Notes on Insight Rôles, and a Weird Life
Insight Rôles
Insight Rôles are a necessary part of the Seven Fold Way. Every Initiate has to undertake at least one Insight Rôle following their Initiation [see the Complete Guide to the Seven-Fold Way]. This Insight Rôle – which must last a minimum of one year – should be chosen so that the task undertaken is in most ways the opposite of the character of the Initiate. The Initiate is expected to be honest in assessing their own character.
Thus, an individual who found it difficult to accept authority – a rebel by nature – might choose as an Insight Rôle the task of joining and serving in the Police or the Armed Forces, just as someone who loved the pleasures of the flesh, and violence, might choose to become a Buddhist, or other type of, monk. Similarly, someone who considered themselves honest might choose to turn to a life of crime, and organize a criminal gang to relieve suitable victims (see the guidelines re victims) of some property or other assets. Another Insight Rôle would be for someone without any interest in politics or an inclination to violence, to become involved with an extremist political organization, and aid that organization in practical ways. Yet another Insight Rôle would be to assume the character of an assassin and cull those detrimental to the aims of the ONA.
Let us consider, as an example, the task of some Initiate becoming a Buddhist monk for a year. The Initiate must convince those in authority in the chosen monastery that they are sincere. This requires a study of Buddhism; it requires the Initiate to undertake Buddhist meditation. The Initiate must then succeed in gaining admittance, and once admitted, must live in a Buddhist way: that is, observing the tenets of Buddhism, however hard this might be.
One thing which is important about Insight Rôles is that the individual Initiate undertaking them is forbidden from telling anyone – however close a friend – why they are doing what they are doing. This applies to partners/spouses. The Initiate must appear committed to the chosen task, as they must live that task for at least a year: they must identify with the rôle they have chosen.
The best Insight Rôles are those which aid the sinister dialectic: that is, the deeds done achieve sinister aims as well as enhance the experience of the Initiate. Such Insight Rôles include aiding political (and some religious) forms; doing practical deeds which aid the breakdown of society – such as certain “crimes”, covert activity, assassinating suitable opfers, and so on. Insight Rôles which aid the sinister dialectic can be suggested by the person who is guiding the Initiate (if they have such an ONA guide) or they can be deduced, by the Initiate, from a study of the aims of the ONA and a study of the sinister dialectic itself. Indeed, such a deduction by the Initiate is a worthwhile learning in itself.
An Insight Rôle is only valid – that is, only achieves what it is supposed to achieve in terms of evolving the Initiate – if it is maintained for at least one year, and if the Initiate really does accept the restrictions, the ways, the rules, which are or may be applicable to the task or way of life chosen. If an Initiate cheats in some way, they are only cheating themselves.
If an Initiate considers it might be worthwhile, they can undertake a second Insight Rôle some months after completing their first, with this new Insight Rôle involving a different way of life than their first.
In addition to Initiates, Internal Adepts are advised to undertake an Insight Rôle, one or two years after they completed the rite of Internal Adept. Their Insight Rôle, however, must have an Aeonic aspect.
A Weird Life
The esoteric understanding of my life – details of which I have recounted in two secret MSS, one for perusal now by Initiates only [Presencing the Dark: The Weird Life of Anton Long], the other, a complete and encrypted version, for publication three decades from now – is that it is, and can be, a sinister inspiration to some, and, more importantly, that from that life I have distilled the quintessence as the practical techniques of the ONA.
Thus, these techniques – of Internal Magick, codified, for instance, in the Grade Rituals, in Insight Rôles and the tasks of the Seven-Fold Way – can produce in individuals the insights, the evolution, the knowledge, that I myself acquired as a result of my many deeds and diverse wanderings and involvements. That is, is not necessary – to become a sinister Adept – for everyone to do what I did. With these techniques, genuine Adeptship and beyond becomes accessible to and possible for anyone possessed of the character to venture along the sinister path. Thus can the number of such Adepts be increased.
Anton Long
ONA 114yf
