The Long Mynd in Hebdomadry

Update: Many of my readers have asked permission to post my material on Facebook or other social media, or to translate it to another language. I would like to publicly state that it is my intent to see my literature reach as many people as possible, so not only do my readers have my permission to translate and post literature wherever and whenever they want (so long as the article is attributed to me by name, I am content), they can consider themselves to be doing me a personal favor whenever they do so. The broader my audience becomes, the more opportunities come my way. I have already been approached by three separate publishers desiring to see my literature in (online) bookstores, but none of them have been able to get their shit together long even to see my writings appear on the shelves. So by all means, share my essays-- I'll thank you for doing so.

What follows is a newer version of a redacted article regarding the finer points of the ONA's esotericism. If the ONA is not a source of intrigue for you, you are better off just skipping this article.

“No more secrets.” -Aleister Crowley

There are ten questions which have been issued publicly, many of which can only be answered by one privy to oral tradition. One of the easier questions of this set is why the incense known as petrichor is used for the “Rite of Afsana.”

The novice will flinch– he’s never heard of the Rite of Afsana, has he? Well, the Rite of Afsana is just an odd title for the Sevenfold Way’s initiatory rite. In the initiatory rite, the celebrant repeatedly chants “Agios o Noctulius” to call upon Noctulius’s auspices.

Noctulius is the Lord of Initiation in the Septenary Way and he corresponds to Qamar [Arabic: the sphere of the Moon]. He presides over black witchcraft and death magick, and he is known to guide the witch through harsh exercises in torture magick and self-transformative rites of sadomasochism.

The incense known as petrichor also corresponds to the sphere known as Qamar, so the reason that the witch uses petrichor in the Rite of Afsana is the same reason she calls upon Noctulius: Qamar is the sphere which is conducive to initiation.

Afsana is an Urdu word which can mean “incantation”, “enchantment,” or “legend.” Perhaps the best English rendering of Afsana is “the Mythos.” The use of such Arabic nomenclature hearkens again to the significance of Arabic theology to the Sevenfold Way.

The reason that the initiation rite is referred to as the Rite of the Mythos is the emphasis on the sigil which the celebrant is required to draw in her blood. This symbol appears throughout ONA literature variously as being the sigil of the Nekalah, the sigil of the Dark Tradition, and the sigil of Vindex. This symbol, which appears to resemble to the sigil of Algol (with the two spheres representing the two eclipsing stars which Algol is composed of), stands for the ONA's esotericism and Aeonic goals. By drawing this emblem in her blood, the witch binds herself to the tradition. The fact that the ONA would rather the fledgling witch remain ignorant of this reality is indicative.

Other versions of the ritual exist which use juniper instead of petrichor, which is most likely an ill-considered and reprehensible jape.

That was one of the easier questions. One of the more difficult ones deals with someone/thing called Yusra and where Yusra is to be summoned.

An allegory called Eulalia: Dark Daughters of Baphomet depicts the meeting point of a coven of nine witches: “the slight slope of that almost South facing hill among the mamelons of South Shropshire not far from where an ancient trackway marked the ancient border with the land of Wales.” This passage forms the first paragraph of the allegory’s “Part 0.” The rite that takes place at this location is the Baphometic variate of the Nine Angles Rite.

The Nine Angles Rite is ideally performed in a location fitting three different sets of specified parameters, and the Sapphic nexion’s performance of this rite fits the first step, which the instructions for the Nine Angles Rite delineates thus: “on a hill-top of pre-Cambrian rock which lies between a line of volcanic intrusion and another rock – in Britain, this other rock is Buxton.”

The Precambrian era was when the Earth began to form, according to modern theory, ergo Precambrian rock would be 4.6 billion years old. There is a sixteen mile ridge in the hills of Shropshire known as the Long Mynd with geology that dates back to the Precambrian era, and at the time that it formed, it would have been sixty degrees south of the equator. One often neglected aspect of Cliology is the postulation that every aeon has a causal location which it can call its center– Stonehenge, for instance. This aeon, the Thorian aeon, is centered in the Long Mynd.

So what’s Yusra? Based on the allegorical depiction of the Nine Angles Rite, you’d guess Baphomet. After all, Kerri Scott once described Baphomet as “the archetype of that new aeon, with Vindex being her mythological son or daughter.”

According to Myattian Cliology, we live in the Thorian aeon, and this aeon’s acausal influence has been drastically corrupted by the influence of Abrahamic religious forms. The extremism which underlies the Septenary Way is a means of counteracting the aeonic infection of Magian esotericism. One could presume that the Thorian aeon was originally supposed to focus on Norse Paganism prior to distortion.

The witch should remember that the Aeonic distortion of the Semite is the raison d'etre for the ONA's extremism and the reason that their esotericism emphasizes the Darker Half of Mother Earth. Baphomet, as an entity, represents both the baleful and beneficent aspects of Mother Earth. She is the Earth's planetary spirit and her symbol is the averse pentagram.

Er... One of her symbols is the pentagram. The other is the Dreccian Moons of Baphomet, a union of two black and white crescents. The reader should compare this sigil to Eliphas Levi's representation of Baphomet of Mendes, which depicts the Mendesian Goat pointing both to the black moon of wrath and the white moon of mercy. The reason for this (mimetic) parallel will be explained in a future article.

The name Yusra, which means "Left", refers specifically to the darksome aspect of Baphomet which may be called upon to counteract the Magian infection-- if such a thing exists at all.

If you think I'm overestimating the significance of the Long Mynd, perhaps you haven't read Myndsquilver.

-V.K. Jehannum

Update: The overwhelming majority of my critics within the ONA honestly believe that my quarrel with the Order is how “evil” it is, or that I am lamenting its “extremism.” In truth, my objection to their “Sinister Dialectic” is that the majority of its partisans are unfit for the pursuit of an Aeonic agenda. My concern was and always has been that a group which exhibits this level of internal instability is not fit to herald a cultural and political overhaul. Moreover, a group whose majority is apparently unacquainted with the ideology they purport to represent simply has no business conducting nationwide ecumenical efforts. I am earnestly demoralized by the apparent reality that the majority of the ONA is too stupid to read the back of a cereal box.