Esoteric neo-Nazism, also known asesoteric Nazism,esoteric fascism oresoteric Hitlerism, represents a fusion of Nazi ideology withmystical,occult, andesoteric traditions. This belief system emerged in theaftermath of World War II, as adherents sought to reinterpret and adapt the ideas of theThird Reich within the context of anew religious movement. Esoteric Nazism is characterized by its emphasis on the mythical and spiritual dimensions of Aryan supremacy, drawing from a range of sources includingTheosophy,Ariosophy, andGnostic dualism.
Greek writerSavitri Devi was the first major post-war exponent of what has since become known as Esoteric Hitlerism.[1] According to that ideology, subsequent to the fall of the Third Reich andHitler's suicide at the end of the war, Hitler himself could bedeified. Devi connected Hitler'sAryanist ideology to that of the pan-Hindu part of theIndian independence movement,[2] and activists such asSubhas Chandra Bose. For her, theswastika was an especially important symbol, as she felt it symbolized Aryan unity of Hindus and Germans.
Savitri Devi, above all, was interested in theIndian caste system, which she regarded as the archetype of racial laws intended to govern the segregation of different races and to maintain the pure blood of the fair-complexioned Aryans. She regarded the survival of the minority ofBrahmins among an enormous population of many different Indian races after sixty centuries as a living tribute to the value of the Aryan caste system.[3]
Savitri Devi integrated Nazism into a broadercyclical framework of Hindu history. She considered Hitler to be the ninthAvatar ofVishnu, and called him "the god-like Individual of our times; the Man against Time; the greatest European of all times",[4] having an ideal vision of returning his Aryan people to an earlier, more perfect time, and also having the practical wherewithal to fight the destructive forces "in Time". She saw his defeat—and the forestalling of his vision from coming to fruition—as a result of him being "too magnanimous, too trusting, too good", of not being merciless enough, of having in his "psychological make-up, too much 'sun' [beneficence] and not enough 'lightning.' [practical ruthlessness]",[5] unlike his coming incarnation:
"Kalki"will act with unprecedented ruthlessness. Contrarily to Adolf Hitler, He will spare not a single one of the enemies of the divine Cause: not a single one of its outspoken opponents but also not a single one of the lukewarm, of theopportunists, of the ideologicallyheretical, of the racially bastardised, of the unhealthy, of the hesitating, of the all-too-human; not a single one of those who, in body or in character or mind, bear the stamp of the fallen Ages.[6]
Unlike mostancient astronaut writers, Robert Charroux took a large interest inracialism. According to Charroux,Hyperborea was situated betweenIceland andGreenland and was the home of aNordicwhite race withblonde hair andblue eyes. Charroux wrote that this race wasextraterrestrial in origin and had originally come from a cold planet situated far from the sun.[7] Charroux also wrote that the white race of the Hyperboreans and their descendants, theCelts, had dominated the whole world in the ancient past. Some of these claims of Charroux have influenced the beliefs of esoteric Nazism such as the work ofMiguel Serrano.[8]
Miguel Serrano, a formerChilean diplomat, was a major figure in esoteric Nazism. Author of numerous books includingThe Golden Ribbon: Esoteric Hitlerism (1978) andAdolf Hitler, the Last Avatar (1984), Serrano was one of a number of Nazi esotericists who regard the "Aryan blood" as originallyextraterrestrial:
Serrano finds mythological evidence for the extraterrestrial origins of man in theNephilim [fallen angels] of theBook of Genesis... Serrano suggests that the sudden appearance ofCro-Magnon Man with his high artistic and cultural achievements in prehistoric Europe records the passage of one suchdivya-descended race alongside the abysmal inferiority ofNeanderthal Man, an abomination and manifest creation of thedemiurge... Of all the races on earth, the Aryans alone preserve the memory of their divine ancestors in their noble blood, which is still mingled with the light of theBlack Sun. All other races are the progeny of the demiurge's beast-men, native to the planet.[9]
Serrano supported this idea from various myths which assign divine ancestry to 'Aryan' peoples, and even theAztec myth ofQuetzalcoatl descending fromVenus. He also cited the hypothesis ofBal Gangadhar Tilak on the Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryans, as his authority for identifying the earthly centre of the Aryan migrations with the 'lost' Arctic continent ofHyperborea. Thus, Serrano's extraterrestrial gods are also identified as Hyperboreans.[a]
In attempting to raise the spiritual development of the earthbound races, the Hyperboreandivyas (aSanskrit term for god-men) suffered a tragic setback. Expanding on a story from theBook of Enoch, Serrano lamented that a renegade group among the gods committedmiscegenation with the terrestrial races, thus diluting the light-bearing blood of their benefactors and diminishing the level of divine awareness on the planet.[10]
The concept of Hyperborea had a simultaneously racial and mystical meaning for Serrano.[11] He believed that Hitler was inShambhala, an underground centre inAntarctica (formerly at the North Pole and Tibet), where he was in contact with the Hyperborean gods and whence he would someday emerge with a fleet ofUFOs to lead the forces of light (the Hyperboreans, sometimes associated withVril) over the forces of darkness (inevitably including, for Serrano, those of theAbrahamic religions who worship theAbrahamic god) in a last battle and thus inaugurating aFourth Reich.
Serrano follows theGnostic tradition of theCathars (fl. 1025–1244) by identifying the evil demiurge asJehovah, the God of the Old Testament. As medieval dualists, these eleventh-century heretics had repudiated Jehovah as a false god and mere artificer opposed to the real God far beyond our earthly realm. This Gnostic doctrine clearly carried dangerous implications for the Jews. As Jehovah was the tribal deity of the Jews, it followed that they were devil worshipers. By casting the Jews in the role of the children of Satan, the Cathar heresy can elevate anti-Semitism to the status of a theological doctrine backed by a vast cosmology. If the Hyperborean Aryans are the archetype and blood descendents of Serrano'sdivyas from the Black Sun, then the archetype of the Lord of Darkness needed a counter-race. The demiurge sought and found the most fitting agent for its archetype in the Jews.
As religious scholars Frederick C. Grant andHyam Maccoby emphasize, in the view of the dualist Gnostics, "Jews were regarded as the special people of the Demiurge and as having the special historical role of obstructing the redemptive work of the High God's emissaries".[12] Serrano thus considered Hitler as one of the greatest emissaries of this High God, rejected and crucified by the tyranny of the Judaicized rabble like previous revolutionary light-bringers. Serrano had a special place in his ideology for theSS, who, in their quest to recreate the ancient race of Aryan god-men, he thought were above morality and therefore justified.[citation needed]
In the 1980s and 1990s, David Myatt developed an interpretation—or revisionist version[13]—of Nazism which, although based on Savitri Devi's three principles of "above", "against", and "in time" individuals,[14] did not involve either ancient mythology or extraterrestrial beings.
Instead, Myatt, described as "most commonly associated with the occult wing of the National Socialist movement,[15] focused—in pamphlets such asThe Meaning of National Socialism,[16]The Enlightenment of National Socialism[17] and hisThe Religion of National Socialism[18][19]—on what he described as "the numinous" aspects of Nazism, withJeffrey Kaplan writing that Myatt described Nazism as "unambiguously a religion while Adolf Hitler is treated unashamedly as the saviour of mankind."[15]
In the bookBlack Sun,Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke reports howCarl Gustav Jung described "Hitler as possessed by the archetype of the collective Aryan unconscious and could not help obeying the commands of an inner voice". In a series of interviews between 1936 and 1939, Jung characterized Hitler as an archetype, often manifesting itself to the complete exclusion of his own personality."'Hitler is a spiritual vessel, a demi-divinity; even better, a myth.Benito Mussolini is a man' ... themessiah of Germany who teaches the virtue of the sword. 'The voice he hears is that of the collective unconscious of his race'".[20]
Jung's suggestion that Hitler personified the collective Aryan unconscious deeply interested and influencedMiguel Serrano, who later concluded that Jung was merely psychologizing the ancient, sacred mystery of archetypal possession by the gods, independent metaphysical powers that rule over their respective races and occasionally possess their members.[21]
The Black Sun is a significant symbol in esoteric Nazism.[22] Godwin and other writers such asNicholas Goodrick-Clarke have discussed the connections between esoteric Nazism andVril energy, the hidden Shambhala andAgartha civilizations, and undergroundUFO bases, as well as Hitler's and theSS's supposed survival in underground Antarctic bases inNew Swabia, or in alliance withHyperboreans from the subterranean world.[23]
Esoteric neo-Nazism has been compared to neopaganism, which is also sometimes utilized by far-right activists. Esoteric Nazism intertwines its mystical and esoteric beliefs with afascist andfar-right political agenda.[24]
Writing in 2002, Goodrick-Clarke described a contemporary loose network of small musical groups that combineneo-fascism andSatanism. These groups can be found in Britain, France, and New Zealand, under names such as "Black Order" or "Infernal Alliance", and draw their inspiration from the Esoteric Hitlerism ofMiguel Serrano.[25]
Esoteric themes, including references to artifacts such as theHoly Lance, are also often alluded to inneo-Nazi music (e.g.Rock Against Communism) and above all inNational Socialist black metal.[26]
