Alexander Rud Mills
Encyclopedia
Alexander Rud Mills was a prominent Australia
n Odinist
, and one of the earliest proponents of the rebirth of Germanic Neopaganism
in the 20th century. He was a published author, lecturer and Barrister
. He founded the First Anglecyn Church of Odin in Melbourne in 1936. He was also known by the pen-name Tasman Forth.
in 1885. Around 1910 he moved to Victoria
to enroll at the Melbourne University Law School
at the University of Melbourne
. Mills was admitted to the Victorian Bar
in 1917. He married Evelyn Louisa Price at Holy Trinity, Church of England, Surrey Hills, Victoria 2 June 1951. She was the daughter of Frederick Andrew Price and Helena Louisa Rogers. Rud was 65, Evelyn was 62. They had a long friendship and romance continuing for over 30 years prior to their marriage. Witnesses at the wedding were Henry Jamieson and Edward Clare. Rud Mills died on 8 April 1964, buried at Ferntree Gully Cemetery, Victoria. His wife, Evelyn died on 9 July 1973 and is buried with her husband.
during this time he became disillusioned with communism
, which he viewed as a form of organized thuggery. In England
he attended meetings of Sir Oswald Mosley's 'British Union of Fascists', and Arnold Leese
's smaller and more radical 'Imperial Fascist League, receiving Leese's newspaper, The Fascist When Mills appeared before a Commission of Inquiry, some years later, he conceded that he believed Leese to be “at times misguided in his statements. Signifucantly, he pointed out that he also received "Soviet Today" and the "Jewish Chronicle".
In 1933 Mills travelled to Germany
and met Hitler. According to the Odinic Rite website, on meeting Hitler Mills simply wrote "I saw him. Talked to Him. He would not discuss my theme"; In short, Hitler was not interested in Odinism. In Germany Mills also met followers of General Erich Ludendorff
, the famous strategist and hero of the First World War who was also interested in a Nordic religious revival. Mills disagreed with Ludendorff on philosophical grounds.
On Mills' return to Australia in 1934 he established the Anglecyn Church of Odin and in 1935 he founded the 'British Australian Racial Body'. He had also established two short-lived newspapers, the National Socialist and The Angle as a vehicle through which to espouse his racial, religious and political views. In 1941 he became associated with the anti-War, pro-Isolationist 'Australia First Movement' and contributed to its newspaper The Publicist. The Publicist (before 1939) described itself in its manifesto as being 'for national socialism' and 'for Aryanism; against semitism' and was the mouthpiece for W.J. Miles, a leading member of the Rationalist Society.
, it was unsurprising that he was detained without trial for suspicion of placing Australia's interests before those of the Empire, and for offering his legal services to Australia First members on 10 March 1942. He was interned until 17 December 1942, having been set free at last by a tribunal. No charges were ever brought against him. Mills was cleared of any wrongdoing by a judicial panel, but received no compensation for his imprisonment.
In Parliament in March 1944 Robert Menzies
, then leader of the opposition, later Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, said "I happen to know him quite well..... he was hauled out of his home, imprisoned and put in an internment camp..... his association, so I am informed, with the Australia First Movement amounted to this: some man who had secured appointment with the movement wrote to him and asked him to subscribe, and he forward 10s 6d. as a subscription..... I know this man and I know something of the disaster which this has brought upon him..... Here is a man who for twenty-odd years was building up a practice as a professional man. He was taken out of his home, just as anybody might be. He was incarcerated in circumstances of immense notoriety. When he came out, what happened? His friends were gone, his practice gone, his reputation was gone."
In "The Puzzled Patriots," by Bruce Muirden, Melbourne University Press 1968, page 128 refers to a bashing of Mills by an army officer at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia
. This allegation was backed up by Mills' wife, Evelyn Louisa Mills.
Alexander Rud Mills applied to join the AIF during World War I
but was rejected on medical grounds. His soldier's reject badge was No. 65039.
…the Christian religion is, in one phase at least, a form of Jewish propaganda, as well as a condemnation of ourselves
…our Christian culture…has now bought us to ever-greater worship of time-subservient materialism…
…in the Christian religion its doctrines and outlook has been personified and adorned with stories calculated to appeal to a certain weakness of man.
Anti-Semitic comments can likewise be found scattered throughout the Guide Book. The Jews evidently plot world conquest:
…the Jews, generally speaking, recognise the degradation and disintegration of the peoples under Christian culture, and by its direction or otherwise, have hopes of ruling over such peoples…and because Jews try to hasten the process by using the many powers in their control.
… many Jewish Leaders have deemed it an intellectual conquest of other peoples, [if they persuade] other races to forget their own race and Lords, and at the same time induce them to…self –renunciation (take-the-lowest-seat)…making such persons and nations unworthy to live and only fit to be ruled, before their extinction.
Control the media:
…in our newspapers, colleges, wireless and the like news-services (even when not directly controlled Jews [sic])…the word 'Jew' is only spoken with circumspection…
And dominate Freemasonry:
[Freemasonry has] been seriously affected by reason of the pervading Jewish culture, which war against our national and racial identity…and the Jewish racial spirit…and the denial of our own
While Mills' vision of what Odinism involves is still being re-explored and re-evaluated by modern Odinists, nevertheless Mills prefigures many of the concerns of Germanic pagans today - the morally and culturally corrosive effects of Judeo-Christianity, the importance of Eugenics and breeding programmes, the linking of individual with national vitality, the fall from grace of the White Race by being untrue to the spirit of their forefathers, valourisation of heroism, the intrinsic healthiness of freedom of heterosexual expression and so on.
After Mills was released from internment in late 1942 he continued to promote his vision of Odinism. He remained an active writer, publishing eight books and numerous articles and pamphlets between 1933 and 1957 on Odinist themes.
In the early 1960s two former Danish resistance fighters against the Nazi occupation of Denmark, both left-wing activists then living in Canada, Else and Alec Christensen, made contact with Rud Mills' Odinist wife. According to Else, Alec had spent "about half a year" in a German concentration camp on Danish soil during WW2. The Christensens took a cue from the Anglecyn Church of Odin and formed the 'Odinist Fellowship' in 1969.
In the late 1960s, an Odinist activist in London, Stubba, formed the Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite. This received government recognition in the early 1970s, and still continues as the Odinic Rite.
In the early 1970s, a group of Australian Odinists who were students at the University of Melbourne sought a guarantee from the Australian Attorney-General that if Odinism were formally revived it would not be persecuted (as Mills' church had been). The Attorney-General gave that guarantee, and by the early 1990s the Odinic Rite of Australia had been granted legal status by the Australian government. Today, members of the ORA attend annual pilgrimages to the graves of Rud and Evelyn Mills.
In 1980 Kerry Raymond Bolton from Christchurch, New Zealand, along with David Crawford, co-founded a New Zealand outfit called the Church of Odin. They both had a background in far-right political activities. Paul Spoonley quotes Crawford as saying that the Church of Odin was exclusively for whites, and specifically whites "of non-Jewish descent" and that "the main Odinic law requires loyalty to race". By 1983 Bolton had left the Church.
Today, the main Odinist religious bodies that honour Rud and Evelyn Mills are the northern hemisphere's Odinic Rite, and the Odinic Rite of Australia.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Odinist
Odinism
Odinism is a type of Germanic Neopaganism.Odinism may also refer to:*Norse paganism** the cult of Odin- See also :*Odinist Fellowship*Odinic Rite*The Odin Brotherhood*Wotanism, a Völkisch / White Nationalist movement*Wodenism...
, and one of the earliest proponents of the rebirth of Germanic Neopaganism
Germanic Neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s...
in the 20th century. He was a published author, lecturer and Barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
. He founded the First Anglecyn Church of Odin in Melbourne in 1936. He was also known by the pen-name Tasman Forth.
Life
Mills was born in Forth, TasmaniaForth, Tasmania
Forth is a small village located in northwest Tasmania on the Forth River, west of Devonport and northwest of Launceston via the Bass Highway. Forth has a population of about 368...
in 1885. Around 1910 he moved to Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
to enroll at the Melbourne University Law School
Melbourne University Law School
Melbourne Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of the University of Melbourne, and is one of Australia's oldest law schools. It retains a reputation for high quality teaching and research, with approximately 3500 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and a number of Australia's...
at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. Mills was admitted to the Victorian Bar
Victorian Bar
The Victorian Bar is the bar association for the Australian State of Victoria. Its members are barristers registered to practice in Victoria. On 19 January 2006, there were 1627 counsel practising as members of the Victorian Bar. Once a barrister has been admitted to practice by the Supreme Court...
in 1917. He married Evelyn Louisa Price at Holy Trinity, Church of England, Surrey Hills, Victoria 2 June 1951. She was the daughter of Frederick Andrew Price and Helena Louisa Rogers. Rud was 65, Evelyn was 62. They had a long friendship and romance continuing for over 30 years prior to their marriage. Witnesses at the wedding were Henry Jamieson and Edward Clare. Rud Mills died on 8 April 1964, buried at Ferntree Gully Cemetery, Victoria. His wife, Evelyn died on 9 July 1973 and is buried with her husband.
Odinism
The Odinic Rite of Australia (ORA) is a tax-exempt non profit organisation which seeks to continue the pioneering work of the founder of modern Odinism, Alexander Rud Mills. The Australian Tax Office accepts the ORA's definition of Odinism as "the continuation of ... the organic spiritual beliefs and religion of the indigenous peoples of northern Europe as embodied in the Edda and as they have found expression in the wisdom and in the historical experience of these peoples".Political Sympathies and Activities
Mills became politically and religiously active during a trip to Europe between 1931 and 1934. While in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
during this time he became disillusioned with communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, which he viewed as a form of organized thuggery. In England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
he attended meetings of Sir Oswald Mosley's 'British Union of Fascists', and Arnold Leese
Arnold Leese
Arnold Spencer Leese was a British veterinarian and fascist politician. He was born in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England and educated at Giggleswick School....
's smaller and more radical 'Imperial Fascist League, receiving Leese's newspaper, The Fascist When Mills appeared before a Commission of Inquiry, some years later, he conceded that he believed Leese to be “at times misguided in his statements. Signifucantly, he pointed out that he also received "Soviet Today" and the "Jewish Chronicle".
In 1933 Mills travelled to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and met Hitler. According to the Odinic Rite website, on meeting Hitler Mills simply wrote "I saw him. Talked to Him. He would not discuss my theme"; In short, Hitler was not interested in Odinism. In Germany Mills also met followers of General Erich Ludendorff
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German general, victor of Liège and of the Battle of Tannenberg...
, the famous strategist and hero of the First World War who was also interested in a Nordic religious revival. Mills disagreed with Ludendorff on philosophical grounds.
On Mills' return to Australia in 1934 he established the Anglecyn Church of Odin and in 1935 he founded the 'British Australian Racial Body'. He had also established two short-lived newspapers, the National Socialist and The Angle as a vehicle through which to espouse his racial, religious and political views. In 1941 he became associated with the anti-War, pro-Isolationist 'Australia First Movement' and contributed to its newspaper The Publicist. The Publicist (before 1939) described itself in its manifesto as being 'for national socialism' and 'for Aryanism; against semitism' and was the mouthpiece for W.J. Miles, a leading member of the Rationalist Society.
Detainment
Given Mill's known pacifist sympathies and his association with (although he was not a member of) the Australia First MovementAustralia First Movement
Australia First Movement was a proto-fascist movement which grew out of the Rational Association and the Victorian Socialist Party. Adela Pankhurst Walsh, of the famous suffragette family was involved in it, along with W. J. Miles, Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen, Xavier Herbert, as well as famous...
, it was unsurprising that he was detained without trial for suspicion of placing Australia's interests before those of the Empire, and for offering his legal services to Australia First members on 10 March 1942. He was interned until 17 December 1942, having been set free at last by a tribunal. No charges were ever brought against him. Mills was cleared of any wrongdoing by a judicial panel, but received no compensation for his imprisonment.
In Parliament in March 1944 Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
, then leader of the opposition, later Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, said "I happen to know him quite well..... he was hauled out of his home, imprisoned and put in an internment camp..... his association, so I am informed, with the Australia First Movement amounted to this: some man who had secured appointment with the movement wrote to him and asked him to subscribe, and he forward 10s 6d. as a subscription..... I know this man and I know something of the disaster which this has brought upon him..... Here is a man who for twenty-odd years was building up a practice as a professional man. He was taken out of his home, just as anybody might be. He was incarcerated in circumstances of immense notoriety. When he came out, what happened? His friends were gone, his practice gone, his reputation was gone."
In "The Puzzled Patriots," by Bruce Muirden, Melbourne University Press 1968, page 128 refers to a bashing of Mills by an army officer at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. This allegation was backed up by Mills' wife, Evelyn Louisa Mills.
Alexander Rud Mills applied to join the AIF during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
but was rejected on medical grounds. His soldier's reject badge was No. 65039.
The Anglecyn Church of Odin
Mills' articulation of Odinism is quite different in flavour to some modern tendencies within Odinism. In his liturgical text, The First Guide Book to the Anglecyn Church of Odin of 1936, Mills gives a version of the Ten Commandments that is only slightly different from that in Exodus and Mill's formulary includes vigils, hymns, evensong and communion, making it abundantly clear that Mills based the liturgy of the Anglecyn Church of Odin on that of the Anglican Church. However, while textually there is a debt to Christian worship, philosophically Mills expresses strong anti-Christian sentiments throughout:…the Christian religion is, in one phase at least, a form of Jewish propaganda, as well as a condemnation of ourselves
…our Christian culture…has now bought us to ever-greater worship of time-subservient materialism…
…in the Christian religion its doctrines and outlook has been personified and adorned with stories calculated to appeal to a certain weakness of man.
Anti-Semitic comments can likewise be found scattered throughout the Guide Book. The Jews evidently plot world conquest:
…the Jews, generally speaking, recognise the degradation and disintegration of the peoples under Christian culture, and by its direction or otherwise, have hopes of ruling over such peoples…and because Jews try to hasten the process by using the many powers in their control.
… many Jewish Leaders have deemed it an intellectual conquest of other peoples, [if they persuade] other races to forget their own race and Lords, and at the same time induce them to…self –renunciation (take-the-lowest-seat)…making such persons and nations unworthy to live and only fit to be ruled, before their extinction.
Control the media:
…in our newspapers, colleges, wireless and the like news-services (even when not directly controlled Jews [sic])…the word 'Jew' is only spoken with circumspection…
And dominate Freemasonry:
[Freemasonry has] been seriously affected by reason of the pervading Jewish culture, which war against our national and racial identity…and the Jewish racial spirit…and the denial of our own
While Mills' vision of what Odinism involves is still being re-explored and re-evaluated by modern Odinists, nevertheless Mills prefigures many of the concerns of Germanic pagans today - the morally and culturally corrosive effects of Judeo-Christianity, the importance of Eugenics and breeding programmes, the linking of individual with national vitality, the fall from grace of the White Race by being untrue to the spirit of their forefathers, valourisation of heroism, the intrinsic healthiness of freedom of heterosexual expression and so on.
Influence on Germanic neopaganism
Mills was the focal point for English-speaking Odinists from the 1920s until his death. In his native Australia one of his most prominent supporters was Annie Lennon, who on at least one occasion had to book out the Brisbane Football Ground to accommodate those who wished to hear her message. Since the ground was not big enough for those wished to be admitted, she had to hire a public address system to relay her message to those outside who could not be accommodated.After Mills was released from internment in late 1942 he continued to promote his vision of Odinism. He remained an active writer, publishing eight books and numerous articles and pamphlets between 1933 and 1957 on Odinist themes.
In the early 1960s two former Danish resistance fighters against the Nazi occupation of Denmark, both left-wing activists then living in Canada, Else and Alec Christensen, made contact with Rud Mills' Odinist wife. According to Else, Alec had spent "about half a year" in a German concentration camp on Danish soil during WW2. The Christensens took a cue from the Anglecyn Church of Odin and formed the 'Odinist Fellowship' in 1969.
In the late 1960s, an Odinist activist in London, Stubba, formed the Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite. This received government recognition in the early 1970s, and still continues as the Odinic Rite.
In the early 1970s, a group of Australian Odinists who were students at the University of Melbourne sought a guarantee from the Australian Attorney-General that if Odinism were formally revived it would not be persecuted (as Mills' church had been). The Attorney-General gave that guarantee, and by the early 1990s the Odinic Rite of Australia had been granted legal status by the Australian government. Today, members of the ORA attend annual pilgrimages to the graves of Rud and Evelyn Mills.
In 1980 Kerry Raymond Bolton from Christchurch, New Zealand, along with David Crawford, co-founded a New Zealand outfit called the Church of Odin. They both had a background in far-right political activities. Paul Spoonley quotes Crawford as saying that the Church of Odin was exclusively for whites, and specifically whites "of non-Jewish descent" and that "the main Odinic law requires loyalty to race". By 1983 Bolton had left the Church.
Today, the main Odinist religious bodies that honour Rud and Evelyn Mills are the northern hemisphere's Odinic Rite, and the Odinic Rite of Australia.