Occult Beliefs and The Far Right The Case of The Order of Nine Angles
Occult Beliefs and The Far Right The Case of The Order of Nine Angles
Occult Beliefs and The Far Right The Case of The Order of Nine Angles
To cite this article: Shanon Shah, Jane Cooper & Suzanne Newcombe (19 Apr 2023): Occult
Beliefs and the Far Right: The Case of the Order of Nine Angles, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism,
DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2023.2195065
Occult Beliefs and the Far Right: The Case of the Order
of Nine Angles
Shanon Shah, Jane Cooper and Suzanne Newcombe
Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (Inform), c/o Department of Theology and
Religious Studies, King’s College London, London, UK
This article explores the connection between belief and Far Right politics by focusing
on the writings of the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), a secret society that several media
reports have linked to neo-Nazi violence. The starting point for this study is some of
the activist campaigning that has focused on the relationship between the occult and
neo-Nazism, amid increasing concerns in Western liberal democracies about the rise
of Far Right violence. In these discussions, the ONA has primarily been portrayed as
an exemplar of occult neo-Nazi radicalization. In April 2021, for example, ahead of the
U.K. government’s announcement that it was banning the Atomwaffen Division, a U.S.-
based neo-Nazi group, as a terrorist organization, the anti-fascist campaigning group
HOPE not hate (HnH) criticized the government for not also banning the ONA.1
HnH’s position on ONA is well established. In early March 2020, it described the
ONA as an incubator of terrorism and called for it to be proscribed. In its State of
Hate report that year, HnH drew links between ONA and Atomwaffen as well as other
neo-Nazi groups.2 As an example, the report described Ryan Fleming as a National
Action activist and an important figure in ONA, running its Yorkshire nexion3 and
closely linked to the Tempel ov Blood in the United States. Fleming was jailed for the
sexual assault of a vulnerable young man in 2011 and in 2017 he was jailed for sex-
ually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
This article argues that, while claims about the ONA’s links with neo-Nazi groups
should be taken seriously, these claims should not overlook the ONA’s esoteric dimen-
sions, especially those presented within some of the texts that have been cited as
CONTACT Shanon Shah [email protected] Inform, c/o Department of Theology and Religious
Studies, King’s College London, Virginia Woolf Building, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6LE, UK.
© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s)
or with their consent.
2 S. SHAH ET AL.
inspirations for neo-Nazi violence. We propose that these aspects of the ONA can be
analyzed more usefully as characteristics of a new religious movement (NRM) that
blends eclectic occult elements within its worldview, namely Satanism, magical practice,
millennialism and an esoteric interpretation of Nazism. We suggest that this analytical
approach better enables us to assess not only how “occult” beliefs and practices and
“Far Right” ideology might combine, but also the extent to which such combinations
might result in characteristics that cause concern.
We begin by providing a brief background of the origins of the ONA and analyze
its key beliefs, recommended practices, tenets and ideology. We frame this background
with the theoretical insights on religious bricolage by Danièle Hervieu-Léger. We then
summarize the evolution of the ONA and map the trajectory of the ONA and its
associated groups after its founding figure Anton Long’s retirement from public engage-
ment in 2011. The final section makes the case for analyzing the ONA partly as an
NRM with millennialist characteristics, drawing upon Catherine Wessinger’s work. This
NRM lens can add to existing evaluations about the ONA’s propensity for violence
and its connections with Far Right ideologies.
Our sources are the online, “primary source” texts produced by the ONA and groups
associated with it, all accessible via public domain. From the copious texts produced
by ONA authors, we have selected those that have been cited in recent media coverage
about violence associated with the ONA. Taking a similar approach to Olav Hammer,4
we treat this restricted set of texts as case studies through a “symptomatic reading”—“a
mode of interpretation that uses empirical details to highlight a broader point”.
The esoteric aspects that we are analyzing are thus based on representations that
can be found within ONA texts. These texts contain hybrid genres and, as is the case
with other modern esoteric “movement texts”, contain biographical and doctrinal
material, exegesis, and a combination of fact and fiction.5 It is beyond the scope of
this article to draw hard conclusions about the reception of these texts amongst ONA
followers or to claim definitively that the ONA is a bona fide movement. Rather, we
are using these texts as internal or emic sources, i.e. produced by the ONA’s insiders
or spokespersons, to develop an external or etic analysis of some aspects of the ONA
through an NRM framework.
We intend our findings to supplement rather than contradict other studies of the
ONA that draw upon other aspects of its texts, or that involve interviews with its
members or spokespersons. We have also relied on existing academic research and
redacted data held in the archives of the Information Network Focus on Religious
Movements (Inform).6
Noctulians and Long’s own Temple of the Sun.7 Little is known about these three
precursor groups, but they probably shared a synthesis of hermetic, pagan and Satanic
elements. The ONA made use of all three elements in its early texts to appeal to a
broad range of potential followers. During this early stage, the Satanic elements were
not as pronounced, and up to the 1990s, the ONA grew rapidly in mystical and occult
circles.8
Following this, the ONA entered into a second stage of development into the dawn
of the twenty-first century, which focused less on recruitment and more on refining
the Order’s teachings. According to George Sieg,9 the ONA developed its initiation
system and its brand of Satanism in “novel directions” starting from around 2003,
with its affiliation with the Temple of THEM in Australia and the formation of the
Tempel ov Blood as a nexion in the United States. Apart from that, this period was
relatively quiet and the Order even appeared to be defunct. Around 2008, however,
the Order entered a new phase, where it promoted itself much more actively on var-
ious online channels, including YouTube, Facebook, and online discussion forums.
According to its texts, the ONA’s “esoteric philosophy” was developed by Anton Long
between 1984 and 2011, when he retired as “extant Magus”.10
In 2011, Inform contacted someone who identified as “Anton Long” who agreed to
an email interview about the ONA. This individual was happy for the name of Anton
Long to be associated with the email responses, but did not want to meet in person
or be interviewed by telephone due a desire to engage in an “identity masquerade”.
In this correspondence, Long claimed have spent his teenage years (pre-1960s) in the
“Far East”, explaining:
My practical experience and study of Taoism, a Taoist based Martial Art, and the diversity
of religions I encountered in the Far East, which all inspired me to ask questions, [led]
me to read [Carl] Jung and thence led me to Western Alchemy and Western Occultism.11
The true identity of Long has officially remained a mystery to academic researchers,
journalists and members of the movement. There is enough textual evidence to suggest
that Long is the nom de guerre of David Myatt, the founder of the British neo-Nazi
National-Socialist Movement (NSM).12 Some of the ONA’s later texts appear to admit
that “Anton Long” was Myatt’s nom de plume.13
In 1999, NSM member David Copeland orchestrated a series of nail-bombing cam-
paigns against ethnic and sexual minority groups in London, with his final attack on
a gay pub in Soho, killing three and injuring 65 people.14 This incident put the spot-
light on a possible connection between the ONA and violent neo-Nazism, a connection
that was complicated by Myatt’s conversion to a militant version of Islam in the early
twenty-first century.
According to material posted online in March 2021, David Myatt granted a recorded
audio interview to Nick Lowles of HnH in 1988 in a pub in Shropshire. This interview
was published by several ONA members directly in response to the HnH material
calling for the ban of their organization.15 In this interview Myatt denied that he was
Anton Long but admitted having some association with people in the ONA, primarily
“over 20 years ago” (c. 1980s). He maintained that his primary involvement with the
group was for “political purposes”, rather than religious—he wanted to recruit ONA
members to the National Socialist cause to create a “politically revolutionary situation”
and insinuated that Long was an established academic.16
4 S. SHAH ET AL.
Other ONA texts overtly capitalize on this infamous legacy by presenting Long and
David Myatt as chimerical personalities in a riposte to recent academic scholarship
on the movement. For instance, A Modern Mysterium: The Enigma of Myatt and the
ONA, published in 2018, discusses Long’s legacy through different essays, some arguing
that Long and Myatt are the same person, others maintaining that they are not. The
authors’ names might be pseudonyms of a new generation of ONA recruits or they
might be Long’s fresh alter egos. The latter possibility would suggest that Long remains
active, albeit via more behind-the-scenes updates to official ONA websites and pub-
lications.17 Alternatively, “Anton Long” could also have been a name adopted by a
living individual which has morphed into a persona to which multiple people now
contribute as the ONA’s aggregate “spokesperson”.
The incorporation of elements of neo-Nazism into several ONA texts (and perhaps
into undocumented practices and beliefs amongst its followers and spin-offs) can thus
be analyzed as an example of religious bricolage. Working out the rationale for such
a synthesis requires an understanding of the different dimensions through which a
group tries to express and transmit its sacred identity. Hervieu-Léger25 suggests four
“dimensions of identification” that could be useful to explore: the communal, ethical,
cultural and emotional.
The ONA complicates this line of analysis because, on one hand, its texts present
itself as secretive and disdainful of the very concept of “membership”—many ONA
writings castigate Satanic “posers” and “charlatans” such as the Church of Satan and
the Temple of Set precisely because of their emphasis on growing the numbers of their
followers or members.26 On the other hand, the ONA’s written materials and associated
symbols are easily available online, disseminated by both curious neophytes and insiders
on several social media channels.27 These characteristics are not entirely contradictory;
the ONA sees itself as an “elitist” group, with highly demanding requirements that
only the most dedicated individuals can fulfill, for example, as expressed in the fol-
lowing passage:28
A Satanist seeks and makes real his/her fantasies and then masters the real-life situations
and all those desires/feelings which give birth to those fantasies—they live them and then
transcend them, creating from those experiences something beyond them: a new
individual.
short of a cataclysmic revolution yet, on another level, “insight roles” can only produce
a superior elite very gradually.
Yet these elements are only the exoteric materials which are disseminated for public
consumption through the ONA’s texts. These texts imply that adept-ship also involves
the transmission of oral tradition and personal guidance within its inner circle, in
keeping with the ONA’s elitist and individualist ethos.46
The cultural elements that can be discerned from the ONA’s published materials
are highly eclectic and reflect a diversity of viewpoints and approaches. For example,
according to Chloe 352,47 an “Outer Representative” of the ONA, the relationship
between the Dreccian Way she espouses and earlier manifestations of the ONA could
be likened to the “Dharmic Traditions”:
In a sense, we can say that ONA’s Traditional Satanism corresponds with Hinduism. Both
are very full and robust forms which are alive and should be allowed to live and continue
to evolve on its own. And the Dreccian Way would thus correspond with Buddhism. Like
Buddhism the Dreccian Way is Non-Theistic, not into magick, and more into putting the
many basic concepts into living practice, and also more simply into the pursuit of expe-
rience, pathei-mathos, and Understanding.
Chloe 352’s writings are examples of how ONA texts are marked by different autho-
rial tones of voice. While she uses more “Dharmic” analogies, Long’s contributions are
usually characterized by an aura of scholarly rigor, with elaborate footnotes and anno-
tations to demonstrate the author’s mastery of classical Greek, Latin and Hebrew.
On another level, this elitism and individualism also appears to create tensions and
rifts within the ONA, as can be gleaned from different texts. For example, these ten-
sions were alluded to by Chloe 35249 regarding the formation of the Dreccian Way:
“As with any number of factions, there will always be rivalries and sentiments involved
between Forms. And in accord with the spirit of the ONA, we say, let the competition
and rivalry be, and let each faction express and live their chosen Form with dedication
and fierce resolve.” The writings of the Temple of THEM also expose disagreement
with the ONA which resulted in a brief dissociation between the two groups in 2009.50
In the ONA’s own texts, a lack of cohesive group feeling does not seem to pose a
big problem, as this would merely be another way for it to separate the wheat from
the chaff and preserve its elite and secretive pedigree: “The choice of practical action
is the novice’s: they must use their understanding to select Satanic tasks…. They will
either learn from this, or not. If not, they have basically failed—shown themselves to
be not suitable.”51 This also suggests that there are no penalties or costs for leaving
the group—membership, according to ONA texts, is a self-selecting process. However,
some nexions are reported to only accept family and closely known friends, which
may make it hard to leave for practical reasons.52
South Africa.53 Affiliated or partially associated groups include the Tempel Ov Blood
and the Astral Bone Gnawers (ABG) Lodge.54
Whilst the recent U.K. cases mentioning the ONA were related to the involvement
of teenagers in neo-Nazi groups, mentions of ONA in the context of the United States
have mostly linked them to active military personnel, via the associated group
Atomwaffen Division.55 According to journalist Nate Thayer, at least nine members of
the Tempel ov Blood (which he claims is part of ONA) are now in key positions in
Atomwaffen Division, and the Tempel requires its members to infiltrate other groups.
These affinities with neo-Nazism—as with the affinities with Satanism discussed
above—may or may not be cosmetic. With this in mind, the four dimensions of iden-
tification can help to make sense of the evolving landscape of groups that are attracted
to particular aspects of the ONA.
Based on available media reports, ONA texts, and Inform’s archival data, a list of
“ideal types”61 can be constructed based on whether these dimensions are present or
absent. This list is a heuristic device for analytical purposes—we cannot say decisively
that these dimensions are present or absent, since many of these groups are secretive
and many of their teachings might only be transmitted orally (Table 1).
It is beyond the scope of this article to ascertain whether the ONA is responsible
for the recruitment and radicalization of particular individuals or groups. It is evident,
however, that the ONA’s symbols and publications remain potent resources that are
publicly accessible. Our typology provides an analytical framework to test the extent
which the appropriation or adoption of the ONA’s symbols and teachings matches the
ways in which these aspects are presented within the Order’s own texts.
10 S. SHAH ET AL.
Table 1. Dimensions of identification with the ONA and likely associated groups and individuals.
ONA dimensions present
Ethical (agree with Cultural (familiar Emotional (have a
Communal (have gone ONA’s ‘culling’ and with ONA texts sense of group Examples: individuals
through the Seven-Fold Way) elitism) and teachings) belonging to ONA) and groups
Yes Yes Yes Yes ONA’s inner circle and
“Old Guard”, e.g.
“Anton Long”, or
members of
offshoots such as
the ABG Lodge
Yes Yes Yes No Post-1990s generation
of ONA adepts
Yes Yes No Yes “Passive” inner circle,
i.e. who only rely
on one-to-one
transmission and
contact
Yes Yes No No “Lapsed” inner circle or
outer
representatives
Yes No Yes Yes Potential “reformers”
(an under-explored
category of ONA
followers)
Yes No Yes No “Lapsed” inner circle or
outer
representatives
Yes No No Yes Unlikely combination
Yes No No No Unlikely combination
No Yes Yes Yes Newer nexions
No Yes Yes No Offshoots, e.g. of the
Tempel ov Blood
No Yes No Yes New grassroots
members of local
nexions
No Yes No No Current or recent
neo-Nazi groups
e.g. Sonnenkrieg
Division and
Atomwaffen Division
No No Yes Yes Occult practitioners,
e.g. pagans,
Satanists
No No Yes No Academic researchers
No No No Yes Unlikely combination
important thing in the world for an individual or group”.62 As a religious goal, this
ultimate concern encompasses cosmology, or a view of the universe and its source,
and an understanding of human nature (for example, how humans were created, and
beliefs about life after death).
A tradition’s teachings about human nature will describe whether humans can achieve the
religious goal through human effort or whether they must rely on divine assistance. When
combined with the group’s cosmology, this will determine the range of methods that can or
should be used to achieve this goal, for example, “prayer, faith and worship, meditation, yogic
disciplines, God’s grace, the guru’s grace, asceticism, community-building, or social reform”.63
Based on this definitional strategy, the ONA’s ultimate concern is two-fold as gleaned
from its literature:
• It aims to fulfill the destiny of the current “Western Aeon”, which is to enable
the evolution of a superior civilization of humans that will eventually colonize
“the solar system and the star systems beyond”,64
• To fulfill this destiny, it will remove the obstacles to this coming “stage of impe-
rium” set by the “religion of the Nazarene”, “Marxism/communism”, “capitalism”,
and laws and policies guaranteeing “equality”—in some ONA essays, a “Magian”
or “Zionist” enemy is also explicitly named.65
Many ONA writings portray the Western or Aryan civilization as the true vanguard
of humanity, which needs to evolve into a superhuman species (“homo galactica”).
This superhuman civilization will then open the channel between this “causal” world
and the unseen “acausal” world (where the Dark Gods reside). The sinister nature of
the Dark Gods provides a template for the ONA’s stated methods to achieve change—
criminality, chaos and violence.
This summary of the ONA’s two-fold ultimate concern equally applies to its own core
“culling texts”, which express a goal of creating a “new human species”66 and to its
nexions, including those that have disagreed in other areas, such as the Temple of THEM.67
The goal of the ONA’s Adepts is therefore to reverse this Nazarene influence through
sinister rituals and practices to create “chaos from which a New Aeon will emerge”.77
Thus, depending on the emphasis in different ONA writings, the movement displays
progressive (practically social Darwinist) and catastrophic millennialism. Members or
supporters of the ONA might draw upon different aspects of this millennialist ethos
depending on key variables, including their social location, political environment,
internal motivations, and external pressures.
Responses to Failure
More relevant than the precise definition of leadership for our purposes is how mil-
lennial groups respond to threats or failure, whether these originate internally or
externally. Catastrophic millennial groups appear to be more prone to violence because
of their radically dualistic views of good and evil which directly affect their responses
to failure or threat. Three sub-categories of catastrophic millennial groups are partic-
ularly prone to violence:
These categories are not static and should rather be regarded as distinct moments
on a continuum of millennial beliefs and the potential for violence. On the surface,
14 S. SHAH ET AL.
all three descriptions could apply to the ONA at different moments according to the
writings of its spokespersons:
• Judging by the writings of Chloe 352 and other online commentators, it would
appear that the ONA has its share of internal rivalry. Whilst this does not nec-
essarily make ONA fragile, it does raise questions about the level of cohesion
among its loose “membership”, and within its philosophy and tactics.
• The HnH campaign to ban the ONA, culminating in its petition to the Home
Office, could be a harbinger for some factions within the ONA to adopt a more
solid identity and the defensive stance of an assaulted millennial movement. The
ONA’s publicly accessible writings are indeed defensive—they vehemently deny
the HnH’s accusations and regard these as “prejudice”, “ignorance” and “propa-
ganda”, albeit with no threat of violent retaliation. These writings deny that the
ONA is even a movement, seeking to absolve it of culpability in the actions of
those who take interest in its materials:89
Since the O9A is an esoteric philosophy, or sub-culture, and not a group or organization
with members it cannot be linked—directly connected or joined—to groups who do have
members just as the possession by individuals of O9A material is not evidence of a link,
only of an interest in the O9A by such groups and individuals or who personally associate
themselves with O9A philosophy mostly on the basis of misunderstanding that
philosophy.
• At the same time, in several of its other writings, referred to above, the ONA
exhorts its adepts to engage in political mobilization and direct action, especially
in “extreme” organizations such as Far-Right neo-Nazi and jihadi groups—dis-
playing the characteristics of a revolutionary millennial movement.
In other words, the ONA’s texts contain different positions and differ in their
calls to action against the perceived enemy of a supposedly degenerated “Magian”-
or “Nazarene”-controlled world order. Yet there is enough textual content that
displays a propensity for violent, catastrophic millennialism, with some important
caveats:
• The ONA’s theory of change is revolutionary in parts, but gradualist and elitist
in others—the coming of the Galactic Imperium must begin with individual
self-mastery (a demanding process that takes years to achieve) before the channel
(“nexion”) to the acausal world can be opened.
• The ONA’s theory of violence is also incremental—it starts with magickal practices
to catalyze psychic contamination, and gradually progresses to acts of petty
criminality (such as anti-social behavior, theft and pornography) before it reaches
full-blown violence (most controversially through culling).
• Gradualism and incrementalism work alongside a high degree of secrecy, espe-
cially in the group’s insistence on infiltration of extreme and/or unexpected groups
(such as Buddhist orders or the police force) to create chaos and instability.
These three preceding points are repeatedly expressed in the group’s writings, for
example in the following paragraph:90
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 15
Satanism can never become (until the “New Aeon” arrives at least) respectable: for to
become so would destroy its numen, its viability as a way to genuine Adeptship. It is
dark, evil—for the few who genuinely dare…. While society and other structures restrict
and deny the promise of Satan, this dark defiance is [required] as a working system which
achieves results, both personally and aeonically. What will change, is the number of
individuals who can try this way to liberation—and while this will increase, it will do
so only slowly over a period of decades.
Thus, while several ONA writings endorse covert, violent, direct political action in
the service of sinister ends, these are accompanied by a philosophy of action that is
elitist and gradualist.
If the answer is yes to both questions, then this would demonstrate a direct cor-
relation, or even causation, between the beliefs and practices espoused by the ONA
texts and those expressed by this segment of ONA followers. If, however, no link can
be demonstrated, then we need to ask how else the ONA’s symbols and texts relate
to other sources of inspiration for Far Right or neo-Nazi violence.
Conclusion
Based on its writings, it is useful to understand the ONA as an eclectic, fluid NRM.
As an NRM, some of its more popular texts display the characteristics of a
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 17
millenarian movement, but its strategies for ushering in the apocalypse are contra-
dictory—the ONA’s writings seem revolutionary in some parts, but gradualist and
elitist in others. From its existing writings and publications, the ONA appears to
exhibit some characteristics that cause concern in relation to religiously or ideolog-
ically motivated violence. However, more research needs to be done to ascertain
whether these teachings have specifically and directly inspired recent cases of violence
involving individuals who are purportedly affiliated with or inspired by the ONA,
and whether these individuals also adhere to the other beliefs and practices espoused
in ONA texts.
Disclosure Statement
Inform is an independent charity which receives funding from the UK government.
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Notes
1. Nick Lowles, “Government Misses Opportunity to Proscribe Order of Nine Angles,” HOPE
not hate, 19 April 2021, https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2021/04/19/atomwaffen-orde
r-nine-angles/
2. David Lawrence, Patrick Hermansson, and Nick Lowles, “Order of Nine Angles: An Incubator
of Terrorism,” in State of Hate 2020: Far Right Terror Goes Global, ed. Nick Lowles
(London: HOPE not hate, 2020), 36–42.
3. Connell R Monette, Mysticism in the 21st Century, 2nd edition (Wilsonville: Sirius Academic
Press, 2015), 94, 105. In ONA terminology, a nexion is a gateway that connects the world
we experience with our senses and a realm beyond this one – what it refers to as the
“causal” and “acausal” world – as well as a term used to refer to its sub-groups/cells.
4. Olav Hammer, Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New
Age (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 15.
5. Ibid., 37–40.
6. Inform is an independent educational charity which researches and provides information
about minority religions and sects which is as accurate, up-to-date and as evidence-based
as possible. It has been based in Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London
since 2018 and was founded by Professor Eileen Barker at the London School of Economics
in 1988. Since its inception, Inform has been funded by a mixture of grants from aca-
demic research councils and charities, the UK government and donations. It has a strict
policy of not taking money from any group about which it provides information. For
more information, contact Inform directly: https://inform.ac/
7. Connell R. Monette, Mysticism in the 21st Century, 2nd ed. (Wilsonville: Sirius Academic
Press, 2015), 94.
8. Ibid., 95.
9. George Sieg, ‘Angular Momentum: From Traditional to Progressive Satanism in the Order
of Nine Angles’, International Journal for the Study of New Religions 4, no. 2 (2013): 253.
10. T.W.S. Nexion, ed., A Modern Mysterium: The Enigma of Myatt and the O9A (Online:
Order of Nine Angles, 2018), 11, 60.
11. From Inform’s ONA files.
12. Jacob C. Senholt, “Secret Identities in the Sinister Tradition: Political Esotericism and the
Convergence of Radical Islam, Satanism, and National Socialism in the Order of Nine
Angles,” in The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity, ed. Per Faxneld and Jesper AA
Petersen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 268.
13. Massimo Introvigne, Satanism: A Social History (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 358.
18 S. SHAH ET AL.
14. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Naziam and the Politics of
Identity (London: New York University Press, 2002), 51.
15. Nameless Therein (2021 [1998]) ‘Interview with David Myatt (by Nick Lowles of Hope
Not Hate in 1998) - Professional restoration’ You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=RZZeuPoplu4
16. Ibid.
17. Monette, Mysticism, 95.
18. Danièle Hervieu-Léger, “The Transformation and Formation of Socioreligious Identities
in Modernity: An Analytical Essay on the Trajectories of Identification,” International
Sociology 13, no. 2 (1998): 217.
19. Hammer, Claiming, 15. As Hammer notes, adherents of many esoteric movements might
not necessarily regard their texts as products of bricolage.
20. From Inform’s ONA files.
21. T.W.S. Nexion, Mysterium, 9.
22. Sieg, “Angular,” 276–277. A term that emerged out of nineteenth century Western eso-
tericism, in which the Right Hand Path was associated with white or good magic whilst
the Left Hand Path was linked to black or evil magic. According to some ONA texts,
the Right Hand Path is restrictive, hierarchical and conformist, whilst the Left Hand Path
is egalitarian, elitist and individualistic. At the same time, ONA texts also encourage the
appropriation or subversion of Right Hand Path forms, such as radical Islam, National
Socialism and Christian Identity. Recent ONA texts also suggest the possibility of evolv-
ing into a “non-dual esoteric tradition”.
23. Richard Parker, (2013, November 30). “Anados.” ONA. https://omega9alpha.wordpress.com/
anados/. Quoting David Myatt, an ONA text explains that this term refers to “the ascent,
or progress, or journey, of the initiate/individual toward their goal, however that goal/
ascent/progress/journey is described and/or understood, and/or represented (symbolically,
mythologically, or otherwise) [and which] sometimes involves a symbolic/mythological
death and then a rebirth”.
24. In Greek, “learning through adversity”, which the ONA regards as necessary for spiritu-
al growth e.g., through the adoption of “insight roles” (akin to covert apprenticeship and/
or infiltration).
25. Hervieu-Léger, “Transformation,” 219.
26. Chretien Sauvage, ed., Hostia: Secret Teachings of the ONA (Order of Nine Angles, 2013),
117–21.
27. Monette, Mysticism, 113; Senholt, “Secret,” 257.
28. Sauvage, Hostia, 139.
29. Whilst ONA texts acknowledge that it is an internally diverse Order, all the groups as-
sociated with it purportedly subscribe to the Seven Fold Way, which is influenced by
Western occultism but also embellishes it. The ‘”Seven” refers to the seven grades of the
path (Neophyte, Initiate, External Adept, Internal Adept, Master/Mistress, Grand Master/
Mousa and Immortal) and the seven planets which are understood to have esoteric sig-
nificance. Unlike many other mystical orders, the ONA does not offer initiation to its
students – rather, the students must initiate themselves through personal grade rituals
and challenges. For the ONA, the process is self-selecting: “the strong survive, and the
weak perish. Good riddance to the weak”.
30. Sauvage, Hostia, 16.
31. ONA. (n.d.). Introducing the Order of Nine Angles. ONA.
32. Sauvage, Hostia, 258–59.
33. From INFORM’s ONA files.
34. T.W.S. Nexion, Mysterium, 27.
35. A vast time span that encompasses the emergence, advancement and decay of a civiliza-
tion. In the ONA’s understanding, a civilization lasts between 1,500 and 1,700 years, and
there could be a time-lag of about 400 years between the start of an Aeon and the be-
ginning of a civilization. According to ONA texts, the current Aeon should rightfully see
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 19
the ascendance of white European civilization, but this has been disrupted and weakened
by Magian and Nazerene (its terminology for Jewish and Christian) religion and culture.
36. From Inform’s ONA files.
37. Sauvage, Hostia, 227.
38. From INFORM’s ONA files.
39. Sauvage, Hostia, 77.
40. Ibid., 78–79.
41. Ibid., 128.
42. Ibid., 123–24.
43. Della E Campion, “The Culling Texts: Mythology, Authority, and Human Sacrifice in the
Order of the Nine Angles.” La Rosa Di Paracelso 2 (2017): 70.
44. Campion, “Culling,” 70.
45. Monette, Mysticism, 111.
46. Ibid., 101.
47. Chloe 352, ed., The Dreccian Way (Order of Nine Angles, Various dates), 8.
48. Sauvage, Hostia, 311.
49. Chloe 352, Dreccian, 36–37.
50. Sieg, “Angular,” 261.
51. Sauvage, Hostia, 324.
52. From INFORM’s ONA files.
53. Monette, Mysticism, 95.
54. Ibid., 97.
55. Nate Thayer, “U.S. Soldiers Uncovered in Atomwaffen Division Satanic Nazi Death Cult
Terror Group,” Nate Thayer - Journalist, 12 April 2019, http://www.nate-thayer.com/u-
s-soldiers-uncovered-in-atomwaffen-division-satanic-nazi-death-cult-terror-group .
56. Chloe 352, Dreccian, 131.
57. Ibid., 105.
58. Ibid., 112.
59. Ibid., 97–112.
60. Ibid., 118.
61. In this paper, our ideal types are generated from different combinations of Hervieu-Léger’s
four dimensions, i.e., whether each is present or absent, and we suggest some real-life
examples that might fit particular combinations.
62. Catherine Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s
Gate (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000), 5.
63. Ibid.
64. Sauvage, Hostia, 184–85.
65. Ibid., 326.
66. Campion, “Culling,” 65.
67. Sieg, “Angular,” 271.
68. Wessinger, Millennium, 12.
69. Wessinger, Millennium, 16.
70. Catherine Wessinger, “Millenialism With and Without the Mayhem,” in Millennium,
Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, ed. Thomas Robbins and
Susan J. Palmer (New York: Routledge, 1997), 49.
71. Ibid., 50.
72. Ibid., 51.
73. Ibid., 51–52.
74. Wessinger, Millennium, 282.
75. Monette, Mysticism, 110.
76. Sauvage, Hostia, 314.
77. Sauvage, Hostia, 225.
78. Wessinger, Millennium, 17.
79. Ibid., 8.
20 S. SHAH ET AL.
80. David G. Bromley, “Constructing Apocalypticism: Social and Cultural Elements of Radical
Organization,” in Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements,
ed. Thomas Robbins and Susan J Palmer (New York: Routledge, 1997), 32, 38.
81. Ibid., 37–38.
82. Sauvage, Hostia, 326.
83. Chloe 352, Dreccian, 23.
84. Hammer, Claiming, 36.
85. Campion, “Culling,” 65.
86. Wessinger, Millennium, 19.
87. Ibid., 20.
88. Ibid., 22–23.
89. Haereticus, “Anti-O9A Hate Campaign Escalates,” O 9 a (blog), 1 October 2020, https://
www.o9a.org/2020/10/anti-o9a-hate-campaign-escalates/
90. Sauvage, Hostia, 210.
91. Wessinger, Millennium, 275–79.
92. Introvigne, Satanism, 361.
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