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21720810? ago

Appendix Part 2

Set, the Egyptian god of Darkness, is the Divine origin of the Word. Set's name ultimately means the "Separator" or "Isolator". His chief enemies are the gods of Stasis and Mindlessness. The first of these is Osiris, Death himself. Set's slaying of Osiris has a two-fold significance for the seeker of Xeper. Firstly this represents the slaying of old thought patterns; the dethroning of those internal gods that we have received from society. On a second level this was the act by which Set, alone of all the gods of ancient Egypt, became deathless. The Left Hand Path is a quest to Become an immortal, potent, and powerful Essence.

Set's other enemy is the demon of mindless chaos, Apep. Set is said to slay this creature every night just before dawn. This symbolizes overcoming self doubt and delusion, of acting at the times of greatest despair, or not being lulled to sleep by the powerful self-hypnotizing engines of mankind. Set achieves (on a divine level) this isolation from the universe so that he may say, "Xeper" = "I Have Come Into Being." Each of these breaks—the break from the dead past (by slaying Osiris) and the break from the confused present (by slaying Apep)—is done for the sake of a self-determined future. One of Set's cult titles, Set-Heh, means God of Unending Futurity.

Set did not receive the aid of other gods in his two quests, nor does Set give aid to those who seek to emulate these quests on a human level. Those who struggle (like Set) with the principle of Xeper are of his Essence. Their actions are essentially the same. Those who want to share their quests and pool their knowledge seek after Set's chief tool of His Aeon, the Temple of Set. It is the most concentrated environment for the study of Xeper, both as noun and verb. Xeper can not be studied as an abstract intellectual idea, it must be experienced. One can read about Justice, or one can hope for it, but to truly Know Justice you must bring it into Being. One can read about Xeper, as your interest in secret things has brought you to do. You can hope for it. Or you can seek the solitary self-transformation that will cause you to experience it. The Temple of Set represents a concentration of the Aeon; like Set himself, it does not answer prayers, and by its very Being provides challenges for those who would seek after the Word of Xeper. It is the embodiment of the Emerald Dawn envisioned by the Fraternitas Saturni. We are not necessarily a "Satanic" order, other than we Understand that for Initiation on the Left Hand Path to be effective for those who have just begun Work on that path, the antinomian aspect of the Work does Need to be fulfilled by some means. The imagery of the Black Arts provides that Need for many, but it likewise can be limiting as it is mastered. Our predecessor was caught by this trap, and we hope by exploring the manifestations of the principle of Xeper in many cultures and times and in our own creations to have much further horizons. Diabolical imagery is useful only in a culturally bound antinomian sense; beyond this it represents a new stasis to be discarded.

See Appendix Part iii