Welcome to the website of T. L. Othaos, author of Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness (click for purchase info) and founder of Tenebrous Satanism.
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On one hand, the Tenebrous runic-tarot has features familiar to tarot and rune readers. On the other, though, this divination system that I’ve devised also has a number of unique features. Something I therefore wanted to do in my divination series was to provide additional commentary on the system’s omens. I’m continuing this examination with a comparison between the threes – i.e., 3 Attainment, 3 Communion, 3 Strife and 3 Innovation.
As part of undertaking the Venus stage of Tenebrous initiation last year, I developed an Imbolc Tenebrous group ritual. I’ve meant for some time to share this, thinking it’s perhaps useful for other Tenebrous practitioners to consider. Since that time of year is quickly approaching once again, this month’s post seemed a fit place for doing this. The entry that follows will unpack the rationale for developing a “Tenebrous Pagan” ritual, and what that ritual entailed.
Time for a round-up of everything I’ve written on this blog in 2025:
This year it looks like there were three recurrent themes cropping up. One was divination – no surprise since I started the year off with a new series on that. The second was ritual magick, going into more detail than past entries in anticipation of would-be Tenebrous experimenters. Finally, we have “posts born from Telegram clashes or similar sorts of conversations”. Because there’s nothing like a little constructive adversity to keep things fresh around here…
I can’t help being somewhat irked by how recurrent issues related to my relationship’s demise have dominated 2025. The proverbial nails have at last been put in the coffin, though, so I’m glad to be moving on.
Moreover, many constructive things have grown from the ruins: a deepening of spiritual bonds between myself and friends whom I was not previously on this level with; a shift in emphasis from Chaos Magick to Paganism, which I foresee bearing much fruit in the years to come; freed energy that I can now spend on more productive conversations, and the projects that such conversations inspire.
So on the whole, the direction things are going in still seems ultimately for the best. I’m a bit behind on a few things that I would have liked to see more progress on, but I anticipate catching up in 2026. And in the meantime, I’m still selling copies of Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness – and at a much steadier rate than I would have expected, now two years into its publication!
As always, my thanks to everyone who has supported me on this blog, on Facebook, on X (gone though it is for me now) and on Telegram as my journey continues…
The question of how earthly concepts like sex/gender apply to acausal beings seems of general interest to many. I’ve also encountered recurrent push-back against my perception of the gender of a specific entity I’ve often worked with. This blog post therefore unpacks some thoughts of mine re: sex/gender – both in general, and with specific reference to Nythra, one of the Dark Gods (Nekalah) of the Order of Nine Angles (ONA/O9A).
Ritual magick is not necessarily a topic of interest to all readers of Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness. I reckon I now have enough readers, though, for at least some to be willing to engage in magickal experimentation. Such individuals may wonder: are there things I personally do in ritual that are not spelled out in Nine Keys? The book’s aim was to provide a framework individuals could elaborate on in accord with their needs and preferences. Insofar as I attempted to simplify down to essentials, though, I left out finer details of what exactly I do. This post will therefore document some of these details. Of course, one needn’t do things the exact way I do. But those trying my methods and getting different results from mine may find such details worth taking into consideration.
On one hand, the Tenebrous runic-tarot has features familiar to tarot and rune readers. On the other, though, this divination system that I’ve devised also has a number of unique features. Something I therefore wanted to do in my divination series was to provide additional commentary on the system’s omens. I’m continuing this examination with a comparison between the twos – i.e., 2 Attainment, 2 Communion, 2 Strife and 2 Innovation.
Having recently found myself “distracted by life,” I felt I needed something like a more thorough version of a banishing. What I ultimately did, I found to be highly effective. I therefore thought I’d share it here. It’s a similar sort of ritual to what some might call a “house cleanse” – hence, a Tenebrous house-cleansing. It should be relatively easy to perform for anyone familiar with Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness’ Rite of Banishing.
Adversity is a quality often emphasized in discourse about the sinister path. But what life experiences “count” as adversity? This entry doesn’t aim at a complete answer, but does seek to make two points. Firstly, adversity can take many forms – including forms that many people are unhelpfully trained to dismiss as “not real adversity.” Secondly, certain distinctive elements of the sinister path can be no less relevant to overcoming these forms of adversity than they are to overcoming “harder” kinds of adversity. This entry thus bears upon the question of how Tenebrous Satanism constructively extends the salience of a “sinister” mindset beyond the narrowly-envisioned extremism more typical of Order of Nine Angles (ONA/O9A) practitioners. It also touches quite personally on why I myself have found this path meaningful.
On one hand, as the name would suggest, the Tenebrous runic-tarot has features familiar to tarot and rune readers. On the other hand, though, this divination system that I’ve devised also has a number of unique features. Something I therefore wanted to do in my divination series was to provide additional commentary on the system’s omens. This struck me as particularly worth doing where omens may seem superficially similar to one another at first glance. I’ll begin this examination with a comparison between the ones – i.e., 1 Attainment, 1 Communion, 1 Strife and 1 Innovation.
I’ve often seen people draw a distinction between ritual magick and Chaos Magick that positions them as dualistic opposites. Upon reflection, this strikes me as a counterproductive product of unclear thinking. It seems to me that the resulting mental map narrows thinking about magick in a way that holds magicians back. This entry therefore aims to provide some food for thought re: how we think and talk about these concepts.
