The Ontology and Theology of
Traditional Satanism
The Nature of Reality According to
Traditional Satanism
The fundamental ontological axioms of the Sinister Way of Traditional
Satanism are: (1) there are
two types of being,
differentiated by whether or not they possess, or manifest, what is
termed acausal
energy, and (2) that we can only correctly and currently know a
manifestation of
acausal
energy, an acausal being, through our currently under-developed and
under-used psychic faculties.
Reality, for Traditional Satanism, is postulated to be
the
Cosmos, with this Cosmos having a bifurcation of being: that is, the
Cosmos
exists - is manifest - in both causal space-time, and in what we
term acausal space-time. Causal
space-time has three causal spatial dimensions and one causal
Time dimension, and acausal space-time has n number (a
currently undefined number) of
acausal dimensions (which are not spatial) and an acausal Time
dimension. Causal space-time can thus be considered to the phenomenal,
physical, universe we are aware of through our senses, and this
universe is governed by physical laws and contains physical, causal,
matter/energy.
Traditional Satanism posits, and accepts, that they are
acausal beings existing in acausal space-time ( see footnote 1 ) just
as there are causal beings existing in causal space-time, which causal
beings include our own human species, and the life which shares this
planet, Earth, with us.
According to Traditional Satanism, all causal living beings
(existing or having their being in the
causal physical universe) are understood as a presencing, in the
causal, of acausal being
(or energy) by the fact that they are alive. That is, all causal living
beings
are all connexions - nexions - between the causal and the acausal
continuums.
The Being of Nature
Nature may be defined as that innate creative (acausal) force (or
energy) which operates in
the physical world, on this planet, and which causes, or is the
genesis of, and controls, causal living organisms in certain
ways.
These "certain ways" are the laws of Nature. The
'evolution of species' is a term used to describe one theory about
one of the ways in which Nature is assumed to work, in the causal
Universe (the causal continuum).
Nature can thus be conceived as a type of being. This
does not mean that Nature should be understood in anthropomorphic
terms, but rather that Nature is a living, changing, entity:
some-thing which is alive; that is, Nature is another example of a
nexion - of where there is a connexion between the causal continuum and
the acausal continuum. We ourselves, as human beings, are
simply - on planet Earth - one manifestation, one presencing, of Nature
among many:
that is, we are subject to the laws of Nature, the laws which
govern organic change and organic life itself. Like all causal life on
this planet, we causal beings are born, we grow and change, and our
causal being dies, that is, ceases to be imbued with - to be
animated by - acausal energy. That is, "we" cease to have a causal life.
Most Earth cultures had, or have, a belief that Nature is living,
and the Mother of, the bringer-forth of, all life.
In olden times, Nature herself was often personified in terms
of gods, and goddesses. That is, we apprehended Nature in terms
of ourselves - in terms of individual causal beings with names, a
history and a distinct personality. However, this type of
apprehension is no longer necessary nor valid since we have
developed, over the last few thousand years, the faculty of pure
reason, and the faculty of acausal empathy, and can understand Nature,
ourselves and the cosmos beyond
Nature, in a natural manner without such intermediate abstract forms.
That
is, we can now apprehend Nature as Nature is. Hitherto, we
projected human-type causal forms onto Nature in an effort to
comprehend
Nature as we did not possess much of an understanding of the Cosmos
beyond Nature and beyond the causal, and how Nature is but part of this
causal and acausal Cosmos.
The Philosophy of Traditional Satanism
The essential starting point for a philosophy is to pose, and answer,
the questions about the origin and meaning of life - or, more
specifically, about our causal lives, as human beings, in the causal
Universe, on this planet we call
Earth.
Traditional Satanism does not believe that we human beings, and causal
life
itself, was created by some Supreme Being, which
supreme Being is commonly referred to as God.
According to Traditional Satanism, life evolved naturally on this
planet,
from finite beginnings we as yet do not precisely understand. The
essence of the Traditional Satanism perspective about our origins in
the
causal Universe is reason
- or rather, what used to be called Natural Philosophy: through
observation, experiment and the use of reason, or logic, we can
understand our world, the causal Cosmos, and
ourselves. Thus, Traditional Satanism is, in one important respect, a
rationalist Way
of Life which
accepts: (1) that the Causal Universe (or Causal Reality) exists
independently of us
and our consciousness, and thus independent of our senses; (2) our
limited understanding of this causal 'external world' depends for the
most
part upon our senses - that is, on what we can see, hear or touch; that
is, on what we can observe or come to know via our senses; (3)
logical argument - reason - and experiment are the best means to
knowledge and understanding of and about this 'external world'; (4)
the Causal Universe is, of itself, a reasoned order subject to rational
laws;
(5) our faculty of acausal-empathy is a means for us to know the nexion
we are,
and how we can discover our correct relationship to all other life.
Thus, practical reason - Natural Philosophy - enables us to comprehend
the external, physical, causal, Universe.
Furthermore, Traditional Satanism also affirms that the knowledge and
understanding of the causal Universe - achieved by means of reason and
observation - is not the only type of knowledge and understanding
available to us, for there is knowledge and understanding of the
acausal
continuum, and the acausal beings who, or which, exist (and "live")
there, and that our psychic faculties enable us to
sense, to begin to know, and are one means of comprehending, acausal
Life
in all its variety and forms. An axiom of Traditional Satanism is that
by
developing our latent psychic faculties we can gain a better
understanding - and more knowledge of - Nature, of the acausal, and of
acausal beings, and thus of ourselves.
The Answers of Traditional Satanism
The Philosophy of Traditional Satanism accepts that the purpose of our
mortal, causal, lives is essentially two fold. First, to change, to
develope, to evolve, ourselves, and to explore and to enjoy the
possibilities that causal life offers - for our mortal, causal, life is
a limited, finite, opportunity. Second, that if we develope, evolve,
ourselves in a particular way - and especially if we develope our
psychic faculties - there exists the possibility of us, as a new type
of being, living-on beyond our causal death, in the acausal continuum.
Thus, the Philosophy of Traditional Satanism asserts:
(1) That we human beings possess the potential to participate in and to
control our own evolution - that is, we have the (mostly latent)
ability to consciously
evolve to become the genesis of a new human species, and that genuine
esoteric Arts - and especially and in particular The Dark Arts - are
one of the most viable ways by which such a conscious
evolution can occur;
(2) That genuine esoteric knowledge and insight - and thus genuine
self-understanding and self-evolution - requires both a development of
our latent psychic faculties and a practical knowledge of the acausal
continuum deriving from a coming-to-know acausal beings;
(3) That what has hitherto been known and described as magic(k) -
especially Dark Sorcery, or Black Magic(k) - is one effective means of
coming-to-know certain acausal beings, and is thus a beginning to
understanding the acausal itself.
Our psychic faculties include what may be termed acausal empathy
(otherwise know as sinister empathy, or esoteric/magickal empathy) and
acausal thinking.
Acausal empathy is basically sensitivity to, and awareness of, acausal
energies as these energies are presenced in living beings, in Nature,
and/or presenced in the causal either via some acausal being, or
directly, as "raw" acausal energy (that is, acausal energy trying to
find some causal form to inhabit). Various esoteric (Occult) means and
techniques exist to develope such acausal empathy.
Acausal thinking is basically apprehending the causal, and acausal
energy, as these "things" are - that is, beyond all causal
abstractions, and beyond all causal symbols, and symbolism, where such
causal symbols include language, and the words and terms that are part
of language, and what has hitherto been regarded as the terms and
symbols of conventional Occultism, for such conventional Occultism is
ineluctably bound to causal thinking. Various genuine esoteric (Occult)
means and techniques exist to develope such acausal thinking. An
important aspect of acausal thinking is thinking in terms of acausal
time - that is, not in terms of the linear "cause and effect" of the
causal continuum, bur rather in what can be inaccurately described in
terms of Simultaneity, of there being "action at a distance" unlike in
conventional (causal) physics.
The Living Beings of The Acausal
According to Traditional Satanism, there are several types of distinct
acausal beings who exist in the acausal continuum, known to us -
historically and otherwise - from Adepts who, having developed acausal
empathy and acausal thinking, have discovered or come to know of, such
beings.
Acausal beings are beyond our causal concepts and abstractions. Some
dwell (and can only exist in) the acausal spaces, while others can
dwell or be manifest in both the acausal and the causal, with there
being many different types of acausal entities all of which have their
own "nature" or type of being. Essentially, they have no physical form,
as we define and understand physical form (for example, a body)
although some types of acausal being, who can dwell or manifest or be
presenced in our causal spaces, can dwell-within, or presence
themselves within or be presenced within, a causal form such as a
living body or being (including a human being) and some of the acausal
beings who can or who have done this are known as
"shapeshifters". We cannot "see"or detect (by our limited
physical senses or by using causality-based physical instruments)
unpresenced acausal beings who may be transiting through or
dwelling-within our causal spaces (our physical world/universe) if such
beings have not accessed, or presenced themselves, in some causal,
living, form (or even, in most cases, even if they have done this).
However, some of us (and some other life) may sometimes "feel" or be
aware of some such acausal beings: for example, if we possess a certain
type of empathy or have the esoteric knowledge to detect some such
transiting or in-dwelling acausal beings.
Since these acausal beings are beyond our causal concepts and
abstractions, it is incorrect to judge such beings according to our
limited, causal, "morality". They are neither "good" nor "evil". They
live according to their own nature, as acausal beings, just as, for
example, a wild predatory animal lives according to its wild predatory
nature. According to esoteric tradition, there are some acausal beings
who are drawn or who have been in the past been drawn toward our causal
spaces (our physical universe/world) because they do or have acquired
the ability to "feed off" certain types of emotion (or "states of
being") which emotion (or "states of being") are but types of energy.
Due to the nature of the acausal spaces (and thus the nature of acausal
energy) acausal beings do not "die" as we die and do not "age" as we
age. Furthermore, our causal concept of physical travel (or movement)
which takes causal time is irrelevant to and does not apply to such
beings, due to their very nature as acausal beings. However, most
acausal beings are not, by our standards, "all-powerful" and many
cannot change or restructure temporal things, just as some cannot
transit to ("be presenced in") the causal spaces, or dwell-within
causal beings, without some aid or assistance in opening a nexion or
nexions (which in many instances is just a direct connexion between the
causal and acausal spaces).
According to tradition, some of these known acausal beings have been
collectively described by the term The Dark Gods, or The Dark Ones (or
The Dark Immortals), and included in this particular type of acausal
being is the entity more commonly known to us as Satan, and that entity
which we, limited causal, mortal beings, describe as the female
counterpart of Satan, who - according to The Dark Tradition inherited
by the ONA - has the name Baphomet, and who is the dark, violent,
Goddess - the real Mistress of Earth
(and of Nature) - to whom human sacrifices were, and are, made and who
ritualistically and symbolically
washes in a basin full of the blood of Her victims. According to aural
legend, She - as one of The Dark Gods - is also a shapeshifter who has
intruded (”visited”, been presenced or manifest) on Earth in times
past, and who can manifest again if certain rituals are performed and
certain sacrifices made. Traditionally, it was to Baphomet that
Initiates and Adepts of the
Dark Tradition dedicated their chosen, selected, victims when a human
culling was undertaken, and such cullings were - and are - regarded as
one of the prerequisites for attaining sinister Adeptship.
Importantly, Traditional Satanism does not regard Satan – or any of The
Dark Ones, such as Baphomet – as conventional
“gods” or “goddesses” are understood, and thus as beings to be
worshipped, feared, and obeyed in a conventional religious sense.
Instead, they are regarded as sinister friends; as new found
companions; and may be likened to long-lost sisters
and brothers or other relatives; and - in the case of Satan and
Baphomet - as akin to our hitherto unknown mother and father,
to be thus admired and respected, but never "worshipped". In addition,
and in the case of some of these dark entities,
they are, or can be considered as, our lovers. Thus, our relationship
to these
acausal beings is certainly not one of fear, or of subservience.
In addition, the term The Dark Gods is to be understood as but a
useful, somewhat Old Aeon (that based on causal thinking), inherited
exoteric term to describe
a particular acausal species many of whom are known to and named by The
Dark Tradition, which species, when manifest in the causal, are
certainly far more powerful than human beings. Thus, the conventional
names given to some such acausal beings as are known to us, or which
have been known to human beings in ages past, are only exoteric names;
only imperfect, causal, terms which are useful symbols.
Thus, a name such as "Satan" does not fully describe the real acausal
nature and character of that specific acausal being, which acausal
being has an esoteric name - an acausal name deriving from acausal
thinking and acausal knowing - which better describes such a being.
The Question of God
The philosophy of Traditional Satanism does not assume nor accept that
there is a supreme Being, or deity. That is, a supreme creator Being
does not and never has existed, and such a figure is
regarded as a human, a causal, abstraction, a human manufactured
construct, a myth, which
human beings, and thus certain religions and theologies and
philosophies, have incorrectly imposed upon the reality of the Cosmos
in a vain attempt to understand it, and themselves. Thus, our Satan -
our Dark One - is
not subservient to some omnipotent God, but is instead a particular
type of living acausal being, subject only to the natural laws of the
acausal continuum.
The Question of Evil and The Existence
of Satan
What has been conventionally termed "the question (or the problem) of
evil" - by other philosophies and religions and Way of Life - does not
exist for Traditional Satanism since Traditional Satanism accepts that
conventional morality is a causal abstraction: some causal form, or
some dogma, which is incorrectly projected onto the nature, the
reality, of the causal continuum, and which abstraction obscures our
real, and our of necessity individual, connexion to the Cosmos. That
is, conventional morality - like all religious dogma and all laws -
takes away, or restricts, the inalienable individual freedom of a
living human being to be an individual: to be that singular, unique,
nexion they are to the acausal.
For Traditional Satanism, it is only and ever the individual who -
developing acausal empathy and acausal thinking - can directly
comprehend and directly implement meaning, whether this "meaning" be
described by such limited, causal terms as "morality", and evil and law
- based as these causal terms are on the restriction, the oppression,
of causal thinking. Thus, Traditional Satanism is a genuine liberation
and
a genuine evolution of the individual, for Traditional Satanism gives
the
individual access to the very essence of their own, individual, being:
which is the acausal energy that animates them, making them alive, and
which is also the apprehension and understanding of them as a unique
nexion, of the acausal continuum itself, and of the acausal life that
resides there, and which can - in some circumstances - be manifest in
our own causal continuum.
Hence, a knowing of such acausal beings as Satan and Baphomet are one
means whereby we, as individuals, can come to know ourselves, to evolve
ourselves, and come to understand the meaning and purpose of our
causal, mortal lives: which is to live-on beyond our causal death, in
the acausal continuum as a new type, a new species, of immortal acausal
being.
This individual and unique discovering of meaning by individuals, this
knowing of such acausal beings - this understanding of how and why
beings such as Satan exist - is a learning of the Art of Dark Sorcery,
part of which learning is developing acausal empathy and acausal
thinking, and it is the transmission of this dark and ancient Art, and
its use by individuals, which is the raison
d'etre of that sinister association known as The Order of Nine
Angles.
Anton Long
Order of Nine Angles
Footnotes:
(1) For convenience, acausal space-time will often be referred to
simply
as "the acausal", and causal space-time as "the causal". Also, the
causal refers to the causal Universe of causal space-time, and the
acausal to the acausal Universe of acausal space-time, with both the
causal and the acausal Universes together forming the Cosmos.
The causal Universe is also sometimes referred to as "the causal
continuum", and the acausal Universe as "the acausal continuum".
Order of Nine Angles: Frequently Asked Questions
The Quintessence of the ONA
Dark Arts of Traditional Satanism
Complete Guide To The Seven-Fold Sinister Way
