Insight Roles: Peter Carroll vs. the O9A

Insight roles are one of the most important and well-known steps in the self-transformative praxis of the Order of the Nine Angles. The idea is to go out of your way to involve yourself in a path of life which is foreign to your experience for an extended period of time. The most common form of insight role is group infiltration: join a religious or political group and pretend to have a legitimate interest in their agendas. The ideal insight role, by O9A Standards, will require the witch to pretend to be the exact opposite of what she understands herself to be, and if possible, should further the "Sinister Dialectic." If the Sinister Dialectic is furthered, the insight role is described as having 'gone Aeonic.'

By deliberately entering a foreign walk of life, the witch comes to be liberated of various misconceptions she has about persons she deems "the other" and forces her to see aspects of her character hitherto undiscovered. It develops empathy, dissolves the ego, and develops practical, worldly knowledge. What the witch experiences during an insight role will cause her to question her path in life, and either leave the Black Lodge or address her doubts and strengthen her conviction. However, Niners like to nitpick each other's insight roles to no end. For example, some will argue that the witch is required to legitimately hold the beliefs which the role would require that she pretends to have. That's one of the narrow stipulations which my insight role did not meet, and it's one of a specific genre of stipulations which the magickian planning an insight role should ignore. My insight role lasted eight months, forced me to experience a completely different walk of life, taught me various practical skills, helped me learn about foreign personality types, placed me in uncomfortable situations, and furthered the Sinister Dialectic-- but only in specific ways that Chavajoth would approve of. The standard and minimum length is six months-- examples I've seen Niners undertake include fighting in a military insurrection in a foreign country, dealing meth, joining a monastery, joining National Socialist groups, joining the military, and joining a Mormon church. These are not the kind of insight roles that I would recommend.

One of the other major motivations behind the O9A's cultivation of insight roles is the furtherance of the Sinister Dialectic, the sociopolitical agenda of the Order of the Nine Angles. In other words, it's a British fellow's disavowed political agenda from the seventies. Basically, it's about destroying and rebuilding Western society in accordance with ideologically-determined values and forcing the obsolescence of various traditions of Western magick in accordance with the superstitious belief that the most modern Western magick is 'not truly Western in essence,' and thus cannot foster the magickal ascent of our culture. Paradigms of Satanic magick which do not conform to racialist stipulations are seen as counterproductive, and denominations of Satanism which are not founded upon the Sinister Dialectic are deemed inherently un-Satanic. In short, the pursuits of the Sinister Dialectic are founded upon an inability to understand the nature of the self-determination and self-becoming which is intrinsic to alchemy and man's very core, and the magickian is required to believe that the agenda of the Devil can be narrowly defined by the disavowed political motives promulgated by an early denomination of Satanism which wants most Satanists dead.

Should a black magickian undertake something like an insight role, it is to be defined by her personal path. If it is group infiltration, then this is to be her own decision based on her own agenda, and if it is for the purpose of overcoming personal limitations and gaining life experience, then it is for her to decide what exactly is needed for her to achieve the growth she needs.

In a video describing his experience with Voudon, E.A. Koetting presented a different idea of an insight role: completely investing oneself in an unfamiliar magickal tradition for an extended period of time and experiencing as much of the system as possible. He described the experience as a test of endurance and learning experience which engendered various avenues of character development.

Experimentally delving headfirst into foreign spiritual praxes is something I've done myself. In fact, I did this twice while I was carrying out an unrelated O9A-style insight role-- it goes without saying that I did not know my path at this point. Many of Koetting's detractors adduce the immense stress he experienced during this 'insight role' when painting him as illegitimate, but as Koetting says, the immense stress is part of what makes the process productive. One of my two failed magickal initiations fucked me up pretty bad too, but it was worth the experience. I still use one of those two magickal praxes from time to time, but only as a minor supplement to my personal tradition.

In Liber Null & Psychonaut, Peter Carroll presents a similar alchemical practice to E.A. Koetting's conception of insight roles. He calls it "Random Belief." The idea is to fully invest in a given religious paradigm for a time span which can vary from a week to a year. In doing so, the magickian's soul purportedly learns lessons that his soul might otherwise have to reincarnate for, and ideally, accumulates knowledge of the mechanisms behind Aeonic progression. Unfortunately, Carroll's instructions recommend involution in religions which have no interest in alchemy, so his approach is not as conducive to the transcendence of the cycle of reincarnation as he would believe.

I know a sorceress who was once told by Lilith to leave the Black Lodge entirely and become a white magickian. Almost a year of white magick later, she suddenly found herself subject to rabid demonic partial possession. She engaged in feral sex with her lover while in the state of partial possession and experienced types of orgasm which human physiology cannot produce independent of acausal influence. Demonic energy flooded her home in great quantity-- she loved every second of the experience, but she was deeply confused as to why it had happened. I told her that she was being called to return to the Black Lodge.

So here's my new recommendation for an insight role, for those of you who are led to endeavor one. Invest yourself in a new magickal paradigm, learning from practitioners of unfamiliar paths and working with deities of a different tradition. Don't try to maliciously infiltrate another spiritual lodge. Instead, experiment with it. Don't make it an exercise in play-pretend either-- you are trying to uncover the objective reality behind religious beliefs and make discoveries about other pantheons via gnosis. The Nihilistic Chaote mentality of voluntarily believing in bullshit is unproductive-- you are trying to understand the true nature of the Numinous and the role it plays in Aeonic progression. However, I must warn you to seek thorough instruction from your Higher Self, guiding spirits, and/or a tarot deck so you know in advance which spirits are legitimately invested in black magickal evolution and which among the approaches you are naively inclined to take in initiating through the foreign tradition is liable to fuck you. Ask which of the spirits in the pantheon of the other tradition are the best to start with. Ask which of the tradition's spiritual practices are most important and productive, and ask what specific types of alchemical change you should be trying to get out of this tradition.

One of my failed initiations brought me into direct contact with a lot of deities whose worshipers consider them to be the Supreme Being. I was primarily practicing a black magickal paradigm of Shaktidharma, incorporating Vaishnavist and Buddhist practices in tandem. I was following the instructions of three devout and practiced Hindus and an array of new spirit guides. It was Bhairavi who designated herself as my primary Hindu goddess, and based on the literary teachings surrounding her, I decided that the alchemical changes which I would accumulate in working with her were most likely exactly what I was looking for.

When she first manifested herself to me, I asked one of my guides how powerful she was. According to the spirit, Bhairavi is of roughly equivalent power to Moloch. Her first words to me were angry ones-- she told me to keep that fact to myself. On a later date, she manifested to me at random to try and convince me that Chavajoth had no real power. She ordered me to engage in degrading ritual practices as penance for significant failures in my daily life, which is where my relationship with her ended.

I worked with Krishna a fair bit too, following the instructions of the Hindus I knew to the T. I got some results and did make contact with the entity, but I sensed that something about my approach was wrong enough to discernibly tamper with my results. When I went to one of the individuals guiding me for advice, he explained that Krishna demands to be the primary deity of the magickian who works with him. This ended my relationship with Krishna. Every magickian has specific deities which are most significant to her Craft based upon the essence of her being. No deity should ever demand of anyone what Krishna demands of all his followers-- if he respected your ipseity and free will, no such stipulation should precede working with him.

The final test came when the Hindu whose instructions I followed most closely attempted to steal my apprentice-- he attempted to make the magickian feel lesser than him, tried to trick him into having a spiritual experience with his primary deity, and tried to convince him that I was planning to sacrifice him. When all three approaches failed and I attempted to cut ties with the man peaceably, a series of magickal transgressions against my apprentice and I ensued. After deflecting various pernicious spells, my apprentice and I cursed the Hindu and Krishna himself via separate spells. Now I know for a fact that Chavajoth can completely overpower Krishna, so it is impressive that Chavajoth does not demand the level of veneration which Krishna does. Apart from my matron demoness, Moloch is my primary Qliphothic deity, and he was equivalent in power to the deity who designated herself as my primary Hindu goddess. Both promised self-deification, but it was Moloch who was not offended by my interaction with foreign pantheons and never demanded self-degradation. I learned a lot about what makes the Infernal Divine so great that year.

Compared to the Infernal Divine, a lot of deities whose veneration promises spiritual attainment and who purportedly pursue the agenda of humankind's evolution are not what they seem. I learned that a lot of these deities are only interested in human evolution when it comes hand in hand with servitude. I learned that some of the deities who are held to be interested in the betterment of humankind as a whole and to be appropriate for the veneration of the Black Lodge do not hold the respect for human self-determination which the Infernal Divine does. I also learned that a lot of spirits whom the Satanist would presume to oppose her ascent are viable and, if pursued, valuable allies to the black magickian. I learned a lot about the Numinous that year, and my conviction in my path is much firmer for the turmoil.

V.K. Jehannum
Agios Octinomos-Drakosophia