The Evolving ONA

.:.”What does not kill, makes stronger.” –21 Satanic Points, Black Book of Satan, ONA

I’ve been around Satanism for a very long time. I like watching online Satanists. Since they had little fancy Satanic groups on MySpace and MySatan, most of those dummies attempted to “evolve” Satanism. Unfortunately, what they understand of evolution was learned from high school science class, in which class one can only assume they paid very little attention.

Those dummie Satanists on MySpace and MySatan usually, nearly 99% of the time, used the same exact equation/formula to “evolve” Satanism. The formula looks like this: Evolve Satanism = Make Better. And in practice, 100% of the time, the variable “Make Better” ends up meaning: “My Ideas.” In other words, what they believe is: “My ideas will make Satanism better, thus evolving it.”

That line of reasoning regarding how shit evolves is like saying: “Evolution is when God/Nature makes things better.” As if to suggest, using that same line of thinking, that Mother Nature one day had a great idea and she put webbed feet on a dinosaur and a billed beak, and came up with a duck.

The main problem with their dummie notion of evolution is that an idea, no matter how great such idea sounds and seems: is Conjectural. Conjectural in practice means that the idea has not yet been tested, that such idea has not yet produced “proof of concept,” that such idea has not yet made Fruit which you can judge. In other words, you have no idea what end results [cause and effect] your conjectured idea will actually produce.

And so, I’ve watched those dummies come into Satanism, with big titles, try to make Satanism better, by adding to Satanism their own “great” ideas: [re: their own opinions, beliefs, views, sentiments, “philosophy”]. And 100% of the time, even if on the rare occasion they even publish self-published books on Amazon or Lulu: they fail.

DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION

In reality, in the Real World of Nature, developmental evolution happens in the matrix of an environment/ecosystem. Fractally: our own human species’ development from the primitive homo sapiens we were 300,000 years ago to the human beings we are today exclusively happened within the matrix of an environment we call “Civilization” [re: “society”].

And so, the universal principle of physical development/evolution is governed by two main factors that exists in a state of “tension” with each other. The first factor is that – as the Buddha taught – all things change and nothing is permanent. This means that the environment changes and its conditions/state is never the same. The second factor – by law of Nature – is that all living organisms have the instinctive impulse of self-preservation. And so, when those two factors are at play with each other, there arises a “tension,” a pushing and pulling of those two main factors.

And so, that “tension” looks like this: 1) An organism adjusts to its environment, 2) the environment changes, 3) the change in environment is an Challenging or Adversarial condition to the organism because that organism adjusted to the previous condition of the said environment, 4) the organism must try to adjust itself to the Challenging/Adversarial [the Force of Satan] condition, or die, 5) if the organism succeeds in adjusting itself to such new conditions it Survives, 6) but survivability is not the want or desire of Mother Nature, 7) Mother Nature needs Thrivability, 8) if an organism adjusts/adapts to such new conditions, survives, but also Thrives in that new condition: 9) then that organism’s genes drift, which incrementally produces new species genetically pre-programmed to function well in such new conditions of such changes in the matrical environment.

But you have to learn to view that process of developmental evolution not on a macrophysical level, but on a microphysical level. Why? Because the Reality [re: Realism] is that when we say “organism/creature” what we mean is a Complex System of Trillions of Cells [Cuz that’s what a fucking “multicellular” organism is]. In other words: the cells themselves, as well as the molecules and biochemicals, are what reacts and adjusts to environmental cues/pressures. A real example is when a human lives in a place like subsahara Africa for many epochs where ultraviolet radiation is high. And so the cells of the skin, the molecules in and around such skin cells, and the biochemicals and proteins, produce dark pigmentation to protect themselves from said high ultraviolet radiation. And we interpret those microphysical adaptations to be Negros developing dark skin to protect themselves from the light and heat of Africa. What should be noted is that such Negroes were not consciously aware or in control of the darkening of their own skin! When ducks became ducks: they were not consciously aware or in control of the webbing of their own feet. As you develop from a zygote to a fetus into a new born infant: you were not conscious or in control of that process. Simply because that process of fetal development is happening on a cellular and molecular level.

MEMPLEX EVOLUTION

A “meme” is to a memeplex what a “gene” is to a genome, what a “lexeme” is to a lexicon, what an “episteme” is to epistemology. Developmental evolution is a fractal pattern that governs all physical things in the universe. Everything which exists, gradually/incrementally develops over time because of its environmental conditions. That word “environment” is a Relative term. The matrical environment of a planet and the matrical environment of an atom are not the same things. For an atom, their environment mostly consists of Fields, Charges [electric and magnetic], force of attraction, etc. And so, when conditions in their atomic environment changes, they also change, accordingly. In that way, very gradually, carbon atoms, evolved into the many different carbon based molecules in the universe, which all carbon based things [like us] are made of.

Evolution is a fractal phenomenon, which can be seen in how languages evolve. Languages evolve/develop slowly/incrementally over Time, on a microphysical level: meaning the lexemes of the language’s lexicon alters, changes, adjusts, adapts, new lexemes are acquired from other languages [called “Horizontal Gene Transference” in biological sciences]. And so, in Reality, organismic evolution is the change or alteration or adjustment of genes and/or the acquisition of new genetic information via horizontal gene transfer; the change being influenced by conditions of environment.

In the same way, a memeplex evolves over time. Like how organisms have their own matrical environment, and like how language has its own matrical environment, a memeplex has its own environment. The Matrix of a Meme is made up of two overlapping things: 1) Socialscape & 2) Mindscape. Like how Landscape is the environment of animals/creatures/organisms; and how “cosmicscape” is the environment of planets, moons, galaxies, and stars.

By “socialscape” is meant “human society,” and the views, opinions, cultures, practices, people [and so also: races and ethnicities], nations, religions, etc, of a given human society. By “mindscape” is meant ideas, notions, concepts, beliefs, weltanschauungen, language, knowledge-base, sentiments in a person’s mind and in the collective public mind of a people of a given society.

Like how Landscape changes, the socialscape and mindscape of a Memeplex also changes and is never permanently the same. For example: the socialscape and mindscape here in America of the 50s and 70s were very different from each other, where conditions in the socialscape and mindscape of the 70s were challenging and adversarial to that of the 50s.

Like how an organism must adapt to the change in conditions of its environment: a Memeplex – if it desires to survive and even thrive – must adapt to the changes of its socialscape and mindscape matrix, and must survive Challenging and Adversarial forces in such environment that presents itself.

I will give three very brief examples of familiar memeplexes that have evolved to meet the changes in the socialscape and mindscape of Western Social Order. The first is Christianity. There was a time when Christianity was very doctrinally vocal about homosexuality being a damnable sin. Today, gay couples can be married by priests, gay people can join churches, and gay people can even be priests [of some denominations].  The second example is the dominating and ubiquity of Science/Scientism: all ancient religions today, from Buddhism to Christianity to Islam have changed where they have re-interpreted their doctrines and teachings to reflect what science teaches, where even the ancient Catholic Church acknowledges the theory of evolution. The third example is the ideology of Communism/Marxism: today that memeplex in the West has evolved to not be an ideology regarding the struggle of Class, but the struggle of Race [Wokism].

A memeplex must evolve to changes in conditions, pressures, of its Matrix [socialscape and mindscape] or it will die. Death for a memeplex is when the memeplex becomes irrelevant, when it goes away with an older generation and is forgotten by the new generation, when it loses cells/membership, and it atrophies. I can name a few dead memeplexes, as examples: 1) There was once a little memeplex called “Pet Rocks” which flourished in the 70s and 80s and today nobody keeps pet rocks; 2) Tamaguchi; 3) Pogs; 4) Diet fads nobody uses or remembers anymore, 5) TM [Transcendental Mediation], 6) Th British Empire, & 7) Forgotten conlangs from 100 years ago nobody can name or speak or cares about.

THE EVOLUTION OF ONA

And so, in the same way, as a memeplex, ONA evolves. We, ignorantly think or believe that ONA evolves when we add new texts and new ideas to ONA to make it better and cooler, to make it more attractive, more evil, or hardcore, more intellectual, or whatever. As if the monstrosity of the ONA Corpus [5000 pages] needs more pages and texts of conjectural ideas that look great and awesome in writing and on blogs.

Like any living organism [to which we are its cells] the ONA develops slowly and incrementally over Time when conditions in its matrix [its socialscape and mindscape] changes and/or when Challenging/Adversarial factors present themselves as environmental pressures. Most people don’t understand the concept of Developmental Evolution as it happens in the Real Natural World, and so when they look at ONA over the years, they don’t see evolution: they don’t recognize what they are looking at.

One real example of an environmental pressure in ONA’s matrix was the “Blackwood Problem,” which was a Challenging condition where people claimed to be ONA’s grandmaster, leader. In order to adapt to that Challenging condition, the ONA had to change somehow – anyhow – in order to survive. It was successful at adapting to that environmental pressure, and ONA actually ended up Thriving for a decade.

Like the evolution of organisms: when we talk about ONA evolving, what we really mean to speak of are the changes that happen on a microphysical level: the level of individual memes, or individual cells [ONA associates]. And so, on a Microphysical level, the Adaptations of ONA back then to the said Challenging environmental factor looks like this: 1) Memes had to be altered slightly where ideas and texts change, 2) People associated with ONA who wanted ONA to be led by a leader gradually atrophied [they left], 3) People who liked ONA and liked the idea that ONA should be leaderless came to join ONA: and so, as Time passed, the ONA “changed” where it became a leaderless subculture. The reality is that when we say “ONA” what we mean to speak of are the people associated with ONA, because ONA is not an object proper that you can point at or touch. Those people who wanted leaders simply got replaced by people who did not need or like leaders.

Just like how each day your own skin cells die off and are replaced by new skin cells. Just like how a football team of 30 years ago compared to the same football team today, with the same name and logos, have had its football players replaced by new ones. Just like how your own mind of a childhood self had its knowledge, ideas, views, opinions, replaced by new ones. Like the Buddha said: all Things in this physical universe are Aggregate Beings/Phenomena: the key concept is “Aggregation.” An aggregate entity changes by having its aggregate units replaced: and we call that process of replacement “Evolution.” This is exactly how Mother Nature herself has been continuously in physical existence and Evolving for 4.5 Billion years. It is Fractally how this entire universe/cosmos itself has been in continuous existence and evolution. An aggregate entity dies/decays when it can no longer aggregate/accrete new units/parts to replace its old ones. In the same exact way, by the same Fractal Principle: a Nation/Civilization develops and evolves and continuously exists for hundreds even thousands of years.

THE GIFT OF SATAN

Satan as it is spoken about in ONA MSS is the Challenging raw Force of Nature. Satan is the causal Seed of evolution itself. It is a blessing in disguise when Challenging and Adversarial conditions and factors present themselves in ONA’s environment [its socialscape and mindscape]. And so, understood in this Luciferian [a nod to The Lucifer Principle] Light: the recent Challenging and Adversarial factors ONA had recently met up with is a Satanic Blessing: I speak of agents infiltrating ONA, things agent provocateurs did in ONA. Why are they blessings? Because ONA should learn to adapt to such adverse and challenging factors or die: and if it doesn’t die, it will become stronger. What does not kill us makes us stronger. And the recent challenging events did not kill ONA. ONA quickly adapted to the change in its environment. Like The Borg quickly adapts to a phaser gun: you might be able to shoot the Borg once or twice, but they adapt and become stronger.

But that adaptation, on a microphysical level is and will be a gradual process of where many ONA people who don’t like boundaries and ethics will atrophy away, and new people who possess noble ethos/wyrd will gradually be drawn to ONA. The new replaces the old. It’s how everything in this universe evolves. It’s how ONA evolves. And, if you understand the essence of this essay: you will have what you need to work on the process of evolving Satanism.

How do you Fish for men? With nets made of memes. Every word we speak and write, every story we tell, every myth and mythos, are like fibers that entwine to make a fishnet which attracts a certain type and kind of fish: and so it’s necessary to know what type of fish you want [to whom do you speak / who or what is your audience / who was Christ speaking to when he spoke], in order to make the proper nets. As genes dictate and build the proteins, memes dictate and build the Aura. As proteins organize to become cells so the Aura of ONA collects types and kinds of people. And evolution is the process of an aggregate entity continuously replacing its aggregate units, in tandem to the constant changes in its matrical environment, in order to not only struggle to survive such changes, but to Thrive, wyrd willing.

/Chloe

Notes On Outer Representative

.:.I will tell you guys the story of how I once became so-called “Outer Representative” of the ONA, and about what happened to that office/post/title.

Seems as though every time I leave ONA, ONA slowly gets sick, becomes disarrayed, people leave, things get chaotic/disorganized/incoherent, and what few people are left in ONA start claiming titles and setting themselves up as the “New Leader.” I’ve left ONA now 3 times. ONA is now publicly dead… again.

Originally, way back in 2006, when I first learned about the ONA, I wanted to be a member of it very badly. Unfortunately at that time, ONA was publicly dead. There were only 2 significant ONA people around back then [circa 2005-2006]: 1) the Old Guard “DarkLogos,” & 2) Kris [Ryan Anschauung] of the Temple of THEM.

You can’t be a member of something which is dead and defunct. And so, my only option I knew of, was to help revive it, so it can come back to life, that way I can be a member of it. Me [and my WSA friends] ended up joining forces with DarkLogos and Kris/Ryan, and so the three of us, along with another Associate nymmed “Saturnyan352” worked together behind the scenes to resurrect the ONA from the dead.

During that era of ONA’s “dark ages” [circa 2005], ONA had died due in many parts to the Outer Representative Michael Ford leaving ONA to start his own thing. As with dead things, you have vultures encircling the carcass. And so, during those dark ages, a vulture named Grand Magister Blackwood [Tom Raspotnik] ran around the internet claiming that somebody in New York had made him the Grand Master of ONA. Me and DarkLogos spent a lot of time having fun with Blackwood, getting rid of him. Those were fun times. Blackwood’s claims were fraudulent, because there are only a number of legit ways that he could have been made the leader of ONA: 1) Michael Ford gave him the leadership, 2) Anton Long gave him the leadership, or 3) One of the Old Guards gave him the leadership. None of those three were the case.

By the year 2008-2009, I had my own WordPress blog. At my blog, I began to write “ONA” stuff. Except, most of what I spent my time writing about was Buddhism. Why? Well because I honestly had not fucking clew/clue what exactly the ONA was besides that it was a cool denomination of Satanism. And so, not knowing what ONA exactly was, I was not able to write anything actually ONA. And so, I wrote about Theravada Buddhism.

Around the year 2010ish, the Old Guard SinisterMoon [my liaison to Anton Long] told me that she and the other Old Guards were leaving the internet. SinisterMoon says to me: “You have everything under control. You don’t need us anymore. You can be outer rep if you want.”

At that time, I had no idea what outer rep was, because I simply had not yet read most of the ONA MSS to see that post or title used by anybody. I accepted the nonchalant offer anyways.

But I told SinisterMoon, that I can’t just tell people in my blogs and on the internet that I am the new outer rep, because it would look fake and people would accuse me of making false claims. I told SinisterMoon that I need the Old Guards to somehow make it known that I am the outer rep, in order to authenticate things. SinisterMoon and the Old Guards disappeared for a while and returned with two of their own ways to help me. Their first way was to delete the contents of nineangles.info, which at that time was the only ONA site run by the Old Guards, and in place of the old ONA content they had placed a link to my blog, and had redirected traffic from ninangles.info to my blog:

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20120128193049/http://www.nineangles.info:80/

The second way the Old Guards helped me out was to get David Myatt’s own historiographer Julie Wright to actually say a few things in a biography of David Myatt she had written on her now defunct site. I had downloaded that essay and uploaded it to archive dot org for record keeping. The essay, called “A Short Biography of David Myatt,” says this on page 16:

source: https://archive.org/details/AShortBiographyOfDavidMyatt/page/n15/mode/1up?view=theater

At this same time, Dr. Monette was interviewing a few of us in ONA as he was writing a university text book which had a chapter in it about ONA. I asked Dr. Monette for help also. I told him my predicament, that I was offered the post/title of outer rep, but that I can’t myself make any such claims to such titles. I need people of name and reputation to inform people. Dr. Monette helped by writing a whole section about me as outer rep in his ONA chapter [which never made it into the actual published book], which can be found here: https://archive.org/details/ONA-ChapterFive

And so, I have never made any claims that I was the “leader” or outer representative of ONA. The objective fact was that: 1) An Old Guard nymmed SinisterMoon offered me said post/title, which I accepted, 2) David Myatt’s historiographer made the claim in her biography of David Myatt that I [the young Asian woman of Khmer heritage in question] led the ONA, & 3) A reputable professor of a university reiterated such.

I accepted the offer. Note my words. I use my wording very carefully. Nobody ever officially made me outer rep. Anton Long never chose me to be outer rep. It was simply offered to me by an Old Guard in a very nonassertive and nonchalant way. As if she said to me: “So yeah… since we’re leaving and all… I guess you can be outer rep… but only if you want! You don’t have to be outer rep, but if you want you can.” If anybody – regarding my former post/title offered to me – was making claims, or even false claims, they would be: The Old Guards, David Myatt’s biographer Julie Wright, and Dr. Monette.

Eventually, before I left ONA back then [I wrote about this leaving in Nexion Zine 1.0], I wrote my Resignation Paper and turned it into the Old Guards. When you are a subordinate of a superior in a proper and professional setting, and you desire to quit or leave your job or post, it’s protocol to turn in a resignation paper which must be accepted [your resignation must be accepted by your superior]. In my resignation paper I specifically vacated the post of outer rep and I specifically RETURNED that post and title back to the Old Guard who offered it to me: SinisterMoon.

And so, like a football or a Trophy, when I returned that ball [the title of outer rep] back to SinisterMoon, that ball was in her possession and in possession of the Old Guards. Unless those same Old Guards gave or offered that ball/title to you, or unless Anton Long gave or offered that ball/title to you back then: you are making fraudulent claims of an office or title that does not legit belong to you.

So I left ONA, and a year later I returned to the online world and checked up on ONA, to see how it was doing. It was sick, once again dying, all of the people I once knew in ONA were gone, all of my allies like Beast Xeno, Dan Dread, etc were gone. And there were vultures circling ONA’s sickly body.

Upon my return that era [2013-2014], I reestablished contact with the Old Guard DarkLogos to inform him that I have returned to ONA. I wanted to help nurse ONA back to health. And so, my first conversation with DarkLogos was roughly: “Have you read Dr. Monette’s book yet? He’s published it.” DarkLogos says to me: “I’ve ordered it, but it hasn’t come yet. What do you think of it?” I said back to DarkLogos: “Dr. Monette, in his chapter on ONA, claims that some person named Jall is outer rep? Who is this Jall? I don’t know this person. Did you guys make Jall outer rep? Cuz if you did, then I’m cool with it and will support your choice. But if you didn’t make Jall outer rep, then we have a problem.”

The problem is the “Blackwood Problem:” people playing power games, usurping titles, and trying to make themselves leader of ONA. The Old Guards and I worked things out with Anton Long to have him retire and stop writing and to get rid of the old office of “grandmaster” of ONA because of this problem. DarkLogos stated that neither he nor the other Old Guards made this Jall person outer rep. DarkLogos said that he’d have a word with Dr. Monette about the said claim. I complained, saying to DarkLogos: “That post and title needs to go. They keep finding ways to play their power whore games. If the office of outer rep remains in ONA, ONA will always be mired in power struggles like the old days.” DarkLogos agreed, and disappeared for a few days. Days later Anton Long and the Old Guards everywhere online removed/dissolved the post and title of Outer representative saying that such post/title was a jape or test. It was a real office and title: David Myatt also created Reichsfolk National-Socialism, and Reichsfolk does have a post/office/title of “Outer Representative.” Richard Stirling [who has written quite a few ONA stuff] is the Outer Representative of Reichsfolk. Same David Myatt: same pattern of implementing an office/title of “Outer Representative.”

I’m slightly different from most ONA people: I’m not a product of ONA Mythos. I’m not going to tell stories about how such offices were clever japes and tests. I am an honest person and I keep shit real: There once did exist an office of Grandmaster and an office of Outer Representative, but since ONA has evolved to be an open source Subculture and a decentralized leaderless movement, those two offices and titles have been dissolved by Anton Long since the 2011-2014 era of ONA and are defunct. Anybody who has been in ONA for over a decade knows this. Which beings us to the real issue:

SUBCULTURE

A subculture is a little small culture. For example, the Punk scene [people who listen to punk music]. If you are a punker, a punk rocker, you belong to that punk music subculture, and you dress a certain way, listen to a certain style of music, speak with punk subcultural jargon, but: there is no such thing as a leader or representative of punk rock subculture.

Likewise with the surfing and skateboarding and hip hop subculture: there simply is no such thing as a leader, grandmaster, potentate, inner circle, outer representative of any of those subcultures.

But in cultures and subculture there are 1) Adepts & 2) Influencers. Adepts are like computer jocks who can program computers and build their own computer from scratch. Influencers – such as influencers from TikTok and social media may not be adepts at shit regarding their subculture [as an American, I doubt the TikTok Influencer Bella Poarch is an adept American where she can recite the US constitution from memory, name all the capitals of all 50 states, name you all the grandchildren that George Washington had, and shit] but due to their looks, or social skills, or charisma, or whatever: they wield a large influence upon their peers.

As a subculture and leaderless movement, it simple makes no logical sense for ONA to have leaders and inner or outer representatives. But yes: ONA subculture has its Adepts and Influencers.

And that is the bedrock or fundamental issue of the Blackwood Problem: people in ONA who claim to be leader of ONA or claim to be Outer Representative of ONA are fundamentally wanting Influence.

MARKETING

If it is influence that you are seeking, then making yourself the leader or outer rep is not good marketing. Why so? Well, it’s as if you came to ONA and you said to ONA people: “I understand that you are a self-described leaderless movement and subculture, and that’s all great, but I will be your leader anyways because I have all of these great ideas that I want you guys to adopt… and on top of that, not only do I want to be your leader and make you adopt my ideas, but there are a few things I don’t like about ONA and boy do I have wonderful ideas to make ONA better for you guys!”

In a market/audience which feels and understands itself to be leaderless and a subculture: how do you sell yourself and ideas to such people by going against the grain of their subculture and claiming leadership titles?

I watched a whole lot of Hitler and Third Reich documentaries. There was a time when Hitler was asked what Charisma was. Charisma is the fundamental factor/ingredient [there are a few other factors] of influence in any culture, subculture, religion, cult, organization, political party, and social setting. Hitler answers: “Charisma is a special relationship between me and the German folk.” What Hitler was saying is that Charisma is the bond and relationship between you and your audience/market. It’s one of the reasons why Hitler publicly tried hard to appear as if he was single and not in a relationship with a woman. The relationship is Hitler + German people. The same public presentation and technique can be seen in popular Influencers like Bella Poarch and Amouranth, who both kept their marriages a total secret from their audience/market, until their recent respective divorces.

Which means that if you do not know your audience/market: you will fail in selling yourself and your ideas [fail at inspiring and influencing] to that audience/market. Which defeats your premise in the first place doesn’t it? You want influence on or in ONA, but you don’t know your audience/market. The ONA market/audience is a leaderless subculture: people who don’t need a special and sanctioned person to tell them how to be a Satanist, a Pagan, or an Occultist. But yet you insist on being a leader or an Outer representative.

I have been around online Satanism since 2003 on MySpace, and I’ve been around ONA since 2006: I have seen Satanists, many of whom were very intelligent, come to Satanism or ONA claiming titles – reverend, grotto master, high priest, blah blah blah – and 100% of the time those same people huff and puff for a good year or two and fall off the face of the earth failing to have any influence on Satanism or ONA because they didn’t know or have an audience. 100% of the time.

And so, in closing: I can’t police ONA subculture and I can’t make people stop claiming to be leader or outer representative of ONA. People – other human beings – are free agents with free will and most often, with egos [hence the grand claims] – but I can try to reason with some of you who are in ONA who are intelligent and who seek influence: if it is influence that you seek in ONA, claiming titles is counter productive and will cause you to fail in time, 100% guaranteed.

What I can also do is to give ONA people a second perspective, point of view, from those that make such claims of title and leadership: ONA is 1) Leaderless, it is a subculture, you don’t need nobody to read a few ONA MSS and be a Satanist or Pagan or ONA Associate, 2) ONA has always, from its birth, been an individual process of just you yourself going thru the Seven-Fold Way on your own time and terms; and so as an individual process, having a leader or outer representative is stupid and irrelevant, 3) The only real and genuine Leader of ONA is Anton Long simply because Anton Long created/codified the Order of Nine Angles, it belongs to him, it is his; & 4) ONA or the Order of Nine Angles is a name of the ONA Corpus, which is circa 5000 pages of stuff written by the only genuine Leader of ONA [who gave up his title and office of leadership in 2011]; and so, as such, 5000 pages of writing has no leader or outer representative. People will always make claims, you as ONA people just need to have the simple understanding of what a subculture is and the understanding of what ONA is [how it was put together by Anton Long].

I find it very disappointing that ONA people can say, act, and pretend that they look up to Anton Long / David Myatt, that they respect him, that they study his writings and even see such writings as scripture but: the same ONA people don’t seem to have the honor and capacity to simply emulate Anton Long. Anton Long gave up his leadership role and titles way back in 2011, and never since then, has he ever made any claims to be its leader or representative. In fact, even before 2011, in the Letters of Steven Brown, Anton Long has made it known that even he is not the leader of ONA. But yet – but yet – there are ONA folks who have and still do insist that they are leaders or titled/entitled representatives of ONA. It’s like those Christians who bible thump and quote scripture… but who lack the spiritual capacity to emulate Jesus and be Christ Like. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. By their fruit… this outer representative thing is a test like the Old Guards said isn’t it? A test of actual character and ulterior motive.

To Cease To Defend Because Abandoned

To Cease To Defend Because Abandoned

To Cease To Defend The O9A Because Abandoned

(pdf)

Chapter I, Desertam Indefensamque, was a memorandum sent to Occult colleagues by the Oxfordshire-based Sapphic group the TWS Nexion at the beginning of November 2021. It led to the discussions recounted in the section titled The Esoteric Philosophy And Seven Fold Way Of Anton Long – A Debate in chapter II, A New Beginning, the gist of which discussions concerned the anarchist/nihilist O9A principle of the ‘authority of individual judgement’ and what had recently resulted from that principle: such as the Black Propaganda of a fake American O9A nexion run by an FBI agent provocateur.

The TWS Nexion was of the view that the principle of the ‘authority of individual judgement’ – described in chapter III, Paradox Of The O9A Authority Of Individual Judgment, whose consequences are described in the Debate section of chapter II – were on balance detrimental to the quest for Lapis Philosophicus. Hence their reformation as The Seven Oxonians and their development of a new esoteric tradition which they termed The Hebdomian Way, described in detail in chapter IV, The Sevenfold Seeking And Noesis Of The Hebdomian Way. They thus returned to the fundamentals of Hermetic philosophy as described in the tractates of the ancient Corpus Hermeticum, with chapters V and VI – Julius Evola, The Seven Fold Way, And The Corpus Hermeticism and A Review of Myatt’s The Divine Pymander – providing an overview of that Corpus. This work presents the new esoteric tradition in detail as well as the background to its development involving as that did ceasing to publicly defend or explain Longusian Occultism because it had been abandoned in favour of The Hebdomian Way.

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Image Credit:
Banais, by Richard Moult

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Vita activa

[Updated repost with some additional commentary can be found here: https://luxlycaonis.com/index.php/2022/03/18/vita-activa/]

Most amusing, Clarice. But let me be clear:

From your reaction and from my writing, many reading the last few posts here may think that I’m some studious, academic bookworm lost in a world of theoretical reflection and abstraction with no grounding in vital experience or action: a “pathetic husk pouring over the dusty tomes of vacuous minds intent on finding solace for their inadequacy-in-the-world,” bound, as you put it, to “the emasculating chains of vain scholarship” in opposition to “putting boots on the ground to carry out definitive action.”

In response, I will say this: those who know me personally – including some of the most powerful Nexions in this tradition – know that my background is steeped in a solemn history of profound sinister/Satanic activity. What I write is not meant to be theoretical. And it is from my history of violent and transformative action that I can even approach the contemplative. My journey along the Seven-Fold Way was prefaced by extreme experiences: I know what it’s like to fight for my life, to be beaten and broken, to approach physical death on more than one occasion; of losing everyone and everything and having to rebuild from a bottom that no longer exists. I know what it’s like to lose my mind, to find my best friend dead in a bathtub after committing suicide, to find myself in the emergency room on multiple occasions, to know and love a woman and then to see her die … My boots aren’t just on the ground: they’re on the earth.

The best among us know what it’s like to be wounded. One cannot approach the ONA or the Seven-Fold Way, let alone expect to succeed, without having had such experiences break down the resistance structures that prevent us from maintaining composure in the face of great adversity. It is precisely from this wounding, from having been the recipient of its necessary violence, that I object to propagating it, whether in language or in deed.

You have misunderstood what was written in my last post: action is not meant to be a substitution for contemplation, but neither is contemplation meant to be a substitution for action. The two must inform each other.

What I wrote was not meant to target any specific person or Nexion. I have engaged in brief dialogue with your parent Nexion, The Black Order, for example – and while I disagree with much of what is written in their literature on some of the grounds explicated in my previous post, I think it is nevertheless important to engage in serious dialogue with them and their ideas for just this reason.

Your response, which I found vulgar and distasteful, seems to indicate just the contrary. And it’s “vita activa,” not “via activa.”

But my brain grew more and more perplexed. At last I jumped out of bed to find the water tap. I wasn’t thirsty, but my head was feverish and I felt instinctively a need for water. When I had had my drink, I went back to bed again and decided that I was going to sleep, by hook or by crook. I closed my eyes and forced myself to be quiet. I lay for several minutes without moving a muscle, began to sweat and felt the blood pulse violently through my veins. Wasn’t it just too funny, though, that he should look for money in the cornet! And he coughed, just once. Is he still walking around down there? Sitting on my bench? … The blue mother-of-pearl … the ships …

– Knut Hamsun, Hunger

Nameless Therein
Scothorn Nexion
March 15, 2022
2775 ab urbe condita

Contemplation, Logos, and Faith: The Role of the Vita Contemplativa in the Politics of the Order of Nine Angles

What follows is a draft of an article for inclusion in the upcoming edition of Fenrir on the subject of politics and extremism in the Order of Nine Angles. While the upcoming edition explicitly moves away from politics and extremism, the article attempts to clarify what a “movement away” involves. In unveiling some of the deeper Hellenic influences at the ONA’s roots and examining the way these inform the relation between action and contemplation, it is hoped that the content presented here will impart a new perspective on a very old dialogue, in turn opening new lines of communication and inspiring a few individuals along the way.

– Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787

Contemplation, Logos, and Faith: The Role of the Vita Contemplativa in the Politics of the Order of Nine Angles

[Posted here: https://luxlycaonis.com/index.php/2022/03/18/contemplation-logos-faith-o9a/]

The upcoming edition of Fenrir’s movement away from extremism and politics marks a return to the ONA’s roots in esotericism and scholarship – esotericism with respect to the hidden nature of experiences attainable through this tradition, and scholarship with respect to both the Aristotelian role “for contemplation of a larger order as something divine in us” [1] and the ancient Hellenic role of the vita contemplativa[2] or the contemplative life. While the ONA has roots in extremism and politics, it may be helpful to clarify what is meant by Fenrir’s “movement away” from these in relation to the lesser-known Greco-Hellenic influences that form a large part of the ONA’s foundation.

Contemplation played an important role in the ancient Hellenic world. While many historical shifts occurred during that time, one of particular significance was the shift from the vita activa or active life to the vita contemplativa or contemplative life. Hannah Arendt, a notable student of Heidegger,[3] analyzes these in detail in her influential work, The Human Condition. She describes how the three activities of the vita activa – labor, work, and action, respectively – have specific conditions and contexts. Arendt notes that the condition of labor is nature, whose domain has to do with providing the necessities of life. The condition of work is world or worldliness, which contrasts with labor in terms of the human-made things it pertains to and carries a sense of artificiality. (Labor, by contrast, concerns the phenomena of nature.) For Arendt, labor in relation to nature illustrates our relation to other animals, whereas work in relation to worldliness is distinctively human.

Action as the third activity of the vita activa takes on a special significance. Arendt identifies action as the prerogative of the human being, where the condition of action is plurality. For Arendt, “[p]lurality is the condition of human action because we are all the same, that is, human, in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live.”[4] Arendt draws our attention to the fact “that men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world,”[5] where action is “the only activity that goes on directly between men without the intermediary of things or matter.”[6] Action is thus important in several respects: it “has the closest connection with the human condition of natality”[7] insofar as it pertains to the way birth brings with it the potential for what is new; natality in relation to action has some bearing on Arendt’s discussion of mortality; and – most importantly for our purposes – action is political in nature and is connected closely to the domain of the political.[8]

Through a major historical shift that marked “perhaps the most momentous of the spiritual consequences of the discoveries of the modern age,”[9] Arendt notes how action and the political were overtaken by the vita contemplativa, the contemplative life. As the highest and purest type of action, it became the highest rung of human activity, and this lasted for some time. The trial of Socrates in ancient Greece played an important role in this shift,[10] where philosophers began to distance themselves from and distrust the political following the execution of Socrates. On this point, it is important to note that the primacy of contemplation did not equate to the primacy of thought over political action, as Arendt makes a clear distinction between contemplation and thought.[11]

Arendt observes that “the enormous superiority of contemplation over activity of any kind, action not excluded, is not Christian in origin.”[12] Contemplation can be found, for example, “in Plato’s political philosophy … [and in] Aristotle’s … articulation of the different ways of life … [which is] clearly guided by the ideal of contemplation (theōria).”[13] She describes how the philosophers of the ancient Greek world added “freedom and surcease from political activity (skholē)”[14] to the “ancient freedom from the necessities of life and from the compulsion by others,”[15] whereby the “later Christian claim to be free from entanglement in worldly affairs, from all the business of this world, was preceded by and originated in the philosophic apolitia of late antiquity.”[16] Thus, “[w]hat had been demanded only by the few was now considered to be a right of all.”[17] In this, we find a close parallel to what David Myatt, in “Classical Paganism and the Christian Ethos,” refers to as an “ancient paganus spirituality,” or “paganus weltanschauung” present in the Greco-Roman worldview.[18] From Arendt’s analysis, we find a clue and possible answer to Myatt’s question, “Is the fundamental difference between such a paganus spirituality and Christianity (past and present) simply the difference between λόγος (logos) understood as ‘reason’ and λόγος understood as faith and belief and thus as the Word of God?”[19] As we have seen, the difference rests heavily on the shift from the vita activa to the vita contemplativa in the ancient Greek world, where contemplation becomes the highest human activity. Understanding this shift may thus help us better understand the complex relation between the ancient Greeks and Christianity, and thus between logos and faith.

As a more substantive response to Myatt, I will note that Pope Benedict XVI addressed this very question – the relation between logos and faith – in his September 2006 address at the University of Regensburg, entitled “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections.”[20] The Pope states that “[t]he encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance.”[21] From the vision of Saint Paul, for example, “who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us!’,”[22] we find a line of interpretation that points to the necessity of a “rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.”[23] Though in the late Middle Ages there is evidence of certain theological trends “which would sunder this synthesis between the Greek spirit and the Christian spirit,”[24] the dialogue between the ancient Greeks and the early Christians – and thus between faith and reason – was more than a conversation: it took place as a kind of communion, one that has had a lasting influence on the modern world.[25] In fact, the “dehellenization” of the Christian worldview did not emerge until the sixteenth century with the “postulates of the Reformation,”[26] where Reformers were responding to a system of scholastic theology that appeared as “an alien system of thought” – one where “faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system.”[27] This was in contrast to the principle of sola scriptura, which “sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word.”[28] Even after the dehellenization of the Reformation, we find the convergence between the ancient Greeks and Christianity carried through the Enlightenment and into the modern world as a powerful impulse. Immanuel Kant, one of the most important thinkers in Western history, “stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith,” where he “anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole.”[29]

In response to Myatt’s question then, we find that the complex relation between faith and reason has a similarly complex history with respect to the ancient Greek worldview and Christianity. In that history, the demarcation between logos as reason and logos as faith becomes blurred, which undermines its role in distinguishing the ancient Greek worldview from its Christian counterpart. On this point, Pope Benedict XVI says the following:

[D]espite the bitter conflict with those Hellenistic rulers who sought to accommodate it forcibly to the customs and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, biblical faith, in the Hellenistic period, encountered the best of Greek thought at a deep level, resulting in a mutual enrichment evident especially in the later wisdom literature. Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria – the Septuagint – is more than a simple (and in that sense really less than satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: it is an independent textual witness and a distinct and important step in the history of revelation, one which brought about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II [Paleologus] was able to say: Not to act “with logos” is contrary to God’s nature.[30]

Thus, in many respects the ONA is a response to a very old and long-standing dialogue between faith and reason, directed through the ancient Hellenic role of the vita contemplativa as the highest human activity, one that directly informs action. To return to the aforesaid question concerning a “movement away” from the ONA’s roots in extremism and politics with respect to Fenrir, it should be noted that this emphasis on contemplation is not meant to replace the three activities of the vita activa; it is meant to inform them by restoring a direct line of communication between how the transformative and ecstatic experiences of the ONA – such as those catalyzed by the Grade Rituals of the Seven-Fold Way – shape the way we inhabit and interact with the world.[31] With respect to the ONA, contemplation is specifically meant to inform plurality as the condition of action, where plurality and action also inform contemplation. Attempting to exclude one over the other is to misunderstand this relation, which sadly continues to occur both within the ONA and by its opponents. Insofar as action as the condition for plurality is political, so too are the ONA and Fenrir in this respect. However, Fenrir’s “movement away” from politics concerns a movement away from the substitution of action for contemplation, which involves a breakdown of the relation between the vita activa and the vita contemplativa. We find this breakdown in almost every major socio-political outlet in the world, which fail to take this complex historical shift into account – a shift that has made possible various developments in the modern world.

With respect to Fenrir’s movement away from extremism, Pope Benedict XVI’s comments regarding the topic of violent religious conversion ring true here. In a dialogue between “the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam,”[32] the Pope recounts how:

The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. “God,” he says, “is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”[33]

In closing, one should recall that Fenrir remains – and will remain for the foreseeable future – a journal of Satanism and the Sinister; and this should, at the very least, give one pause in considering how to interpret what has been said here: that the outer boundaries demarcating the true nature of the Order of Nine Angles are deeply hidden, complex, and discoverable only through years of difficult ordeals, careful navigation, and – most importantly – contemplation informed by plurality and action. The upcoming edition’s underlying themes of alterity, empathy, and practical sinister magick speak to this in a powerful way.

Home! and with them are gone
The hues they gazed on and the tones they heard;
Life’s beauty and life’s melody: — alone
Broods o’er the desolate void, the lifeless word;
Yet rescued from time’s deluge, still they throng
Unseen the Pindus they were wont to cherish:
All, that which gains immortal life in song,
To mortal life must perish!
– Friedrich Schiller, “The Gods of Greece”

Nameless Therein
Scothorn Nexion
Sun in Pisces, March 13, 2022
2775 ab urbe condita
 

NOTES

[1] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), 27.

[2] Hannah Arendt identifies the vita contemplativa with the ancient Greek bios theōrētikos. See Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 2nd ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958), 14. Regarding the role of contemplation in the ancient Greek world, Arendt characterizes it as follows: “and the life of the philosopher devoted to inquiry into, and contemplation of, things eternal, whose everlasting beauty can neither be brought about through the producing interference of man nor be changed through his consumption of them.” Arendt, Human Condition, 13.

[3] Hannah Arendt’s history with Heidegger is complex and will not be explored here. See, for example, Antonia Grunenberg, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger: History of Love, trans. Peg Birmingham, Kristina Lebedeva, and Elizabeth von Witzke Birmingham (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017). What is important for our purposes is that in addition to having studied under him directly, Heidegger had a profound influence on Arendt’s thought. Lewis and Sandra Hinchman note, for example, that “[r]eading Arendt’s few comments on Heidegger, one would scarcely imagine what a vast, pervasive influence he had upon her.” They add that “[t]he stamp of Heideggerian thinking is especially noticeable in three elements of Arendt’s work: the status of her elaborate system of distinctions and concepts, her approach to language, and her interpretation of action as self-revelation.” Lewis P. Hinchman and Sandra K. Hinchman, “In Heidegger’s Shadow: Hannah Arendt’s Phenomenological Humanism,” The Review of Politics 46, no. 2 (April 1984): 196.

[4] Arendt, Human Condition, 8.

[5] Ibid., 7.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid., 9.

[8] This is consistent with the fact that the condition of action is plurality, since it is the plurality of human beings that constitutes the domain of the political.

[9] Arendt, Human Condition, 289. The full quote is as follows:

Perhaps the most momentous of the spiritual consequences of the discoveries of the modern age and, at the same time, the only one that could not have been avoided, since it followed closely upon the discovery of the Archimedean point and the concomitant rise of Cartesian doubt, has been the reversal of the hierarchical order between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa.

[10] See Arendt, Human Condition, 12: “The term vita activa is loaded and overloaded with tradition. It is as old as (but not older than) our tradition of political thought. And this tradition, far from comprehending and conceptualizing all the political experiences of Western mankind, grew out of a specific historical constellation: the trial of Socrates and the conflict between the philosopher and the polis.”

[11] Arendt does not address contemplation at length in The Human Condition, as she is interested in the historical shifts that have to do with labor, work, and action. However, regarding the shift from the vita activa to the vita contemplativa, in addition to the difference between contemplation and thought, the following comments may be helpful:

With the disappearance of the ancient city-state—Augustine seems to have been the last to know at least what it once meant to be a citizen—the term vita activa lost its specifically political meaning and denoted all kinds of active engagement in the things of this world. To be sure, it does not follow that work and labor had risen in the hierarchy of human activities and were now equal in dignity with a life devoted to politics. It was, rather, the other way round: action was now also reckoned among the necessities of earthly life, so that contemplation (the bios theōrētikos, translated into the vita contemplativa) was left as the only truly free way of life. (Arendt, The Human Condition, 14)

[12] Arendt, Human Condition, 14.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid., 14-15.

[17] Ibid., 15.

[18] David Myatt, “Introduction,” in “Classical Paganism and the Christian Ethos,” 2nd ed. (self-pub., 2017).

[19] Myatt, “Introduction.”

[20] See Pope Benedict XVI, “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections” (speech, Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany, September 12, 2006). A transcript of the speech can be found at www.vatican.va.

[21] Pope Benedict XVI, “Faith.” Interestingly, Pope Benedict XVI also addresses faith and reason with respect to the relation between Christianity and Islam. Recalling part of a dialogue carried on “by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam,” he notes “the truth of both,” adding that:

It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur’an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between – as they were called – three “Laws” or “rules of life”: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur’an.

[22] Cf. Acts 16:6-10

[23] Pope Benedict XVI, “Faith.”

[24] Ibid.

[25] With respect to the convergence between the ancient Greek world and Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI observes the following:

This inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance, not only from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world history – it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant developments in the East, finally took on its historically decisive character in Europe. We can also express this the other way around: this convergence [between the ancient Greek world and Christianity], with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe. (Pope Benedict XVI, “Faith”)

[26] Ibid.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ibid.

[31] The question of how we interact with others in the world, particularly with respect to the relation between plurality, action, and community, is a theme relevant to my forthcoming article for the upcoming edition of Fenrir, which concerns alterity (our relation to the other).

[32] Pope Benedict XVI, “Faith.” The Pope notes that this dialogue may have occurred in 1391, “in the winter barracks near Ankara.”

[33] Ibid.

Wonder, Alterity, and the Immemorial as Devotional Candor in the ONA

– Jacopo da Pontormo, Visitation, c. 1528-1529

Wonder, Alterity, and the Immemorial as Devotional Candor in the ONA

[Posted here: https://luxlycaonis.com/index.php/2022/03/18/wonder-alterity-and-the-immemorial-as-devotional-candor-in-the-ona/]

Much like the Order of Nine Angles, the ideas that have shaped the Western tradition are characterized by what Aristotle identified as wonder. This sense of dispositional awe in the face of an incomprehensible mystery – what Rudolf Otto, in one of the most widely read German theological works of the twentieth century,[1] famously characterized as mysterium tremendum et fascinans, “a mystery that inspires dread and fascination simultaneously”[2] ­­– marks an enduring response to the way we inhabit and orient ourselves in the world.

This “solitary and silent ‘residence’ of wonder”[3] finds shelter in a wide history of Western thought. In the Theaetetus, Plato describes wonder (thaumazein) “as the beginning or archê of philosophy.”[4] Aristotle describes this with respect to the way we begin (archontai) by wondering (thaumazein) whether things are as they seem.[5] We find these “beginnings” reiterated powerfully in the Renaissance Platonists, who were “[h]eirs to late ancient and medieval Christianity” and stressed “the epistemological or ontological status of miracles, thus exploring the cognitive side of amazement and the metaphysical side of any sort of spiritual intervention”;[6] in works of the early thirteenth century, such as those of the English nobleman Gervase of Tilbury, who outlined “three categories of wonderful things”;[7] through the exploration of magic in the Middle Ages and early modern period as an “enquiry into the wonderful”;[8] and in many other major Western figures, such as Plotinus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Pascal, Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, Malebranche, Spinoza, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Kant. In fact, it was Kant who famously remarked how two things fill the mind with wonder: the starry sky above and the moral law within.[9]

All of these explorations of wonder share in common an “attitudinal change which occurred in the European history of ideas,” one in which “a radically new way of approaching reality evolved.”[10] In a similar spirit, we are witnessing a radical new way of approaching reality in terms of the ONA’s evolution. In addition to an attitudinal change in the ideas that have shaped the tradition, one can sense a change in the climate that informs the ONA’s praxis. From the flashpoint of the “noise,”[11] gossip, and interpersonal infighting that have occurred for decades at its outskirts, we now find reflected in its collective exoskeleton what has always remained hidden in its esoteric heart: a relationality or plurality that becomes “visible” when this sense of wonder comports one utterly beyond rational comprehension, one that is acknowledged in our fundamental relation to the other. In the ONA, this relation is embodied in transformative action through empathy; and in such a way that it cannot be reduced to the self or comprehension.[12]

Through wonder and in the face of modernity, the ONA attempts to explore “what was lost in the destruction of our capability to be astonished and perplexed.”[13] As Jacques Taminiaux notes, this wonder or thaumazein is enduring,[14] driving the way the ONA’s philosophy informs its praxis and how this carries over into concrete experience. As one embarks on a journey leading to radical transformation with respect to the incomprehensible alterity or otherness of the world, one discovers what David Myatt, in reference to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, cites as a “wordless-awareness,” which he connects to empathy in the Corpus Hermeticum.[15] Myatt’s point regarding “a mortal apprehension that Being, and certain beings, are not or cannot be subject to, nor explainable, in terms of causality”[16] is analogous to the fact that our fundamental relation to the other through empathy cannot be reduced to comprehension. Rather than comprehended or understood, it is acknowledged or “apprehended” through the practice of simple but difficult primordial experiences leading to transformation. Thus – and this point is sometimes overlooked – in addition to its philosophy, the ONA also requires practice.

As that which directs this wordless-awareness in relation to empathy as a fundamental relation to the other, we find that wonder is not just enduring but what Jean-Luc Nancy calls the immemorial: a kind of excess or overflowing that resists memorialization or being made into a monument. As a vital collective presence spanning a plethora of ancient and modern traditions, the ONA exceeds itself, having neither definitive leadership nor singular authority. In some respects, its enduring wonder “never commemorates”[17] – it is not a monument to the past, nor does it memorialize. And yet, what Nancy says of the immemorial equally applies to the ONA from its past to present day: it is “what is infinitely ancient and thus definitively present.”[18] In its cathartic practice and tragic revelation, the ONA speaks to something timeless and yet concretely present in the world. The mysteries it promises are systematically attainable through practical action. And while they remain intimately hidden and out of reach as an irreducible opacity – something ungraspable, even to the self – they are nevertheless not beyond the world but “present right here.”[19] In the value of what it reveals, in its timeless mystery, and in its solemn yet enduring visitation, the ONA is “what is never to be seen or said, but toward which one does not cease to move – and that is the immemorial.”[20] In much the same way that the immemorial frees itself from memorialization through its own excess, so too does wonder free the ONA from becoming yet another internet relic, one crystalized in history as a blueprint for what could have been, lost to future generations as a curious irrelevance. With the changing seasons and as we look from earth to sky for guidance, I remain optimistic that what Nancy says of the immemorial may serve as a kind of ongoing augury for the future of the ONA: “[that it is] always to come again like the return of a past more ancient than any past, its visitation always reprised in a movement in which the surface itself rises up, billowing and leaping out.”[21] Whether this “billowing and leaping out” will prove to be a hex or a haruspex remains to be seen.

In closing, I would like to note that it is this spirit of wonder that will motivate the upcoming and future editions of Fenrir, the ONA’s journal of Satanism and the Sinister. This article will be published in slightly revised form in the upcoming edition and is meant to serve as an introduction to some of the themes that will be addressed in more detail there – themes such as alterity, empathy, and sinister magick. As editor of the journal, I should also note that I have an important announcement, which will be revealed in the very near future. I would like to conclude with an excerpt from a message I recently wrote to a friend and well-known ONA associate, one that I think will prove timely, relevant, and interesting for our best and brightest:

[…] whether running Fenrir or having a wide influence on the ONA in a public capacity, one cannot let transparent emotions inform the opaque intentions motivating what others say. The ONA is beyond personal affectation or judgment, beyond you and I, beyond even its founders. Over the last decade of involvement with the ONA and the Seven-Fold Way, I have witnessed some of the most painful and transformative experiences of my life shape something radically ineffable, melancholic, cathartic, serene. In that “something,” which is utterly intangible and yet directs everything we do, I found a presence worth dying for; and, more importantly, worth living for – authentically and with integrity. It is my hope that […] you see the value in devotional candor, in submitting to something beyond the self, something absolute and incomprehensible.

– Albrecht Dürer, The Four Witches, 1497

Nameless Therein
Scothorn Nexion
Moon in Gemini, March 9, 2022
2775 ab urbe condita

NOTES

[1] Todd A. Gooch, The Numinous and Modernity: An Interpretation of Rudolf Otto’s Philosophy of Religion (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000), 1. The text referred to here is Otto’s Das Heilige: Über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen (1917), commonly known by its shortened English title, The Idea of the Holy.

[2] Ibid., 2.

[3] David Bollert, “The Wonder of the Philosopher and the Citizen: Plato, Aristotle, and Heidegger” (PhD diss., Boston College, 2005), 2.

[4] Ibid., 3. The reference to wonder in Plato’s Theaetetus occurs at 155c-d.

[5] Ibid., 93. See Aristotle’s Metaphysics, 983a12-13.

[6] Elisabeth Blum and Paul Richard Blum, “Wonder and Wondering in the Renaissance,” in Philosophy Begins in Wonder: An Introduction to Early Modern Philosophy, Theology and Science, ed. by Michael Funk Deckard and Péter Losonczi (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2011), 1.

[7] Koen Vermeir, “Wonder, Magic, and Natural Philosophy: The Disenchantment Thesis Revisited,” in Philosophy Begins in Wonder, 45. These three categories are characterized by “things we consider unheard of,” sometimes through variations in nature, “at which we marvel”; by things whose cause is unknown and thus “inscrutable to us”; and by “customary experiences” that differ from others.

[8] Ibid., 51. Vermeir here lists two philosophers of this period with respect to the relation between magic and wonder: the Protestant philosopher Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), who wrote that “magic is the art which is concerned with wondrous effects [apotelesmas], commonly known as incredible”; and the Jesuit scholar Gaspar Schott (1608-1666), who defined magic as “whatever is marvellous and goes beyond the sense and comprehension of the common man.”

[9] Dennis J. Schmidt, “Thank Goodness for the Atmosphere: Reflections on the Starry Sky and the Moral Law,” Research in Phenomenology 50 (2020), 370.

[10] Péter Losonczi and Michael Funk Deckard, “Introduction,” in Philosophy Begins in Wonder, xvii.

[11] Despite a few interesting ideas and an appetite for vital experience, I find Crowley’s writings and way of thinking problematic on a number of grounds. That said, something he wrote in Magick without Tears is relevant here: “You ask me what is, at the present time, the greatest obstacle to human progress. I answer in one word: NOISE.” Aleister Crowley, Magick without Tears, ed. Israel Regardie (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1973), 125. See chapter 14, “Noise.”

[12] Part of the mystery of this esoteric dynamic lies in the twofold sense in which the relation to the other arises from the ONA’s emphasis on the individual as a means to empathy, and how this acknowledgement actualizes itself at the level of transformative experience (which occurs individually but exceeds the individual).

[13] Losonczi and Deckard, “Introduction,” xxv.

[14] Bollert, “The Wonder of the Philosopher,” 3.

[15] David Myatt, “Chapter Two,” in “Classical Paganism and the Christian Ethos,” 2nd ed. (self-pub., 2017). See the section, “An Appreciation of Acausality” in addition to the subsequent section, “A Mortal Wordless-Awareness.” The reference here is specifically to “the activity of theos … [as] a wordless-awareness.” His reference to empathy in connection to this worldless-awareness pertains to tractate VIII of the Corpus Hermeticum.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Jean-Luc Nancy, “Visitation: Of Christian Painting,” chap. 8 in The Ground of the Image, trans. Jeff Fort (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005), 108.

[18] Ibid., 116.

[19] Ibid., 109. On pp. 108-109 Nancy says: “On this side of or beyond the memorial, that is, beyond or on this side of the self and of what can be subjectivized: the hereafter or the other world (death, in that sense), not outside the world but present right here.”

[20] Ibid., 111.

[21] Ibid., 118.

Kollective Mind-virus

Artwork done by WickedPup 2011

Kollective and Kulture are the two things that have been on my mind for the better part of a year now. I spend a vast amount time in consideration of what those two words mean. What they used to mean. Most importantly, what they will come to mean in the future.

It seems a whirl wind of events has occurred this past year. The events I feel were the most detrimental might surprise you. I could careless about the lies and misinformation being propagated. The Order of Nine Angles was always destined to be their boogeyman. Nor am I concerned with the infiltration of the Sinister Kollective by magian spooks. You cannot infiltrate something that doesn’t exist.

It has been said so many times here and elsewhere throughout the interwebz. There is no ONA. Not in the sense of an organization. There are no leaders. There are no followers. There is only the “meta” and the points in which it meets the nexion. Jason King aptly referred to ONA as a “mind-virus”. This is because anyone it comes into contact with is infected by it. Most are simply mind-fucked by it. There are those that possess within them, that thing which Anton Long called a ‘shapeshifter’. The “mind-virus” binds in symbiose with it and transformation can begin. Let’s call this an approximation of “Sinister 101”.

You can verify this “mind-virus”. Just observe how Antifa and its like simply seem to lose their minds. Let them chase phantoms. They cannot touch it. The best they can do is entrap a few overly arrogant individuals. Individuals which clearly didn’t understand the old saying “The only way to keep a secret between 3 thieves, is if 2 are dead.”

Coincidently as it would be, I’m writing an entry on my own blog with very much the same sentiments. You see, I am of the opinion that; we are not at a saturation point to which direct action can be effective. Guerrilla tactics and the whole ‘death by a thousand cuts’ mentality is still premature.

Tsun Tzu said “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

This is done by the acquisition of minds. Winning the hearts of the people, if you will. This doesn’t mean that all must be won over. Rather just enough of them. In the right places. At the right time. Following keenly the strategy that was already laid out. Continuing propagation until the point of saturation is reached.

This is where the most detrimental loses have been taken, At least, this is my opinion. Some of the prominent carriers of this “mind-virus” have fallen off. Just in the examples of Chloe and Kris; they can both be seen as patient zeroes of my little analogy. Although they have fallen off; we are fortunate that they will continue to contaminate. How could they not? It is too ingrained in them now. The roots are too deep.

But what to do in the wake of their absence? I know I am not charismatic enough; not in pen and not by video or voice. Mr. Brett Stevens certainly has that flair. I really enjoyed his guest article entitled ” Metapromotheanism “. I am uncertain how often we’ll be gifted with more. Luckily the answer is simple and can occur with minimal efforts. We continue to grow our Kulture and embrace the Kollective.

Each nexion contributes in its own way. Should several nexions connect and we have a Nexion. Should several Nexions connect and we have a Kollective. This is not accomplished through some altruistic campfire sing-a-long, but through the exchange of craft and skill. The transference of Kulture.

I’m sorry this is short, but I wanted to get something up here to sort of break the ice. You know what they say… The first time is always a little akward ;) I will leave you with the words of David Myatt from the latest revision of The Mythos of Vindex.

Thus, the duty – the wyrd – of Vindex and of the clans of Vindex is not to
strive to try and restore some romantic idealized past – or even be in thrall to
some perceived wyrdful, often numinous-filled, past way of living, such as
that which Adolf Hitler brought to Germany – but rather to establish an
entirely new and conscious and thus more potent expression of the numinous
itself. This new and numinous way of living replaces the impersonal tyranny
of the State with the way of the clan and the tribe; it replaces the abstraction
of politics, and of democracy, with personal loyalty to an honourable, noble,
clan or tribal leader.

Live Deliberately!
– Beast Xeno

Omega 9 Alpha: Beyond The Dialectic

The Apolitical Deofel Quartet

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Those who have studied O9A esotericism in detail, and those who have an intuitive or artistic appreciation of the Sinister-Numinous aesthetic of the Order of Nine Angles (ONA, O9A), know that the O9A in essence is apolitical, regarding all political forms and all political ideologies as causal abstractions, some of which forms may be useful for a while as exeatic learning experiences Рas Insight R̫les Рfor some individuals in the early years of their decades-long journey along the O9A Seven Fold Way. But all of which causal abstractions Рfrom politics, to religions, to sociological and psychological theories and posited archetypes Рare surpassed, left behind, understood as irrelevant Рwhen the individual undertakes and successfully emerges from the ordeal of The Abyss.

Which ordeal reveals The Unity, the affective acausality, beyond the illusive, the mundane, dialectic of opposing opposites; an illusive dialectic exemplified by “choosing sides” such as, in terms of political abstractions, “Left Wing” and “Right Wing”.

Those conversant with O9A esotericism will know that the novels of the O9A Deofel Quartet (written between the 1970s and the early 1990s) present

{quote}
                  “much of the diverse aural traditions as AL [Anton Long] received them: as stories about people, their interactions; their ‘satanic’ or esoteric views and beliefs; and about certain events that involved those people. In The Deofel Quartet he simply reworked the factual material – as writers of fiction are wont to do – in order to make an interesting story, in the process obscuring the identities of those involved and sometimes their place of residence or work; added some entertaining details (as in the ‘astral battles’ between goodies and baddies in Falcifer, of a kind now familiar – decades later – from the Harry Potter stories) and concatenated certain events in order to provide ‘action’ in a limited time-frame.
                  Thus, the fictional stories not only compliment other O9A material but provide a ‘different way into’ the complex O9A mythos; a way that many will find more interesting (and certainly more entertaining) than thousands of pages of sometimes polemical and sometimes ponderous O9A factual texts, and a way that especially places the O9A’s satanism into perspective, Aeonically and otherwise.”
{/quote}

None of the novels of the Quartet concern politics. None of them deal with political revolution or concern themselves with “terrorism”. None of them concern “neo-nazism”. None of them involve “racism” or are “anti-gay” or misogynistic. In truth, the novels – ahead of their time – contain strong female characters (such as Fiona in The Greyling Owl, and Lianna in The Giving) as well as positive gay characters (such as Fenton in The Greyling Owl).

To understand the O9A is to understand how and why The Deofel Quartet presences O9A esotericism: as involving real individuals some of whom (as in Falcifer) may have an interest in Satanism and the Occult, and some of whom (as in The Greyling Owl) are not interested in, or appear not to be interested in, Satanism and the Occult. As readers of such works as Falcifer and The Giving and The Temple of Satan discover, esoterically the O9A is far beyond even the causal abstraction, the causal form, termed “Satanism”.

Thus, as described in The Temple Of Satan,

{quote}
                  “All of [the books], and the manuscripts bound like books, were about alchemy, magick or the Occult. He could read the Latin of the medieval manuscripts and books, but what they related did not interest him as the later books brought forth no desire to read further.
                  Even the Black Book of Satan, resting on the table, seemed irrelevant to him. They were all compilations of shadow words, appearing to Thurstan to fall short of the aim that the searchers who had written them should have aimed for. His instinctive feeling was to observe in a contemplative way some facet of the cosmos – to stand outside in the dark of the night and listen for the faint music that travelled down to Earth from the stars – rather the enclose himself in the warm womb of a house to read the writings of others. Demons, spells, hidden powers, the changing of base metal to gold, even the promises of power and change for himself, were not important to Thurstan, and he left the library with its stored knowledge and forbidden secrets and lurking gods, to walk in the moonlit garden.
                  The stars were not singing for him – or he could not hear them above the turmoil of his thought…
                  He moved, like an old man pained by his limbs, through the cold and sometimes swirling mist along a path that took him toward the Mynd and up, steeply, to its level summit where he stood, high above the mist, to watch the mist-clotted valleys below.
                  The heather was beginning to show the glory of its colour, and he walked through it northbound along the cracked and stony road stopping often to turn around and wait. But no one and nothing came to him – no voices, song or sigh […]
                  The very Earth itself seemed to be whispering to him the words of this truth. He began to sense, slowly, that there was for him real magick here where moorland fell to form deep hollows home to those daughters of Earth known as springs and streams, and where the Neolithic pathway had heard perhaps ten million stories. No wisps of clouds came to spoil the glory of the sun as it rose over the mottled wavy hills beyond the Stretton valley miles distant and below. No noise to break the almost sacred silence heard. For an instant it seemed as if some divinity, strange but pure, came into the world, and smiled.”
{/quote}

Thus, The Greyling Owl deals

{quote}
                  “with a type of ‘hidden sinister sorcery’ that owes little or nothing to what has become accepted as ‘the Western occult tradition’, satanic or otherwise, with its demons, its invocations and evocations, its rituals, and people dressing up in robes. Instead, it concerns someone being manipulated, brought into a position of influence, without even knowing or suspecting there is an occult aspect; someone – in modern parlance – being ‘groomed’ to at some future time use that influence for a sinister purpose as directed by the person or persons to whom he is now indebted.
                  That is, there is a revealing of how the O9A often operates, and has operated, in the real world; and how O9A people are often secretive, with their occult connections, and their interest in the sinister, unknown to colleagues and friends. The title itself gives a clue, for the word greyling is used in reference to Hipparchia Semele (commonly referred to as the Grayling), a type of butterfly found in Britain and one which is ‘a master of disguise and can mysteriously disappear as soon as it lands, perfectly camouflaged’. Hence the title seems to, esoterically, suggest the pairing of the ‘mistress of disguise’ (Fiona) with ‘the owl’ (Mickleman) and which working together will enable sinister deeds to be done, most possibly by Mickleman (under the guidance of Fiona) influencing or recruiting people from within his natural academic environment.”
{/quote}

Thus, the following paean to Sapphic love, from Breaking The Silence Down, the novel often considered as making the Deofel ‘quartet’ into a quintet of esoteric novels:

{quote}
                  “Blissful, they returned to their home. The rain ceased with their arrival and in the subdued light in the now cramped sitting room of their bungalow, Rachael sat at her piano to transform herself and the night. Diane listened and watched, entranced. Rachael’s playing created a new world and a new woman, and Diane watched this strange woman create from the instrument of wood, steel and tone a universe of beauty, ecstasy and light.
                  Bach, Beethoven – it made no difference what or for how long she played. But, as it always had since that night, Beethoven’s Opus 111 fascinated her with feelings, visions, and stupendous, world-creating thought. It imbued her with insight, and a love that wanted to envelope Rachael and consume her.
                  It was pleasure and pain to watch Rachael transform herself through the act of her playing into a goddess she would die for. No reason touched her while she listened. There was, she knew, no greater life than this, no greater feeling and she wanted to immolate herself with Rachael’s ecstasy, immolate world upon world with this glory and passion which no male god described.
                  Then the silence, while clamoured notes faded and dimmed light framed. There were no more tears Diane could cry and she waited while Rachael slowly rose and offered her hand. She – the goddess within – was smiling and Diane allowed herself to be led. The music in her head, the memories and secret dreams of youth: all were before her, embodied in flesh and she had only to kiss the slightly scented lips or see the secret wisdom hidden in the eyes to reach the summit of her life, slowly, in the dim corners of the bedroom’s reflected dark.”
{/quote}

Given that most O9A critics have never bothered to read the O9A “deofel quintet” – or, if they have, have miserably failed to appreciate its esoteric significance – it is not surprising that they have such a biased, mundane, view of the O9A.

TWS Nexion
December 2018 ev

°°°

Exposing Anti-O9A Propagandists

°°°°°°°°°

Exposing Anti-O9A Propaganda
(pdf)

For the past three years various lies and “fake news” have been circulated, and allegations made, about the Order of Nine Angles (O9A, ONA) by journalists, by anti-fascists, by certain politicians, and by others.

Here is the “other side” – the O9A side – of the story, a side the mainstream Media, and anti-O9A propagandists, refuse to even acknowledge.

Contents:
° There Is No O9A Membership
° Overview Of The O9A
° The Lies Of Misogyny And Sexual Abuse
° Fallacies Of Anti-O9A Propaganda
° The Myth Of Anton Long
° The Reason Behind Anti-O9A Propaganda
° References

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