Order of Nine Angles
The Order of Nine Angles (O9A or ONA) is a decentralized esoteric Satanist network that emerged in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s, centered on a "sinister tradition" of occult practices designed to foster individual evolution and societal upheaval through extreme, transgressive experiences.[1][2] Its core ideology posits a dualistic cosmology dividing reality into causal (mundane) and acausal (supernatural) realms, with history unfolding across aeons of approximately 2,000 years each, corrupted by "Magian" (Judeo-Christian) influences that O9A seeks to dismantle in favor of a restored pagan ethos leading to a "Dark Imperium."[2] The movement's foundational texts, attributed to the pseudonym Anton Long—often linked by analysts to David Myatt, a controversial figure with ties to neo-Nazism and radical Islam—outline the "Seven-Fold Sinister Way," a graded initiatory path involving rituals, physical ordeals like long-distance marches, "insight roles" such as infiltrating extremist groups or adopting monastic lifestyles, and the controversial practice of "culling" interpreted as selective human sacrifice to cull weakness.[1][2] Operating without a rigid hierarchy, O9A functions through autonomous "nexions" or small cells of up to a dozen members, emphasizing practical heresy over doctrinal conformity and drawing influences from Traditionalist thinkers like Julius Evola and esoteric Hitlerism.[1][2] While positioning itself beyond conventional politics, its accelerationist advocacy—urging violence to hasten civilizational collapse—has permeated far-right and neo-Nazi circles, inspiring groups like Atomwaffen Division and linked to real-world plots, including terrorism and sexual violence, though its diffuse nature complicates direct attribution.[1][2]History
Origins in the 1970s and Anton Long's Role
The Order of Nine Angles (O9A) originated in Shropshire, England, during the 1970s, with its initial "Nexion Zero" established in the rural area.[2] The group emerged from the efforts of the pseudonymous Anton Long, who synthesized elements from an underground pagan tradition called Camlad, the Noctulians, and his Temple of the Sun into a cohesive esoteric system.[3] This formation drew on influences from the 19th-century Western occult revival as well as modern Satanism, including Anton LaVey's Church of Satan founded in 1966.[3] Anton Long served as the foundational figure and primary ideologue, developing the O9A's core philosophy, rituals, and initiatory practices through his authorship of manuscripts beginning in the early 1970s.[4] Born circa 1950, Long is described in O9A texts as having been initiated into precursor groups around 1973 and subsequently becoming the guiding force behind the tradition's sinister path.[3] His writings emphasized a primal Satanism inspired by a female adept representing ancient, non-Judeo-Christian forms of the archetype, distinct from contemporary occult movements.[2] The true identity of Anton Long remains unconfirmed, though numerous analysts identify him with David Myatt, a British activist born in 1950 known for involvement in nationalist extremism and later conversion to Islam.[4] [3] Myatt has denied being Long but acknowledged past interactions with O9A associates over two decades prior.[2] This association is supported by stylistic similarities in writings and chronological overlaps, yet lacks definitive proof and is contested.[3]Public Emergence in the 1980s
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) transitioned from a clandestine network to public visibility in the 1980s through the circulation of typewritten manuscripts and pamphlets within Britain's esoteric and occult subcultures. These materials, primarily authored under the pseudonym Anton Long, introduced the group's "Seven Fold Way" initiatory system and ritual practices to a broader audience beyond its internal nexions. Early dissemination occurred via personal networks and small-scale copying, reflecting the pre-digital era's constraints on fringe publications.[5] A pivotal text in this emergence was The Black Book of Satan, released in 1984, which outlined core ceremonial rites including the Black Mass and invocations aimed at acausal energies. This volume, presented as an adaptation of older temple rituals, emphasized practical sorcery over theoretical exposition and served as an entry point for prospective adherents. Its availability marked the ONA's shift toward external recruitment, contrasting with prior oral and manuscript traditions confined to initiates. Anton Long's accompanying essays, such as those on sinister dialectics, further elaborated the philosophy, critiquing mainstream occultism as diluted and advocating hermetic insight through extreme praxis.[6][7] By the late 1980s, additional works like Naos: A Practical Guide to Modern Magick (circulated circa 1989) codified the septenary system of planetary spheres and pathworking, providing structured guidance for self-initiation up to the Abyss. These publications positioned the ONA amid the UK's "sinister milieu," influencing and distinguishing it from groups like the Church of Satan by integrating pagan hermetica with adversarial Satanism. Circulation remained limited to occult presses and mail-order, yet garnered attention in esoteric journals, fostering nexion formation outside Shropshire's rural origins.[8][5]Expansion and Adaptation in the Late 20th Century
In the late 1980s, the Order of Nine Angles expanded its reach beyond initial private circulation by publishing core instructional texts, including Naos: A Practical Guide to Modern Magick around 1988–1990 and the multi-volume Hostia: Secret Teachings of the Order of Nine Angles in the early 1990s, which detailed rituals, the seven-fold sinister way, and practical magick.[9] [10] These self-published or photocopied manuscripts were disseminated to occult enthusiasts, enabling recruitment through correspondence networks rather than formal organization.[11] The group also launched Fenrir, an occasional journal in 1988, which served as a vehicle for essays on aeonics, Satanism, and cultural critique, further propagating its ideology among fringe esoteric communities.[9] This period marked adaptation toward a more decentralized model, with autonomous "nexions"—small, independent cells—emerging in the United Kingdom and sporadically elsewhere, each encouraged to develop local practices while adhering to Anton Long's (pseudonym of David Myatt) foundational texts.[9] [12] Nexions operated without central authority, emphasizing self-initiation through rigorous physical and psychological tests, such as endurance challenges, to filter adherents.[9] Expansion remained limited, with estimates of active members under a few dozen in the core tradition, sustained by infiltration strategies like "insight roles," where initiates assumed identities in military, criminal, or political extremist groups for 6–18 months to gain experiential knowledge and disrupt norms.[9] By the 1990s, the ONA refined its teachings amid reduced overt activity, shifting emphasis from public recruitment to internal evolution and strategic disruption, incorporating insights from fascism and traditionalism into its aeonic framework to promote civilizational upheaval.[9] Texts under Long's name critiqued modernity and advocated "culling"—selective elimination of the weak—as a means to evolve human potential, though practical implementation was rare and individualized.[6] This adaptation aligned the group's esoteric Satanism with broader anti-establishment currents, influencing peripheral occult and far-right circles without achieving mass appeal, as its emphasis on personal transcendence over communal structure constrained numerical growth.[13] Scholars attribute this phase's intellectual output to Myatt's dual pursuits in paganism and National Socialism, despite his public denials of authorship.[9]Digital Spread and Global Reach in the 21st Century
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) experienced significant dissemination through digital platforms starting in the early 2000s, with active engagement on social media documented from 2008 onward, facilitating the sharing of its esoteric texts, rituals, and accelerationist ideology among dispersed adherents.[4] This online proliferation leveraged the decentralized nature of ONA nexions—autonomous cells that operate independently—allowing individuals worldwide to adopt and adapt its materials without formal hierarchy. Primary vectors included blogs hosting ONA manuscripts such as Hostia and publications from affiliates like Martinet Press, including the novel Iron Gates, which circulated via e-commerce sites and file-sharing networks to promote desensitization to violence through graphic content.[1] Internet forums played a pivotal role in amplifying ONA's reach during the 2010s, particularly Iron March (active 2011–2017), where its ritualistic practices and leaderless model influenced emerging neo-fascist networks.[14] Founded on October 12, 2015, by Brandon Russell on Iron March, the Atomwaffen Division (AWD) integrated ONA elements by 2017, incorporating the Tempel ov Blood (ToB) strain—a more extreme ONA cell emphasizing clandestine terrorism and human sacrifice symbolism—into its reading lists and initiation rites, contributing to AWD's estimated involvement in five murders by 2020.[14] [4] This cross-pollination extended to offshoots like Sonnenkrieg Division in the UK, proscribed as a terrorist group in 2020, and Feuerkrieg Division, demonstrating ONA's role in fostering transnational militant cohesion via private messaging and shared online rituals.[15] [1] Messaging applications further propelled ONA's global footprint, with infiltration of Telegram's "Terrorgram" ecosystem during its second phase (2015–2019), where channels disseminated propaganda zines, gore imagery, and self-harm content as radicalization tools targeting vulnerable individuals.[16] [1] Notable examples include the RapeWaffen channel, active around 2020, which merged ONA occultism with explicit extremism, leading to platform bans for celebrating crimes.[4] This digital infrastructure enabled nexions in regions like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Latin America (including Brazil), evidenced by cross-border incidents such as the September 2019 arrest of U.S. soldier Jarrett William Smith for sharing bomb-making instructions alongside ONA materials, and the June 2020 indictment of Ethan Melzer for plotting an attack on his unit under ToB influence.[1] [15] In the UK, Danyal Hussein's 2020 murders of two women were linked to a pact with ONA entities, underscoring the ideology's transnational penetration via online adoption.[1] By the early 2020s, ONA's online pathways had radicalized actors in at least 13 verified plots, highlighting its evolution from esoteric fringe to a vector for lone-actor violence across continents.[1]Ideology
Foundations in Esoteric Satanism and Traditional Paganism
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) establishes its ideological core in "Traditional Satanism," defined as an esoteric, theistic paradigm where Satan embodies an acausal entity serving as a nexion to non-causal realms of dark, transformative energies. This ontology, articulated in Anton Long's 2008 text The Ontology and Theology of Traditional Satanism, posits Satan as a real ontological presence facilitating individual anados (ascent) through adversarial practices, distinct from symbolic or atheistic Satanisms that treat Satan as mere psychodrama.[13] Traditional Satanism in ONA demands rigorous, experiential initiation via the Seven-Fold Way, involving rituals like the Black Mass and insight roles to engender pathei-mathos (wisdom via suffering), aiming to evolve the initiate beyond causal limitations toward acausal insight.[5] Parallel to this Satanic foundation, ONA draws from traditional paganism through the Rounwytha tradition, an aural lineage of pre-Christian European folk sorcery rooted in rural Shropshire practices, emphasizing mulierous acausal empathy, dream-sight, and empathic connection to living beings and landscapes. Incorporated into ONA during the early 1970s from the pagan Camlad rouning, Rounwytha embodies indigenous Celtic-influenced paganism, prioritizing numinous, earthy wisdom over dogmatic structures and serving as a counterpoise to Satanic defiance by cultivating presencing of acausal energies in the natural world.[17] [18] This synthesis forms a "sinisterly-numinous" mystic tradition, blending Satanic ontology with pagan numinosity and hermetic esotericism—such as septenary star systems and alchemical ordeals—to disrupt Magian (Abrahamic) causal abstractions and propel aeonic evolution toward a galactic human imperium. ONA texts describe this as neither strictly Satanist nor paganist but a dialectical praxis using both as causal forms for transcending modern ethos, with historical claims tracing influences to pre-1960s Western occultism and Far Eastern exposures.[17] [5]The Acausal Realm and Ontological Dualism
In the esoteric ontology of the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), reality is bifurcated into the causal realm—the perceptible physical universe bound by linear time, space, and deterministic cause-and-effect relations—and the acausal realm, an imperceptible, non-Euclidean continuum of acausal energy and entities unbound by such constraints.[19][20] The causal realm aligns with empirical observations of matter, energy, and natural laws, while the acausal is posited as a multidimensional domain where "acausal beings" or Dark Gods exist, influencing the causal through nexions—points of connection accessed via esoteric practices.[21][12] This framework, articulated in texts attributed to Anton Long, rejects monistic views of reality, emphasizing instead a substantive dualism where acausal influences manifest as synchronicities, inspirations, or magickal effects in the causal sphere.[19] Ontological dualism in ONA doctrine underscores the independence yet interdependence of these realms, with humans serving as potential living nexions capable of channeling acausal energies to disrupt or evolve causal structures.[22][3] Unlike Cartesian mind-body dualism, which separates mental and material substances, ONA's formulation treats the acausal as a parallel continuum of "acausal matter/energy" that permeates and transcends the causal without being reducible to it, enabling phenomena like sorcery or aeonic shifts through intentional alignment.[19] Practitioners are instructed to cultivate awareness of this dualism via the Seven Fold Way, progressing from causal-bound perception to acausal insight, thereby facilitating personal transcendence and broader civilizational transformation.[21][12] Critics, including security analysts, have noted that this dualistic ontology provides a metaphysical justification for transgressive acts, framing them as conduits for acausal disruption of stagnant causal orders, though ONA texts stress empirical testing of such influences through experiential praxis rather than unverified faith.[3][23] The concept draws from Anton Long's syntheses of Western esotericism, drawing parallels to quantum non-locality or archetypal psychology while maintaining a realist stance on acausal efficacy, verifiable only through adept experimentation.[19] This dualism thus underpins ONA's rejection of materialist scientism, positing that full causal explanation fails to account for observed anomalies resolvable only via acausal recourse.[22]Aeonics: Civilizational Cycles and Strategic Disruption
In the esoteric philosophy of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), aeonics refers to a cosmological framework positing that human civilizations arise, develop, and decline within extended temporal cycles known as aeons, each spanning approximately 1,500 to 1,700 years and shaped by interactions between causal (mundane) and acausal (supernatural) realms.[3] These aeons represent stages of collective evolution driven by acausal energies that influence cultural, archetypal, and societal forms, with each cycle culminating in stagnation and necessitating transition to prevent cosmic entropy.[13] O9A texts, attributed to Anton Long, outline a historical progression through five primary aeons: the Primal (pre-civilizational hunter-gatherer phase), Hyperborean (mythic northern origins), Sumerian (ancient Mesopotamian dominance), Hellenic (Greco-Roman classical era), and the ongoing Western aeon, which emerged around the 12th century CE and is marked by what O9A describes as "Magian" distortions—Judeo-Christian moral abstractions that impose linear causality and suppress acausal vitality.[24] [4] The Western aeon, in O9A doctrine, embodies a decaying phase dominated by the archetype of the Demiurge—a tyrannical, hubristic entity symbolizing Abrahamic patriarchal control—and is projected to end through internal collapse, paving the way for a sixth aeon initiated by an "Imperium," a hierarchical, warrior-based galactic civilization emphasizing Aryan evolution and space colonization.[4] This transition is not viewed as inevitable without intervention; O9A emphasizes that aeonic change requires deliberate causal disruption to align mundane events with acausal potentials, rejecting passive observation in favor of active sorcery and strategy.[2] Proponents argue that without such efforts, civilizations ossify into mundanity, as evidenced by historical patterns where unchecked moralisms (e.g., medieval scholasticism or modern egalitarianism) erode virile, numinous ethos.[12] Strategic disruption forms the praxis of aeonic advancement, wherein O9A adherents undertake "sinister" operations to accelerate the current aeon's demise by undermining its foundational institutions—state authority, religious orthodoxy, and democratic egalitarianism—through infiltration, heresy, and controlled chaos.[1] This includes "insight roles," temporary immersions in extremist ideologies (e.g., neo-Nazism or jihadism) to embody oppositional forces and sow discord, as well as ritualized transgressive acts like culling (selective elimination of the weak) to release acausal energy and catalyze societal breakdown.[13] Such tactics align with an accelerationist ethos, aiming to compress centuries of decay into decades by exploiting causal weaknesses, such as urban alienation or ideological polarization, thereby birthing a post-Western order rooted in tribalism, eugenics, and extraterrestrial expansion.[1] [4] O9A literature frames this not as mere nihilism but as pathei-mathos—empathy derived from extremity—enabling adepts to perceive aeonic currents and intervene as nexions (cells) propagating the sinister dialectic against the prevailing causal continuum.[25]Syncretism with Political Extremisms: Nazism, Fascism, and Jihadism
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) incorporates elements of Nazism, fascism, and jihadism into its esoteric praxis not as dogmatic ideologies but as transient "causal forms" or tools for personal transformation and societal destabilization, aligned with its aeonic theory of accelerating civilizational collapse to usher in a new galactic imperium. This syncretism manifests primarily through "insight roles," wherein adherents temporarily immerse themselves in extremist movements to embody archetypal energies, gain experiential knowledge of human limits, and sow chaos against perceived decadent structures like Western liberal democracy. ONA texts emphasize that such engagements are pragmatic, rejecting ideological purity in favor of antinomian transgression to evolve beyond mortal causality.[12][2][1] ONA's affinity for Nazism draws from shared themes of racial hierarchy, anti-Semitism, and heroic vitalism, viewing Adolf Hitler as a potential acausal intervention—a "Dionysian" figure dispatched to rupture egalitarian norms and revive pagan warrior ethos. Adherents have infiltrated neo-Nazi networks, such as Atomwaffen Division and Tempel ov Blood, blending ONA's occult rituals with National Socialist symbolism to propagate accelerationist violence aimed at collapsing the current aeon. This connection has fueled real-world extremism, including plots by ONA-inspired individuals like U.S. Army soldier Ethan Melzer, who leaked sensitive information to a neo-Nazi group in 2020 while adopting ONA's infiltration tactics. Academic analyses note ONA's influence on far-right occultism, where Nazi esotericism serves as a "sinister dialectic" to dialectically oppose and transcend bourgeois materialism, though ONA ultimately subordinates it to its ontology of acausal nexions beyond human politics.[12][4][26] Fascist syncretism in ONA emphasizes elitist hierarchies, traditional blood-and-soil mysticism, and rejection of mass democracy, echoing interwar movements' fusion of pagan revivalism with authoritarian vigor. Insight roles encourage emulation of fascist operatives—such as Mussolini's Blackshirts or codreanu's Iron Guard—to cultivate "sinister" nobility through disciplined transgression, including sabotage within institutions like militaries or churches. ONA's decentralized nexions have overlapped with fascist occult circles, promoting a "heretical" variant that integrates left-hand path magick to erode Judeo-Christian hegemony, as seen in affiliations with groups like the Black Order, which blended Satanism, paganism, and fascist dark-side Europeanism in publications from the 1990s onward. This approach posits fascism as a dialectical phase for galvanizing primal energies, ultimately to be superseded by ONA's post-terrestrial evolution.[15][27][28] Jihadism enters ONA's framework via the influence of David Myatt—widely identified as the pseudonymous founder Anton Long—who transitioned from neo-Nazism to advocating militant Islam in the 1990s–2000s, framing jihad as a "Western-inspired" insurgency model for honor-bound warriors against globalist decay. ONA regards jihadist tactics, such as martyrdom operations and asymmetric warfare, as exemplary causal forms for disrupting the Magian (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) aeon, encouraging adherents to adopt mujahideen roles for insight into fanatical commitment and pathei-mathos (learning through suffering). This has manifested in "white jihad" rhetoric among ONA-linked extremists, who admire Salafi-jihadist resilience while rejecting its theism, as evidenced by Atomwaffen members citing jihad for inspirational insurgency in the 2010s. Myatt's post-jihad philosophy, blending extremism with presencing the acausal, underscores ONA's non-sectarian opportunism: jihadism accelerates entropy without supplanting ONA's pagan-satanic core.[26][12][29]Organization
Decentralized Structure and Autonomous Nexions
The Order of Nine Angles (O9A) operates without a formal hierarchy or central authority, functioning as a loose, decentralized network of individuals and small groups rather than a unified organization with top-down control.[4][2] This structure emphasizes self-initiation and personal adherence to esoteric principles outlined in texts attributed to "Anton Long," enabling participants to engage independently without requiring official sanction or oversight.[9] Central to this model are nexions, autonomous cells or clusters that serve as localized hubs for O9A activities, ranging from solitary practitioners to small collectives of a few members, such as couples or families.[4][30] Each nexion maintains operational independence, adapting O9A teachings to local contexts while pursuing practices like the Seven Fold Way or insight roles, often under informal guidance from a "Master" or "Lady Master" within the group.[2] Nexions propagate through online dissemination of manuscripts and personal recruitment, with no mandatory reporting or coordination across units, fostering resilience against disruption but also interpretive divergence.[9] This decentralized autonomy aligns with O9A's esoteric emphasis on acausal influence and aeonic strategy, where nexions function as "portals" for manifesting sinister traditions without reliance on institutional permanence. Globally, analyses identify around 50 such nexions, concentrated in Europe and the United States, though exact numbers remain fluid due to the clandestine, non-enumerated nature of affiliations.[2] The absence of a fixed leadership—despite pseudonymous figures like Anton Long providing foundational texts—prevents centralized vulnerabilities, allowing the tradition to persist through dispersed, self-sustaining efforts.[4][9]Internal Traditions: Niners, Balobians, Rounwytha, and Outer Representatives
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) operates through a decentralized network of autonomous nexions and diverse internal traditions, each representing distinct approaches to its sinister esoteric philosophy. Niners embody the conventional Left Hand Path initiation via the Seven Fold Sinister Way, involving graded rituals and self-transformation. Balobians channel the tradition's disruptive ethos through artistic and cultural expressions, such as music and avant-garde aesthetics. The Rounwytha tradition draws from ancient rural pagan practices, prioritizing acausal empathy and intuition over formal rites. Outer Representatives serve as nominal external contacts, lacking any authoritative role in the tradition's aural and clandestine core.[31][32] Niners constitute the core of traditional ONA practitioners, undertaking the structured Seven Fold Way—a hermetic initiatory system of seven grades progressing from Neophyte to Immortal, emphasizing practical sorcery, insight roles, and confrontation with the Abyss. This path, detailed in ONA manuscripts like Naos, requires isolation, physical challenges, and ethical transgression to achieve aeonic insight, distinguishing Niners from more tribal or gang-oriented adherents like Dreccs. Unlike the Rounwytha's intuitive approach, Niners rely on codified rituals and star game heuristics to access acausal realms, forming the esoteric backbone of many nexions.[33][34] Balobians represent the ONA's cultural vanguard, artists and musicians who subvert mundanity through "ONA Chic"—aesthetic innovations blending sinister symbolism with modern forms to propagate the tradition's amoral, pathei-mathos ethos. Texts such as Order of Nine Angles Style, ONA Chic (circa 2006) outline their role in developing a new aristocratic elite via disruptive art, opposing egalitarian norms and fostering tribal loyalties. Balobians operate outside strict hierarchies, contributing to aeonic strategy by embedding ONA principles in subcultures, often overlapping with nexions but prioritizing creative insurgency over ritual grades.[31][35] The Rounwytha tradition, integrated into ONA around 1970 from Shropshire's Camlad aural lineages, emphasizes muliebral (feminine) empathy—Dark-Empathy—a non-verbal resonance with living beings, Nature, and acausal forces, eschewing deities, spells, or hierarchies for intuitive balance and cosmic awareness. Rooted in rural folk practices of the Welsh Marches, it favors Sapphic nexions and ceremonies like the Ceremony of Recalling, viewing empathy as a tool for presencing dark energies without the Seven Fold Way's formalism. By 2011, some Rounwytha adherents distanced from ONA's broader structure, preserving its independent, hereditary essence.[18][36] Outer Representatives function as peripheral figures providing public-facing interfaces for ONA dissemination, such as through writings or art under pseudonyms like Christos Beest (Richard Moult), but hold no internal authority in the tradition's leaderless, insight-based model. ONA texts stress their lack of power, positioning them as transient nexion points for outsiders, with historical examples including David Myatt's early associations, though the collective rejects centralized control. This role supports strategic ambiguity, allowing deniability amid external scrutiny.[37][38]Practices
The Seven Fold Way: Initiation and Self-Transformation
The Seven Fold Way, also termed the Seven-Fold Sinister Way or Hebdomadry, constitutes the core initiatory system of the Order of Nine Angles, structured as a progressive sequence of seven grades designed to facilitate individual self-transformation via hermetic practices, physical ordeals, and experiential learning known as pathei-mathos.[34][23] This path emphasizes self-initiation without reliance on external authority or group validation, requiring practitioners to undertake solitary efforts spanning decades to evolve beyond conventional human limitations toward acausal insight and potential immortality.[34] According to O9A texts, the process liberates the "dark or shadow aspect" of the psyche, synthesizes sinister and numinous elements, and aims to produce a "Satanic elect" capable of aeonic influence.[34] Progression through the grades involves a combination of ritual magick, insight roles—temporary adoptions of antithetical lifestyles for empathy development—and rigorous physical tests to forge resilience and esoteric empathy.[23][34] Key tools include the Star Game for acausal reasoning, esoteric chant to enhance psychic faculties, and study of manuscripts such as Naos: A Practical Guide to Sinister Hermetic Magick.[34] The system maps to the Septenary Tree of Wyrd, with later stages crossing the Abyss—a metaphorical barrier requiring a month-long rite of isolation and confrontation with personal illusions.[34] The grades are outlined as follows:| Grade | Primary Focus and Practices | Approximate Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Neophyte | Awakening initial dark aspects through basic hermetic rites (e.g., Mass of Heresy, Rite of Defiance) and practical tasks like hunting with a primitive weapon. | 0-3 months |
| Initiate | Commitment via an insight role (e.g., adopting an opposing ideology) to cultivate self-awareness and dark sorcery foundations. | 6-18 months |
| External Adept | Formation of a personal nexion or temple, ritual operations including potential culling (human sacrifice or proxy via Ceremony of Recalling), and training in opfer selection. | 2-6 years |
| Internal Adept | Wilderness isolation (3-6 months), synthesis of sinister/numinous via ordeals (e.g., 32-mile walk in under 7 hours carrying 30 lbs), Star Game mastery, and esoteric chant. | 3+ years (total 5-11 years from prior stages) |
| Master/Mistress | Development of a personal weltanschauung, guidance of others, and aeonic magick to influence civilizational change. | Minimum 7 years |
| Grand Master/Mousa | Rare transcendence beyond mastery, shaping O9A traditions through advanced synthesis. | Variable, generational rarity |
| Immortal/Magus | Crossing the Abyss via a lunar-month rite, formulation of new esoteric logoi (e.g., Code of Kindred Honour), achieving acausal existence and wisdom. | Lifelong culmination |