see Religious abuse.

Engraving by Henry de Malvost in the book Le Satanisme et la Magie by Jules Bois depicting a Black Mass, part of an earlier moral panic of religious desecration and Satanic ceremonies that was a precursor to the satanic ritual abuse moral panic of the late 20th century

Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse,ritualistic abuse, organised abuse, sadistic ritual abuse and other variants) was a moral panic that originated in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout the country and eventually to many parts of the world, before subsiding in the late 1990s. Allegations of SRA involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult orSatanic rituals. In its most extreme form, SRA involved a supposed worldwide conspiracy involving the wealthy and powerful of the world elite in which children were abducted or bred for sacrifices, pornography andprostitution.

Nearly every aspect of SRA was controversial, including its definition, the source of the allegations and proof thereof, testimonials of alleged victims, and court cases involving the allegations and criminal investigations. The panic affected lawyers', therapists', and social workers' handling of allegations of child sexual abuse. Allegations initially brought together widely dissimilar groups, including religious fundamentalists, police investigators, child advocates, therapists and clients in psychotherapy. The movement gradually secularized, dropping or deprecating the "satanic" aspects of the allegations in favor of names that were less overtly religious such as "sadistic" or simply "ritual abuse" and becoming more associated with dissociative identity disorder and governmentconspiracy theories.

The panic was influenced to a large extent by testimony of children and adults that were obtained using therapeutic and interrogation techniques now considered discredited. Initial publicity generated was by the now-discredited autobiographyMichelle Remembers (1980), and sustained and popularized throughout the decade by the McMartin preschool trial. Testimonials, symptom lists, rumors and techniques to investigate or uncover memories of SRA were disseminated through professional, popular and religious conferences, as well as through the attention of talk shows, sustaining and spreading the moral panic further throughout the United States and beyond. In some cases allegations resulted in criminal trials with varying results; after seven years in court, the McMartin trial resulted in no convictions for any of the accused, while other cases resulted in lengthy sentences, some of which were later reversed. Scholarly interest in the topic slowly built, eventually resulting in the conclusion that the phenomenon was a moral panic, with little or no validity beyond paranoia.

Official investigations produced no evidence of widespread conspiracies or of the slaughter of thousands; only a small number of verified crimes have even remote similarities to tales of SRA. In the latter half of the 1990s interest in SRA declined and skepticism became the default position, with only a minority of believers giving any credence to the existence of SRA.

The Order of Nine Angles (ONA; O9A) "represent a dangerous and extreme form of Satanism"^[1] and first attracted public attention during the 1980s and 1990s after being mentioned in books detailing fascist Satanism.^[2][3][4][5] Presently, the ONA is organized around clandestine cells (which it calls "traditional nexions")^[6][7] and around what it calls "sinister tribes".^[8][9]

History[edit]

As recounted by Goodrick-Clarke in his book Black Sun, and by Professor Connell Monette,^[10] the Order of Nine Angles assert that they were formed in England in the 1960s with the merger of three neopagan temples called Camlad, The Noctulians, and Temple of the Sun. Following the original leader's emigration to Australia, it has been alleged that David Myatt took over the order and authored the now publicly available teachings of the organization which was initially based in the rural English counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire, with Goodrick-Clarke writing that "Myatt evokes a world of witches, outlaw peasant sorcerers, orgies and blood sacrifices at lonely cottages in the woods and valleys of this area where he has lived since the early 1980s".^[11]

According to Monette,^[10] they now have associates, and groups, in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Egypt, Australia, and Russia.

Authorship[edit]

Author Nick Ryan has asserted that Anton Long, the author of the ONA's public tracts, is a pseudonym of David Myatt, a person who was involved with the neo-Nazi movement in England.^[12] This assertion is repeated by both Senholt^[13] and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, with Goodrick-Clarke writing that David Myatt – who had previously acted "as bodyguard for British Nazi Colin Jordan"^[14] - codified "its teachings into a fully developed system of initiation and training for adeptship".^[15]

According to Senholt, "the role of David Myatt is paramount to the whole creation and existence of the ONA", and "Myatt's life-long devotion to various extreme ideologies has been part of a sinister game that is at the heart of the ONA".^[13] This claim is supported by Per Faxneld who writes that "the ONA despises ethical behaviour, and its main ideologist David Myatt has actively participated in violent neo-Nazi and Islamist terrorist groups. The motivation for these acts is a wish to bring down the 'old order' [...] His text defending suicide attacks was featured on Hamas' website, and he was invited to speak at extremist mosques. Even more astonishing than [his transition from neo-Nazi to Muslim] is that it seems both his Nazism and Islamism are merely instruments for the ONA's underlying sinister esoteric plots.".^[1] Of Anton Long, Monette writes "[having] fluency in the classical languages (Greek and Latin), as well as Arabic and possibly Persian, [and] possessed of a gifted intellect and apparently a polymath, his works include not only the public mystical teachings of the Order, but also several thousand pages of text on ethics, honor, and several novellas of 'sinister' fiction. While Long writes primarily in English, it is clear that he draws inspiration from not only British but also international sources; not infrequently, his texts include passages of Classical Greek, as well as Sanskrit and Arabic spiritual terms." ^[10]

David Myatt has always denied allegations about involvement with Satanism,^[2] the ONA, and using the pseudonym Anton Long, and repeatedly challenged anyone to provide any evidence of such allegations.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Beliefs[edit]

The Order of Nine Angles present "a recognizable new interpretation of Satanism and the Left Hand Path",^[20] and postulate Satanism as an arduous individual achievement of self-mastery and Nietzscheanself-overcoming, with an emphasis on individual growth through practical acts of risk, prowess and endurance.^[21] Rites of passage, often connected to promotion in grade level, include spending three months living rough in a forest bereft of human contact,^[2][7] and the assumption of difficult occupations to develop personality and leadership ability.^[21]

Therefore, "[t]he goal of the Satanism of the ONA is to create a new individual through direct experience, practice and self-development [with] the grades of the ONA system being highly individual, based on the initiates' own practical and real-life acts, instead of merely performing certain ceremonial rituals".^[7] Thus Satanism, the ONA assert, requires venturing into the realm of the forbidden and illegal, in order to make contact with the "sphere of acausal, sinister forces of the cosmos".^[21]

In addition, "one of the things that sets the ONA apart from other existing Left Hand Path groups relates to their idea of Aeons which naturally leads to long-term goals (meaning about 3-500 years), that go beyond the acts and lifespan of a single individual".^[7] Hence the ONA claims that its sinister tribes are an important part of its Aeonic strategy to build a new, tribal-based, more sinister way of life, and to disrupt and eventually overthrow the societies of what it calls "the mundanes".^[8]

Another difference is, according to Goodrick-Clarke, that "compared to the eclectic nature of American Satanism, many ideas and rituals of the ONA recall a native tradition of wicca and paganism. The frequent reference to wyrd, the Anglo-Saxon term for destiny, indicates a native pre-Christian tradition, while the rhythm of the seasons is upheld by holding ceremonies at the equinoxes, the rising of stars and other astronomical events."^[21] Furthermore, Monette writes that "a critical examination of the ONA's key texts suggests that the satanic overtones could be cosmetic, and that its core mythos and cosmology are genuinely hermetic, with pagan influences." ^[10]

The core mystical tradition of the ONA is the Seven Fold Way, also known as the Hebdomadry: "The Seven Fold Way is essentially a hermetic system that defines itself as being deeply rooted in Western occultism, and provides a path to ascension that is exceptionally difficult in physical and psychic terms. The seven stages of the Way are (1) Neophyte, (2) Initiate, (3) External Adept, (4) Internal Adept, (5) Master/Mistress, (6) Grand Master/Mousa and (7) Immortal. Yet unlike other degree-based systems, the ONA does not offer initiation to its students; rather, the students must initiate themselves through personal grade rituals and challenges [...] Grade rituals (meaning the rituals of passage) for the fourth stage (Internal Adept) involve living in complete isolation for at least one season, as well as being able to cycle, run, and hike considerable distances. Each grade thereafter requires increasingly difficult challenges, culminating in the 5th grade (Master) with the mystic having to undertake physical challenges comparable to a triathlon, as well as having developed/learned several esoteric skills along the way. One of the most challenging aspects of the Seven Fold Way is the insistence on learning through adversity, known in Greek as pathei-mathos." ^[10]

Within the initiatory system of the ONA, "insight roles play an important part [...] Undertaking an insight role means gaining real-life experience by working undercover for a period of six to eighteen months, challenging the initiate to experience something completely different from their normal life both to 'aid the Sinister dialectic' and to enhance the experience of the Initiate."^[13] Therefore, "through the practice of 'insight roles', the order advocates continuous transgression of established norms, roles, and comfort zones in the development of the initiate [...] This extreme application of ideas further amplifies the ambiguity of satanic and Left Hand Path practices of antinomianism, making it almost impossible to penetrate the layers of subversion, play and counter-dichotomy inherent in the sinister dialectics."^[22]

In addition to insight roles and other occult training, the ONA initiate is also expected to study and practice The Star Game, a three dimensional system of Occult correspondences used as a form of aeonic sorcery,^[23][24] the advanced form of which is part of the training of what the ONA call the grade of Internal Adept^[25] and which three dimensional game for two players^[26] David Myatt invented in 1975^[27] to be, according to Goodrick-Clarke, an esoteric part of "the graded hierarchy" of the ONA and the training for adeptship.^[28]

The ONA's writings condone and encourage human sacrifice.^[12][29][30] According to the ONA this "culling" serves not just a social Darwinian purpose, but is also connected to the promotion of a new Aeon: "The change that is necessary means that there must be a culling, or many cullings, which remove the worthless and those detrimental to further evolution."^[31] The presencing of acausal energies, such as through culling, is meant to create a new Aeon, whose energies will then create a newer, higher civilization from the energy unleashed.^[32] However, the ONA "despise animal sacrifice, maintaining that it is much better to sacrifice suitable mundanes given the abundance of human dross".^[33]

Probably because of the ONA's highly radical stance, there is open animosity between the ONA and "mainstream" Satanists such as the Church of Satan.^[12] The ONA publicly disavows any connection to Church of Satan, claiming the Satanic Bible to be a "watered-down philosophy".^[34]

The Temple of Set proscribed the ONA in the early 1980s for its avowal of human sacrifice.^[35]

In recent years, according to Senholt, "ONA-inspired activities, led by protagonist David Myatt, managed to enter the scene of grand politics and the global 'War On Terror', because of several foiled terror plots in Europe that can be linked to Myatt's writings".^[13]