Neo-völkisch movements
Encyclopedia
Neo-völkisch movements, as defined by the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
, cover a wide variety of mutually influencing groups of a radically ethnocentric character which have emerged, especially in the English-speaking world
, since World War II
. These loose networks revive or imitate the völkisch movement of 19th and early 20th century Germany
in their defensive affirmation of white
identity against modernity
, liberalism
, immigration
, multiracialism
, and multiculturalism
. Some identify as neo-fascist
, neo-Nazi
, or Third Position
ist; others are politicised around some form of white ethnic nationalism
or identity politics
, and may show anarchist
tendencies. Especially notable is the prevalence of devotional forms and esoteric
themes, so that neo-völkisch currents often have the character of new religious movements.
Included under the neo-völkisch umbrella are movements ranging from conservative revolutionary schools of thought (Nouvelle Droite
, European New Right, Evolian Traditionalism) to white supremacist
and white separatist
interpretations of Christianity and paganism (Christian Identity
, Creativity Movement, Nordic racial paganism) to neo-Nazi subcultures (Esoteric Hitlerism, Nazi Satanism, National Socialist black metal
).
" and consist of small groups in Britain, France and New Zealand, under names such as Black Order or Infernal Alliance, which draw their inspiration from the Esoteric Hitlerism of Miguel Serrano
. Uww, founder of black metal
fanzine Deo Occidi, denounced Anton LaVey
as a "moderate Jew", and embraced the "esoterrorism" of the Scandinavian Black Metal milieu. Small Satanist grouplets catering to the black metal Satanist fringe include the Black Order, the Order of Nine Angles
(ONA), the Ordo Sinistra Vivendi (formerly the Order of the Left Hand Path) and the Order of the Jarls of Baelder.
The chief initiator of Nazi Satanism in Britain has been alleged to be David Wulstan Myatt (b. 1950), active in neo-nazi politics from the late 1960s. The ONA was allegedly led by Myatt who converted to Islam
in 1998, but renounced Islam in 2010 in favor of his own Numinous Way philosophy. Myatt however has always denied any involvement with the ONA and Satanism, and repeatedly challenged anyone to provide any evidence of such allegations.
The Order of Nine Angles is a purported secretive Satanist organization which has been mentioned in books detailing Satanist and far right
groups. The ONA was formed in the United Kingdom
, and rose to public note during the 1980s and 1990s. Presently, the ONA is organized around clandestine cells (which it calls traditional nexions) and around what it calls sinister tribes.
, Cox having published the ONA's book Naos in 1990 under the imprint of his Coxland Press and also, in 1993, Antares by the ONA's C. Beest.
According to Anti-fascistische Actie Nederland, "De Order of the Jarls of Baelder behoorde in de jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw tot het internationale netwerk van nazistische satanische organisaties waarbinnen de Order of the Nine Angles (ONA) een spilfunctie vervulde."
The OJB - (Jarl is Scandinavian for earl
) - which was renamed the Arktion Federation in 1998 - was also described by Partridge as a fascist Satanist group. However, according to the OJB these allegations are incorrect. Instead, the OJB claimed to have advocated pan-European
neo-tribalism
, which involved celebration of the rich tapestry of cultural diversity of humanity, study of Aryan traditions and heritage
, pursuing the "aeonic destiny of Europe" and the emergence of the elitist super race
, as an element of the unfolding of variant global/continental cultural forms. The activities of the OJB, which functioned as a spiritual and heritage group for people of any race or religion, included such activities as rock climbing
, hang gliding
, hiking
, and the study of runes. Gay
members were encouraged to join because it was felt they added to the male bonding
of the organization. The OJB symbol formerly consisted of the valknut
combined with the Gemini
sign within a broken curved-armed swastika
. Its symbol was later changed to a representation of the world tree embracing the yin-yang and maze with sun and stars.
On the basis of research by Mattias Gardell
, Goodrick-Clarke traces the original conception of the Odinist religion by Alexander Rud Mills
in the 1920s, and its modern revival by Else Christensen
and her Odinist Fellowship
from 1969 onwards. Christensen's politics were left-wing, deriving from anarcho-syndicalism
, but she believed that leftist ideas had a formative influence on both Italian Fascism and German National-Socialism, whose totalitarian perversions were a betrayal of these movements' socialist roots. Elements of a leftist and libertarian racial-socialism could therefore be reclaimed from the fascism in which they had become encrusted. However, Christensen was also convinced that the diseases of Western culture demanded a spiritual remedy. Mills' almost-forgotten writings inspired her with a programme for re-connecting with the gods and goddesses of the old Norse and Germanic pantheons, which she identified with the archetypes
in Carl Jung
's concept of the racial collective unconscious
. According to Christensen, therefore, Odinism is organically related to race in that "its principles are encoded in our genes".
The Ásatrú
movement, founded by Stephen McNallen
, differed from Christensen's Odinist Fellowship in placing a greater emphasis on ritual and a lesser focus on racial ideology. In 1987, McNallen's Asatru Free Assembly collapsed from prolonged internal tensions arising from his repudiation of Nazi sympathisers within the organisation. A group of these, including Wyatt Kaldenberg, then joined the Odinist Fellowship (as its Los Angeles
chapter) and formed an association with Tom Metzger
, which led to a further rebuff since "Else Christensen thought Metzger too racist, and members of the Arizona Kindred also wanted the Fellowship to be pro-white but not hostile to colored races and Jews". A series of defections from both of the main US-based organisations created secessionist groups with more radical agendas, among them Kaldenberg's Pagan Revival network and Jost Turner's National Socialist Kindred.
Kaplan and Weinberg note that "the religious component of the Euro-American radical right subculture includes both pagan and Christian or pseudo-Christian elements," locating Satanist or Odinist Nazi Skinhead sects in the United States (Ben Klassen
), Britain (David Myatt), Germany, Scandinavia and South Africa.
In the United States, some white supremacist
groups—including several with neo-fascist or neo-Nazi leanings—have built their ideologies around pagan religious imagery, including Odinism. One such group is the White Order of Thule
. Wotanism
is another religion that has appeared in the US white supremacist movement, and also utilizes imagery derived from paganism. Odalism is a European ideology advocated by the defunct Heathen Front
.
The question of the relationship between Germanic neopaganism
and the neo-Nazi movement is controversial among German neopagans, with opinions ranging across a wide spectrum. Active conflation of neo-fascist or far right
ideology with paganism is present in the Artgemeinschaft
and Deutsche Heidnische Front
. In Flanders, Werkgroep Traditie combines Germanic neopaganism with the ideology of the Nouvelle Droite
.
In the United States
, Michael J. Murray of Ásatrú Alliance
(in the late 1960s an American Nazi Party
member) and musician/journalist Michael Moynihan
(who turned to "metagenetic" Asatru in the mid-1990s), though Moynihan states that he has no political affiliations. Kevin Coogan
claims that a form of "eccentric and avant-garde form of cultural fascism" or "countercultural fascism" can be traced to the industrial music
genre of the late 1970s, particularly to the seminal British Industrial band Throbbing Gristle
, with whom Boyd Rice
performed at a London concert in 1978. Schobert alleges a neo-Nazi "cultural offensive" targeting the Dark Wave subculture.
Mattias Gardell claims that while older US racist groups are Christian and patriotic (Christian Identity
), there is a younger generation of white supremacists who have rejected both Christianity and patriotism in favour of Odinism because they view both Christianity and the United States government as responsible for what they see as the evils of a liberal society and the decline of the white race. Kaplan claims that there is a growing interest in one form of Odinism among members of the radical racist right-wing movements. Berger judges that there has been an aggregation of both racist and non-racist groups under the heading of "Odinism", which has confused the discussion about neo-Nazi Neopagans, and which has led most non-racist Germanic neopagans to favour terms like "Ásatrú" or "Heathenry" over "Odinism". Thus, the 1999 Project Megiddo
report issued by the FBI used "Odinism" as referring to white supremacist groups exclusively, sparking protests by the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance, Stephen McNallen expressing concern about a "pattern of anti-European-American actions".
The younger Tempelhofgesellschaft was founded in Vienna
in the early 1990s by Norbert Jurgen-Ratthofer and Ralft Ettl to teach a dualist form of Christian
religion called Marcionism
. This one was a part of the main THG / Homburg. The group identifies an "evil creator of this world," the Demiurge
with Jehovah
, the God of Judaism
. Jesus Christ was an Aryan
, not Jewish. They distribute pamphlets claiming that the Aryan race
originally came to Atlantis from the star Aldebaran
(this information is supposedly based on "ancient Sumer
ian manuscripts"). They maintain that the Aryans from Aldebaran derive their power from the vril
energy of the Black Sun. They teach that since the Aryan race is of extraterrestrial
origin it has a divine mission to dominate all the other races. It is believed by adherents of this religion that an enormous space fleet is on its way to Earth from Aldebaran which, when it arrives, will join forces with the Nazi Flying Saucers from Antarctica
to establish the Western Imperium.
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke B.A. , D.Phil. is a professor of Western Esotericism at University of Exeter and author of several books on esoteric traditions....
, cover a wide variety of mutually influencing groups of a radically ethnocentric character which have emerged, especially in the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
, since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. These loose networks revive or imitate the völkisch movement of 19th and early 20th century 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...
in their defensive affirmation of white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
identity against modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
, liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, multiracialism
Multiracialism
Multiracialism is a concept or ideology that promotes a society composed of various races, while accepting and respecting different cultural backgrounds...
, and multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. Some identify as neo-fascist
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
, neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
, or Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
ist; others are politicised around some form of white ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
or identity politics
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
, and may show anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
tendencies. Especially notable is the prevalence of devotional forms and esoteric
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
themes, so that neo-völkisch currents often have the character of new religious movements.
Included under the neo-völkisch umbrella are movements ranging from conservative revolutionary schools of thought (Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
, European New Right, Evolian Traditionalism) to white supremacist
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
and white separatist
White separatism
White separatism is a separatist political movement that seeks separate economic and cultural development for white people. White separatists generally claim genetic affiliation with Anglo-Saxon cultures, Nordic cultures, or other white European cultures...
interpretations of Christianity and paganism (Christian Identity
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
, Creativity Movement, Nordic racial paganism) to neo-Nazi subcultures (Esoteric Hitlerism, Nazi Satanism, National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal is black metal that promotes National Socialist beliefs through their lyrics and imagery. These beliefs often include: white supremacy, racial separatism, antisemitism, heterosexism, and Nazi interpretations of paganism or Satanism...
).
Nazi Satanism
Among the terms used are Nazi Satanism and Fascist Satanism. Sometimes these groups self-identify as "Traditional SatanismTheistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism, sometimes referred to as Traditional Satanism, Spiritual Satanism or Devil Worship, is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity or force to revere or worship. Other characteristics of Theistic Satanism may include a belief in magic, which is...
" and consist of small groups in Britain, France and New Zealand, under names such as Black Order or Infernal Alliance, which draw their inspiration from the Esoteric Hitlerism of Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano was a Chilean diplomat, explorer and author of poetry, books on spiritual questing and Esoteric Nazism...
. Uww, founder of black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
fanzine Deo Occidi, denounced Anton LaVey
Anton LaVey
Anton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...
as a "moderate Jew", and embraced the "esoterrorism" of the Scandinavian Black Metal milieu. Small Satanist grouplets catering to the black metal Satanist fringe include the Black Order, the Order of Nine Angles
Order of Nine Angles
The Order of Nine Angles is a purported secretive Satanist organization, initially formed in the United Kingdom, and which rose to public note during the 1980s and 1990s after having been mentioned in books detailing fascist Satanism...
(ONA), the Ordo Sinistra Vivendi (formerly the Order of the Left Hand Path) and the Order of the Jarls of Baelder.
The chief initiator of Nazi Satanism in Britain has been alleged to be David Wulstan Myatt (b. 1950), active in neo-nazi politics from the late 1960s. The ONA was allegedly led by Myatt who converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in 1998, but renounced Islam in 2010 in favor of his own Numinous Way philosophy. Myatt however has always denied any involvement with the ONA and Satanism, and repeatedly challenged anyone to provide any evidence of such allegations.
The Order of Nine Angles is a purported secretive Satanist organization which has been mentioned in books detailing Satanist and far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
groups. The ONA was formed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and rose to public note during the 1980s and 1990s. Presently, the ONA is organized around clandestine cells (which it calls traditional nexions) and around what it calls sinister tribes.
Order of the Jarls of Baelder
The Order of the Jarls of Baelder (OJB - which was dissolved in early 2005) was a British neopagan non-political and non-aligned educational society founded in 1990 by Stephen Bernard Cox who was briefly associated, in the 1980's, with the Order of Nine AnglesOrder of Nine Angles
The Order of Nine Angles is a purported secretive Satanist organization, initially formed in the United Kingdom, and which rose to public note during the 1980s and 1990s after having been mentioned in books detailing fascist Satanism...
, Cox having published the ONA's book Naos in 1990 under the imprint of his Coxland Press and also, in 1993, Antares by the ONA's C. Beest.
According to Anti-fascistische Actie Nederland, "De Order of the Jarls of Baelder behoorde in de jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw tot het internationale netwerk van nazistische satanische organisaties waarbinnen de Order of the Nine Angles (ONA) een spilfunctie vervulde."
The OJB - (Jarl is Scandinavian for earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
) - which was renamed the Arktion Federation in 1998 - was also described by Partridge as a fascist Satanist group. However, according to the OJB these allegations are incorrect. Instead, the OJB claimed to have advocated pan-European
Pan-European identity
Pan-European identity refers to the sense of personal identification with Europe. The most concrete examples of pan-europeanism are the European Union and the older Council of Europe...
neo-tribalism
Neo-Tribalism
Neotribalism or modern tribalism is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in tribal society, as opposed to mass society, and thus will naturally form social networks constituting new "tribes."-Sociological theory:...
, which involved celebration of the rich tapestry of cultural diversity of humanity, study of Aryan traditions and heritage
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples is a book written by Joseph Pomeroy Widney, published in New York by Funk & Wagnells in 1907, of the history of the Aryan race, a hypothesized race commonly described in the late 19th and early 20th century as consisting of native Indo-European Language-speaking...
, pursuing the "aeonic destiny of Europe" and the emergence of the elitist super race
Super race
A super race is a future race of improved humans that it is proposed be created from present day human beings by deploying various means such as eugenics, genetic engineering, yoga, or nanotechnology and brain-computer interfacing to accelerate the process of human evolution.-Aryan super race:The...
, as an element of the unfolding of variant global/continental cultural forms. The activities of the OJB, which functioned as a spiritual and heritage group for people of any race or religion, included such activities as rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
, hang gliding
Hang gliding
Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider ....
, hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, and the study of runes. Gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
members were encouraged to join because it was felt they added to the male bonding
Male bonding
Male bonding is a term that is used in ethology, social science, and in general usage to describe patterns of friendship and/or cooperation in men...
of the organization. The OJB symbol formerly consisted of the valknut
Valknut
The Valknut is a symbol consisting of three interlocked triangles, and appears on various Germanic objects. A number of theories have been proposed for its significance....
combined with the Gemini
Gemini (astrology)
Gemini is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the Zodiac between the 60th and 89th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between May 21 to June 20 each year...
sign within a broken curved-armed swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
. Its symbol was later changed to a representation of the world tree embracing the yin-yang and maze with sun and stars.
Nordic racial paganism
As defined by Goodrick-Clarke, Nordic racial paganism is synonymous with the Odinist movement (including some who identify as Wotanist). He describes it as a "spiritual rediscovery of the Aryan ancestral gods...intended to embed the white races in a sacred worldview that supports their tribal feeling", and expressed in "imaginative forms of ritual magic and ceremonial forms of fraternal fellowship". The mainline Odinist, Asatruar and Germanic Neo-Pagan community does not hold any racist, Nazi, extreme right-wing or racial supremacist believe and most Neo-Pagan groups reject Racism and Nazism.On the basis of research by Mattias Gardell
Mattias Gardell
Hans Bertil Mattias Gardell is a Swedish scholar of comparative religion. He is the current holder of the Nathan Söderblom Chair of Comparative Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden....
, Goodrick-Clarke traces the original conception of the Odinist religion by Alexander Rud Mills
Alexander Rud Mills
Alexander Rud Mills was a prominent Australian 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...
in the 1920s, and its modern revival by Else Christensen
Else Christensen
Else Christensen , also known as the “Folk Mother”, was a pioneering Danish figure in the emergence of Asatru and Odinism in the post-World War II era....
and her Odinist Fellowship
Odinist Fellowship
The Odinist Fellowship was the name of an early Odinist organization, founded by Else Christensen and her husband Alex Christensen in Canada in 1969...
from 1969 onwards. Christensen's politics were left-wing, deriving from anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
, but she believed that leftist ideas had a formative influence on both Italian Fascism and German National-Socialism, whose totalitarian perversions were a betrayal of these movements' socialist roots. Elements of a leftist and libertarian racial-socialism could therefore be reclaimed from the fascism in which they had become encrusted. However, Christensen was also convinced that the diseases of Western culture demanded a spiritual remedy. Mills' almost-forgotten writings inspired her with a programme for re-connecting with the gods and goddesses of the old Norse and Germanic pantheons, which she identified with the archetypes
Jungian archetypes
Carl Jung created the archetypes which “are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious” Also known as innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic symbols or representations of unconscious experience emerge...
in Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
's concept of the racial collective unconscious
Collective unconscious
Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience...
. According to Christensen, therefore, Odinism is organically related to race in that "its principles are encoded in our genes".
The Ásatrú
Ásatrú
is a form of Germanic neopaganism which developed in the United States from the 1970s....
movement, founded by Stephen McNallen
Stephen McNallen
Stephen A. McNallen is an influential Germanic Neopagan leader and writer. Born in Breckenridge, Texas, McNallen has been heavily involved in Ásatrú since the 1970s.-Life:...
, differed from Christensen's Odinist Fellowship in placing a greater emphasis on ritual and a lesser focus on racial ideology. In 1987, McNallen's Asatru Free Assembly collapsed from prolonged internal tensions arising from his repudiation of Nazi sympathisers within the organisation. A group of these, including Wyatt Kaldenberg, then joined the Odinist Fellowship (as its Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
chapter) and formed an association with Tom Metzger
Tom Metzger
Thomas Metzger is an American white nationalist who founded White Aryan Resistance . His far-right activist groups, including WAR, have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American organization that tracks hate groups...
, which led to a further rebuff since "Else Christensen thought Metzger too racist, and members of the Arizona Kindred also wanted the Fellowship to be pro-white but not hostile to colored races and Jews". A series of defections from both of the main US-based organisations created secessionist groups with more radical agendas, among them Kaldenberg's Pagan Revival network and Jost Turner's National Socialist Kindred.
Kaplan and Weinberg note that "the religious component of the Euro-American radical right subculture includes both pagan and Christian or pseudo-Christian elements," locating Satanist or Odinist Nazi Skinhead sects in the United States (Ben Klassen
Ben Klassen
Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen was an American religious leader who founded the Church of the Creator with the publication of his book Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973...
), Britain (David Myatt), Germany, Scandinavia and South Africa.
In the United States, some white supremacist
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
groups—including several with neo-fascist or neo-Nazi leanings—have built their ideologies around pagan religious imagery, including Odinism. One such group is the White Order of Thule
White Order of Thule
The White Order of Thule was a loosely organized American society formed in the mid-1990s by federal prisoner Peter Georgacarakos, art school graduate Michael Lujan and New Age occultist, Joseph Kerrick. It described itself as an "esoteric brotherhood working toward the revitalization of the...
. Wotanism
Wotanism
Wotanism is the name of an American Heathen religion or socio-political current based on Germanic paganism and the doctrines of David Lane. Wotan is the German name for the Germanic god known in Norse as Odin...
is another religion that has appeared in the US white supremacist movement, and also utilizes imagery derived from paganism. Odalism is a European ideology advocated by the defunct Heathen Front
Heathen Front
The Allgermanische Heidnische Front was an international Neo-Nazi organization espousing a philosophy influenced by anti-Semitism, xenophobia and folkish heathenry or Ásatrú, often called Odalism.-History:...
.
The question of the relationship between 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...
and the neo-Nazi movement is controversial among German neopagans, with opinions ranging across a wide spectrum. Active conflation of neo-fascist or far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
ideology with paganism is present in the Artgemeinschaft
Artgemeinschaft
The Artgemeinschaft Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft is a German Neopagan and Neonazi organization, founded in 1951 by Wilhelm Kusserow...
and Deutsche Heidnische Front
Deutsche Heidnische Front
Deutsche Heidnische Front is a far right Neo-pagan group which was created in 1998 as the German section of the Heathen Front...
. In Flanders, Werkgroep Traditie combines Germanic neopaganism with the ideology of the Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Michael J. Murray of Ásatrú Alliance
Ásatrú Alliance
The Asatru Alliance is a US Ásatrú group, succeeding Stephen McNallen's Asatru Free Assembly in 1987, founded by Michael J. Murray of Arizona, who is a former vice-president of Else Christensen's Odinist Fellowship. The AFA seceded into two groups, the other one being The Troth...
(in the late 1960s an American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
member) and musician/journalist Michael Moynihan
Michael Moynihan (journalist)
Michael Moynihan is an American journalist, publisher and musician. He is best known for co-writing the book Lords of Chaos, about black metal....
(who turned to "metagenetic" Asatru in the mid-1990s), though Moynihan states that he has no political affiliations. Kevin Coogan
Kevin Coogan
Kevin Coogan is an American investigative journalist. He is the author of the biography Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International....
claims that a form of "eccentric and avant-garde form of cultural fascism" or "countercultural fascism" can be traced to the industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
genre of the late 1970s, particularly to the seminal British Industrial band Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
, with whom Boyd Rice
Boyd Rice
Boyd Blake Rice is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the Partridge Family Temple religious group, co-founder of the UNPOP art movement and current staff writer for Modern Drunkard...
performed at a London concert in 1978. Schobert alleges a neo-Nazi "cultural offensive" targeting the Dark Wave subculture.
Mattias Gardell claims that while older US racist groups are Christian and patriotic (Christian Identity
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
), there is a younger generation of white supremacists who have rejected both Christianity and patriotism in favour of Odinism because they view both Christianity and the United States government as responsible for what they see as the evils of a liberal society and the decline of the white race. Kaplan claims that there is a growing interest in one form of Odinism among members of the radical racist right-wing movements. Berger judges that there has been an aggregation of both racist and non-racist groups under the heading of "Odinism", which has confused the discussion about neo-Nazi Neopagans, and which has led most non-racist Germanic neopagans to favour terms like "Ásatrú" or "Heathenry" over "Odinism". Thus, the 1999 Project Megiddo
Project Megiddo
Project Megiddo was a report researched and written by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director Louis Freeh. Released on October 20, 1999, the report named followers of white supremacy, Christian Identity, the militia movement, Black Hebrew Israelites, and apocalyptic cults...
report issued by the FBI used "Odinism" as referring to white supremacist groups exclusively, sparking protests by the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance, Stephen McNallen expressing concern about a "pattern of anti-European-American actions".
Tempelhofgesellschaft
The older Tempelhofgesellschaft (THG) was built in the 1980s by a few members of the nazi "Erbengemeinschaft der Tempelritter". The leader of this group is an old police man who resides in Germany / Homburg.The younger Tempelhofgesellschaft was founded in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in the early 1990s by Norbert Jurgen-Ratthofer and Ralft Ettl to teach a dualist form of Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
religion called Marcionism
Marcionism
Marcionism was an Early Christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome around the year 144; see also Christianity in the 2nd century....
. This one was a part of the main THG / Homburg. The group identifies an "evil creator of this world," the Demiurge
Demiurge
The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy for an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics...
with Jehovah
Jehovah
Jehovah is an anglicized representation of Hebrew , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible....
, the God of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. Jesus Christ was an Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
, not Jewish. They distribute pamphlets claiming that the Aryan race
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
originally came to Atlantis from the star Aldebaran
Aldebaran
Aldebaran is a red giant star located about 65 light years away in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. With an average apparent magnitude of 0.87 it is the brightest star in the constellation and is one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky...
(this information is supposedly based on "ancient Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian manuscripts"). They maintain that the Aryans from Aldebaran derive their power from the vril
Vril
Vril, the Power of the Coming Race is a 1871 science fiction novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, originally printed as The Coming Race. Many early readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril" was accurate, to the extent that some theosophists...
energy of the Black Sun. They teach that since the Aryan race is of extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
origin it has a divine mission to dominate all the other races. It is believed by adherents of this religion that an enormous space fleet is on its way to Earth from Aldebaran which, when it arrives, will join forces with the Nazi Flying Saucers from Antarctica
Nazi UFOs
In science fiction, conspiracy theory, and underground comic books, stories or claims circulate linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. These German UFO theories describe supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft prior to and during World War II, and further claim the...
to establish the Western Imperium.
See also
- Crypto-fascismCrypto-fascismCrypto-fascism is a pejorative term implying a secret support for, or admiration of, fascism. The term is used to imply that an individual or group keeps this support or admiration hidden to avoid political persecution or political suicide....
- EcofascismEcofascismEcofascism, can be used in two different ways:# The term is used as a pejorative by political conservatives, centrists, and leftists to discredit deep ecology, mainstream environmentalism, radical environmentalism and other ecological positions....
- Esoteric NazismEsoteric NazismThe term Esoteric Nazism refers to semi-religious developments of Nazism in the post-World War II period. After 1945, esoteric elements of the Third Reich were developed into new völkisch religions of white identity. Examples of post-war Nazi mystical philosophies include Esoteric Hitlerism and...
- Integral Traditionalism
- National-AnarchismNational-AnarchismNational-Anarchism is a radical, anti-capitalist, anti-statist, right-wing political and cultural ideology which emphasizes ethnic tribalism. As a prelude to an anticipated racial civil war and a collapse of the capitalist system, National-Anarchists seek to establish autonomous villages for...
- Nazi occultism
- Neo-fascism and religion
- National Socialist black metalNational Socialist black metalNational Socialist black metal is black metal that promotes National Socialist beliefs through their lyrics and imagery. These beliefs often include: white supremacy, racial separatism, antisemitism, heterosexism, and Nazi interpretations of paganism or Satanism...
- Libertarian National Socialist Green Party
- National Socialist Movement (United Kingdom)National Socialist Movement (United Kingdom)The National Socialist Movement was a British neo-Nazi group active during the late 1990s. The group is not connected to the earlier National Socialist Movement of Colin Jordan.-Origins:...
- Project MegiddoProject MegiddoProject Megiddo was a report researched and written by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director Louis Freeh. Released on October 20, 1999, the report named followers of white supremacy, Christian Identity, the militia movement, Black Hebrew Israelites, and apocalyptic cults...
- Kerry BoltonKerry BoltonKerry Raymond Bolton is a far-right , conservative and social credit writer in New Zealand who has been active in several organisations...
- Michael Moynihan (journalist)Michael Moynihan (journalist)Michael Moynihan is an American journalist, publisher and musician. He is best known for co-writing the book Lords of Chaos, about black metal....
- Koenraad LoggheKoenraad LoggheKoenraad Logghe used to be a Flemish proponent of the European New Right and former "high priest" of folkish Asatru , founder of the Werkgroep Traditie neopagan organization . which he left in the summer of 2008...