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 1 ^SP ^ ^
8 to -display a stock of our informational
pamphlets, however.

the next block I bumped into the London office of E.J.

Cta
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.

Mt ***** ^lusion of the NATO tours, I was able to undertake a

i„™ ?r
long-awaited personal quest.

?^C

L2?2E?
1S
JL^i°^ I ^
1

J
In "That Other Black Order", an article on Nazi
r °*e f° r Cloven Hoof #IV~4 A P ril VII) FDO-1,
<
Heinricb Hinmler had appropriated a. Westphalian
Appendix #40],
castle, the
ffl^S?2i. ^ ^
+
"
r*
1 1 *3
?
to obtain
for ritual and Black logical activities of the
details concerning the Wewelsburg, the more
S2
frustmt^ ?
recited the
\Z
L^r^Jrl™* ^* pparent that a****" after author had simply
thp half-paragraph's worth of rumors first
No one had troubled to visit the published in the mid-1 <W0q
castle [if it stilfexisted] nor photograph it!
U
still
h S
e^istJ -
«J3T2 sift sea^. ,J
a
^m °nth
^i here ore
WhGther 5 '

*" *"***
* ^d
^
no idea whether the Wewelsburg
*» qUeStl °n bad destroyed?

S g
L\lSPfas^lther <2
directional marker
arner (
" ^ ^
K^hlo^T^?^ ^
Zum Schloss )
U ^P
^- SSfooSTS
° castle to te ««•
pointing down a back alley, with ™
en »
more twists
-2-

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 :

center of the castle was the great banqueting hall,

'"Hie
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
'
'

-3-

"gigantic^ table and^ppSaSl^

SO^no^f S^JSS NIT' ^ ^
large leather - not
pigskin, nor with silver namenia+o
dicing hall was a thirl
rco.s were not above an^of
Neither the library nor the
separate rooms on different
the
JSS
hall
toeX?t
«I^™
tu££
„w -
Sl*?*^""^ ^
*' the
"^
to [I tFied °ne ut]

vere "S 1' Hi

° - e
ler 's own
*
the southwest tower,
'
Hl,m,ler s rocms tbey were
; in
™
™

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

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

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

argue^a^ ffiffi?? blinfd^fgn^as^ £2 *" * «*"*» ° f «» *»"*
enough or protected enougn
statues or live individual^ tor
m°
standi upon a pedestal, one can
fi^l
IZZuL Ti
2?'

^
are the a Vestals high

t^S^ fwJsVin^y oSr S oftle f

™ P latfoIms *» either

bonfir^s.^lS
1

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

n t
*ether°? mS^be
uprise he assented
able to ^eM
ed
^
a raUSem, r0CCTS
^6 1
p^oSg^t^
^^
the curator, I enquired
" -^ HaU ° f the Dead »l«e.
returned alone to the
Hall? *
^^
Jf^in"
-

^V
08 f°r «* ke * d
To my
*d ^ ^
henceforth refer to
as the [Link]^klng.
"S i^^ta senate

™^aS SKTS-ift-J*—-. r ^to ™^ the

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

/0
-4-

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.

4*
!

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

- To energize the advent of the Working

Year XVIII.

"
«m£tir.
th
I
t+ de ^
eWe S
i t g
waS conceiv ed by Heinrich Hirrmler to be the
*" toCUB ° f tbe Hal1 ° f the *** ™*> *
tne Str^f thlf r' V* 1 ^^^ D^ess
the Powers ° f at their most
powerSl lo^us. '

Results :

-« 'the «^Te-SffiT^-aSSX & ^&£\5£"«

20th ^S S^r l* G Va
understood the object of thte to
inconsistencies
h m

-TvaL
spiral JL"5«
US
T
CllBl °CCUltiOTS ° f the 19th
consclousn
V?„
r^
s almost as a pageant.

SESTV*,
f
""^asts inaccuracies and
I
, ,
^

/*
-2-

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

1
-3-

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
a new PersPectiv e- Anton LaVey had thought to enhance
I^iSm^u ^ conscious
^ ^
10n freein the «** frcrn self-imposed emotional
f prisons. He did ^
CeSS ye W t0 MS **««**
di™y
™SollaW^ri^r lT that new and mo?e
M S£ '
lable pri sons were erected in their place.
Whereas the initial ones
Sf ^Itv tll-* ^'
inteUectSl unbalances.
05 how
T
towLTPlants
r " resulting in minds more or iess
twctSS
were the product of randan, unforeseen
In a few cases the results were those
Sm^i of at least

^•^hat
this ^TnTt JS ^^ ln blamlng thS or g anization of the Church
organization per se was not at fault; if
of Satan for
anything it was a
S± 1Z1
£?
S
influence.
C ° herently
When he decided to exploit the
withln "
oSS£tta£
fel * ponged, .said so, an^forS ?he
Vj^5
ijl
of St
m e
It exSoitS ff „£* if^"^
no one-
** t0 the
** rfeCt initiatory organization.
* offered ev ery conceivable opportunity to everyone.
^t !!?, m t' Its
rXtlon^fnon^^V^
^°'7"n u
v!^.i° ° f nonsense,
°°?f«nse, occult or
!
** Church °f Satan was a cortnitS to Ihe
otherwise. The future
future, it seem«i
seemed ™,
wasn .
a
banquet of intellectual evolution at which to feast. '

seeme^hjffi
it
dashed^ 'in ^r^^* %* *?.*>*«* Ant n
initiatory medium, it
UVey had attaCked
had though to soft the Stl2r»fflSr ^f ? -
.
-4-

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?
h6re the Ur^ erstandin g "that had so far come so powerfully
•i J^*me. and clearly
failed 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

In considerin g this, my attention came to rest

.,
^ on the concept of the Order
oi
-f
the Trapezoid.
rr
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?

g b PeTiods ^en it was not employed as a synonym for the

Pr.-5oJ^^
Priesthood the °^l
+u 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 :

1,6 n0t wallow in it: like an animal in warm mud; rather cut
fl^f ;-
would a fine gem and behold the brilliance of its facets."
it as you

^ *h?S
rS
of 2?^
self-awareness ^5" f
nd Temple of Set
but which then promised
' ^
^JSing this song of Lorelei, the Order has seemed oddly antithetical
of uMch incorporated the premise
different types of escape rhanee and
hUS
ihe S' the
«*S£d£ ^eU
S^Sf^^^^^
25225?
2h£S
?hefr
™
T
ltu* lons
.

>
1 "
justification
for f
AS an '^-DoPPelgaenger" of these
ho ^ver, the Order's name and presence has waxed with
£
I*in™
LT -l
Dd ned With their «ee«ee.
* nmored imase ~
rt 1« not an
M
"evil antithesis"
alte ™ate setting for the Graal of the
of DaVk^ess?

~X
^Ht\^
"Mittef™ ^^JJiS?
d

tiSllat
M
*?
J?e 0rder
th?™*
p,??'
n° g
1
H
f
J* >
thG
^
e F^ rthly f ° CUS of
™
at
™
HeinriGh Hi ler?s Sanctum Sanctorum and

T
e Trapezoid. The reality of this chamber rushed
™
ich has b ^en thus

ood w*. no ordinary rccm minted and decorated to

^^'
1.285 inmates of the Niederhagen concentration camp died
StrUCt ^°" the lfe«elsburK for the SS.
in
^

Te
the Walhan* JZ
Walhalla were memorials °f
If the Marble Hall and
to a certain unique quality in mankind thev also •

serve as grisly reminders of the penalty

which mankind^ys qSlity Snat

h
-5-

°arrett s subsequent
connected.
9 -
° nCept
conrpnt-
C
-
«
a ^
«*•-.
Satanic trident. T
Pentagon, with the four
c;o

„j^r
w
S
n^ no1 ^

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

But the Order of +h« t%.

So It Is Ebne.