Author Thoughts on Aquino?

[Frater M.M.]

My favourite Satanist so far seems to be Aquino.

While I’m not planning on following his self-deification curriculum, if I had the choice I would definitely pick continued individual existence after death over dissolving into the cosmos, or getting memory-wiped and reincarnated.

One thing I like about him (assuming I’ve understood the little I know of his work properly) is the idea of Xeper.

On an average Tuesday afternoon, it seems pretty in line with what you’d be doing with things like ACT psychology, self-determination theory, modern behaviour-change research and so on: understanding yourself, figuring out what you actually value, committed action towards it, behavioural rehearsal, deliberately exposing yourself to challenge, journaling, noticing your own patterns, etc.

Obviously he puts all of that inside a much bigger occult/metaphysical framework, so I’m not saying Setianism = ACT with ritual and Egyptian gods. But I do find the overlap interesting.

I’ve also been reading up on his military career, PSYOP stuff, MindWar, some of the projects/research going on around that time, the people around him, and some of the later stuff connected to those circles. That whole side of him is also pretty interesting, although I’m aware there’s a lot of controversy over what’s actually documented vs what really happened.

Just curious if more experienced people on here have any thoughts on him, his military life, his ToS work, Xeper, etc.?

Positive, negative or mixed opinions are all welcome.

 

[Hasuna]

He was really great and ahead of his time. I read his MindWar book. Imagine being a magician, occultist, A++ in psychology, a military.
He was an asset for the US military, but sadly they didn't let him advance further on military ranks after it was divulged that he was a "Satanist" and created "The Temple of Set". After that event, he completly went incognito for the public, that's why you can't even find much photos about him on the internet other than the common ones. Not even to mention finding stuff about his family. RIP

 

[Frater M.M.]

He was really great and ahead of his time.

Yeah for sure, he was a pretty interesting guy, IMO.

I was reading a summary of MindWar and it seems to me it's less about being a random "how to propagandize or nudge a population" book but more about how to Xeper at scale (even if you have to prod the population at times for their own good).

He was an asset for the US military, but sadly they didn't let him advance further on military ranks after it was divulged that he was a "Satanist" and created "The Temple of Set".

Yeah, I can imagine being seen as a Satanist in America didn't go down too well in the 80s. Plus conversations trying to explain the difference between Satanism and Setianism to his commanding officers must have been bizarre to witness: “No, General, technically I left the Satanists thirteen years ago because they weren’t theistic enough…”

Actually, this conversation reminded me of Geraldo's great exposé on devil worship in 1988. I forgot about Aquino's appearance on that episode. I suspect this hit piece helped wreck his career prospects alongside the association with the Presidio scandal (even tho Aquino was never charged with anything).

In a way, Geraldo MindWar'd the viewing public against Aquino, which exposes one problem with Aquino's book, IMO: I imagine Geraldo was just as sincere in his attempt to shape the viewing public's perception in a benevolent way but had a very different idea of what "benevolent" meant.

 

[nunaphael]

So, I actually did not even know this guy existed until just a couple of months ago when I started my dive into vamprism and studying that subject. There is a book by Don Webb called Energy Vamprism where he outlines what he calls a "vampiric initiation" path, which involves the study and reflection upon the work of several important occultists. One of them is Aquino and again, before I had ever heard of Aquino, I had never heard of "Xeper".

I have not read any of Aquino's works yet, but I see MindWar being mentioned in this thread. Are there any other works anyone here who is familiar with Aquino would recommend checking out, either by Aquino or other authors writing about Xeper?

 

[Frater M.M.]

So, I actually did not even know this guy existed until just a couple of months ago when I started my dive into vamprism and studying that subject. There is a book by Don Webb called Energy Vamprism where he outlines what he calls a "vampiric initiation" path, which involves the study and reflection upon the work of several important occultists. One of them is Aquino and again, before I had ever heard of Aquino, I had never heard of "Xeper".

The name Don Webb seemed familiar to me. When I looked him up, I realised it was because I'd read his Uncle Setnakt Sez articles many years ago (which I seem to remember being pretty good and funny).

Apparently, after watching Aquino on the Geraldo clip I posted above, he was so impressed by how calm Aquino was in the interview that Webb signed up to join Aquino's Temple of Set in 1989. Later on Webb (in 1996) took over as ToS High Priest when Aquino stepped down and continued investigating/developing Xeper.

I have not read any of Aquino's works yet, but I see MindWar being mentioned in this thread. Are there any other works anyone here who is familiar with Aquino would recommend checking out, either by Aquino or other authors writing about Xeper?

Apparently, Don Webb wrote an essay called Xeper: The Eternal Word of Set, which may or may not be a good place to start. I'll leave it to the Setian experts on here to give you proper recommendations. I don't know that much about ToS.

 

[Eldros]

My favourite Satanist so far seems to be Aquino.

While I’m not planning on following his self-deification curriculum, if I had the choice I would definitely pick continued individual existence after death over dissolving into the cosmos, or getting memory-wiped and reincarnated.

One thing I like about him (assuming I’ve understood the little I know of his work properly) is the idea of Xeper.

On an average Tuesday afternoon, it seems pretty in line with what you’d be doing with things like ACT psychology, self-determination theory, modern behaviour-change research and so on: understanding yourself, figuring out what you actually value, committed action towards it, behavioural rehearsal, deliberately exposing yourself to challenge, journaling, noticing your own patterns, etc.

Obviously he puts all of that inside a much bigger occult/metaphysical framework, so I’m not saying Setianism = ACT with ritual and Egyptian gods. But I do find the overlap interesting.

I’ve also been reading up on his military career, PSYOP stuff, MindWar, some of the projects/research going on around that time, the people around him, and some of the later stuff connected to those circles. That whole side of him is also pretty interesting, although I’m aware there’s a lot of controversy over what’s actually documented vs what really happened.

Just curious if more experienced people on here have any thoughts on him, his military life, his ToS work, Xeper, etc.?

Positive, negative or mixed opinions are all welcome.

Yes I think the interesting part for me is the comparison of Xeper and ACT.
I disagree with Aquino's metaphysics because I don't think there is an afterlife that survives death, but I do agree with the idea of consciously shaping yourself into the person you want to be.
I find it kind of interesting how similar some of it is to modern psychology.
If you remove the occult aspect of Xeper, I'm also curious about how much of it remains functional.
The PSYOP/MindWar stuff is interesting too, but I’d want to separate what’s actually documented from the myths around him.

 

[Wintruz]

My favourite Satanist so far seems to be Aquino.

While I’m not planning on following his self-deification curriculum, if I had the choice I would definitely pick continued individual existence after death over dissolving into the cosmos, or getting memory-wiped and reincarnated.

One thing I like about him (assuming I’ve understood the little I know of his work properly) is the idea of Xeper.

On an average Tuesday afternoon, it seems pretty in line with what you’d be doing with things like ACT psychology, self-determination theory, modern behaviour-change research and so on: understanding yourself, figuring out what you actually value, committed action towards it, behavioural rehearsal, deliberately exposing yourself to challenge, journaling, noticing your own patterns, etc.

Obviously he puts all of that inside a much bigger occult/metaphysical framework, so I’m not saying Setianism = ACT with ritual and Egyptian gods. But I do find the overlap interesting.

I’ve also been reading up on his military career, PSYOP stuff, MindWar, some of the projects/research going on around that time, the people around him, and some of the later stuff connected to those circles. That whole side of him is also pretty interesting, although I’m aware there’s a lot of controversy over what’s actually documented vs what really happened.

Just curious if more experienced people on here have any thoughts on him, his military life, his ToS work, Xeper, etc.?

Positive, negative or mixed opinions are all welcome.

I wrote a bit about Aquino here.

A good deal of his system derives from Thelema ("Objective Universe"/Nuit, "Subjective Universe"/Hadit) but aesthetically stripped down in light of LaVey. If someone is interested in the American LHP, Aquino is a better than average guide. Generally speaking LHPers who have worked through Aquino tend to be more mature, intelligent, stable and serious than those who have worked through Michael Ford (who was a member of the Temple of Set), Koetting, et al.

That being said, I knew Aquino a little and I would resist attempts of Setians to declare him the Great Wisdom. Many of his philosophical premises were faulty and rooted in a kind of metaphysical-situational relativism coupled with the LaVeyan/late-20th century notion that accumulation was simply a self-evident good (taking this to the extent of buying a Scottish title of nobility through "disposition" and calling himself the "Baron of Rachane", to be clear this title wasn't bestowed by the Queen so it has no meaning, it's like paying to be recognised as a "doctor" in a private businesses in Panama and then introducing oneself to others as "Doctor"). In some areas, his scholarship was surprisingly shoddy (in MindStar he makes some very, very elementary mistakes concerning Judaism and Christianity, flattening them into variations on a theme; they're not) and his advancement of an incomplete Egyptian soulcraft essentially came down to "I like this so I am advocating it".

In a certain sense, that latter is a good indication of Aquino. He valorised aspects of the Self as an end unto itself. Taken to its final stage, this culminates, as it did for LaVey, in a Norma Desmond-like Self imprisonment. As a kick start to individuation though, it's probably useful. Before we can hand ourselves over to Life we have to know who we are handing over.