The Ruby Tablet

In this episode, we descend from the sun-scorched courtyards of the Egyptian peristyle into the shadowed silence of the inner hypostyle, where philosophy is no longer the rote repetition of accepted wisdom but the perilous confrontation with essential principles—the neters—that structure reality itself. We explore how Her-Bak—an inquisitive boy who refused to accept surface-level answers, guided by the Sage and the questioning priest Pasab—embarked on a journey from the comfortable certainties of the outer temple to the terrifying transformative potential of initiation. We examine the philosophical vision of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, who spent fifteen years in Egypt not excavating tombs but reading stones, attempting to recover a living wisdom that had been buried beneath centuries of dead interpretation.

From the rejection of the dead stick and the recovery of the living twig, from the disaster of the ill-made footstool to the hard-won entry into the hypostyle, from the distinction between the peristyle priests who accept their limitations and the seekers who yearn for transformation to the nature of the neter as principle rather than being—we trace the monumental, deeply contested, and astonishingly influential legacy of Egyptian wisdom as refracted through the Schwaller de Lubicz lens and ask: In a world that has forgotten how to read its own symbols, that mistakes words for things and rituals for realities, do we have the courage to ask the soul-searching questions, or will we retreat into the comfortable security of the peristyle, content with the dead sticks we have been given?

🎧 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: Book Review: Her-Bak Classification: V2 - 805.1 - 1 Author: Alexandra Sarris III° Date: March, XIII Publication: Cry of the Jackal, I.1, Anubis Pylon Subject: Initiation Reading List: #2L

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Isha Schwaller de Lubicz, Her-Bak

-Isha Schwaller de Lubicz, Her-Bak, Disciple

-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple in Man (trans. Robert & Deborah Lawlor)

-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple of Man (forthcoming in English)

-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Egyptian Miracle

-Lucie Lamy, Egyptian Mysteries: New Light on Ancient Knowledge

-John Anthony West, Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt

-Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid

-Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many

-Henri Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation

-Jan Assmann, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt

-James P. Allen, The Philosophy of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom

-Alexandra Sarris III°, "Book Review: Her-Bak" (Cry of the Jackal, I.1)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#HerBak #Egypt #EgyptianPhilosophy #SchwallerDeLubicz #Neter #Initiation #Peristyle #Hypostyle #MeduNeter #LivingTwig #EssentialPrinciples #AncientEgypt #TempleOfMan #TempleInMan #IshaSchwallerDeLubicz #CryOfTheJackal #AnubisPylon #Philosophy #WisdomTraditions #EsotericEgypt #Occult #Hermeticism #Set #Xeper #BlackFlame #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #AncientWisdom #TheSage #Initiation #SpiritualJourney #SoulSearching #Egyptology #TempleOfSet #Mysteries #EgyptianMysteries #Footstool #Artisan #Craft #Principle #Function #Being #Meaning #Symbolism #Hieroglyphs #DeadStick #LivingTwig)

In this episode, we descend from the comfortable certainties of finite existence into the vertiginous abyss of the transfinite—where mathematics ceases to be a dry exercise in calculation and becomes a dark mirror reflecting the true nature of consciousness itself. We explore how Georg Cantor—the tormented genius, the devout Lutheran who believed his work was divinely inspired, the mathematician who died mad—shattered the theological foundations of Western thought by proving that the infinite is not a single, indivisible mystery but a hierarchy of distinct orders, each more vast and terrible than the last.

In a world that still seeks comfort in theological authority, still shrinks from the burden of sovereignty, and still denies the godlike potential of the human mind, do we have the courage to count the infinite, or will we retreat into the comfortable ignorance of those who refuse to see?

🎧 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: Transfinitudes Classification: V2 - 510.I - 1 Author: Patty A. Hardy III° Date: Unknown HTML Revision: December 1, 1997 CE Subject: Infinities Reading List: (From The Kaliyuga Pylon Study Guide)

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

• Georg Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers (trans. Philip Jourdain)
• Jacques Bergier & Louis Pauwels, The Morning of the Magicians
• Rudy Rucker, Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite
• David Foster Wallace, Everything and More: A Compact History of ∞
• Peter Aczel, Non-Well-Founded Sets
• Gregory H. Moore, Zermelo's Axiom of Choice: Its Origins, Development, and Influence
• Joseph Warren Dauben, Georg Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite
• William Poundstone, Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge
• Ian Stewart, From Here to Infinity: A Guide to Today's Mathematics
• Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law (especially Chapter I: "Every number is infinite; there is no difference")
• Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion (for the concept of the alien self)
• Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set (especially the concept of Isolate Intelligence)
• John G. Thompson, The Problem of Infinity
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (for the pre-Socratic roots of infinity)
• Plato, Parmenides (for the paradoxes of the one and the many).

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Transfinite #Cantor #Infinity #AlephNought #AlephOne #AlephTwo #SetianPhilosophy #LeftHandPath #Mathematics #SetTheory #Theology #Philosophy #TheMorningOfTheMagicians #TempleOfSet #TheRubyTablet #InfinityPodcast #OccultMathematics #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #GeorgCantor #IsolateIntelligence #Xeper #TheAbyss #SovereignIntellect #PhilosophyOfMathematics #Platonism #Pythagoreanism #Gnosticism #Setianism #BlackFlame #TheKaliyugaPylon #WeAreGods #DasTierdrama #MadnessAndGenius #TheWeightOfTheCrown #BeyondTheUniverse #TransfiniteNumbers #InfiniteRegress #MathematicalPlatonism #OccultPodcast #PhilosophyTube #Esoterica

In this episode, we descend from the philosophical heights of Xeper and the Black Flame into the cold, quiet chamber of death itself, where the final journey is not a tragedy to be mourned but a transition to be orchestrated. We explore how the Rite of Setian Passage—a meticulously crafted funeral liturgy born from the heart of the Temple of Set—transforms the ancient Egyptian traditions of the Book of the Dead into a living magical working, declaring that the soul's judgment is not a passive ordeal to be endured but an active declaration to be proclaimed.

In a world that still struggles to face death with honesty and courage, do we have the will to speak our own truth at the final threshold, or will we retreat into the comfortable silence of conventional mourning?

🎧 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: Rite of Setian Passage Classification: V2 - 393.R - 1 Author: Ruth Nielsen III° Date: October 22, XXVII HTML Revision: October 16, 1997 CE Subject: Death, Farewell Reading List: As provided

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-The Egyptian Book of the Dead (trans. E.A. Wallis Budge)

-The Book of Gates (trans. Erik Hornung)

-The Amduat (trans. Erik Hornung) Erik Hornung,

-The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife

-John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt

-Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt

- Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law

-Aleister Crowley, Liber AL vel Legis

-Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice

-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

-Peter J. Carroll, Liber Kaos

-Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival

- Michael A. Aquino, The Church of Satan

-Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set

-Sekhet Hetep, The Ritual of the Secret Flame

-W. Marsham Adams, The Book of the Master

-E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Magic

-G.R.S. Mead, Pistis Sophia

- Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma

-Eliphas Levi, The History of Magic

-Helena Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

-Lon Milo DuQuette, The Magick of Aleister Crowley

-Arthur Edward Waite, The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts

-James Frazer, The Golden Bough

-Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

-Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane

-Plato, Phaedo Plato, Republic

-Aristotle, De Anima (On the Soul)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#RiteOfSetianPassage #FuneralRite #TempleOfSet #Setian #Xeper #LeftHandPath #Set #AncientEgypt #EgyptianBookOfTheDead #Tuat #Underworld #BlackFlame #Maat #Anubis #Selket #Sothis #Sekhmet #Nephthys #CanopicJars #FuneralBoat #VikingFuneral #GraalCeremony #Magic #Ritual #Death #Farewell #Mourning #Grief #Immortality #Soul #Ba #Ka #Shadow #Adept #Initiation #Occult #Esoteric #PhilosophyOfDeath #Afterlife #Transition #RitualTheater #Community #SpiritualFamily #TheRubyTablet #Podcast #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #DeathAndDying #MagicalWorking #XeperaXeperXeperuuuu #RickFurgeson #KevinDeLong #RuthNielsen

In this episode, we descend from the abstract theological debates of magical orders into the intimate, contested terrain of personal identity—where philosophy is no longer the contemplation of cosmic principles but the lived experience of the flesh, the heart, and the will. We explore how James Lewis IV°—a voice from within the Temple of Set, writing across the final decades of the 20th century—seized the thorny question of homosexuality and refused to let it be dismissed as either sin or mere lifestyle choice, declaring instead that the homosexual magician's very existence is a living crucible of magical potential, a daily resistance to the impersonal laws of the cosmos.

In a world that still judges, still labels, and still struggles to reconcile the flesh with the spirit, do we have the courage to embrace the full spectrum of our being, or will we retreat into the comfortable tyranny of the normal?

🎧 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: Homosexuality in Magic Classification: V2 - 392.S - 1 Author: James Lewis IV° Date: September 16, XIX Revision: December 21, XXIII HTML Revision: Oct 14, 1997 CE Subject: Sex in Religion and Magic Reading List: 13D, 6A, 6K, 6L, 6N

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible (The Book of Belial: "Satanic Sex")

-Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice (Chapter XI: "Of the Magical Operation")

-Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (Various references to sexual Workings)

-J.K. Huysmans, Là-Bas (Depictions of homosexual elements in occult practice)

-Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (On perversions and the humors)

-Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 (On the construction of sexual categories)

-Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (On the closet as a structure of modern thought)

-Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality"

-George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World

-John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (On the historical acceptance of homosexuality)

-The Cloven Hoof (Various issues—original covers missing, but the article "The Homosexual Satanist" appears in an early issue)

-Stephen Flowers (Ed.), The Hermetic Tradition and the Left-Hand Path

-Don Webb, Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path (On individual sovereignty)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Homosexuality #Magic #Occult #LeftHandPath #TempleOfSet #ChurchOfSatan #AleisterCrowley #SexMagic #SexualOrientation #QueerMagick #MagicalIdentity #TheClovenHoof #SatanicSex #Perversion #GreaterLaw #IndividualSovereignty #Xeper #JamesLewisIV #Esotericism #OccultPhilosophy #Sexuality #Identity #Resistance #MagicalTradition #Wicca #Paganism #GayMagick #LGBTQOccult #Hermeticism #SexAndReligion #MagicalWorking #EleventhDegree #XIWorkings #HarWer #Thelema #SexualPolitics #QueerStudies #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #OccultPodcast #Set #BlackFlame #IsolateIntelligence #SelfCreation #WillToPower

In this episode, we descend from the shadowy realms of esoteric speculation into the cold, harsh light of historical analysis, where the distinction between genuine magical practice and political appropriation is not merely academic but essential to understanding the darkest chapters of human history. We explore how L. Dale Seago IV°—the Setian philosopher, the critic of scholarly myopia, the most provocative voice in the debate over the Nazi occult—seized Dusty Sklar's historical analysis and turned it inside out, declaring that the engine of Nazi destruction was not the dark power of Black Magic but the catastrophic triumph of a very different philosophy: the White school's demand for obedience, conformity, and the dissolution of the individual will into a mechanical, totalitarian order.

In a world that still confuses the counterfeit for the genuine, still mistakes political appropriation for spiritual practice, and still debates the relationship between the individual and the collective, do we have the courage to think our own thoughts, or will we retreat into the comfortable authority of the master of those who know?

🎧 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 #37: Magical Perspectives: A Response to Dusty Sklar

Author: L. Dale Seago IV° Date: January 27, XIII HTML Revision: September 15, 1998 Subject: Black Magic Reading List: #14

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

• Dusty Sklar, Gods and Beasts: The Nazis and the Occult
• Dusty Sklar, "The Nazis and Occultism" (The Humanist, January-February issue)
• Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
• William Sargant, Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing
• William Sargant, The Mind Possessed
• Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears
• Aristotle, Politics (trans. Benjamin Jowett)
• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (trans. W.D. Ross)
• Michael A. Aquino VI°, The Temple of Set (various essays)
• Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (for context on Nazi ideology and racial mythology)
• Hanns Hörbiger, Welteislehre (for context on Nazi pseudoscience)
• Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (for context on myth and archetype)
• Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return (for context on myth and history)
• Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-Hand Path
• Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
• Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism
• Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism
• James Webb, The Occult Establishment
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Book V: Aristotle)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#MagicalPerspectives #DustySklar #Nazis #Occultism #BlackMagic #WhiteMagic #LeftHandPath #RightHandPath #TempleOfSet #Set #Xeper #Aristotle #Politics #EricHoffer #TrueBeliever #WilliamSargant #Brainwashing #Conversion #Cults #Scientology #Est #Moonies #UnificationChurch #AleisterCrowley #OrderOfTheSilverStar #OrdoTempliOrientis #OTO #TriadSociety #Shaolin #MingDynasty #PriesthoodOfSet #Osiris #OsirianPersecution #HistoryOfMagic #PoliticalArt #TheHumanist #GodsAndBeasts #NaziOccult #MichaelAquino

In this episode, we descend from the philosophical heights of the Left-Hand Path into the chaotic marketplace of modern religious identity, where the boundaries between pagan, neo-pagan, Christian, and Setian blur into a confusing morass of terminology and misunderstanding. We explore how Ruth Nielsen II°—an Adept of the Temple of Set, a former Catholic, and a sharp-eyed analyst of religious systems—seized a moment of public confusion and transformed it into a masterclass in apologetics, declaring that the true distinction between religious paths is not the name of the god you worship but the ultimate fate of the Self.

From the rejection of union with Something-Or-Other and the embrace of Self-deification, from the four categories of religious analysis to the devastating summary of the right-hand path as "Self feeding the Gods and feeding upon the Gods," from the critique of Christian paganism to the appropriation of Buber's I-Thou for Setian purposes, from the crisis of the Holocaust and the "omnipotent Nothingness" of modern Judaism to the vampire as symbol of self-motivated independence—we trace the monumental, deeply contested, and astonishingly useful legacy of Nielsen's apologetic framework and ask: In a world that still categorizes us as satanists, still confuses us with neo-pagans, and still demands that we explain ourselves in soundbites, do we have the courage to articulate our own truth, or will we retreat into the comfortable silence of the misunderstood?

🎧 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 #36: Neo-Paganism and the Temple of Set Classification: V2 - 290.P - 1 Author: Ruth Nielsen II° Date: October, XXV Publication: Trail of the Serpent HTML Revision: Sept. 14, 1998 CE Subject: Neo-Paganism Reading List: 3C

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Ruth Nielsen II°, "Neo-Paganism and the Temple of Set" (Trail of the Serpent)

-Martin Buber, I and Thou

-Richard L. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz: Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism

-Irving Greenburg, "Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity After the Holocaust"

-Jerry V. Diller (ed.), Ancient Roots and Modern Meanings Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians

-Marvin W. Meyer (ed.), The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook

-James Lewis (Ipsissimus), Book of Leviathan

-Carl Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

-Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

-Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

-The Crystal Tablet of Set The Word of Leviathan (Prophecy of the Red Magus)

-Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set (various writings)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#NeoPaganism #TempleOfSet #Apologetics #Setianism #LeftHandPath #RightHandPath #SelfDeification #Paganism #Christianity #Judaism #Catholicism #Sacraments #MysteryCults #IAndThou #MartinBuber #RichardRubenstein #HolocaustTheology #GodIsDead #VampireMythology #Mythology #Deities #Mysteries #InitiatoryStates #Xeper #BlackFlame #Set #Satanism #ReligiousPluralism #ReligiousCommunication #Apologetics #SelfRealization #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #SpiritualJourney #ReligiousStudies #ComparativeReligion #TrailOfTheSerpent #Gnosis #KKUP #TimMcGranahan #TheGiftOfSet #Setamorphosis #AeonicWords #OrderOfLeviathan #CouncilOfNine #Remanifest #Setian #Nielsen #RuthNielsenII #TheSelf #GodForms #PeersInEternity #AdventureOfEternalLife #TheUprightPosition #SetIsAlsoFriend #ReligiousTerminology #CulturalCommunication #EsotericLiterature #NewAge #AquarianAge

In this episode, we descend from the ethereal heights of esoteric philosophy into the fluorescent-lit corridors of military bureaucracy, where spiritual truth is no longer the contemplation of transcendent ideals but the careful documentation of religious requirements for the United States Department of the Army. We explore how the Temple of Set—the Egyptian revivalist order, the most substantive offshoot of the Church of Satan, the religion of the isolated self—seized the machinery of the state and forced it to acknowledge the reality of Black Magic, declaring that the engine of religious accommodation is not the abstract principle of freedom of conscience but the dynamic interplay of bureaucratic classification, scholarly validation, and the will to be recognized.

In a world that still thinks in categories, still seeks causes, and still debates the relationship between the individual and the state, do we have the courage to think our own thoughts, or will we retreat into the comfortable authority of those who have filed the world away in neat folders?

🎧 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: Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains Classification: V5 - 203 - 1 Author: The Institute for the Study of American Religion J. Gordon Melton, Project Director James R. Lewis, Senior Research Associate Date: 1992 CE HTML Revision: Sept. 11, 1998 CE Subject: Religions and Religious Groups Reading List: Glinda File USChapTS

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions (Gale Research, 3rd ed. 1989)

-J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (Garland Publishing, 1986)

-Department of the Army, DA Pamphphlet 165-13: Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups (1978, 1992 revision)

-Michael A. Aquino, The Temple of Set (1982) Michael A. Aquino, MindStar (1986)

-Don Webb, Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path (1999)

-Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-Hand Path (1997)

-Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible (1969)

-Burton H. Wolfe, The Devil's Avenger (1974)

-Christopher Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West (2004)

-Jeffrey S. Victor, Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend (1993)

-Philip Jenkins, Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (1998)

- Aidan A. Kelly, Crafting the Art of Magic (1991)

-Arthur C. Piepkorn, Profiles in Belief (3 vols., 1977-79)

-Samuel Hill, Handbook of Denominations in the U.S. (annual edition)

-Kenneth V. Lanning, Investigator's Guide to Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse (FBI, 1992)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#TempleOfSet #HandbookForChaplains #ArmyChaplain #ReligiousFreedom #FirstAmendment #MilitaryReligion #Occult #Satanism #Set #Xeper #BlackMagic #LeftHandPath #JGordonMelton #JamesRLewis #MichaelAquino #ChurchOfSatan #AntonLaVey #SatanicPanic #RitualAbuse #MoralPanic #Bureaucracy #Pluralism #ReligiousAccommodation #ConscientiousObjection #IndividualConscience #FreedomOfReligion #AmericanReligion #NewReligiousMovements #ModernSatanism #EgyptianReligion #Setian #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultPodcast #MilitaryHistory #ColdWar #PostmodernReligion #ReligiousTaxonomy #Scholarship #EncyclopediaOfAmericanReligions #Chaplaincy #DepartmentOfDefense

In this episode, we descend from the celestial realms of Platonic perfection and the comfortable consolations of Christian piety into the shadow-drenched underworld of the Left-Hand Path, where salvation is not found in surrender but in self-assertion, where the divine is not worshipped but confronted, and where the goal of existence is not union with God but the eternal Becoming of the individual Will. We explore how the Satanic and Setian traditions—from the theatrical psychodramas of Anton LaVey to the Egyptian mysteries of Michael A. Aquino—seized the theological inheritance of the West and inverted it, declaring that the engine of authentic existence is not the dissolution of the ego into the divine but the exaltation of consciousness as the highest value.

In a world that still yearns for meaning, still fears death, and still struggles with the burden of self-consciousness, do we have the courage to become our own redeemers, or will we retreat into the comfortable slavery of the many, worshipping statues we have carved with our own hands?

🎧 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: Satanic Theology: An Exploration of the Left-Hand Path Classification: V2 - 201.A1 - 1 Author: Burton P. Gillis III° Date: December 14, XXI1 Revision: March 24, XXII HTML Revision: Dec 15, 1997 CE Subject: Satanism Reading List: 6

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Aquino, Michael A., The Book of Coming Forth By Night. San Francisco: Temple of Set.

-Aquino, Michael A., The Diabolicon. San Francisco: Temple of Set.

-Aquino, Michael A., The Church of Satan. San Francisco: Temple of Set, 1983 C.E.

-Aquino, Michael A., The Crystal Tablet of Set. San Francisco, Temple of Set, 1986 C.E.

-Blake, William, A Marriage of Heaven and Hell

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

- LaVey, Anton S., The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969 C.E.

-LaVey, Anton S., The Satanic Rituals. New York: Avon Books, 1972 C.E.

-LaVey, Anton S., The Compleat Witch. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1970 C.E.

-Lubicz, Isha Schwaller De, Her-Bak: Egyptian Initiate. New York: Inner Traditions, 1967 C.E.

-Milton, John, Paradise Lost. Spinoza, Benedict De, Works of Spinoza, Volume II. New York: Dover, 1955 C.E.

-Symonds, John, The Great Beast. London: MacDonald, 1971 C.E.

-Wilson, Robert Anton, Prometheus Rising. Phoenix: Falcon Press, 1983 C.E.

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Satanism #Setianism #LeftHandPath #RightHandPath #AntonLaVey #MichaelAquino #TempleOfSet #ChurchOfSatan #Xeper #Becoming #SevenDeadlySins #Pride #Greed #Lust #Existentialism #Nietzsche #MasterMorality #SlaveMorality #FreeWill #Determinism #Compatibilism #Theodicy #ProblemOfEvil #TapestryAnalogy #PsycheCentricConsciousness #Consciousness #Will #BlackMagic #GreaterBlackMagic #LesserBlackMagic #MoralRelativism #Thelema #AleisterCrowley #BookOfTheLaw #Milton #ParadiseLost #Blake #MarriageOfHeavenAndHell #Spinoza #Heraclitus #EgyptianMysteries #Set #Horus #SatanicBible #CrystalTablet #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #OccultWisdom #AncientWisdom #SpiritualJourney #SelfCreation #IndividualWill #ExistentialAuthenticity

In this episode, we descend from the pragmatic forums of the Roman Republic into the shadowy, forbidden gatherings of the antiarchal Gnostics, where philosophy is no longer the servant of the state or the careful observation of nature, but the radical rejection of all authority—divine and human alike. We explore how these audacious heretics—the rebels among rebels, the most irreverent and extreme fringe of an already unconventional movement—seized the philosophical inheritance of Plato, the mystery religions of the East, and the apocalyptic traditions of Judaism, and twisted them into a weapon aimed directly at the heart of the Old Testament God. We ask: Were these antiarchal Gnostics simply depraved libertines using philosophy as an excuse for excess, or were they engaged in a profound and terrifying spiritual war against the tyrant they believed had enslaved all of humanity?

In a world that still bows to authority, still follows rules without questioning their source, and still demonizes those who dare to defy the established order, do we have the courage to think our own thoughts, or will we retreat into the comfortable orthodoxy of the powerful?

🎧 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 #189.G: Antiarchal Gnosticism

Author: Shell Runar II° Date: Spring, XXV Publication: Flames From Hell, III.1 HTML Revision: Sept. 10, 1998 CE Subject: Gnosticism Reading List: 3L, 16A, 16L, 16M

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

-Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism

-R.M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity

-R.M. Grant, Gnosticism: An Anthology

-Robert Haardt, Gnosis: Character and Testimony

-Werner Foerster, Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts

-Edwin M. Yamanchi, Gnostic Ethics and Mandean Origins

-Benjamin Walker, Gnosticism: Its History and Influence

-Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion

- Mircea Eliade, The Encyclopedia of Religion

-Scribners, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics

=Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels Marvin Meyer, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures

-G.R.S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten

- Stephan A. Hoeller, Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing

-Irenaeus, Against Heresies (trans. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson)

-Clement of Alexandria, Stromata (trans. John Ferguson)

-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies (trans. J.H. MacMahon)

-Epiphanius, Panarion (trans. Frank Williams)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Gnosticism #AntiarchalGnosticism #Gnosis #Demiurge #Serpent #Ophites #Cainites #Carpocrates #Epiphanes #SimonMagus #Antinomianism #Antiarchy #Heresy #NagHammadi #Dualism #Mithras #MagnaMater #Serapis #Essenes #Tantra #Buddhism #Stoicism #Skepticism #Sophism #OldTestament #Yahweh #Yaldabaoth #Samael #Logos #DivineSpark #Salvation #Sin #Liberation #GnosticGospels #GospelOfThomas #GospelOfPhilip #ApocryphonOfJohn #AncientPhilosophy #GnosticPhilosophy #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #ClassicalPhilosophy #HereticalTradition #Set #Xeper #Gnosis #TheKnowledge #AncientWisdom #Rebellion #Freedom #Antinomian #Libertine #Cain #Esau #Judas #Sodomites #TheTwelveTables #RomanLaw #JuliusCaesar #RomanEmpire #Cicero #MarcusAurelius #Seneca #NeoGnostic

In this episode, we descend from the marble halls of the Academy into the shadowy chambers of the soul, where philosophy is no longer the careful dissection of logic but the fierce confrontation with the limits of reason itself. We explore how Plato—the initiate of Egyptian mysteries, the student of Pythagoras, the most mystical thinker of the ancient world—constructed a philosophical system that was never meant to be understood by logic alone, but by the soul's recollection of eternal truths glimpsed before birth.

From the deconstruction of The Sophist as a political hit job disguised as philosophy to the revelation of the Meno as the true key to understanding Plato, from the logical collapse of The Statesman to the devastating critique of Plato's "absolute standards," from the mystical teachings of the Pythagoreans to the Egyptian priesthoods that secretly shaped them both—we trace the monumental, deeply contested, and astonishingly influential legacy of Platonic thought and ask: In a world that still seeks certainty, still fears the Sophist's relativism, and still yearns for the eternal, do we have the courage to admit that reason alone cannot save us, or will we retreat into the comfortable illusion that logic can solve everything?

🎧 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 #184.RI.1: The Sphinx and the Chimaera

Author: Michael A. Aquino V° Date of Working: May 30, X First Distribution: November 6, X Transcribed: August 31, XXIV (Robert Menschel, IV°) HTML Conversion: September 10, 1998 CE Subject: Platonic Philosophy Reading List: 12C

📚 RECOMMENDED READING:

Plato, The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Hamilton & Cairns, Ed., Princeton University Press, 1961)

Plato, The Sophist Plato, The Statesman Plato, The Meno Plato, The Republic Plato, The Timaeus

Thomas Stanley, The History of Philosophy (1687, especially Part IX on the Pythagoreans)

G.J. Whitrow, The Nature of Time

Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

Alban D. Winspear, The Genesis of Plato's Thought

Heinrich Brugsch-Bey, Egypt Under the Pharaohs

Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Language

Leonard Cottrell, Life Under the Pharaohs

Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt

Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid

Henry Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion

Alexandre Piankoff (Ed.), The Tomb of Ramesses VI

Paul Christian, Histoire de la Magie, du Monde Surnaturel et de la Fatalité à travers les Temps et les Peuples

Proclus, Commentary on Plato

St. Jerome, Prologus Galeatus to the Bible (1590 edition)

🏷️ HASHTAGS

#Plato #Philosophy #Sophist #Statesman #Meno #TheoryOfForms #Recollection #Pythagoras #EgyptianMysteries #Maat #Sphinx #Chimaera #Gryphon #AncientPhilosophy #GreekPhilosophy #EgyptianWisdom #Mysticism #Rationalism #Relativity #Einstein #Time #Immortality #Soul #Dialectic #Sophistry #Academy #Athens #Khem #TempleOfSet #LeftHandPath #TheRubyTablet #PhilosophyPodcast #WisdomTraditions #ClassicalPhilosophy #Initiation #MysteryTraditions #Set #Xeper #AncientWisdom #PlatonicPhilosophy #Forms #EternalTruths #RecollectionOfKnowledge #CrossExamination #Dialectics