Table Of ContentALETHEIA
My Path in the Temple of Set
The Adept Years
XXVI-XXXII ÆS/1991-1997 CE
Part I of the Aletheia Trilogy
Tapio Kotkavuori
A Book of Life publication
of the Order of the Great Bear
2016 CE
α λ ή θ ε ι α
My Path in the Temple of Set
Tapio Kotkavuori
© 2016 CE
ISBN-13:
978-1539479925
Dedicated to
Dr. Michael A. Aquino, Ra-en-Set,
who founded the Temple of Set,
DenytEnAmun and SeBastian,
my Brothers of the Dynamic Trio
Lilith Aquino, Beth, Don Webb, Stephen Flowers,
AruXet, Amn DeCecco, Mut,
R.N., Patricia Hardy, Robert Robinson,
James Severson, Michael Kelly
and many others who shared the Path
during my years in the Temple.
And last but not least my beloved wife Lubena,
for all of her love and support.
Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Introduction 3
Chapters
1. Æonic Foreplay and the first two Working Years 7
2. Into the Cave of the Kalevala Pylon 23
3. The Dynamic Trio is born 37
4. The Plain of Ruby 46
5. The Salem Conclave 52
6. Changes of the second Working Year 69
7. Evil Easter in England 73
8. Second Sentinel of the Kalevala Pylon emerges 87
9. Entering the Order of the Vampyre 101
10. Sowilo Rising 119
11. The London Conclave 144
12. Ragnarök 159
13. The New Dawn 183
14. Sowilo Rising II 201
15. Towards the Onyx Realm 225
Appendices
Tapio Kotkavuori
1. The Right-Hand Path and The Left-Hand Path 247
2. The Black Flame 250
3. Broad Contextual Definitions of the Paths 252
4. Central Characteristics of the Paths 255
5. Black Magic 260
6. The Magical Link 262
7. The Nature and Definitions of Magic 264
8. Ritual Magic 266
9. White Magic 273
10. Invocation of the Young Beast 275
11. Magical Name 278
12. Ptah 280
13. Pilgrimage 286
14. Initiatory Diagram 288
15. On Aggression and its Manifestations in Human Beings 295
16. Working of the 21st Circle 305
17. Schools 309
18. An Interview with Magister AruXet, Germany 311
19. An Interview with Magister R.N., Canada 315
20. A Vampyre Working 319
21. Book Review: Aldous Huxley: Brave New World 324
22. My first three Doors of Midgard 327
23. The Black Petals 339
24. The Black Lotus Workshop I 341
25. Some Notes on Sowilo 346
DenytEnAmun
26. Fresh Fever from the Skies 351
27. Set it straight! 362
28. Iku-Turso rises again!, part II 366
29. Temple of Set in a Finnish Study 386
30. A Midsummer Meditation, or the Madness I Love 388
31. Ethics and the Setian 393
32. Reflections at Urthr's Well or Who am I and Why am I Doing this? 398
33. Carrying Lucifer's Torch to the North 407
34. Ultima Thule: Some Hyperborean Mysteries 411
35. Vinämöinen Rises Again, part I 422
36. Rûna Workshop III 425
37. My first three Doors 430
38. Georgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff – Knight of the Supremacy of Will 442
39. The Finnish Guardian of the Temple of Set
(an interview with Adept SeBastian) 447
40. Reflections on Horus 457
41. A Rûna-Workshop Report 474
42. Väinämöinen Rises Again, part II 477
43. Die Electrischen Vorspiele 481
44. Amn 487
45. Order of Amon (Simultaneous induction Working) 490
46. Another Cycle of Sowilo is Come into Being! 493
SeBastian
47. Homosexuality and the Masculine/Feminine Principles
A Study of Sexuality and its Initiatory Applications 499
48. Change 504
49. The Core Self 508
50. The Philosopher King 511
51. An Interview with Magister David Austen, the U.K. 515
52. Some Thoughts on the Marquis de Sade and SadoMasochism 519
53. Finlandia-Working 522
54. Forever Young? 527
55. Satanism and me 530
56. Why am I a Setian? 533
57. Ultima Thule II Main Conclave Working:
Xepera Xeper Xeperu. A Celebration of the Heb-Sed Year 534
58. C.G. Jung and Initiation 536
59. The Two Brothers 539
60. Jesus Christ, the Black Magician 542
61. I and my Proximal Forms 544
Dr. Michael A. Aquino
62. Temple of Set. General Information and Admission Policies
(XXVI ÆS/1991 CE) 551
List of Illustrations 559
Sources 565
Index 577
1
Foreword
Weak desires can be removed by introspection and meditation, but strong, deep-rooted ones
must be fulfilled and their fruits, sweet or bitter, tasted.
—Nisargadatta Maharaj
To honour our friendship and work together I have penned this short foreword to
Tapio's memoirs at his request.
There never was much choice for me in joining the Temple of Set. From
childhood the idea of a secret society, knighthood, antinomianism, magic and such
stacked upon me as if there was a germ within me that was fed by these influences
and was setting me up for certain kinds of experiences – an irresistible magnet that
I knew I had to follow lest nothing would mean anything. In my teens I went
through phases of devil worship, LaVeyan satanism, existentialism, thelema, and
after that branched out to making myself acquainted with any and all philosophical,
religious and occult ideas and groups I could find. Given what had already made its
mark on me, contacting the Temple of Set in my teens seemed to prove it was the
(supra)logical and only way I could continue. It corresponded to everything in my
make-up of that time. It presented itself to me as an elitist metaphysical priesthood
whose members really knew how the world turned and where the truth was at –
something seemingly ultra-rational yet surrounded by an aura of sinister imagery
and occultism – not to forget the Temple's over-the-top sense of self-importance
and arrogance which probably sealed the deal for me.
Be that as it may, I became a Setian as soon as I reached legal age in late
1989. My intuition that the stuff that had attached itself to me in my teens
corresponded to the Temple turned out to be correct. My work was appreciated
from the onset and rising through the degree system was only slowed down by my
own desire to take my time and to stick with what I myself felt was true. Next
summer I visited the local Setians in London and was recognized to the second
degree, and the year after that others in Finland and later elsewhere in Scandinavia
started joining. Being the first Setian in the Nordic countries, having a suitable
background and a mammoth desire, I ended up pioneering many organizational and
conceptual things in the North. In the very beginning of this process I met with a
certain Tapio Kotkavuori, who, in his turn, was destined to go much further than
me on the Temple's path. He further developed many of the ideas I worked on,
pioneered many more of his own and became the first European Setian to write
books on the Temple philosophy (both in Finnish and in English). He is the author
of, for example, the now classic Vasemman Käden Polku (The Left-Hand Path).
There was always something monkish and knightly about Tapio,
2
submerging something to project the desired image, the willed action. This was my
way, too, although my verbal-associative faculties were on a recklessly
hematomous overdrive in comparison to his all-embracing borgian determination.
Like a snake Tapio devoured the world simultaneously from many angles, patiently
learning and digesting everything resonating with his heart. The sense of the sacred
was channeled for us in the wish to be and to behave a certain way, in accordance
with a code, anchored to a calling we felt deep within. Because of this it was easy
to relate to each other and to submit to a common undertaking. SeBastian was the
perfect third force to the mix, an elegant, conscientious and sensitive soul searching
for the truth and hungering to feast on the world wings ablaze.
I would probably not have met these gentlemen had we not all chanced to
join the Temple of Set, but in retrospect it seems clear what transpired between the
three of us went far beyond being members in some organization. These men
became my essence friends, the guys I grew up with, and we squeezed out of the
Temple every last bit of nectar there might not even have been without the
dynamism of our trio. It delights me that Tapio has in his characteristic fashion
really gone the whole hog, including the postage, and brought to vibrant life our
common exploits in a warm, comprehensive and humorous way. It has been a
pleasure and an honour to play a part with SeBastian in the process of the
formation of this book, commenting on Tapio's drafts and trying to recollect all the
odd angles of our quests. At the end of this process it feels as if waking up from a
dream, but from what an exciting dream within a dream!
Later I had my own profound realizations about the validity of the Temple's
approach, but during the time Tapio covers in the first part of his trilogy, I was a
true believer and everything we did seemed to be just about as spot-on and real as it
gets. This was the Way for us, the one out of the myriad of possibilities, and Tapio
admirably resurrects the years when we went full blast armageddon with much
more than we had.
DenytEnAmun
