The Scroll of Set - Issue Number 14
Issue Number 14
Volume II-2
October 1976
Editor: Margaret Wendall IV°
Copyright © 1976 Temple of Set
[1] Physiology in the Ritual Chamber
= - by A. Roland Holt III°
[reprinted from Voice of the Dragon #I-8, Asmodeus Pylon, 5/7/XI]
While speaking recently with a friend who is not a Temple of Set member, but who is “into” magic in a dilettantish sort of way, I was taken aback to hear him claim as “some spooky, genuine magical phenomena” certain processes which were not at all magical but plainly physiological.
Since I do not care to see any Temple of Set member repeat his errors, I have decided to explain two of the most common physiological reactions which occur while one is “in chamber”. I hope that these explanations will help you better understand some of the weird effects [and affects!] which you experience while performing a working. There are enough truly valid magical phenomena without erroneously recruiting others which have sound, “normal” explanations. But, for the love of Set, never tell this to a Wiccan unless you can stand the smell of smoldering feathers!
Both of the processes which we will consider involve changes in respiration. The first process is simple hyperventilation: breathing more rapidly and more deeply than normal. The second process is one common in straining to lift heavy objects, or to reach peak mental concentration at the climax of a ritual. This consists of contracting the expiratory muscles while keeping the airway closed by means of the glottis. Commonly this is called “bearing down”; medically it is known as the Valsalva maneuver. Both hyperventilation and the Valsalva maneuver produce profound changes in the function of the human physiological system.
When one hyperventilates - and this is exceedingly common during workings - the increased rate and depth of respiration causes an excessive amount of CO2 to be breathed off. This lack of CO2 is called medically “hypocapnia” and results in an increase of blood pH which is called “respiratory alkalosis”. The pH of the blood is a measure of the acidity of the blood, or to be specific:
pH = -log[H+].
Now the pH of the blood is largely determined
by the carbonic acid buffer system, according to the
following equation:
[CO2 ] + [H2O] /=/
[H2CO3] /=/ (carbonic acid)
[H+] + [HCO3]
If this looks like Greek (or Enochian!) to you, don’t despair. If you just look at the equation, you will see that if you increase the CO2 concentration, you also [because this is an equation] increase the H+ concentration, thus dropping the pH. [A pH of 1 is acid; a pH of 14 is basic.]
Conversely, if you blow off CO2 by hyperventilation, you lower the H+ concentration, make the blood alkalotic , hence raise the pH.
To recap: We have established that an increase in rate and depth of breath causes excess CO2 loss, which in turn causes a rise in the pH of the blood. Now what does this increase in pH mean physiologically?
Firstly, a fall in CO 2 2 concentration results in cerebral vasoconstriction [English translation: constriction of blood vessels in the brain, resulting in decreased nutrient and gas exchange]. This decrease in blood flow causes certain neurological changes, among which is the familiar “tingling sensation” which so many of us experience in chamber. If the hyperventilation continues, this tingling will progress into full-blown numbness. If carried to extreme, the hands will involuntarily contract and consciousness will be lost.
But such extremes will not be found in ritual settings; they are expected only in pathological states or in childbirth. In addition to these neurological changes, alkalosis causes a host of other alterations, which are too numerous to consider here. Any of the above-mentioned symptoms of alkalosis will subside shortly after one resumes normal breathing. In short, then, the tingling and numbness often experienced in chamber are not magical but physiological, and can be reproduced any time you feel like hyperventilating. Now, for the Valsalva maneuver.
The Valsalva maneuver, as I have said, consists of performing expiration, but without allowing any air to escape. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, just try to pick up a very heavy object and watch what happens to your respiration. The result of the Valsalva maneuver is a decrease in blood return to the heart, and consequently reduced blood supply to the brain. This action produces fainting, “rushes”, and sometimes piercing head pains. Let me explain how all this occurs.
The veins which return blood to the heart are extremely collapsible [like all veins]. When one performs the maneuver, he increases intrathoracic pressure (pressure inside the chest wall). This is quite rational, since one is reducing chest volume by the motions of expiring, while maintaining the same amount of air within the lungs.
This increased pressure collapses the venæ cava (veins returning blood to heart), and after a very short initial rise in blood pressure (because the contents of the veins are being squeezed into the heart), the blood pressure falls drastically because the heart is not receiving any new blood to pump.
In short the Valsalva maneuver collapses the veinous return pathways to the heart and thus lowers blood pressure and the supply of blood to the brain. The body attempts to compensate for this lack of blood and tachycardia (increased heart rate), and constriction of resistance vessels results. The decreased blood supply to the brain will certainly cause a feeling of weakness, or fainting. Extreme pains in the head have been known to occur as well. Here again one may reverse the symptoms by resuming normal breathing.
In closing, as “food for thought”, I would like to point out that although the causes of these processes are “normal” and nonmagical, they may perhaps have results of magical significance.
[2] What's Happening
= - by Lilith Sinclair IV°
[Some months ago we asked you to purchase tickets for a drawing to help Magistra Lilith Sinclair pay legal expenses in connection with her suit against a savings & loan association in Santa Barbara which had fired her. We know you’ve been wondering what has happened since the drawing, and we’re going to let her tell you in her own words. -Ed.]
In July I gave a deposition under oath at the offices of Mission Federal’s attorneys. This was a question-and-answer session, and when they swore me in under oath and said, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” I said, “I swear - so help me Set! ”
The M.F. attorney looked disgusted and said, “It’s okay,” in a very disgruntled tone. This lasted two hours. The next thing was a set of interrogatories my attorney sent to Mission Federal to be answered. The answers came back in August and were so vague and unsubstantial that we decided to subpoena the man, Mr. Schock, who actually did the firing, who was my boss, and who had made all of those statements about my religion. This took place on Sept. 8, and I was present.
To make a long story short, he just about won my case for me. He actually admitted, after a lot of evasive stuff like, “I don’t recall that statement,” etc., that he had indeed said I should remove my Pentagram! My lawyer was fantastic the way he got him to come out with the truth after all the attempts to be evasive without actually lying outright on the part of Mr. Schock. It was just gratifying to see how scared, uncomfortable and downright up-a-tree he was!
I also was happy to find that all the so-called customer complaints they were using to justify firing me were nothing more than a lot of hearsay that came from the employees themselves, and that not one direct customer complaint was made.
Further, the employees that said the complaints were made were the same group that was giving me the harassment and gossiping in the first place. There is not one piece of evidence to support the contention that I was not doing my job! It really was amazing. I never thought it would actually be admitted that way, but it is crystal-clear and on the record, out-and-out religious discrimination.
My lawyer thinks the case will be settled out of court under the circumstances. Of course any settlement will have to include a statement in the court record to the effect that they did discriminate, so that it can be used as a precedent should it happen again.
The next thing is that the case is set for Sept. 27 at Federal Court in Los Angeles for a pre-trial hearing before the judge, and it will most likely be there that the settlement is reached. Otherwise it will go to a jury trial in 60 days, so it will be settled one way or another by December. I will keep you posted.
[3] Ap-uat Library Project (ALP)
= - by Robert K. Barnett III°, Anubis Pylon
The Anubis Pylon has been organizing a new element for the Temple of Set which includes book research, data bank, and experimentation coordination. This new element is designed to assist individual Setians, pylons, and other elements by collecting and providing information that will save footwork, effort, and time.
Starting 1 October Xl ALP will be able to provide upon request book lists by subject matter or author which may include [but not be limited to] the High Priest’s reading list. These book lists are for informational purposes only and will not carry a recommendation. Book reviews sent to ALP by members of the Temple will be included in the ALP Newsletter.
It will also be possible to order some books directly from ALP, as some publishers are offering discounts to the Temple. Magistra Sinclair in Santa Barbara will be in charge of the book orders, but all orders must be sent initially to ALP in San Francisco for processing and paid in advance. Details will be provided in the newsletter, as they are too involved to include here.
Another function of ALP is assistance in coordinating research and experiments by recording who has knowledge of what, who is doing what, who wants to research what, who can help whom, etc. The effectiveness of this depends equally upon the input and output of information. You will greatly enhance the potential of this program by writing out your answers to the questionnaire below and mailing them in to ALP. All answers will be kept confidential, and only your names and interests will be used for referrals.
The newsletter mentioned above will be a summary of accumulated general data, book reviews, special reports and articles, etc. There will be no regular publishing date for the newsletter - neither will there be a standard rate of subscription. The price will be based on 10 cents/page and announced in the Scroll when each new issue is ready. The first issue is now in process and should be available around November 1st.
Send any inquiries, requests, book reviews, comments, etc., and your answers to the questionnaire to Priest Ronald K. Barrett, Anubis Pylon, San Francisco, California. All information and/or inquiries will be handled on an individual basis.
ALP Questionnaire
Name, Title/Degree, Date, Occupation/Profession(s).What have been your past fields of study (formal and/or informal)?
What are your current fields of study (formal and/or informal)?
What subjects do you prefer for casual reading?
Please state the nature of any experiments you have conducted or participated in and the outcome, if known.
Please state the nature of any experiments and/or research you might like to conduct.
Please list any periodicals, magazines, etc. that you feel would be beneficial for a library of the Temple of Set to subscribe to, and explain why.
What books, articles, etc.., would you recommend to other members of the Temple of Set? Please include all pertinent information: title, subject matter, author, publisher, etc.
Please state any ideas or suggestions you might have for this project.
May we refer you to other members whose interests parallel your own?
How might this project best serve you?
[4] Forum
My answer to James Lewis’ article about abortion:
All anti-abortionists have only one argument - “the right to life” - but they won’t talk about what kind of a life. Laws may govern a person’s actions, but no law on the face of this earth can change a person’s emotional feelings. An unwanted child is just that; and no power can change it, and the Christian God can’t do a damned thing about it.
So let’s get out of the operating room and go down the hall to the pediatrics ward. There you will find over a million children, battered, beaten, tortured in the most sickening way - all unwanted children. Of these million children over 3,000 will die from this abuse, and that is not counting the deaths from [planned] accidents (children riding bikes on freeways, drownings, etc.), which resulted in over 4,000 child deaths last year.
I have done much volunteer work in the pediatric ward. I’ve had little ones hang on to me and scream when they saw their parents. I’ve watched babies die, starved to death, brought to the hospital too late for help. I’ve seen them with broken bones, burns, bruises, etc. These pathetic creatures are the results of “the right to life”.
So which is worse: stopping a a fetus from developing into a human being, or torturing and beating them to death after they are born?
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “There is only one thing worse than hardness of heart, and that is softness of the head.”
This is not a dream world; it is hard cold reality.
Xeper.
Joan Keller II°
I wish to address myself at this time to certain aspects of “On Being a Setian” by Setian Martee Zaccirey and “The Vision” by Adept Lowana Knaust, which were published in the August Scroll.
The enthusiasm these members feel about Set, the Temple, and about being Setians comes through very clearly, and it is obvious that they both feel a strong personal commitment. This commitment is the necessary foundation upon which a solid philosophical edifice can be erected, and I hope by means of this letter to serve as a sort of consulting architect and sketch out some blueprints which may enable these and other Setians to build a strong and well-integrated structure.
The fundamental difference between the Setian concepts and those of other religio-philosophical systems are far more profound than many “young” Setians, new to the Temple, are likely to realize at first. This is well illustrated by Ms. Zaccirey’s letter. For many new members there is a tendency to continue thinking in terms of the conceptual system they have supposedly rejected. Thus Ms. Zaccirey speaks of “serving” Set; of Set as her “master”, and of a “oneness with nature and the universe”. These are traditional theist concepts. Slaves serve, and dogs have masters.
But the Lord of Light admonished me, saying, Lose not thyself in the Will of Lucifer, for I am not God and will offer thee no blissful Nirvana blissful Nirvana ... - Statement of Beelzebub, The Diabolicon
Do not bend your knee nor drop your eye, for such things were not done in my house at PaMat-Et. - The Book of Coming Forth by Night
The ultimate aim of the Setian is to become a being like Set: an entity capable of acting outside and contrary to the laws of the Universal mechanism which is God. Magic is the effort of the Setian to bend some part of this mechanism and its laws to his own will; to cause things to happen which, under the “natural order” of things, could not be expected to occur.
Man’s intelligence is the only thing we know of on this planet which does not conform to the “Godly” Universal order, and any exercise of the Will automatically places one in opposition to the objective Universe. If one is “one with nature and the universe” and “relaxed”, one is well on the way to being dead.
There are several items in Adept Knaust’s letter which bear examination. First is the mention of a Baphomet plaque hanging on the wall. As per the Book of Coming Forth by Night, the Baphomet symbol we once employed as the Church of Satan has been replaced by the inverse pentagram in its pure form. Old habits do die hard, and I’m willing to bet that she merely said “Baphomet” while meaning “pentagram” ... though I would have thought she would catch it once she wrote it down.
Proper wording, however, is most important when one does not wish to be misunderstood. As a Setian Adept Ms. Knaust is of course familiar with the Book of Coming Forth by Night: “All other gods of all other times and nations have been created by men.” The choice of words “... she ‘opened up’ to the gods. Not to me, but to the gods” is thus unfortunate, as just what she really meant is unclear. Likewise with the sentence in which she mentions having “prayed” to Set since childhood. She is certainly aware that Setians do not pray as the term is used in the context of conventional religions.
Glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” is a common phenomenon in the so-called Pentecostal or “Holy Roller” Christian sects. Both this occurrence and the physical sensations reported by Adept Knaust and their physiological causes are discussed at great length in Battle for the Mind: a Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing by William Sargant (Perennial Library, Harper & Row, New York, 1971). Also “Key-fairer” seems an obvious phonetic distortion of Xeper.
The positive benefits of this particular experience should not be minimized: it would appear that Adepts Knaust and Fischer both entered the same sort of altered state of consciousness, building their rapport to such a level that a telepathic perception (the knife) resulted.
Bruce Lee once compared martial arts systems to fingers pointing the way to heaven. The problem is that most people become so concerned with a finger that they forget about the goal toward which it points. So it is with these “Set-Experiences”. They should be carefully examined by the persons who have them in order to see what they can tell those persons about themselves rather than being things toward which to strive for their own sakes. Placed in proper perspective, they can be fingers pointing the way toward Setamorphosis.
Xeper.
L. Dale Seago IV°
I just wish Adept Brink had not romped down so hard on Setian Martee Zaccirey. I’m a little afraid that too much romping onto the lesser degrees by the higher degrees will cause the feeling of “Why try, as I’ll only get slapped down for my efforts.” I hope not, but there is that possibility, isn’t there?
What do you really think?
Xeper.
Lowana Knaust II°
I received the September Scroll today and was pleased to see Adept Brink’s letter in “Forum”. For some time now, I have felt that the material submitted to you by lower-degree Setians for Scroll publication has not conveyed the “true flavor of Setianism”. I realize that this must be especially frustrating to you since you have to go to press once a month whether or not enough quality articles have been submitted to fill an issue. Everybody wants to read a good newsletter, but nobody but nobody wants to get off his can long enough to contribute something.
Xeper.
A. Roland Holt, Jr. III°
Hail Set!
I was very pleased to see “The Right to Die” in the Scroll. Just between you and me and the Dark Lord, I don’t understand why there is not more reader input in the Scroll. We Setians are not a bunch of dummies, and I feel it takes a special person to answer the call of Set. After all, even I tried again after sort of stepping in it with the business of abortion.
Look at me - griping because others don’t input after I’ve contributed the sum total of two whole articles! Perhaps I’m a bit too harsh?
Will there be a report of the D.C Conclave in any of the upcoming issues?
Xeper.
James Lewis I
I have read the critical letter of Adept Robert Brink. This is fine, because constructive criticism is what it’s all about. I don’t mind. I don’t have either of those books, and right now I am short of money because I’m planning to go back to school. Maybe I will get them soon.
Nevertheless I now feel embarrassed in the eyes of other Setians. I would have rather the article been rejected. I had another one [not like the first one] I was going to send in, but not now because I won’t be embarrassed further. It might not “fit the hole” right!
Xeper.
Martee L. Zaccirey I°
The concept of Set can be many things to many Setians. However we did not create Set in our own image. Far from it. Set can be an external power source, an external expression of the internal id and ego , and a manifestation of the inner power that emerges with the transformation of what we have come to call “Setamorphosis”. He can be all of the above. Whatever Set is, and as works best for you, then that is best, for that is what Set is. So “set” on it!
Xeper.
William F. Murray III°
Executive Director
[5] Forum Comment
= - by Margaret Wendall IV°, Editor
It seems that when we published the two “Set-Experiences” in August, we opened the proverbial can of worms. In one sense this was “planned”, for we’ve been trying for a year to get some kind of dialogue going in the Scroll - and we sure got one!
It wasn’t our intention to cause embarrassment (or harassment) to any Setian by printing these two “Set-Experiences”; that our actions have done this is embarrassing to us. [It also makes us a little angry.]
But the Scroll of Set is every Setian’s forum. It is because we printed the two “Set-Experiences” that we must print the criticism, both positive and negative. If we didn’t, we could be accused of being censors, and I’m not about to become a censor.
On the other hand, if we got at least one Setian to get out and really study the Book of Coming Forth by Night; if this month’s Forum causes at least one reluctant Setian to study our High Priest’s Analysis & Commentary; if we get a real dialogue going on who and what Set is in our lives - the August issue of the Scroll may go down in history as the second most important issue we’ve published [after the very first one].
[6] Editorial Comments
= - by Michael Waters lII°, Assistant Editor
I would like to begin by thanking all of you who have taken the time and effort to send in material for the Scroll. Also I am now organized to the point where I will be able to answer all correspondence on an individual basis as it is received. I look forward to hearing from you.
I must confess, however, that the volume of material I have received to date has been woefully small. What this boils down to is, for the most part, a rather large output by a relatively small number of people, while the rest sit back and enjoy the Scroll each month.
Before anybody gets his tail in a knot, let me say that I am not pointing an accusing finger at anyone. I think that the problem lies in an incomplete understanding of the function and purpose of the Scroll within the framework of the Temple. I will try to fill in some of the gaps for you.
In the first place, it takes a mind of better than average intelligence and will to decide to expose itself to such an advanced philosophy as the Temple of Set represents. When such a mind perceives, however dimly, its unlimited, transinfinite potential and, further, when that mind boldly decides to follow the Black Path and seek to develop its potential in defiance of the natural order, it then comes into being as a Setian mind.
The basic purpose of the Temple of Set is to provide an intellectual/magical environment wherein the mind/Will of the Setian can find the stimuli necessary to expand to an ever greater degree of competence.
The purpose of the Scroll, then, is to provide a multitudinous forum of ideas in every aspect of Setian thought and endeavor; to be the nucleus of the Temple whereby the body of knowledge and ideas existing within the Temple may be disseminated throughout, thereby facilitating the growth of each Setian, individually and collectively. This can be effective, however, only if a true forum is achieved. If you read something in the Scroll which sparks an idea or thought, develop it and send it in. Conversely, if you have an idea or a theory that you want reaction to, write it up and send it in.
I think many of you will be pleasantly surprised to find that, in developing a theory, idea or reaction to write up for the Scroll, you may just gain an understanding or insight which hadn’t occurred to you before.
[5] More Thanks Due
= - by Margaret Wendall IV°, Editor
I've thanked all of the people at Bubastis Pylon, as well as Scroll’s Assistant Editor, for their help in getting the Scroll to you each month. Now I’d like to put in a little word for our Executive Director, who keeps all your addresses straight, and for Magister Michael Grumboski, who sends the computer-printed mailing labels every month. Without these two people helping, it would be a much more difficult job getting the Scroll to you on time.