was asked to accompany Anton LaVey on an eastern publicity tour promoting his new book The Compleat Witch. As
he was leaving N.Y.C., he told her to take her test for Priestess III°, which she passed in April 1972. She was formally
ordained by C/S Priest Michael Grumboski at the Third Eastern Conclave at the Manhattan Statler Hilton in
October of the same year.
Santa Barbara became this vivacious lady’s abode in October 1974. Within the first month after the Temple of
Set came into being, Magus Aquino Recognized Lilith Sinclair as Magistra Templi lV°.
During her C/S days she had searched through the list of “Infernal names” in the Satanic Bible for a magical
name. She liked the sound of “Lilith” and by instinct selected it. Her investigation of the chosen name followed. Her
ritual name, which she uses only in workings when she wants to evoke the Cobra goddess with whom she identifies,
is Uræus, the Serpent One.
Along with her 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, she lives with a Siamese/Persian black cat with golden
eyes named Seti. She works for a stock brokerage firm. Her parents and brother, Adept William Butch, still reside in
Pittsburgh.
Magistra Sinclair counts among her important interests astronomy and geology, which she has studied at Santa
Barbara City College. She also is proficient at belly dancing, which she does solely for physical fitness and self-
enjoyment. An avid reader, she also likes instrumental music, particularly classical. The Moody Blues and Jefferson
Starship are her very favorite modern performers.
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A woman of keen insight and sharp intellect, she prefers talking to writing and is very eloquent at it. She likes a
degree of formality with people when she first meets them. Above all she abhors anyone calling her “Lil”. She also
has little patience with non-Setians who ask obviously inane, pointless questions regarding the Black Arts and
Setian philosophy, since they evidence a sensational, rather than a genuine interest. On the other hand, serious,
intelligent questions are met with frank, thoughtful answers and a receptive ear.
More than the ocean, which she loves, she is drawn to dense, enveloping fog, particularly on a grey, lonely,
morning, beach stroll where she can hear the crashing waves as she wraps herself in a mystical, magical cloak of
mist and senses her awareness of what she has become in her own universe.
Magistra Sinclair would like to develop herself to the highest degree of intellectual and magical end she can
achieve. She does not know if there is a limit to this as she continues to Xeper. Ultimately she desires to be powerful,
proficient, highly-evolved, skilled sorceress that she can - “to dare the Black Magic” and succeed.
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A46: It is Now the Time for the Coming Into Being of Xem
- by Constance Moffatt II°
Scroll of Set #IV-9, May 1979
The “Infernal Mandate” is carried by whoever best represents the true will of the Prince of Darkness at a
given point of time. I am convinced that the “Infernal Mandate” has now passed. Xeper has been Uttered,
and it is now the time for the Coming Into Being of Xem. The impetus of the Æon of Set is now in the care of
another Magus. - Michael A. Aquino V°
Thus did Magus Ronald Keith Barrett Come Into Being as the new High Priest of the Temple of Set on March
24th of the year XIV Æon of Set.
Magus Barrett, known magically as Anubis, entered this world in the small town of Fort Branch, Indiana,
September 29, 1944 CE.
One of three sons of members of the Presbyterian Church, Anubis was elected to the Indiana State Synod, the
governing body of the Presbyterian Church, when he was 14 years of age. After challenging the hypocrisies of the
church and incurring the wrath of the religious fathers, he resigned from both the Synod and the church.
Anubis nevertheless continued in his search to find the true church - one that practiced what it preached. “My
quest for that God that called to me from the time I was a young boy drove me [and everyone else, I might add]
crazy. I was labelled ‘fanatic’ and ‘heretic’ at the same time.”
Anubis spent most of his time in the local cemetery outside of Fort Branch, or performed contrived rituals in
front of the altar of the town’s Presbyterian Church, the sanctuary to which he gained access by sneaking in through
unlocked windows.
The special ceremonies of the Mormon Church and the secrecy of their temple appealed to Anubis. At 17 he
thought he wanted to “try it out”. When his parents prevented his baptism, he joined the Army in order to have the
freedom to join the church. By this time, however, he began to question and challenge the Christian god. “I reasoned
that maybe he was wrong if all his followers were such hypocrites. Then I made a bargain with both the Devil and
God at the same time. The one who could prove himself to me would gain my loyalty. Religion became empty to me,
and I became something of a rebel.”
Shortly thereafter Anubis decided to investigate certain magazine ads and joined AMORC. This association was
not long-lived.
During the 1962-65 Army years which followed high school graduation, he had some medical training. Shortly
after his Army hitch was up, Anubis joined the Universe Book Club. His first order included The Black Arts by
Cavendish and Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek.
Something in me said, “Yeah, more, more!”. My very first ritual was my own version of a destruction ritual, and
it really worked.
Disenchantment soon set in, however, as he became bogged down with worthless occult books. The
disenchantment led to “internal outrage toward everything”. He bought a motorcycle, became involved with an
outlaw club, cultivated a “very demonic appearance, and generally raised Hell”.
One day a mysterious package arrived in the mail, sender unknown. It contained Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible.
“I laughed and put it away for a rainy day. Then one day it rained!” Anubis read the book in one sitting and finished
by proclaiming himself a Satanist. “I felt as if LaVey had written my own feelings and ideas in his book.” Shortly
thereafter he wrote the Church of Satan for an application.
Anubis became a Satanist I° in V AS. He continued on through the Church, becoming a Warlock II° in VII. He
joined the Lilith Grotto and the Grotto Council in VII in New York City, where he owned and operated “The
Magician”, an occult service/store specializing in Satanic ritual supplies, books, occult jewelry, metaphysical art
gallery, etc. He formed the Twilight Grotto, the last Grotto in the Church of Satan, in IX.
The Temple of Set welcomed Anubis as a Priest of Set III° in July of X ÆS. He became one of the original
Council of Nine the same year. During this time he brought into creation the Anubis Pylon in San Francisco, which
was active through the Vernal Equinox XIII. He became a Magister Templi IV° in August of XII, and Chairman of
the Council of Nine in January XIII. He was Recognized as a Magus V° on the South Solstice XIII.
Magus Barrett moved to Potter Valley, approximately 180 miles north of San Francisco, early in XIII. Shortly
afterward he made his final move to the top of his three-mile-high, magical mountain of mystic origins and wild,
primitive beauty, which he named XemSet. Wilderness is sone thing which he has always loved, and this extremely
remote mountain more or less “found me.
It is the magically correct place for me to be. I feel uncompromised here
at XemSet. This is also where I first ‘knew’ my Word Xem.” Since that first day of residency on Middle Mountain, he
has worked tirelessly building the XemSet complex, an extensive undertaking.
Dark and Handsome, with a rather disarming, jackal-like smile, Anubis likes to paint, sculpt, explore, and
“terrorize humans”, the last of which he lists first among his pet peeves. He is also interested in metaphysics,
electronic & classical music, science fiction, philosophy, Egyptian language, religion, magic, Lovecraft, other horror
literature, and art.
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This very magnetic and energetic Magus likes coffee, his pipe, a full Moon, summer, peanut butter, Grape-Nuts,
creating things, watching nature as he works outdoors, magical work, Setian company & magical discussions, and
“me”. He has left cities, loud noise, sports, pollution, and humans - all of which he abhors - behind him. More of
his pet peeves are: cold, wet weather; helplessness; sloppiness; senseless red-tape rules and laws; mechanical
failure; soul music; imbalance; illness; intellectual snobs; drunks & “heads”; liars & thieves; incompetence; and
“situations affecting me that I cannot control”.
Merenthoth, the XemSet cat, will be joined in August by a pet wolf, who will fit quite well into the surrounding
animal life of deer, jack rabbits, raccoons, owls, and snakes.
Magus Barrett fully identifies with the Temple of Set because as one of the Elect he knows that the Temple “is
that one organization on Earth dedicated to Truth. The Temple is that which gives means and/or purpose to
everything else. It is the vehicle of the Elect upon the path of Xeper to Xem.”
As Magus, Anubis desires to define and completely “Open the Way to Xem”; as High Priest of Set, he hopes to
“guide and protect the Temple as best I can”. Personally he aspires to “fully Come Into Being as a god”.
I would like to recognize and thank Anton LaVey, who helped to set me on the path of magic, and
Magistra Lilith Sinclair, who was a true teacher and guide for me. Without her example and magical
expertise, I would not be who and what I am today. And finally I wish to thank and express my love and
respect to Magus Michael Aquino, without whom none of us would be who and what we are. There is none
greater than this one. He is honored by me above all others, not only for what he has done, but for who he
has shown us that he is. It is my will and my Word that he shall always be honored among us.
As Magus Ronald K. Barrett, High Priest of the Temple of Set, advises all Setians to “never be less than you are”,
he also leaves us with his favorite quote from The Morning of the Magicians: “Freedom to become in the midst of an
eternity which is!”
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A47: The Xem Working
- by Ronald K. Barrett III°
June 22, XII/1977 (on XemSet)
Working question: About the mountain (Khemset) “complex,” my strange thoughts, and the development of
self.The area in which I had chosen to work was also near the site I had been preparing for my future home. There
was no altar per se, as I had elected to sit in a chair under the night sky. It seemed, however, that nowhere that I
placed the chair felt correct. Just about the time that I was getting angry at this inability to start, the moonlight
moved between some tree branches and created a nearly perfect circle in the center of the dugout and in front of a
small cave that I had uncovered while digging. Instead of facing west, which runs the length of the property uphill, I
felt inclined to face south. The circle provided the Moon was definitely where I should be seated.
I “opened the gates” and began to concentrate. As the working began, I experienced the sensation of being a
colossus, with the size and appearance of the seated Rameses II.
I did not know into what that was going to evolve, for I was rudely and quickly jerked back into mundane
existence by something moving around in the fallen tree limbs behind me. I passed it off as being a lizard, quail,
squirrel, or some similar small creature. When twigs began to snap, I assumed that it was probably a deer that had
come snooping around. Next I heard it in the tree a few feet behind me, and then I knew it was an owl. But when
twigs and small limbs began to fall, I knew that only an impossibly large owl could create such a commotion, and my
spine began to tingle. When I turned around to look, there was nothing there, and the noise had stopped. When I
turned to investigate, nothing was to be seen.
As I was becoming very frightened, the words “higher man must conquer fear” suddenly came to my mind. By
an effort of will, my fear subsided. I turned back to welcome whatever “it” was, and this time it was gone, not to
return. I was awake.
I proceeded to scan the mountain with the aid of full night vision and moonlight, and I saw it quite differently
than I ever had before. There was a light blue-green haze or aura around all the plant life, and somehow it would
have seemed unnatural not to have seen it.
My eyes were drawn to the waning Moon. I felt an association of Set with its darker side, and of Osiris with its
waning bright side; and something within me recoiled in rejection of the associations.
against a wall and observing someone who was standing before a pair of scales. He was Anubis, and there was a
heart being weighed against a feather. The scene was obviously the Hall of Judgment. Although the entities were in
Egyptian garb and of Egyptian appearance, I recognized them as certain members of the Temple of Set. Set was
there also, but his presence was felt rather than seen.
Then came an impression : “Set is the leader only of higher man.” This did not include all Setians.
Anubis/I was before the scales only because an individual (whose heart was being weighed) was seeking entry
into this group of Elect/higher beings, and because I was in some way responsible. Another seeker would be judged
by another of the Elect.
Then my attention was directed to the end of this hall, only to behold a very disturbing vision. There, seated on
his throne, was Osiris. He was not one of the Elect, but he was awaiting our verdict. I somehow knew that his throne
was at the entrance to the hall, and that it was there for a very simple reason: his jurisdiction ended there. The
individual being judged was not dead (as in “un-alive”); rather he was seeking entry into the realm of higher man
and being. Should the scales tip against the seeker, he would be given back to Osiris, who is the god of the dead and
of lower man, and of recycling them.
This disturbed me, and I questioned where HarWer fit into all of this. I was made to see the Sun, and it was Ra
by name - still no sign of the “strange and fitful presence”.
Then a sentence from the Book of Coming Forth by Night came to me: “But speak to me at night, for the sky
then becomes an entrance and not a barrier.” My perspective immediately changed to one above the spot where I
was sitting. I was looking down over the land, and it was now daylight with an incredibly blue-blue sky. I continued
ascending until the sky changed to very dark blue, then purple, then charcoal, and finally black. I could see stars all
around me. Throughout all of this I was continually aware of being physic
ally seated on the mountain. Then I looked
back and Earth, half-dark and half-lit by the Sun.
Then I understood that Set is not limited to our night, but that we are; we are three-dimensional creatures. But
we as higher man need not be. Neither are the Elect limited to communication with Set only during the hours of
darkness; rather they can communicate beyond the restrictions of the senses and of time and space. To accomplish
this, the Elect must be aware that in the space beyond Earth the “night sky” is permanent. The day imprisons
consciousness, but it is not escape-proof, and this provides a great exercise in Xeper.
After an indeterminate time, I began receiving impressions of what I felt to be the focus of my working. It began
with the words “higher man” repeating themselves over and over in my mind. Finally I saw myself aged - but by
wisdom rather than time. It was “my self ahead of myself.” This being pointed out the errors of some of my thoughts
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and ideas. By his ancient [yet contemporary] wisdom he emphasized the concept of self-deception, the games and
politics of lower man, and the quest to attain and maintain the level of higher man.
As I listened to him - on his level - I understood that Xeper is never a relaxed will, but is rather a determination
to be. Even activity in the mundane world must be the result of conscious will and creative purpose. The only “truth”
is that of being! All else is games, religion, and politics; these are no part of higher man or being. Those who will to
participate in the lower world are conscious of that which they do and are ; but those who sink into it are
imprisoned, and their being is abandoned for aimlessness. Do not participate in un-being, and quickly eliminate
those who do from those who seek to and become and be what they are become.
Xem is not the word for ancient Egypt, but rather the state of higher man - the realm of higher beings. It later
became the word for Egypt ( Khem) denoting a place, but this occurred during the decay of Egypt. The temples and
shrines of Egypt/ Khem were but replicas of working facilities for Xem - the state of beings. There is no true Egyptian
architecture for its own sake. What there is possesses no significance or purpose.