In this episode, we descend from the structured architecture of the Temple of Set into the abyssal depths of Xem—the Holy of Holies, the Naos, the Inner Sanctum where the individual Magician confronts the terrifying and liberating truth of his own Becoming. We explore how Ronald K. Barrett V°—the High Priest who bore the Uas scepter as Opener of the Way—seized the initiatory inheritance of the Temple and charted a path beyond Xeper itself, declaring that the engine of Setian evolution is not merely the Will to change, but the direction of that Will toward the Unknown, the faceless, the Name that must be Created.

From the rejection of human standards and the embrace of Ma'at as the only True measure, to the ordeal of initiation and the conquest of fear; from the judgment of the heart against the feather of Truth, to the Black Jackal's alchemical transformation of carrion into life; from the structure of the Temple of Set as a macrocosm of the individual Being, to the meaning of HarWer and the fusion of the Two Lands; from the faceless god whose Name is Unknown, to the Stele of Xem as the Rosetta Stone of this new language of Being—we trace the monumental, deeply demanding, and astonishingly ambitious legacy of this initiatory text and ask: In a world that still clings to comfort, still fears the Unknown, and still retreats from the demands of its own Becoming, do we have the courage to stand before Ma'at and weigh our own hearts, or will we retreat into the illusion of preservation that the Will to Xeper must forever oppose?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays and scriptures of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: The Book of Opening the Way: Keys #1-5 Author: Ronald K. Barrett V° Classification: V2 - A17.2 - 1 through 5 Date: (Not recorded)

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Ronald K. Barrett V°, The Book of Opening the Way (Keys #1-5)

-Michael A. Aquino VI°, The Book of Coming Forth by Night

-Michael A. Aquino VI°, The Diabolicon

-Michael A. Aquino VI°, The Temple of Set (Various Essays)

-I.S. de Lubicz, Her-Bak: Chick Pea (RL #2L)

-Robert Lawlor, Symbol and the Symbolic: R.A.S. de Lubicz (RL #2V)

-Michael A. Aquino VI°, Geneset

-Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Rituals (The Ceremony of the Nine Angles)

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law

-E.A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Various Translations)

-Isaac Asimov, Foundation Trilogy (For the concept of the Second Foundation)

-Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary of the English Language (Definition of Annihilation)

-Frank Eliscu, Sculpture: Techniques and Design Plato,

-Cratylus (On the Rightness of Names)

-Plotinus, Enneads (On Hieroglyphs and Symbolism)

-Plutarch, Moralia (On the Pythagorean Symbols)

(🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Xem #Xeper #Set #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #Setianism #Initiation #Ma'at #Anubis #BlackJackal #HarWer #TheTwoLands #SteleOfXem #RonaldKBarrett #MichaelAquino #TheBookOfOpeningTheWay #BookOfComingForthByNight #TheDiabolicon #BlackFlame #Setamorphosis #Alxemy #PhilosophersStone #Naos #HolyOfHolies #OrderOfSet #BlackMagic #OccultPhilosophy #Esotericism #AncientEgypt #Khem #EgyptianMythology #Neters #Alchemy #Will #Fear #TheUnknown #FacelessGod #PhilosophyPodcast #TheRubyTablet #WisdomTraditions #SetianTradition #AeonOfSet #XeperIRXem #Pylons #HallOfJudgment #OpenerOfTheWay #Upuat #Anpu #UasScepter #Shen #Cartouche #Scarabaeus #IAmManuscript #TheOnyxTablet #TheRubyTablet #RobertLawlor #SchwallerDeLubicz #Crowley #LaVey #Diabolicon #Asimov #FoundationTrilogy)

In this episode, we descend from the abstract heights of philosophical systems into the heat and smoke of a single ritual act—where philosophy is no longer the cool contemplation of eternal truths but the raw, visceral experience of transformation in real time. We explore how Richard Osborn I°—a First Degree Initiate, a Priest performing his role within a Pylon Working, a magician engaged in the consecration of fire—seized the philosophical inheritance of existentialism and Aristotelian dynamics and fused it with the living current of Setian practice, declaring that the engine of Becoming is not the abstract perfection of a formula but the dynamic interplay of Mortality, Sensuality, and Spirituality made manifest through the ecstasy of the Work.

In a world that still craves meaning, still yearns for transcendence, and still struggles with the weight of its own freedom, do we have the courage to consecrate our own fires, or will we settle for the comfortable safety of secondhand truths?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

-Utterance Classification: V2 - A17.17 - 1 Author: Richard Osborn I° Date: March 12, XXVII Publication: Vox Draconis, Summer XXVII (Draconis Pylon)

-'HTML Revision: September 22, 1998 CE Subject: Out of Body Projection Reading List: [Sentinel's Note: The following article was written in March '92 by then-Setian Osborn. It is a reflection upon the Pylon Working of the previous August, which had been the Initiatory group Working for the Pylon. His role in the Working was to consecrate the fire to become the Black Flame.]

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or (trans. Alastair Hannay)

-Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (trans. C. Stephen Evans & Sylvia Walsh)

-Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (trans. Hazel E. Barnes)

-Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Hu...manism (trans. Carol Macomber)

-Aristotle, De Anima (On the Soul) (trans. R.D. Hicks)

-Aristotle, Metaphysics (trans. W.D. Ross)

-Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set, Volume I (especially the sections on Xeper)

-Don Webb, Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path

-Don Webb, Overthrowing the Old Gods

-Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-Hand Path

-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears (especially the chapters on will and becoming)

-Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null & Psychonaut

-Julius Evola, Ride the Tiger

-Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (for context on the Greek sources invoked)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Setianism #Xeper #BlackFlame #LeftHandPath #TempleOfSet #OutOfBodyProjection #Ecstasy #Becoming #Kierkegaard #Sartre #Existentialism #Aristotle #Mortality #Transcendence #Sensual #Spirituality #AeonicFormula #Xepera #Xeper #Xeperu #Ritual #Magic #PylonWorking #VoxDraconis #DraconisPylon #Initiation #SelfCreation #Gnosis #Ecstasy #WillToPower #IndividualSovereignty #Philosophy #OccultPodcast #TheRubyTablet #WisdomTraditions #EsotericPhilosophy #SelfOvercoming #MagicalPractice #Consciousness #MeaningCreation #ExistentialFreedom #BlackFlameMeditation #EgyptianMagic #Set #Setian #FirstDegree #InitiationPath

In this episode, we descend from the conventional veneration of the Mahatma into the shadowy corridors of initiatic history, where the Apostle of Non-Violence is revealed not as a saint of the Right Hand Path but as a Master of the Temple—a Magister Templi working a profound and devastating form of Black Magic. We explore how Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi—the Hindu lawyer from Porbandar, the reluctant revolutionary, the most influential political figure of the 20th century—seized the currents of the emerging Aeon of HarWer and channeled them through the ancient language of Hinduism, declaring that the engine of human liberation is not passive submission to divine will but the relentless assertion of Truth as the ultimate principle of being.

From the fateful Day of Judgment in a South African train station and the birth of active non-violence to the calm waters of Binah and the working without lust for results, from the synthesis of Love and Will in the crucible of Satyagraha to the controversial doctrine of Truth as God, from the renegade's rejection of established custom to the Master's final utterance of "He Rama" as the bullets found their mark—we trace the monumental, deeply heretical, and astonishingly influential legacy of Gandhian thought and ask: In a world that still worships the masks of saints while ignoring the engines of Masters, do we have the courage to see the darkness behind the light, or will we retreat into the comfortable mythology of the peaceful prophet?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: Gandhi Author: James Lewis V° Date: October 8, XXIII HTML Revision: November 27, XXXII Subject: Gandhi Reading List: 6K, 9C, 9D

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Louis Fischer, The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas

-Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

-Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law The Diabolicon (Temple of Set)

- Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set (various essays on Initiation and the Left Hand Path)

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception

-Don Stephenson, The Essential Set

-Stephen Flowers, Lords of the Left Hand Path

-Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History Erik H. Erikson, Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence Joseph Lelyveld, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Gandhi #Mahatma #NonViolence #Satyagraha #Ahimsa #TruthIsGod #BlackMagic #LeftHandPath #MasterOfTheTemple #MagisterTempli #TempleOfSet #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #IndianPhilosophy #Hinduism #Jainism #Thelema #AleisterCrowley #HarWer #AeonOfOsiris #AeonOfHarWer #Binah #LawOfSorrow #Xeper #Set #India #BritishEmpire #Colonialism #CivilDisobedience #PassiveResistance #TruthForce #Philosophy #Spirituality #Occult #Initiation #TheEssentialGandhi #Diabolicon #Satanism #Setianism #HistoryPodcast)

In this episode, we descend from the philosophical heights of Platonic contemplation into the burning crucible of revelation itself—where philosophy gives way to prophecy, where the cool analysis of the natural world yields to the searing intensity of divine speech, and where the question is no longer "What is real?" but "Who is speaking?" We explore how the Word of Set—channeled through Michael A. Aquino in the crucible of the Temple's founding—seized the magical inheritance of the Western esoteric tradition and transformed it into something unprecedented: a direct revelation from an autonomous intelligence that claims to have fashioned human consciousness itself.

From the declaration of the Highest of Life who is "within and beyond" humanity to the hierarchical orderings of being, from the Powers of Darkness and the Black Flame to the Temple that exists "in the mind of Set," from the priests and armies of death and their "intoxicant of destruction" to the "Gate of Darkness" through which alone the stone of wisdom can be found, from the falling Temple and vanishing pentagram to the nineteen parts of the Word and the vision of the Aethyrs—we trace the monumental, deeply contested, and astonishingly influential legacy of the Word of Set and ask: In a world that still worships death, still seeks easy answers, and still drowns in the forgetfulness of its own creation, do we have the courage to arise in our glory and behold the genius of our creation, or will we retreat into the comfortable worship of the god of death?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay #A17.122: The Word of Set

Author: Michael A. Aquino VI° Date: April 13, XVI Revision: September 18, 1998 CE Subject: The Word of Set Reading List: The Word of Set

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Aquino, Michael A., The Word of Set (Temple of Set, 1975–1998)

-Aquino, Michael A., The Book of Coming Forth by Night (Temple of Set, 1975)

-Webb, Don, Xeper: The Eternal Word of Set (Temple of Set, 1996)

-Webb, Don, The Seven Faces of Darkness: Practical Typhonian Magic (Runa-Raven Press, 1996)

-Sessions, Robert, The Black Flame (Temple of Set, 1983)

-Harris, Stephen E., The Fire and the Force (Temple of Set, 1983)

-The Temple of Set, The Crystal Tablet of Set (Temple of Set, 1982)

-Crowley, Aleister, The Equinox, Volume I (various editions)

-Dee, John, The Enochian Calls (various editions)

-Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Gods of the Egyptians (Dover Publications, 1904)

-Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (various translations)

-Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (trans. Walter Kaufmann)

-Nietzsche, Friedrich, The Will to Power (trans. Walter Kaufmann)

-LaVey, Anton Szandor, The Satanic Bible (Avon Books, 1969)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#WordOfSet #Set #Setian #TempleOfSet #Xeper #BlackFlame #PowersOfDarkness #LeftHandPath #Setianism #Occult #Magic #Thelema #Crowley #Enochian #EnochianCalls #Aethyrs #EgyptianMythology #EgyptianGods #Set #Typhon #MichaelAquino #DonWebb #Gnostics #DivineSpark #WillToPower #Nietzsche #Philosophy #Darkness #Revelation #Prophecy #Apocalyptic #Doom #Guardians #Elect #TheRubyTablet #OccultPodcast #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #SpiritualAwakening #SelfCreation #Consciousness #AncientWisdom #Perfection #Truth #Immortality #SetianPhilosophy #BlackMagic #CeremonialMagic #Thelema #HellenisticEra #Plato #Aristotle #Forms #MatterAndForm #Potentiality #Actuality #FourCauses #Lyceum #Academy #AlexanderTheGreat #HiddenCurrents

In this episode, we descend from the towering pronouncements of Magi and the grand sweep of Aeonic change into the intimate, demanding crucible of individual transformation—where philosophy is no longer the contemplation of Words uttered by others but the agonizing, exhilarating work of becoming oneself. We explore how the Word Xeper—uttered in the crucible of the Year XI, born from the crisis of the Church of Satan and the emergence of the Temple of Set—declares that the engine of reality is not the authority of tradition or the comfort of stasis, but the deliberate, conscious, individual force of mind that transforms the Will from a human to a divine state of being.

We begin in the crucible of the Year X: an age of spiritual upheaval, of ruptures and revelations, of the turbulent transition from the Age of Satan to the Aeon of Set. The Church of Satan had unleashed the power of Indulgence, but had not yet reckoned with the implications of that unleashing. We trace the lineage of the Words—from Agape and Restriction to Thelema and Indulgence, from Xeper and Xem to Remanifestation—and we ask: Is Xeper the great liberator that opens the door to a freedom unequalled in sophistication by previous Aeonic points of change, or the architect of a new and troubling burden that places the full weight of transformation squarely on the shoulders of the individual, with no savior to catch them if they fall?

In a world that still seeks easy answers, still craves gurus and saviors, and still recoils from the terrifying freedom of total self-determination, do we have the courage to become what we truly are, or will we retreat into the comfortable delusion of self-deception?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: Xeper

Classification: V2 - A17.1 - 1

Author: James Lewis V°

Date: January 17, XXII

HTML Revision: Sept. 6, 1998 CE

Subject: Xeper

Reading List: 6N, 9C, 9K

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

• James Lewis, Xeper (The Ruby Tablet Essay)
• Michael A. Aquino, The Book of Coming Forth by Night
• Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set, Volume I
• Aleister Crowley, Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law)
• Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears
• Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible
• Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Rituals
• Don Webb, Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path
• Don Webb, The Seven Faces of Darkness
• Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-Hand Path
• Stephen E. Flowers, Hermetic Magic
• Kenneth Grant, The Nightside of Eden
• Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null & Psychonaut
• Phil Hine, Condensed Chaos

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Xeper #Becoming #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #Set #EgyptianMysteries #BlackFlame #IsolateIntelligence #Initiation #Magick #Will #Transformation #Evolution #AeonOfSet #ChurchOfSatan #AntonLaVey #MichaelAquino #JamesLewis #DonWebb #BookOfComingForthByNight #LiberAL #BookOfTheLaw #AleisterCrowley #Thelema #Indulgence #Remanifestation #Xem #Agape #Restriction #TheWord #Initiate #Adept #Magus #InternalExaminer #HigherSelf #ForbiddenPlanet #CosmicResistance #Entropy #Stasis #SelfDeception #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #EsotericTraditions #WisdomTraditions #SetianPhilosophy #MagicalPractice #PersonalTransformation #DivineBecoming #WillToPower

In this episode, we descend from the sun-drenched temples of Thebes into the smoke-filled room of a Cairo hotel room, where a poet, mountaineer, and self-proclaimed Beast receives a revelation that will shatter the foundations of Western occultism. We explore how Aleister Crowley—the prodigal son of a Plymouth Brethren family, the Golden Dawn apostate, the most infamous magician of the modern age—transcribed a text that would declare the death of the old Aeons and the birth of a new Law, only to misunderstand its deepest secrets and spend his life in pursuit of a revelation he could never fully grasp.

: In a world that still struggles with the tension between individual freedom and cosmic unity, between the will to power and the call to dissolution, do we have the courage to think our own thoughts, or will we retreat into the comfortable authority of the Beast who thought he knew, but never truly understood?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay #18: Liber Al Vel Legis: The Book of the Law ~Analysis and Commentary~

Author: Michael A. Aquino VI° Date: (Unknown) HTML Revision: December 18, 1997 CE Subject: Book of the Law; Crowley Reading List: #9

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis)

-Aleister Crowley, The Equinox of the Gods Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley

-Aleister Crowley, Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law (Ed. Symonds & Grant)

-Aleister Crowley, The Law is for All (Ed. Regardie)

-Aleister Crowley, The Vision and the Voice (Liber 418)

-Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

-Michael A. Aquino, The Book of Coming Forth by Night

-Michael A. Aquino, The Diabolicon

-Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible

-John Symonds, The Great Beast: The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley

-Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt

-Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, The Book of Opening the Mouth

-Plato, The Dialogues (especially the Phaedo and the Republic)

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Crowley #BookOfTheLaw #LiberAL #Thelema #DoWhatThouWilt #Nuit #Hadit #RaHoorKhuit #Aiwass #SteleOfRevealing #AnkhfnKhonsu #AeonOfHorus #AeonOfSet #TempleOfSet #ChurchOfSatan #Set #Xeper #BlackFlame #Magick #Occult #Hermeticism #GoldenDawn #OTO #AA #Abrahadabra #Thelemite #OccultHistory #Esoteric #Egyptology #Behdety #RaHarakte #HarWer #Harpokrates #Diabolicon #BookOfComingForthByNight #MagisterTempli #Ipsissimus #ScarletWoman #Boleskine #CairoWorking #1904 #AncientWisdom #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #MagicalTransmission #AleisterCrowley #Parsons #Liber418 #Babalon #Thelemic #Setian #Nietzsche #WillToPower #GoldenMean #Aristotle #Plato #Pythagoras #Mysticism #MagickWithoutTears #EquinoxOfTheGods #TheBeast666

In this episode, we descend from the philosophical abstractions of the Academy into the solitary crucible of the individual soul, where magic is no longer the invocation of external powers but the excavation of one's own deepest nature. We explore how the True Will—that elusive, unifying purpose at the core of each aspirant's being—can be discovered, forged, and manifested through a ritual technology that synthesizes the Left-Hand Path, Thelemic philosophy, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and the practical discipline of self-examination. We ask: Is the True Will something we discover, or something we create? And what happens when we stop looking outward for meaning and turn inward to become our own authority?

From the Litany of the Nine Angles and the invocation of Set and the Great Old Ones to the dark inversion of the Grail myth and the summoning of the elements as psychological qualities; from the consecration of the black candle according to one's ingenium to the closing affirmation that "And so it is done"—we trace the monumental, deeply contested, and astonishingly practical legacy of this ritual technology and ask: In a world that still fragments our attention, disperses our power, and offers us ready-made identities, do we have the courage to seek our own True Will, or will we retreat into the comfortable servitude of external authority?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: True Will Working Classification: V2 - A15.2 - 1 Author: John J. Felczak III° Date: September 28, XXVI HTML Revision: Oct 07, 1997 CE Subject: Thelema

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis)

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears (esp. Chapters on True Will and Liber Samekh)

-Aleister Crowley, Liber Samekh (Theurgia Goetia Summa sub figura DCCC)

-Temple of Set, The Book of Opening the Way (The Book of Coming Forth by Night)

-Temple of Set, The Word of Set (18th Part)

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (esp. Prologue and "On the Three Metamorphoses")

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (esp. Aphorisms on Will to Power)

-Carl Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (on individuation and integration)

-Carl Jung, Aion (on the Self as the organizing principle of the psyche)

-Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising (on sub-personalities and consciousness)

-Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn (on elemental magic and ritual structure) The Book of Abramelin the Mage (on magical retreats and the Knowledge and Conversation)

-Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (for Lovecraftian cosmology)

-Aleister Crowley, Liber Aleph vel CXI (on the nature of Will)

-Temple of Set, The Diabolicon (on Setian philosophy)

-Michael A. Aquino, The Church of Satan (for context on the Left-Hand Path)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#TrueWill #Thelema #LeftHandPath #Setianism #TempleOfSet #Set #Xeper #Xem #Runa #Indulgence #Crowley #AleisterCrowley #DoWhatThouWilt #HolyGuardianAngel #NeterXem #BookOfTheLaw #LiberAL #LiberSamekh #Nietzsche #Superman #Ubermensch #WillToPower #Siegfried #Needful #PsychologicalIntegration #Individuation #Jung #Lovecraft #GreatOldOnes #Azathoth #YogSothoth #Nyarlathotep #ShubNiggurath #DarkGraal #GrailMyth #ElementalMagic #GoldenDawn #CeremonialMagic #BlackFlame #MagicalJournal #DreamInterpretation #Divination #Xeper #Remanifestation #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #MagicPodcast #WisdomTraditions #OccultPhilosophy #SetianPhilosophy #SelfCreation #Becoming #Will #Magick #Esoterica

In this episode, we step through the veil of time and into the sun-scorched yet life-giving land of Khem, where the great river Nile flows not merely as water but as the very pulse of existence. We journey alongside Shehbui—artisan, painter of temples and tombs, a man who calls himself the South Wind—as he guides us through the daily rhythms, cosmic structures, and eternal aspirations of the civilization that has haunted the Western imagination for millennia. We explore how Egypt, the gift of the river, built its empire not on abstract principles but on the precarious marriage of flood and drought, order and chaos, life and the relentless encroachment of the desert.

From the rejection of the desert as the home of the dead and the embrace of the Nile as the source of all life to the concept of the divine Pharaoh who controlled the very temperament of the river, from the joyful exuberance of the afterlife in the Field of Reeds to the elaborate preparations for one's own death, from the social mobility that rewarded the "work of a man's hands" to the crushing bureaucracy of the Vizier who stood outside the Pharaoh's door each morning—we trace the monumental, deeply human, and astonishingly influential legacy of Egyptian civilization and ask: In a world that still longs for permanence, still builds monuments to its own greatness, and still struggles to balance the demands of order with the chaos of existence, do we have the courage to live fully in the present, or will we retreat into the comfortable certainty of eternal monuments and rituals that promise to defeat the very thing we most fear?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: Egypt - Life and Times (or: Egyptomania - Better Living Through Khemistry) Classification: V4 - 930.01 - 1 Author: Linda Reynolds III° Date: March XIII Publication: Cry of the Jackal, I.1, Anubis Pylon Subject: Egypt

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Henri Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation

-John A. Wilson, The Culture of Ancient Egypt

-Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

-Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs

-Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization

-Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments

-E.A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead (The Papyrus of Ani) Erik Hornung, The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West

-Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (for Egyptomania and the esoteric tradition)

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth (for the Egyptian influence on Western occultism)

-Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (for the Greek interpretation of Egyptian religion)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Egypt #AncientEgypt #Khem #Nile #Egyptomania #Shehbui #Pharaoh #Vizier #Afterlife #FieldOfReeds #BookOfTheDead #Ma'at #Osiris #Isis #Anubis #Pyramids #Temples #Tombs #Art #Artisan #Inundation #Emergence #Drought #ThreeSeasons #DivineKing #Meritocracy #SocialMobility #Burial #Eternity #Immortality #Occult #Hermeticism #Esoteric #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #AncientWisdom #CryOfTheJackal #AnubisPylon #Khemistry #Set #Xeper #EgyptianMythology #AncientCivilizations #SpiritualJourney

In this episode, we descend from the philosophical abstractions of the Academy into the shadow-haunted streets of Providence, where horror is no longer the crude evocation of monsters but the slow, dawning realization that the cosmos is utterly indifferent to human meaning. We explore how H.P. Lovecraft—the reclusive New Englander, the self-styled gentleman of the 18th century, the most influential horror writer of the modern age—seized the raw materials of myth, folklore, and science and forged them into a new mythology of cosmic dread, declaring that the engine of reality is not the comforting order of divine providence but the cold, mechanistic interplay of blind forces that reduce human consciousness to foam on a wave.

In a world that still fears the unknown, still recoils from the abyss, and still struggles to find meaning in a universe that offers none, do we have the courage to look into the darkness and make it our own, or will we retreat into the comfortable fantasies that Lovecraft so mercilessly exposed?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: The Magical Legacy of H.P. Lovecraft Classification: V2 - 92I.L - 1 Author: Pat Hardy III° Date: October, XXV HTML Revision: September 2, XXXIII Subject: H. P. Lovecraft; Magic and Fiction Reading List: 7A, 7B, 7F, 6L

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Lovecraft, H.P. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

-Lovecraft, H.P. At the Mountains of Madness

-Lovecraft, H.P. The Shadow Over Innsmouth

-Lovecraft, H.P. The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories

-Lovecraft, H.P. Selected Letters (Vols. I-V)

-L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

-S.T. Joshi, H.P. Lovecraft: A Life

-S.T. Joshi (ed.), The H.P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference Proceedings

-Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival

-Donald R. Burleson, Lovecraft: Disturbing the Universe

-Robert M. Price, The Lovecraft-Library

-Barry Leon Bender, "Aleister Crowley and H.P. Lovecraft" (Lovecraft Studies, Vol. 4, no. 1)

-Steven J. Mariconda, "Lovecraft's Concept of 'Background'" (Lovecraft Studies, Vol. 5, no. 1)

-Matthew H. Onderdonk, "The Lord of R'lyeh" (Lovecraft Studies, Vol 2, no. 2)

-H.P. Lovecraft & Anthony Raven, The Occult Lovecraft

-Stephen C.G. Olbrys, "Another History of the NECRONOMICON: a look at the Forbidden Tome"

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears (for contrast on the nature of Will and meaning)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Lovecraft #HP Lovecraft #CosmicHorror #Cthulhu #Necronomicon #Mythos #WeirdFiction #Occult #Magic #Archetypes #Providence #NewEngland #Atavism #Materialism #Mechanism #Philosophy #Horror #Gothic #ScienceFiction #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #HorrorPodcast #Xeper #BlackFlame #Set #CosmicDread #Eldritch #Blasphemous #Nyarlathotep #YogSothoth #ShubNiggurath #DreamLore #StarryWisdom #KennethGrant #MagicalRevival #LovecraftStudies #FictionalGrimoire #ThoughtForm #ArchetypalDistillation #CosmicFiction #SupernaturalHorror #AlienCosmos #HumanInsignificance #SelfCreation #WillToPower #MeaningAndMeaninglessness

In this episode, we descend from the sunlit gardens of the Golden Dawn into the shadowed woodlands of Arthur Machen's imagination, where evil is no longer the violation of social norms or the commission of violent acts but the fundamental rupture of the natural order itself. We explore how Machen—the Welsh mystic, the Golden Dawn initiate, the most unsettling horror writer of the Victorian era—seized upon the esoteric traditions of his time and twisted them into a vision of metaphysical evil so profound that it continues to disturb readers more than a century later.

In a world that still craves harmony with the universe, still seeks refuge in dogma, and still flirts with the Dark Side from a safe distance, do we have the courage to step outside the natural order, or will we retreat into the comfortable authority of those who have never truly seen the abyss?

🎧 ABOUT THE RUBY TABLET

The Ruby Tablet Podcast is a philosophical and spiritual journey through the essays of the Temple of Set, exploring the great traditions of human thought—from ancient Egypt to the present day. Each episode is a deep dive into the ideas that help shape the Self and fan the Black Flame.

🔗 SOURCES & READING LIST:

Essay: Arthur Machen's The White People Classification: V4 - 805.1 - 2 Author: L. Dale Seago IV° Date: April 1, XVI HTML Revision: Sept. 16, 1998 CE Subject: Evil Reading List: #3, #10

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Arthur Machen, The White People (in The House of Souls)

-Arthur Machen, The Hill of Dreams

-Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan

-Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy in Literature

-Arthur Machen, The Anatomy of Tobacco

-Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis)

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

-Stephen Flowers (Edred Thorsson), Lords of the Left-Hand Path

-Stephen Flowers (Edred Thorsson), The Unholy Bible: A Biography of Aleister Crowley

-Stephen Flowers (Edred Thorsson), The Galdrabók: An Icelandic Grimoire

-W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight

-W.B. Yeats, Rosa Alchemica

-Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites & Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

-G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (trans. A.V. Miller), especially the section on "Self-Consciousness" (Master/Slave dialectic)

-Ken Legg, "The White People" (critical analysis)

-Don Webb, The Seven Faces of Darkness: Practical Typhonian Magic

-Joscelyn Godwin, The Theosophical Enlightenment

-S.T. Joshi, The Weird Tale: Arthur Machen,

-Algernon Blackwood,

-M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft

-Michel Houellebecq, H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (for its treatment of the cosmic horror tradition)

-Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy (for its treatment of the philosophical dimensions of weird fiction)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#ArthurMachen #TheWhitePeople #Horror #WeirdFiction #GothicLiterature #VictorianHorror #Occult #GoldenDawn #HermeticOrder #AleisterCrowley #Crowley #BookOfTheLaw #LiberAL #StephenFlowers #LeftHandPath #RightHandPath #BlackFlame #TempleOfSet #Evil #MetaphysicalEvil #Sin #SelfConsciousness #Hegel #PhenomenologyOfSpirit #SelfAndNotSelf #Innocence #Corruption #Awakening #Initiation #Wales #CelticRevival #TheGreatGodPan #TheHillOfDreams #WBYeats #IsraelRegardie #DarkSide #LightSide #StarWars #DarthVader #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #HorrorPodcast #WeirdTales #CosmicHorror #HP Lovecraft #Set #Xeper #Initiation #Magick #Esotericism #VictorianOccult #FinDeSiecle #Decadence #Symbolism #Mysticism #WhiteMagic #BlackMagic #Thelemite #Satanism #SpiritualJourney #SelfDevelopment #Individualism #WillToPower #Nietzsche #Philosophy