Temple of Set
The Temple of Set is a left-hand path initiatory order founded in 1975. Initiates take the title "Setian". The Temple is incorporated in California as a non-profit religious organization.
The temple had c. 200 members in 2007.
Background
The Temple of Set was consecrated in Santa Barbara, California during the summer solstice of June 1975, by Michael A. Aquino, in a "greater black magic" ritual that resulted in what Aquino regards as an inspired text titled The Book of Coming Forth by Night. Aquino later stated that the name of the text is an "evident negation" of the name of the Ancient Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day, also known as the Book of the Dead. Aquino's working has been compared to Aleister Crowley's "Cairo Working" of 1904, which resulted in the Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema by followers of Aquino.
The Temple was founded by members of the Church of Satan, who left that organization in 1975 because of administrative and philosophical disagreements with its founder Anton Szandor LaVey. Michael Aquino had joined the Church of Satan in 1969 and risen rapidly in the Church's hierarchy. Aquino has stated that he believed LaVey not to be merely a charismatic leader but to have been actually appointed by Satan himself (referring to this charismatic authority as the "Infernal Mandate") to found the Church. After the split of 1975, Aquino believed LaVey had lost the mandate, which the "Prince of Darkness" then transferred to Aquino and a new organization, the Temple of Set.