Editing Order of Nine Angles (section)

===Initiation and the Seven Fold Way===

The ONA's core system is known as the "Seven Fold Way" or "Hebdomadry",{{sfnm|1a1=Goodrick-Clarke|1y=2003|1p=219|2a1= Senholt |2y= 2013|2p=257|3a1=Monette|3y=2013|3p=95|4a1= Introvigne |4y=2016|4p=361}} and is outlined in one of the Order's primary texts, ''Naos''.{{sfn |Monette|2013|p=106}} 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.{{sfn |Monette|2013|p=101}} The term ''[[wyrd]]'' was adopted from [[Old English]], where it referred to [[fate]] or [[destiny]].{{sfn|Monette|2013|p=101}} Monette identified this as a "hermetic system", highlighting that the use of seven planetary bodies had been influenced by the Medieval Arabic texts ''[[Picatrix|Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm]]'' and [[Shams al-Ma'arif]].{{sfn |Monette|2013 |p= 106}} 

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 (Kabbalah)|tree of life]] in [[Kabbalah]] mysticism, as they consider the tree of life to be an Abrahamic Semitic concept.{{sfn |Senholt|2013|pp=3, 249, 256, 269}} The Seven Fold Way is reflected in the group's initiatory system, which has seven grades through which the member can gradually progress.{{sfnm|1a1=Goodrick-Clarke|1y= 2003|1p=219|2a1=Senholt |2y= 2013 |2p= 257|3a1=Monette|3y=2013|3p=95}} These are: (1) Neophyte, (2) Initiate, (3) External Adept, (4) Internal Adept, (5) Master/Mistress, (6) Grand Master/Mousa and (7) Immortal.{{sfnm|1a1=Senholt|1y=2013|1p=258|2a1=Monette|2y=2013 |2pp= 95–96}} The group has revealed that very few of its members raise to the fifth and sixth degrees.{{sfn|Senholt|2013|p= 259}} In a 1989 article, the ONA stated that at that point there were only four individuals who had reached the stage of Master.{{sfn |Senholt|2013|p= 259}}

The ONA does not initiate members into the group itself, but rather expects individuals to initiate themselves.{{sfn |Monette|2013|p=96}} It requires that initiates be in a good physical condition, and recommends a training regimen for prospective members to follow.{{sfn|Kaplan|2000a|p=236}}  Newcomers are expected to take on a magical partner of the opposite sex.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2003|p=219}} The practitioner must undertake personal and increasingly difficult challenges in order to move through the different grades.{{sfn|Monette|2013|p= 96}} 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.{{sfn|Senholt|2013|p= 258}} 

Part of 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Kaplan|1y=2000a|1p=236|2a1=Senholt|2y=2013|2p= 258}} 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 the wild without modern conveniences or contact with civilisation.{{sfnm|1a1=Kaplan|1y=2000a|1pp=236–37|2a1= Goodrick-Clarke|2y=2003|2p= 219|3a1= Senholt|3y= 2013 |3p= 258}} 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 a tiny coterie of [[Nietzschean]] elites."{{sfn|Kaplan|2000a|p=237}}