Left Hand Path666

Michael A. Aquino

TTT^P— 1 R

u AO * ' November 8, XVII

The reason for my silence during the past month is about to be explained* I
have been out of the country. During the first part of October I participated

m a JPS 68 ° f tourS of MTO installations in England, Belgium, and Germany
arranged through the World Affairs Council. I haven't been to London and
Brussels since 1958 or to Germany since XIII, so it was interesting to see the
changes and non-changes that have occurred. It was surprising to discover ' that
London^ which I had supposed to be a nerve-center of occultism, has only one
tiny bookshop - "Atlantis" - dealing in the Black Arts. It is perhaps 1/4 the
size of Gilbert's in L.A. or Weiser's in NYC, and I made no discoveries within

J? 6 * 68 ,! The owner ^SP 1 ^ 8 ^ to -display a stock of our informational
pamphlets, however.

Cta the next block I bumped into the London office of E.J. Brill, the Dutch
publishers who once published Seth , God of Confusion hardcover and expensive.
For many years it has been out of print; now it is back in print softcover and
less expensive (48.00 Dutch Gld.) We will explore ways to order this unique
volume at minimum inconvenience to Setians.

i„™ Mt ?r ***** ^lusion of the NATO tours, I was able to undertake a
long-awaited personal quest. In "That Other Black Order", an article on Nazi

? C ^ 1 1S J L^i°^ I ^ r °* e f ° r Cloven Hoof #IV ~ 4 < A P ril VII) FDO-1, Appendix #40],
L2?2E? J Heinricb Hinmler had appropriated a. Westphalian castle, the
ffl^S?2i. ^ + ^ r* 1 ? 1 * 3 " for ritual and Black logical activities of the
frustmt^ ? \Z to obtain details concerning the Wewelsburg, the more

S2 thp L^r^Jrl™* ^ * pparent that a****" after author had simply
recited the half-paragraph's worth of rumors first published in the mid-1 <W0q
No one had troubled to visit the castle [if it stilfexisted] nor photograph it!

still U e^istJ h - S ,J a ^ m ° nth ^ i here 5 ore ' * ^d no idea whether the Wewelsburg
«J3T2 sift sea^. WhGther *" *"*** *» qUeStl ° n bad ^ destroyed?

S g L\lS P f as^lther <2 " ^ ^ ^ ^- SSf ooSTS

directional marker K^hlo^T^?^ ^ U P ° castle to te ««• ™ en »
arner ( Zum Schloss ) pointing down a back alley, with more twists

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and turns - and then: Castle' Wewelsburg, apparently intact and perfectly

preserved, and virtually invisible even from the town because of the surrounding

forests and terrain. As seen from above it is in the shape of an isosceles

triangle, with : the keep at the north apex and the other two towers at the

southwest and: southeast corners. :■

Passing the small guardhouse (with a defaced but still legible "SS" stone
emblem atop), T crossed the bridge Ttop left photo] to the main entrance in the
east wall, entered the courtyard,, and knocked at the door of what was evidently
a small museum of the castle's medieval history. In answer to my questions, the
elderly curator politely informed me that the two ritual chambers were very much
intact. Would I like to see them? Indeed I would, thank you!

The Wewelsburg is used f except for the museum and the two ceremonial
chambers] as a youth hostel; some of the children can be seen in the top center
photo, which looks down the courtyard towards the keep or North Tower. Entering
the North Tower from the courtyard brings one to the "Marble Hall".

This circular chamber [bottom center photo] is completely unfurnished, save
for two black floor-candleholders with red candles by one of the doors. Into
the center of the red marble floor is set a rune-wheel f bottom left photo] made
of green stone, with the central disc of black marble. Each rune points to one
of 12 green sandstone columns fthe tops of two of which are visible in the
bottom center photo] , forming cross arris vaults above 12 windows also framed in
green sandstone. The chamber's only other decoration is a roughly-hewn block of
stone above the door with the black candleholders.

To give yon some idea of the wild distortions that have been published
concerning the Wewelsburg, the following is quoted from Francis King's Satan and
Swastika :

'"Hie center of the castle was the great banqueting hall,
furnished with a gigantic table n round which were placed large wooden
chairs - almost, thrones - upholstered with pigskin and with the name
of the rightful occupant inscribed on silver plates. In these chairs
Hinraler and his favorite subordinates would sit both for conferences
concerned with mundane matters and for group meditation - long hours
of silence in which the participants were supposed to strengthen their
ties with the 'Race Soul'. Besides Hiirmler himself, never more than
12 SS men were allowed to sit down at the table; the reasons for this
are not clear, but it is possible that he was either blasphemously
parodying the Last Supper or seeing himself symbolizing the sun
surrounded by the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

"Above the banqueting hall were Himmler's own rooms ... Below
the hall was the crypt, the 'realm of the dead', in which 12
unoccupied pedestals were placed around a stone hollow. On the death
of each of Himmler's chosen 12, his coat of arms was to be burned, and
the ashes placed in an urn on one of the pedestals ..."

In actuality the floor emblem and other architectural features of the
Marble Hall make it clear that the chamber was never designed to contain a

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"gigantic^ table and^ppSaSl^ SO^no^f S^JSS NIT' ^ ^
pigskin, nor with silver namenia+o „w - large le ather - not

dicing hall was a thirl JSS hall Sl*?*^ to [I tFied ° ne ° ut] - ™ e
rco.s were not above an^of the toeX?t ^ ""^ "S 1 ' Hi ™ ler 's own
Neither the library nor the «I^™ *' the ^ vere *■ the southwest tower,
separate rooms on different tu££ " Hl,m,ler ' s rocms ; tbey were in

signi^ancTrathef ton a^perSnal^n *s" ^S^ teve a ^"/ooanic
offices, each headetf by aJTXSS^SS f 6- « [There TOre 12 «**»! SS
•ould have excluded the llth: Ser^E^f <*** Genena > '' A >*-*** *"«

North^owS! 1 ?o en^if ot 1 ^^ dir6Ctly beDeath ^ ^ble Hall in the
the North ToweM^eVinVa"? ™LV? t°oof Se^TS* w f t0 *• *- *
leads do™ to the Hall (top/botZ righ? phoSs P ^ Pb ° t ° h

A stone stair

« a concealed sioke vent^ Cc^S; ^s^illo^c^: "* ** *~

argue^a^ ffiffi?? blinfd^fgn^as^ £2 *" * «*"*» ° f «» *»"*
enough or protected enougn tor fi^l ' 2? are the a Vestals high

statues or live individual^ m° IZZuL Ti ^ f ™ P latfoIms *» either
standi upon a pedestal, one can t^S^ fwJsVin^y oSr S oftle

bonfir^s.^lS 1 £&£ tecte ^I*r Tral ^^t ^ DOt deSi ^ **
Places an individual at theWstWocS Z X ^° !f X descend «J into it; it
converging focus of the li^V-Wnf^f 2 the chamber - as well as at the
^e effect is devastating? ^e sSrslith^i^t f™ ST* 50 * wlnd< * P ass ^ es -
« an otherwise shado^d\ n d darken^Tcha^r • aS oS^ *? *»»*». « stars
to a whisper or raised to a shout - Is ma^nTf^ °S S T° 1Ce " wbether lowsr e°
back to the focus. 1S ma « nlfl ed and multiplied and mirrored

*ether°? mS^be n able to t ^eM ed ^ a ^ raUSem, r0CCTS ^^ the curator, I enquired
uprise he assented p^oSg^t^ 6 - 1 " -^ HaU ° f the Dead »l«e. To my
returned alone to the Hall? ^^ * Jf^in" ^V 08 f ° r «* ke ^ * d * d ^
henceforth refer to as the We.lsbu^klng. "S i^^ta senate

™^aS SKTS-ift- J*—-. r ™ ^ ^to the

Having^ton^ut it'in toffiffiLtV*?* ^ ^^^erg complex.
« ™y description ffron tritrSsMJSgfigJb ' w^ Kg. -*"- to -

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I am pleased to report that it more or less does, save that Kfertin
Bormann's tunnel into the Kehlstein mountain begins with copper/bronze doors and
is 130m long. The brass elevator takes only a couple of minutes to reach the
Eagle's Nest, and there is no flagstone in front of' its upper door. On the
other hand there is a very conspicuous flagstone right in front of the big
fireplace, so I expect that the 10 commandments are entombed there [or were
until Indiana Jones & party went off with them].

Adolf Hitler's own house - the Berghof - is now so completely overgrown
with forest that it's impossible to find it unless you know where to look. fit
took me a half-hour's plunging around in the underbrush]. On Walpurgis 1952 the
ruins of the Berghof were dynamited by the German government; only one partially
underground room remains.

Back in San Francisco I am now recovering from jet- Jag, reading mail, and
pondering many things.

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ORDER OF THE TRAPEZOID

The Wewelsburg Working
Michael A. Aquino VI°

Date / Time : Cfctober 19, XVII / 3:00-4:30 PM

.location: Hall of the Dead/ "Walhalla", North Tower, Wewelsburg Ctetle, Germany

Key: 19th Part of the Word of Set, Aethyr LIL

Purpose :

"J°° b ^ a f V 11 Understanding of the significance of the crisis that
befell the Temple of Set in June- July XVII.

- To energize the advent of the Working Year XVIII.

" «m£tir. th t+ I eWe i S ^ g waS conceiv ed by Heinrich Hirrmler to be the

tne Str^f de thlf t r' V* 1 *" toCUB ° f tbe Hal1 ° f the *** ™*> *

powerSl lo^us. ' ^^^ the Powers ° f D^ess at their most

Results :

-«■ 'the «^T e-SffiT^-aSSX ^ & ^&£\5£"«

20th ^S S^r l* G h Va m T US r^ CllBl ° CCUltiOTS ° f the 19th ^
understood the object of thte to V?„ consclousn f s almost as a pageant. I
inconsistencies -TvaL spiral JL"5« SESTV*, ""^asts , inaccuracies , and

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still, surprisingly, peripheral to the central concept being approached. When
at last all veils had been removed, and that concept was revealed, it was so
simple as to seem at first antic limactic and almost disappointing. It was: the
phenomenon of life.

Instantly I regretted my impatience and arrogance, my lapse into easy
disappointment. Too many doors had been opened, too many forces unlocked and
unleashed for this to be the ultimate impact of the Working. Then it was as
though a "test" were passed: The basic concept of "life" became a sort of focal
point, like that of a refractor telescope, through which the energies of the
Working passed. The initial "dialectic" had reduced all to a pinpoint of fact,
and now that fact, unencumbered, was expanding to full significance.

Human beings are accustomed to thinking of "nature" as including all
animate and inanimate life forms, themselves included. It was the approach of
the Church of Satan, and later of the Temple of Set, to single out
self-consciousness as the characteristic feature of That which stood in contrast
to the harmony of the natural cosmos. In fact all life has some degree of
intelligence [not to be confused with self-consciousness], and somewhere within
that intelligence is a subcomponent of self-consciousness, which only becomes
evident when the level of basic intelligence is relatively high.

The error in any operation designed to strengthen the self-con sciousness
necessarily follows from the fact that self-consciousness is a function of the
core intelligence, and there are many other functions of intelligence as well.
Initiation thus treats a "symptom", not a "cause"; this leads the "cure" in
unanticipated directions.

The Church of Satan and the Temple of Set have grappled with this problem
for all the years of their existence without recognizing its actual depth.
Strengthen, exalt, and encourage the Willful Self and you cannot avoid
strengthening the natural instincts as well. No human being is free from these;
they may be kept in check for years, but in eventual moments of stress,
weakness, or stimulus they will break free. They may be either creative or
destructive; this is not a mere "Jekyll/Hyde" scenario.

All initiatory efforts that are not deliberate frauds - from the most,
childish to the most sophisticated - are conceits of the self-conscious
intellect. Those that profess to be natural, universal, nirvanic, or otherwise
"Right-Hand Path" are ultimately exercises in self-delusion, if in fact the
adherents actually believe in their own rhetoric. Sooner or later the
masquerade becomes tiresome, the daydream' boring, and the devotee discards it in
favor of other sensory stimuli. The anti-natural systems of the "Left-Hand
Path", on the other hand, think to suppress sane aspects of the intellect while
strengthening others. What results is a condition of strain which, should the
tension become too great, will snap back to an equilibrium which may be more or
less viable than it originally was.

The intelligent mind cannot be "escaped" so easily. If it is argued,
convinced, threatened, hypnotized, drugged, or diseased into non-rational
channels, then its self- con sciousness mil merely reassert itself in some other
form. This, I understood in the Wewelsburg, was the "magical epitaph" of Nazi
Germany: That, in fighting against certain features of the mind, it had seemed

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at first to succeed - but then had thus unleashed other, even less desirable
features of that same mind which had previously remained in some rough degree of
socially-controlled equilibrium before this ultimately disastrous experiment in
conscious evolution" was attempted.

The chamber in which I stood, I now realized, was nothing less than an SS
laboratory for experiments in "conscious evolution" - a sort of "Krel machine"
without computerized, science-fiction accoutrements. It was not designed to
teach or educate, rather to mirror and enhance thoughts and impulses already in
existence. Hence its effect on the consciousness could be devastating for
better or for worse.

The 18-year experience of the Oiurch of Satan and Temple of Set now began
I^iSm^u ^ a new P ers P ectiv e- Anton LaVey had thought to enhance conscious
^ 10n ^ freein f the «** frcrn self-imposed emotional prisons. He did ^

™SollaW^ri^r CeSS ' ye lT W t0 MS **««** di™y that new and mo?e
M S£ lable pri sons were erected in their place. Whereas the initial ones

Sf ^Itv tll-* 05 ^' how T r " resulting in minds more or iess twctSS

inteUectSl towLT Plants were the product of randan, unforeseen
Sm^i unbalances. In a few cases the results were those of at least

this ^TnTt JS ^^ ln blamlng thS or g anization of the Church of Satan for
^•^hat organization per se was not at fault; if anything it was a
S± 1Z1 £? influence. When he decided to exploit the oSS£tta£ Vj^5
of St S C ° herently withln " fel * ponged, .said so, an^forS ?he ijl

It exSoitS m no e one- ff „£* if ^"^ t0 ** the ** rfeCt initiatory organization.
^t !!?, m t' * offered ev ery conceivable opportunity to everyone. Its

rXtlon^fnon^^V^ ** Church °f Satan was a cortnitS to Ihe
v!^.i° n ° f °°?f«nse, occult or otherwise. The future, it seem«i ™, n .

was a

^°'7" u ! nonsense, occult or otherwise. The future it seemed
banquet of intellectual evolution at which to feast. '

seeme^hjffi dashed^ 'in ^r^^* %* *?.*>*«* initiatory medium, it
it had though to soft the Stl2r»fflSr ^f Ant ? n UVey had attaCked -

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The forces that would lead to the destruction of the Church of Satan in
1975 were not set in motion by Wayne West in 1971; they were activated on
Walpirgisnacht I. Similarly the Temple of Set, thinking that it had destroyed
those forces in 1975, had succeeded only in closing certain doors to them so
that they would have to find other means of manifestation. After an initial
delay, they did.

Ndw, in the Hall of the Dead, I sought a solution to the dilemma of the
18-year Working. Is the lesson of X-XVIII ultimately that There Is No ^y Out -
that all initiation is merely Russian roulette in fancy dress?

•i J^* h6re the Ur ^ erstandin g "that had so far come so powerfully and clearly
failed me. It was as though the Wewelsburg, having discharged a "battery" that
had remained charged for 40. years, had no more current to provide.

Having drunk at this magical fountain of youth, however, I myself felt
energized as I had not since the North Solstices of V and X. The Hall of the
Dead now seemed an insulation against randan discharge of this energy. Action
must now give way to reaction; how should I direct this reaction?

t

-f ., In rr ^ considerin g this, my attention came to rest on the concept of the Order
oi the Trapezoid. As will be recalled, this concept as employed by both the
uiurcn and the Temple has gone through many adjustments and redefinitions over
xne years. Yet it has endured and attracted because it seemed to "sav
something that the Church and the Temple could not. What might this be?

Pr.-5oJ^^ g +u b °^l P eTiods ^en it was not employed as a synonym for the
Priesthood the Order has been used as a talisman to evoke a kind of diabolical
schadenfreude, a grim enjoyment of the predicament of self-conscious humanity.
Here you are in a state of Satanic self-awareness," it seemed to say. "You
cannot escape it; you cannot change it for the better - or for the worse.
Therefore: Sbcjerience it; savor its taste, sense its exquisite : pain and

fl^f 1,6 ;- n0t wallow in it: like an animal in warm mud; rather cut it as you

would a fine gem and behold the brilliance of its facets."

^ *h?S ^JSing this song of Lorelei, the Order has seemed oddly antithetical

rS 2?^ ^5" f nd Temple of Set ' ^ of uMch incorporated the premise

of self-awareness but which then promised different types of escape rhanee and

25225? T hUS . i he justification for «*S£d£ f ^eU S' the

S^Sf^^^^^ 1 " AS an '^-DoPPelgaenger" of these
?hefr 2h£S ltu * lons > ho ^ver, the Order's name and presence has waxed with
£ LT -l Dd ™ ned With their «ee«ee. rt 1« not an "evil antithesis"

I*in™ of DaVk^ess? * nmored imase ~ M alte ™ate setting for the Graal of the

"Mittef™ ^^JJiS? thG ^ HeinriGh Hi ™ ler?s Sanctum Sanctorum and

^Ht J? *? > T J* e F ^ rthly f ° CUS of ™ at ^ ich has b ^en thus

~ d \ ^ e 0rder g f ™ e Trapezoid. The reality of this chamber rushed in

tiSllat th?™* n ° 1 H ^^' ood w*. no ordinary rccm minted and decorated to
M X p,??' 1.285 inmates of the Niederhagen concentration camp died
Te Walhan* JZ StrUCt ^°" °f the lfe«elsburK for the SS. If the Marble Hall and
the Walhalla were memorials to a certain unique quality in mankind thev •
serve as grisly reminders of the penalty which mankind^ys Snat qSlity

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°arrett s subsequent conrpnt- « ^ -. Satanic trident. T c;o w n^ no1 ^

connected. - 9 C ° nCept - a «*• Pentagon, with the four „j^ r S

following chane-pc;. 7^ xc ls a return to the initial es4«7i . he

But the Order of +h« t%.

So It Is Ebne.

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