbidden or taboo subjects for Sethians, but the Sethian Liberation Movement does insist on precision. For the record, lest you approach the Sethian Liberation Movement with any lingering enthusiasm for this particularly absurd element of ToS ideology, please note that there is absolutely no historical connection whatever between Nazism and the Sethian left-hand path. (And just to be complete, nor is there any historical connection between Nazism and Satanism, for that matter.) It should be obvious that the male-dominated, caste-based, and rigidly dualist National Socialist ideology, with its emphasis on "family values" cannot be reconciled with the sexual adoration of the feminine, the breaking of caste and social conventions, and the radical non-dualism essential to the left-hand paths way to liberation. National Socialists would have vilified such transgressive practices for the same reasons that Indias Aryan Brahmins revile the left-hand path to this day. While the idealized ToS literature depicts the SS as a good idea gone wrong, the historical record makes it clear that, from its inception, the SS persecuted and arrested German esotericists, mystics, sex magicians, and even sympathetic rune revivalists, making it a poor model for any kind of left-hand path practitioner. Similarly, the worship of a Middle Eastern deity such as Seth, a sexually ambiguous nomadic desert god known as the patron of foreigners and strangers, the cosmic hypostasis of dissidence and chaos, would surely have been found repugnant by the Third Reichs xenophobic and order-obsessed worldview.2 Another

1 This common ideological and literary bond between ToS and CoS is strong enough to have encouraged close public
collaboration between members of these supposedly rival groups. The Sethian Liberation Movement considers said collaboration, as well as other related practices, to be further evidence supporting our contention that the ToS is not at all the radical departure from LaVeyan Satanism it pretends to be, but is in fact a continuation of the same vacuous phenomenon. 2 We have observed, save for a small handful of exceptions, that a crypto-racist and provincial Anglocentric attitude among some O.Tr. members prevents them from fully coming to terms with the Afro-Semitic Middle Eastern origins of the Sethian religion. Perhaps this also explains ToS/O.Tr. squeamishness and willful denial concerning the foreign nature of the authentic Indo-Tibetan left-hand path, which is fundamentally alien to the Greek Platonic, Nordic Asatru, and bourgeois American cultural values ToS seems to favor. Indeed, the entire subculture passing itself off as a Western Left Hand Path is so enmeshed in a Western (read Anglo-American) mindset, that the subtleties of Eastern metaphysics necessary to practice the left-hand path are lost on them. The historian of Western occultism, Peter-R. Koenig, has coined the apt phrase

common misunderstanding is the erroneous ToS equation of Seth with the paternal Alvater Odin, a comparison which again demonstrates a basic ToS failure to comprehend this socially disobedient Trickster gods true nature. There is indeed a Nordic form of Seth and the left-hand path, but the Sethian Liberation Movement recognizes it in the worship of Loki, and in the feminine shamanic practice of Seidr, which was closely associated with Lokis cult.

On the Left Hand Path

ToS members seeking to enter the Sethian Liberation Movement often ask us to differentiate between the Sethian Liberation Movements practice of the left-hand path and what the ToS refers to as the "LHP." This should be fairly obvious to anyone who takes the time to compare our material, but well attempt to outline the differences. We dont know of any evidence, other than their own claim, suggesting that the Temple of Set practices the left-hand path at all. In his "Black Magic" essay, Aquino provides his personal definition of the left-hand path: "The Left-Hand Path involves the conscious attempt to preserve and strengthen ones isolate, psychecentric existence against the objective universe ... while apprehending, comprehending, and influencing a varying number of subjective universes." He goes on to define the Right Hand Path as "the conscious attempt to dissolve or merge the self with the objective universe."3 Naturally (or should we say Non-naturally?) Aquino characterizes the goal of egoless merger with divinity as "fruitless and ridiculous". As anyone with a passing familiarity with the historical tradition of the left and right hand paths will realize, the ToS definitions quoted above are false. They are asserted without any reference to supporting documentation which would verify them. This is because there is no evidence in any reliable source on this planet, or even in this dimension, suggesting that the left-hand path has ever been the way of "isolate intelligence" or "non-natural philosophy" or "separateness" from the universe. 4 Except in Michael Aquinos vivid "Subjective Universe", left-hand path initiation has always been focused on dissolving the ego so that pre-existing non-dual union with the divine, which is the entirety of the universe, can be realized. The religious experience of unio mystica, wrongly condemned by the ToS as a "momentary illusion" typical of the "Right Hand Path", is in fact essential to realizing liberation on the left-hand path. Only the methods of the right and left hand paths differ; they both seek the same exact goal of liberation through merger with the Absolute. The left-hand path is a rapid roller-coaster hurtling you to liberation through a series of shocks, while the right-hand path brings you to the same destination in a slower, gentler, less aggressive way. The ToS use of the expression "left-hand path" is simply a misnomer chosen out of a refusal to accept the phrases real meaning. That ToS perpetuates this deceit, and even defends it, despite such overwhelming evidence to the contrary, seems to us to go beyond mere subjectivity, entering the realm of solipsism. The Temple of Sets description of itself as the "world's premiere left-hand path institution"5 (considering that every one of its basic ideas opposes the genuine left-hand path tradition) is patently absurd and stems from the arrogance that only willful ignorance of a subject can confer. The prudish and body-negative ToS falsely defines the left-hand path as "psychecentric," whereas the left-hand path tradition is especially concentrated on the body, which its initiates understand as the sacred
"The McDonaldsization of Occulture" to describe this pernicious phenomenon. 3 Aquino, Michael A. Black Magic. Self-published essay. 1975-2002 4 If ToS philosophy can be placed into context with the larger spectrum of comparative religion, it isnt within the left-hand path tradition at all. The only spiritual way were aware of which seeks isolation, or separation from nature/cosmos as its goal is Samkhya-Yogas dualist transcendentalism, which influenced Patanjalis world-renouncing teaching. However, these systems are opposed by the non-dualist integral left-hand path tradition, which seeks union with all of creation and liberation in this body and in this lifetime, not in a disembodied, purely psychic state of Kaivalya (Sanskrit for aloneness) But even here, our comparison may be overly generous. The dualist/isolationist school of yoga still seeks to extinguish the ego through an intensive meditation discipline and ascetic practice, austerities most ToS members would surely balk from undergoing. 5 Though we do not concede the attribution "left-hand path" to them, the Sethian Liberation Movement otherwise agrees whole-heartedly that ToS is "the world's premiere institution".

microcosm, a fleshly temple through which access to the divine macrocosm can be reached. The feminine nature of the left-hand path, "the Way of Woman", can scarcely be overemphasized, as adoration of the feminine power of Shakti is central to its practice. You wont find a word of any of these well-known facts in ToS literature. The ToS emphasis on Plato, whose contempt for the feminine is well documented, demonstrates its lack of affinity with the left ways wild feminine power. 6 Left-hand path adepts have always sought to transcend personal ego and the common illusion of separation from the cosmos, precisely the opposite of ToSs stated aims. Left-hand path initiates realize this transcendence through radical acts of ego dissolution, transgression, unconditional love, taboo-breaking, and universal compassion for all sentient beings, thus revealing the initiate's essential union with the divine. This union reaches its highest apogee in yogic sexual congress with a consort while in a deep meditative state, the sacred act which most defines the left-hand path. Indeed, although it is only one of many methods, its primarily the use of ritualized sexual union as a sacrament awakening awareness of merger with the universe that distinguishes the left- from the right-hand path. As Georg Feuerstein, the eminent scholar of Eastern mysticism, has written: "The right-hand schools of Tantra do not even condone sexual congress ... However, the left-hand approach, which involves sexual intercourse (maithuna) with a suitable partner, has the advantage of increasing the level of psychosomatic energy and thus of including the physical dimension in the process of psychospiritual transformation. Actual sexual intercourse ... involves an energy exchange between the partners in the Tantric ritual, which enhances the unification process that is strived for on the level of consciousness." 7 Please note that unification, not isolation, is described as the aim of left-hand path endeavour. It almost goes without saying that the ToS tends to sophomorically ridicule and undervalue the practice of sexual yoga, the very method which indisputably makes the left-hand path left in the first place. Since the ToS fails to grasp the obvious centrality of sexual mysticism to the left-hand path, its no wonder that in almost every other particular, the ToS creed and lifestyle runs counter to the authentic left-hand path tradition. The left-hand path as practiced by the Sethian Liberation Movement is a deliberately extreme and perilous way designed to counter the declining spiritual conditions of this Kali Yuga. The ToS emphasizes safety at all costs, avoiding even the mildest risks. Left-hand path aspirants have always deliberately courted disrepute, scorned status and social respectability, utilizing the breaking of taboo as a form of awakening. ToS describes itself as "comfortably law-abiding" and is overly concerned with polishing its public image as a socially respectable bourgeois institution. Progress on the left-hand path can only be realized by frequent personal communion with other devotees in a tightly-knit clan or Kaula as well as continual instruction from teachers guiding you further on the path. The ToS offers membership in a "do-it-yourself/make-it up-as-you-go-along" correspondence club that can be pursued at your own leisure in complete isolation, providing no practical training in even the most basic of initiatory skills. These are not matters open to argument; documentation of the authentic left-hand path tradition is abundant. The Sethian Liberation Movement considers it pointless to indulge in debate on an issue thats already been so exhaustively well-established. Even today, some people stubbornly believe that the earth is flat, or that the sun revolves around the earth, and no amount of scientific evidence will persuade them otherwise. The Temple of Sets interpretation of the left-hand path is equally fallacious. As in the analogous case of flat earth cosmology, only a small core of die-hard Satanic cranks are willing to seriously entertain, let alone defend it.8 Considering that ToS boasts of its intellectual acumen, its puzzling that their standards of scholarship are so consistently shoddy concerning the very path they claim to follow and the very god they claim to

6 During Platos lifespan (approx. 427-347 B.C.) Seth-Typhon was still a central figure in the practice of Greek magicians.
And yet Plato never mentions Seth in his writings, while actively denigrating the practice of magic, the arts, and music, all of which he would have outlawed in his model republic. There is scarcely a worldview less suitable to Sethian religion and the left-hand path than Platonic philosophy, with its masculine emphasis on logic and its dualist theory of a division between Mind and Body. Therefore, the ToS conception of Plato as a prototypical Sethian/left-hand path thinker is completely contradictory to the actual essence of the left-hand path. 7 Feuerstein, Georg. The Deeper Dimension of Yoga. Shambala Publications, 2003 8 As with any crackpot belief system, the ToS misinterpretation of the left-hand path can only operate in a reality vacuum sustained by its own intrinsic hollowness. We acknowledge that any attempt to refute the ToS's confabulations in head-on debate would be a study in Sysiphean futility. Therefore we are offering the present exposition solely for the benefit of your understanding, in order to clearly delineate to a prospective applicant the differences between the two groups.

represent.9 If youre still struggling to overcome the delusive conditioning of the ToSs false interpretation of the left-hand path, we recommend that you study the vast amount of scholarly and mystical literature available in any well-stocked library, university, or bookstore.10 This course of study will clarify the historical facts of the left-hand path for you, while allowing you to see for yourself just how little the ToS fantasy of the left-hand path has in common with the real phenomenon. Sethian initiation, we must stress, is a spiritual experience based on direct communication with divinity. It is not simply an intellectual pursuit or a scholarly exercise in fact-gathering. However, even on the relatively low level of strictly intellectual mental activity, there are incontestable facts regarding Seth and the left-hand path that can easily be proven to be true. True initiation requires the maturity to admit when youve been wrong, and an eagerness to adjust your perspective to coincide with reality. If you are dedicated to truth, you should be glad to leave behind the false and ahistorical Western occult misinterpretations of the left-hand path in favor of the living reality of the sinister current as embodied in the Sethian Liberation Movement.

9 One example: Left-hand path initiation is based on a doctrine of reincarnation, without which its goal of liberation would
be meaningless. The role of Seth as psychopompos in early Egyptian soulcraft establishes a precise understanding of Sethian immortality. But Aquinos explanation of the ToS idea of immortality in his "Black Magic" essay makes no reference to either the long-established left-hand path or Sethian immortality teachings. Instead, he draws on such extraneous sources as The Satanic Bible, Platonism, and the historical fantasy novel Her-Bak, cobbling together a theory which we are asked to take on faith, despite ToS claims of basing its premises on strict rationality. To his credit, Aquinos second successor, Don Webb, attempted to infuse some more authentic Sethian ideas of immortality into the ToS, but Webbs efforts at historical accuracy have consistently been overruled by Aquinos purely subjective approach.
10 When we say "bookstore" we dont mean "Occult or New Age bookstore," which is the last place one should look for reliable information on any subject. Enter the perhaps more unfamiliar Religion section and it should not take you long to locate further clues clarifying the true nature of the left-hand path.