Defending the ONA?

There has been some debate over the past decade about the traditions of the ONA. Some people have accused the ONA of "copying" various things - for example from Crowley - while some have claimed that the ONA system itself is flawed.

Before examining some of these claims, several things about the ONA should be understood.

Aims of the ONA

One of the basic aims of the ONA is to create genuine Adepts - that is, individuals who question, who are rational; who possess genuine magickal skills; who have gone to and beyond their own limits. Essentially, the ONA is a LHP organization - there is no morality; no limits; no sycophancy. In fact, the ONA in its essence is profoundly anarchic, and may be said to preach and practice genuine anarchy. The ONA system, such as it is, is for only limited guidance, on a direct individual basis, to be given. The novice, the Initiates, are expected to learn by trial and error, by practical experience.

The championing, by the ONA, of such things as National Socialism, is part of the Sinister Dialectic - a means, one causal form limited to a certain causal time, not the essence of the ONA. Those who cannot understand the difference have totally misunderstood the essence of the ONA, and genuine sinister magick itself.

The Septenary System

The ONA never claimed to have "invented" the Septenary system - only to have made public various aspects of it; and to have extended it in some particular ways.

According to the ONA, the works of Robert Fludd contained some allusions (note: allusions) to the genuine Septenary tradition, as did some alchemical MSS.

The Septenary system, as revived by the ONA, is basically contained in NAOS, which is a practical guide to simple external magick (i.e. basic sorcery), appropriate to a novice and an External Adept. That is, such a system, as given in such ONA MSS is itself only a beginning - to such things as the Star Game, which is a new form of magick, appropriate to our times, and which in its advanced form captures the real essence of the nexion that is conventionally described, in noviciate terms, as the Tree of Wyrd.

Part of the Septenary system is the Tree of Wyrd. In essence, this is a 4 dimensional image, or re-presentation - not a 2D one.

What does appear to be original - as published by the ONA - are such things as the Wheel of Life, as given in NAOS, The Star Game itself,  the explanation of magick as a willed presencing of acausal energy (for a simple explanation of this, see NAOS) and Insight Roles.

Grade Rituals

Again, the ONA never claimed to have "created" the system of Grades, or magickal training itself - only updated them, and made them practical, and efficacious, as in the case of Internal Adept.

Crowley et al

The main criticism of Crowley, by the ONA, is that he used the distorted qabbalah based  ("Magian") system, and thus did not represent the genuine Western esoteric tradition, which esoteric tradition was Septenary based.

Further criticisms of him included his misunderstandings of Aeons, his use of dead archetypal forms (e.g. Ancient Egyptian) and his general egotism, which according to the ONA indicated a lack of the insight of a genuine Adept.

Aeonics

One aspect of the ONA system which is original, in its esoteric form, is Aeonics - that is, a conscious understanding of the Sinister Dialectic. However, the ONA made it clear that this conscious apprehension of theirs is built upon the work of others, especially Toynbee and Spengler (see, for instance, Myatt's Vindex - The Destiny of the West). This acknowledged debt is evident in the ONA use of the Spenglerian term Magian.

Oral Tradition

The ONA admit there is no written evidence whatsoever for the existence of their oral tradition, and what has been recorded, is to be believed or not, according to what an individual wishes to believe. However, the ONA make it quite clear in many MSS that each novice is expected to be highly critical of all traditions, and use reason and practical experience to help them judge such traditions.

The oral tradition included Esoteric Chant, Insight Roles, legends about the Dark Gods, and the use of crystals, be they tetrahedron shaped or otherwise, in conjunction with sound vibration.

Terms Used

The ONA uses a rather specialized terminology, and defines some terms, such as archetype, and psyche, in a somewhat different way to their generally "accepted" definitions. This usage, by the ONA, can lead, and has led, to some confusion among novices and others.

Some particular terms used by the ONA include - Aeonics, the Sinister Dialectic, nexion, presencing, External Adept; Internal Adept; acausal.

As for the use of the term archetype - the ONA define an archetype as a particular presencing of acausal energy, which presencing is limited in causal time. This is in contrast to, for example, the definition given by Jung. That is, an archetype is akin to a living being: it is born (or can be created, by magickal means), its lives, and then it dies (i.e. its energy in the causal ceases).

The Dark Gods and Lovecraft

Yet again, the ONA never claimed to have "invented" or made public for the first time, the legends about the Dark Gods, just as they acknowledged the work of Lovecraft in making known the tradition. However, the ONA do claim that Lovecraft had access to only part of the genuine tradition regarding them.

The "names" given for various entities, in such works as NAOS, are useful symbols (note the words useful symbols) intended for Initiates. That is, they are not re-presentations, in the causal, of what are essentially acausal entities who/which cannot be described in causal terms, but which may be better apprehended/re-presented in part via genuine vibration/chant. The ONA make it quite clear that it is for the Initiate to discover if this is indeed the case - via practical experience.

Nine Angles

The ONA use this term to refer to what is represented by the elements of the Star Game - the nine aspects of the three whose changing in causal time represents a particular presencing of acausal energy. That is, the nine re-presents the nexion that is the presencing of the acausal evident in our psyche and consciousness.

Thus, the ONA use the term nine angles in specific esoteric way unrelated to the use of that term by any other group.

Specific Criticisms of the ONA

1) That the ONA's Tree of Wyrd (ToW) is related to or somehow derived from Crowley's "hexagram" figure or "square of nine".

Several points here:

a) That hexagram figure is not even original to Crowley, and was, and is used, by esoteric Taoist groups, especially those deriving from Wu Tang mountain, and as such it has a long history, of a thousand or more years.

b) That this figure is purely 2D while the ToW is 3-D and only an approximation of a true (causal) representation, for which see the advanced Star Game. To relate such a 2-D image, by whomsoever and whensoever it was derived/created, to the ToW shows a basic misunderstanding of the ToW. [To be precise, it should be stated that the ToW is 4-D, where the movement of the pieces in The Star Game re-present some aspects of causal time. However, very few will understand what is meant here.]

c) The ONA use the figure (as given in NAOS) in Martial Arts training (Physis) and in Esoteric Chant, and never claimed it was their "creation".

2) That the ONA copied Nazarene (and other) chants, such as the Dies Irae, and just changed a few words.

This claim shows a basic misunderstanding of magick, especially of both sympathetic magick and the technique of mimesis (qv. mimickery). Mimesis in its basic form is to mimic, and/or adopt and change, with sinister intent, some work/text/ritual/music or whatever and to capture, alter and use the energies that the original form may have used or captured. A classic example here is the genuine Black Mass, which is a mimesis of a Nazarene Mass.

3) That the Tarot used by the ONA is not original - specially that the Christos Beest Tarot is not original.

Yet again, this shows quite basic misunderstandings - in this case of what the Tarot itself, and of artistic creation.

It is stated quite clearly that each Initiate should ideally create their own Tarot images - and that the forms given in such works as NAOS are only basic, causal, guides: one basic means of one type of basic magickal working. That is, they are but learning forms - to be used, and learnt from, and then transcended. Following such a learning experience, the Initiate is then in a position to create their own apprehensions in the causal terms of images. It is the magickal working that the images are "gates"/nexions to that are important, not the details of the images used. That is, the images are merely magickal props, a device to access certain acausal energies.

Furthermore, the Tarot itself - by whomsoever produced/created in the form of images - is only one, low, causal manifestation of such energies. An imprecise one. To fully apprehend such energies, further experience and workings are required. That is, the Tarot itself is but a stage - for the beginner.

4) That the ONA somehow "copied" or "stole" the use of the tetrahedron from Crowley.

The only reference to a tetrahedron given by those who write such criticisms about the ONA is to one image in Crowley's Tarot cards. There is no proof whatsoever that Crowley knew about the use of the tetrahedron in a magickal way - that is, quartz, and sound vibration and esoteric chant.

The ONA tradition in respect of the tetrahedron is quite specific - the use of a large quartz tetrahedron in conjunction with esoteric chant and/or sound vibration. Indeed, there is no non-ONA Occult or esoteric literature extant which mentions this tradition.

Furthermore - and of great importance vis-à-vis the ONA detractors - the ONA do not claim and never have claimed that they created or invented this tradition regarding the esoteric use of a crystal tetrahedron. Once again, the ONA are merely recording - for the first time it seems - a hitherto secret Western tradition. They do not claim it as their own. This older tradition is mentioned in a specific ONA MS. There is a Latin quote, taken from an Alchemical MS, which the ONA reproduce in their MS Copula cum Daemone. This particular ONA MS has indeed made it onto the Internet - but beware, like of lot of older ONA MS it was electronically scanned by a non-Adept who did not proof read it and who obviously did not know any Latin, for there are scanning errors aplenty. Those who really want to know, can seek out copies of the original (there are three, to my knowledge) or learn Latin (hint -both classical and medieval) or even take it to someone who does know Latin and have them correct the scanning errors.

Conclusions

It should be quite obvious that those who have criticised the ONA as enumerated above show either a basic lack of understanding of the ONA, and/or a basic lack of magickal understanding, or both. A lot of the claims made against the ONA are based on hasty assumptions made by people of little esoteric knowledge who thus reveal their lack of genuine magickal training.

In addition, it needs to be made clear, yet again, that -

1) Every Initiate is expected to work many things out for themselves, that the ONA is only a guide; it is practical experience, self-insight, and self-honesty, which matter.

2) The information made available by the ONA to public domains - such as the Internet - does not represent the sum total of ONA MSS. Much of the oral tradition remains unrecorded; and some MSS, although available to Initiates and Adepts, have not for practical and other reasons yet been made publicly available. A few MSS have also been lost, and a few exist only in limited, private, editions.

3) That there are some tests which the novice and Initiate are expected to undergo, and that sometimes such tests - to bring a certain self-insight and self-honesty - can be in the form of riddles, or deliberate "mistakes", or fables. Two classic illustrations here.

First, in the days of typewritten letters, sometimes letters might be sent out with a word spelt in an unusual way, or containing deliberate spelling mistakes. Sometimes, the grammar was also unusual. Those who could not see beyond the outer form (the words; the syntax, and so on) to the essence (always contained quite clearly in such letters) so obviously failed, restricted as their apprehension was by the norms of their own times, by their own preconceptions, by "society", or whatever.

Second, in the quite olden days when little public information about the Dark Tradition was available, an Adept might arrange to meet an aspirant novice. On occasion, the Adept might appear not to keep the appointment (often outdoors in some difficult to reach place) - but would of course be around, observing. Sometimes, the Adept might just "bump into" the person and pretend to be someone else. There were of course many variations on this theme. But the point was to test the person - their commitment; especially their desire to seek; their intuition. That is, things were made difficult, quite often; sometimes things were made confusing for the aspirant novice, and even for the Initiate and the External Adept. In the case of our example "meeting" - the Adept would wait to see if they were contacted again. If they were not; the person was quite obviously not sincere, not sinister, enough. Sometimes the Adept might promise some sort of ritual - only to let the person down "at the last minute". Yet once these initial tests were over, and a commitment made by the person, they would be guided.

Need it be written that some information available on the Internet might be, or could be, part of some "test"?

4) That a great deal that could be written, about traditions, tests, and the likewise in respect of the ONA, has been written - in The Deofel Quartet, and the recent Dark Trilogy by Anton Long, which after all are but instructional texts, to learnt from, and to be surpassed.

DarkLogos

River Isis Nexion (115)

(Revised Jan 116)