Florida: US Senate candidate Augustus Sol Invictus sacrificed goat and drank its blood in pagan ritual

A US Senate candidate's past has come back to haunt him as he takes on Libertarian Party leaders in Florida. Augustus Sol Invictus was forced to admit he walked from central Florida to the Mojave Desert two years ago, spent a week fasting and praying, and ended his journey by sacrificing a goat and drinking its blood.

According to The Associated Press, Libertarian Party of Florida chairman Adrian Wyllie has resigned in hopes to encourage other party leaders to denounce Invictus's Senate campaign to replace GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio. Wyllie claims the 32-year-old candidate wants to lead a revolution, has attempted to recruit neo-Nazis and sadistically dismembered a goat.

"He is the absolute exact opposite of a Libertarian. He's a self-proclaimed fascist. He's promoting a second civil war," Wyllie, a former Libertarian candidate for Florida governor, said. In an interview with Politico, Wyllie added, "I resigned to draw attention to this, as a protest. I did this as a pre-emptive strike. I don't want anyone to think this guy represents Libertarians. He doesn't. Under the law, we can't keep him from the ballot."

However, Invictus—not his given name—is fighting back against Wyllie's claims and says the former Libertarian Party leader is running a smear campaign. While he acknowledges that he has white supremacist supporters, he says that he is not a white supremacist, citing his four Hispanic children as proof.

In a phone interview with AP, Invictus said he is not trying to start a civil war but warned that the US government is at war with its citizens. "The only question is when are the citizens going to start fighting back?" he said. "I don't think I'm the only person who sees a cataclysm coming, but I think I'm the only person saying it, and I think that scares people."

The lawyer, who changed his given name to the Latin phrase meaning "majestic unconquered sun," also acknowledged he sacrificed a goat, but clarifies that it was neither brutal nor sadistic. "I did sacrifice a goat. I know that's probably a quibble in the mind of most Americans," he said. "I sacrificed an animal to the god of the wilderness...Yes, I drank the goat's blood."

Invictus, who is a follower of a religion called Thelema, told Politico that he was expelled from the religion's fraternal organisation, Ordo Templi Orientis, for "political reasons" and that animal sacrifice is part of his religion.

The US Senate candidate has admitted to being investigated by the FBI, the US Marshals and other law enforcement. Invictus has a series of YouTube videos and writing in which he discusses government, he said. In one of his papers, Invictus even renounces his citizenship, the AP noted.

Invictus seems to have a lot working against him in his quest for the Senate seat. Not only is running as a Libertarian a long shot, Invictus said he knows being a pagan will not help him. "If not elected, I still think there is a purpose for all this and that is to get a message out there, waking them up," he told the AP. "They are the ones that control the government and not the other way around."