 Cover of the 1979 Samisdat Publishers edition | |
| Author | Savitri Devi |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Philosophy of history Esoteric neo-Nazism |
| Published |
|
| Publication place | India |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 432 |
| OCLC | 237606467 |
| Preceded by | Pilgrimage |
| Followed by | Impeachment of Man |
The Lightning and the Sun is a 1958 book bySavitri Devi, in which the author outlines heresoteric Hitleristphilosophy of history along with her critique of the modern world. The book is known for the author's claim thatAdolf Hitler was anavatar of the Hindu godVishnu and its cyclical view of history, which Savitri Devi intertwines withNazism. It portrays Hitler as a "Man against Time", exhibiting both "Lightning and Sun" qualities: in Devi's worldview, destruction used for life-affirming purposes.
Devi began writing the book in 1948 in Scotland, ultimately completing it in Germany in March 1956. It was initially self-published by Devi in 1958 inCalcutta, India, financed by Devi's job as an interpreter. The book was obscure for several years, until 1966, when an abridged version was published byWilliam Luther Pierce in theneo-Nazi magazineNational Socialist World. The 1966 republication exposed the book to a worldwide demographic of neo-Nazis and popularized it among them. The neo-Nazi publishing house Samisdat Publishers, operated byErnst Zündel, issued a new illustrated edition in 1979. The book was excerpted inAdam Parfrey's 1987 anthologyApocalypse Culture.
Described by scholars as Devi's most significant work,The Lightning and the Sun was greatly influential on neo-Nazis internationally and continues to be popular with the far-right. It has since been republished by a variety of neo-Nazi andwhite nationalist publishing houses, includingNational Vanguard Books,Counter-Currents Publishing, andKerry Bolton's Renaissance Press. It introduced esoteric neo-Nazism to a wider audience ofwhite supremacists; among the figures the work has influenced areDavid Myatt,Miguel Serrano, andWilliam Luther Pierce. The music groupRadio Werewolf released an EP inspired and titled after the book in 1989.
Savitri Devi, born Maximiani Portas, was a French-born Nazi sympathizer; in 1932, Portas moved to India to study "Aryan religion", where she converted toHinduism and changed her name to Savitri Devi to honor "the Aryan sun goddess". She became fascinated byAdolf Hitler in 1935, and spied for the Axis powers duringWorld War II.[1][2][3] She returned to Europe after the war, where she began work onThe Lightning and the Sun in April 1948, while inEdinburgh, Scotland.[4] At the time Savitri Devi was working as a wardrobe manager for a dance company.[5] The book was to be her first major expression of her "Aryo-Nazi" philosophy";[6] the philosophy she espoused later became known asesoteric Hitlerism.[7] While writing the book, she was imprisoned for spreadingNazi propaganda in Germany. She continued her work on it while imprisoned.[5][8]
After a break, she picked up work on the tome while inLyon, France, in 1951 and 1952.[5] After embarking on a "pilgrimage" to various Nazi sites, she (illegally, as she had been banned from entry for five years following her earlier prison sentence) moved toEmsdetten, Germany, where she stayed with a friend.[9] While writing the book, Savitri Devi befriended German pilot turned neo-Nazi activistHans-Ulrich Rudel, ultimately completing the book during a March 1956 visit from Rudel.[10] Savitri Devi returned to India in 1957, where she became an interpreter, which covered the production costs for the release ofThe Lightning and the Sun.[11]
The work is dedicated "To the godlike Individual of our times; the Man against Time; the greatest European of all times; both Sun and Lightning: Adolf Hitler, as a tribute of unfailing love and loyalty, for ever and ever."[8][12][13] It opens withquotations fromThe Bhagavad Gita andRudolf Hess. In a preface, Savitri Devi writes that the book "could be described as a personal answer to the events of 1945 and of the following years."
InThe Lightning and the Sun, Devi attempts to weaveNazism andesoteric Hitlerism with a cyclic view of history taken from Hinduism,[5][14] arguing that time begins with aGolden Age and gradually decays through aSilver Age andBronze Age into a finalKali Yuga, orDark Age. According to Devi, we are in the iron age.[14] She elucidates her concept of "Men in Time," "Men above Time," and "Men against Time" using the lives ofGenghis Khan, Akhnaton (Akhenaten), andAdolf Hitler respectively. Genghis Khan is used as an example of a "Man in Time" who exhibits Lightning (destructive) qualities and furthers historical decay. Akhnaton is used to illustrate a "Man above Time" who exhibits Sun (creative/life-affirming) qualities and seeks to transcend the process of historical decay.[13][14] The book eulogizes Hitler,[15] who is used to illustrate a "Man against Time" who exhibits both Lightning and Sun qualities (destructive power harnessed for a life-affirming purpose) and seek to fight historical decay by using violent,Dark-Age methods to achieve a Golden Age state of existence.[16]
Her biographical account of Hitler is taken fromAugust Kubizek's. From Kubizek's account Devi bases her claim that Hitler had been anAvatar, which he had known since childhood.[15] The book claims that Hitler was an avatar of the Hindu godVishnu and the savior of "Aryans".[17]Nazi Germany is portrayed as the peak of "Aryan development"[18] and the loss of World War II by the Nazis is called a "tragedy".[12] TheSchutzstaffel are portrayed as necessary to restore the world, representing an esoteric restoration of the cosmic order and nature religion.[14] In the final chapter of the book, Savitri Devi expands further upon her cyclic view of history. She argues that at the end of the Dark Age,Kalki (initially identified by Devi as Hitler, though it is unclear if she held this view after his death) will appear and usher in a new Golden Age, dispelling the current "Age of Gloom", into a future where Hitler will be honored and his legacy remembered.[2][18][19]
The Lightning and the Sun was first self-published inCalcutta, India, in 1958,[20] printed by Temple Press.[21] The first edition was 432 pages long.[22] It was published the same year as another of her books,Pilgrimage.[11] In 1960, her friend and fellow neo-NaziHans-Ulrich Rudel sent the book toOtto Skorzeny, which first introduced Devi's works into the broader neo-Nazi network.[23] For some years after this the book was largely unavailable.[24]
After Savitri Devi began a correspondence withGeorge Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of theAmerican Nazi Party, Rockwell and his associateWilliam Luther Pierce (Pierce had an interest in "racial esotericism"; he later authoredThe Turner Diaries) became fascinated by her works and thought, then obscure.[1][17] Pierce was impressed by the book, and as a result[1][25] in early 1966, a condensed version of the book was published, entitled "The Lightning and the Sun (A New Edition)" in Rockwell and Pierce'sNational Socialist World, a neo-Nazi magazine aimed at a more educated demographic. This came in its first issue and took up the majority of the issue, from pages 13–90.[26][27][28] The response by neo-Nazi readers was enthusiastic, and more of Savitri Devi's writings were included in the magazine in later issues.[29]
The release inNational Socialist World was the first wide exposure of the international neo-Nazi movement to Devi's Nazi writings and ideas; while she had published many prior works on the topic, they had only been printed privately and in limited runs, or distributed personally through people like Skorzeny and Rudel. TheNational Socialist World republication popularized her works and greatly expanded the reach of her beliefs and influence.[25][29][30] In 1979 the book, by then out of print, was republished in a 448 page illustrated second edition by the neo-Nazi publishing houseSamisdat Publishers inBuffalo, New York and Toronto. Samisdat was operated by Holocaust denierErnst Zündel. Zündel wrote the preface to the 1979 edition, where he praised Savitri Devi and recounted his meeting her and the influence she had had on him.[31][32] In late 1982, Samisdat offered several cassettes of interviews with Devi with the book. This offer was publicized worldwide through card flyers with a notice that exclaimed in all caps, "the Hitler cult revealed", continuing with "discovered alive in India: Hitler's guru!"[33]
The book was excerpted inAdam Parfrey's 1987 anthologyApocalypse Culture.[34] New Zealand neo-NaziKerry Bolton, the leader of the Ordo Sinistra Vivendi and the Black Order, published a condensed third edition in 1994 with his Renaissance Press inParaparaumu Beach. Bolton promoted his edition alongside interviews withJames Mason.[35] Six years later in 2000 William Luther Pierce'sHillsboro, West Virginia-basedNational Vanguard Books came out with an illustrated abridged edition of 199 pages, edited by Pierce.[36] By this time the book was widely available online,[32] and has been republished in online archives of far-right material and of Devi's work.[37] In 2015, the book was republished by thewhite nationalistSan Francisco-based publishing companyCounter-Currents Publishing as part of a wider collection of Devi's works. This edition is unabridged and 455 pages long.[38][39][40]
The Lightning of the Sun was very influential on neo-Nazism and is popular with many neo-Nazis, particularly those involved in esotericism.[41][42] It introduced esoteric neo-Nazism to a wider audience of English-speaking white supremacists.[30] AcademicJeffrey Kaplan called it Devi's most important work and her "masterpiece". Kaplan described it as a "remarkable exposition of occult National Socialism that explicitly deifies Hitler as the savior of the Aryan people,"[18][43] as well as a "Golden Age fantasy and ode to Adolf Hitler".[24] HistorianAlexandra Minna Stern described the book as Savitri Devi's "most well known and far-fetched work", and as "more a mystical treatise than a narrative interpretation of the rise and fall of the Third Reich".[8] Scholar Damon T. Berry noted its influence on William Luther Pierce, and noted the book as "an important work by one of the most important articulators of occult National Socialism in the postwar period".[17]Frederick J. Simonelli called it one of Devi's "main works of Aryan mysticism and National Socialist philosophy".[44]
Esoteric neo-NaziMiguel Serrano embraced the book's philosophy and ideas, which shaped his own conception of Nazism, also intertwined with Hindu religiosity; he praised Devi as "as the greatest fighter after Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Josef Goebbels" and "the priestess of Odin".[45] Satanist neo-NaziDavid Myatt, likely the founder of theOrder of Nine Angles, was fascinated by the work and recounted its influence on him in an interview.[46] Odinist Jost Turner was also taken with the work and its depiction of Hitler as a divine figure.[47] The musicianBoyd Rice recommended the book in the single issue of his publicationWake and wrote a 2001 essay debating her theories.[48]James Mason, an associate of Rice, quoted the book's statements on Hitler's "divine cause" in his periodicalSiege, later developed into his influential neo-Nazi bookSiege. Mason praised her writings and called them underrated.[49] The music groupRadio Werewolf, also affiliated with Rice, released an EP in 1989 inspired by the book, under the same title.[50] The German far-right band Turbund Sturmwerk also quoted her on their album releases.[51] Counter-Currents Publishing, which reprinted this and other works of Savitri Devi,[38][40] derived their slogan, "Books Against Time", from the work.[52]
According toBenjamin Teitelbaum, when he was in discussion withSteve Bannon, Bannon used the term that originates in this book, "Man in Time", to describeDonald Trump, though he said Bannon did not seem familiar with Devi's ideas when asked.[53]
