Michael Angelo Aquino
Michael A. Aquino
Title	High Priest
Personal life
Born	Michael Angelo Aquino (1946-10-16)October 16, 1946 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	September 1, 2019(2019-09-01) (aged 72)
Spouse
Known for	Temple of Set
Religious life
Religion	Theistic Satanism
Denomination	Temple of Set

Michael Angelo Aquino (October 16, 1946 – September 1, 2019^[1]) was an American political scientist, military officer and Satanist. He was the founder and high priest of the Temple of Set. Aquino was also a specialist in psychological warfare for military intelligence and an officer in the U.S. Army.

Aquino was a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1980. He joined the army in 1968 as a psychological warfare specialist and was deployed in the Vietnam War. He served with the Green Berets and in the 1970s he was a NATO liaison officer in several European countries. He also visited Wewelsburg Castle, which was used by the SS and Heinrich Himmler, and is said to have performed a satanic ritual there.^[2][3] He is also said to have established contacts to right-wing extremists in Europe as the leader of a group called “Monarch”, which may have been connected to Operation Gladio.^[4]

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1980, Aquino worked as an associate professor at Golden Gate University until 1986, while continuing to serve in the U.S. Army as an active-duty reserve officer at the Presidio of San Francisco. In 1981, Aquino was a reserve attaché at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and a year later he was a student at the Foreign Service Institute, sponsored by the Department of State. As an intelligence officer, he thus gained access to top-secret documents. He later worked as a program analyst at the US Army's Reserve Personnel Center in Saint Louis, where he was responsible for personnel issues. He also worked for Merrill Lynch and obtained a license to trade securities on the New York Stock Exchange.^[2][3] In 1994, Aquino retired from active duty in the army, was honorably transferred to the reserves and awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.

In 1969, he joined the Church of Satan, led by Anton LaVey, and quickly rose through the ranks of the group. By 1971, Aquino had been appointed Magister Caverns of the IV degree within the church hierarchy, was the editor of the publication The Cloven Hoof and sat on the governing council of the nine.^[5] However, conflicts arose over time between LaVey and Aquino regarding the direction of the group. The latter rejected LaVey's atheism and materialism.^[5] When he started selling positions in the Church of Satan for money, Aquino finally left the group in 1975.^[6]

After he left the Church of Satan, he started a ritual in which he asked Satan for advice on what to do next.^[7] According to him, Satan appeared to him in the summer of 1975 and revealed to him that he wanted to be called Set, a name that his worshippers in ancient Egypt are said to have used. Aquino produced a religious text, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, which he claimed was revealed to him by Set in a process of automatic writing. The book proclaimed Aquino Magus of the new eon of Set, and heir to LaVey's “infernal mandate”. On this basis, he founded the Temple of Set, which is dedicated to the worship of Set. In contrast to LaVey's approach, this group has an occult and gnostic orientation. Aquino's orientation was strongly influenced by the work of the British occultist Aleister Crowley.^[7] The group's aim is self-deification, which it pursues by performing rituals and practicing black magic, among other things.

In 1975, the Temple of Set was registered as a non-profit church in California and received state and federal recognition and tax exemption that same year.^[8] Aquino remained the Temple's high priest until 1979, when he handed over the role to Ronald Keith Barrett, who, following disputes, also founded his own satanic sect, the Temple of Anubis, a few years later. Aquino was high priest again between 1982 and 1996 and between 2002 and 2004.

In November 1986, the San Francisco Police began investigating allegations of sexual abuse in connection with the Army's Child Development Center at the Presidio of San Francisco. A girl came forward in August 1987 and identified Aquino as the culprit. At least 58 out of 100 children who had attended the daycare center showed physical and mental signs of sexual abuse, leading to a lawsuit by the parents for $60 million in damages.^[2][3] An investigation against Aquino was launched, but it was closed after insufficient evidence was found.^[9]

John DeCamp, a Republican politician and former member of the Nebraska Legislature, linked Aquino to the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations.^[4] However, no charges were filed and a grand jury dismissed the entire case in 1990.

Historian Mitch Horowitz, in addition to correcting the date of Aquino's death, has noted that investigators found that in the weeks of the claimed incident the Aquinos were not residing in San Francisco but in Washington, D.C. No charges were filed. "The Aquinos," Horowitz wrote, "unsuccessfully attempted legal action against the girl's chaplain father and an Army psychiatrist who stoked the false claims. But the couple faced the barrier of gravitating between civilian and military law." Horowitz further wrote that Aquino and wife settled legal actions against two accusatory books out of court."^[10]

• Offical CV of Aquino (pdf)