Table Of ContentALETHEIA
My Path in the Temple of Set
The Magistry Years
XXXVII-XLII ÆS/2002-2007 CE
Part III of the Aletheia Trilogy
Tapio Kotkavuori
A Book of Life publication
of the Order of the Great Bear
2018 CE
α λ ή θ ε ι α
My Path in the Temple of Set
Tapio Kotkavuori
© 2018 CE
ISBN-13:
978-1975801342
Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Introduction 5
Chapters
1. The Sapphire Realm 9
2. The Era of the Lapponia Pylon 18
3. The Helsinki Conclave 26
4. The Storm 39
5. The Order of the Great Bear 50
6. The San Francisco Diary 62
7. The Left-Hand Path 88
8. Terra Hyperborea 105
9. Return to Old Uppsala 127
10. The Knot and the Seven Sendings 133
11. Aletheia, the Word 151
12. The Great Bear Speaks! 165
13. The Praha EuroClave 177
14. The Last Winter 185
15. Stepping through Fire 194
16. Gold and Green 212
Epilogue 237
Appendices
Tapio Kotkavuori
1. On the IV° and my Work 243
2. On Vegetarianism, Veganism and Arkte 245
3. Karhunpeijaiset. The Arkte workshop and Working of the Helsinki
Conclave (Set XXIII) 247
4. The Heart Sumble 254
5. On the Seven Stars Pylon 258
6. The Most Beautiful Sound in the World 260
7. The Vital Pulsing Core 261
8. Cycles of Time 262
9. From Gal Galomt, the Place of Fire 263
10. The Order of the Great Bear's Spectrum of Work 265
11. The Induction Rite into the Order of the Great Bear 266
12. From Sumble to Karhunmalja 268
13. The Book of the Seven Stars 269
14. The Order of the Great Bear's Reading List 271
15. The Book of Life XXXIX ÆS/2004 CE 277
16. Contents of the Left-Hand Path 279
17. Introduction to the Left-Hand Path 282
18. Answer to Harri Heino 284
19. Schools 288
20. The Key Concepts of the Left-Hand Path 293
21. The Book of Life XL ÆS/2005 CE 297
22. Mirror to the Reality of Psyche
Foreword to the Finnish edition of La Poule Noire 305
23. How to make Philosophy with Sneakers 309
24. The Book of Life XLI ÆS/2006 CE 311
25. αλήθεια. Presentation at the Praha EuroClave XLI ÆS/2006 CE 316
26. Visit to a Crematorium 322
27. Pranksters at the Boca do Inferno 324
28. At the Dawn of the Age of Fire
Foreword to the Finnish edition of the Satanic Bible 326
29. On "practical magic" and bullshit 334
30. αλήθεια. A Draft for the Uppsala EuroClave, XLIII ÆS/2008 CE 336
Dr. Michael A. Aquino
31. The Resignation of High Priestess Zeena Schreck 343
32. Foreword to the Left-Hand Path 348
Don Webb
33. My Opinion on Our Little Drama 353
Garangjas
34. Editorial to Boreas, vol. 2., issue 1 359
35. Recapitulation in Theory and Practice 361
36. The Call of the Bear Working 365
37. Karhunmalja Report 369
38. On Respect 370
39. The Curse of the Werewolf 372
40. Some Musings from the Krakow EuroClave 374
Niko Skorpio
41. Interview with Tapio Kotkavuori (for Vox Paganorum) 379
Wooki
42. Book Review: The Left-Hand Path (for Vox Paganorum) 395
43. Interview with Tapio Kotkavuori on Sonic Magic
(for Vox Paganorum) 397
44. Rune Singing Workshop 400
45. The World behind the Words
A Foreword to the 5th Finnish edition of the Left-Hand Path 403
P.K.
46. Planting Seeds for Setian Initiation
Some Reflections on the Euroclave in Krakow XL ÆS 409
K.M.
47. Book Review: The San Francisco Diary (For Vox Paganorum) 415
Matti Rautaniemi
48. Essentia – An Interview with Tapio Kotkavuori (for Virta) 421
49. Tapio Kotkavuori is Dead. An Interview from Beyond the Grave
(for Virta) 438
Jussi Sohlberg
50. A View of a Researcher of Comparative Religions
Foreword to the 5th Finnish edition of Left-Hand Path 449
Aleksi Varis
51. Against the Stream of Oblivion 455
52. On Living the Heart 458
53. The Aurora Borealis Lodge Statement 459
54. The Noaidi Element Statement 461
List of Illustrations 463
Sources 467
Index 473
1
Foreword
The Secret of Tapio Kotkavuori
It is a hot summer morning in XLIV ÆS/2009 CE and I'm feeling restless. For a
while now, staying focused on any kind of initiatory matters has felt impossible and
all my current projects and tasks in the Temple of Set have come to a standstill. My
mind is occupied with mundane things as I watch the days go by doing nothing of
value and I don't even know why. This seemed to never happen when Tapio
Kotkavuori was still around: his energy and unwavering Will to Become were so
contagious that I don't think anyone with even a single initiatory bone in their body
could help but be inspired and re-energized by them. Following his example and
guidance, me and countless other initiates of the Temple traveled to many magical
places and events around the world, learned new things about ourselves and
changed our lives for the better. We worked with dreams, runes, music and
basically anything we could get our hands on. It felt like world was full of beautiful
magic and we had all the needed momentum and means to grab it by the horns
anytime, anywhere and any way we wanted to.
But now, at the tedious dawn of this day, that momentum feels little more
than a fading memory. Two years have passed since Tapio Kotkavuori resigned
from the Temple of Set and I am beginning to wonder if he somehow took all this
energy with him. No, that is something I refuse to believe: Anyone who knows how
initiation works, understands that it is something which simply cannot be given or
imitated – it comes from within. This is why I choose not to pick up the phone and
call Tapio even though we are still good friends and discuss also initiatory matters
frequently. In fact, I just spoke with him couple of days ago, but I did not even
mention my current predicament. This time I don't want his help – I want what he
has. I want to learn the Secret of Tapio Kotkavuori.
Resolute that I will not let another day slip by without at least trying to get a grip
on things, I decide to take my car and drive to Naantali, a small city in the
Southwestern coast of Finland. I have no plan what to do once I get there and I
don't even know how this is supposed to help me. All I know is that Naantali can be
considered the birthplace of Tapio Kotkavuori in more ways than one and that I
need to do something... anything.
I find myself aimlessly walking around the old town of Naantali and
attempting to see the tourists waiting for a bus to Moominworld1 as luminous eggs
1 Themepark in Naantali.
2
like Carlos Castaneda2. But the mundane thought patterns I'm trying to escape are
not ready to release their hold of me: Every time I shake one irrelevant thought out
of my head, another one instantly takes its place. Should I eat something? Did I put
enough money to the parking meter? Did that bench I just sat on leave a stain to my
pants? I start to get irritated. I can feel a headache coming and my higher self
seems to be irreversibly lost to the carnival of physical world. I see my own
reflection in the oblivious smile of people around me more clearly than ever. As a
last stand against total zombification, I buy a perky postcard with a text “Summer
greetings from Naantali!” and instantly rip it apart. Judging by the look on his face,
at least the merchant who sold me the card got a glimpse of the real me behind the
physical mask.
When I proceed to take the pieces of the postcard to nearby trash can, I
notice a beach terrace which has nice big patio umbrellas and is not too crowded.
Especially one of the free tables seems like a perfect place to cool down a bit and
observe both the sea and the people in the pier area. I sit down at this table, order
coffee and start to collect my thoughts. While I do this, I smoke heavily, lighting
one cigarette after another (a nasty habit which I had at the time, but luckily
managed to switch to a less lethal one later). The spot feels just as good as it looked
like and for the first time during the whole day, I begin to gain at least some sort of
control over my thought processes. I spend a while here, getting more coffee and
cigarettes as I run out of them, but suddenly my immersion to the moment is
broken by a young woman who has approached me. She asks whether I could move
to another table because the smoke from my cigarettes is bothering her and her
friend who have taken a table next to mine.
Me: I tell you what, if you and your friend can come up with a reason why it is
more important for you two to exist in the first place, than it is for me to sit right
here in this very table, I will move. But if you can't, you need to move. Does that
sound like a fair deal?
She: Huh? Well... what's your reason to sit there?
Me: This is a place of power and I have come here to silence my inner dialogue so
that I could start manifesting my true Will in the universe again.
She: Oh-kayy... well I guess that does sound like a pretty good reason.
2 See Carlos Castaneda: Journey to Ixtlan, Simon & Schuster 1972.
3
With that, she leaves, but as she and her friend are gathering their belongings
behind my back in order to switch tables, I can hear bits and pieces of their
conversation. It goes along the lines one might expect: “He said what... weird...
well he doesn't seem that crazy... should we tell him...”. I smile, but as they pass by
me, her friend gives me a really sour look. I feel I probably deserved that, shrug it
off and slide back into my inner reflections, this time focusing more on just being
present than organizing my thoughts. However, to my great surprise, she soon
approaches me again and presents her case almost defiantly:
She: My friend over there is going to be a nurse and will be responsible for saving
many human lives and I am going to move out from here and start doing something
important, so don't you dare to claim that our existence is meaningless.
Me: I never said that it is.
She: Yea, well, but just so you know. Did you find that will of yours yet?
Me: Did you come up with that plan to move out just now?
She: Well... sort of.
Me: Then I think that my Will is starting to manifest itself again.
She: Wait, what? Your will is for me to move out from Naantali?
Me: Maybe more along the lines of other people starting to think what their Will is
too.
She: You have some really weird thoughts.
Me: This is a good table to think weird thoughts. Try it if you like, I'm just about to
leave.
She: Maybe we will. We have deserved it!
And there it was – I had discovered the Secret I was looking for! What I so crudely
learned that day is the same thing which now, several years later, is more
eloquently and in detail revealed in these three volumes of the book you have had
the wisdom or guidance to procure: That acting guided by the Truth of your Being
4
is a door into your life for many magical and wonderful things. It is the spark
which will keep your needfire burning all on its own. Furthermore, doing this can
set the world on fire – light the same spark within receptive individuals around you.
But this is not something that happens automatically and it is never easy.
Sometimes it means ripping postcards. Other times it means joining the Temple of
Set and dedicating yourself to building your path, your lifework in there. And yet
other times it can mean leaving everything you've built behind.
Many great initiates of various paths have felt at some point of their lives a need to
summarize their personal journey in written form. However, what makes this
particular magical biography so unique and valuable is that it does not have an
agenda at least in the traditional sense of the word: While this book is certainly
written from subjective perspective – and should be read with this in mind – it does
not attempt to predigest and label subjects, organizations or people it showcases as
“good”, “bad” or in other definitive terms. What it offers to the reader in very pure
form is an account of events as they happened and the first hand experiences of an
initiate who was there to see and aid them unfold. In practice this means that you
will get a rare, unfiltered peek of the Temple of Set and its initiates at their best as
well as at their worst and you will be able to witness both the highs and lows of the
protagonist himself. What you make of all this is up to you. I recommend taking
this as a challenge.
I have always considered myself very fortunate to have had Tapio
Kotkavuori as my friend and mentor. Years that have passed or the twists and turns
his and my paths have taken during them have done nothing but strengthen the
feelings of joy and awe of being able to partake and learn from his relentless quest
for Aletheia – the Truth of Being. As is the way of the Magus, he truly has become
one with his Word and through his personal initiation detailed in these pages now
acts as an example of all that it means. In other words, this is a good book to find
weird thoughts to think about. Try it if you like, I've already read it.
Wooki
Nordenskiöldinkatu 13,
Helsinki 12.11 LII ÆS/2017 CE
