I am your disciple
And therefore my own
Your weapon I will be
With the demons that possess me
We’ll ride the seven sins of death
That takes me to katharsis
The sign of your horns
Is my dearest vision
They impale all holy and weak
You watch me face the mirror
And see desecration
With my art I am the fist
In the face of god
On this night of nights, in lurking darkness, pestilential twilight, in melancholic reverie and sunset and fire … one wonders: why is fire so sacred to night? It beckons as a feeling throughout the blood. We sense it all around. The earth peels away its distillated skin, the yawning moon prepares its ascent, and a glowing horror rises between the thinning veil of this world of worlds.
Tonight is Halloween, a night of ghoulish gimmicks, ecstasis and elation, tricks and treats. But beneath the veneer of its Christian etymology – a popular derivative of All Hallow Even or the eve of All Saints’ Day, which was a time assigned to the Christian calendar for “honoring the saints and the newly departed”[1] – this day is believed to have pagan roots that were not eliminated by its later Christianization.[2] Some folklorists have traced its roots to the Roman feast of Pomona or the festival of the dead called Parentalia.[3] More commonly, it is connected to the Celtic festival of Samhain or Samuin (pronounced “sow-an” or “sow-in”), which means “summer’s end.”[4] Nicholas Rogers notes that the heroine of the tenth-century Gaelic text Tochmarc Entire refers to Samhain “as the first of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish calendar, ‘when the summer goes to its rest.’”[5] J. A. MacCulloch notes that Samhain was ultimately “an old pastoral and agricultural festival,”[6] one which “in time came to be looked upon as affording assistance to the powers of growth in their conflict with the powers of blight.”[7] Rogers goes on to describe the feast of Samhain as an:
[O]ccasion of stock-taking and ingathering, of reorganizing communities for the winter months, including the preparation of quarters for itinerant warriors and shamans. It was also a period of supernatural intensity, when the forces of darkness and decay were said to be abroad, spilling out from the sidh, the ancient mounds or barrows of the countryside. To ward off these spirits, the Irish built huge, symbolically regenerative bonfires and invoked the help of the gods through animal and perhaps even human sacrifice.[8]
Not everyone agrees on what went on at the feast of Samhain, but many acknowledge its “elemental primitivism” and its “enduring legacy to the character of Halloween,” most notably in terms of “its omens, propitiations, and links to the otherworld.”[9] But by whatever name we choose to call it – Samhain, November Eve, Witches’ Night, All Hallows’ Eve, or the like[10]– Halloween seems to have its most abiding roots “in the terrors of the primitive mind,” terrors which “made no distinction between the waning of the sun and the potential extinction of the self.”[11] The “ancient rituals of sacrifice and supplication” employed during this sacred period were done “to guarantee a good harvest and, by extension, continued earthly existence.”[12]
In many ways, my leadership of the Fenrir journal and de facto role as Outer Representative of the Order of Nine Angles has been motivated by similar ancient rituals of sacrifice and supplication, and for much the same reason: to guarantee a good harvest and this tradition’s continued earthly existence. But in lock-step with the capricious moods of autumn as winter bares its lupine teeth, so too is it time for Fenrir to change.
I have long since expressed my intention to remove Fenrir from its dolorous and baleful roots in National Socialism, extremism, and violence in favor of a return to scholarship, esotericism, Sinister magick, and genuine Satanism. In turn – and as with all magick borne from the majesty of death as a radical outgrowth of organic change – I have found good people: people who through tremendous insight, a lifetime of trial and tribulation, and an unshakable conviction in the necessity of what is right as the voice of irrevocable action have gathered to see this extraordinary time in the history of the ONA flourish rather than withdraw, survive rather than secede, triumph rather than fall forever into the forgotten tombs of vanquished history. No, though God indeed does not deign to reason with man, let Satan draw him out! We, who are bound by sacred oath, by blood, by fire, wretched in its woe, will see these changes overshadow and overthrow decades of insincerity, deceit, meaningless violence, and counter-productivity. With this supreme art, our loyalty, and our pact in the eyes of the Devil, let justice triumph even though the heavens may fall! And may our art be a fist in the face of God.
Now, in the spirit of that Samhain feast and its elemental primitivism, I would like to present an article co-written by two of our newest partners in cosmic crime, Kristos 513 and Ariadne, on what we feel is an appropriately ghoulish topic this evening: cannibalism. From our grim hearth to your worn fireplace, our team – myself, Ariadne, Kristos 513, and Eternal Outsider – would like to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!
My heart is the one
That will tend to your flames
And make them mine
We share this spirit
My heart is yours…
For the Devil,
Nameless Therein
Halloween 2022
Notes
[1] Nicholas Rogers, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 23.
‘Pharaoh is the Bull of the Sky,
who shatters at will,
who lives on the being of every god,
who eats their entrails,
even of those who come with their bodies
full of magic from the Island of Flame’
The Cannibal Hymns of Unas, Utterance 273
Predation upon other organisms for sustenance is not at all uncommon, a harmonious act of violence which facilitates evolution by weeding out those who are unfit to survive, while also ensuring the continued existence and reproduction of those specimens who, by practical demonstration of their ability, have earned the right to survive. The prey organism is typically of a different species, however, this is not always the case, and there are many naturally-occurring instances of cannibalism, such as with the genus of jumping spider known as Portia, which preys on both web-building spiders and its own males after copulation. Portia, despite its diminutive size, shows complex social behaviours and a sort of intelligence one might expect of much larger predators, using particularly devious tactics to lure its prey – other spiders typically several times its own size – into vulnerable positions. Preying on one’s own kind is far from exclusive to the delightfully sinister Portia, and the apes which we share common ancestry with have been observed to carry out very similar acts, albeit in very dissimilar contexts, such as the consumption of infants or, particularly in the case of chimpanzees, the eating of young snatched from other families in very deliberate acts of primal warfare – a precursor to the tribalism they will no doubt later develop.
Humans, for all their moral posturing and delusions of separation from the horrors of the natural world, are not exempt from the above, as both history and its psychic shadow of mythology are rife with instances of cannibalism – the subconscious traces of a ghoulish racial memory, one which is alive and well in the dark corners of the earth, and even within the boundaries of ‘civilised’ society, the forbidden act of consuming human flesh is not unheard of.
Early humans displayed cannibalistic tendencies for largely the same reasons as their ape cousins did – sheer practical need. A body no doubt lure predators to the rest of the tribe, and so it stands to reason that the best and most efficient way to dispose of the material was to eat it, which just so happened to address matters of nutrition as well. While a human body might not be the most ideal source of nutrition, it was remarkably accessible besides, as defending one’s area from invaders would no doubt result in a surplus of freshly killed meat lying about. Furthermore, hunting larger prey is dangerous if done by a group and near-suicidal if done alone, many animals taking quite a bit of abuse from primitive tools before going down, and not before injuring a member of the hunting party or two. A person, however, could be inncapacitied with comparatively little work – a rock in the temple, for example – and yield a sufficient return besides. This type of primitive efficiency is seen in the modern day as well, as various tribes of Papua New Guinea (including the infamous Asmat, who supposedly killed and ate Nelson Rockefeller), Africa, and throughout the Pacific islands.
As human societies grew more complex, evolving from the most rudimentary kinds of proto-culture to something more recognisable, the exact reasons for acts of cannibalism grew more abstract, as there was no longer as immediate a need to capitalise on any and all opportunities to eat, nor was there as much of a need to avoid luring predators with corpses. Many of the tribal cultures still practicing cannibalism do so for magical-religious reasons, such as to take on the power and attributes of a foe – the African warlord humourously known as ‘General Butt-Naked’ is said to have partaken in cannibalism for precisely these reasons! Another good example of post-primitive cannibalism for spiritual reasons more than practical is the practice of the Indian Aghori sect, a Shaivite tradition which has become infamous for its rather morbid rites, including eating the flesh of the recently deceased. However, unlike previously mentioned examples, they do not kill or harm anyone for their strange communion, and such practices are intended for them to truly know God – after all, how can one say they love and respect creation if they only accept the parts which are pleasing to the senses? Are not the deathly and grotesque also a part of nature, and the rot which feeds life? Furthermore, exposure to such unpleasant stimuli takes no small amount of willpower to override a feeling of revulsion towards the act, and it is through willingly taking part in difficult practices, such as eating the recently deceased, that they develop a state of absolute domination over the lesser parts of themselves which might feel fear or disgust.
Almost as if the practice of devouring one another is hard-coded into human nature, cannibalistic acts are not limited to the carnal and fleshy. Ideas are subject to being preyed upon in this way, the growth of mythos rarely, if ever, being a spontaneous phenomenon. As cultures interact with both each other and themselves, their various memes undergo changes to reflect the very real movement of people. Most immediately relatable in a broader Sinister context is the way in which folk European traditions were adapted as the region underwent its conversion to Nazarene practices. Instead of merely erasing the native ways and mythos of a given area, they were instead devoured by the Christian organism and thus, made part of it in such a way as to strengthen the organism and help it to adapt to its environment. This is seen in the transmutation of local deities and spirits from mostly benign entities to ghouls, devils, and evil things which snatch away children and livestock. For example, the Devil in modern popular culture is often shown with decidedly goat-like features in the form of cloven hooves and horns, while also possessing very carnal appetites and a certain mischievous inclination. Imagery of the Devil as an anthropomorphic goat-man is not canonical to any sect of Christianity, and is rather the product of demonising, quite literally, the ancient god Cernunnos, who was worshiped by the Celtic peoples, and similarly, the Fauns, Satyrs, and their lord Pan, who were part of the Hellenic cultures to the southeast. Both Cernunnos and Pan shared a similar horned man-beast appearance, as well as their considerable hunger for all manner of sensual gratification – quite possibly the most literal, archetypal depiction of that which is considered ‘Pagan’ – and so the deities previously revered by a people were ‘cannibalised’ as they transitioned from the old ways to their regional flavour of Christianity. Other folk deities across Europe underwent a similar process, such as the north’s Allfather Odin, who formed the basis for the modern archetypal witch, and also from the north, the underworld place of the dead known as Hel, whose later inclusion in Nazarene mythos is obvious. It was not an outside force that endeavoured to suppress old-world traditions in this way either, but elements within each of the cultures, those who swallowed up their own gods, regurgitating them as the politically necessary devils of a new religious form. As cultures shift into new paradigms, their old ways are consumed, and absorbed into the younger, thus contributing to its growth – not unlike young spiders devouring their mother after birth.
Just as humans prey on their own mythos to create new ones, the mythos themselves also feature instances of people being killed for the purpose of being eaten. In the Greek tale of King Lycaon, for example, the titular king makes a rather foolish attempt at testing Zeus. Lycaon secretly murdered his own son, and then prepared him as a meal for Zeus. Outraged, whether at the moral bankruptcy of the act or the insult to his divine intelligence, or both, Zeus turned Lycaon into a wolf-man as punishment. This story has both literal and symbolic components, as the Greeks found themselves utterly revolted by the savage religious practices of their neighbors, which supposedly included cannibalism, and so their disgust was reflected in their own mythos as a reflection of their societal values. In addition, one of the themes of many Greek myths is that of arrogance. That Zeus chose to react to this one instance implies it was the specific action of a mortal daring to test him which drew his ire, as the practice had obviously predated the Greeks and indeed all of civilisation – where then are the other Lycaonians?
Another instance of like-devouring-like, this time in Latin, involves the figure of Eumolpus within the Satyricon. Unlike the Greek tale of Lycaon, the cannibalism of Eumolpus was not an act of mortal hubris, but one of necessity for financial gain. Eumolpus is an unextraordinary poet posing as a wealthy individual in order to exploit those who might proverbially bend over backwards in order to gain his inheritance, and indeed, all manner of fawning candidates went to great lengths to appease him. Unable to keep up the ruse, Eumolpus has his will read to the gathered ‘inheritors’, which proclaims that, in order to receive any ‘inheritance’ they must eat his dead body in public. Naturally, the condition of being required to eat Eumolpus’ dead body was intended to ward off those who expected what could not be provided, but it also speaks to the mindset of those who would seek out in some way the legacy of their forebears, as they put on all manner of disingenuous fronts and superficial displays in a shallow attempt at courting approval and thus, assurances of inheritance – and the post-mortem division of assets and legacies does indeed resemble the butchery of a carcass, often done ravenously, as though the inheritors were tearing the corpse apart in the street and swallowing great fistfuls of viscera.
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.
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
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.
[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)
[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.
[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”)
[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.”
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.
* Part One: Differing Perceptions Of The Order Of Nine Angles.
* Part Two: Baeldracian, Falciferian, Rynethian.
* Part Three: Omega9Alpha As Culture And Subculture.
* Conclusion: Future Non-Western Omega9Alpha Subcultures
* Appendix: A Rediscovered Balobian Treasure.From the Conclusion: Given (i) the ‘principle of the authority of individual judgment’ and (ii) the fact that the ω9α code of kindred-honour applies irrespective of gender, ethnicity, perceived social/educational status, nationality, and sexual preference, and (iii) that ω9α culture does not embody racist neo-nazism in ethos or in principle, ω9α culture can be further diversified and thus develop new subcultures that encompass the insights and some of the practices of non-European esoteric and mystic traditions.
This has already happened in a clandestine way in places such as Egypt and Iran where nexions have been established which incorporate some Sufi traditions and insights (and in the case of Iran, memories of Sumka) as well as in Japan where a clandestine nexion incorporates the insights of Yukio Mishima (as manifest in his quartet The Sea Of Fertility) with the esoteric non-racist National-Socialism of Reichsfolk. In Turkey, a clandestine nexion exists which blends Myattian insights – from his philosophy of pathei-mathos – with elements of Sufism, stories from لْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ and aspects of ω9α culture in a still developing individual and mystical quest for wisdom.
Such new and developing subcultures are expanding ω9α culture and harbingers of not only a New Aeon but of a new type of civilization independent of nations and States and old aeon notions of Empire and physical conquest.
° The Alleged National Socialism Of The O9A.
° The O9A, Plato, National Socialism, And Nihilism.
° O9A: Beyond Satanism?
Included in the pdf document are three recent – 2019-2020 – texts which explain (i) why the Order of Nine Angles (O9A/ONA) is not a neo-nazi Occult group, (ii) what the O9A mean by the term ‘satanism’, and (iii) why the O9A Occult movement – its esoteric philosophy – has now evolved beyond even their distinct presencing of ‘satanism’, an evolution consistent with the ‘sinister-numinous’ praxis that is the O9A Seven Fold Way with its decades-long individual quest for Lapis Philosophicus, for Wisdom.
These texts thus rebut the propaganda, the allegation, spread about the O9A – by many anti-fascist groups and individuals, and by the media – that it is a neo-nazi Occult group.
Instead, the O9A should be classified – depending on one’s individual interpretation of its esoteric philosophy {1} – as either a nihilistic Occult movement or as an anarchist Occult movement, where by nihilism is meant “rejection of prevailing religious beliefs, moral principles, and laws, together with a practical hostility toward accepted beliefs and/or established institutions,” and where by anarchism is meant “that way of living which regards the authority of The State as unnecessary and possibly harmful, and which instead prefers the free and individual choice of mutual and non-hierarchical co-operation.”
Our own view, as a nexion, is that the O9A is in fact a blend of both nihilism and anarchism, and represents a necessary evolution of both those causal forms, those “ideas”, thus presencing something new and appropriate for our era, something post-Satanic.
TWS Nexion
April 2020 ev
{1} The fundamental O9A “principle of the authority of individual judgment” means that each individual who identifies with the O9A movement – and who seeks for example by means of the Seven Fold Way to discover Lapis Philosophicus – should answer the question about what the O9A means and implies in their own way and in their own duration of causal time.
The principle is explained in the two texts Authority, Learning, and Culture, In O9A Tradition and The Authority Of Individual Judgement: Interpretation And Meaning and both of which are included in the recent (2019) Seofonfeald Paeth trilogy, available at https://www.o9a.org/wp-content/uploads/o9a-trilogy-print.pdf
It is obvious to those who have studied the O9A corpus from the 1970s to the 2019, 300 page, trilogy titled Seofonfeald Paeth, {1} that the O9A considers National Socialism – both as a political ideology and in practice – to be a useful tool, a means, to be used, via an Insight Role, {2} by individuals who associate themselves with the O9A movement. A tool, a dialectical means, whereby they (i) can in however small a way disrupt the status quo and possibly persuade others to do the same, and (ii) can personally learn from the experience of being a practical, a real-life, modern day heretic, since according to the status quo – that is, according to all current Western governments and educational institutions – National Socialism is the epitome of evil with the myth of the “holocaust” a sacred dogma which should not be challenged, often, in some Western lands, on pain of imprisonment.
As mentioned in the chapter The Alleged National Socialism Of The O9A in The Seofonfeald Paeth trilogy, the O9A thus consider National Socialism, and all ideologies be they political or religious, as an idea, or ideal, ἰδÎá¾³/εἶδος, with Plato’s ἰδÎá¾³/εἶδος understood – via Aristotle {3} and others – not as Plato himself believed as an ‘abstract’ (true, ideal) essence or type of being which is independent of us {4} – but as a posited causal abstraction {5} by someone or by some others.
That is, the O9A conceive of National Socialism, and all ideologies be they political or religious, not as an “essence” and not as something “true” or essential or necessary, but as a fallible human abstraction, a technique or tool, a φαντασία, and one which can be usefully used by individuals just as the O9A itself is or can be a φαντασία to be used {6} to achieve a personal and esoteric pathei mathos. {7}
That this O9A view is an expression, a manifestation, a presencing, of nihilism {8} has so far only been understood by a select few is, for the sagacious, the Occult cognoscenti, comment enough on our modern Western societies and their peoples, and comment enough on how the O9A is mis-perceived, especially by those mundanes who call it “neo-nazi” and campaign against it and who demand it be made illegal as a so-called “terrorist” organization. {9}
Meanwhile, our antinomian and sinister-numinous dialectic, our presencing of a type of traditional Satanism {10} – and our Satanic mirth – continues.
TWS Nexion
Oxonia
April 2020 ev
{1} Available at https://www.o9a.org/wp-content/uploads/o9a-trilogy-print.pdf
{2} See the text Insight Rôles, The Seven Fold Way, And The O9A: The Historical And Esoteric Context
{3} (i) Metaphysics, Book 1, 987β, (ii) Metaphysics, Book 5, 1015α
{4} (i) μήτε ἑκάστῳ ἰδίᾳ ἕκαστον τῶν ὄντων á¼ÏƒÏ„ίν δῆλον δὴ ὅτι αá½Ï„á½° αὑτῶν οá½ÏƒÎ¯Î±Î½ ἔχοντά τινα βÎβαιόν á¼ÏƒÏ„ι Ï„á½° Ï€Ïάγματα, Kratylus 386d-386e, and (ii) which Ï€Ïῶτον μὲν ἀεὶ ὂν καὶ οὔτε γιγνόμενον οὔτε ἀπολλÏμενον, οὔτε αá½Î¾Î±Î½ÏŒÎ¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Î½ οὔτε φθίνον, Symposium 210e – 211a
{5} The O9A make an ontological distinction between causal and acausal being. A causal abstraction is defined by the O9A as “the manufacture, and use of, some idea, ideal, “image” or category, and thus some generalization, and/or some assignment of an individual or individuals to some group or category. The positing of some “perfect” or “ideal” form, category, or thing, is part of abstraction. Abstractions hide the true nature of Reality – which is both causal and acausal, and which true nature can be apprehended and understood by means of The Dark Arts, and thus by following the Occult way from Initiate, to Adept, and beyond. According to the O9A, the so-called Occult Arts – and especially the so-called Satanism – of others are manifestations of causal abstractions, lacking as they do the learning of the skills of Dark-Empathy, Acausal-Thinking, and Sinister Sorcery, and thus lacking as they do the ability to develope our latent human faculties and our latent sinister character.”
{6} https://wyrdsister.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/the-fantasy-role-playing-world-of-the-o9a/
{7} qv. Notes On The Esoteric Learning Presenced Through Pathei-Mathos
{8} A useful, working, definition of nihilism is “rejection of prevailing religious beliefs, moral principles, and laws, together with a practical hostility toward accepted beliefs and/or established institutions.”
{9} https://wyrdsister.wordpress.com/2020/03/20/banning-the-o9a-latest-update/
{10} https://www.o9a.org/2019/07/the-two-types-of-satanism/
As mentioned in previous articles, the propaganda about the Order of Nine Angles (O9A, ONA) written and distributed by a political advocacy group is riddled with errors {1} and reveals the astonishing lack of knowledge about the O9A by that political advocacy group; a lack which is either deliberate – arising from hatred and prejudice – or arising because of a desire to spread propaganda about one of their declared enemies.
The propaganda also reveals the author committing several logical fallacies; either from ignorance or because of hatred and prejudice and/or a desire to spread propaganda about a declared enemy.
Some examples of such fallacies are:
° In respect of the O9A, in their 2019 so-called “Sate of hate†report, and in their 2020 report, the author commits the logical fallacy of Incomplete Evidence by selectively quoting from some O9A material, ignoring other material which provides context or which contradicts such quotations, and quoting material authored by some of those who associate themselves with the Occult movement that is the O9A.
Thus most of the O9A corpus is ignored, since a study of that corpus (i) would have contradicted their claim that the O9A is neo-nazi, {2} {3} (ii) revealed the context for suggested Insight Roles, which is a short part of the third stage of the decades long Seven Fold Way; (iii) revealed the fundamental O9A principle of individual authority, {4} and (iv) contradicted their claim that the O9A encourage misogyny and rape. {5}
° In the same report the author commits the fallacy of secundum quid et simpliciter. Which is the use of particular individual cases to form a general rule to then use that rule to describe, and thence to blame, or to castigate, or to defame a whole group. In many instances this involves quoting from material authored by some of those who associate themselves with the Occult movement that is the O9A.
° In the 2020 report the author commits the fallacy of argumentum ad verecundiam – argument from authority – by repeating what certain others have said or written about the O9A, with it being obvious from the errors made in that and the 2019 report and from the committal of the foregoing two other fallacies, that the author is not an authority on the subject of O9A esoteric theory and praxises.
° In both reports the author commits a fallacy of presumption by making conclusions based on their assumptions and claims; in addition to which the author provides no evidence – nothing probative – for their assumptions and claims, such as in the matter of Mr Myatt being Anton Long, and which assumptions and claims often derive from the foregoing three fallacies.
The propagandistic nature of the reports can thus be seen, for the biased and misleading information they contain has been systematically disseminated in order to promote a political cause.
{2} See the chapter The Alleged National Socialism Of The O9A in The Seofonfeald Paeth trilogy. The article quotes from letters by Anton Long sent to Michael Aquino and others in the early 1990s, letters which were published in 1992.
{3} See also Order Of Nine Angles: The Deofel Quintet, included in Seofonfeald Paeth trilogy, where it is explained that The Deofel Quintet (written between 1976 and the early 1990’s) places the neo-nazism aspect into the necessary esoteric perspective, for the novels of the Deofel Quintet are non-political.
{4} The principle is explained in the two articles Authority, Learning, and Culture, In O9A Tradition (written in 2013) and The Authority Of Individual Judgement: Interpretation And Meaning (written in 2014). Both articles are included in The Seofonfeald Paeth trilogy.
The axiom of the authority of individual judgement means that each O9A person, nexion, group, or cell, are – with one important exception – free to develop their own interpretation of everything O9A, free to develop and change everything O9A, and that there is no authority above the individual, or beyond each group or collective of groups. No O9A leader, no outer (or inner) ‘representative’, no council, no ‘old guard’, who can make pronouncements about or declare what is or is not correct. No ‘official’ or ‘genuine’ O9A; no ‘heresy’; no proscription of individuals or groups. Furthermore, no consensus is necessary or required among those who are or who associate with the O9A {2}, although naturally a particular O9A nexion may have or arrive at a particular internal consensus and thus presence a particular interpretation of matters O9A.
The pro-Sapphic novel Breaking The Silence Down – written in 1985 and part of The Deofel Quintet – and the essay The Anti-Patriarchal O9A Ethos – written in 2017 and available at https://www.o9a.org/wp-content/uploads/o9a-questions-2017-v5b-1.pdf – reveal the O9A attitude toward women, with the O9A code of kindred honour embodying respect for women and gender equality.
The recent (March 2020) report by the so-called “Hope Not Hate” political advocacy group devotes over ten pages to the O9A, calling for the O9A to be banned as a terrorist group, stating that “the Order of Nine Angles (O9A) is a Nazi-Satanist group.”
Is there anything evidential, probative – anything that would be acceptable in a Court of Law – in their report regarding the O9A being an organization with members? No. Is there anything probative in their report regarding the O9A being a nazi-satanist group? No, there is not.
Instead, in a propagandist way, they state their opinions and make assumptions as if they were fact, which they most certainly are not as study of an O9A primary source – such as the 300 page trilogy Seofonfeald Paeth (pdf) – would have revealed. For such a study would have shown that the Order of Nine Angles is an anarchist sub-culture rather than a neo-nazi one. {1}
They also claim that “the O9A was set up by David Myatt in the early 1970s” and yet provide nothing probative – anything that would be acceptable in a Court of Law – regarding Myatt being Anton Long and founder of the O9A. Instead, in a propagandist way, they state their opinion as if it was fact, which it is not.
Is there anything probative in their report regarding the O9A being an organization with members? No.
Is there anything probative in their report regarding how Mr Myatt has rejected extremism, violence, and National Socialism? No there is not. {2}
Is there anything probative in their report regarding the accusations that the O9A encourages sexual violence? No, there is not. {3}
All there is, yet again, {4} is disinformation, a lack of research into the esoteric theory and praxises of the O9A, together with propaganda, and more fake news.
That the mainstream Media are reproducing such disinformation and propaganda by a political advocacy group – which has its own agenda – without doing their own research into the O9A using primary O9A texts is indicative of how the Media are complicit in spreading fake news about the O9A and about Mr Myatt.
{2} Myatt’s rejection of extremism and neo-nazism is well-documented in his post-2010 writings such as his (i) Understanding and Rejecting Extremism, 2013, ISBN-13: 978-1484854266, and (ii) Extremism And Reformation, 2019, ISBN 978-1691707423, and (iii) Myngath, 2013, ISBN-13: 978-1484110744
In that and other articles it is clearly stated that
[quote]
A study of the O9A corpus from the 1980s to 2018 – from the pro-Sapphic novel Breaking The Silence Down to the essay The Anti-Patriarchal O9A Ethos – reveals the O9A attitude toward women, with the O9A code of kindred honour embodying respect for women and gender equality and with the O9A having [according to an academic] “more female supporters than either the Church of Satan or the Temple of Set [and] more women with children.”
Nowhere in the corpus of O9A texts written by Anton Long between the 1970s and 2011 does the O9A advocate rape.
In fact the O9A consider rapists as suitable candidates for culling.
[/quote]
In regard to the O9A considering rapists as suitable candidates for culling refer to Culling And The Code Of Kindred Honour which references a real-life case.
{4} For their 2019 fake news report about the O9A see Fake News
According to a BBC news report, dated 2 March 2020, the Order of Nine Angles (O9A, ONA) should be banned as a terrorist organization.
The report states that “In the past year four teenagers linked to the ideology have been jailed in the UK for terror offences, with one of them convicted of preparing for a terror attack by – among other things – trying to alter himself in line with instructions set out in ONA texts.”
The report also extensively quotes from recent propaganda issued by the mis-named and biased Hope Not Hate political advocacy group which, like its propaganda report issued in 2019, {1} is full of factual errors, unproven allegations, and personal opinion stated as fact. For example, they incorrectly claim that O9A “ideas have drawn in young extremists in the UK and elsewhere, and have helped nourish a dangerous culture of unprecedented depravity amongst the extreme right, which has none of the moral constraints that previous generations of far-right activists had.”
Both that 2019 report and more recent propaganda reveal a total ignorance of the esoteric theory and praxises of the O9A, a theory and praxises evident in the 300 page trilogy Seofonfeald Paeth (pdf) which trilogy also makes clear that the O9A is not an organization but is an anarchist sub-culture rather than a neo-nazi one. {2}
Little wonder then that Hope Not Hate is regarded by many researchers as a deprecated source that should not be used or trusted, with it having been stated that “because they are an advocacy group, they are a biased and opinionated source”. {3}
According to Yvette Cooper MP, chairwoman of the Home Affairs select committee, the British Home Secretary “should immediately” refer the ONA to the government’s proscription review group, since it seems that she is under the misapprehension that the O9A’s “combination of Nazi-Satanism, extreme violence and sexual abuse makes it particularly troubling and action needs to be taken to prevent them grooming and radicalising other people.”
