Every Setian is a Gate of Hell, and by their presence in the
world does the Prince of Darkness achieve his aim of exporting
Xeper into the Objective Universe. The metaphor of the Gates of
Hell has been Shaped into one of the oldest and most prestigious
Pylons of the Temple of Set. I would like to look at the
metaphor, explaining its meanings in terms of Initiation and
magical effect on the world. This formula is one of the most
important in the Temple.
Setian Initiation is a threefold process of separation, change, and reintegration. All humans are caught up in the world. We all have bills to pay, relationships to screw up, kids with the flu and finals next week. Each and every duty and need imposed on us by the outside world fragments us, and causes to react within programmed walls, rather than act. Every day the forces of the world, or as some say the forces of Stupidity, make us more robotic. Initiation, the quest for a unified Self that can not only flourish in the onslaught of the world, but coherently survive death, begins with a seperqting from the world. This separations takes many forms. It means that you don't do what your neighbors do. When they are glued to the TV set watching football, you are out in your hobby of spelunking. When they are shopping like maddened sharks near Christmas, you are staying in your quiet darkened room invoking the Principle of Isolate Intelligence (or as the profane would say Satan) for inspiration. When the hoi polloi are staying home observing a national day of mourning, you and your buds are out partying loudly at the lake. This separation is the first step, whether it is teenage rebellion expressed by donning black t-shirt bearing the image of the current Antichrist of Rock, or a university professor writing a monograph that destroys long-held conventional scholarship in her field. This may be called Descending Into Hell. You have forsaken the sunlit world, where everybody agrees on everything, talks you to death to keep their pathetic non-empowering reality alive, and change is only due to natural pressures.
Zazas.
The next step is give yourself a good long look. You will find many good and many weak parts of yourself that you hadn't had time to appreciate. Then you've got to build the self you want -- out of whatever you've got to work with. The commercial occult world will tell you that you have infinite stuff to work with. The Temple of Set says you've got what you've got. You've got to start with a cold, harsh approach to what's real. You must know where you are, and know where you are going. You've got to "build a fire" under yourself for change. You've got to burn away the weak parts, temper the good parts. You are in Hell, a burning region where you and you alone may escape. Like the goddess Inanna, you put yourself through the change process, not because some group tells you to, or some outside force sends you to boot camp. But this process although difficult has two properties. One it is under your own guidance. YOU have to decide what you want to become. Two it will awaken in you certain occult powers that will aid in the Work ahead. The unified and focused Self can command certain powers that the fragmented, weakened and distracted Self can not. Many occultists get this far and deicide to stay. There is a certain addiction to liminal states, these are the class of people rightly derided as "armchair magicians." But for the Setian there is an even bigger challenge.
Zazas.
Reintegrating the self into the world, means taking your stronger, braver more focused self and putting it to the real test of the real world. It may mean getting a better job, lover, university. It may mean standing up for yourself in ways you never thought possible, it may mean starting your own business. It also means learning how to make all the activities of your life: lovemaking, eating, sleeping, game playing into meaningful thought-provoking experiences. It means stepping toward your Dreams. If someone claims to be a Setian, but does not have as a by-product of this threefold process quantifiable increasing levels of power, knowledge and pleasure -- they are falsely claiming the title. Now here's a horrible secret. Onetime through this process os not enough. You have to go through this cycle many times before you have had enough. How do you know that you must take your Initiation to its next level? Simple. You are breathing.
Nasatanada.
So, why do others matter in this Cycle? Others give you inspiration. Their paths and methods will be different than you, but in seeing them overcome resistance in their lives -- in seeing them in their Joy, you will be inspired. The most powerful way to see the Might of the Prince of Darkness is to see it express itself in others, who like yourself are involved in the lifelong Quest to become a fit companion to the Prince of darkness. Now for some Setians this is an easy part of their Initiation. They may happen to live in a city where there is an established Pylon that has produced some good Initiates over the years. They can look at people that used to be cab drivers and now own their own publishing company, used to be poor students and now have their Ph.D. used to be pizza-delivery people but now have their own art studio. That's a clear change. But they can also meet these people face to face and feel their magical power, observe their quiet confidence, be enchanted by their glamour. They can hear their wisdom, and see that it is not wisdom spouted by someone living in a trailer park that may have read a few books. These Setians have it easy. But some have a harder row to hoe. They may live in Lima, Peru or Little Rock, Arkansas or Juno, Alaska, or the Isle of Wight. None of these places have any Setians (at least on the day I write this essay). If someone there joins they will have to make an effort to reach out -- to find others at a similar level of Initiation with similar struggles. They will have to see the process of Xeper working in other lives, and they must show the process in their own. For this purpose, our far-flung Setians have Created the Gates of Hell Pylon. It will the key for only the hardest working and most dedicated -- but it is afterall such we seek, so that they in their time will start those Pylons in Juno and Lima and so forth.
Many will try, but few will make the Grade, but the Temple of Set is for the secret and the few, we will let the many seek entertainment, while the few build the living Gateways.
Zazas!
Unloose the Pit! by the dread Word that Set-Typhon has heard, "Zazas, Zazas, Nasatanada Zazas!"