http://www.xeper.org/
The Temple of Set is an organization with one task: to provide an environment in which individuals discover, pursue, and realize their unique purpose and destiny. Our philosophy holds that excellence and creative purpose are rooted in self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-creation. We name the experience of the willed unfolding of this individual potential Xeper.
That we pursue this task, and teach this philosophy, reflects our conviction that the individual psyche is the hidden sanctuary of something godlike—something slandered and suppressed by conventional religions that claim its powers for themselves, dismissed by others as unreal, and feared by those who would flee the personal responsibility implied.
What brought you to this web site?
Perhaps you are seeking data: a scholar of religion, philosophy or the social sciences, a journalist, or some other researcher with an interest in the history and programs of the Temple of Set. If so, you will find this site a good starting point, with links to further informed sources.
Perhaps someone you know, or have met on the Internet, claims to be affiliated with the Temple of Set, and you want to know what that's about. This site will reveal to you some elements of Setian philosophy and practice, including our ethical stance. What you find here may or may not appeal—the Temple does not proselytize or recruit. Rather this site is intended to help you distinguish what the Temple of Set is, and what it is not.
Finally, you may be here for Initiation. You had some contact with the Temple—through the written word or other media, perhaps an encounter with a Setian—and sensed that there was something important that the Temple of Set could teach you. Perhaps you have already passed through other occult groups, esoteric schools and religions, failing to find what you sought. Yet you did not abandon the search. Good! Do not be hasty in this decision. Look through this web site, paying special attention to the General Information and Admission Policies, the essays written by Setians, and the list of recommended readings. If, after this review, you elect to apply for admission, use the form provided. We look forward to hearing from you.
Xeper.
Patty A. Hardy IV°
High Priestess of Set
All schools of introspective inquiry [as opposed to those of faith] address the one difference that distinguishes mankind from the rest of the cosmos: the feature of being, of conscious willful existence. This self-awareness makes possible all of our arts, our sciences, our notions of "good" and "evil" as well as free will and the ability to assign meaning to thoughts, statements, and actions.
Religions confront this phenomenon of individual consciousness in various ways. Some—for example, the Buddhist quest for nirvana—endeavor to extinguish it outright. Others, such as the Abrahamic religions, label it "the soul" and posit that somebody else will rescue it. Still others deny it altogether, relegating man to the same status as an animal. Nevertheless there have also been consciousness-worshiping (or –respecting) religions throughout all historical civilizations and cultures.
Historically consciousness-worshiping religions have been more intellectually demanding than their nature-worshiping counterparts, since it is more difficult to reason a path through one's span of conscious existence than it is to be swept along by a current of semi-rational stimulus and response. Such schools were admired in certain societies, such as ancient Egypt and Greece, but generally their elitism and "supernatural" activities made them objects of resentment and persecution.
The Temple of Set seeks above all to honor and enshrine consciousness. We wish to apprehend what makes us each individually unique and use this gift to make ourselves stronger in all facets of our being. To do this we preserve and improve the tradition of spiritual distinction from the cultural universe, which in the Judeo-Christian West has been called Satanism, but which is more generally known as the Left-Hand Path.
The Left-Hand Path is a process for creating an individual, powerful essence that exists above and beyond animal life.
http://www.xeper.org/pub/pub_resources.html
