On the North Solstice of 1975, 45 years ago, a young man and Magister reached out in a moment of crisis for a sense of direction. The answer that came to him was simple, elegant, and powerful: Xeper – Become.


From this moment the crisis that had led him to this realization fell away and a new and exuberant challenge arose, the most obvious and apparent being the creation of the Temple of Set, for which he would serve as its founder and High Priest. Across the decades after this moment of insight he helped to guide the establishment and expansion of the Setian Path into the sophisticated and cosmopolitan School it has become.

Let it be known that on Sunday, September 1, LIV of the Aeon of Set, Ipsissimus Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. Remanifested from his physical body. As he had let the world know, he had been experiencing declining health for several years. This period also saw a tremendous outpouring of written material, public interviews, and important correspondence within and beyond the Temple of Set.

Among those titles completed during this time was his trilogy MindWar, MindStar, and FindFar, covering his thought about the transformations of human conflict in order to better preserve human life, the transformations of the Self, and the long-range facing the world. In addition to this, he completed his Initiatory memoir, Temple of Set, and a more personal memoir Ghost Rides. He also left behind materials to encourage a deeper understanding and application of non-Setian Initiatory traditions in the form of IllumiAnX: Rosicrucianism Reawakened and The Satanic Bible: 50thAnniversary ReVision.

Ipsissimus Aquino's thoughts on death have become more widely known with the publication of MindStar. The physical death of the body, or the khat to use the Egyptian term, acts as the loss of only one aspect of the greater complexities of the Self. The rest of the Self, particularly the akh, continues, both in this world through the influence set in motion while living, and beyond in a new exploration of the Unknown. In a sense, one enters into the realm of the neteru, where one's Xeper guides and shapes what you may become.

We as human individuals, however, will experience considerable emotional and intellectual outpourings as the result of a loss like this. It is to be expected and honored that these experiences arise. Be mindful of how you chose to express these moments, and remember as much of an impact as Ipsissimus Aquino has had upon your life and Initiation, there are those for whom this is a far more personal, and private, loss.

Xeper - Become.

Hail Ra-En-Set, who Uttered the Eternal Word!

Hail Ipsissimus Michael A. Aquino!


[A previous version of this page can be found here.]

“The wisdom with which our Initiates exercise this divinity may well determine whether humanity advances to the stars — or succumbs to the entropy of the universe as one more inconsequential curiosity of nature.” (Michael A. Aquino)