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Subject: An Introduction to Traditional Satanism
   ONA, 1994eh
   
   Essentially, the difference between the ONA and other groups
   which profess to belong to the 'Left Hand Path' or which claim to
   be Satanic is that the ONA seeks to realistically guide its
   members along the difficult and dangerous path of
   self-development, the goal of which is the creation of an
   entirely new individual. This path is fundamentally a quest for
   self-excellence and wisdom.
   
   We believe that there is no easy way to real knowledge and
   insight of the 'Occult' kind - that each individual must walk
   this path and achieve things for themselves. There are no
   'ceremonies', no magickal 'rites', not even any teachings which
   can provide the individual with genuine wisdom: real wisdom is
   only and always attained by the personal effort of the individual
   over many years. It is the result of a synthesis - a development
   of the dark side and an integration of that aspect of our being
   thus creating a complete, more evolved individual. Furthermore,
   the means to this attainment are essentially practical; that is,
   they involve the individual undergoing certain formative,
   character-developing experiences 'in the real world' rather than
   in some pseudo-mystical, pseudo-intellectual 'magickal rite' or
   sitting at the feet of some pretentious 'master'.
   
   For us, Satanism is a quest involving real personal danger where
   the individual Initiate undertakes genuine challenges which take
   them to and beyond their limits: physical, 'mental' and psychic.
   This quest, in its beginnings, involves the individual in
   exploring their 'hidden' or 'dark' side - and a part of this is
   participation in overtly Occult and magickal ceremonies and
   rites. This beginning - where the new Initiate participates in
   and later conducts Satanic rituals such as the 'Black Mass' -
   enables the individual to explore this dark side, to gradually
   understand it, make it more conscious, and thus control it. An
   aspect of this making-conscious, is symbolism - such as the
   'septenary system' - where various Occult/magickal energies are
   symbolised in certain ways via a system of correspondences. This
   symbolism enables the energies dealt with to be objectified and
   thus consciously understood - this in itself makes possible an
   integration of the 'dark' side. Thus, there is a synthesis - a
   dynamic, conscious, moving-forward by the individual: an
   evolution of personality. Insight is gained. In psychological
   terms, there is the start of "individuation". This leads to a
   practical experiencing of the sinister, and thus further personal
   development, further building of character.
   
   Because of the type of practical experiences, the type of
   challenges, the individual undertakes, the character so formed is
   - viewed conventionally - Satanic. There is a defiance of
   restrictions, a proudness, an experience and then understanding
   of those things that the religion of the Nazarene frowns upon. In
   Nietzschean terms, there is a practical living of a
   "master-morality". The person created via these experiences is
   the type to inspire a certain terror/awe in the supine majority,
   weaned as that majority have been by the softness of the Nazarene
   ethic.
   
   However, this individual has only begun the process. That is, the
   type of character so described (which results from these early
   experiences) is not even what we would call an Adept: of the
   seven stages of this sinister way (or practical alchemy), this
   practical involvement in the 'Occult' via ceremonies and such
   things as organizing and running a Satanic group, describe just
   the first two stages of the way. Furthermore, even this beginning
   takes some years - and this beginning requires the individual to
   succeed by their own efforts, by their own will and
   determination. That is, there are no 'magickal grades' or titles
   awarded for money or sycophancy [as in all other so-called
   'Satanic' groups] - what the individual achieves, in terms of
   'magickal grades', they achieve through their own toil, through
   undergoing the experiences which create the type of character
   appropriate to a particular stage of the way being followed.
   
   Thus, each stage of this way has associated with it certain
   tasks, certain experiences, which the individual must undertake
   by themselves in their own time. It is these and these alone
   which bring self-insight, mastery, understanding and skill - both
   'occult' and personal. All the ONA does, at each stage and for
   each member, is offer advice - based on experience. That is, the
   ONA guides its members - it offers a practical system whereby
   real wisdom may be attained. The onus is on the individual to
   achieve the goal.
   
   For us, Satanism is all about the creation of proud, strong,
   characterful, insightful individuals - individuals who have gone
   beyond the majority and who thus represent a higher type. Genuine
   Satanic groups do not seek subservient, decadent, weak- willed
   followers. They seek to create a real elite - almost a new race
   of beings. Of course, this is not easy - it is really dangerous.
   Quite often, new Initiates fail because of the difficulty or
   because they lack the essential desire to succeed. But that is
   how evolution works - the strong overcome challenges and evolve;
   the others stay where they are, descend, or are destroyed.
   
   Thus, Satanism is élitist - it does not compromise. It is not
   really for the majority. The tests, the ordeals, the methods of
   genuine Satanism are tough and severe because only such things
   will create the right type of person. These things cannot be made
   easier, less tough, less dangerous: to do so would destroy the
   essence of Satanism itself.
   
   After the early stages of the way - which involve direct
   experience of the sinister both via rituals, magickal groups and
   undertaking certain sinister tasks - the individual moves on [if
   I said one such early task involved culling, or Satanic
   sacrifice, it is possible to appreciate the difficulty and
   danger]. That is, the Satanic novice gains more understanding of
   themselves, and the world, by more experiences - they move toward
   a real individuation, a synthesis of conscious/unconscious, light
   and sinister. Part of this involves them undertaking a specific
   task for some months, and it is this task - based on the
   foundations the previous, early, stages of the way have built -
   that creates a genuine Adept. This task requires the candidate
   for Adeptship to live alone, in an isolated area, for three
   months (usually from Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice) - to talk
   with no one, to live frugally, with no modern conveniences, no
   wireless, no modern 'distractions', in a shelter they have built
   [in recent years, the rules have been relaxed and a tent is
   allowed]. The aim of this is for them to experience themselves
   and Nature without any distractions - to really get to know
   themselves and the natural energies which exist, as those
   energies are (and not as books, or 'teachers' or theories
   describe those energies). This, of course, is very difficult. It
   requires real determination; it requires the individual to face
   themselves, and all their fears. It is a severe test of character
   - and of their Satanic resolve. Most individuals who get this far
   (and that is not very many, over the past few decades) give up
   after a while - they find excuses to return to the world and its
   comforts. The classic excuse is the delusion that they have
   actually 'attained' Adeptship in a few days or perhaps weeks of
   isolation. And it is a delusion - for it is only by living in
   such a harsh, isolated way for at least three months that a real
   Adept is created. Naturally, other so-called Satanic or Left Hand
   Path groups award a spurious 'Adeptship' to their
   members/followers: or those members/followers award it to
   themselves, usually after some boring, pompous, totally
   meaningless ceremony.
   
   The Adept marks the end of the third stage of our seven-fold
   sinister way - and to reach this stage usually takes three to six
   years, from Initiation. The task or Grade Ritual which creates
   the Adept also makes the Adept aware of their unique, personal
   Destiny - and the fourth stage is all about the Adept seeking to
   make that Destiny real. This involves a 'return to the world' -
   the gaining of more experience, the creation of new insights, new
   skills. This in itself takes some years. The character of the
   Adept grows and deepens - they achieve the beginning of wisdom.
   In magickal terms, they gain an understanding of 'Aeonics' - of
   things like sinister strategy (the use of acausal or
   supra-personal energies to change societies/civilizations over
   centuries). Hitherto, most of their experience/learning has been
   directly personal, relating to their personal development - now,
   aeonic perspective is gained, it becomes a part of them. That is,
   they develop still further, again via direct experience - this
   time, of the acausal itself.
   
   From this, further personal development takes place - they become
   complete, highly developed individuals who possess skills and an
   understanding few possess. They fulfill the potential of genius
   which is latent within them. Thus, they move on to become genuine
   Masters or Lady Masters/Mistresses. But to reach this stage - the
   fifth - takes at least ten years (more usual is fifteen to
   twenty). And there is another stage beyond this.
   
   Thus, it will be seen that our way is difficult and takes a long
   time. The journey of the initiate toward Adeptship and beyond has
   no mystery about it - it is actually very simple. Most people
   could do it - if they possessed the determination. But the
   majority are just too lazy or too weak. The same applies to most
   who apply to join Satanic groups or are interested in Satanism -
   they go for the easy option; they are not prepared to work at
   their own self-development. They prefer someone to do it for
   them. And, furthermore, they are not fundamentally prepared to go
   to and beyond their limits - to really experience the sinister in
   a practical way; they want to simply play safe, pseudo-Satanic
   games. Thus, they gravitate toward what we call the sham-Satanic
   groups, the poseurs, such as the Temple of Set or the Church of
   Satan - those who like the glamour associated with Satanism but
   are basically afraid to experience its realness within and
   external to them. Thus such groups issue - and believe in! -
   ethical guidelines as they constantly affirm that Satanism does
   not condone such things as 'human sacrifice'. We, on the
   contrary, are dark and really sinister - and propound culling.
   That is, we uphold human culling as beneficial, for both the
   individual who does the culling (it being a character-building
   experience) and for our species in general, since culling by its
   nature removes the worthless and thus improves the stock.
   Naturally, there are proper ways to choose who is to be culled -
   each victim is chosen because they have shown themselves to be
   suitable. They are never chosen at random, as they are never
   'innocent'. Our affirmation of such things as human culling
   offends other so-called Satanic groups - which to us just
   re-affirms our assessment of those groups as pretend Satanic
   groups. Basically, such groups have little or no real
   understanding of Satanism, as evident, for instance, in the
   'religious' approach of the Temple of Set - that is, their claim
   that Satanism is some sort of religion. To us, the religious
   attitude and mentality - involving as it does dogma, sycophancy,
   and subservience by the individual to some self-appointed
   authority - is the antithesis of Satanism.
   
   In essence, we understand Satanism as the individual quest for
   self-excellence - to create an entirely new type. This quest
   involves practical experience - for only real experience creates
   character. The essence that Satanism leads the individual toward
   is only ever revealed by practical experience - never by books,
   never by someone else's 'teachings', never by words. Words
   themselves can never really describe this essence - they can only
   point the way, hint at it, and usually serve only to obscure it.
   In  the same way, ceremonies and forms such as rituals are only
   means - they are a means to experience, to symbolize things and
   thus apprehend what hitherto has been 'hidden' or unconscious or
   instinctive. Furthermore, this quest is and must be individual -
   it means the individual develops, via experiences (and sometimes
   by learning from mistakes) the strength of character needed. Or
   they fail - usually by deluding themselves about their real level
   of attainment, their real level of self-insight, their level of
   self-control and mastery. The aim is self-control, self-mastery,
   self-understanding - and then a moving-on to what is beyond even
   this new 'self'. The aim in not a wallowing in decadence, as it
   is not the encouragement of instinctive, sinister
   desires/pleasures as an end in themselves. Such things are means,
   a beginning - to be used, learned from, and then transcended via
   mastery of one's self.
   
   For us, Satanism is an individual quest because it aims to
   produce unique, strong, individuals who do not need the support
   of groups, of dogma, ethics, a religion, of some pontificating
   poseur of a 'master'. Thus, the ONA exists to offer advice and
   guidance - to point the way. The individual must begin the quest,
   and they and they alone must continue with it.
   
   Because of the difficulty of our way, few follow it. In some
   ways, this is unfortunate - for we believe the way offers anyone
   the opportunity to advance along the path to genuine Adeptship
   and beyond. It makes real, or can make real, the potential that
   most individuals possess - the latent genius within. However,
   given human nature the small numbers are understandable. What the
   ONA has done - over the past thirty years or so - is to create a
   simple practical system which works: which can produce genuine
   Adepts and Masters/Lady Masters. In effect, we have distilled the
   essence from thousands of years of conscious understanding,
   producing an elixir, an 'internal alchemy', which anyone can use.
   
   We describe this system as Satanic, as Sinister because it is. It
   is a complete rejection of the philosophy/religion of the
   Nazarene. The philosophy/religion of the Nazarene is anti-life
   and anti-evolutionary, as Nietzsche, for example, understood. For
   us, Satan is both an archetype or symbol of our defiance, and
   some-thing real - the re-presentation of what we describe as 'the
   acausal'. That is, we understand the 'darker forces' as not
   simply a part of our psyche (as most modern so-called Satanic
   groups do) - but as beyond our own, individual psyche. These
   darker forces - or the acausal - are beyond us, as individuals:
   they are beyond our conscious control (and even real
   understanding) until we become a part of them. This does not mean
   a submission to those forces - but rather an expanding of
   individual consciousness, a development of individual conscious,
   to include those forces. This expansion is what marks the genuine
   Satanic Master/Lady Master.
   
   Other 'Satanic' groups - if they are serious and not just using
   the Black Arts for their own weak gratification - claim the
   darker forces are merely an aspect of the psyche, the unconscious
   or whatever. [Both the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set make
   this claim.] They do this for two reasons. First, they need to -
   because they want to feel safe; they want to be able to play
   their pseudo-Satanic, pseudo-intellectual, games in a mostly
   urbanized safety, because the members of such groups are not
   proud, characterful, self-aware individuals: they need the
   comfort of a group, of a 'leader', of ethical guidelines, of
   feeling that Satan can be controlled by some meaningless
   mumbo-jumbo. In effect, the members and leaders of these groups
   are weak - they lack self-discipline; they lack even the desire
   for real self-mastery, content as they are to continue with
   edifying their own weaknesses, with massaging their inflated
   egos.
   
   Second, such groups and their members do not really understand
   the Sinister. They have had no real experience of the primal,
   numinous, supra-personal power of the dark forces - of how that
   power can destroy individuals. In effect, they have never really
   'tapped into' the acausal itself - to what is really sinister.
   They have never really confronted Satan. They have never really
   striven to be like Satan - to become one with Him; to merge with
   the acausal itself; to become a 'nexion' for the acausal, for
   sinister energies. This becoming-one is what makes, what creates
   a genuine Satanic Master/Lady Master, as living alone like a
   hermit creates the Adept. It is dangerous, naturally - but the
   only means whereby that synthesis which is beyond the synthesis
   that is individuation can be achieved. There is thus a real, a
   genuine, transcending beyond 'good' and 'evil'; beyond 'light'
   and 'dark'. This achievement, as with all real achievements of an
   Occult kind, derives from practical experience - from a real
   personal knowledge. Anything else is mere affectation, mere pose.
   
   Other groups have tried to 'intellectualize' Satanism - to take
   away the real experiences by which genuine Satanic character is
   formed. Or they wallow in the weaknesses of those addicted to
   impulses they cannot understand and do not have the strength to
   control. They have tried and continue to try and make Satanism
   respectable and safe - just another 'religion'. They fantasize,
   and play games. They simply do not understand Satanism as a means
   to create new, more highly evolved, individuals. In reality, the
   genuine Satanist creates by participating in real life, the
   dreams, the standards of excellence, the élan which others often
   aspire to emulate. A genuine Satanist can be like a beast of prey
   - in real life. They can be and sometimes are, in real life,
   assassins, warriors, outlaws. The imitation Satanists pretend to
   be such things - usually by means of some stupid 'ritual'. The
   Satanist is sinister and dark, in real life - and then they move
   on, to new experiences, to even higher levels of understanding
   until eventually they acquire real wisdom, or are destroyed.
   Whatever, they will have really lived, 'on the edge'; they will
   really have achieved something with their lives. They will have
   inspired others. They will in some way by their living have
   'presenced' the dark forces on earth. If they survive - their
   rewards are their achievements and the wisdom that awaits. If
   they do not survive, at least they will have done something with
   their lives.
   
   Thus does the ONA way express and exemplify Satanism in action.
   
   © Copyright 1994 eh Order of Nine Angles
   
   Vindex Press, P.O. Box 5631194, Houston, Texas 77263.
   
                                            http://www.satanism.net/
                                                                    
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