Over the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , which began in February 2022, irregular military units began to play a more prominent role in the fighting, alongside the regular Russian Armed Forces . In the face of waning recruitment levels for the military as casualties mounted, the Russian government increasingly turned to a variety of mercenaries , militias , paramilitaries , and mobilized convicts . In a similar fashion to the pro-Russian people's militias in Ukraine such as the DPR People's Militia and LPR People's Militia , the combat effectiveness of these irregular combatants varies greatly. This can be seen in the contrast between the poorly equipped and virtually untrained prisoners serving under Storm-Z and the professional mercenaries of PMC Wagner. The Wagner group itself also used convicts in its ranks, alongside its more experienced cadre of fighters. The organization garnered much notoriety as it took up an increasingly prominent role in the fighting in late 2022, culminating in the Battle of Bakhmut .
170-621: Headquarters: Far-right combatants The Order of Nine Angles ( ONA or O9A ) is a militant Satanic left-hand path occultist and terrorist network that originated in the United Kingdom but has since branched out into other parts of the world. Claiming to have been established in the 1960s, it rose to public recognition in the early 1980s, attracting attention for its neo-Nazi ideology and activism. Describing its approach as " Traditional Satanism ", it also exhibits Hermetic and modern Pagan elements in its beliefs. According to
340-650: A Black Mass , also known as The Mass of Heresy. However, some ONA texts state that members should embrace neo-Nazism and racism not out of a genuine belief in Nazi ideology , but as part of a "sinister strategy" to advance Aeonic evolution. A version of the Black Mass-produced by an Australian ONA group, The Temple of THEM, replaces praise of Hitler with praise of the Islamist militant Osama bin Laden , while
510-511: A Frankish term derived from Proto-Germanic *markō ("border, area"). The term is a doublet of English mark , and is cognate with German Mark ("boundary"). Cognates are found in the English toponyms " Mercia " and " Mersey ", and in continental place-names containing mark , such as " Denmark ". The term is distantly related to the verb march , both ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *mereg- , "edge" or "boundary". After
680-534: A Moscow based MMA club, and the Shield and Sword patriotic and veteran organization. The unit has yet to see front-line combat in the war, and its existence, and Roscomos' active recruitment for the group, has strained international space cooperation, namely with NASA and the policy of Russian membership in the International Space Station . The group has put an emphasis on recruiting from
850-792: A Presidential Decree (Executive Order) by President Putin. Early in January and February 2022, there were reports of Rosgvardiya detachments moving to the Russia–Ukraine border and Belarus, joining the supposed "training exercise", going during the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis. When Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Rosgvardiya troops started to move into Ukrainian territory, establishing themselves in occupied cities and towns, reportedly for suppressing local hostile population. The Rosvgardiya has been used to detain Ukrainian protestors and has been accused of firing on unarmed protestors. During
1020-546: A "Time of Troubles" that lasts from between 398 and 400 years. In each civilization's final stage is a period that lasts for approximately 390 years, in which it is controlled by a strong military and imperial regime, after which the civilization falls. The ONA claims that humanity has lived through five such Aeons, each with an associated civilization: the Primal, Hyperborean , Sumerian , Hellenic , and Western . Both Goodrick-Clarke and Senholt have stated that this system of Aeons
1190-571: A "hermetic system", highlighting that the use of seven planetary bodies had been influenced by the Medieval Arabic texts Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm and Shams al-Ma'arif . Senholt argues that the ONA incorporation of "Tree of Wyrd" concept to the "seven fold ways" system were a conscious attempt to differentiate their own teaching from the concept of tree of life in Kabbalah mysticism as they consider
1360-417: A 1989 article the ONA stated that at that point there were only four individuals who had reached the stage of Master. The ONA does not initiate members into the group itself, but rather expects individuals to initiate themselves. It requires that initiates be in a good physical condition, and recommends a training regimen for prospective members to follow. Newcomers are expected to take on a magical partner of
1530-434: A 1995 overview of British Satanist groups, Harvey suggested that the ONA consisted of less than ten members, "and perhaps fewer than five." In 1998, Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg stated that the ONA's membership was "infinitesmally small", with the group acting primarily as a "mail-order ministry". In 2013, Senholt observed that because the group has no official membership, it is "difficult, if not impossible, to estimate
1700-645: A 1998 issue of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight , it was claimed that "Anton Long" was a pseudonym of David Myatt , a prominent figure in the British neo-Nazi movement. Born in the early 1950s, Myatt had been involved in various neo-Nazi groups, initially serving as a bodyguard for Colin Jordan of the British Movement before joining the Combat 18 militia and becoming a founding member and leader of
1870-705: A burst of Luciferian light – of zest and power – in an otherwise Nazarene, pacified, and boring world." Embracing Holocaust denial , it claims that the Holocaust was a myth which was constructed by the Magian/Nazarene establishment in order to denigrate the Nazi administration after the Second World War and erase its achievements from "the psyche of the West". The group believes that a neo-Nazi revolution
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#17327833882692040-627: A business college in Russia for a talk. Students asked questions with implications of criticizing the war and pointing out similarities between the skull-and-crossbones patches on the uniforms of the fighters and the Totenkopf of the Nazi German SS . The college administration disciplined five students for asking "inappropriate" questions. The students were expelled after being brutally beaten and arrested by security police. In September 2023,
2210-480: A ceremony by clergy. The Ukrainian diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church condemned the blessing, calling it "unacceptable and reprehensible". Russian milbloggers speculated that the battalion may be made up of Russian Armenians , Abkhazian Armenians , and volunteers from Armenia proper. On 25 October 2023, an interview was published with the commander of the battalion, who claimed that
2380-583: A concussion. The unit is equipped with at least one T-62 tank. It saw combat alongside Tsar's Wolves , Storm Ossetia , Crimea, and Sarmat around the village of Lobkove . The "Arbat" Separate Guards Special Purpose Battalion is a unit that is likely part of the Russian Armed Forces. The "Arbat" Battalion was sent to the front on 2 July 2023 after a sendoff ceremony in the Armenian Cathedral of Moscow . They were blessed in
2550-519: A first line of defense for the Russian units there. The defense of the village would fail, with it being occupied by Ukrainian forces on June 13. The unit was then tasked with defending the village of Piatykhatky just south of Lobkove. They were able to hold onto the village for five days until their position became untenable and they were ordered to retreat. During the chaos of the retreat the unit would find themselves encircled and were "liquidated" to
2720-573: A king") as Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester stated — whereas in England fief-holders were directly accountable to the king. The crown's powers in the Marches were normally limited to those periods when the king held a lordship in its own hands, such as when it was forfeited for treason or on the death of the lord without a legitimate heir whereupon the title reverted to the Crown in escheat . At
2890-526: A lie to keep our race in chains And express our desire to see the truth revealed. We believe in justice for our oppressed comrades And seek an end to the world-wide Persecution of National-Socialists." — The ONA's "Mass of Heresy" The ONA claims that current Western civilization has a Faustian ethos and it has recently undergone its Time of Troubles, with its final stage, an "Imperium" of militaristic governance, due to commence at some point in 1990–2011 and last until 2390. This will be followed by
3060-515: A major role in mobilizing pro-Russian forces during the 2014 Odesa clashes . In the founding video of the 2022 unit, he made statements in line with the Russian narrative that Ukraine is governed by a Nazi regime . Beside his role in the new unit, Markov also repeatedly appeared in Russian propaganda, at one point proposing to make Odesa the new capital of Ukraine. In May 2023, Ukraine charged Ihor Markov with high treason for his role in setting up
3230-683: A month and must have a clean criminal record. Moscow City officially funds and hosts the headquarters of the "Sobyaninskiy Polk" Regiment, but most of the Regiments volunteers are recruited from outside of the city, and the Regiments officer corp are largely veterans of the DNR's People's Militias. Nizhny Novgorod Oblast formed the "Kuzma Minin" Tank Battalion via the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Russian Union of Afghan Veterans. Its members are paid between $ 3,775 to $ 6,000
3400-457: A month, and most of its members are older veterans. In Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast , the "Vasily Margelov" Battalion was raised from collaborationist volunteers. The battalion is named after Red Army general Vasily Margelov , a Belarusian from what is today Dnipro . The "Vladlen Tatarsky" Battalion was named in honor of the Russian milblogger Vladlen Tatarsky , who had been recently assassinated . The battalion has seen combat around
3570-414: A monthly salary of $ 3,430, and mostly consist of older veterans, usually in their 50s or 60s. Kursk Oblast formed the "Seym" Battalion, a volunteer logistical support battalion with members being paid $ 3,430 to $ 8,580 monthly depending on the length of their service. The Orenburg city council ordered the formation of the "Yaik" Battalion, a volunteer motorized rifle battalion. Members are paid $ 3,430
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#17327833882693740-628: A more loyal alternative for the Wagner Group , which at the time had just begun clashing with Russian high command on issues of supplies and tactics. Fakel and Plamya reportedly are directly subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Defence , while Potok joined Redut PMC , a PMC which is also controlled by the Russian MoD. Although the company has no official political affiliation, several members stated they are fighting to restore
3910-504: A network of allied Satanic practitioners, which it terms the "kollective". Thus, Monette stated that the Order "is not a structured lodge or temple, but rather a movement, a subculture or perhaps metaculture that its adherents choose to embody or identify with". Monette also suggested that this absence of a centralised structure would aid the Order's survival, because its fate would not be invested solely in one particular leader. The ONA dislikes
4080-603: A new central command, after a lack of success of sending their four battalion sized units into combat independently. This new unified regiment has 12 volunteer units under its command and completed training on 15 August and were sent to the front in Southern Ukraine. A volunteer unit from Bashkortostan formed by the "Veterans of the Marine Corps and Special Forces of the Navy", a veterans fraternal organization, at
4250-507: A new society. Sieg drew comparisons between this belief in Vindex and the ideas of Savitri Devi , the prominent Esoteric Hitlerist , regarding the arrival of Kalki , an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu , to Earth. The ONA also propagate the idea that it is possible for the practitioner to secure an afterlife within the acausal realm through their spiritual activities. It is for this reason that
4420-539: A particular case. From this developed the distinctive March law . The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of the Principality by Edward I of England . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title " Prince of Wales " as legally part of the lands of the Crown, and established shire counties on the English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to
4590-765: A period of chaos from which will be established a sixth Aeon, the Aeon of Fire, which will be represented by the Galactic civilization in which an Aryan society shall colonize the Milky Way galaxy. However, the Order holds that unlike previous Aeonic civilizations, Western civilization has been infected with the "Magian/Nazarene" distortion, which they associate with the Judeo-Christian religion. The group's writings state that while Western civilization had once been "a pioneering entity, imbued with elitist values and exalting
4760-559: A political officer, who was compared to a soviet era politruk , and were transferred to the Kherson front and later sent to Crimea. There they were housed in a 25-square-meter garage alongside arrested servicemen who were caught being drunk on the job or breaking curfew, the unit submitted an appeal to Alik Kamaletdinov , the aide in Bashkortostan's government in charge of the mobilization, but he did not respond. The Institute for
4930-553: A prisoner exchange with Ukraine for members of the Azov Brigade captured at the Azovstal . On 30 July 2023, Kadyrov reprimanded journalists who reported "mass deaths" within the unit, insisting that the unit is still fully functional and seeing active combat in the battle for Bakhmut. Yug-Akhmat ( South-Akhmat ) is one of the four volunteer "elite special forces" Akhmat units raised by Ramzan Kadyrov on June 26. The unit
5100-651: A private library of occult and far right material owned by the Order of the Jarls of Bælder. According to Monette, the group now have associates, and groups, in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Egypt, Australia, and Russia. One of these associate groups is the U.S.-based Tempel ov Blood, which has published a number of texts through Ixaxaar Press, while another is the California-based White Star Acception, which has been designated as
5270-403: A recruitment video for the group styled like a trailer to a First-person shooter . The unit is named after the planet Uranus and has put an emphasis on their loyalty to the Russian state in an attempt to sway Wagner group fighters to join them after the Wagner Group rebellion . Mercenaries in the battalion receive a signing bonus of $ 1,200 and a monthly salary of $ 3,000. The group has ties to
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5440-468: A sacrifice in a ritual manner, but that members had joined the police and military groups in order to engage in legal violence and killing. The ONA believe that there are historical precedents to their practice of human sacrifice, expressing belief in a prehistoric tradition in which humans were sacrificed to a goddess named Baphomet at the spring equinox and to the Arcturus star in the autumn. However,
5610-409: A salary per a three-year or a one-and-a-half-year contract, and participating in at least a month per year of part-time training, with the prospect of being called to active duty in the event of war. In 2021, during the build-up towards the invasion of Ukraine a massive recruitment drive for BARS was undertaken in hopes of having the organization reach 80,000 to 100,000 members. However, at the start of
5780-480: A tiny coterie of Nietzschean elites." Within the initiatory system of the ONA, there is an emphasis on practitioners adopting "insight roles" in which they work undercover among a politically extreme group for a period of six to eighteen months, thus gaining experience in something different from their normal life. Among the ideological trends that the ONA suggests its members adopt "insight roles" within are anarchism , neo-Nazism, and Islamism , stating that aside from
5950-477: Is guided by a "sinister dialectics" of alternating Aeonic energies. It divides human history into a series of Aeons, believing that each Aeon was dominated by a human civilization that emerged, evolved, and then died. It states that each Aeon lasts for approximately 2000 years, with its respective dominating human civilization developing within the latter 1500 years of that period. It holds that after 800 years of growth, each civilization faces problems, resulting in
6120-511: Is inspired by the works of Arnold J. Toynbee , with Senholt suggesting that it might also have been influenced by Crowley's ideas regarding Thelemic Aeons. " Adolf Hitler was sent by our gods To guide us to greatness We believe in the inequality of races And in the right of the Aryan to live According to the laws of the folk. We acknowledge that the story of the Jewish "holocaust" Is
6290-527: Is known as "Nexion Zero", with the majority of subsequent groups having been established in Britain, Ireland, and Germany; however, nexions and other associated groups have also been established in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Serbia, Russia and South Africa. The Greek wing of the ONA goes by the name Mirós tou Zeús. Some of these groups, such as the U.S.-based Tempel ov Blood, describe themselves as being distinct from
6460-530: Is known as the "Seven Fold Way" or "Hebdomadry", and is outlined in one of the Order's primary texts, Naos . The sevenfold system is reflected in the group's symbolic cosmology , the "Tree of Wyrd", on which seven celestial bodies – the Moon, Venus, Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – are located. The term wyrd was adopted from Old English , where it referred to fate or destiny . Monette identified this as
6630-487: Is necessary for "ascension of the Ubermensch". To advance in rank, ONA member must perform assaults, lynching and sexual assault being the most recommended. Material promoting pedophilia has also appeared in ONA's in house magazines Fenrir and Drums of Tophet , the latter of which also contained "borderline [child porn]". According to BBC News , "the authorities are concerned by the number of paedophiles associated with
6800-524: Is necessary in order to overthrow the Magian-Nazarene domination of Western society and establish the Imperium, ultimately allowing humanity to enter the Galactic civilization of the future. Accordingly, positive references to Nazism and neo-Nazism can be found within the group's written material, and it evokes the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as a positive force in its text for the performance of
6970-544: Is no modern legal or official definition of the extent of the Welsh Marches. However, the term the Welsh Marches (or sometimes just the Marches) is commonly used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire. The term is also sometimes applied to parts of Powys, Monmouthshire and Wrexham. The Welsh Marches Line is a railway line from Newport in
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7140-448: Is often sexual in nature . Internal magick is designed to produce an altered state of consciousness in the participant, in order to result in a process of "individuation" which bestows adepthood. The most advanced form of magick in the ONA system is aeonic magick, the practice of which is restricted to those who are already perceived to have mastered external and internal magick and attained the grade of master. The purpose of aeonic magick
7310-764: Is one of the four volunteer "elite special forces" Akhmat units raised by Ramzan Kadyrov on June 26 that has seen combat in Ukraine. Despite claiming that the units are the Chechen equivalent of Spetsnaz , the unit is subordinate to the Rosgvardiya . In May 2023, Kadyrov claimed that Sever Akhmat had taken over Wagner Group positions in Bakhmut , taking over their role in the Battle of Bakhmut . Prior to this, earlier in May,
7480-399: Is subordinate to the Rosgvardiya . Russian state news agency TASS reported that the unit was sent to the front on September 17, 2022. Kadyrov claimed that the unit destroyed a Leopard 2 tank on July 8, 2023. Kadyrov also claimed that the unit might be sent to defend the southern border of Chechnya, in an interview where he was questioned for ordering the installation of air defense in
7650-633: Is subordinate to the Rosgvardiya . Kadyrov claimed the unit was trained by the Spetnaz at the Russian Special Forces University and had been sent to the front on September 19, 2022. On May 19, 2023, the unit was reported to have been transferred to the Zaporizhzhia front. Vostok-Akhmat ( East-Akhmat ) is one of the four volunteer "elite special forces" Akhmat units raised by Ramzan Kadyrov on June 29. The unit
7820-509: Is termed Vindex, after the Latin word for "avenger". The ONA believe that Vindex will eventually incarnate as a human – although the gender and ethnicity of this individual is unknown – through the successful "presencing" of acausal energies within the causal realm, and that they will act as a messianic figure by overthrowing the Magian forces and leading the ONA to prominence in the establishment of
7990-548: Is the Parma Battalion, formed on 25 May 2022. Volunteers are paid $ 5,150 monthly and promised government housing, education grants, and social welfare upon the completion of their service. The second is the Molot Battalion, which was formed on 7 July 2022. From Chelyabinsk Oblast , there are two battalions as of 15 July 2022: The "Uzhnouralets" Battalion, which consisted of 263 men aged between 21 and 54, and
8160-679: Is titled the Black Book of Satan . It has also issued its own music, painted tarot set known as the Sinister Tarot, and a three-dimensional board game known as the Star Game. The ONA established links with other neo-Nazi Satanist groups: its international distributor was New Zealander Kerry Bolton , the founder of the Black Order , who is described as an ONA adept in the group's published letter-correspondence, and it has access to
8330-467: Is to influence large numbers of people over a lengthy period of time, thus affecting the development of future aeons. In particular it is employed with the intent of disrupting the current socio-political system of the Western world, which the ONA believe has been corrupted by Judeo-Christian religion. The ONA utilises two methods in its performance of aeonic magick. The first entails rites and chants with
8500-755: The Avdiivka direction , where they have taken heavy losses. On September 18 the Armenian government arrested three individuals and alleged that the Battalion, with Russian backing, had attempted to overthrow the Armenian government in a coup . The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Battalion (also spelled in a Russian form as Bogdan Khmelnitsky Battalion ) is a so-called volunteer battalion of Russia composed of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs). Russian state media has claimed that its members are Ukrainian (POWs) who were "recruited" from Russian penal colonies. The Institute for
8670-662: The British Territorial Army or the United States Army Reserve with members being paid a salary to undergo part time military training. Additionally, most of the members of BARS units are retained veterans from the War in Donbass . Fakel , Plamya and Potok are voluntary military formations, founded in 2023 by the Russian state run gas monopoly Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Neft , as
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#17327833882698840-716: The Caribbean . Created as a more "specialized" alternative to Wagner, Patriot has modeled itself after the American Blackwater PMC by hiring only young ex-military paid $ 2,500. Founded and led by former Colonel General Leonid Ivashov who also leads the Honor and Motherland patriotic organization and is a chairman of the All-Russian Officers' Assembly . The unit has seen combat around Vuhledar , but have also been sent to Sudan , Gabon , and
9010-423: The Central African Republic . A collection of far-right, ultra-nationalist guns for hire active from 2014 until its founder, Igor Mangushev , was killed in Ukraine in 2023. Storm Ossetia was a militia in service to the Russian Armed Forces raised from volunteers from North Ossetia–Alania . Consisting of 300 personnel, the unit saw combat near Lobkove during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive , forming
9180-604: The Church of Satan and the Temple of Set , whom they deem to be "sham-Satanic" because they embrace the "glamour associated with Satanism" but are "afraid to experience its realness within and external to them". In turn, the Church of Satan has criticised what they alleged was the Order's "paranoic insistence that they are the only upholders of Satanic tradition", with Kaplan stating that these comments reflect "the intramural tensions" that are common within "the world of Satanism". Although conceiving of itself as having pre-Christian origins and describing Satanism as "militant paganism",
9350-417: The Manhattan Project . The battalion was raised in 2022, and is led by Yevgeny Balitsky , the Russian installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, with his son being a prominent member of the battalion. Volunteers for the battalion are paid $ 5,000 and the group claims to have volunteers from Serbia , Sweden , and Turkey . On 26 June 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov , leader of the Chechen Republic of Russia, announced
9520-429: The Middle Ages onward in small groups or "temples" which were based in the Welsh Marches – a border area which is located between England and Wales – each of which was led by a grand master or a grand mistress. According to the Order, in the late 1960s, a grand mistress of one such group united three of these temples – Camlad, the Temple of the Sun, and the Noctulians – to form the ONA, before she welcomed outsiders into
9690-451: The National Socialist Movement . His text on A Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution , in which he advocated violent militancy in aid of the neo-Nazi cause, was cited as an influence on the nail bomber David Copeland . In 1998, Myatt converted to Islam and remained a practicing Muslim for eight years, in which time he encouraged violent jihad against Zionism and Israel's Western allies. In 2010, he announced that he had renounced Islam and
9860-411: The Russian Empire . The group has seen front-line combat during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive where they performed a failed defensive action against the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade over the village of Lobkove . The Uran ( Уран ) battalion is a PMC owned and operated by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos , and received international attention on June 16, 2023, when the agency released
10030-587: The Russian Empire . The company hires primarily from Gazprom employees, who are promised that their old jobs are guaranteed for them when they return, and a large portion of the fighters are Gazprom security guards. The Alexander Nevsky private army is also affiliated with Gazprom. The Tsar's Wolves (Russian: Царские волки ) was formed in 2014 during the War in Donbas as a way to circumvent Russia sending assistance to Russian separatist forces . The group consists of "experienced military advisers and experts" that provided "military-technical support" to
10200-403: The Russian Ministry of Defence . The leader of the 2022 Odessa Brigade , Ihor Markov, had been a long-time pro-Russian figure in Odesa and had been suspected of being funded by the Russian government as early as 2009. He had led the "Rodina Party", a local pro-Russian party, and served as Party of Regions member before fleeing into exile in early 2014. From Moscow , he had then played
10370-435: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , Russia has recruited substantial numbers of prisoners into military units. The Russian paramilitary Wagner Group widely recruited from prisons starting in 2022, growing their forces by an estimated 40,000. According to the New York Times, Wagner's prison recruitment campaign began in early July 2022, when Prigozhin personally appeared in prisons around St. Petersburg and offered deals to
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#173278338826910540-402: The Soviet–Afghan War and are between the ages of 50 and 60, however, that is not always the case, as the key driver for recruitment to these units is the higher pay they offer than a mobilized conscript, and the cult of personality around the politicians that created the units. In 2015 Russia created the Combat Army Reserves (BARS) in an attempt to create an analogous reservist organization to
10710-469: The Welsh . The process took a century and was never permanently effective. The term "March of Wales" was first used in the Domesday Book of 1086. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small marcher lordships between the Dee and Severn, and further west. Military adventurers went to Wales from Normandy and elsewhere and after raiding an area of Wales, then fortified it and granted land to some of their supporters. One example
10880-472: The Welsh kings . However, his successors sought to expand Mercia further westwards into what is now Cheshire , Shropshire and Herefordshire . As the power of Mercia grew, a string of garrisoned market towns such as Shrewsbury and Hereford defined the borderlands as much as Offa's Dyke , a stronger and longer boundary earthwork erected by order of Offa of Mercia between AD 757 and 796. The Dyke still exists, and can best be seen at Knighton , close to
11050-429: The federal subjects of Russia launch their own volunteer battalions. In summer 2022, the Republic of Tatarstan formed the "Alga" and "Timer" battalions. The Alga Battalion saw combat in Bakhmut, Pisky and Vuhledar, before being reportedly sent back to Tatarstan due to high casualties in late July/early August 2023. On 17 July 2023, the Republic of Tatarstan reportedly formed three new volunteer battalions. The first
11220-739: The "Magian/Nazarene" influence of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion, which the Order seeks to combat in order to establish a militaristic new social order, which it calls the "Imperium". According to Order teachings, this is necessary in order for a galactic civilization to form, in which " Aryan " society will colonise the Milky Way . It advocates a spiritual path in which practitioners are required to break societal taboos by isolating themselves from society, committing crimes , embracing political extremism and violence , and carrying out acts of human sacrifice . ONA members practice magic , believing that they are able to do it by channeling energies into their own "causal" realm from an "acausal" realm where
11390-417: The "Old Guard", a group of longstanding members of the Order, stated that they would withdraw from active, public work with the group. In March 2012, Long announced that he would be withdrawing from public activity, although he appears to have remained active in the Order. Monette described the ONA as "a fascinating blend of both Hermeticism and Traditional Satanism, with some pagan elements". Faxneld described
11560-448: The "Uzhnyi Ural" Battalion, which consisted of 251 men. The Republic of Chuvashia formed the "Atal" Battalion, a volunteer signals unit with ties to Oleg Nikolayev . Volunteers are paid a cash signing bonus of $ 3,775. The Primorsky Krai formed the Tigr Battalion: attached to the 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade , the unit was raised in a recruitment drive and is affiliated to the governor Oleg Kozhemyako . Volunteers are paid
11730-442: The 170,000 employees of Roscosmos, with their recruitment videos playing throughout Roscosmos installations. Redut PMC is a Russian Private Military and Security Company (PMSC) that is part of the "Antiterror-family"—which consists of similarly named PMSCs that protect commercial operations of Russian companies. It is deployed in the Russian invasion and was deployed in the Balkans , Africa , Middle East , Southeast Asia and
11900-491: The 1980s and early 1990s, by the late 1990s and 2000s they were instead recommending Buddhist monasticism as an insight role for practitioners to adopt. 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
12070-670: The British kings to a meeting at Hereford in AD 926, and according to William of Malmesbury laid down the boundary between Wales and England, particularly the disputed southern stretch where he specified that the River Wye should form the boundary. By the mid-eleventh century, Wales was united under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd , until his death in 1063. Immediately after the Norman Conquest , King William of England installed three of his most trusted confidants, Hugh d'Avranches , Roger de Montgomerie , and William FitzOsbern , as Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford respectively, with responsibilities for containing and subduing
12240-481: The Church of Satan and Temple of Set, as well as "zealous, interfering Nazarenes", and journalists, business figures and political activists who disrupt the group's operations. The ONA explains that because of the need for such "self-selection", children must never be victims of sacrifice. The sacrifice is then carried out through either physical or magical means, at which point the killer is believed to absorb power from
12410-614: The English crown following the Edwardian conquest of Wales in the 13th century. By the 16th century, many marcher lordships had passed into the hands of the crown, as the result of the accessions of Henry IV , who was previously Duke of Lancaster , and Edward IV , the heir of the Earls of March ; of the attainder of other lords during the Wars of the Roses ; and of other events. The crown
12580-478: The English king whom they were bound to support in times of war, but their lands were exempt from royal taxation and they possessed rights which elsewhere were reserved to the crown, such as the rights to create forests, markets and boroughs. The lordships were geographically compact and jurisdictionally separate one from another, and their privileges differentiated them from English lordships. Marcher lords ruled their lands by their own law— sicut regale ("like unto
12750-458: The English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England, where control was stricter, and where many marcher lords spent most of their time, and through the English kings' dynastic alliances with the great magnates. The Council of Wales and the Marches , administered from Ludlow Castle , was initially established in 1472 by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales which had become directly administered by
12920-415: The ONA and that he has used the pseudonym "Anton Long". Religious studies scholar George Sieg expressed concern with this association, stating that he found it to be "implausible and untenable based on the extent of variance in writing style, personality, and tone" between Myatt and Long. Jeffrey Kaplan , an academic specialist in the far right, has also suggested that Myatt and Long are separate people, while
13090-497: The ONA as "a dangerous and extreme form of Satanism" and as "one of the most extreme Satanist groups in the world." Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg characterised it as a "National Socialist-oriented Satanist group", while Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke similarly deemed it to be a "Satanic Nazi cult" which "combine[d] paganism with praise for Hitler". He added that the ONA "celebrated the dark, destructive side of life through anti-Christian, elitist and Social Darwinist doctrines." Considering
13260-457: The ONA does not advocate the re-establishment of pre-Christian belief systems, with one ONA tract stating that "all past gods of the various Western Traditions are rendered obsolete by the forces which Satanism alone is unleashing". However, Goodrick-Clarke noted that the group's "ideas and rituals" draw upon "a native tradition", with references to the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon concept of wyrd , an emphasis on ceremonies performed at equinoxes, and
13430-533: The ONA fit the stereotype of the Satanist "better than other groups", something which he thought was deliberately achieved by embracing "deeply shocking" and illegal acts. "[Long] rejects the quasi-religious organization and ceremonial antics of the Church of Satan, the Temple of Set and other satanic groups. He believes that traditional satanism goes far beyond the gratification of the pleasure-principle and involves
13600-470: The ONA had become defunct. In 2000, the ONA established a presence on the Internet, using it as a medium to communicate with others and to distribute its writings. In 2008, the ONA announced that it was entering the third phase in its history, in which it would once again focus heavily on promotion, utilising such social media as online blogs, forums, Facebook , and YouTube to spread its message. In 2011,
13770-409: The ONA is this pursuit of similar sinister, subversive, interests, aims and life-styles, together with the desire to co-operate when it is beneficial to them and the pursuit of our shared aims. There is thus no formal ONA membership, and no Old-Aeon, mundane, hierarchy or even any rules." — The ONA, 2010 The ONA is a secretive organization. It lacks any central administration, instead operating as
13940-489: The ONA while both having been greatly influenced by it and having connections to it. In the ONA's terminology, the terms Drecc and Niner refer to folk-based or gang-based culture or individuals who support the Order's aims by practical (including criminal) means rather than esoteric ones. One such group is the White Star Acception, who claim to have perpetrated rapes, assaults, and robberies in order to advance
14110-508: The ONA". Consequently ONA has been linked to hundreds of cases of terrorism and child sexual abuse. Russian irregular units in Ukraine Russia's invasion effort has left the military strapped for volunteers to join the armed forces. In an attempt to circumvent this, Russia has employed a number of tactics to garner more recruits. The largest is to have Russian companies and organizations that are directly or indirectly tied to
14280-449: The ONA's "Flagship Nexion" in the United States despite diverging from mainstream ONA teachings on a number of issues. During the early 1990s, the Order stated that it was entering the second stage of its development, in which it would leave behind its prior focus on recruitment and public outreach within the occult community and instead focus on refining its teachings; its resulting quietness led some occultists to erroneously speculate that
14450-461: The ONA's "sinister strategy" to undermine Western society, a view endorsed by scholar of Satanism Per Faxneld. In 2015, an ONA member known as R. Parker argued in favour of the idea that Myatt was Long. As a result of Page's publication, the sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne stated that the ONA has "more or less acknowledged" that Myatt and Long are the same person. Myatt himself has repeatedly denied allegations that he has any involvement with
14620-452: The ONA's advocacy of human sacrifice has drawn strong criticism from other Satanist groups like the Temple of Set, who deem it to be detrimental to their own attempts to make Satanism more socially acceptable within Western nations. Although occult scholars attribute the concept of Nine Angles to the Church of Satan , in its essays and other writings the ONA offers differing explanations as to
14790-472: The ONA's origins given the high level of secrecy in which it engages in order to shield itself. As with many other occult organisations , the Order shrouds its history in "mystery and legend", creating a "mythical narrative" for its origins and development. The ONA claims to be the descendant of pre-Christian pagan traditions which survived the Christianisation of Britain and were passed down from
14960-458: The ONA's use of "Traditional Satanism" to differentiate themselves from the dominant forms of Satanism had comparisons with how those who describe themselves as practitioners of " traditional witchcraft " do so to distinguish their magico-religious practices from the dominant form of modern witchcraft, Wicca . According to Jesper Aagaard Petersen, an academic specialist of Satanism, the Order present "a recognizable new interpretation of Satanism and
15130-472: The Order's own claims, it was established in the Welsh Marches of Western England during the late 1960s by a woman who had previously been involved in a secretive pre-Christian sect which survived in the region. This account also states that in 1973 a man named "Anton Long" was initiated into the group, subsequently becoming its grand master. Several academic commentators who have studied the ONA express
15300-463: The Russian government to raise mercenary groups. The basis of these formations is that the higher pay and more stringent recruitment methods will garner more interest and volunteers from civilians, mainly veterans, who have not already joined the war effort. Similarly, many of Russia's subdivisions are paid by the government to raise volunteer militias, usually consisting of between 200 and 400 personnel. These units are largely former veterans, mostly of
15470-585: The Study of War reported that the unit was deployed to the front from August 25 to 27, and on the 26 received blessings from members of the Russian Orthodox Church . They also reported that when volunteers contracts expired, they were denied being sent home, instead being pressed into further service without pay or compensation. The formation of the " Odessa Brigade " or " Odessa Volunteer Brigade " ( Russian : одесской добровольческой бригады )
15640-617: The Study of War has assumed without evidence that it is likely that Russia has coerced the Ukrainians to join the formation, which violates the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War , which dictates "no prisoner of war may at any time be sent to or detained in areas where he may be exposed to the fire of the combat zone", and shall not "be employed on labor which is of an unhealthy or dangerous nature". The formation's alleged commander Andrii Tyshchenko told Russian state media that
15810-556: The Testing of Opfers". According to the ONA's beliefs, the killer must allow their victims to "self-select" themselves; this is achieved through testing victims to see whether they expose perceived character faults. If this proves to be the case, victims are believed to have shown that they are worthy of death, and the sacrifice can commence. Those deemed ideal for sacrifice by the group include individuals perceived as being of low character, members of what they deem "sham-Satanic groups" like
15980-410: The arduous achievement of self-mastery, self-overcoming in a Nietzschean sense, and ultimately cosmic wisdom. His conception of satanism is practical, with an emphasis on individual growth into realms of darkness and danger through practical acts of prowess, endurance and the risk of life." — Scholar of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke The ONA are strongly critical of larger Satanic groups like
16150-470: The battalion has "recruited" roughly 70 Ukrainian POWs in February alone. They were reported to have begun training and will begin fighting in "an unspecified area of the front line" when they are done. He said that the "recruits" would obtain Russian citizenship. The Hispaniola Battalion , part of Redut PMC , is a battalion consisting of former Russian football hooligans . In April 2023, they visited
16320-419: The battalion in 2022 defected to Ukraine, and has since successfully applied for asylum in the United States. There he accused the Russian army and its military leaders of corruption and professional failure and said that the Russian army is very poorly armed. Head of North Ossetia–Alania Sergey Menyaylo was personally involved in the unit's creation and visited the unit on the front and reportedly suffered from
16490-515: The battalion were claimed to be fighting near Bakhmut . The Moscow Battalion was created in January 2023 by Russian athletes and sports fans from Moscow with their first spotting on the front coming on 30 September 2023, when they were seen operating in the vicinity of Kreminna as part of the Luhansk Oblast campaign . The Russian federal government launched an effort in July 2022 to have
16660-459: The body and spirit of the victim, thus entering a new level of "sinister" consciousness. As well as strengthening the character of killers by heightening their connection with the acausal forces of death and destruction, such sacrifices are also viewed as having wider benefits by the ONA, because they remove from society individuals whom the group deems to be worthless human beings. Monette noted that no ONA nexion cells publicly admitted to carrying out
16830-454: The border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire , and sometimes adjoining areas of Wales. However, at one time the Marches included all of the historic counties of Cheshire , Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The term March is from the 13th-century Middle English marche ("border region, frontier"). The term was borrowed from Old French marche ("limit, boundary"), itself borrowed from
17000-587: The construction of incense using indigenous trees, thus suggesting the idea of "rootedness in English nature". Practitioners undergo "black pilgrimages" to prehistoric ceremonial sites in the area around Shropshire and Herefordshire in the English Midlands . 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." The ONA states that cosmic evolution
17170-460: The country. By about AD 1100 the March covered the areas which would later become Monmouthshire and much of Flintshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Glamorgan , Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire . Ultimately, this amounted to about two-thirds of Wales. During the period, the Marches were a frontier society in every sense, and a stamp was set on the region that lasted into
17340-513: The creation of four "Akhmat" military battalions. He claimed this would help reduce unemployment in the republic. On 28 October 2023, commander of the Akhmat forces Apti Alaudinov confirmed that former Wagner Group fighters were being recruited into the Akhmat units. In an interview, he said that the number of recruits was "massive", and that the former Wagnerites were serving under their former Wagner commanders. Sever-Akhmat ( North-Akhmat )
17510-405: The dead where they were deployed. After just a couple of weeks of combat, dozens of members of the unit renounced their contracts and demanded to be sent home to Bashkortostan. Additionally, veterans reported that calls for counter strikes, air support or artillery support, were never answered, with the unit being left to fend for itself against Ukrainian strikes. The unit was subjected to lectures by
17680-582: The decline and fall of the Roman Empire which occupied southern Britain until about AD 410, the area which is now Wales comprised a number of separate Romano-British kingdoms, including Powys in the east. Over the next few centuries, the Angles , Saxons and others gradually conquered and settled in eastern and southern Britain. The kingdom of Mercia , under Penda , became established around Lichfield , and initially established strong alliances with
17850-748: The divine, a concept originally found in Medieval texts produced within the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism . Monette further suggested that it was a reference to a classical Indian tradition which divided the Solar System into nine planets. "The ONA is a diverse, and world-wide, collective of diverse groups, tribes, and individuals, who share and who pursue similar sinister, subversive, interests, aims and life-styles, and who co-operate when necessary for their mutual benefit and in pursuit of their shared aims and objectives... The criteria for belonging to
18020-403: The end of May 2022. The unit was reported to consist of 250 men who are paid $ 3,775 monthly. Veterans of the unit reported that they had been sent to Ukraine with little training, and suffered from logistical issues and a near constant lack of supplies. Their supply situation was so bad, in fact, that they had to forage for their own ammunition, either bartering with other units, or scavenging from
18190-418: The establishment of new ONA groups, which were known as "temples", and from 1976 onward he authored an array of texts for the tradition, codifying and extending its teachings, mythos, and structure. These texts are typically written in English, although they include passages of Classical Greek as well as terms from Sanskrit and Arabic , reflecting Long's fluency in such languages. After examining these texts,
18360-601: The establishment of the ONA, the term "Traditional Satanism" has also been adopted by theistic Satanist groups like the Brotherhood of Satan. Faxneld suggested that the Order's adoption of the word "traditional" possibly reflected a "conscious strategy to build legitimacy" by harking back to "arcane ancient wisdom" in a manner deliberately distinct from the way in which Anton LaVey sought to gain legitimacy for his Church of Satan by appealing to rationality, science, and his own personal charisma. Elsewhere Faxneld suggested that
18530-455: The evolution of humanity, opining that this cosmic enemy must be overcome through the force of will. Both Goodrick-Clarke and Sieg note that these ideas regarding the "Magian soul" and "cultural distortion" brought about by Jews were derived from the works of Oswald Spengler and Francis Parker Yockey . The ONA praises Nazi Germany as "a practical expression of the Satanic spirit ...
18700-476: The existence of a position within the ONA called an "Outer Representative", who serves as an official spokesperson for the group to the outer world. The first to publicly claim to be the group's "Outer Representative" was Richard Moult, an artist and composer from Shropshire who used the pseudonym of "Christos Beest". Moult was followed as "Outer Representative" by "Vilnius Thornian", who held the position from 1996 to 2002, and who has been identified by ONA insiders as
18870-468: The extent of its functions have been disputed, however. According to Senholt the ONA "does not award titles", with Monette writing that "there is no central authority within the ONA." Also disputed is the existence of an O9A "Old Guard". Members of this Old Guard included Christos Beest, Sinister Moon, Dark Logos, and Pointy Hat, although in 2011 they stated that they would withdraw from the public sphere. Several academics have written about ONA membership. In
19040-610: The final stage of the Seven Fold Way is known as the "Immortal", constituting those initiates who have been able to advance to the stage of dwelling in the acausal realm. The ONA's writings condone and encourage human sacrifice, referring to their victims as opfers . The ONA outlines their guidelines for human sacrifice in a number of documents: "A Gift for the Prince – A Guide to Human Sacrifice", "Culling – A Guide to Sacrifice II", "Victims – A Sinister Exposé", and "Guidelines for
19210-648: The four volunteer "elite special forces" Akhmat units raised by Ramzan Kadyrov on June 26, 2022. The unit is subordinate to the Rosgvardiya . Russian state news agency TASS reported that the unit was sent to the front on September 17, 2022, and are commanded by Ismail Aguyev who had served for other units prior to his command of the unit. The unit was sent to the Belgorod Oblast to defend against incursions there by anti-government Russian militant groups. Numbering nearly 2,500 personnel, Bashkortostan's government has reorganized their volunteer units to have
19380-407: The game they can become a "living nexion" and thus a channel for acausal energies to enter the causal realm and effect aeonic change. An advanced form of the game is used as part of the training for the grade of Internal Adept. The Order promotes the idea that "Dark Gods" exist within the acausal realm, although it is accepted that some members will interpret them not as real entities but as facets of
19550-514: 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". Thus Satanism, the ONA assert, requires venturing into the realm of the forbidden and illegal in order to shake the practitioner loose of cultural and political conditioning. Intentionally transgressive, the Order has been characterised as providing "an aggressive and elitist spirituality". Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey wrote that
19720-404: The group held rituals at henges and stone circles around the solstices and equinoxes . This account further states that when the Order's Grand Mistress migrated to Australia , Long took over as the group's new grand master. The group claimed that Long "implemented the next stage of Sinister Strategy – to make the teachings known on a large scale". From the late 1970s onward, Long encouraged
19890-524: The group's power; Sieg noted that the reality of these actions has not been verified. A Balobian is an artist or musician who contributes to the group through their production of fine art . The Rounwytha is a tradition of folk-mystics deemed to exhibit gifted psychic powers reflecting their embodiment of the "sinister feminine archetype". Although a minority are men, most Rounwytha are female, and they often live reclusively as part of small and often lesbian groups. Several academic commentators have highlighted
20060-415: The historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke stated that in them, Long "evokes a world of witches, outlaw peasant sorcerers, orgies and blood sacrifices at lonely cottages in the woods and valleys of this area [ Shropshire and Herefordshire ] where he has lived since the early 1980s". The real identity of "Anton Long" remains unknown for both members of the Order and to academics who have studied it. However, in
20230-539: The human subconscious. These entities are perceived as dangerous, with the ONA advising caution when interacting with them. Among those Dark Gods whose identities have been discussed in the Order's publicly available material are a goddess named Baphomet who is depicted as a mature woman carrying a severed head. In addition, there are entities whose names, according to Monette, are borrowed from or influenced by figures from Classical sources and astronomy , such as Kthunae, Nemicu, and Atazoth. Another of these acausal figures
20400-414: The idea that numinous energies from the acausal realm can be drawn into the causal, allowing for the performance of magic. The ONA distinguish between external, internal, and aeonic magick. External magic itself is divided into two categories: ceremonial magick, which is performed by more than two people to achieve a specific goal and hermetic magick, which is performed either solitarily or in a pair and which
20570-434: The intent of opening a gateway – known as a "nexion" – to the "acausal realm" in order to manifest energies in the "causal realm" that will influence the existing aeon in the practitioner's desired direction. The second method involves playing an advanced form of a board game known as the Star Game; the game was devised by the group, with the game pieces representing different aeons. The group believes that when an initiate plays
20740-558: The invasion, all 20 available BARS units were mobilized and sent into combat, numbering 10,000 reservists. The average age for a BARS soldier is 45 and 70% have previously served in the military. BARS soldiers have complained about lack of pay, poor equipment and denial of medical service or military benefits. The Rosgvardiya, formally known as the National Guard of the Russian Federation, was established in 2016 via
20910-672: The jurisdiction of the marcher lords was abolished in 1536. The acts had the effect of annexing Wales with England and creating a single state and legal jurisdiction , commonly referred to as England and Wales . The powers of the marcher lordships were abolished, and their areas were organised into the new Welsh counties of Denbighshire , Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire , Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire , and Carmarthenshire . The counties of Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan were created by adding other districts to existing lordships. In place of assize courts of England, there were Courts of Great Sessions . These administered English law, in contrast with
21080-523: The last fighter, including their deputy commander Aivengo Tekho. Raised by pro-Russian collaborators in Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast , the unit is named after Pavel Sudoplatov , a member of the NKVD from Melitopol that assassinated the leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists , Yevhen Konovalets , was involved in the assassination of Leon Trotsky and performed espionage on
21250-504: The laws of physics do not apply, and these magical actions are designed to help them achieve their ultimate goal of establishing the Imperium. The ONA eschews any central authority or structure; instead, it operates as a broad network of associates – termed the "kollective" – who are inspired by the texts which were originally authored by Long and other members of the "inner ONA". The group is composed largely of clandestine cells, which are called "nexions". Some academic estimates suggest that
21420-430: The layers of subversion, play and counter-dichotomy inherent in the sinister dialectics." Senholt suggested that Myatt's involvement with both neo-Nazism and Islamism represent such "insight roles" in his own life. The ONA believe that humans live within the causal realm, which obeys the laws of cause and effect. However, they also believe in an acausal realm, in which the laws of physics do not apply, further promoting
21590-805: The leader of the eco-extremist terrorist Individualists Tending to the Wild claimed to have been influenced by the O9A. Allegations have been made by antifascist organisations, several British politicians and the media that the O9A condones and encourages sexual abuse, and this has been given as one of the reasons why the O9A should be proscribed by the British government. Many O9A members openly view rape as an effective way to undermine society by transgressing against its norms. White Star Acception commits rapes by their own admission and O9A texts such as "The Dreccian Way", "Iron Gates", "Bluebird" and "The Rape Anthology" recommend and praise rape and pedophilia, even suggesting rape
21760-421: The left-hand path ideologue Michael W. Ford . Subsequently, on the blog of the White Star Acception, the claim was made that the group's member Chloe Ortega was the ONA's Outer Representative, also this blog later became defunct by 2013. In 2013, a female American Rounwytha using the name of "Jall" appeared claiming to be the Order's "Outer Representative". The existence of the position of Outer Representative and
21930-521: The left-hand path", and for those involved in the group, Satanism is not simply a religion but a way of life. The Order postulates Satanism as an arduous individual achievement of self-mastery and Nietzschean self-overcoming, with an emphasis on individual growth through practical acts of risk, prowess and endurance. Therefore, "[t]he goal of the Satanism of the ONA is to create a new individual through direct experience, practice and self-development [with]
22100-448: The manner in which the ONA had syncretized both Satanism and Heathenry , the historian of religion Mattias Gardell described its spiritual perspective as "a heathen satanic path". The scholar George Sieg however argued that the ONA should be categorised as "post-Satanic" because it has "surpassed (without fully abandoning) identification with its original satanic paradigm". The ONA describe their occultism as "Traditional Satanism". Since
22270-632: The marcher lordships, which had administered Welsh law for their Welsh subjects. Some lordships were added to adjoining English counties: Ludlow , Clun , Caus and part of Montgomery were incorporated into Shropshire; Wigmore , Huntington , Clifford and most of Ewyas were included in Herefordshire; and that part of Chepstow east of the River Wye was included in Gloucestershire . The Council of Wales, based at Ludlow Castle ,
22440-402: The meaning of the term "Nine Angles". One explanation is that it pertains to the seven planets of the group's cosmology (the seven angles), added to the system as a whole (the eighth angle), and the mystic themselves (the ninth angle). A second explanation is that it refers to seven "normal" alchemical stages, with an additional two processes. A third is that it pertains to the nine emanations of
22610-574: The modern border between England and Wales. Campaigns and raids from Powys led, possibly around about AD 820, to the building of Wat's Dyke , a boundary earthwork extending from the Severn valley near Oswestry to the Dee estuary . In the centuries which followed, Offa's Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English. Æthelstan , often seen as the first king of a united England, summoned
22780-423: The niche, international nexus of occult, esoteric, and/or satanic neo-Nazi groups." Several newspapers have reported that the O9A is linked to a number of high-profile figures from the far right and that the group is affiliated and shares members with neo-Nazi terrorist groups such as Atomwaffen Division and proscribed National Action , Sonnenkrieg Division , Combat 18 and Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM). Also
22950-418: The number of "longtime adherents is much smaller." Also in 2013, Monette estimated that there were over two thousand ONA associates, broadly defined. He believed that the gender balance was roughly equal, although with regional variation and differences among particular nexions. Introvigne observed that if Monette's estimate was correct, it would mean that the ONA is "easily... the largest Satanist organization in
23120-412: The number of ONA members". Senholt suggested that a "rough estimate" of the "total number" of individuals involved with the ONA in some capacity from 1980 to 2009 was "a few thousand"; he had come to this conclusion from an examination of the number of magazines and journals about the subject circulated and the number of members of online discussion groups devoted to the ONA. At the same time he thought that
23290-409: The number of individuals who are broadly associated with the Order falls in the low thousands. Various rapes, killings and acts of terrorism have been perpetrated by far-right individuals influenced by the ONA, with various British politicians and activists calling for the ONA to be proscribed as a terrorist group. Academics have found it difficult to ascertain "exact and verifiable information" about
23460-447: The opposite sex. Thenceforth, the practitioner must undertake personal and increasingly difficult challenges in order to move through the different grades. Most of the ordeals that allow the initiate to proceed to the next stage are publicly revealed by the Order in its introductory material, as it is believed that the true initiatory element lies in the experience itself and can only be attained through performing them. For instance, part of
23630-446: The personal benefits of such an involvement, membership of these groups has the benefit of undermining the Magian-Nazarene socio-political system of the West and thus helping to bring about the instability from which a new order, the Imperium, can emerge. However, Monette noted a potential shift in the insight roles recommended by the group over the decades; he highlighted that while the ONA recommended criminal or military activities during
23800-610: The prisoners. However, the Wagner Group lost access to the prisons in February 2023 amidst schisms with the regular Russian Ministry of Defense . The Russian MoD itself reportedly began recruiting prisoners in October 2022. Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( Welsh : Y Mers ) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom . The precise meaning of
23970-455: The region. In June, Kadyrov announced that the unit's barracks in Chechnya would double as a patriotic youth center. On 15 August it was reported that the unit is subordinate to the 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division and has been sent to Southern Ukraine as part of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive to defend Russian positions south of Orikhiv . Zapad-Akhmat ( West-Akhmat ) is one of
24140-551: The religious studies scholar Connell R. Monette posited the possibility that "Anton Long" was not a singular individual but rather a pseudonym used by several different people. The ONA arose to public attention in the early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s it spread its message through articles in magazines. In 1988, it began publication of its own in-house journal, titled Fenrir . Among material it has issued for public consumption have been philosophical tracts, ritual instruction, letters, poetry, and gothic fiction. Its core ritual text
24310-416: The ritual to become an External Adept involves an ordeal in which the prospective member is to find a lonely spot and to lie there, still, for an entire night without moving or sleeping. The initiatory process for the role of Internal Adept entails the practitioner withdrawing from human society for three months, from an equinox to a solstice, or (more usually) for six months, during which time they must live in
24480-532: The second " Odessa Brigade ", spreading pro-Russian propaganda, and recognizing the Russian invasion as being legitimate. Formed in January 2016 in North Ossetia–Alania , the battalion initially saw combat during the War in Donbas . The Institute for the Study of War reported that it was the first volunteer unit to have seen combat during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fidar Khubaev, a blogger who joined
24650-471: The separatist forces. On November 11, 2022, former Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin announced that he was the new leader of the group shortly after his ousting from the agency. The unit works closely with the Russian Military–industrial complex to develop and test new technology in a "baptism of fire in the Donbas." The group's self stated goal is to restore the glory, and the borders, of
24820-497: The south of Wales to Shrewsbury, via Abergavenny, Hereford, and Craven Arms . The Marches Way is a long distance footpath which connects Chester in the north of England, via Whitchurch , Shrewsbury , Leominster and Abergavenny to the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The Marches School is a secondary school in Oswestry , Shropshire. The school has several meeting rooms named in Welsh, and has students and staff from both sides of
24990-484: The south of Wales. Many new towns were established, some such as Chepstow , Monmouth , Ludlow and Newtown becoming successful trading centres, and these tended also to be a focus of English settlement. At the same time, the Welsh continued to attack English soil and supported rebellions against the Normans. The Norman lords each had similar rights to the Welsh princes. Each owed personal allegiance, as subjects, to
25160-769: The style of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley . He also claimed a brief involvement in a Satanic group based in Manchester , the Orthodox Temple of the Prince run by Ray Bogart, during which time he encountered the ONA Grand Mistress. According to the Order's account, Long joined the ONA in 1973 – the first person to have done so in five years – and he became the grand mistress's heir. He later recalled that at that time
25330-540: The term "member", instead favouring the word "associate". In 2012, Long stated that those affiliated with the Order fell into six different categories: associates of traditional nexions, Niners, Balobians, gang and tribe members, followers of the Rounwytha tradition, and those involved with ONA-inspired groups. The group largely consists of autonomous cells known as "nexions". The original cell, based in Shropshire,
25500-642: The term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin Marchia Walliae ) was originally used in the Middle Ages to denote the marches between England and the Principality of Wales , in which Marcher lords had specific rights, exercised to some extent independently of the king of England . In modern usage, "the Marches" is often used to describe those English counties which lie along
25670-532: The time as an attempt by Russian propaganda to distract the public from successful Ukrainian counter-attacks in the region. Ukrainian journalist Lilia Ragutskaya agreed with this assessment, disparagingly calling the unit the "Markov brigade" and its fighters "cannon fodder" for the Russian military. However, she also stated that the unit was better equipped than the militias of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics , suggesting that it had been directly armed by
25840-730: The time of the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of small castles were built in the border area in the 12th and 13th centuries, predominantly by Norman lords as assertions of power as well as defences against Welsh raiders and rebels. The area still contains Britain's densest concentration of motte-and-bailey castles. The Marcher lords encouraged immigration from all the Norman-Angevin realms, and encouraged trade from "fair haven" ports like Cardiff . Peasants went to Wales in large numbers: Henry I encouraged Bretons , Flemings , Normans , and English settlers to move into
26010-508: The top of a culturally diverse, intensely feudalised and local society, the Marcher barons combined the authority of feudal lord and vassal of the King among their Normans, and of supplanting the traditional tywysog among their conquered Welsh. However, Welsh law was sometimes used in the Marches in preference to English law, and there were disputes as to which code should be used to decide
26180-656: The town of New York in Donetsk Oblast as part of the Southern Military District , operating UAVs . The Oplot-1 Battalion was created by the Cossack veterans organization Oplot on 19 August 2023. The Combat Army Reserves was created by the Ministry of Defence in 2015 as an analogous organization to the British Territorial Army or the United States Army Reserve with members being paid
26350-626: The tradition. According to the Order's account, one of those whom the grand mistress initiated into the group was "Anton Long", an individual who described himself as a British citizen who had spent much of his youth visiting Africa , Asia , and the Middle East . Long claimed that prior to his involvement in the ONA he had been interested in occultism for several years, having contacted a coven based in Fenland in 1968, before moving to London and joining groups that practiced ceremonial magic in
26520-427: The tree of life an Abrahamic Semitic concept. The Seven Fold Way is also reflected in the group's initiatory system, which has seven grades through which the member can gradually progress. These are: (1) Neophyte, (2) Initiate, (3) External Adept, (4) Internal Adept, (5) Master/Mistress, (6) Grand Master/Mousa and (7) Immortal. The group has revealed that very few of its members raise to the fifth and sixth degrees, and in
26690-529: The unit was part of Donetsk People's Republic formations. He also said that the unit contained a detachment that was composed "almost entirely" of former Wagner Group mercenaries who had signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. He said that this detachment "sends drone operators, electronic warfare (EW) specialists, and other fighters to other units in different frontline sectors as needed". The Arbat Battalion has operated primarily in
26860-492: The unit was reported as performing rear-guard policing operations behind Russian lines. Adam Delimkhanov claimed that the unit saw combat around Marinka and were being commanded by Apti Alaudinov . Russian state news agency TASS reported that the unit captured the village of Novomikhailovsky in the Donetsk Oblast on January 26, 2023. In late May 2023, it was reported that Sever-Akhmat soldiers were involved in
27030-401: The view that the name "Anton Long" is probably the pseudonym of the British neo-Nazi activist David Myatt , although Myatt has denied that this is the case. From the late 1970s onward, Long authored books and articles which propagated the Order's ideas, and in 1988 it began publishing its own journal, Fenrir . Through these ventures it established links with other neo-Nazi Satanist groups around
27200-488: The way of the warrior", under the impact of the Magian/Nazarene ethos it has become "essentially neurotic, inward-looking and obsessed", embracing humanism , capitalism , communism , as well as "the sham of democracy " and "the dogma of racial equality ." They believe that these Magian/Nazarene forces represent a counter-evolutionary trend which threatens to prevent the emergence of the Western Imperium and thus
27370-504: The wild without modern conveniences or contact with civilisation. The next stage – the Ritual of the Abyss – involves the candidate living alone in a dark isolated cavern for a lunar month. According to Jeffrey Kaplan, an academic specialist of the far right, these physically and mentally challenging initiatory tasks reflect "the ONA's conception of itself as a vanguard organization composed of
27540-557: The world". According to a survey in 2015, the ONA has more female supporters than either the Church of Satan or the Temple of Set; more women with children; more older supporters; more supporters who are better established in socio-economic terms; and more who politically are further to the Right. According to a report by the civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Center the ONA "holds an important position in
27710-523: The world, furthering its cause through embracing the Internet in the 2000s. The ONA advocates accelerationism and promotes the idea that human history can be divided into a series of aeons, each of which contains a corresponding human civilization. It expresses the view that the current aeonic civilization is that of the Western world , but it claims that the evolution of this society is threatened by
27880-567: The writings of Chloe Ortega and Kayla DiGiovanni, key publicists for the U.S.-based White Star Acception, express what Sieg termed a "left-anarchist" platform which lacked the condemnation of Zionism and the endorsement of Aryan racialism which is found in Long's writings. The Order is thus far more overtly politically extreme in its aims than other Satanic and left-hand path organisations are, seeking to infiltrate and destabilise modern society through magical and practical means. The ONA's core system
28050-458: Was Bernard de Neufmarché , responsible for conquering and pacifying the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog . The precise dates and means of formation of the lordships varied, as did their size. The March, or Marchia Wallie , was to a greater or lesser extent independent of both the English monarchy and the Principality of Wales or Pura Wallia , which remained based in Gwynedd in the north west of
28220-565: Was also directly responsible for the government of the Principality of Wales, which had its own institutions and was, like England, divided into counties. The jurisdiction of the remaining marcher lords was therefore seen as an anomaly, and their independence from the crown enabled criminals from England to evade justice by moving into the area and claiming "marcher liberties". Under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 introduced under Henry VIII ,
28390-416: Was announced on social media in July 2022, accompanied by claims that Russian forces were still planning to conquer Odesa and Mykolaiv . This unit was led by Ihor Markov , an Odesa native and well-known local collaborator . He claimed that the unit mostly consisted of locals like himself. The Frontier Post characterized the foundation of the new Odessa Brigade alongside other declarations at
28560-504: Was practicing an esoteric tradition that he termed the "Numinous Way". Goodrick-Clarke supported the idea that Myatt was Long, with the religious studies scholar Jacob C. Senholt adding that "the role of David Myatt [is] paramount to the whole creation and existence of the ONA". Senholt presented additional evidence that he believed confirmed Myatt's identity as Long, writing that Myatt's embrace of neo-Nazism and radical Islamism represented "insight roles" which Myatt had adopted as part of
28730-599: Was reconstituted as the Council of Wales and the Marches , with statutory responsibilities for the whole of Wales together with, initially, Cheshire , Shropshire , Herefordshire , Worcestershire and Gloucestershire . The City of Bristol was exempted in 1562, and Cheshire in 1569. The Council was eventually abolished in 1689, following the " Glorious Revolution " which overthrew James II (VII of Scotland) and established William III (William of Orange ) as king. List of Marcher lordships and successor shires: There
28900-557: Was the "Hero of Russia Damir Islamov" Battalion, named after posthumous Hero of Russia Damir Islamov who was killed in 2022 in Ukraine. He was a senior lieutenant of a tank platoon that "demonstrated courage and heroism" when he was killed in action. The second was the "Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Kuznetsov" Battalion, and the third was an unnamed battalion that would only consist of contract soldiers. From Perm Oblast , there are two battalions. The first
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