Some recent research into the existence of Satanism in New Zealand has begun to turn up some interesting leads. A posting on an internet forum suggests that the Order of the Left Hand Path is still active in New Zealand, and that the Order of Nine Angles has a branch in New Zealand calling themselves “Meridianus Nexion”. Also, the Temple of Set and Church of Satan possibly have branches in New Zealand.
The poster, going by the name of Flay, comments, “I do know however that there are a lot of professed Satanists in NZ; Paremoremo prison was reknowned for it in the early 90’s. All of the few persons I met physically into Satanism when I lived in Auckland were literal Devil Worshippers/Anti-Christians or students of the Gothic or COS variety.”
A little more digging turned up the website Order of the Left Hand Path which provides a brief history of the Order and a membership application page. The history page concludes with the following statement: “The ODF withdrew from the public in late 1997. After 10 years of existence within the shadows, the wheel has gone full circle and a decision was made for the Order of the Left Hand Path to re-emerge. More will be posted as necessary.”
There is an associated OLHP MySpace page, however it doesn’t appear to have been accessed since 2007.
As of writing I have not received any response from an email I sent to the listed email address listed on the site. I will keep readers informed of any progress in my research here.
The Meridianus Nexion page contains no contact details and only 3 brief articles. It is difficult to know if this is genuinely Order of Nine Angles material or members, as some of the articles appear to almost mock ideas promoted by the ONA. Maybe I am not clued up enough to understand and simply miss the point.
I did note that both of these websites are hosted on the same webhost, which suggests to me that they may be set up by someone wishing to give the appearance of the groups still existing. If my above hunch is correct, then they may be set up either as a joke or by someone wishing to become notorious by association with already existing (or previously existing) groups.
So far I’ve not found any direct evidence of the Temple of Set existing in New Zealand, although it is possible there will be members here. The official Temple of Set website has a section for Temple of Set Australia. However, the Temple of Set seem to no longer associate with Satanism per se. Don Webb, High Priest Emeritus, in his article Concerning Satanism, writes: “The Temple of Set has begun the process of distancing form the term “Satanism,” a cultural fad of the latter part of the Twentieth Century of the Common Era. The usefulness of this particular tool as a means to antinomianism is fading in our post-Christian society, just as it had no meaning in the pre-Christian society where the first explorations of the Setian path occured.”
To date, I have been unable to find any definitive information on the existence of an official branch of the Church of Satan in New Zealand.
Tags: New Zealand, Satanism
