Michael Flynn Says He Does Not Worship Satan, Which Is Exactly What A Satan Worshiper Would Say

Or not, given that Satan worship is not an actual thing.

For the last few years, there has been but one person that QAnon followers have been as devoted to as Donald Trump — and that would be Trump's erstwhile National Security Advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn. The popular mythology these days is that rather than being one individual person, Q was a team of "whitehats" trying to save the world by publishing cryptic messages on an image board known for publishing child pornography, for your Aunt Carol to decipher. This team included Flynn, Trump, and whomever else they happened to like at any given moment.

Perhaps more than anyone else, Gen. Flynn has really leaned into his role as the grand seigneur of the Q movement, nurturing the conspiracy theory that considers him the greatest American hero (and profiting off it as well) .

Alas, people who are pretty much just making shit up as they go along tend to be pretty fickle in their loyalties. When a video surfaced of Flynn doing a strange-sounding prayer that included references to "sevenfold rays" at an event last month, several followers started to consider the possibility that it was, in fact, a Satanic prayer, to Satan. And that perhaps Flynn had been leading them astray this whole time. 

TruNews calls out Michael Flynn for claiming that he was just delivering a simple Catholic prayer at Hank Kunneman'… https: //t.co/oAd5mexh3Y

— Right Wing Watch (@Right Wing Watch) 1633700360.0 

In response, Flynn appeared on a random YouTube show called Truth Unveiled TV this week to tell his side of the story, which was that he was actually just reworking a prayer to St. Michael the Archangel that he carries around with him and was not in fact praying to Satan.

 youtu.be 

Ironically, Flynn suggests in the video that people should stop reading things into everything he or anyone else says, which is pretty much the main activity that his followers are Where We Go One We Go All-ing about.

Now, Flynn's prayer bears no resemblance at all to the most common prayer to St. Michael , but it does, as Twitter user Jim Stewartson pointed out, bear a strong resemblance to a "decree" by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT)/Summit Lighthouse — a theosophy-based cult that rose to prominence in the 1980s when her followers all moved to underground bunkers in Montana in hopes of living through the apocalypse she had predicted.

I did a video comparison of I AM / Church Universal Triumphant cult leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet in 1984 and Mike… https: //t.co/HqfaazA6so

— Jim Stewartson, Antifascist, #RIPQ 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️ (@Jim Stewartson, Antifascist, #RIPQ 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️) 1633550862.0 

For comparison.

Prophet: I AM the instrument of those sevenfold rays and archangels! And I will not retreat. I will take my stand I willnot fear to speak. And I will be the instrument of God's will, whatever it is Here I AM, so help me, God! In the name of Archangel Michael and his legions, I AM freeborn and I shall remain freeborn! And I shall not be enslaved by any foe within and without!

Flynn: We are your instrument of those sevenfold rays and all your archangels, all of them. We will not retreat, we will not retreat. We will stand our ground. We will not fear to speak. We will be the instrument of your will, whatever it is. In your name and the name of your legions. We are freeborn, and we shall remain freeborn. And we shall not be enslaved by any foe within and without, so help me God.

There is little question that this is basically (entirely) the same prayer — although in CUT terminology, it's called a "decree." To be clear, by the way, it's not "Satanism."

That being said ... as hilarious and ironic as it would be if it were true, I highly doubt that Michael Flynn is secretly a member of the Church Universal and Triumphant or any other Ascended Masters group, not least of all because barely anyone is a member of CUT these days. However, the Summit Lighthouse does hand out pamphlets on occasion — I actually have one at home because all of my friends know I love weird religious tracts — and St. Michael the Archangel figures really heavily into the Ascended Master stuff.

I just would not personally put it past an old Catholic guy from Rhode Island (where almost everyone is Catholic and assumes everyone else is also Catholic) to be like "Oh look, a nice prayer to the Archangel Michael, let me cut that out and put it in my wallet or on my refrigerator, with all of the other prayer cards and memorial cards and random pictures of angels," or for someone to have given him the prayer already cut out. My dad literally just stopped mailing me newspaper clippings a few years ago and I have to assume this is a cultural thing of some kind. I'm an Occam's Razor kind of gal and I'm not about to fight QAnon with QAnon.

The big tell, however, is that he wears a lot of red and black, which is totally forbidden by both the "I AM" Activity and the Church Universal and Triumphant . It's not a casual suggestion, either. When I visited the "I AM" Activity temple in Chicago, they told me I wouldn't be allowed in if I were were not wearing the right colors from head to toe.

But While We're Here — What Even Is This Shit?

Contrary to what Stewartson says in his tweets, The I AM Activity and the Church Universal and Triumphant, though both are centered on Theosophy, New Thought, and "Ascended Masters" woo, are not the same organization and have different beliefs. CUT certainly co-opted a whole lot of their nonsense from Guy and Edna Ballard and considered them both to be Ascended Masters once they died, but they were and are both their own weird thing. For instance, CUT definitely incorporated Christian beliefs, as well as beliefs from other religions, to a greater degree (although almost all Ascended Masters groups consider Jesus to have been an Ascended Master). They were also really, really, really anti-communist and really into hoarding guns, because they thought the apocalypse was coming and they were going to have to defend their bunkers from looters. CUT is basically what would happen if your weird friend who thought she was an Indigo child joined the John Birch Society and the NRA.

Neither groups have particularly active followings these days.

Guy and Edna Ballard, aka Godfré Ray King and Lotus Ray King in their fabulous cult outfits. 

The primary belief of both groups is in the "ascended masters" — people who have been reincarnated enough times to attain enlightenment, become one with their "Mighty 'I AM' Presences" and enter "the sixth dimension," whatever the hell that is supposed to be. The main characters from most religions? Ascended masters. Most of the leaders of these groups claim to be super close to becoming ascended masters themselves and frequently discuss their previous incarnations. Guy Ballard, for instance, had been many people, including King Henry V, King Richard the Lionhearted, George Washington, Alexander the Great and Aemilius, a Roman Centurion present at Jesus' Crucifixion.

Literally just watched this episode last night and the quote felt relevant! 

Their main dude, however, is St. Germain — whose last incarnation was as Francis Bacon, though he was previously Christopher Columbus, Plato and Merlin, the fictional magician. Ballard claimed to have met St. Germain at Mount Shasta (yeah, they're all up in that Mount Shasta shit). According to Elizabeth Clare Prophet's nonsense, Francis Bacon faked his death and then lived as the Count of St. Germain for several decades and then ascended. However, all of these different Ascended Masters groups have different ideas about how that all was supposed to work.

If you are thinking "Boy, that sounds like a super white version of some Eastern religious traditions," you would be correct. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy and a super weird and interesting lady in her own right, traveled to India to learn from the yogis there, took some of what they said and then came up with her own thing. While she used the term "Mahatma" instead of "Ascended Master," it was basically the same deal.

The best Ascended Masters group, by the way, was the Unarius Academy of Science, led by the Archangel Uriel (aka Ruth Norman) and her extremely good outfits.

Such good outfits. 

One thing I do find kind of interesting though is that Edna Ballard, Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Ruth Norman all had husbands who kind of started them off on the New Age Trip, but then very much took over and became the more prominent leader of their respected groups, particularly after said husbands died. It's like Girl Boss Feminism, cult style. Maybe?

There are, of course, other Ascended Masters groups, like "I AM" University and most of your smaller New Age cults, which are probably more active than CUT or the "I AM" Activity these days. There are all kinds of theories involving some Ascended Masters being born as adults or having previously reincarnated on other planets, there's even UFOlogy in some of them.

So yeah, Michael Flynn is probably not secretly in a cult that barely exists anymore and is just a regular grifter. Although if he starts doing a violet flame decree or channeling St. Germain, I will happily eat my own words.

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[ The Daily Beast ]

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