The Minneapolis Shooter And His Connection to Satanism
The chilling events that unfolded in Minnesota, when a 23 year old Robin [Robert] Westman, barricaded the Annunciation church doors and shot through windows, is a lesson for all of us who underestimate the effect of radicalized beliefs. Afterwards, rumors swirled online that the shooter, was connected with the radicalized groups 764, ONA, and Satanism.
Westman’s mother had worked at the church until 2021, and Westman had attended the school. Westman had been very involved in the Annunciation church, with the church’s social posts listing him as a parish secretary, and an administrative assistant. In a series of videos on YouTube he laid out his plans for taking the lives of others, and taking his own life as well.
Friends knew him as someone who was odd, who would secretly doodle in notebooks in Cyrillic, English and other languages. These notes also pointed to his obsession with other high-profile mass shooters.
Indeed, Westman might have taken his cue from other members of this dangerous, worldwide cult. 764 is described as a decentralized, international online network, that aligns with misanthropic, and accelerationist terrorism. They branched out, or were formed from, the Order of Nine Angles. The Order of Nine Angles is terrorist network that uses Satanism, occult and other Left Hand Path logic to promote their neo-nazi idealism. Using elements of the occult, they were able to reach those who were seeking to know a truth, and those who were angry, young and disaffected. These radical groups share a similarity to the Joy of Satan network here in the United States, who was once lead by Maxine Dietrich, by marriage to the former head of the National Socialist Movement.
Satanists of this younger generation might not know the history of these groups. The 764 movement has been described as Satanic by numerous sources, but mostly they use Satanism as a way to gain new members simply through curiosity. They are, at worst, a national network of underground members that are motivated by the destruction of society.
For them, Satanism is something that is taught to be ‘forbidden’, therefore it is useful in their destructive campaign. Groups like this take from a wide variety of sources, however, even stretching into Hinduism (with Kali), and ancient medieval manuscripts. There are many offshoots of the ONA, including the Tempel ov Blood, the National Socialist Order of Nine Angles, the Maniac Murder Cult, Iron March Network, White Order of Thule, The Joy of Satan, The Black Order and more.
These dangerous organizations harbor bad actors that want nothing more than to destroy peace in society. For many of these groups that use Satanism as a front, it is born out of Anti-Cosmic Satanism, a radical philosophy that purports that the physical world is an illusion in which we are always trapped, and thus the world must be destroyed to be free of it. It promotes a hatred of humanity and society.
Much more than anarchists, they are the architects of the destruction of society. Sources point to members of these groups attempting to destroy the power grid, or spreading rumors about Covid-19, and 5G towers, which resulted in several cases of people trying to take down cell phone towers. They use conspiracy theory and rumor, often linked to Russian troll farms, to achieve their goals.
But, the 764 order is much more insidious than that. They used the accessibility of the internet to form a ring of exploitation of minors on Discord, Roblox and any other place you can find young people. By using hacking and extortion these young victims are tortured into doing whatever the group wants from them, including branding themselves, harming one’s self or others, harming pets and even carrying out mass shootings. They create an emotional dependency upon them so viscous that the victims do whatever is asked.
Through this network, they spread their own discord, eventually inspiring shooters like the Antioch school shooter in Tennessee. What does any of this have to do with Satanism? Absolutely nothing.
Rumors and Response Online
By and large, you will not find that Satanists have an interest in destroying society. In fact, it goes against the general philosophy held by many Satanists that since the self is the highest embodiment of life, it would be against one’s own interest to harm one’s self, or to harm others. The issue here is that numerous online groups who have unfettered access to children online without parents bothering to monitor their children on the world wide web, are easily available to these cyber criminals.
There is no legitimate, long-time and established Satanist organizations that invite children to join them. In fact, many of us believe that a person can’t have a good understanding of Satanism as a philosophy, or life in general until they are older, which is generally true of most things in life that require an adult brain to function.
We hope that there are those who will stand up and break apart these dangerous organizations, which accomplish nothing but hate and destruction. Our friend and Satanist, Satan Wolf, from his podcast Daily Dose of Satanism, points out that ‘The Order of Nine Angles is so far away from Satanism, that there’s just no connection.”, and “They are destructive, while our religion is constructive”. He also points out the fact that Satanism does not condone harm towards others, “The core tenants of our philosophy explicitly reject violence and abuse, especially towards children”.
There are many Satanists who agree with these sentiments, but many, who are ignorant of Satanism’s reach and purpose, spread rumors online that this person, used Satanism as an outlet for violence. Some posters online [Reddit, where most of the chatter seemed to be], said that “a trans youth who is already experiencing significant societal ostracization would naturally gravitate towards any movement that would allow them to once again be part of the in group”. In other words, he was already vulnerable.
Another poster muses on the disconnection between Satanism and violence with, “I’ve read the satanic Bible and satanism doesn’t just come out and tell you to murder people. I’m always so baffled at how terrified everyone is of Satan despite having zero education in the subject”.
Another user, from the Satanic Temple, points out the double standard in all of these accusations with:
“When you are the majority/default identity, it’s taken for granted that you’re normal, and you don’t have to apologize for other people who share your identity doing bad stuff.” They continue with, “If you are a Satanist who doesn’t want to be party to that, you have to do a lot of work pushing back against it, vocally and incessantly, to make neo-Nazis, fascists, and ‘ironic’ bigots know that they are absolutely unwelcome and not your friend, not even in the name of ‘free speech’”.
Another member sums up how their (The Satanic Temple’s) philosophy differs from the ONA/764:
“As for where O9A intersects with TST and tenet Satanism in general, they blatantly do not intersect. Though we are non-believers we are not nihilists, we believe in pluralism, tolerance, and romanticism. Obviously we’re weirdos who are drawn to the darker side of humanity and deal with various levels of religious trauma that we express through blasphemy, but how we view the literary character of Satan/Lucifer is a Byronic hero who rebelled against his creator and was cast out. They (the ONA) want(s) to destroy society and replace it with something in its own image, we just want a free and open society free of any religious influence.”
There is a stark difference from what most Satanists today know of Satanism, and these radicalized online groups. Hopefully, many more of us will keep pushing back and keep fascism and radical hate out of our own safe spaces online and in person. And, parents should step up and monitor their kid’s online activities, before someone else does it for them.
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Center For Missing and Exploited Youth Network at https://www.missingkids.org/home, contact INTERPOL to report cybercrime at: https://www.interpol.int/en/Contacts/Contact-INTERPOL and contact your local FBI office.
References:
764 Organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764_(organization)
Order of Nine Angles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wikiOrder_of_Nine_Angles
Leaders of 764 Arrested and Charged for Operating Global Child Exploitation Enterprise:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/leaders-764-arrested-and-charged-operating-global-child-exploitation-enterprise
What we know about Minnesota school shooting suspect Robin Westman
The suspect had a “deranged obsession with previous mass shooters,” police said: https://abcnews.go.com/US/minnesota-school-shooting-suspect-robin-westman/story?id=125029777
Minneapolis Shooting and the Order of the 9 Angles, Daily Dose of Satanism Podcast: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-daily-dose-of-satanism-290578900/
Reddit, Satanic Temple Comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/SatanicTemple_Reddit/comments/1n3hbqb/764_and_order_of_nine_angles/
The Minneapolis Shooter seems to have been groomed by 764, a decentralized pro-Russian Satanic neo-Nazi (s)extortion network that is adjacent to the Order of Nine Angles:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1n27gnb/the_minneapolis_shooter_seems_to_have_been/
