Professional magicians Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin are the cofounders of Vanishing Inc. But, every single member of the team is a skilled magician. We’re proud to produce great magic tricks, magic books, downloads and DVDs. From card tricks using sleight of hand to easy magic tricks, there’s something for everyone here.
Sex magic (sometimes spelled sex magick) is any type of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits. One practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result. A premise posited by sex magicians is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that can be harnessed to transcend one's normally perceived reality.[citation needed]
- 3Ordo Templi Orientis
- 3.1Aleister Crowley
Paschal Beverly Randolph[edit]
Paschal Beverly Randolph
The earliest known practical teachings of sex magic in the Western world come from 19th-century American occultistPaschal Beverly Randolph, under the heading of The Mysteries of Eulis:
If a man has an intelligent and loving wife, with whom he is in complete accord, he can work out the problems [of how to achieve magical results] by her aid. They are a radical soul-sexive series of energies...The rite is a prayer in all cases, and the most powerful [that] earthly beings can employ...it is best for both man and wife to act together for the attainment of the mysterious objects sought.
Success in any case requires the adjuvancy of a superior woman. THIS IS THE LAW! A harlot or low woman is useless for all such lofty and holy purposes, and just so is a bad, impure, passion-driven apology for a man. The woman shall not be one who accepts rewards for compliance; nor a virgin; or under eighteen years of age; or another's wife; yet must be one who hath known man and who has been and still is capable of intense mental, volitional and affectional energy, combined with perfect sexive and orgasmal ability; for it requires a double crisis to succeed...
The entire mystery can be given in very few words, and they are: An upper room; absolute personal, mental, and moral cleanliness both of the man and wife. An observance of the law just cited during the entire term of the experiment -- 49 days. Formulate the desire and keep it in mind during the whole period and especially when making the nuptive prayer, during which no word may be spoken, but the thing desired be strongly thought...[1]
Randolph himself was greatly influenced by the work of English Rosicrucian and scholar of phallicism, Hargrave Jennings.
Ida Craddock[edit]
In the latter part of the 19th century, sexual reformer Ida Craddock published several works dealing with sacred sexuality, most notably Heavenly Bridegrooms and Psychic Wedlock. Aleister Crowley reviewed Heavenly Bridegrooms in the pages of his journal The Equinox, stating that it was:
...one of the most remarkable human documents ever produced, and it should certainly find a regular publisher in book form. The authoress of the MS. claims that she was the wife of an angel. She expounds at the greatest length the philosophy connected with this thesis. Her learning is enormous.
...This book is of incalculable value to every student of occult matters. No Magick library is complete without it.[2]
Sexual techniques from Craddock's Psychic Wedlock were later reproduced in Sex Magick by O.T.O. initiate Louis T. Culling, a disciple of C.F. Russell.[3]
Ordo Templi Orientis[edit]
Carl Kellner, the founder of Ordo Templi Orientis, (O.T.O.), claimed to have learned the techniques of sex magic from three adepts in this art.[4] Beginning in 1904, references to these secrets, Kellner, and the O.T.O. began appearing in 'an obscure German masonic periodical called Oriflamme.'[4] In 1912, the editors of Oriflamme announced:
Our order possesses the key which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely, the teachings of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception, all the secrets of Freemasonry and all systems of religion.[4]
Aleister Crowley[edit]
Crowley in Golden Dawn garb
Aleister Crowley became involved with Theodor Reuss and Ordo Templi Orientis following the publication of The Book of Lies between 1912 and 1913.[5] According to Crowley's account, Reuss approached him and accused him of having revealed the innermost (sexual) secret of O.T.O. in one of the cryptic chapters of this book. When it became clear to Reuss that Crowley had done so unintentionally, he initiated Crowley into the IX° (ninth degree) of O.T.O. and appointed him 'Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona and all the Britains.'[5][6][7]
While the O.T.O. included, from its inception, the teaching of sex magick in the highest degrees of the Order, when Crowley became head of the Order, he expanded on these teachings and associated them with different degrees as follows:[8]
- VIII°: masturbatory or autosexual magical techniques were taught, referred as the Lesser Work of Sol
- IX°: heterosexual magical techniques were taught
- XI°: anal intercourse magical techniques were taught.
Professor Hugh Urban, Professor of Comparative Religion at The Ohio State University, noted Crowley's emphasis on sex as 'the supreme magical power'.[6] According to Crowley:
The Book of the Law solves the sexual problem completely. Each individual has an absolute right to satisfy his sexual instinct as is physiologically proper for him. The one injunction is to treat all such acts as sacraments. One should not eat as the brutes, but in order to enable one to do one's will. The same applies to sex. We must use every faculty to further the one object of our existence.[9]
Writings on sex magic[edit]
Crowley wrote extensively on the topic of sex magick. Some of these works were published and made available to the general public, others were secret and could only be obtained by initiates of Ordo Templi Orientis.
- Liber IAO - IAO. Sexual Magick. Gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts. The active form of Liber CCCXLV.
- De Nuptis Secretis Deorum Cum Hominibus - Sexual magick
- Liber Stellae Rubeae - According to Crowley, a secret ritual of Apep, the heart of IAO-OAI, delivered unto V.V.V.V.V. for his use in a certain matter of The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis). Sexual Magick veiled in symbolism.
- Liber Agape vel C vel Azoth - The Book of the Unveiling of the Sangraal wherein it is spoken of the Wine of the Sabbath of the Adepts. Secret instructions of the ninth degree of the O.T.O. (Sex Magick)
- Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni - A perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept considered under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual. Sexual magick veiled in symbolism.
- Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici - Analyzes the nature of the creative magical force in man, explains how to awaken it, how to use it and indicates the general as well as the particular objects to be gained thereby. Sexual magick heavily veiled in symbolism.
- The Book of Lies - includes some techniques in symbolic language, including extended mutual oral sex (Chapter 69) while intoxicated on hashish.
- The Paris Working - A record of homosexual magick operations.
- Energized Enthusiasm - An essay developing the idea of creativity as a sexual phenomenon. Specially adapted to the task of attainment of control of the Body of Light, development of intuition, and Hatha yoga.
Arnold Krumm-Heller[edit]
According to Samael Aun Weor, Arnold Krumm-Heller taught sexual magic without ejaculation.[10]
Maria de Naglowska[edit]
Maria de Naglowska (1883–1936) was a Russian occultist, mystic, author and journalist who wrote and taught about sexual magical ritual practices while also being linked with the Parisian surrealist movement. She established and led an occult society known as the Confrérie de la Flèche d'or (Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow) in Paris from 1932 to 1935. In 1931, she compiled, translated and published in French a collection of published and unpublished writings by American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph on the subject of sexual magic and magic mirrors. Her translation and publication of Randolph's previously little known ideas and teachings was the source of Randolph's subsequent influence in European magic.[11] She augmented the text with what she claimed were some of his oral teachings.[12] The following year, she published a semi-autobiographical novella, Le Rite sacré de l'amour magique (The Sacred Ritual of Magical Love.)
Later that year, she also published La Lumière du sexe (The Light of Sex), a mystic treatise and guide to sexual ritual that was required reading for those seeking to be initiated into the Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow. Her later book on advanced sexual magic practices, Le Mystère de la pendaison (The Hanging Mystery) details her advanced teachings on the Third Term of the Trinity and the spiritually transformative power of sex, and the practice of erotic ritual hanging and other sensory deprivation practices. Beyond occult subjects, Naglowska also influenced the surrealist art movement. The Lexique succinct de l'érotisme in the catalog of the 1959 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris noted her important influence.[13] Surrealist Sarane Alexandrian wrote a detailed account of her life.[14]
See also[edit]
- Marjorie Cameron and Jack Parsons
- Coitus reservatus (also known as karezza)
Notes and references[edit]
- ^Randolph, Paschal Beverly (1996). 'Appendix B: The Mysteries of Eulis'. In Deveney, JP (ed.). Paschal Beverly Randolph : A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 327–342. ISBN978-0-7914-3120-7.
- ^The Blue Equinox. III. Aleister Crowley (ed.). Detroit MI: Universal Pub. Co. 1919.CS1 maint: others (link)
- ^Culling, Louis T. Sex Magick. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1988.
- ^ abcThe Magical World of Aleister Crowley, page 78
- ^ abKing, Francis The Magical World of Aleister Crowley page 80
- ^ abUrban, Hugh. Unleashing the Beast: Aleister Crowley, tantra and sex magic in late Victorian England. Ohio State University
- ^Crowley, Aleister (1921). 'Book of Lies'. p. 6. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
Shortly after publication [of the Book of Lies], the O.H.O. (Outer Head of the O.T.O.) came to me... He said that since I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX {degree} and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said `But you have printed it in the plainest language'. I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookshelves; taking out a copy of THE BOOK OF LIES, he pointed to a passage... It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism not only of Free Masonry but of many other traditions blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity...
- ^Crowley, Aleister. Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, p. 241
- ^Crowley, Aleister (1970). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 87. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux ISBN0-8090-3591-X
- ^Samael Aun Weor (2001) [1961]. 'GIAO'. The Perfect Matrimony. Glorian Publishing. ISBN0-9742755-0-6.
- ^Versluis, Arthur (2005). Gutierrez, Cathy (ed.). The Occult in Nineteenth Century America. Aurora, CO: The Davies Group. p. 29. ISBN1-888570-83-0.
- ^Deveney, John Patrick (1997). Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist. State University of New York Press. p. 226.
- ^Rosemont, Penelope (1998). Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. Athlone Press. pp. lvi and xlii. ISBN9780485300888.
- ^Alexandrian, Sarane (1977). Les Libérateurs de l'amour. pp. 185–206.
Further reading[edit]
- Wilson, Robert Anton (1988) Sex, Drugs and Magick: a journey beyond limits; revised ed. (First ed. entitled Sex and Drugs: Chicago: Playboy Press, 1973)
- Hans Thomas Hakl, 'Maria de Naglowska and the Confrérie de la Flèche d’Or'. In: Politica Hermetica, Nr. 20, Lausanne, L’Age d’Homme 2006, p. 113–123.
- Hans Thomas Hakl, 'The Theory and Practice of Sexual Magic, Exemplified by Four Magical Groups in the Early Twentieth Century', in: Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Eds.), Hidden Intercourse. Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, Leiden, Brill, 2008, p. 445-478.
- Stone, Karl. 'The Moonchild of Yesod: A Grimoire of Occult Hyperchemistry.' (2012).
- Stone, Karl. 'The Star of Hastur: Explorations in Hyperchemistry.' (2015).
- Urban, Hugh B. (2006) Magia Sexualis: sex, magic, and liberation in modern Western esotericism. Berkeley: University of California Press
- Schreck, Zeena and NikolasDemons of the Flesh: The Complete Guide to Left Hand Path Sex Magic. (2002) Creation Books
External links[edit]
- Forms of Tantrism by Samael Aun Weor
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sex_magic&oldid=895314891'
(Redirected from Nazism and occultism)
Nazism and occultism describes a range of theories, speculation and research into the origins of Nazism and its possible relation to various occult traditions. Such ideas have been a part of popular culture since at least the early 1940s, and gained renewed popularity starting in the 1960s. There are documentaries and books on the topic, among the most significant are The Morning of the Magicians (1960) and The Spear of Destiny (1972). Nazism and occultism has also been featured in numerous films, novels, comic books and other fictional media. A prominent example is the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke analyzed the topic in The Occult Roots of Nazism in which he argued there were in fact links between some ideals of Ariosophy and Nazi ideology. He also analyzed the problems of the numerous popular occult historiography books written on the topic. He sought to separate empiricism and sociology from the modern mythology of Nazi occultism that exists in many books which 'have represented the Nazi phenomenon as the product of arcane and demonic influence'. He considered most of these to be 'sensational and under-researched'.[1]
- 2Modern mythology
- 2.2Claims
- 3Documentaries
- 3.2List of documentaries
- 6Bibliography
Ariosophy[edit]
Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's 1985 book, The Occult Roots of Nazism, discussed the possibility of links between the ideas of the Occult and those of Nazism. The book's main subject was the racist-occult movement of Ariosophy, a major strand of Nationalist Esotericism in Germany and Austria during the 1800s and early 1900s. He described his work as 'an underground history, concerned with the myths, symbols, and fantasies that bear on the development of reactionary, authoritarian, and Nazi styles of thinking'. He focused on this unexamined topic of history because 'fantasies can achieve a causal status once they have been institutionalized in beliefs, values, and social groups.'[2]
He describes the Völkisch movement as a sort of anti-modernist, anti-liberal reaction to the many political, social, and economic changes occurring in Germanic Europe in the late 1800s. Part of his argument is that the rapid industrialization and rise of cities changed the 'traditional, rural social order' and ran into conflict with the 'pre-capitalist attitudes and institutions' of the area. He described the racially elitist Pan-Germanism movement of ethnic German Austrians as a reaction to Austria not being included in the German Empire of Bismarck.[2]
Goodrick-Clarke opined that the Ariosophist movement took Völkisch ideas but added occultish themes about things like Freemasonry, Kabbalism, and Rosicrucianism in order to 'prove the modern world was based on false and evil principles'. The Ariosophist 'ideas and symbols filtered through to several anti-semitic and Nationalist groups in late Wilhelmian Germany, from which the early Nazi Party emerged in Munich after the First World War.' He showed some links between two Ariosophists and Heinrich Himmler.[2]
Modern mythology[edit]
There is a persistent idea, widely canvassed in a sensational genre of literature, that the Nazis were principally inspired and directed by occult agencies from 1920 to 1945.[3]
Appendix E of Goodrick-Clarke's book is entitled The Modern Mythology of Nazi Occultism. In it, he gives a highly critical view of much of the popular literature on the topic. In his words, these books describe Hitler and the Nazis as being controlled by a 'hidden power . . . characterized either as a discarnate entity (e.g., 'black forces', 'invisible hierarchies', 'unknown superiors') or as a magical elite in a remote age or distant location'.[4] He referred to the writers of this genre as 'crypto-historians'.[4] The works of the genre, he wrote,
were typically sensational and under-researched. A complete ignorance of the primary sources was common to most authors and inaccuracies and wild claims were repeated by each newcomer to the genre until an abundant literature existed, based on wholly spurious 'facts' concerning the powerful Thule Society, the Nazi links with the East, and Hitler's occult initiation.[5]
In a new preface for the 2004 edition of The Occult Roots... Goodrick-Clarke comments that in 1985, when his book first appeared, 'Nazi 'black magic' was regarded as a topic for sensational authors in pursuit of strong sales.'[6]
In his 2002 work Black Sun, which was originally intended to trace the survival of occult Nazi themes in the postwar period,[7] Goodrick-Clarke considered it necessary to readdress the topic. He devotes one chapter of the book to 'the Nazi mysteries',[8] as he terms the field of Nazi occultism there. Other reliable summaries of the development of the genre have been written by German historians. The German edition of The Occult Roots... includes an essay 'Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus' ('National Socialism and Occultism'), which traces the origins of the speculation about Nazi occultism back to publications from the late 1930s, and which was subsequently translated by Goodrick-Clarke into English. The German historian Michael Rißmann has also included a longer 'excursus' about 'Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus' in his acclaimed book on Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs.[9]
According to Goodricke-Clarke the speculation of Nazi occultism originated from 'post-war fascination with Nazism'.[3] The 'horrid fascination' of Nazism upon the Western mind[10] emerges from the 'uncanny interlude in modern history' that it presents to an observer a few decades later.[3] The idolization of Hitler in Nazi Germany, its short lived dominion on the European continent and Nazism's extreme antisemitism set it apart from other periods of modern history.[10] 'Outside a purely secular frame of reference, Nazism was felt to be the embodiment of evil in a modern twentieth-century regime, a monstrous pagan relapse in the Christian community of Europe.'[10]
By the early 1960s, 'one could now clearly detect a mystique of Nazism.'[10] A sensationalistic and fanciful presentation of its figures and symbols, shorn of all political and historical contexts', gained ground with thrillers, non-fiction books and films and permeated 'the milieu of popular culture.'[10]
Historiography concerning The Occult Roots of Nazism[edit]
The Occult Roots of Nazism is commended for specifically addressing the fanciful modern depictions of Nazi occultism, as well as carefully reflecting critical scholarly work that finds associations between Ariosophy with Nazi agency. As scholar Anna Bramwell writes, 'One should not be deceived by the title into thinking that it belongs to the 'modern mythology of Nazi occultism', a world of salacious fantasy convincingly dismembered by the author in an Appendix,' [11] referring the various written, depicted, and produced material that delves into Nazi occultism without providing any reliable or relevant evidence. Instead, it is through Goodrick-Clarke's work that several scholarly criticisms addressing occult relevance in conjunction with Ariosophist practices arise.
Historians like Martyn Housden and Jeremy Noakes commend Goodrick-Clarke for addressing the relationship between Ariosophic ideologies rooted in certain Germanic cultures and the actual agency of Nazi hierarchy; the problem, as Housden remarks, lies in the efficacy of these Ariosophic practices. As he remarks, 'The true value of this study, therefore, lies in its painstaking elucidation of an intrinsically fascinating subculture which helped colour rather than cause aspects of Nazism. In this context, it also leaves us pondering a central issue: why on earth were Austrian and German occultists, just like the Nazi leadership, quite so susceptible to, indeed obsessed by, specifically aggressive racist beliefs anyway?'[12] Noakes continues this general thought by concluding, '(Goodrick-Clarke) provides not only a definitive account of the influence of Ariosophy on Nazism, a subject which is prone to sensationalism, but also fascinating insights into the intellectual climate of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.'[13] These reviews reflect the greatest dilemmas in Nazi occultist scholarship; the discernment between actual efficacy of possible Occult practices by Nazi leaders, purpose of these practices, and modern notions and applications of Occultism today largely impact the appropriate scholarship in general in making connections between plausible Nazi Ariosophic practices and blatant popular myth.[11]
The linkages Goodrick-Clarke makes concerning Ariosophy and German society are further detailed in Peter Merkl's Political Violence under the Swastika, in which 'pre-1933 Nazis,' various NSDAP members, volunteered to write their memoirs and recollections about the rise of the Nazi Party in order to provide a coherent, statistical analysis of the motivations and ideals these early members hoped to pursue in German politics. From the findings, Merkl has found, through statistical evidence, that there were aspects of ideology within German society that favored intense German nationalism, ranging from what was considered to be a 'German Romantic', one who was 'beholden to the cultural and historical traditions of old Germany…'[14] to someone classified as a part of an alleged 'Nordic/Hitler Cult', one who followed Voelkisch (traditional, anti-Semitic) beliefs. To further prove the point, Merkl discovered that of those willing to submit their testimonies, 'Protestants tended to be German Romantics, Catholics to be anti-Semites, superpatriots, and solidarists. Areas of religious homogeneity were particularly high in anti-Semitism or in the Nordic-German cult,'[15] of which members of both religious groups were prone to Judenkoller, an alleged sudden and violent sickness that would manifest either in blatant hatred or hysteria at being within proximity of Jews. Coincidentally, Merkl mentions a relationship to this Nordic/German- agrarian cult in relation to 19th-century to a 'crypto-Nazi tradition', despite being written ten years prior to The Occult Roots of Nazism.
Some of this modern mythology even touches Goodrick-Clarke's topic directly. The rumor that Adolf Hitler had encountered the Austrian monk and anti-semitic publicist, Lanz von Liebenfels, already at the age of 8, at Heilgenkreuz abbey, goes back to Les mystiques du soleil (1971) by Michel-Jean Angbert. 'This episode is wholly imaginary.'[16]
Nevertheless, Michel-Jean Angbert and the other authors discussed by Goodrick-Clarke present their accounts as real, so that this modern mythology has led to several legends that resemble conspiracy theories, concerning, for example, the Vril Society or rumours about Karl Haushofer's connection to the occult. The most influential books were Trevor Ravenscroft's The Spear of Destiny and The Morning of the Magicians by Pauwels and Bergier.
Claims[edit]
One of the earliest claims of Nazi occultism can be found in Lewis Spence's book Occult Causes of the Present War (1940). According to Spence, Alfred Rosenberg and his book The Myth of the Twentieth Century were responsible for promoting pagan, occult and anti-Christian ideas that motivated the Nazi party.
Demonic possession of Hitler[edit]
For a demonic influence on Hitler, Hermann Rauschning's Hitler Speaks is brought forward as source.[17] However, most modern scholars do not consider Rauschning reliable.[18] (As Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke summarises, 'recent scholarship has almost certainly proved that Rauschning's conversations were mostly invented'.)[19]
Similarly to Rauschning, August Kubizek, one of Hitler's closest friends since childhood, claims that Hitler—17 years old at the time—once spoke to him of 'returning Germany to its former glory'; of this comment August said, 'It was as if another being spoke out of his body, and moved him as much as it did me.'[20]
An article 'Hitler's Forgotten Library' by Timothy Ryback, published in The Atlantic (May 2003),[21] mentions a book from Hitler's private library authored by Ernst Schertel. Schertel, whose interests were flagellation, dance, occultism, nudism and BDSM, had also been active as an activist for sexual liberation before 1933. He had been imprisoned in Nazi Germany for seven months and his doctoral degree was revoked. He is supposed to have sent a dedicated copy of his 1923 book Magic: History, Theory and Practice to Hitler some time in the mid-1920s. Hitler is said to have marked extensive passages, including one which reads 'He who does not have the demonic seed within himself will never give birth to a magical world'.[22]
TheosophistAlice A. Bailey stated during World War II that Adolf Hitler was possessed by what she called the Dark Forces.[23] Her follower Benjamin Creme has stated that through Hitler (and a group of equally evil men around him in Nazi Germany, together with a group of militarists in Japan and a further group around Mussolini in Italy[24]) was released the energies of the Antichrist,[25] which, according to theosophical teachings is not an individual person but forces of destruction.
According to James Herbert Brennan in his book Occult Reich, Hitler's mentor, Dietrich Eckhart (to whom Hitler dedicates Mein Kampf), wrote to a friend of his in 1923: 'Follow Hitler! He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune. We have given him the 'means of communication' with Them. Do not mourn for me; I shall have influenced history more than any other German.'
New World Order[edit]
Conspiracy theorists 'frequently identify German National Socialism inter alia as a precursor of the New World Order'.[26] With regard to Hitler's later ambition of imposing a National Socialist regime throughout Europe, Nazi propaganda used the term Neuordnung (often poorly translated as 'the New Order', while actually referring to the 're-structurization' of state borders on the European map and the resulting post-war economic hegemony of Greater Germany),[27] so one could probably say that the Nazis pursued a new world order in terms of politics. But the claim that Hitler and the Thule Society conspired to create a New World Order (a conspiracy theory, put forward on some webpages)[28] is completely unfounded.[29]
Aleister Crowley[edit]
There are also unverifiable rumours that the occultist Aleister Crowley sought to contact Hitler during World War II. Despite several allegations and speculations to the contrary, there is no evidence of such an encounter.[30] In 1991, John Symonds, one of Crowley's literary executors published a book: The Medusa's Head or Conversations between Aleister Crowley and Adolf Hitler, which has definitively been shown to be literary fiction.[30] That the edition of this book was limited to 350 also contributed to the mystery surrounding the topic.[30] Mention of a contact between Crowley and Hitler—without any sources or evidence—is also made in a letter from René Guénon to Julius Evola dated October 29, 1949, which later reached a broader audience.[30]
Erik Jan Hanussen[edit]
When Hitler and the Occult describes how Hitler 'seemed endowed with even greater authority and charisma' after he had resumed public speaking in March 1927, the documentary states that 'this may have been due to the influence' of the clairvoyant performer and publicist, Erik Jan Hanussen. It is said that 'Hanussen helped Hitler perfect a series of exaggerated poses,' useful for speaking before a huge audience. The documentary then interviews Dusty Sklar about the contact between Hitler and Hanussen, and the narrator makes the statement about 'occult techniques of mind control and crowd domination'.
Whether Hitler had met Hanussen at all is not certain. That he even encountered him before March 1927 is not confirmed by other sources about Hanussen. In the late 1920s to early 1930s Hanussen made political predictions in his own newspaper, Hanussens Bunte Wochenschau, that gradually started to favour Hitler, but until late 1932 these predictions varied.[31] In 1929, Hanussen predicted, for example, that Wilhelm II would return to Germany in 1930 and that the problem of unemployment would be solved in 1931.[31]
Winston Churchill[edit]
Sir Winston Churchill wrote in his memoir 'The Gathering Storm' about Hitler and Moloch: '[Hitler] had conjured up the fearful idol of an all-devouring Moloch of which he was the priest and incarnation'.[32]
Nazi mysticism, occultism and science fiction[edit]
Nazi mysticism in German culture is further expanded upon within Manfred Nagl's article 'SF (Science Fiction), Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths', published in the journal Science Fiction Studies. In it, Nagl writes that the racial narratives described in contemporary German Science Fiction stories, like The Last Queen of Atlantis, by Edmund Kiss, provide further notions of racial superiority under the auspices of Ariosophy, Aryanism, and alleged historic racial Mysticism, suggesting that writings associated with possible Occultism, Ariosophy, or Aryanism were products intended to influence and justify in a socio-political manner, rather than simply establish cultural heritage. The stories themselves dealt with '...heroes, charismatic leader types, (who) have been chosen by fate – with the resources of a sophisticated and extremely powerful technology'.'[33] Nagl considers science fiction pieces like Atlantis further fueled the violent persuasiveness of Nazi leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, as further justification for a 'Nazi elite (envisioning) for itself in occupied East European territories'.[33] This, in turn, allegedly propagated public support of Nazi ideology, summated by Nagl as 'a tremendous turning back of culture, away from the age of reason and consciousness, toward the age of a 'sleepwalking certainty', the age of supra-rational magic'.[34]
Crypto-historic books[edit]
In the essay that is included in the German edition of The Occult Roots..., H. T. Hakl, an Austrian publisher of esoteric works,[35] traces the origins of the speculation about National Socialism and Occultism back to several works from the early 1940s. His research was also published in a short book, Unknown sources: National Socialism and the Occult, translated by Goodrick-Clarke. Already in 1933 a pseudonymous Kurt van Emsen described Hitler as a 'demonic personality', but his work was soon forgotten.[36] The first allusions that Hitler was directed by occult forces which were taken up by the later authors came from French Christian esotericist René Kopp.[37] In two articles published in the monthly esoteric journal Le Chariot from June 1934 and April 1939, he seeks to trace the source of Hitler's power to supernatural forces.[37] The second article was titled: 'L'Enigme du Hitler'.[37] In other French esoteric journals of the 1930s, Hakl could not find similar hints.[37] In 1939 another French author, Edouard Saby, published a book: Hitler et les Forces Occultes.[38] Saby already mentions Hanussen and Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln.[39] Hakl even hints that Edouard Saby would have the copyright on the myth of Nazi occultism.[39] However, another significant book from 1939 is better known: Hermann Rauschning's Hitler Speaks. There it is said (in the chapter 'Black and White Magic'), that 'Hitler surrendered himself to forces that carried him away. (...) He turned himself over to a spell, which can, with good reason and not simply in a figurative analogy, be described as demonic magic.' The chapter 'Hitler in private' is even more dramatic, and was left out in the German edition from 1940.[40]
Goodrick-Clarke examines several pseudo-historic 'books written about Nazi occultism between 1960 and 1975', that 'were typically sensational and under-researched'.[41] He terms this genre 'crypto-history', as its defining element and 'final point of explanatory reference is an agent which has remained concealed to previous historians of National Socialism'.[4] Characteristic tendencies of this literature include: (1) 'a complete ignorance of primary sources' and (2) the repetition of 'inaccuracies and wild claims', without the attempt being made to confirm even 'wholly spurious 'facts'.[42] Books debunked in Appendix E of The Occult Roots of Nazism are:
- Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, 1960, The Morning of the Magicians[43]
- Dietrich Bronder, 1964, Bevor Hitler kam[44]
- Trevor Ravenscroft, 1972, The Spear of Destiny[45]
- Michel-Jean Angbert, 1971, Les mystiques du soleil[16]
- J. H. Brennan, 1974, The Occult Reich[44]
- Otto Rahn, 1937, Luzifers Hofgesind, eine Reise zu den guten Geistern Europas (Lucifer's Court: A Heretic's Journey in Search of the Light Bringers).
These books are only mentioned in the Appendix. Otherwise the whole book by Goodrick-Clarke does without any reference to this kind of literature; it uses other sources. This literature is not reliable; however, books published after the emergence of The Occult Roots of Nazism continue to repeat claims that have been proven false:
- Wulf Schwarzwaller, 1988, The Unknown Hitler[46]
- Alan Baker, 2000, Invisible Eagle. The History of Nazi Occultism[47]
Documentaries[edit]
More than 60 years after the end of the Third Reich, National Socialism and Adolf Hitler have become a recurring subject in history documentaries. Among these documentaries, there are several that focus especially on the potential relations between Nazism and Occultism, such as the History Channel's documentary Hitler and the Occult.[48][49] As evidence of Hitler's 'occult power' this documentary offers, for example, the infamous statement by Joachim von Ribbentrop of his continued subservience to Hitler at the Nuremberg Trials.[50] After the author Dusty Sklar has pointed out that Hitler's suicide happened at the night of April 30/May 1, which is Walpurgis Night, the narrator continues: 'With Hitler gone, it was as if a spell had been broken'. A much more plausible reason for Hitler's suicide (that does not involve the paranormal) is that the Russians had already closed to within several hundred meters of Hitler's bunker and he did not want to be captured alive.
Hitler speaking at a huge mass meeting, the Nuremberg Rally 1934
From the perspective of academic history, these documentaries on Nazism, if ever commented, are seen as problematic because they do not contribute to an actual understanding of the problems that arise in the study of Nazism and Neo-Nazism. Without referring to a specific documentary Mattias Gardell, a historian who studies contemporary separatist groups, writes:
In documentaries portraying the Third Reich, Hitler is cast as a master magician; these documentaries typically include scenes in which Hitler is speaking at huge mass meetings. [...] Cuts mix Hitler screaming with regiments marching under the sign of the swastika. Instead of providing a translation of his verbal crescendos, the sequence is overlaid with a speaker talking about something different. All this combines to demonize Hitler as an evil wizard spellbinding an unwitting German people to become his zombified servants until they are liberated from the spell by the Allied victory after which, suddenly, there were no German Nazis left among the populace. How convenient it would be if this image were correct. National socialism could be defeated with garlic. Watchdog groups could be replaced with a few vampire killers, and resources being directed into anti-racist community programs could be directed at something else. [...]
The truth, however, is that millions of ordinary German workers, farmers and businessmen supported the national socialist program. [...] They were people who probably considered themselves good citizens, which is far more frightening than had they merely been demons.[51]
Hitler and the Occult includes a scene in which Hitler is seen as speaking at a huge mass meeting. While Hitler's speech is not translated, the narrator talks about the German occultist and stage mentalistErik Jan Hanussen: 'Occultists believe, Hanussen may also have imparted occult techniques of mind control and crowd domination on Hitler' (see below). When historians have noted the existence of such 'myths' as those about Erik Jan Hanussen, they have displayed nothing but academic contempt for their originators.[citation needed]
Ernst Schäfer's expedition to Tibet[edit]
At least one documentary, Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, includes footage from the 1939 German expedition to Tibet. The documentary describes it as 'the most ambitious expedition' of the SS. This original video material was made accessible again by Marco Dolcetta in his series Il Nazismo Esoterico in 1994.[52] An interview that Dolcetta conducted with Schäfer does not support the theories of Nazi occultism, neither does Reinhard Greve's 1995 article Tibetforschung im SS Ahnenerbe (Tibet Research Within the SS Ahnenerbe),[53] although the latter does mention the occult thesis.[52] Hakl comments that Greve should have emphasized the unreliability of authors like Bergier and Pauwels or Angbert more.[52]Ernst Schäfer's expedition report explicitly remarks on the 'worthless goings-on' by 'a whole army of quacksalvers' concerning Asia and especially Tibet.[52]
List of documentaries[edit]
German[edit]
- Schwarze Sonne documentary by Rüdiger Sünner. Sünner also produced a book to accompany this documentary.
- Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler – Ein Film aus Deutschland (Hitler, A Film From Germany), 1977. Originally presented on German television, this is a 7-hour work in 4 parts: The Grail; A German Dream; The End Of Winter's Tale; We, Children Of Hell. The director uses documentary clips, photographic backgrounds, puppets, theatrical stages, and other elements from almost all the visual arts, with the 'actors' addressing directly the audience/camera, in order to approach and expand on this most taboo subject of European history of the 20th century.
English[edit]
- Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy (1998), directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, Narrated by Malcolm McDowell.
- The Occult History of the Third Reich, Narrated by Patrick Allen, Director: Dave Flitton (originally shown on The History Channel)[54]
- Adolf Hitler – Occult History of the Third Reich
- The SS: Blood and Soil – Occult History of the Third Reich
- Himmler the Mystic – Occult History of the Third Reich
- The Enigma of the Swastika – Occult History of the Third Reich
- 'Decoding the Past' Episode: The Nazi Prophecies by the History Channel[55][56]
- In 1994, Channel 4 ran a Michael Wood documentary entitled Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, as part of its 'Secret History' series.[57]
- Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: Occult & Secrets, also known as Volume 3 in the series.
- Rudolf Hess (Occult)
- Hitler's Secret Weapons
- Enigma of the Swastika (Occult)
- Himmler's Castle: Wewelsburg (Occult)
- The Last Days of Hitler
- Decision At Dunkirk/Stalin's Secret Armies
(Different editions have different episodes)[58][59][60]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 218–225
- ^ abcThe Occult Roots of Nazism, Introduction.
- ^ abcGoodrick-Clarke 1985: 217.
- ^ abcGoodrick-Clarke 1985: 218.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224,225
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 2004: vi.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 6.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 107–128.
- ^Rißmann 2001: 137–172.
- ^ abcdeGoodrick-Clarke 2002: 107.
- ^ abBramwell, Anna. 1988. 'Review'. The English Historical Review 103 (407). 156.
- ^Housden, Martyn. 1994. 'Review'. History 79 (255). 179.
- ^Noakes, Jeremy. 1988. 'Review'. History 73 (238).364.
- ^Peter H. Merkl. 1975. Political Violence Under The Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 453.
- ^Peter H. Merkl. 1975. Political Violence Under The Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 687.
- ^ abGoodrick-Clarke 1985: 224.
- ^Demonic Possession of World LeadersArchived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Theodor Schieder (1972), Hermann Rauschnings 'Gespräche mit Hitler' als Geschichtsquelle (Oppladen, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag) and Wolfgang Hänel (1984), Hermann Rauschnings 'Gespräche mit Hitler': Eine Geschichtsfälschung (Ingolstadt, Germany: Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle), cit. in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2003), Black Sun, p. 321.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke (2003: 110). The best that can be said for Rauschning's claims may be Goodrick-Clarke's judgment that they 'record ... the authentic voice of Hitler by inspired guesswork and imagination' (ibid.).
- ^“Hitler and the Holy Roman Empire”Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Ryback, Timothy W. 'Hitler's Forgotten Library'. The Atlantic, May 2003. Accessed 27 June 2009.
- ^Kelley, JH. 'New Translation of German Book Links Hitler to Satanism' (press release). PRLog, May 17, 2009. Accessed 28 June 2009.
- ^Bailey, Alice A. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy New York:1957 (Compilation of earlier revelations by Alice A. Bailey) Lucis Publishing Co. Page 425
- ^Bailey, Alice A. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy New York:1957 (Compilation of earlier revelations by Alice A. Bailey) Lucis Publishing Co. Page 258
- ^Creme, Benjamin Maitreya's Mission – Volume III Amsterdam:1997 Share International Foundation Page 416
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 288.
- ^Safire, William. 'On Language; The New, New World Order'. The New York Times, February 17, 1991. Accessed 27 June 2009.
- ^Historic Results of Hitler's Thule Societies pursuit of the NWOArchived 2007-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 201; Johannes Hering, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Thule-Gesellschaft, typescript dated June 21, 1939, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, NS26/865.
- ^ abcdHakl 1997: 205.
- ^ abFrei 1980: 85.
- ^Churchill, Winston S. The Gathering Storm: The Second World War, Volume 1[1] Page 64
- ^ abNagl, Manfred. 'SF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths'. Science Fiction Studies. 1 (3): 190.
- ^Nagl, Manfred. 'SF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths'. Science Fiction Studies 1 (3): 188.
- ^Entry for Hans Thomas Hakl from the German National Library.
- ^Hakl 1997: 209.
- ^ abcdHakl 1997: 210.
- ^Hakl 1997: 212.
- ^ abHakl 1997: 214.
- ^Hakl 1997: 211.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224, 225.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 225.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 219–220.
- ^ abGoodrick-Clarke 1985: 221.
- ^Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 221–223.
- ^If The Unknown Hitler is quoted correctly in The Vril Society, the Luminous Lodge and the Realization of the Great Work, then this book makes false allegations about Karl Haushofer and G. I. Gurdjieff.
- ^Chapter 5 of the Free online versionArchived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine of Invisible Eagle is mainly based on Ravenscroft.
- ^The History Channel online Store: The Unknown Hitler DVD CollectionArchived 2007-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Another critique of Hitler documentaries: Mark Schone – All Hitler, all the timeArchived 2012-01-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'Even with all I know, if in this cell Hitler should come to me and say 'Do this!', I would still do it.' – Joachim von Ribbentrop, 1946
- ^Gardell 2003, 331, 332
- ^ abcdHakl 1997: 204
- ^Reinhard Greve: Tibetforschung im SS Ahnenerbe; in: Thomas Hauschild: Lebenslust durch Fremdenfurcht, Frankfurt (Main), 1995, pp. 168–209.
- ^Hitler and the Occult DVDArchived 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^DECODING THE PAST: Nazi PropheciesArchived 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Decoding The Past: Nazi Prophecies DVDArchived 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Robin Cross, 'The Nazi Expedition'
- ^Unsolved Mysteries: V1-5 World War Ii (1998)
- ^Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: Decision at Dunkirk/Stalin's Secret Armies DVD
- ^Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: The Eagle & The Swastika/The Last Days of Hitler (1998)
Bibliography[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Carrie B. Dohe. Jung's Wandering Archetype: Race and Religion in Analytical Psychology. London: Routledge, 2016 ISBN978-1138888401
- Michael Rißmann. 2001. Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewußtsein des deutschen Diktators.‹See Tfd›(in German). esp. pp. 137–172; Zürich, Munich. Pendo
- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935. Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. ISBN0-85030-402-4. (Several reprints.) Expanded with a new Preface, 2004, I.B. Tauris & Co. ISBN1-86064-973-4
- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 2002. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York University Press. ISBN0-8147-3124-4. (Paperback, 2003. ISBN0-8147-3155-4)
- Hans Thomas Hakl. 1997: Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus. ‹See Tfd›(in German) In: Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: Die okkulten Wurzeln des Nationalsozialismus. Graz, Austria: Stocker (German edition of The Occult Roots of Nazism)
- Hans Thomas Hakl. National Socialism and the Occult, Edmonds,WA, Holmes Publishing Group, 2000 (ISBN978-1-558184-70-1)
- Florian Evers. 2011. Vexierbilder des Holocaust. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN3643111908, 9783643111906.
- Julian Strube. 2012. Die Erfindung des esoterischen Nationalsozialismus im Zeichen der Schwarzen Sonne. ‹See Tfd›(in German) In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, 20(2): 223–268.
- Igor Barinov. 2013. Tabu i mify Tret'ego Reikha (Taboo and Myths of the Third Reich). Moscow, Pskov. ISBN9785945422896.
- Eric Kurlander. Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017 ISBN978-0-300-18945-2
Other references[edit]
- Bruno Frei. 1980. Der Hellseher: Leben und Sterben des Erik Jan Hanussen. ed.: Antonia Gruneberg. Cologne: Prometh ‹See Tfd›(in German)
- Mattias Gardell. 2003. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN978-0-8223-3071-4
External links[edit]
- The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke – Short article at www.lapismagazine.org.
- Magic Realism – A book review by William Main of The Occult Roots of Nazism, taken from the December 1994 issue of 'Fidelity' Magazine.
- Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus? Die Thule-Gesellschaft‹See Tfd›(in German) Article on an information page from the Swiss Reformed Church.
- NARA Research Room: Captured German and Related Records on Microform in the National Archives: Captured German Records Filmed at Berlin (American Historical Association, 1960). Microfilm Publication T580. 1,002 rolls, including among, others, files of the Ahnenerbe and the Nachlass of Walter Darré.
- Hitler and the Occult: Nazism, Reincarnation, and Rock Culture.
- White Blood, White Gods: An Assessment of Racialist Paganism in the United States – A Senior Honors Thesis by Damon Berry in June 2006.
- 'Hitler and the Secret Societies' by Julius Evola (from Il Conciliatore, no. 10, 1971; translated from the German edition in Deutsche Stimme, no. 8, 1998).
- Von Aldebaran bis Vril. Interview über esoterischen Neonazismus‹See Tfd›(in German) Interview, Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst, April 2013.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Occultism_in_Nazism&oldid=899525868'