Post by JoannaL on Feb 15, 2020 21:49:56 GMT -5
British Woman Encounters Satanic Sex Cult in Vegan Café
Anya Driscoll (above), a freelance “creative copywriter” in London, claimed she stumbled upon a “Satanic sex cult” while having brunch at the Bonnington Café in Vauxhaul, a section of London known for its gay nightlife. The incident occurred Saturday, February 8, when Driscoll, in search of the restroom, opened the wrong door and saw 20 people in floor-length black robes and carrying ceremonial daggers eating pork pies.
Naturally, she took to Twitter and soon discovered the strangely-garbed group were likely members of the Order of Oriental Templars (OTO), an organization that made its way to Britain in the early 20th century by the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, who referred to himself as “The Beast 666.” Widely-believed to be a Satanist, many referred to him as “the wickedest man in the world.”
In relating her experience, she said it all started while she was enjoying her mid-morning meal and her brother returned from the restroom and urged her to do the same. “He won’t tell me what’s up, so – suspecting I’m going to look at some really bad art about veganism – I go,” she tweeted. “I was so wrong. I step through a signposted door that takes me into the terraced building next door. The toilet is apparently on the third floor. It feels I’m walking up the stairs in a private home. At the top of the first flight of stairs is a landing room. It appears to be a kitchen. On a table, a Classic British buffet of scotch eggs, breadsticks, cheese etc is laid out. The room is full. A party! Except ... All the people – and there are at least 20 of them – are wearing floor-length black robes. Some have ceremonial daggers. They’re making polite conversation and chomping on mini pork pies. It’s like Eyes Wide Shut meets Keeping Up Appearances.”
She tapped one of the “cult members” on the shoulder and he pointed her in the direction of the toilet. “He points up more stairs and I awkwardly push past polite shrouded members until I reach a completely normal toilet,” she continued. “On the way back, someone announces it’s time “to begin” and they start shuffling into another room.”
At that point, Driscoll decided to ask the odd group of characters about their practice and was told they were “just friends.”
When she returned to the table, she discovered she wasn’t the only who questioned the robed attendees. “It turns out my brother also asked and was politely shut down. too. He did say he overheard one man say to another, ‘Oh, so you’re level two then?’
“I’ve googled the Bonnington Centre, searched social and there is NO EVENT listed for this afternoon. Nothing. Nada,” she tweeted.
“They were people of all ages, men and women, and apart from the Satanic death cult clothing, looked quite everyday, i.e., not massive goths or obviously into alternative lifestyles,” she said. “Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter, but I am INCREDIBLY curious....”
Ordo Templi Orientis, also known as O.T.O. or “Order of the Temple of the East” and “Order of Oriental Templars,” is an international fraternal and religious organization founded in the early 20th century and loosely modeled on Freemasonry. Its founders were Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss, as well as Crowley, who remains the best-known and most influential member of the Order.
Crowley, a known drug addict, reportedly had his teeth filed into fangs, drank blood and staged orgies fueled by heroin and cocaine. It is said he mutilated some of his female lovers by burning signs on their breasts using red-hot daggers, and was accused of consuming the flesh of babies in some of his rituals. In the early 20th century, he also founded the controversial Thelema social or spiritual philosophy, the key message of which is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”
Despite Crowley’s death as an impoverished heroin addict at the age of 72 in 1947, he became an icon for anti-establishment figures in the 1960s. Peaches Geldolf, who died in 2014, was believed to have been a member of the society because she often tweeted about the group and its teachings and even had “OTO” tattooed on her arm.
Both Jay-Z and Kanye West are among other celebrities linked with the organization. West has worn jewelry depicting the Egyptian god Horus and pyramids, the symbol of Thelema, and Jay-Z sparked speculation he was a follower when he was observed in a T-shirt with the slogan, “Do what thou wilt.”
In 2013, John Bonner, head of the OTO in Britain at that time, declared the cult was misunderstood. “We are used to being misunderstood,” he told a reporter. “Many stories about Crowley, like people saying he filed his teeth down into fangs, are nonsense.” However, he admitted the organization is something of a sex cult. “You could call us a sex cult in a way,” he continued, “because we recognize, accept and adore the whole process which goes towards making tangible the previously intangible.”
Devotees of the OTO claim fully understanding the religion can take years. “You’re not supposed to just jump straight into it,” Bonner explained. “It takes time and study, but our rituals are not for public consumption. You need to join us and go through the initiation process before you can begin to understand. But according to our beliefs, we can't turn anyone away. So if you are over 18, are passably sane and are free to attend initiations, then you have an undeniable right of membership.”
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Driscoll’s story quickly garnered a lot of interest online, with hundreds of people replying to the thread, with one person joking, “I love the fact that the swinging Satanists are fueled by Scotch eggs. Curiously British.”
“Why on earth are they meeting where there are such interruptions?” another asked.
“So they were eating pork pies and scotch eggs in a vegan restaurant? Shocked,” a third commented.
Another tweeted, “I’m not sure if most visitors to the vegan cafe would be more worried by the semi-on-site sex cult or their consumption of scotch eggs and pork pies?”
“I’ve been on the other side of this exact interaction, at this exact location,” another tweeter alleged. “I had never really thought how utterly bizarre it must have looked to muggles.”
Within the thread, a super sleuth noted the meeting was most likely held by AMeTh Lodge, a local body of OTO, at the Bonnington Centre’s “Middle Room.” A booking for “Ameth” for Saturday (between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.) and Sunday (between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.) is listed on its website.
Meanwhile one former Bonnington Café customer commented, “The Bonnington is still open!? That’s excellent news.”
Source: Bridie Pearson-Jones, The Daily Mail, February 10, 2020.
