discrete states of consciousness. For our purposes, an altered state will be considered to be any discrete state of
consciousness that is somehow different from our “normal” waking state. This includes meditative states, hypnotic
states, dream states, and trance states.
To perceive something in its entirety, it is helpful to “view” it from many different perspectives. By experiencing
alterations in consciousness, we allow ourselves to expand our perception, and apprehension of Wyrd. The term
“Altered States of Consciousness” (ASC) has become popularized in modern culture, but perhaps a better term
would be “Altered States of Perception” (ASP). This more aptly explains the purpose of the state within the Order.
Altered states are one way to explore powerful causal connections in our world and ourselves: Learning to lucid
dream, one can regain control over nightmares, and discover that one’s daytime fears change in quality as a result.
Learning to focus visualizations of energy while in a meditative state, one may learn to utilize healing techniques.
Learning to inject intent into any number of limenal states offers the Initiate an enormous range of tools with which
to work.
(2) Body/Kinesthetic Awareness
As the body/mind framework is the most direct way to apprehend and transform the Flow of Wyrd, an
awareness of body/mind states and energies are vital. Initiates will be encouraged to develop their own inner
awareness of their physical being through some discipline. Dance, martial arts, yoga - all are excellent avenues. For
some Initiates, frequent meditations on kinesthetic awareness may prove effective
(3) Building an Objective Structure
Due to the morpheous and inherently individualistic quality of subjective states, the initiate benefits enormously
from having a symbolic structure or model to frame these experiences on. This is how we give them meaning.
Visions only have a voice if they speak our language. Most Setians are quite capable of developing their own
symbolic language with which to interpret and work subjective states. This is vital, but insufficient. We need to be
able to share and communicate these states and explorations. We must seek universals. We must be able to find the
common threads that hold our magical experiences together.
Therefore the Initiate will be expected to become familiar with academic, cultural, or scientific studies relating
to his or her individual experience. Depending on the Initiates experiences , he or she may need to research
traditional magical systems, or delve into philosophical structures as diverse as quantum physics, or Chinese
medicine The idea behind such an avenue of study is to find the universal thread that holds the magical experience
together. Hopefully, in so doing, we will also learn a way to better communicate our experiences with each other.
An Order Between Orders
It is expected that there will develop with the Order certain mutual focal points of interest between members.
These focal points will be known as Wells. Current active Wells include the Well of Dreams, which intensively
studies dream and sleep states, and the Well of Healing.
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Work within the Order will also be very closely connected to and supported by its sister organization - Urdh’s
House - a House within the Order of the Trapezoid. Current active Foci within Urdh’s House include a Focus on
Seidhr, a Focus on Dreams, and a Focus on the Way of the Warrior.
As the work of the Order of the Wells of Wyrd will closely tie in and be supported by the work of other Orders,
the O.W.W. may be seen at times as an “Order between Orders”, a well of integrating focus.
Members of the O.W.W. who belong to other orders will be mandated to carry the work of Wyrd to members of
other Orders in a way that will benefit all.
For Initiates who do not belong to other Orders, the O.W.W. should become a place where they can learn to
intimately integrate multifaceted aspects of life and Work.
“Apprehension” and “Transformation”
These are key words of the Order.
Through this work it is expected that the Initiate will learn to become a Master of his/her own destiny - and to
learn what “destiny” really is.
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A87: The Order of Xnum
- by William D. Pridgen IV°, Grand Master
I am Xnum, your maker! My arms are around you, to steady your body, to safeguard your limbs. I
bestow on you stones upon stones; since former times nobody ever worked with them to build the temples
of the gods. For I am the master who makes, I am he who makes himself exalted in Nun, who first came
forth, Hapy who hurries at will; fashioner of everybody, guide of each man.
- The Dream of Zoser, Col. 18-20 of the Famine Stele
Introduction
The Order of Xnum is the philosophy department of the Temple of Set. Its focus is the practice of philosophy as
an initiatory discipline. Philosophy has been translated from the Greek as “passion for wisdom”. Initiates of the
Order of Xnum will demonstrate this passion through the active pursuit and gradual embodiment of wisdom.
Xnum is the personification par excellence of that which guides and informs the philosopher’s path. By
Hellenistic times the cult of Xnum had been absorbed into the cult of agathodaimon because Xnum, as is quoted
above, was understood to be the “fashioner of everybody, guide of each man”. As this dovetails rather nicely with the
Socratic tradition of the daimon and the Platonic principle of the agathon, it’s not surprising that such a synthesis
occurred.
While Pythagoras was the first person to call himself a philosopher, the cult of agathodaimon was at its height
in Hellenistic times, when the Greeks had identified the Egyptian decan Xnm as a composite of stars from their
constellations Hydra and Leo. Thus has come down to us the familiar symbol of the Æon as a composite lion-
serpent. As Black Magicians, Initiates of the Order of Xnum will draw inspiration from the historical impact this
principle has had by recovering and putting into practice the magical records of this ageless academy.
Affiliation and Expectations
Membership in the Order of Xnum is available to II°-VI° Setians. Interested I°s who have some background or
interest in the humanities may begin dialogue with the Grand Master towards possible future affiliation. This should
not, however, take precedence over learning and applying basic Setian principles as outlined in the Crystal Tablet of
Set. Dialogue at this level will focus exclusively on the essentials of Setian philosophy.
Initiates of the Order of Xnum are responsible for understanding the basics of Setian philosophy and pursuing it
as a way of life. This lifestyle, as summarized in the Word Xeper, should be evident in the thoughts, words and deeds
of the Setian philosopher. Part of this lifestyle is achieved through the practice of LBM, the foundation from which
the pursuit of greater mysteries becomes possible. Through GBM the Setian philosopher attempts to tap into the
living Æon, so that personal insight may become undiluted by changing the nature of perception. Beyond these
general goals are the following specific tasks:
What an Order Member Does
1. Reads contemporary and classical philosophy (From Heraclitus to Whitehead).
2. Is able to discuss, with Setians and non-Setians, philosophical ideas and offer examples of their
application in day-to-day li
fe.
3. Works on deep applications/investigations of traditional problems in ethics, ontology, and
epistemology within a Setian context.
4. Works on a magical level with daimonic guidance/information (with special reference to daimonic
invocations in the Magical papyri).
5. Will become familiar with current daimonic thought outside of the Temple (for example Jung, Iyer or
Hillman).
6. Can describe Setian thought to non-Setians in nonsectarian language, and does so.
7. Develops a good bullshit detector, and applies skepticism to modern occultism, parapsychology,
politics, and other con games - and can help others to do so with humor, grace and good spirit.
8. Identifies and supports movements resonant with the Order’s orientation in the objective universe and
finds schools for furthering his goals (of learning and self-transformation) there as well.
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9. Reports on these activities with justifiable pride and sensible humility to the Grand Master, the
members of the Order, the Temple, and Worthy friends in the world at large - carefully explaining to
them (and to himself) how these actives lead to a desired state of self-transformation.
Every question is a rung on the ladder to godhood. Invoke often!
Above I stated that philosophy is the discipline of the pursuit and gradual embodiment of wisdom. I also stated
that Xnum was a personification of the guiding and informing principle of this discipline. Xnum represents a
reconciliation between HarWer and Set. His goals and adversities parallel those of Set, while also incorporating
many of the positive qualities of HarWer. Xnum’s primary goals are the cultivation of life towards higher forms, the
pursuit of self-knowledge and creation on various levels of existence. This has close ties with Magister Menschel’s
concept of Setagenesis, but within the Order of Xnum it is referred to as ARI-KAT (“to process, to synthesize, to
manufacture”). Initiates of the Order of Xnum will seek to uncover deeper meanings beyond the obvious.
The Order of Xnum is a Remanifestation of the cult of agathodaimon, which is the cult of bringing into being
the essential Self through the discipline of philosophy. Like the ancient Greeks, we will pare mythology and
symbolism down to the bare essentials. Philosophy allows us to discuss uncommon things in a common (albeit
precise) language. We will in turn be able to use mythology and symbolism in a more potent way because of our
comprehension of principles. Thus we work in the spirit of the ancient Hermetic tradition, which is the spirit of
cooperative individualism. There is room for both reason and magic in the worlds we create.
Conclusion
The Setian mind hungers for knowledge - the most essential knowledge being Self-knowledge. Setian
epistemology can therefore be said to be rooted in ontology - or as one Setian Magus expressed it: “The only truth is
that of being!” The Setian philosophy, as summarized in the Word Xeper, advocates the principles of life,
dynamism, and self-awareness, as much as it opposes death, stasis, and self-delusion. These are mirrored within
and beyond the Setian, as he struggles to perform the alchemy of transforming the self that is yet to be into the Self
that Is To Be!
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A88: Remanifestation: The Process Explained
- by James Lewis V°
September 13, 1989
It is by necessity of the initiation that each Magus set forth the principles of his Word and those aspects of it
which exist with both contemporary life and the Words previous to it. A Word, whether of the primary or Æon-
enhancing kind, must have relevance to the chemistry of life. It is the duty of the one who Utters it to show the
principle at work. It is not the duty of the Magus to do all the work involved with his principle; instead he shares
such Understandings as his intellect is able to translate into comprehensible language so that others may put his
perceptions to the test. It is for this reason that while the Degree of Magus is uncluttered by obscurity and is in fact
the most easily understandable of all Grades, the difficulty associated with it is in its successful functioning. No one
would have ever been able to convey the full weight of that to me prior to having personally experienced it and it
may be that one or more of you reading this may one day undergo that freak occurrence which we name the Fifth
Degree. Future Magi have now been forewarned!
Remanifest was initially a Word which answered the question of continuation of the Self after the metabolic
processes of the biological envelope eventually ceased. The finer points of time cycles and manipulation at first
escaped me, as did the daily Willed function of the principle at work in both the Initiatory aspects and those coming
about as a naturally occurring action. The Word is a tool through which the power of Xeper can be more skillfully
used to make the most of the core of the Wewelsburg Working, itself an unveiling of the dynamic force operating as
non-Initiates alike encounter. In that sense it is present side by side with Xeper in that an absence of either would
cause the machinery of the Self to grind to a halt. The deliberate and ethical pursuit of the theory and dynamics of
Xeper cannot but produce a Remanifestation through which newer and more refined uses of previously gathered
knowledge can be put into practice. This in turn creates a further Xeper and another option to Remanifest anew.
This continuation can and will take place as long as the hand-in-hand process is Willed to persevere. Our early
predecessors, the inhabitants of ancient Khem, did not think of time as being linear, but rather as circular and
cycling its occurrences through progressive accumulations of events and influences. Such insights as theirs have
more than an incidental meaning for the questing Magician and in fact assist in extending his grasp of the way in
which it is possible [and inevitable] that he will Remanifest. It is in accord with the principle of Xeper that all Willed
and even accidental actions which move the individual build up to a point at which a being emerges who for all
practical purposes is a newly made presence on the planet. Such a result is one of the aims of the Initiatory process.
Eventually the exploring mind must ask what the Self can/will Come Into Being as in a long term sense. A
complete and definitive answer to that question is not available to us for the simple reason that no one can foretell
the future. [What a dull world it would be if we could!] It may be that increasingly sophisticated Remanifestations
will produce a Self unlike any that contemporary man can conceive of by today’s standards - I rather suspect that
will be exactly the case. Given the force of Thelema still making itself felt, there is in point of fact no limit to what
can come to be. Neither is there anything outside of man which is able to destroy the soul’s ability to assert its
presence in any way it perceives as proper and just. Life, once understood, is a treasure not to be thoughtlessly cast
aside at whim. It is the basic key to immortality through the doors of new forms.
The Trail of the Serpent is the newsletter of the Order of Leviathan. Since XIX it has covered different facets of
the way in which individuals and groups Remanifest. It did so prior to the Word receiving V° Recognition and
subsequently has continued to serve as
one of the vehicles for its ongoing explorations. Those nuances of the Word
uncovered there have advanced far beyond anything I could have expected and indeed have surpassed a number of
times beyond what I had at the time thought of as the most comprehensive insights possible into the principle. It is
intellectually and Magically satisfying to encounter new facets which previously had been missed. It is even more
satisfying to see the Word being tested and used by those bearers of the Black Flame for whom it was intended.
Those who put the augmenting implement to Xeper into practice find themselves more successful in their Hegelian
quests to uncover that knowledge of Set spoken of in the Book of Coming Forth by Night. This advantage is not
applicable to my own Word only, but is germane to an appreciation of Thelema, Indulgence, Xeper, and even
Restriction, that Word of Sin spoken of by HarWer. The practical asset of it all has the far more long-reaching effects
which Coleridge saw as far back as 1833 CE: “If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is
sinking downwards to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are
worse, a great deal worse.”
The angel and devil references are not unworthy of Magicians’ attention. In the context of Coleridge’s penned
words and our Æon, “angel” need not be dismissed as representing an effete winged servant. Neither should “devil”
be thought of solely as a vessel of malice. The quote as seen through the eyes of present day discernment more
accurately portrays the angelic as a symbol of the aristos and the devilish as that which selfishly plots a course for
the perverted use of life in order to cause harm and mutation rather than beneficial evolution. Such destructive
behavior must eventually find itself undergoing the same fate Ipsissimus Crowley described the Black Brothers as
suffering: a slow and sure disintegration of the self into the nothingness of oblivion.
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This is not to say that those who are deliberate in their evil are doomed to a Judgement Day-type retribution.
Just as those who sincerely Will to Come Into Being as the highest and best possible states of Being are successful in
their endeavors, so the small and selfish also have an opportunity to escape the annihilation of consciousness.