THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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To: alt.satanism
From: xeper@aol.com (Dr. Michael A. Aquino)
Subject: Re: The NAMBLA Files
Date: 24 Aug 2001 01:37:46 GMT

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"Lord Egan"  wrote:

May I offer the following corrections:

>Dr. Michael Aquino HAS been falsely charged, however.

Neither I nor my wife has ever been charged with any
crime whatever. Faked allegations, yes; investigated for
same, yes; any charges, no.

> ... myself have the distinction of being part of the
>ORIGINAL alumni of the CoS. (My membership goes
>back to 1970. I was actively involved in a New
>England grotto.)

The 1975 Church of Satan membership database shows
a Satanist I° membership in the name of your sister
[A.C. Allee] (#EZZ868), who was a founding member
member of the Amon Grotto in Massachusetts in 1974.
Along with the Grotto Priest and third Grotto founder,
(J.R.) she resigned from the Church in June 1975 and
was one of the original members of the Temple of Set. The
Church of Satan database does not show a separate
membership entry for John Allee.

>I remember a time when transgendered people would
>come to meetings dressed in drag.

That's true; the original C/S was indifferent to trans-
vestites/sexuals. On the last page of the photo section
of Anton LaVey's [auto]biography _The Devil's Avenger_
is a photo of Anton in the 6114 ritual chamber
surrounded by three semiadorned witches, a Tsexual,
and, just to liven/deaden things up, Susan Atkins.

>During this time I was an adept in the Temple of Set. I
>involved myself in a situation where a man was being
>culled from the herd simply because he had published an
>article in a pedophile publication.

That's not accurate. The Temple of Set was alerted to the
fact that one of its I° Initiates, a James Martin of Texas, had
authored an article in a British pedophile magazine. The
nearest Priest of Set proceeded to contact Martin to ask
if he were personally involved in pedophilia. Martin
abruptly resigned from the Temple, then sent me a
letter stating explicitly yes, he was indeed a "pedophile".

>I empathized with the man and ingratiated myself to him,
>stretching the truth a bit, here and there concerning my
>involvement with NAMBLA. I then arrogantly proceeded
>to flaunt my alleged "affiliation" to the Temple and
>deliberately placed myself in harm's way, calling their
>bluff.

Martin alleged that you were [also] a member of NAMBLA,
so you were immediately contacted by the Temple and
asked about that. You responded that while you were
indeed a NAMBLA member, you had never had sex with
any minor, and pledged not to. As a condition of staying
in the Temple, you immediately resigned your NAMBLA
membership, with copy of your letter to the Temple. We
took you at your word, and that ended the matter as far
as we were concerned. You remained an Adept II° in good
standing.

>Had the Temple garnered evidence that [Martin] was
>ACTUALLY INVOLVED in criminal activity, harming,
>exploiting kids, etc., I would have been entirely supportive
>of their actions. However, free speech itself is not a crime.

Martin himself stated in his post-resignation letter to me
that he was a "pedophile", but did not go into any details. As
you know, almost any form of pedophilia, including its
communication (such as child pornography ownership or
transmission) is illegal, the First Amendment not being
considered applicable to it.

[Later on it was then-Setian I° Scott Locklin's advertisement
of Martin's "Ordo Templi Baphe-metis" in his alt.satanism
FAQ, without any mention of Martin's self-acknowledged
pedophilia, that prompted my letter to Locklin saying
that such an advertisement, on a Usenet newsgroup that
might be read by minors, was unacceptable for a Setian
to publish. Locklin flew into a "free speech" fury, resigned
from the Temple, continued to advertise Martin on
alt.satanism (still without any warnings), and began
his still-continuing filth campaign concerning the
Temple of Set and myself.]

>Eventually, I snubbed Temple of Set officials - left in a
>huff because somehow I felt "morally superior."

According to Temple records, you politely and without
any "huffiness" wrote Magister Menschel in November
1992 that you had decided to allow your Temple
membership to lapse at the end of that dues year.
Your departure was equally politely accepted. As far
as the Temple of Set is concerned, you conducted
yourself properly during your tenure with the Temple,
the sole exception being concealment of your NAMBLA
membership. That, however, you remedied with
your resignation letter from it, at your own option
and decision.

Michael Aquino

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X-Admin: news@aol.com
From: xeper@aol.com (Dr. Michael A. Aquino)
Newsgroups: alt.satanism
Date: 24 Aug 2001 05:07:56 GMT
References: 
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Subject: Re: The NAMBLA Files
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"People's Commissar"  wrote:

>The letters he showed me, between you (Aquino) and him,
>involved an argument over Horus.

I wouldn't call it an "argument", but simply a polite discussion,
as was/is commonplace within the Temple of Set. In a letter
announcing the closing of his _Brimstone_ newsletter on
4/19/91, Allee speculated that the Temple of Set, in paying
inadequate attention to HarWer (Horus the Elder), hence
"is in danger of becoming a body of New Age Zoroastrians".

The tone of my 4/27/91 letter to Allee is reasonably obvious
from the following excerpt:

"... I don't think I would characterize the Temple of Set as 'new
age Zoroastrianism'. Zoroaster, of course, prescribed the worship
of Ahura Mazda and the renunciation of evil, which is merely
another form of dualism (such as Christianity).

"HarWer, the Great Horus, is not a 'devil' of the Setian
cosmology. He is a multi-faceted _neter_ whose conceptual
existence enables Set to limit and define *his* own existence.
HarWer apprehended without Set would indeed appear to be
chaotic, per the experience of Crowley with what he
understood as 'Horus'. Set apprehended without HarWer
would be somewhat like 'the capacity to think without
anything to think about'. One possesses identity not only
because one realizes the existence of *oneself*, but also
because one simultaneously recognizes what one *is not* ..."

>His letters became accusatory regarding some sexual
>matters. One of your letters shows you accusing him of
>being obsessed or something like that, and ego projecting
>that onto you or the TOS.

Again I think this is an overstatement. In one of his
communiques, Adept Allee suggested that the Temple of
Set had "a strong aversion to genitalia, profanity, or
controversy". My 9/13/92 response was to disagree and
suggest he consider whether he might instead have "a
strong preoccupation with them". Again an entirely
conversational letter.

>He may have quit NAMBLA - but as you can see (and
>we are sick to death of hearing that god damned ugly
>word associated with Satanism) he STILL posts
>about his favorite obsession.

If what you really mean is that you are sick to death of
some participants on alt.satanism promoting the "SRA"
myth simply for personal hate agendae, then there are
far more loathsome examples than John Allee, and you
know who they are.

As for Allee himself, I haven't read his NAMBLA-related
posts closely enough to recall what position he's taking.
If it's in support of NAMBLA, then I join with you in
feeling that he should take it out of alt.satanism
altogether, as intolerance of any form of child abuse
or pedophilia has been one of the core principles
of the original Church of Satan and of the Temple of
Set since their founding. Perhaps there is some other
Usenet forum in which NAMBLA-issues are appropriate
for debate, but *not* alt.satanism.

>Do you really expect a person who had sex with a child
>to tell you this honestly?

John Allee had many years as a Setian I° & Adept II°
in the Temple of Set, with many Setian acquaintances
and never a hint of any illegality in which he was
involved. Yes, I and other Temple officials felt that if
we asked him a straightforward question, he would
give us an honest answer. It is our custom to trust our
Initiates unless there is evident reason not to.

The James Martin/John Allee episode was the first time
the Temple had run into NAMBLA. Martin, as noted,
resigned the moment a Priest raised the question of
his attitude towards pedophilia with him. In Allee's
case, I don't think it would have been fair to expel
him for an _ex post facto_ "transgression". So we
took a look at what NAMBLA represented, decided
that it was entirely incompatible with Temple of Set
affiliation, and gave Allee the choice to quit one or
the other, which he immediately did.

Allee told us he had never had sex with a minor, and
we took him at his word. If it turned out later that he
had lied to us, by being convicted of such a crime, for
instance, then just as accordingly his Temple
membership, had he retained it, would have been
cancelled at that point.

As you can see, issues like these play to the bigger
question of just how much *any* religious institution,
such as the Temple of Set, should look over the shoulders
at the private lives of its members. Do it too little and
be accused of tolerating horrible people. Do it too much
and be accused of Big Brother Is Watching You-ism.
So it's a constant judgment call, with no easy formula
to follow.

>So, he lied about being a COS member too.  Interesting.

Well, it's possible that his sister, who *was* a C/S member,
brought him along to some Amon Grotto functions. But
as that Grotto was not founded until 1974, that would
have been the earliest Grotto function. The 1966-75
Church of Satan was generally pretty tolerant about
members bringing nonmember spouses or adult relatives
to functions.

Prior to 1974 there were other Grottos active in the
East Coast/New England area, such as the Lilith Grotto
in New York/New Jersey, the Asmodeus Grotto in
Washington, D.C., and various branches of these from
Philadelphia to the NY coastal islands. The Allees could
have visited one or more functions of such Grottos,
or one or more of the Eastern Regional Conclaves of
the Church.

>You know, classically, all too well known to the cops,
>pedophiles lie and lie to the very end.  They have to
>literally be caught with their pants down in the act -
>THEN they fess up in a mountain of tears.  Just look at
>the cases - transcripts from them.  Or ask any cop that
>dealt with it.

That may well be, but to unfairly condemn someone as a
"child molester" simply on the mere *allegation* of it is just
as abominable. American prisons still contain many
accused victims of the 1980s' "SRA" madness who are
obviously innocent, simply because the fanatic prosecutors
and judges who wrongfully put them there haven't
got the decency and the courage to admit what they did
and make amends for it. Perhaps the most obscene
characters are parents who happily climbed on board
the witch-hunt bandwagon, encouraging the tutoring
of their children into recital of the most grotesque
sexual horrors, simply so that said parents could make
some big money and bask in tabloid media glamor.
[These are the parents whom, with their faces
*invariably* blacked out, you see on today's witchhunt
"expose" documentaries, still righteously preaching
that the poor bastards whose lives they ruined should
continue to rot in prison.]

Michael Aquino

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X-Admin: news@aol.com
From: xeper@aol.com (Dr. Michael A. Aquino)
Newsgroups: alt.satanism
Date: 25 Aug 2001 17:11:32 GMT
References: 
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Subject: Re: The NAMBLA Files
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xganon  wrote:

>What I find odd is the fact that Aquino did not
>terminate Egan's membership but rather gave
>him an easy ultimatum.

I thought I had explained that. The Temple of Set had
no knowledge of NAMBLA [this was before the era of
websites, etc.] and no _a priori_ policy prohibiting
Initiates' affiliation with it.

In Allee's original published statement of his membership
in NAMBLA, he said of it: "... we *do not* advocate or
practice "child molestation" or child abuse! Neither do
we encourage or practice the breaking of state or federal
laws."

A member of the Priesthood of Set was immediately asked
to contact Allee, and reported: "... He made it clear that he
was not a pedophile and that his support of NAMBLA was
based on a cultural & historical view and on an abstract
libertarian regard for consent. I pointed out that the issue
of consent was a tricky one, and that the power imbalance
between minors & adults was so great that it was better to
err on the side of caution & social norms, since it was not
clear that free consent was possible. We discussed this a
bit. I left the conversation feeling that Allee is ethical but
careless."

Given the above, we did not feel that preemptory cancellation
of his Temple of Set membership was appropriate. [And
remember, this was an Adept II° of long-standing positive
accomplishment in the Temple, and never any problems
with the law which came to our attention.] So, after learning
a bit more about NAMBLA, largely from newspaper clippings,
we just advised him that membership in NAMBLA and
Temple of Set affiliation were incompatible, and that he
would have to leave one or the other. He immediately
resigned from NAMBLA, sent us a copy of his resignation
letter, and that was that.

And I say again that the Temple of Set tries to strike a
reasonable balance between over/under-attention to
Initiates' private lives. On one hand we keep an eye out
for conduct that might harm the Temple or its other
Initiates. On the other hand, we're not interested in
monitoring or controlling Initiates' private lives _a la_
the Mormons, Scientology, etc.

Michael Aquino

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