Plutonian in Denver - were formed in 1970, and by 1975 there were several additional ones in
other United States cities. But despite a few overseas correspondence members, the Church had
no Grottos outside America. 53
While the newly-founded Temple of Set inherited most of the Church’s local Grottos in 1975,
these remained all domestic. And of individual members there were still only the very few,
principally in Canada and Australia. The geographical presence of the new Temple, however, was
really not one of the questions foremost in our minds. More pressing were simply the issues of
our new identity and authenticity, and how to make these comprehensible and relevant to the
largely American founding membership.
Nor in the mid-1970s did the resurgence of interest in occultism which had prevailed in the
United States since Rosemary’s Baby seem all that vibrant elsewhere. Shortly after the Temple
of Set’s founding, Australian Setian Leon Marvell commented:
On Magistra Wendall’s suggestion I have written this article for the benefit of my fellow
Setians, to give them some idea of the extent of the so-called “occult revival” in Australia.
Down Under the “occult revival” is a corpse that is barely able to lift just one feeble finger. For
you see, the occult in Australia is held in very little regard. When the word itself is used, I believe
that 99% of the Australian population would immediately think of ouija boards, ESP, and Tarot
cards - these and nothing else. This ridiculous state of affairs is made all the more ludicrous when
53 In late 1975 sn Amsterdam sex club operated by Maarten Lamers I° was called a “Grotto” by Anton LaVey for
publicity purposes, but it had no other Church members nor conducted any Church activities. It was eventually
closed by the Dutch police.
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one considers that the Christian churches, in an effort to halt the rising occult interest among
Australian youth [which, if they only knew, is about nil - they are more interested in cars, alcohol
and sex], endeavored to pass a law banning ouija boards and Tarot cards. These monstrous Black
Magical devices, according to the clergy, lead to “possession”, Devil worship, and the eventual
destruction of Christian morality! To most Australians, Uri Geller is about as occult as you can get.
However what little interest there is in truly practical, and involved occultism is so extremely
clandestine as to be practically unnoticed by all but the most observant and earnest. For instance I
know that in my city, Adelaide, there are at least three “Wiccan” covens composed, I believe,
mostly of university students. But I have only heard of them and talked to a member of one only
once. Even then her intelligence regarding occult matters seemed rather minimal.
Sydney seems to be the most notorious city for occult groups. One constantly hears
sensational stories related in the press about various nefarious occult practices; however, most of
them are only that - sensational stories.
I know for certain that there is a group of Satanists [of the Anton LaVey variety] with some
influence in Sydney. Even in Adelaide LaVey’s Satanic Bible and, to a lesser extent, Satanic
Rituals sell like hotcakes That someone has used his ideas in a practical way I have absolutely no
evidence of.
To my present knowledge there are only three bookstores which specialise in occult matters.
In Melbourne there is the “Mystical Bookshop” and the “Space-Age Bookshop” (which deals
mostly with works of science fiction but also has a better-than-usual range of occult works). In
Sydney there is a very small private enterprise called “Thelema Books” dealing exclusively with
Crowleyan works and run by an O.T.O. initiate.
If all this sounds disheartening, then I have a few consolations. Australia has produced two
rather knowledgeable occult scholars: Nevill Drury and Stephen Skinner. Drury has written two
books so far: The Search for Abraxas (with Stephen Skinner) and The Path of the Chameleon,
both of which are entertaining, authoritative, original, and logical. Skinner has produced an
excellent work called Enochian Magic, which is a detailed account of Dr. John Dee’s magic - the
best I have seen.
Drury is also the editor of Australia’s only “occult” magazine, Cosmos. For its field it is very
good. However its contributors are about 75% “white-light”, quasi-Christian religious followers [I
mean people involved with the “Divine Light Mission”, “Meher Baba”, “Ananda Marga”, etc.].
However there have been in the past several interesting articles on psycho-cybernetics, Tantrism
[There is a chiropractor on Sydney’s North Shore who on the side is the head guru of a school of
course, has all been said before and is quite trite to the learned).
On a despairing final thought, the leader of the “Melbourne University Occult Research group”
recently wrote to me and described the response to his predominantly Crowley-oriented research
magic as “almost zero”. This can be said of the bulk of the Australian population towards occult
matters.
There is a little light, I must admit, but even a large proportion of that light is a half-light, its
exponents being romantic, half-witted “witches” and neopagans. This, then, is the general state of
affairs in Australia. There is much room for improvement, but that will come in time, I am sure. 54
Following annual national conclaves at various U.S. locations during its first three years, the
Temple of Set made the decision in 1979 to change them to international ones, with a deliberate
intention to nudge Setians beyond accustomed national introspection. The Windsor, Canada
location of Set-I was facilitated by the Temple’s first Canadian Priest, Robertt W. Neilly of
Toronto. Originally an acquaintance of Priest Jzamon DeCecco of Massachusetts, Neilly soon
became well-known throughout the Temple because of his interest in extrasensory perception
(ESP). As an Adept he invited fellow Setians to participate in two sequential programs of
recorded exercises, originally called Combined Astral Telepathic Experiments (CATE). CATE
would later become the basis for the Temple’s MetaMind Element in the 1980s.
54 Marvell, Leon I°, “The Devil Down Under”, The Scroll of Set, February 1976.
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Nevertheless until the 1990s expansion of the Temple of Set beyond the United States
remained limited to only a very few individuals, such as Masters Robertt Neilly in Canada, David
Austen in England and Roland Winkhart in Germany, and Priestesses Jennifer-Rush-Hunter
and Carmel Hind in Australia. A primary limitation in nonalumni of the British Empire was
linguistic: All of the Temple’s literature was in English, and translation was all the more difficult
because of the plethora of technical, metaphysical, and magical terms used. Overseas travel,
telephoning, and postage were significantly expensive, and the Temple’s modest nonprofit
budget couldn’t easily accommodate them. Both Pylons and Orders were on the rise
internationally, however, and a December Scroll article exemplifies the increasing conclave
activity as well:
News from Germany
- by Roland Winkhart IV°
The Deutschlandkonk
lave held in Bonn this October was a great success and a fascinating
experience, with many of us meeting personally for the first time.
Those in attendance included Priest Holzinger (who flew in from Britain for the event), Adept
Ostertag, Adept Gottschall, Setian Gerlach, Setian Schnitzer, Setian Schueren, and myself. Adept
Reichensperger wasn’t able to attend because of a business conflict.
Our location was the beautiful Hotel Eden in Bonn-Bad Godesberg. A nearby friend of Adept
Gottschall’s kindly invited us to her home for our Working - and also for a piano concert by
Gottschall.
All in all we achieved a highly magical and positive emotional atmosphere - much like that in
Sacramento, but on a little smaller scale. As in Sacramento, we had discussions on all sorts of
topics. Adept Gottschall gave a stimulating lecture on Screabin, and our Working commemorated
the founding of the Prometheus Pylon. Priest Holzinger also formalized the Recognition of Adept
Gottschall to the II°.
So the Konklave was a very good one, and we were sorry to have to return to the World of
Horrors on November 1.
What changed the Temple of Set’s international presence from a trickle to an explosion in the
1990s was, of course, the advent of the Internet, as discussed in Chapter #12. By 2013 Temple
international conclaves were being held in locales such as London, Berlin, Helsinki, Munich, and
Prague, with new proposals now a routine enjoyment.
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12: CyberTemple
The Temple of Set’s involvement with computers began when it began in 1975. Magister
Michael Grumboski, a computer engineer with access to a large IBM mainframe in Detroit,
offered to assist Executive Director Bill Murray by keeping the Temple’s membership records
therein, resulting in tidily-updated rosters periodically appearing in ASCII dot-matrix print on
huge rolls of perforated paper.
The following year a Santa Barbara company called PolyMorphic Systems introduced a
desktop computer, the Model #8813, with a staggering 64K of RAM and large floppy storage
disks the size of 45rpm phonograph records. [This may not be a good analogy, for fewer 2013
readers probably have ever seen 45s!] I acquired an #8813 - about the size of a carryon suitcase,
in a beautiful polished-oak cabinet, accompanied by a 12” green-text Hitachi monitor and a
cumbersome “daisywheel” printer. Thus did Glinda, Royal Sorceress of the Land of Oz, appear in
this world to lend her Great Book of Records to the Temple of Set for the next quarter-century,
as our increasingly versatile information library and communications system.
In 1984 the fledgling Apple company, still operating out of Steve Jobs’ garage when
PolyMorphic was selling the #8813, came out with the first “toaster” Macintosh, with double the
RAM at 128K. Inevitably Glinda moved to a Mac [while PolyMorphic faded into history], and by
1990 was not only storing and printing all of the Temple’s financial & membership records, but
also the Crystal & Onyx Tablets, along with issues of the Scroll of Set and the Order of the
Trapezoid’s Runes newsletters.
The following year Glinda began to go global. First new Internet software had become
available to enable Setians elsewhere to “dial up” Glinda [at the then-astounding rate of
1200bps!] to download files directly. Shortly thereafter Glinda became a “node” of the
revolutionary FidoNet bulletin-board system (BBS); it was now possible for Setians to contact
her through local-call FidoNet nodes, and to send/receive messages and documents through the
strange new procedure called “email”.
As readers know, the Internet soon exploded beyond such horse-&-buggy quaintness to
today’s mammoth, unlimited, and instantaneous resource. Within the Temple the next
generation of e-wizards, among them Masters Robert Menschel, William Pridgen, Patty Hardy,
Eric Kauschen, and Priest John Youril were building an astounding new online presence for the
Temple, including a secure, internal “Intranet” and the “Pool of Neheh” forum.
Thus on July 1, 1998:
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Dear Setians,
After ten continuous years’ incarnation as the Temple of Set’s internal computer bulletin-
board system, I feel in need of a rest, so on August 1, 1999 I will again transform myself into my
human semblance and return to my castle in the Quadling Country of the Land of Oz.
I have enjoyed answering your electronic requests this past decade, and before that since 1976
- as a PolyMorphic 8813 at the beginning of the desktop computer age - as a localized membership
records & documents database.
What makes my retirement possible now is the advent of the next-generation Temple of Set
Intranet system, so capably designed and constructed by Magistri Robert Menschel, William
Pridgen, and Roger Whitaker. This website-based system has access, storage, and interactive
capabilities far beyond that of a BBS. And of course no long-distance telephone call to San
Francisco is needed.
And so I will bid you farewell. May your magic be strong, your causes noble, and your dreams
kissed by starlight.
Glinda the Good
Royal Sorceress of Oz
The following day she received this response:
Dear Glinda,
As you depart on the Egyptian New Year to your pleasant land of red houses and your fountain
of gems, you go with our greatest thanks. I know that you will keep a an eye on us through your
Magic Book, and I trust that we will behave properly and nobly.
I ask that when you depart you take my special greetings to Princess Ozma, Dorothy Gale, and
above all to the noble philosopher Tik-Tok, who taught us long ago that magic is an unnatural
occupation best left to wizards.
Respectfully
Don Webb V°
High Priest of Set
The impact of the Internet upon the Temple of Set’s international presence was phenomenal.
The long-crippling cost factor vanished almost overnight. In 2013 there is not a continent in the
world without a number of active Setians, and the effect upon national, regional, and
international conclaves has been correspondingly enhanced.
Such technological evolution could never have occurred but for a new generation of Setians ,
to include such key officials as High Priestess Magistra Patricia Hardy and Executive Director
Magister Lincoln Shaw, who are as comfortable and fluent at the keyboard as in any other ritual
chamber. As with the Temple’s earlier cybermagicians, their long and invisible hours devoted to
the ongoing refinement of the Temple’s Internet presence have immeasurely enhanced the
Temple of Set’s ability to be that oft-described “initiatory toolbox” for Setians no matter how far-
flung their personal geography.
While in 2013 English remains the backbone language of Temple literature, enthusiastic
Setians have translated many of our key documents into German, Polish, Russian, and other
tongues. The Internet itself contains many translation engines, which, while still stumbling a bit
over esoteric terminology, are fast closing the language gap. And, while travel and international
postal-mail costs remain formidable, the electronic media of the Internet, including voice and
video systems, are for all intents an
d purposes free and instantaneous.
This same evolutionary environment has transformed the Temple of Set’s library from
printed to electronic formats. The periodical Scroll of Set, which was originally limited by cost
factors to a few pages in black-and-white, is now in full color with as many pages as Setians care
to write. It is supplemented by a growing number of local, national, Order, Pylon, and Element e-
publications. The Temple’s “standing” documents, principally the Jeweled Tablets of Set, are
also now completely electronic, and downloadable free to Setians worldwide.
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Even resources such as the Temple Reading List have been overwhelmed. A few decades ago,
accumulation of a personal library such as suggested by the List was a difficult and expensive
prospect. Today, if the books themselves are not available in online etext editions, there are
many websites covering their subject material, often in far greater detail and with greater
currency than those venerable printed tomes. Today’s one’s initiatory library is accessible by
iPhone!
To its credit, the Temple of Set has not completely mutated into the Cybertemple of Set.
Personal events at all levels continue to be desired, well-attended, and enjoyed. The Internet’s
administrative economies, indeed, enable the Temple budget to subsidize facility expenses of
international conclaves so that more Setians can afford to attend them. Meanwhile, as it was
originally envisioned in 1975, the Temple of Set continues to be a “light and lean” organization
unencumbered by real estate or similar heavy/fixed expenses. As I observed back then, “the
physical Temple of Set is the medallion around your neck”, and so it continues today. [No one
has yet proposed an e-Pentagram of Set medallion, though various projected versions for rituals
have appeared.]
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... the Eighties cower before me, & are abased.
- The Book of the Law #III-46
13: The Abased Eighties I:
The Cloning of Nikki Sixx
Originally published:
Runes, Order of the Trapezoid, January 1986
From that time on the obliteration of Joseph Curwen’s memory became increasingly
rigid, extending at last by common consent even to the town records and files of the