{"id":5189,"date":"2013-04-18T15:08:58","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T15:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steampunkopera.wordpress.com\/?p=5189"},"modified":"2013-04-18T15:08:58","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T15:08:58","slug":"ariosophy-and-nazi-mysticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/ariosophy-and-nazi-mysticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariosophy and Nazi Mysticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/f\/f7\/WernervonB%C3%BClowsWorldRuneClock.JPG\" alt=\"rune clock\" width=\"366\" height=\"367\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The World-Rune-Clock, illustrating the correspondences between List&#8217;s Armanen runes, the signs of the zodiac and the gods of the months. A whole lot of well thought out bullshit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are lots of books, movies and even video games which like to play with the pairing of Nazis and the occult. And let&#8217;s be honest, who can resist Nazi zombie lichs? While more wild theories about this get into just plain ridiculousness, the fact remains there is some basis of truth to the connection.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a brief summation:<\/p>\n<p>Germany leading up to the Nazi takeoever was an incredibly wild and explosively creative hotbed of culture and ideas. We&#8217;ve talked about the famed Weimar Era in length. While all the artistic\u00a0achievements\u00a0were going on however, the far right was a strange nest of underground occult and political societies centering around a racist esoteric system called Ariosophy.<\/p>\n<p>Ariosophy was a system of pseudo science and mythology disguised as religious history\u00a0pioneered by Austrians Guido von List\u00a0and later\u00a0J\u00f6rg Lanz von Liebenfels\u00a0between 1890 and 1930.<\/p>\n<p>List was indeed influenced a great deal by Blavatksy and Theosophy, although it should be mentioned Theosophy was not racist in any of the ways List developed. Theosophy talks about root races of Man which evolve from bestial to angelic. List of course placed the Aryo-Germanic race as the higher evolution of Man.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;List called his doctrine\u00a0<i>Armanism<\/i>\u00a0after the\u00a0<i>Armanen<\/i>, supposedly a body of priest-kings in the ancient Ario-Germanic nation. He claimed that this German name had been Latinized into the tribal name\u00a0<i>Herminones<\/i>\u00a0mentioned in\u00a0Tacitus\u00a0and that it actually meant the heirs of the sun-king: an estate of intellectuals who were organised into a priesthood called the\u00a0<i>Armanenschaft<\/i>.<sup id=\"cite_ref-GC1985:56_8-0\"><br \/>\n<\/sup><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/25.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lojjmgBtbB1qiw9oko1_500.png?resize=500%2C392\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"392\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">So the orginal Aryans as we can see are pretty twink-ish and really gay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His conception of the original religion of the\u00a0Germanic tribes\u00a0was a form of\u00a0sun worship, with its priest-kings\u00a0as legendary rulers of\u00a0ancient Germany. Religious instruction was imparted on two levels. The esoteric doctrine (Armanism) was concerned with the secret mysteries of thegnosis, reserved for the initiated elite, while the exoteric doctrine (<i>Wotanism<\/i>) took the form of popular myths intended for the lower social classes.<sup id=\"cite_ref-GC1985:57_9-0\"><br \/>\n<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>List believed that the transition from Wotanism to Christianity had proceeded smoothly under the direction of the\u00a0skalds, so that native customs, festivals and names were preserved under a Christian veneer and only needed to be &#8216;decoded&#8217; back into their heathen forms.\u00a0This peaceful merging of the two religions had been disrupted by the forcible conversions under &#8220;bloody\u00a0Charlemagne\u00a0\u2013 the Slaughterer of the\u00a0Saxons&#8221;.\u00a0List claimed that the dominance of the\u00a0Roman Catholic Church\u00a0in\u00a0Austria-Hungary\u00a0constituted a continuing occupation of the Germanic tribes by the\u00a0Roman empire, albeit now in a religious form, and a continuing persecution of the ancient religion of the Germanic peoples and\u00a0Celts.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/3f\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-2007-0705-500,_Guido_von_List.jpg\/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-2007-0705-500,_Guido_von_List.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"310\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guido von List the douchebag fucktard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He also believed in the magical powers of the old\u00a0runes. From 1891 onwards he claimed that\u00a0heraldry\u00a0was based on a system of encoded runes, so that heraldic devices conveyed a secret heritage in cryptic form. In April 1903, he submitted an article concerning the alleged Aryan\u00a0proto-language\u00a0to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Its highlight was a mystical and occult interpretation of the runic alphabet, which became the cornerstone of his ideology. Although the article was rejected by the academy, it would later be expanded by List and grew into his final masterpiece, a comprehensive treatment of his linguistic and historical theories published in 1914 as\u00a0<i>Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache<\/i>\u00a0(<i>The Proto-Language of the Aryo-Germans and their Mystery Language<\/i>).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 1903 century an ex monk and Bible scholar named\u00a0J\u00f6rg Lanz von Liebenfels published an articel where he used fossils, iconography and literature to argue that mankind was divided into two groups, one who had interbred with lower evolutionary forms, apes, and one who hadn&#8217;t (Aryan, surprise surprise).<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-10940 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/steampunkopera.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/l12.jpg?resize=208%2C242\" alt=\"l1\" width=\"208\" height=\"242\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He claimed that \u201cAryan\u201d peoples originated from interstellar deities (termed Theozoa) who bred by electricity, while \u201clower\u201d races were a result of interbreeding between humans and ape-men (or Anthropozoa). The effects of racial crossing caused the atrophy of\u00a0paranormal\u00a0powers inherited from the gods, but these could be restored by the selective breeding of pure Aryan lineages. The book relied on somewhat lurid sexual imagery, decrying the abuse of white women by ethnically inferior but sexually active men. Thus, Lanz advocated mass castration of racially \u201capelike\u201d or otherwise \u201cinferior\u201d males&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>List and Lanz became friendly colleagues, influencing each other&#8217;s work and using each other as sources.<\/p>\n<p>In 1908 the Guido Von List Society formed, to study, publish and further List and Lanz&#8217;s Ariosophy ideas. The Society was founded by the prominent Wannieck family, and catered to and attracted a more high class membership which also included\u00a0many leading figures in Austrian and German\u00a0politics, publishing, and occultism. It also included two Jews.<\/p>\n<p>By 1911 an inner circle was set up, the\u00a0High Armanen Order, a\u00a0magical order exploring Ariosophical ideas using occult rituals and techniques.<\/p>\n<p>In 1912 some members of the High Armanen Order formed the notorious and<span style=\"line-height:1.4;\">\u00a0highly\u00a0influential<\/span><span style=\"line-height:1.4;\">\u00a0Freemason-like occult group the Germanenordan. They teamed up with a man called Herman Pohl who belonged to a far right group called\u00a0Reichshammerbund. Herman Pohl brought to the table Reichshammerbund&#8217;s virulent anti-semitism. \u00a0Reichshammerbund blamed the Jews for controlling capitalism and controlling Germany, and wanted to fight for racial purity, anti capitalism and a renewal of the German way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So Reichshammerbund met Ariosophy, fell in love and the hell baby their love spawned was the new Germanenordan group.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10939\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10939\" style=\"width: 263px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-10939 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/steampunkopera.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/g1.jpg?resize=263%2C402\" alt=\"Germanenordan\" width=\"263\" height=\"402\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10939\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Germanenordan&#8217;s version of The Watchtower. Philosophically maybe even dumber.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And, these damn 5 syllable names are driving me nuts too. Typing them is a serious bitch, but let&#8217;s not digress. This repellant lesson is almost over.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height:1.4;\">The Germanenordan hummed along nicely until 1916 when it split into two factions, one who wanted to focus on a widespread Ariosophical religious revival, and one who wanted to become more politically active. The occult faction became rather popular and by 1917 numbered 1500 members. The politically active offshoot became the Thule Society. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height:1.4;\">In 1918, in a hotel in Munich, \u00a0Anton Drexler\u00a0of the Thule Society begat the German Worker&#8217;s Party at the behest of another Thule Society member. \u00a0Initial membership was 40 people. The Thule Society oversaw the German Worker&#8217;s Party or\u00a0<i>Deutsche Arbeiterpartei<\/i>,\u00a0DAP.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In September of 1919 a corporal in the German army was ordered to go to a DAP meeting and spy on what was going on. This corporal was of course Adolph Hitler, and the violent argument he got in that night impressed the hell out of DAP founder Anton Drexler. Drexler asked Hitler to join and as we all know Hitler did. Hitler became a \u00a0superstar within DAP and eventually Drexler grew to loath him and quit.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to remember that all these far right secret societies and their racist occultism which hatched many of the ideas that would become the foundation of the Nazis were all disbanded in 1933. In 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor he disbanded all societies in Germany except Nazi ones. Thule: gone.\u00a0Germanenordan: gone. All others: gone. It was expected all members would become Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>However, the occult practices around Ariosophy did continue. In 1929 a young Heinrich Himmler ended up in charge of Hitler&#8217;s little bodygaurd squad. Himmler asked to make this protection force (known as SS) into a volunteer elite. Given the go ahead he transformed the SS into the immense, fearsome monster we all remember it as today. Himmler made it into a Nazi freemason group, which was rife with Ariosophical occultism and secret society like rituals and structures. The SS staff department contained three departments dedicated to research into Occult, pagan and Ariosophical subjects.<\/p>\n<p>The most serious occult rituals were performed at a medieval castle in Westaphalia called Wewelsburg. It is from this that wild\u00a0speculation\u00a0and fanciful theories arise. While i personally believe in a healthy dose of skepticism, there is no doubt that there was an occult arm of Nazism, led by Himmler which was the child of the groups we&#8217;ve just taken a stroll through.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/api.ning.com\/files\/kNSiphbBL39iN8K18%2A7XILMkBRnXiw%2ACyd3h2YUIvTqOtvn4SEkWpt4qtE6WtmlcdaNpEslwLonkWhjCcImK00bmJ%2AgeLUhE\/thule600x450.jpg?resize=600%2C450\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This picture is found in the dictionary illustrating the word Douchebaggery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And there you go. I&#8217;ve been waiting for some time to write this post, but dedicating myself to discussing Nazis and their dumb ass ideas is not something i really relish, so it&#8217;s taken awhile to get around to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are lots of books, movies and even video games which like to play with the pairing of Nazis and the occult. And let&#8217;s be honest, who can resist Nazi zombie lichs? While more wild theories about this get into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[361,419],"class_list":["post-5189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spirituality","tag-theosophy","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}