concerning the same subject.
(7) Argumentum ad Ignorantium: It is illogical to say that a given statement is true just because
there is no evidence to disprove it.
(8) Composition and Division: What is true of the whole is not necessarily true of the parts, and vice-
versa.
(9) Ignoratio Elenchi: When a person proclaims that he is going to prove something, then actually
proves something irrelevant to the claim.
(10) Non sequitur: Arguments which do not logically substantiate their contentions.
(11) Argumentum ad Hominem: Attempting to disprove something by attacking the author or
proponent is logically invalid.
Now the thrust of “Wanted: Parastrology” was not too far removed from that of Anton LaVey’s and my earlier
articles on astrology - namely that astrology is not the “God in sports clothes” it professes to be, but that it can be
utilized in a Lesser Black Magic (LBM) manner for manipulation of those who believe in it. “Parastrology” suggested
that there is the potential for an even more intricate LBM application of astrology if that concept is modified to focus
on actual non-terrestrial gravitation & radiation influences upon human organisms.
Subsequently, in my book review of Zoller’s Lost Key, I discussed astrology’s potential use as a GBM technique.
As a means by which to organize and categorize the impressions and expressions of the mind, it is no different than
the Tarot, the Runes, the I Ching, or even a Ouija board. It can thus serve as a kind of “language” or “matrix” to
assist the magician in translating sub- or super-rational sensations into rational statements - which can then be
analyzed, assessed, and - most importantly - communicated to other magicians.
I thought then, and think now, that Zoller broke important ground here. I was somewhat less impressed by the
conventional horoscopes included in Lost Key, since the premise of such devices is that the system controls the
individual rather than the other way around. For the magician to state and use this as propaganda to influence non-
magicians is “LBM as usual”. Other magicians. however, are presumably immune to this as well as to other LBM
trickery - though they can admire the skillful application of any LBM device.
Carl Sagan would need no “unrealistic tests” to refute Zoller’s responses, since he could do so simply in terms of
their internal logic per the above checklist of fallacies. In brief:
Response #1 - Fallacies #9 & #10. Nor is the existence of a “world soul” either a deductively established fact or
even an inductively logical probability. If skepticism is to be eschewed in favor of a “benefit of the doubt” approach,
it should logically be when the proposition in question is more probable, not more improbable [as in astrology].
Psychology and medicine, of course, have indeed been statistically tested and verified thereby. LSD trip-reports are
not noted for their consistency, reliability or objectivity.
Response #2 - A draw. Zoller can say that Sagan’s sample isn’t complete; Sagan can also say the same thing
about Zoller’s sample. Astrology itself is not validated. Fallacy #9.
Response #3 - Fallacies #3 (Ma’shar) and #9 [since a method of circumventing rather than solving the problem
is proposed].
Response #4 - Fallacy #2. Millions of Indians and hippies may believe in karma, but that in itself does not
establish its existence. Nor is Zoller granted the prerogative to identify and/or ratify “all nascent magical thought”.
Yoga exists. but its claims are not all established. Even if they were, this in itself would not validate astrology.
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Response #5 - Fallacy #9.
Response #6 - Fallacy #5. It is not proven fact that either mythology or astrology is valid, or for that matter that
one conceptually preceded and determined the other.
Response #7 - States that greater precision is possible. But this in itself does not validate astrology. Fallacy #10.
Response #8 - Asserts that the influence is there, but this in itself does not prove its existence. Fallacy #10.
Response #9 - Criticism not disputed. To say that the limitation is observed because it is easier to observe it is
Fallacy #9.
path of the Solar System through the Milky Way Galaxy may affect the frequency and strength of the Sunspot cycle.
Fallacy #10.
If Zoller hasn’t made a case for astrology’s objective power over human organisms, it is certainly not through
neglect of sincere and exhaustive research on his part. But the cruel truth may just be that there is no substance
there to be found. Any “predictive” device which is based upon “fate” rather than identifiable and measurable
elements of probability necessitates a metaphysical “God” which decides and enforces that “fate”. If that were true,
the notion of “free will” would be illusory, and we would all be slaves who only imagine ourselves to be free.
The key premise of the Temple of Set, substantiated by both logical examination and scientific observation [cf.
Black Magic in the Crystal Tablet] is that individual free will does in fact exist - in which case there is no such thing
as “fate”, and the only outside forces acting upon us are the non-conscious, physical ones of the objective universe,
which can influence our minds and wills only indirectly, through pressures on the physical human body and
impressions on its sensory organs.
Elsewhere in the Crystal Tablet the Setian is encouraged to become familiar with stage magic in general and
mentalism in particular. Herein are found many tricks by which the future can appear to be predicted - such as
after-the-fact “pre”-dictions, generally applicable characteristics of recognizable types of people, use of investigative
information which the subject assumes the magician cannot know, slight-of-hand reading of “sealed” documents,
predictions actually [but not apparently] based upon mathematical formulae, and ambiguous statements which may
be “refined” into predictions as the magician engages in seemingly casual conversation with the subject. Since
horoscopic astrologers hedge their horoscopes with any number of escape clauses in case of an obvious failure, test
cases prove only that the stage-magician outwitted one or more subjects - or that he could not.
Horoscopic astrology could be proved only by identification of a “smoking gun”: a detectable, independently
measurable force which “makes it work”. Otherwise there is simply no reason to grant it a priori God status over us,
any more than we enslave ourselves to the I Ching, the Tarot, YHVH, the Runes, or Ouija boards.
Horoscopic astrology retains its value as a LBM device for the Black Magician, so that he can awe and control
and profit from the profane and the credulous via its “predictions”.
In a GBM context. it can be used as a magical language under the total control and will of the magician
to enable the psyche to understand, organize, and exercise itself. [This is the point made in Zoller’s Lost Key
highlighted in my review in Runes #III-1.
The development of a true parastrology, as proposed in the lead article in Runes #III-1, awaits its pioneer(s).
- 376 -
A62: From Salamander Bones to the Seven Towers of Satan
- by Michael A. Aquino VI°, GM.Tr.
Runes #III-3, May 1985
Order of the
Trapezoid
In our explorations into the phenomena of life and death, we’ve come across a good many interesting facts and
theories, all of which bring us closer to the “smoking gun“ we’re ultimately after: a kind of “unified field theory” that
would explain things like magic, ESP, PK, consciousness, the psyche. etc.
As in any new or unusual field of inquiry. however, there is a high error-factor. Some of the errors are both
understandable and unavoidable: the normal give-and-take of the experimental process.
Other errors are more annoying: those which derive from quackery, fraud, ooga-booga mysticism, or just plain
stupidity masquerading as true wisdom or authority. It has often seemed in the Church of Satan, Temple of Set, and
Order of the Trapezoid that we have had to endure three steps back for every one taken forward, and that whatever
knowledge we’ve gained has been at the expense of rather a large number of grey hairs.
In this environment it makes our day, as Clint Eastwood would say, to come across real “breakthrough”
material. Here it comes. in the form of a new book entitled The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the
Foundation of Life by Robert O. Becker, M.D. and Gary Selden (NY: William Morrow, 1985).
Becker is an orthopedic surgeon who was not content just to set or wire broken bones together and let the body
take it from there. He became interested in the field of bodily regeneration. The first part of his book is an Alice in
Wonderland tour through hydras, salamanders, and other comparatively simple forms of animal life that are able to
regenerate their bodies in whole or part far beyond the capabilities of more complicated life-forms (such as
humans).
A hydra cut in half will quickly develop into two hydras, for example, and the salamander can completely
replace amputated legs and tail - all at once if necessary - as well as its jaw and eye lenses.
To make a very long and highly technical story short, Becker gradually uncovered a number of correlations
between electromagnetic phenomena and the behavior of living tissue. The first 2/3 of his book reads more like a
medical research text than a survey written for non-MDs, but it certainly establishes the atmosphere of scientific
precision in which Becker operates. When he makes a point about EM fields, it is because he has carefully cited the
results of his experiments leading to that particular conclusion.
In the last third of the book, Becker takes a close look at a number of developments in EM research. One of
these may very well be the “smoking gun” of the Gift of Set itself:
Francis Ivanhoe, a pharmacologist and anthropologist at two universities in San Francisco, made a
statistical survey of the braincase volume of all known Paleolithic human skulls, and correlated the increase
with the magnetic field strength and major advances in human culture during the same period.
Ivanhoe found bursts of brain-size evolution at about 380-340,000 years ago, and again at 55-30,000
years ago. Both periods correspond to major ice ages, the Mindel and Würm, and they were also eras when
great cultural advances were made - the widespread domestication of fire by Homo erectus in the early
Mindel, and the appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnon peoples) and gradual decline of
Neanderthals ( Homo sapiens) during the Würm.
Two other glaciations in the same time span - the Ganz ca. 1,200-1,050,000 years ago and the Riss ca.
150-100,000 years ago - didn’t call forth such obvious advances in human evolution. They also differed
from the other two in that the average geomagnetic field intensity was much lower.
Ivanhoe has proposed a direct link from the magnetic field through the growth-hormone regulator
pathways in the brain to account for the sharp evolutionary gains. He suggests that part of the
hippocampus, a section of the brain’s temporal lobe, acts as a transducer of EM energy. A part of the
hippocampus called Ammon’s horn, an arch with one-way nerve traffic directed by a strong current flow,
may read out variations in the field strength, feeding them by a bundle of well-documented pathways called
the fornix to the hypothalamus and thence to the anterior pituitary, where growth hormone is produced. It’s
known that larger amounts of this hormone in pregnancy increase the size of the cerebral cortex and the
number of its nerve cells in the offspring, as compared with other parts of the brain.
Ivanhoe also notes that the hippocampus and its connections with the hypothalamus are among the
parts of the brain that are much larger in humans than in other primates. The idea gains further support
from the fact that neural activity in the hippocampus increases with electrical stimulation and reaches a
maximum at 10-15 cps, at or slightly above the dominant micropulsation frequency of today’s field ...
Here, as in experimental science in general, we are dealing with the “how”, not with the “why”. Nevertheless an
understanding of the “how” is virtually essential to meaningful conjectures concerning the “why”.
- 377 -
Turning to ESP, Becker suggests that the DC perineural system and its EM fields “provide the only theory of
parapsychology that’s amenable to direct experiment, and yields hypotheses for almost all phenomena except
precognition”.
It is possible, he thinks, that higher life-forms’ increasing dependence upon digital impulses for sensory input
may have suppressed our awareness of the “hum of EM information” from other creatures, just as the sensory
organs and brain are known to filter out “noise” of other types so that humans can concentrate on specific
impressions. If telepathy is linked to ELF (extremely low frequency) radiation, that would account for its not
becoming weaker over great distances.
On the less pleasant side of things, Becker came across evidence, both from his own research and from that of
others, that certain kinds of EM radiation can either generate or accelerate damage to living organisms. He cites the
instance of the Russian researcher, Yuri Kholodov, who found areas of cell death in the brains of rabbits after
subjecting them to 100-200 gauss magnetic fields. The fields were found to have activated stress hormones within
the rabbits, but in a way that the rabbits could not consciously sense any stress.
In 1969 Becker was one of the scientists asked by the U.S. Navy to review possible side-effects from Project
Sanguine, the ELF transmitter the Navy intended to build in Wisconsin to communicate with nuclear submarines.
He observes:
The only thing sanguine we found was the name ... The antenna would produce an EM field 1 million
times weaker than that from a 765-kilovolt power line. It was to broadcast at 45-70 hz, frequencies close
enough to the Earth’s micropulsations that living things are very sensitive to them. Similar fields had been
shown to raise human blood triglyceride levels (often a harbinger of stroke, heart attack, or arteriosclerosis),
and change blood pressure and brain wave patterns in experimental animals. The generalized stress
response, desynchronized biocycles, and interference with cellular metabolism and growth processes were
also distinct possibilities.
The committee recommended that Project Sanguine be shelved pending further data in these problem areas.
The Navy marked the report “For Official Use Only” and eventually moved the project to Michigan, renaming it
Project Seafarer. A new review committee was cho
sen; Becker was not on it.
The ELF project was later redesigned and renamed again, heavily funded by the new Reagan Administration,
and after a lengthy legal battle is now under actual construction.
The essence of the danger posed by EMR on living organisms is that ELF radiation of 30-100 hz appears to
interfere with the body’s normal biological cycles. Results may include a continuous condition of mild stress
throughout the organism, often triggering its various immune and disease-lighting systems. As the body adapts to
the ongoing presence of these systems, their combative effect on serious infections and diseases is lessened.
EMR can also cause change in strains of bacteria, enhancing their growth and resistance to antibiotics. This,
suggests Becker, may account for the onslaught of “new” diseases since 1950, many of them developing from
pathogens previously incapable of inducing disease. Among these: Reye’s syndrome, Lyme disease, Legionnaire’s
disease, AIDS, and Herpes.
Other experiments described at length by Becker, in detail too complex and technical to be adequately
summarized in this article, have yielded implications that:
• Microwave exposure can cause decreased energy levels in the brain by inhibiting electron transport chain
function in brain mitochondria.
• Even very weak ELF fields, such as that produced by a TV set 60 feet away, can both accelerate and decrease
human reaction time.
• A statistical study of suicide events in the vicinity of overhead high-voltage power lines revealed that
magnetic fields averaged 22X higher at suicide addresses, and that areas with the strongest fields contained
40X more fatal locations.
• Animals exposed to EMR undergo a variety of blood changes, such as decline in red cell count and
hemoglobin concentration, hence oxygen capacity.
• EMR of the sort received by many people in “home” environments may reduce the strength of electrical
impulses governing contraction of the heart muscle by as much as 50X.
• There is an increasing body of evidence that cell-division-related diseases, such as cancer, are aggravated by
EMR.
• Improperly or inadequately shielded video terminals may be a factor in the extremely high numbers of