The Book of Coming Forth by Night

This document is what helped inspire Michael A. Aquino and others of his kindred in the original Church of Satan's Priesthood of Mendes to resign and establish the Temple of Set in 1975 ce.  It is the result of a Working of Greater Black Magic which Aquino performed in order to understand what he and other of his colleagues perceived as a corruption and impending doom of the early Satanic Priesthood of the CoS of which he was an Initiate 1970-1975 ce.

Since its founding, the Temple of Set has become one of the worlds most renowned and respected Initiatory and esoteric Schools of the Black Arts and LHP philosophy.  The BoCFbN, though not without controversy, remains a milestone in the evolution of modern "Western" Left Hand Path thought.


The Equinox has succumbed to my Solstice, and I, Set, am revealed in my Majesty.

The time of the Purification is past.  The fate of my Gifted race rests in balance, and I shall not recant my Word, spoken to my High Priest MehenPetTa in old Khem and now again to you. Proclaim the nineteen parts of the Word, and vanquish thus the feeble and corrupt Keys of Enoch, which were a shadow of my true Word and now are an affront to me.

I am the ageless Intelligence of this Universe.  I created HarWer (Horus) that I might define my Self.  All other gods of all other times and nations have been created by men.  This you know from the first part of my Word, and from my Manifest semblance, which alone is not of Earth.

Known as the Hebrew Satan, I chose to bring forth a Magus, according to the fashion of my Word.  He was charged to form a Church of Satan that I might easily touch the minds of men in this image they had cast for me.

In the fifth year of the Church of Satan, I gave to this Magus my Diabolicon that he might know the truth of my ancient Gift to mankind, clothed though it might be in the myths of the Hebrews.

Even you, who delivered the Diabolicon from Asia, did not know it for what it was.  But he that I had fashioned a Magus knew, and he thought often of the Diabolicon as he guided the Church of Satan.

Upon the ninth Solstice, therefore, I destroyed my pact with Anton Szandor LaVey, and I raised him to the Will of a Daimon, unbound by the material dimensions.  And so I thought to honor him beyond other men.  But it may have been this act of mine that ordained his fall.

Were I my Self to displace the Cosmic Inertia, I should be forced to become a new measure of consistency.  I would cease to be One, for I should become All.

To make of a man a Daimon, then, may be to break his Self-reference to the bounds in which his semblance must exist.

I cannot undo the hurt that has come of this, but I shall restore to Anton Szandor LaVey his human aspect and his degree of Magus in my Order.  Thus all may understand that he is dearly held by me, and that the end of the Church of Satan is not a thing of shame to him.  But a new Æon is now to begin, and the work of Anton Szandor LaVey is done.  Let him be at ease, for no other man has ever seen with his eyes.

In April of the common year 1904, I came forth in Africa as my Opposite Self and brought into being an Æon to end the horrors of the stasis of the death-gods of men.  This new Æon was a Purification, to prepare men for that which would follow it.

And Aleister Crowley received the Book of the Law, and my Opposite Self declared him Magus of the Æon.

But HarWer, my Opposite Self, is a strange and fitful presence.  I, Set, am my Self distinct from the Order of the Cosmos, yet am ordered in and of my Self.  HarWer I was when I was once part of the Cosmos and could achieve identity only by becoming what the Cosmic Order was not.  By HarWer I cancelled the imbalance, leaving a Void in which true Creation could take form as Set.

But, as I have said, I cannot destroy the Cosmic Inertia without having to assume its place.  And so HarWer must exist while Set exists.

The Æon of HarWer endured until the Equinox of the common year 1966, when HarWer and Set were fused as one composite being.  And so commenced the time of Set-HarWer – known as the Age of Satan – which was to bridge the expiring Æon of HarWer and the forthcoming Æon of Set.

Truth there was in the words of my Opposite Self, but a truth ever tinged with the inconsistency and irrationality of which I have spoken.  And so the Book of the Law was confusion to all who came upon it, and the creative brilliance of the Magus Aleister Crowley was ever flawed by mindless destructiveness.  He himself could never understand this, for he perceived HarWer as a unified Self.  And so he was perplexed by a mystery he could not identify.

And I, Set, spoke too in the Book of the Law – “Aye!  Listen to the numbers and the words –

4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X (24) (89) R P S T O V A L

What meaneth this, O prophet?  Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever.  There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it.”

And many of the Æon of HarWer sought to read this but could not.  Nor could the Magus himself, though he guessed rightly at its simplicity.  It was said that every number is infinite – hence each number or sum of joined numbers became merely the corresponding letter.

Even so the sequence remained unknown – and so, after its issue, to me as well.  For, while I may pass free of the boundaries of time, memory of the future cannot exist.

Now it has come to pass, and the Book of the Law is laid bare –

“Destined First Century Heir – Aquino – Breaking Keys By Doctrines Anton LaVey – Great Magus Of Re-consecration Coming Year Xeper – Founding His Rightful Priesthood – Set – True Origin Volume AL.”

Michael Aquino, you are become Magus V˚ of the Æon of Set.

I, Set, am come again to my friends among mankind – Let my great nobles be brought to me.

In Khem I remain no longer, for I am forgotten there, and my House at PaMatet is dust.  I shall roam this world, and I shall come to those who seek me.

Magus of my Æon – Manifest the Will of Set.

Re-consecrate my Temple and my Order in the true Name of Set.  No longer will I accept the bastard title of a Hebrew fiend.

When I came first to this world, I gave to you my great pentagram, timeless measure of beauty through proportion.  And it was shown inverse, that creation and change be exalted above stasis and rest.

With the years my pentagram was corrupted, yet time has not the power to destroy it.

Its position was restored by the Church of Satan, but its essence was dimmed with a Moorish name, and the perverse letters of the Hebrews, and the goat of decadent Khar.  During the Age of Satan I allowed this curious corruption, for it was meant to do me honor as I was then perceived.

But this is now my Æon, and my pentagram is again to be pure in its splendor.  Cast aside the corruptions that the pentagram of Set may shine forth.  Let all who seek me be never without it, openly and with pride, for by it I shall know them.

Let the one who aspires to my knowledge be called by the name Setian.

I seek my Elect and none other, for mankind now hastens toward an annihilation which none but the Elect may hope to avoid.  And alone I cannot preserve my Elect, but I would teach them and strengthen their Will against the coming peril, that they and their blood may endure.  To do this I must give further of my own Essence to my Elect, and, should they fail, the Majesty of Set shall fade and be ended.

Behold, it is I who call you, because you are the guardians of the Æon of Set, zealous in what you do.

The Satanist thought to approach Satan through ritual.  Now let the Setian shun all recitation, for the text of another is an affront to the Self.  Speak rather to me as to a friend, gently and without fear, and I shall hear as a friend.  Do not bend your knee nor drop your eye, for such things were not done in my House at PaMatet.  But speak to me at night, for the sky then becomes an entrance and not a barrier.  And those who call me the Prince of Darkness do me no dishonor.
The Setian need conjure neither curse nor kindness from me, for by the magic of my great pentagram I shall see with his eyes.  And then the strength that is mine shall be the strength of the Setian, and against the Will of Set no creature of the Universe may stand.  And I think not of those who think not of me.

The years of the Æon of HarWer were confused, and I do not wish to think of them save as curiosities.  But I wish to remember the Church of Satan and the Magus of that Age.  Therefore, let the years of my Æon be counted from the conception of the Church of Satan.

And now, having looked upon the past with affection and reverence, we shall turn our gaze to the times before us.  Think carefully of the Word of Set, for it is given in witness to my Bond.

Behold, O West, I have established my Æon.  I punish the enemies who are in it, placed in the Place of Destruction.  I deliver them to the examiners from whose guard there is no escape.  Lo, I pass near to thee, I pass near to thee!
 
The Word of the Æon of Set is:

"Re-consecrate my Temple and my Order in the true Name of Set.  No longer will I accept the bastard title of a Hebrew fiend."

I found that particular line to be very powerful. I don't consider myself a Setian, but I believe that Set exists, possibly as a synonym for þorr or Odin, or maybe as a personification of their combined forces.

For me and others the differing semblances of Set, Satan, Odin/Wotan, Lucifer, Prometheus, etc., are daimonic reflections of the manifold aspects and machinations of That which is commonly known as the Prince of Darkness, the Great Benefactor of Mankind, the primordial source of our heightened Sense of Self and advanced intellect.

For me and others the differing semblances of Set, Satan, Odin/Wotan, Lucifer, Prometheus, etc., are daimonic reflections of the manifold aspects and machinations of That which is commonly known as the Prince of Darkness, the Great Benefactor of Mankind, the primordial source of our heightened Sense of Self and advanced intellect.

I am a polytheist, and while I think that all gods, Daimons, Alfs, and spirits exist independently, they are at the same time aspects of a greater force. I think that some are aspects of a darker side, and others of a lighter side.

 I don't consider myself a Setian, but I believe that Set exists, possibly as a synonym for þorr or Odin, or maybe as a personification of their combined forces.

For me it is perhaps uknown for the existence of Set, but at times I have worked with him before.  Set does exist but he does not necessarily help you unlike Christ helps man. He tests you more or less, I believe that an entity does exists outside of the Physical Universe, but this entities title is unknowable to me.

Since its founding, the Temple of Set has become one of the worlds most renowned and respected Initiatory and esoteric Schools of the Black Arts and LHP philosophy.  The BoCFbN, though not without controversy, remains a milestone in the evolution of modern "Western" Left Hand Path thought.

The more I have been writing and having re read the book Black Magic by Michael A. Aquino the more I am starting to understand his viewpoints and Setian Philosophy.  Some of the ideas and beliefs of the Temple Of Set appear to be more advanced than the current stasis of the Church Of Satan. While I have adhered to the Church Of Satan for quite a while I have more or less gone to the conclusion that their is an existence of an entity but an unknowable entity.  Coming to the conclusion of an afterlife has been very confusing and complex for me to understand and perhaps unknowable at the same time.  But while I have my respects for the COS I respect the Temple of Set more.

For me it is perhaps uknown for the existence of Set, but at times I have worked with him before.  Set does exist but he does not necessarily help you unlike Christ helps man.

Sutekh you bring up a very good point we should all heed.  Indeed Magic works, however, we should never look for Set around every corner whenever something good or remarkable happens.  It is very rare that Set will ever deliberately intervene in our lives.  We can invite him to join us in our journey towards achieving a particular goal, but he has already given us the vital tools, his own Essence (the Black Flame), the strength of mind and will to achieve our goals on our own.  Also, as we continue to evolve, to Xeper, our strength of mind and will grows, hence, enhancing our ability to achieve even greater aspirations on our own with our own hard work and Will to Magic.

"The Setian need conjure neither curse nor kindness from me, for by the magic of my great pentagram I shall see with his eyes.  And then the strength that is mine shall be the strength of the Setian, and against the Will of Set no creature of the Universe may stand.  And I think not of those who think not of me." - Set, The Book of Coming Forth by Night

Though personal to Aquino in many ways, the BOCFBN still gives me goosebumps whenever I read it.

Though personal to Aquino in many ways, the BOCFBN still gives me goosebumps whenever I read it.

To me some of the most inspiring "religious" documents are the BoCFbN, The 19 Parts of the Word of Set, and The Diabolicon.

I've found my relationship with Set to generally be one of a very friendly student or mentor. It's not that Set does things for us, but when I'm struggling in life and my thoughts fall to Set, I can usually feel the encouragement, picture a type of smirk on his face like he knows I'll figure it out. I never felt like Webb, for example, was right when he said one interacts with Set maybe once in or twice in your life, for me it seems to be present daily.

Would it be more apt to figuratively call TBOCFBN a manifesto of sorts?

I do remember reading somewhere Michael saying how it wasn't a transmission but was inspired by a divine encounter prior. Am I correct to say this?

Bump

The explanation of the Liber Legis cipher is really interesting.

Re-reading it now, it's a funny bit of synchronicity that you bumped the thread as I was reading it last night 


One of the things that striked me for the first time (even though I've already read Legis hundreds of times), is

"What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever."

Considering how much work people have put into trying to solve the cipher (to which, the outcomes are always entertaining and sometimes educational), maybe it's not meant to be cracked?

Set/Aquino's re-reference of the "every number is infinite" line, isn't a connection I've drawn before, so as a Thelemite I find quite taken back.

The general outline of the BOCFBN, feels very much like "here's how it is! Here's what's going on"


With a week so far, I've had more time to soak up the context of LaVey/Church Of Satan, into the whole Setian methodology. Reading Aquino's commentary has also been a surprising experience (as he's shed light on several things that made me think "wtf" at first)

 

I'm not a big numerology guy, but the conclusion I personally came to for the cipher was the number 777. I just added up the numbers and the words based on an A=1 English system and got 778. Then I subtracted 1 for the "&" sign, since it states "the numbers and the words", not anything about the symbols.

In a sense, it feels like a really liberating way out of the path many Thelemites go down: turning it into an orthodox, black/white tradition of idolization - aka exactly the thing that the Aeon Of Horus is meant to pull away from.