Many people dismiss cults as mere conspiracy chatter, but the 10 shocking facts about the Order of Nine Angles (ONA) prove that this is a group you’d be wise to know. Cults aren’t just folklore; they thrive in the shadows, blending occult rituals with radical politics, and ONA sits at the very heart of that darkness.
10 Shocking Facts Unveiled
10 Origins
The Order of Nine Angles sprang to life in Great Britain under the guidance of a man who called himself Anton Long. Long gathered a motley crew of occult enthusiasts and stitched together a patchwork of existing esoteric groups that were then clustered around England. He claimed a childhood spent roaming across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, where he immersed himself in the study of religions and even taught himself Greek, Arabic, and Persian.
By his own admission, the early 1970s saw Long gravitating toward society’s darker corners, eventually committing assorted crimes. He soon fell in with a circle of British witches and warlocks who boasted lineages tracing back to the island’s ancient pagans. Throughout the 1980s, ONA began disseminating tracts that proclaimed their brand of “sinister” occultism was rooted in the original “solar paganism” of Indo‑European peoples. Anton Long and priestess Christos Beest even penned that their Satanic practice sought to revive Nordic, Anglo‑Saxon, and Celtic pagan traditions in direct opposition to Christianity. Their flagship tome, The Black Book of Satan, promised readers a seven‑fold path toward the sinister.
9 Distinction
When journalists finally caught wind of ONA, they hastily lumped the group together with Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan and Michael Aquino’s Temple of Set. LaVey’s Church, founded on Walpurgis Night 1966, was all flash and self‑promotion; its holy scripture, The Satanic Bible, reads more like a philosophical manifesto than a theological treatise. LaVey rejected the literal existence of Satan, instead championing the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand.
Michael Aquino, a former U.S. Army officer, launched the Temple of Set in Southern California, preaching a brand of “esoteric Satanism.” The Temple broke away from LaVey’s organization to pursue a path toward personal enlightenment, free from what they saw as Judeo‑Christian moral shackles. For Aquino’s followers, the ultimate goal was to become a self‑deified god.
ONA, however, rejects both of those narratives. Its members are theistic Satanists who truly worship a deity named Satan. To them, practicing black magic and sowing chaos is nothing short of glorifying their dark lord.
8 The Importance Of David Myatt
British citizen David Myatt has led a life that reads like a thriller novel. Born in Tanzania and raised across East Asia under the watchful eye of a civil‑servant father, Myatt began mastering martial arts at a tender age. From there, he delved into the world’s religions, studying Buddhism, Islam, and more, yet never settled into a clerical role. Instead, he plunged headfirst into political activism.
In 1969, Myatt threw his lot in with the British Movement (BM), a right‑wing organization founded by the notoriously extreme Colin Jordan. Jordan’s platform advocated for the expulsion of Britain’s Jewish population to Israel, a hard stop on non‑European immigration, and the removal of Black and Asian communities from British life. The volatile climate led to frequent street battles with Labour supporters and immigrant groups, and Jordan even hired Myatt as his personal bodyguard.
By 1974, Myatt had founded the National Democratic Freedom Movement, an openly neo‑Nazi outfit that printed a newspaper called British News. He found himself repeatedly arrested for brawls, but also began collaborating with London‑based Thelemites and members of ONA. Under Myatt’s influence, ONA adopted a brand of National Socialist racialism and proclaimed Christianity a religion fit only for slaves.
In a stunning 1998 turn, Myatt converted to Sunni Islam. He then attempted to fuse hard‑line Islamism with his neo‑Nazi roots, creating a bizarre ideological hybrid that sought political revolution through religious extremism.
7 Links To Right‑Wing Groups
Thanks to Myatt’s sway and other British agitators, ONA forged connections with right‑wing outfits across Europe. Some of these links were overt, while others were more indirect, with groups independently borrowing ONA’s ideas. French journalist Christian Bouchet, for instance, drew heavily from ONA’s doctrine when he founded the Nouvelle Résistance in 1991—a revolutionary nationalist movement—and the pan‑European European Liberation Front. Bouchet’s worldview blended ONA‑inspired Aryanism with the writings of American author Francis Parker Yockey and the esoteric Hitlerist Savitri Devi.
Across the globe, New Zealand’s Black Order, spearheaded by author Kerry Bolton, took direct inspiration from ONA, while Germany’s National Socialist Underground (NSU) also echoed ONA’s influence. Just this year, the longest trial in German history wrapped up with Beate Zschape of the NSU being convicted on ten counts of murder.
6 Links To The Left
ONA prides itself on ideological openness, allowing members who lean left‑wing to join its ranks. While most scholars focus on ONA’s right‑wing entanglements, its chaotic theology has also attracted anarchist circles that relish vandalism and disruption. The group openly declares that “anarchism” aligns best with black magic, arguing that tragedy and trauma forge wisdom and enlightenment. Consequently, ONA adepts oppose organized society and its institutions, a stance embraced by several small anarcho‑communist groups.
However, unlike its well‑documented right‑wing collaborations, ONA’s left‑leaning connections remain more nebulous and less tangible, making them harder to trace.
5 The Atomwaffen Division
American neo‑Nazi outfit Atomwaffen Division has been repeatedly linked to ONA in investigative pieces. In March 2018, The Daily Beast reported that the Satanic wing of Atomwaffen declared war on its non‑Satanic comrades. The article, penned by Kelly Weill, highlighted that the group’s alleged leader, James Cameron Denton, had posted ONA imagery online.
Denton and his followers see no contradiction between Satanism and ONA’s directive to infiltrate extremist groups, whereas other Atomwaffen members disagree. Far from a fringe outfit, Atomwaffen is well‑armed, distributes flyers on U.S. college campuses, and has threatened to strike at the U.S. government and electric grids. The group was also implicated in the murder of Blaze Bernstein, a college student; his killer, Samuel Woodward, a member of Atomwaffen, confessed he targeted Bernstein because the victim was gay and Jewish.
4 The ONA’s Goals
ONA’s ultimate ambition is to usher in a so‑called New Aeon. The group argues that modern civilization has collapsed under the weight of global capitalism, consumerism, religious extremism, and ecological ruin—all products of Magian (Judeo‑Christian) culture and politics. They believe the New Aeon will emerge once society reverts to tribal roots.
According to ONA, the New Aeon will be heralded by a revolutionary hero named Vindex, a semi‑divine warrior akin to Achilles, tasked with restoring justice. When Vindex fulfills his destiny, the New Aeon will dawn.
Because ONA views its “sinister” ideals as a catalyst for this transformation, members are urged to embed themselves within radical organizations that attract youthful adherents, spreading their doctrine far and wide.
3 The Dark Gods
Within ONA’s theology resides a pantheon of ominous deities dubbed the Dark Gods. These entities dwell in an acausal realm—an existence beyond ordinary time and space, boasting more than three spatial dimensions. The Dark Gods can infiltrate the minds of adepts, a phenomenon reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror.
One such deity is Baphomet, portrayed as a goat‑headed mother and bride of Satan. ONA links Baphomet to the feminine, crediting her as the creator of all demons. History buffs may recall that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping a Baphomet‑like figure by several medieval sources.
The remaining Dark Gods in ONA’s roster are wholly original creations, bearing no obvious ties to established Western occult traditions.
2 The Seven Fold Way
At the heart of ONA’s practice lies the Seven Fold Way, a hermetic hierarchy that maps a practitioner’s progression through seven distinct stages. The path demands not only scholarly rigor and aesthetic precision but also physical endurance.
The seven levels are: 1) Neophyte, 2) Initiate, 3) External Adept, 4) Internal Adept, 5) Master/Mistress, 6) Grand Master/Mousa, and 7) Immortal. Exact membership numbers per tier remain unknown, though estimates suggest the global ONA community numbers over a thousand souls.
1 Human Sacrifice
ONA has earned notoriety within the Satanic underground as one of the few groups that openly advocates human sacrifice. To its members, taking a life constitutes “powerful magick,” a ritual that releases the victim’s energy for reuse by practitioners. ONA lore claims that its ancient pagan ancestors in England performed human sacrifices every 17 years to preserve cosmic balance.
Members speak of “culling,” a practice wherein victims voluntarily elect their own death, thereby offering a self‑selected sacrifice. Former insiders allege that David Myatt remains active within the cult, urging fellow members to commit murders and crimes as part of magical rites.