Occult Beliefs and The Far Right The Case of The Order of Nine Angles

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Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/uter20

Occult Beliefs and the Far Right: The Case of the


Order of Nine Angles

Shanon Shah, Jane Cooper & Suzanne Newcombe

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

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2023.2195065

© 2023 The Author(s). Published with


license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Published online: 19 Apr 2023.

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Studies in Conflict & Terrorism
https://doi.org/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

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY


This article investigates the esoteric beliefs of the Order of Nine Accepted 5 January 2023
Angles (ONA) as one way of making sense of its politics. By analyzing
the ONA’s primary texts and archival data from the Information
Network Focus on Religious Movements (Inform) we propose that,
based on some recurring themes in the way the ONA is presented,
it can be analyzed usefully as a new religious movement (NRM) with
millenarian tendencies. At the same time, the aura of elitism, cool
and danger-seeking that characterizes the larger Far Right milieu
influences the selective appropriation of the ONA’s symbols and pub-
lications amongst violent neo-Nazis.

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

Ideology, Beliefs and Practices


This section summarizes the ONA’s emergence, including the role of its founder, Anton
Long, and outlines its core beliefs and practices.

Founding and Introduction


According to its own texts, the ONA emerged in the early 1970s when Anton Long
merged an underground pagan tradition, Camlad, with two similar societies—the
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 3

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”.

ONA’s Bricolage of Beliefs and Practices


According to the sociologist of religion Danièle Hervieu-Léger, blending religious beliefs
and improvising them is not a recent phenomenon. This “playing with code” probably
contributed to the durability of the world’s largest religious traditions across centuries
and even millennia.18 What is distinctive now is that more people are asserting their
individual right to create religious bricolage, and to attempt to win sympathizers and
converts when they do so.
Based on an outsider’s or etic analysis of its texts, the ONA can be regarded as
one of several exemplars of this modern expression of religious bricolage.19 In his 2011
correspondence with Inform, “Anton Long” explained that that the ONA does not have
“a traditional hierarchy nor any dogma/theology which has to be rigidly believed in
or adhered to”.20 A more recent quote by R. Parker,21 a writer associated with the
movement (see Section 1.1), illustrates the blending of mysticism, Satanism and the
Left Hand Path22 as part of the ONA’s cluster of beliefs:
The Order of Nine Angles (O9A, ONA) is a sinisterly-numinous mystic tradition: it is not
now and never was either strictly satanist or strictly Left Hand Path, but uses “satanism”
and the LHP as “causal forms”; that is, as techniques/experiences/ordeals/challenges (amoral
and otherwise) in a decades-long personal anados23 to engender in the initiate both esoteric,
and exoteric, pathei mathos,24 and which pathei mathos is the beginning of wisdom.

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 Communal Dimension


The communal dimension refers to the social and symbolic markers that are used to
identify those who belong to a particular tradition (its insiders) and those who do
not (the outsiders). These markers might be expressed, for instance, as membership
criteria.
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 5

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.

These demanding requirements include the completion of grueling physical ordeals.


The second stage of the ONA’s Seven-Fold Way29—the “Initiate”—involves the detailed
study of esoteric symbols such as the “septenary system” as well as training either to
run 20 miles in 2.5 h or less, or cycle 100 miles in less than 5.5 h, or walk 32 miles
in less than seven hours.30 This combination of mystical study and physical trials is
supposed to lay the groundwork for a race of superior human beings to evolve accord-
ing to the “meaning and purpose of our lives”, which is to “evolve into a new, a higher,
species” which will then “explore and settle other planets and star systems”.31
What sets the ONA apart from other Satanic or antinomian spiritual groups is that
its initiation rites include the adoption of “insight roles”. Adepts are encouraged to
seek roles that radically challenge their comfort zones. For example, adepts who are
left-wing or anarchist are asked to infiltrate extreme right-wing organizations, while
those who enjoy sex and alcohol are encouraged to infiltrate “a Buddhist religious
order”32 or join a Christian organization.33 From this brief example, however, it is clear
that, while meant to be disruptive and subversive, insight roles are not exclusively
aimed at neo-Nazism and militant Islamism. Rather, the ONA regards movements such
as “National-Socialism” and “jihadism” as only superficial vehicles (or “causal forms”,
in its terminology) that can effectively cause the “destruction of the old as a prelude
to the emergence of a New Aeon”.34 Nazism, jihadism or even Buddhism are not
unique tools to create the New Eon35—rather, it is the “insight” that individuals gain
from infiltrating these groups that will allow them to gain evolutionary superiority,
which will then open the channel for the coming of a new age.
The flexibility of this approach means that specific beliefs might differ within par-
ticular ONA offshoots and can vary from place to place. At the same time, through
its written texts, the ONA prides itself as a practical movement that calls for action.
According to these texts, the most important learning point from insight roles is the
acquisition of knowledge through adversity and experience. This is how these texts
distinguish the ONA from what some of its authors dismiss as the overly theoretical
or ritualistic Satanism of groups such as the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set.
There appears to be tension, however, in terms of the scope and pace of change sought
by the ONA—on one level, the coming of the New Aeon seems to require nothing
6 S. SHAH ET AL.

short of a cataclysmic revolution yet, on another level, “insight roles” can only produce
a superior elite very gradually.

The Ethical Dimension


The ethical dimension encapsulates the values that can be discerned through the ONA’s
texts. While Long insisted in his Inform interview that he opposed the “deification of
the individual”,36 several ONA writings present an individualist ethos, for example:
“The quest of an individual can only and ever be individual, that is, unique.”37
This individualistic ethos means that ONA texts contain vehement opposition toward
institutional authority, hierarchy, or social conformity. This is why ONA writings are
particularly scathing of the Church of Satan and Temple of Set, which are dismissed
as “fake” Left-Hand Path groups because of their institutional structures and attempts
to present Satanism as an “ethical religion”. According to the ONA, this is tantamount
to justifying and replicating the status quo, which is currently under the control of
the “Nazarenes” and “Magians” (the ONA’s terminology for Christians and Jews or
Zionists). Long has emphasized that the essence of the ONA is its dedication to
“practical personal sinister experience and learning from that experience…and thus
the individual must live a practical sinister life”.38
This “sinister” anti-ethics stance is expressed most controversially in the ONA’s
endorsement of the “culling” of “opfers”, or human sacrifice, which can be voluntary
or involuntary.39 Voluntary opfers “are always male (and usually twenty-one years of
age)” but “there are no restrictions concerning involuntary sacrifices other than the
fact that they are usually in some way opponents of Satanism or the Satanic way of
living”.40 Involuntary sacrifices can be carried out via “magickal means” (for example,
in the Death Ritual), by “direct, personal sacrifice” or “by assassination”. They can be
carried out by the group’s members or by proxy, which involves the “Master or Mistress
finding a suitably weak-willed individual and then implanting in their mind by hyp-
notic means a suitable suggestion”. Official ONA literature qualifies that direct sacrifice
and assassination “are no longer undertaken and are given for historical interest”.
Elsewhere, the ONA stresses that sacrifices can be conducted upon a “symbolic” rep-
resentation of the chosen opfer, for example, “a wax figurine named after the actual
opfer”.41 Opfers are also never children.
Yet, the anti-ethics justification of culling as a return to “natural justice” in ONA
texts suggests that this is the group’s view of ethics—culling is the appropriate pun-
ishment for the “dross” of humanity, as opposed to the purportedly lenient sentences
by “Magian”/“Nazarene”-corrupted courts. In one ONA essay, an example of an opfer
is a “young man of weak character” who lives off social security, shows “loutish
behaviour”, is “often drunk”, and breaks into the house of a veteran of the First World
War and beats him up.42
According to Della Campion,43 this elitist strategy of “natural justice” can be seen
as a form of “status elevation” to demonstrate that members of the ONA are “superior
to mundane people”. The “status elevation” in these culling texts involves the ONA’s
deliberate projection of negative qualities upon itself, which Campion44 refers to as
self-marginalization. The rhetorical strategy within these writings is therefore also a
way for the ONA to “out-dark” other Satanists, and to present itself as the darkest
and therefore most genuine expression of Satanism.
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 7

The Cultural Dimension


This dimension covers the cognitive, symbolic and practical elements of a particular
religious tradition, and includes its doctrines, books or texts, practices and ritual
codes, and art and esthetics. As already observed by other scholars, the ONA has a
plethora of cultural materials which it has produced since its beginnings in the
1970s,45 including:

• Descriptions of magical rituals (including the Star Game)


• An elaborate and evolutionary concept of history and time (divided into Aeons,
with a particular focus on ushering in the Galactic Imperium, in which humans
will evolve into a superior species which will colonize this solar system and other
star systems beyond it)
• Physically demanding initiation rites (captured in the Seven-Fold Way)
• Music (in the form of chants and the sinister tarot)
• Symbolism (notably of Baphomet, the Tree of Wyrd, and the Abyss), and
• Copious amounts of fiction and nonfiction texts.

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.

The Emotional Dimension


The ONA’s emotional dimension is the most difficult to evaluate through its texts.
This dimension is also paradoxical—how could the demanding, elitist, secretive and
individualist ethos promoted in ONA texts encourage people to identify with it as a
solid group via different nexions? According to texts produced by different ONA
authors, the ONA’s secretive and demanding nature is precisely what should make its
followers feel special and superior. On one level, this feeling of uniqueness is engen-
dered by its uncompromising defense of total individual independence:48
8 S. SHAH ET AL.

Satanism is an individualized defiance and affirmation: one of the fundamental aims of


Satanism is to produce or develop proud, strong, unique, individuals of character who
possess “spirit” or “elan”, and who possess insight and genuine esoteric knowledge. The
aim is not to develop subservient, obedient sycophants who cannot think for
themselves.

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

The ONA as a Fluid New Religious Movement (NRM)


Without dismissing current concerns about violent Far Right radicalization, including
the possible threat of neo-Nazi terrorism, the ONA’s writings also display the charac-
teristics of a New Religious Movement (NRM). This does not mean that the belief
system espoused in these texts is devoid of political content. Rather, mentions of
neo-Nazism or Far Right involvement in ONA literature need to be understood along-
side the way that the ONA blends elements of Satanism, mysticism, and a strong
disdain for conformity and “mainstream” values. The next section extends this analysis
by considering recent developments within the ONA.

The Contemporary Context


This section summarizes the growth of the ONA and its associated groups on both
sides of the Atlantic. It then juxtaposes this summary with the previous section’s
insights on bricolage to introduce a typology of individuals and groups who could be
interested in the ONA.

The Emergence of sub- and Splinter Groups


The ONA was originally rooted in British paganism but has since spread beyond the
United Kingdom, with “nexions” (cells) or associated groups in America, Australia,
Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, and
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 9

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.

Interest in the ONA: A Typology


The four dimensions of identification discussed in the first section—communal, ethical,
cultural and emotional—can be used to discern the different aspects of the ONA that
might appeal to different audiences. While it is beyond the scope of this article to
provide concrete or comprehensive evidence of patterns of ONA membership or sup-
port, our analysis of the ONA’s writings allow us to suggest a typology of potential
intended and unintended audiences to open up further avenues of research. This
framework is also relevant since the ONA’s bricolage of beliefs and practices has strong
affinities with David Myatt’s understanding of Nazism, for example, as seen in The
Dreccian Way, a collection of articles compiled by Chloe 352. Chloe 352’s juxtaposition
of ONA writings and Myatt’s essays on “ethical National-Socialism” intentionally high-
lights their common values and traits, including their:

• Reliance on a code of honor that can be characterized as ruggedly


individualist,56
• Philosophical and quasi-religious pluralism and eclecticism,57
• Anti-institutional and anti-state ethos,58
• Opposition to Zionism, capitalism, Marxism and Christianity,59 and
• Goal of pursuing galactic exploration and the colonization of outer space to
establish a “Galactic Empire”.60

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

The ONA’s Eschatology and its Implications


This section analyses the ONA by using a definitional strategy of religion that draws upon
the work of the American scholar of religion Catherine Wessinger, based on her work on
religiously-motivated violence. It probes the millenarian aspects within this combination
of beliefs to suggest some new ways of thinking about the ONA’s main motivations as a
fluid, quasi-religious group. This enables us systematically to evaluate the ONA’s charac-
teristics that may cause concern for wider society, including its propensity for violence.

The ONA’s Ultimate Concern


One effective way of examining the relationship between some minority traditions and
their propensity for violence is by discerning their “ultimate concern”—“the most
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 11

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 ONA’s Apocalypticism and Millennialism


Some ultimate concerns are distinctively millennialist—they entail “the belief in an
imminent transition to a collective condition consisting of total well-being (salvation),
which may be earthly or heavenly”.68 It is possible to distinguish between two varieties
of millennialism:69

• Catastrophic millennialism, which is based on a pessimistic view of human


nature—i.e., we are so corrupt that we need to be destroyed for a new world to
emerge, which will be achieved by a divine or supernatural force, with or without
human assistance,
• Progressive millennialism, or a more optimistic view of human nature—i.e., that
social work, in harmony with the divine will, can affect non-catastrophic and
progressive changes.

According to Wessinger,70 the term “apocalypticism” is more familiar to observers


and is most often applied to what she conceptualizes as catastrophic millennialism.
12 S. SHAH ET AL.

However, technological and scientific advancements, alongside an increasingly Darwinian


understanding of human evolution and progress, have discernibly given rise to a pro-
gressive variety of millennialism since the eighteenth century.71
The two varieties are not mutually exclusive.72 Both characteristics can co-exist, or
a particular movement could shift from one manifestation to the other over the course
of its history. Wessinger73 gives the example of Baha’i millennialism, which was more
catastrophic in the nascent phases of the movement, whereas the progressive variety
has grown more dominant in contemporary times.
Nazism can be seen as a form of progressive millennialism which is revolutionary
in outlook.74 Other examples include Maoism in China and the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia. The ONA’s texts display some characteristics of progressive millennialism,
especially those that are aligned with esoteric Nazism. Besides, the ONA believes that
human action is necessary to open the channels of Aeonic change, for example, via
the Seven-Fold Way, culling, and the adoption of insight roles.
At the same time, however, in many ONA writings, there is an emphasis on par-
ticular symbols or entities that are ultimately in charge of “finishing the job”. These
include the Vindex, analogous to the anti-Christ; Baphomet, “the archetypal dark
goddess with strong parallels to the (Irish) Morrigan and (Indian) Kali”,75 and other
unnamed elements in the ONA’s pantheon of Dark Gods.
The ONA’s ultimate concerns display a distinctive millenarian component which are
reiterated in many of its texts, albeit without being expressed in these terms explicitly:76
The present Western civilization is at the stage where it should be entering its Imperium
(c. 1995-2385 [CE]). However, the natural archetypes of the Western civilization have
been mostly transplanted by alien Nazarene ones—and its sense of Destiny almost lost
due to Nazarene ethics and social forms.

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.

Leadership and Authority


Catastrophic and progressive forms of millennialism may or may not involve messian-
ism—the belief in a messiah, or superhuman agent with the power to create a millennial
kingdom.78 In the Hebrew scriptures, a messiah is distinct from a prophet, i.e. someone
who receives revelation from an invisible source, for example, God, angels, or other
divine masters. Not all prophets are messiahs, but all messiahs are prophets. Both
possess charismatic authority as leaders—their followers believe that they are endowed
with special powers or gifts to receive divine revelation. Whilst many millennial groups
are led by charismatic leaders, this is not a feature that necessarily defines a millennial
group.79
This insight on messianism can be complemented by David G. Bromley’s idea that
apocalyptic movements can be seen as radical social organizations employing an
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 13

anti-structural “prophetic method” to repudiate an existing status quo.80 According to


Bromley, 81 this can be contrasted with a pro-structural “priestly method” in
non-apocalyptic movements that relies on reinterpretation of key texts and apologetics
to reinforce the stability of the status quo.
Whilst we do not make definitive claims about ONA founder Anton Long’s real
identity, Long’s persona can be usefully analyzed using a combination of these insights
from Wessinger and Bromley.
In several ONA texts, Long seems to be more prophet than messiah—in his writings,
he implies that he has accessed the acausal realm but stops short of claiming to be a
superhuman agent himself. When juxtaposed with the characterization of the “Magians”
or “Zionists” in several other ONA texts as the enemy, these aspects of Long’s writings
can be viewed as part of a prophetic method “to support the creation of a Western
Imperium”.82
Long also appears to possess some kind of charismatic authority—publications from
other ONA nexions often cite and pay homage to him. At the same time, Long inverts
the classic stereotype of the charismatic cult leader—his motto seems to be “do as I
do, not as I say,” something quite uncharacteristic of so-called cult leaders:83 “…no
one individual—not even myself—has some sort of ‘final authority’ in or over the
individuals who belong to or who associate with the ONA, or who use the method-
ology of the ONA….”
The presence of these characteristics does not necessarily mean that the persona of
Anton Long is clearly prophetic, messianic, both, or neither. It might be more useful
to view Long as a “movement spokesperson”84 who produces large amounts of move-
ment texts for the ONA, sometimes adopting a prophetic voice. Long also intentionally
presents himself as a “trickster figure” through contradictory claims and positions.85

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:

• Fragile millennial movements which are beset by internal weaknesses and


stresses, for example the Peoples Temple in Jonestown and Aum Shinrikyo in
Japan,86
• Assaulted millennial movements which become the target of exceptional, external
hostilities from surrounding society, such as the Branch Davidians in Waco,
Texas,87
• Revolutionary millennial movements which have an inherent potential for vio-
lence because they seek to overthrow what they view, rightly or wrongly, as a
persecuting government.88

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.

Characteristics that Cause Concern


Wessinger91 summarizes 13 “characteristics that cause concern” in regard to catastrophic
millennial groups. She cautions that these characteristics neither predict that these groups
will engage in violence nor preclude the existence of other characteristics that might
“offset” these problematic dimensions. It is useful to review these characteristics in rela-
tion to the aspects of the ONA’s writings that have been discussed in this article, namely:

1. The combination of catastrophic millennial beliefs with “belief in reincarnation” and


“with the members’ conviction that the group is being persecuted”.
2. The theological conviction that “one’s home is not on this planet”, combined with
“social alienation due to a sense of persecution and lack of social acceptance”.
3. A “sense of persecution” expressed in a belief in conspiracy theories.
4. A “radical dualistic view of good versus evil that dehumanizes other people”.
5. Beliefs that “expect and perhaps promote conflict”.
6. Resistance to investigation and withdrawal to an isolated refuge, “and/or a very
aggressive battle against its enemies”.
7. Dependence on a charismatic leader “as the sole means to achieve the ultimate
concern”.
8. A charismatic leader who sets “impossible goals for the group”.
9. A group that gives up on proselytization and “turns inwards to preserve salvation
for its members alone”.
10. The above characteristics combined with “high exit costs” for withdrawing mem-
bership, in terms of “personal identity, associations, and livelihood”.
11. A leader who bestows “new identities” to followers, including “new names” and
a drastic rearrangement of family and marital relationships.
12. A leader who controls the group’s access to information about the outside world,
blocking their exposure to alternative interpretations of reality.
13. Relatively “small acts of violence” repeated in a ritualistic manner so that the
“scale and intensity of the violence increases”.

In addition to Wessinger’s caveats, these characteristics may or may not be mutually


aligned between what the ONA’s texts express and what the majority of its followers
are actually interested in. From the texts we have examined above, it is clear that
ONA spokespersons, especially Anton Long, hold that:
16 S. SHAH ET AL.

• The ultimate home of a “pure” human species—homo galactica—is not on this


Earth (characteristic 2)
• There is a Magian and Nazarene conspiracy to thwart the rightful progress of
Western civilization (characteristic 3)
• There are entire groups of people who deserve to be dehumanized, e.g., opfers
and Jews (characteristic 4), and
• Violence—including the “liturgical unrest”92 marked by the ONA’s ritual magick—
will catalyze a cosmic conflict that will undo the Magian-Nazarene conspiracy
(characteristic 5).

While the persona of Anton Long is surrounded by a sinister aura of mystique, we


cannot conclude definitively that he is the sole charismatic leader who controls the
beliefs, actions and relationships of ONA followers. We therefore do not find support
for characteristics 7, 8, 11 or 12. Nor do we find textual evidence that supports the
idea that the ONA has given up on external proselytizing and is turning inward for
the “salvation” of its own members (characteristic 9), or demonstrates the existence
of high personal exit costs for leaving the group (characteristic 10). And while Anton
Long and other ONA spokespersons maintain secrecy about their identities, their
publicly accessible writings do not suggest complete resistance to investigation or social
withdrawal (characteristic 6). There is, however, textual support for a Social Darwinist
idea of the evolution of a currently threatened, ‘pure’ human species that calls to mind
the ‘belief in reincarnation’ outlined in characteristic 1.
In summary, thus far we find definite support for four of Wessinger’s characteristics
that cause concern (2, 3, 4 and 5), partial support for one characteristic (1), and lack
of support for seven characteristics (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12).
There is, however, much evidence of calls for “repeated acts of violence” in the
ONA’s texts that are intended to escalate (characteristic 13). Our findings therefore
suggest that current research should investigate, from a follower’s (rather than spokes-
person’s) perspective:

• Whether the documented acts of violence perpetrated by individuals who are


purportedly affiliated with or inspired by the ONA are specifically and directly
inspired by these texts and/or by other neo-Nazi or Far Right literature?
• If they are directly inspired by these ONA texts, then do their concerns also align
with characteristics 2, 3, 4, and 5?

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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