Uncle Setnakts Advice Column
Onyx Tablet:
Author:
Don Webb V
Date: Revision: HTML Revision:
August 8, 1999 CE
By entering the Priesthood of Set, you have undergone an interesting process and become the interesting result of it. I would like to share my observations on the result and the process, and offer some advice that may aid your application of your new state of being.
Through our bond with the Prince of Darkness you have have received an "extra helping" of the Gift of Set. Soon you will begin to understand that you have gone through a similar process to our ancestors' ancestors when they received the Gift.
Just as that shock which began the cycle of the Black Flame changed them into non-natural creatures, the shock of being increased in essence changes the new Priest or Priestess. There are far more challenges now than magic, the art of getting what you need, facing you. One of the greatest is that what used to work for you doesn't anymore; therefore you have to find new ways to think and feel. A challenge such as that is of course a completely individual one.
The receipt of this Gift makes you more like Set, and like Set you now have a need to further the process. This desire to pass on - to create others like yourself - is a desire; and as we all know, we sometimes act too rapidly during desire. It is a good time for you to begin to see what the process was that led you to this state of being, so that you can isolate and communicate the elements of that process to those who will come forth to interact with you.
Firstly the Temple was a mystery to you. You didn't know what you would really find here, and it provided a great vehicle to change semiconscious notions of self. This is the first working the the Temple stimulates: of finding out who one is, that one really exists.
The rituals and activities used to effect this vary with individuals, just as their names and backgrounds vary. But it is the quickening, that reenactment of the getting the Gift which prepares the way for the entry into the Plain of Life. A Priest couldn't open that Door for you, but what he provided was a consistent language - a matrix containing our Word, to be heard again and again, so that the Word was able to merge along with the self.
That dual emergence is what we call becoming Adept. Our job in the Priesthood requires that we continually re-provide the "element" of Xeper, so that, when the individual summons it in his or her awakening, it is there. Indeed that dual awakening is expressed among many members of the Priesthood as the three things they look for in Adepts:
1. Understanding of the Word of Set - the return of the element we have placed before them, and which they have incorporated in their lives.
2. Evidence of magical ability - not only the ability to affect things a-causally, but the use of that ability to create and define the self. This can be anything from a ritual to get a better job to an elaborate piece of illustrative work.
3. Commitment to the Temple. This is the product of the dual awakening - a desire to keep the tool well oiled and out of the rain, since there is brought into being a need for it again. The discovery of and application of these criteria will be individual and, because of their personal nature, not subject to tests or rules.
At the II° the Temple becomes a place for the rational exploration of the self through any number of tools. The Temple, created by and subject to Set's Word, is continually enhancing its matrix. All other Words, whatever their merit on their own, are to be Understood only as AEon-enhancing, all Orders only as vehicles, all the jobs of the Temple only as doorways. The relationship of the Priesthood to the II° is to nudge them again and again back into the focus of Xeper.
The II°, which awakens the sense of beauty, is a great time for plans. Adepts will present you with their life plans worked out in detail [usually breathlessly every two months]. They will explore the most Byzantine and elaborate rituals. They abound with theories, and will delight you with their daring. It is important for the Priesthood to urge, through subtle and patient means, the Adept not to hurry through his or her II° days.
The II° is the time when the foundations are laid for the future spiritual work of the individual. Likewise your job in this working is to remind the Adept of the focus of Xeper, so that the central movement of the Temple is in this place of foundation. This is how we both insure that those who join us in the Plain of Onyx will be equipped for the challenge, and how we affect the world as a whole through those folk who will remain at the II°, whether within or outside of the Temple.
Since we are interested in our own preservation, there is a second aspect of our interaction with Adepts II°. In addition to continually asking them how their thoughts and schemes relate to the principle of Xeper, we must also ask them how these thoughts and schemes can be guides to real-world action. How can their ideas be put in motion tomorrow?
This question will puzzle Adepts, since the interaction of the Principle of isolate self-consciousness and the world begins in earnest with the Priesthood III°; the Adept is creating a sense of beauty to guide such later actions. But by presenting the problem, we open the way for the individual who will join us. Once again we provide the elements; it is up to suitable Adepts in their quest for Becoming to apply them.
If you look back at your own development and find these things, you'll have a guide in helping to present them to the next generation. You can never just "explain" it to them. Try not to be disappointed if they don't get it, because the presentation of the material, and incorporation of what these people will bring to you, is your real job. It is the key to your Xeper while dwelling on the Plain of Onyx.
I will offer some advice. I had same the advice offered to me, and I ignored it. Later I realized how wise the folk were who had offered it to me. You will of course ignore this, then later realize how wise I was when I offered this advice. Then in time you will offer it to a new Priest or Priestess, and he or she will ignore ... Well, anyway you see how "tradition" begins.
Here it goes:
1. Very few things have to be done in haste. Feel free to talk your first Recognitions with others. Waiting a little longer is almost always a good idea.
2. Saying "I don't know" is the best answer when you don't.
3. Cultivate a friend among the new Priests with whom you can talk about absolutely any damn thing off the record. Often times, someone from a different Order and a different way of doing things makes the best mirror for your own actions.
4. Make a job of finding that Master with whom you most disagree and figure out how his philosophy is a prism through which the Black Flame is focused. This and the action above help tether you to the process of the Temple, and broaden you in a fairly painless way.
5. When you find yourself giving really good advice, or suddenly explaining something in a way so profound that it amazes even you, write it down in your nightbook. The advice usually winds up being for you. The revelation usually becomes a key to a door of which you hadn't been aware.
6. Know when to rest and get your craftsmen to finish the job. When you can hand over a newsletter, or some of running a Pylon, to competent Adepts, do so. Let them use the energy as a task to learn the secrets of that plain [as per my remarks above], but always keep your hand lightly on the reins. It helps them learn things; and by dismanifesting parts of your willed action, you can allow it to return the inner roots of yourself and be transformed.
7. Don't be dogmatic. Learn to seek out those experiences that challenge your notions, particularly your notion of self. Try out new things. Be daring. Have fun.
8. The task of the Priesthood is to communicate personal initiation. Always try to reshape what you tell and ask people, based on the experiences of your own life.
9. Remember that members of the Priesthood are dedicated individuals serving the AEon through its chief manifestation, the Temple. Know that the opposite is also true: Our "service" is a manifestation of our being greedy little pigs, for we know the secret: For each gift we give, for each true revelation we reveal, a greater gift returns to us. In this we experience the way of being of Set himself, for in the fullness of time his Gift will come full cycle, creating a new race of gods. As the Mouth of Set once said, "I look forward to greeting you young gods and goddesses on the Path ..."
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