Introduction
The intellectual world of Guido von List is a fascinating one. List
lived and flourished in the heady atmosphere of fin-de-siele
Vienna --
a
seething cauldron of the human spirit out of which emerged ideas
that
would dominate the 20th century. List was primarily an artist -- a
poet.
As a poet his medium was the word. He begins this treatise on "the
Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk" with a meditation on the phrase:
"In the beginning was the word..." Perhaps characteristic of List,
he does
not mention the more contextually profound Eddic take on the primacy
of the word (Havamal 141). Such oversights were common in List's
work simply because the time was not right to discuss the Germanic
tradition in such a pure manner. List's mystical world-view was in
fact
dominated by the doctrines of
Theosophy with which he combined
Germanic data. Many today see List as an intellectual forerunner, a
pioneer, but think, in the spirit List himself puts forward, that we
can do
better today than he was able to do then. In this brief
introduction I
would like to address three major ideas: the use of folk-etymology
as a
mystical technique, Theosophy in List's ideology and the myth of of
"Ariosophical" culpability in crimes committed by National
Socialists.
For a more comprehensive introduction to the ideology of Guido von
List, see the introduction to my translation of The Secret of the
Runes (Destiny, 1988).
Listian Folk-Etymology as Mystical Thought
One of List's more original contributions to the lore of mystical
thought is his adaptation of Indian doctrines on the mystical
contents of
seed-words or syllables (bijas) to create a virtual mystical science
of folk
etymology for Germanic words.
Folk-etymology is a common
phenomenon. It is the attempt by nonscientific laymen to generate
(often
mythically tinged) origins of words or to show the meaningful
connections between words based on the way they might sound alike.
Folk etymology is responsible for people once believing that "wicca"
had
something to do with "wise," apparently simply because they both
began
with a "w." Folk etymologies are always easier to believe than
actual
etymologies derived from linguistic and philological data according
to
established rules of diachronic linguistics simply because they appear
more plausible to the untrained eye. List took this idea one step
deeper
by concentrating not on the superficial level, but rather on words
syllable
by syllable. For example on page 37 of the present text he takes the
Old
Norse word ljossalfar, which is actually a compound of the words for
"light" (ljoss) and "elves" (alfar) and breaks it down in a mysto-syllabic
manner: lio =light; sal =holiness; far =solar-generation, i.e.
"salvation
generated through light and the sun." In doing this he is not
inventing a
method out of whole cloth, but rather is following methods laid down
by
Indian mystics who analyze Sanskrit words in a similar metalinguistic
manner. The result is a kind of mystical, suprarational
understanding of
language that is somewhat akin to the way in which kabbalistic
mystics
use number and numerical value to understand words on another level.
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The Jerusalemites were
sachas-people; one man asked his neighbor: What did
you have your meal with today? With "bread" made from
leaven "flour," or from unleavened "flour"? With Godolic
"wine" ... on a wide "cushion," or on a narrow "cushion"
in good or bad company. R. Hisda explained: "Everything
(is meant) in the erotic sense." ... The Semitic word
'ain has different meanings, such as: "eye,
appearance, well, idol" (Zach. V.6). The
similar-sounding ia'en means siren.... Because
''wine'' (Heb. iain) sounds similar to ia'an
(= siren) it is not strange that "wine" is also used for
these lewd water-creatures.... What is understood by
baziati are obviously the beings, sometimes with a
tail, sometimes without, depicted in Fig. 7. because the
word bazah sounds the same as the Egyptian word
besa and the Egyptian Bes-dwarf depicted in Fig.
24 has a great similarity to the Assyrian images on the
black obelisks. ... The pesach-lambs are nothing
other than these lewd dwarves. The pesa, which
sounds similar to Heb. pesach, is found in Ps.
XVIII.14 and Dan. VIII.13 in the meaning of "greatest
sin" and in Is. LVII.4 the pesa-bastards are
called the seed of Sodom. The pesach-festival is
a remembrance of the flight from the land of the Ptah-dwarves,
a festival in remembrance of the escape from the
Sodomite flood of Egypt. ... The Heb. word peset
(= flax) sounds similar to bazah, baziati, and so
''flax'' also became a Sodomite word-play. ... the gold
of Ophir and Tarshish refers to nothing other than
Sodomite beings. This is because gold is zahab,
and the similar-sounding ze'eb is "ape-man."
--
Theozoology, or the Science of the Sodomite Apelings and
the Divine Electron, by Dr. Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels |
Theosophical Characteristics of List's Ideology
The Theosophical Society is a synthetic and syncretizing mystical
school founded primarily by the Russian expatriate Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky (nee von Hahn) in New York City in 1875. It became
established in German-speaking central Europe in subsequent years
and
influenced many esoteric schools there. However, it must be said
that
there was very little that was original about Theosophy. It was a
synthesis
of practically everything that had preceded it as far as mysticism
and
magic were concerned. It possessed an elaborate doctrine concerning
the
evolution of the races of humanity, and where this evolutionary
process
was headed. Again the ideas were not new or peculiar to Theosophy in
1875, but they did find a forceful vehicle in the works of
Blavatsky,
especially her voluminous
Secret Doctrine (1888).
Already on page 3 of the present work by List he outlines
specifically Theosophical ideas on race: "... the Third Race of
humans was still androgynous, and that only with the Fourth Race
were the male and female genders split, which also continues to be
the case in the Fifth Race -- our own." On page 23 he presents the
Theosophical theoretical idea about how more advanced racial souls
are "awakened earlier than the others" and thereby gain power over
relatively undeveloped souls. These concepts are essentially
borrowed from Theosophy, using Theosophical terminology (e.g. "Root
Races"). Doctrines of spiritual hierarchy are contained in the
Germanic
tradition, which can be discovered in the text of various Old Norse
poems, e.g. the Rigspula in the Poetic Edda. But the Germanic
tradition
cannot be construed as being identical with that of Theosophy.
The Modern Myth of "Ariosophical" Culpability for Nazi Crimes
More than once my former work with the early 20th century
rune-magicians
and Guido von List has caused a critic or two to remark to the
effect that I failed to point out that these esoteric ideas led
directly to
Auschwitz. One German academic Stephanie von Schnurbein writing in
her Religion als Kulturkritik [(Winter, 1992) p. 136] remarked
concerning my introduction to The Secret of the Runes: "Dabei
erwahnt
[Flowers] an keine Stelle, dass List und die andere Ariosophen
Vordenker des Rassenwahns des Nationalsozialismus waren..." (In
this
work [Flowers] nowhere mentions that List and the other Ariosophists
were intellectual predecessors of the racial madness of National
Socialism...). It is just taken as a matter of course, with little
to no actual
critical investigation, that the ideas of List, Lanz and others were
directly
implemented in the Nazi genocide. A critical analysis would,
however,
show that such was not the case. First of all, no one has ever shown
that
racial policies of the NSDAP are based on so-called "Ariosophical"
ideas.
The very term "Ariosophy" points to its having been created as
something based by analogy on its predecessor, Theosophy. All of the
racial ideas contained in Ariosophy can be traced to Theosophy, and
even
the most "extreme" of the Ariosophists,
Lanz von Liebenfels (cited
several times by List in the present book) cannot be shown to have
been
an Anti-Semite in any way comparable to the anti-Semitism practiced
by
the Nazis.
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Culture is impossible
without slavery (Col. III.22), for this reason Jesus
says in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus: "Ye ask who are
those who draw you to the Kingdom ... The birds of the
sky and all animals under the earth and upon the earth
are, and the 'fish of the water' these are the ones
which draw you onward. The Kingdom is within you, and
whosoever knows himself will find it. The brain-value
the noble race of man -- above all the Germanics -- gave
to humanity must now be repaid as brain-interest by
those of lesser value in the form of manual labor. Here
I am not thinking so much of a subjugation of the
colored races or Germanic people, but rather much more
of a breeding of a new race of slaves with dull nerves
and strong arms to this new race mental abilities will
only be apportioned as necessary. These beings will have
to do all the tasks for which machines can not be
invented. To what extent apes, of the kind which are
alive today, could be used for this purpose only time
will tell. This may sound inhuman. But all the babble
about Christian brotherly love is just a conjuring trick
of words. As if from a thousand documents we did not
know that Popes, bishops and abbots have sold and
exchanged their ''bondsmen'' like merchandise? The
practices of the Church form an inextricable
contradiction to its doctrines! If the Church tolerated
slavery, what should we be -- more papist than the Pope?
Complete equality is nonsense! If all the estates of the
Earth had to be divided up into 1600 million parts then
each individual would get, if everything went well, a
loincloth, a hole to live in and a handful of fruit
every day! The social question is not a question of
individual stomachs -- it is a racial question. In the
view of the Socialists it is just those upper ten
thousand who are in better-off circumstances who are the
scoundrels. -- Who can say that expansion of equal
rights should cease at the Australian Aborigines?
Gorillas, chimpanzees and bats have exactly the same
claim to socialistic "human rights." General equality
would not advance the cause of the individual, but would
hurl everyone back into the condition of a hoard of
apes. How truly Paul speaks (I. Cor. XV.50): "Therefore
I say, that Sodomite flesh and Sodomite blood can not
inherit the Kingdom of God!" Humanitarian brotherly love
is one of the most disastrous deceptions of the Sodomite
apelings. Rome always preached brotherly love to the
Germans only, the Germans should practice brotherly
love. Rome -- the Romans and the Slavs -- never bothered
themselves with brotherly love. I ask any historian: has
Papal diplomacy ever been guided by brotherly love?
Furthermore, I ask any cultural historian: has all this
Christian brotherly love ever helped even one spiritual
man? Everything the German spiritual men created, they
created from within themselves. Brotherly love never did
them any good, nor was it helpful to them. Swindlers
have gorged themselves fat on the gifts of Christian
brotherly love -- but to a Mozart, a Schubert, a
Schiller and many, many other great men it denied even a
dry piece of bread. If brotherly love does not serve the
interests of such men, then it is not good for anything.
Here we must finally intervene with force. Away with
false and suicidal brotherly love which was invented by
the Sodomite apelings and their pastors in order to
strangle us, just like Russia convened the Peace
Congress in order to subdue East Asia "in peace and
quiet." We must arm ourselves against pity, our greatest
weakness, with a god-like hard-heartedness, yet with one
which seeks human benefit. The Socialists are indeed
seduced enthusiasts, comparable to sheep who have lost
their way, who need the forceful hand of a lord to lead
them back to the protected herd. If they become stubborn
we must not give in. We lords must check our charitable
natures. If the Socialists go on strike, then we must go
on strike with our charity. How come there are
charitable institutions for hospitals, foundling
hospitals, illegitimate children and fallen girls? How
come there are no such institutions for the preservation
of pure and noble blood and for legitimate children?
There is much more in the way of culpable misfortune
than there is in the way of innocent misfortune. With
innocent misfortune aid should be given quickly and
generously. Culpable misfortune must however, leave us
without pity, because culpable misfortune comes from the
person; whatever we give to such a person we are taking
away from a fit person, who has hit a patch of
misfortune through no fault of his own. I am obviously
against all stipends, etc. whereby some juridical person
is the administrator, and upon whom the dispensation of
certain certificates is dependent. Such stipends are
merely an invitation to corruption and nepotism. You
should verify yourself, and then give with a generous
hand. It is better to support generously an individual,
where possible the best individual you can find, than to
try to take care of many with a few pennies each.
Those who should be supported are strictly the old, and
those of good Germanic descent, and for Jews, those of
true Israeli descent. Instead of certificates one
should expect certain anthropological characteristics of
applicants: e.g. blue eyes; blond hair; ruddy
complexion; small mouth; healthy teeth, small, slim
hands and feet; tall, well-proportioned form.
--
Theozoology, or the Science of the Sodomite Apelings and
the Divine Electron, by Dr. Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels
***
Two Austrian occultists, Jorg Lanz von
Liebenfels and Guido von List, presented an irrational,
pseudo-anthropological package which attracted a number
of wealthy backers, despite its foolishness. Lanz's
Order of New Templars and List's Armanen boasted several
influential members.
In 1909, young Adolf Hitler, down and out in Vienna,
came across Lanz's magazine, Ostara, and made
contact with the occultist. The erotic language and
racist rantings of this magazine were remarkably similar
to Hitler's later utterances.
Membership in occult groups was often
interlocking. When, in 1912, a new secret cult, the
Germanen Orden, was born, disciples of both Lanz and
List joined. The Germanen Orden was like the other
occult-racist-nationalist groups, but with a difference.
It called for "courageous men" to "accomplish the work"
of combating the Social Democrats, who had gained ground
in the elections of 1912. Courageous men did not leap
forth to join the Germanen Orden, but after World War I
prospects were brighter.
The Germanen Orden was happy to merge its destiny with a
Munich group called the Thule Society, which was meeting
regularly to study the supposed occult meaning of the
ancient Germanic alphabet and its symbolism. It was led
by an astrologer who called himself Baron Rudolf von
Sebottendorff. The Thule Society soon became the
political arm of the Germanen Orden and quietly set
about preparing for a counterrevolution against the
government. It formed an umbrella for many of the
racist-nationalist groups and enlisted frightened or
unscrupulous men against the government, which, it said,
had betrayed the German people. In addition to rabid
anti-semitism, it preached the coming of a Fuhrer who
would do away with hated democracy, the handmaiden of
the weak. It began to collect weapons, bought a
newspaper, instigated terrorist activity and stirred up
race hatred against the Jews, all the while keeping up
the front of being a study group for Germanic antiquity.
Thule members who were to play key roles in the
formation of the Nazi party were Alfred Rosenberg,
Rudolf Hess, Gottfried Feder, Karl Harrer, and Dietrich
Eckart. Not until they found their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler,
were they able to carry out the irrational programs of
Lanz, List, and Sebottendorff. But all the essential
ingredients -- the ideology, the rituals, the symbols,
the attitudes -- of the coming Nazi Revolution were
already present in the Germanen Orden and the Thule
Society, as well as the Order of the New Templars and
the Armanen. --
Gods & Beasts -- The
Nazis & the Occult, by Dusty Sklar |
Lanz [wrote?] not unfavorably about the Jews and cooperated with
learned Jews in many of his publications. If individual Nazis became
familiar with some of the mystical racism of Theosophy through the
works of List and Lanz, this does not make the latter culpable in
the
crimes of the former. Why not blame Theosophy? Actually, of course,
the Anti-Semitism that drove Nazi policies was much older and more
deeply rooted in the people of central Europe than can be accounted
for
in a few fringe works by mystics and rune-magicians. The roots of
Nazi
anti-Semitism is in the Christian churches, both Catholic and
Lutheran,
but most especially the Catholic Church. It was the Catholic Church
Fathers who first invented ideas about the Jews being an inferior
"race,"
and who drove Anti-Semitic policies right up to and all during the
Second World War. (See David Kertzer, Popes Against the Jews [Knopf,
2001].) The real truth about the "occult (= hidden) roots of Nazi
Anti-Semitism"
is that these roots are to be found in Christian doctrines and
teachings, not in pagan Germanic ones. The postwar insistence upon
the
"occult" roots of these ideas is simply a matter of misdirecting
historical
attention away from the age-old perpetrator of the ideas and toward
a
"straw man" who is at present perceived as being too weak to defined
himself. It is safe to blame "mystical sects" and "pagans" for the
crimes
in question because these folks are so few and so historically weak
that
they cannot defend themselves (nor are many even interested in
"defending" themselves) and few others (even in the name of truth)
will
stand up to defend them for fear of being tarred with the same
brush.
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In Gnostic thinking,
spirit and matter were opposed to each other, matter
being an interruption of the order of the cosmos -- a
fall, and therefore evil. The Gnostics posited three
classes: spiritual, or pneumatic, men; animal, or
psychic, men; and carnal, or physical, men. The last
were said to be wholly material and could not be saved,
their nature being evil; they had not a single spark of
the divine in them.
Matter, according to the
Gnostics, was not the creation of the supreme god but of
a demiurge, an inferior divinity. A famous medieval
Gnostic sect, the Cathars, came to identify the Old
Testament god, Jehovah, with the demiurge, the creator
of the material world, and therefore the equivalent of
Satan. Within Gnosticism, then, existed the idea that
the Jewish god was really the devil, responsible for all
the evil in the world.
Without intending to
arouse hatred against the Jews [*], H. P. B. repeated
this Gnostic thinking in her book The Secret
Doctrine:
With the Semite, that
stooping man meant the fall of Spirit into
matter, and that fall and degradation
were apotheosized by him with the result of dragging
Deity down to the level of man.... The Aryan views
of the symbolism were those of the whole Pagan
world; the Semite interpretations emanated from all
were pre-eminently those of a small tribe, thus
marking its national features and the idiosyncratic
defects that characterize many of the Jews to this
day -- gross realism, selfishness, and sensuality.
-- Gods & Beasts -- The
Nazis & the Occult, by Dusty Sklar
_______________
* As beautifully
expressed by P. Christian, the learned author of “The
History of Magic” and of “L’Homme Rouge des Tuileries,”
the word spoken by, as well as the name of, every
individual largely determine his future fate. Why?
Because —
— “When our Soul
(mind) creates or evokes a thought, the
representative sign of that thought is self-engraved
upon the astral fluid, which is the receptacle and,
so to say, the mirror of all the manifestations of
being.
“The sign expresses
the thing: the thing is the (hidden or occult)
virtue of the sign.
“To pronounce a word
is to evoke a thought, and make it present: the
magnetic potency of the human speech is the
commencement of every manifestation in the Occult
World. To utter a Name is not only to define a Being
(an Entity), but to place it under and condemn it
through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the
influence of one or more Occult potencies. Things
are, for every one of us, that which it (the Word)
makes them while naming them. The Word (Verbum) or
the speech of every man is, quite unconsciously to
himself, a blessing or a
curse; this is why our
present ignorance about the properties or attributes
of the idea as well as about
the attributes and properties of
matter, is often fatal to us.
“Yes, names (and
words) are either beneficent
or maleficent; they are, in
a certain sense, either venomous or health-giving,
according to the hidden influences attached by
Supreme Wisdom to their elements, that is to say, to
the letters which compose
them, and the numbers
correlative to these letters.”
This is strictly true as
an esoteric teaching accepted by all the Eastern Schools
of Occultism. In the Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew and
all other alphabets, every letter has its occult meaning
and its rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a
preceding cause and a combination of these very often
produces the most magical effect.
--
The Secret
Doctrine -- The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and
Philosophy, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky |
In any event, the works of Guido von List are interesting due to
their
spiritual rather than political content. Despite whatever weaknesses
the
works might be seen to have from today's perspective, they are most
often worthy of our careful study. Pioneers and visionaries such as
Guido
von List represents remain the kind of men whose words we never tire
of hearing.
A Note on Translating List
German writers in the Listian tradition, such as Wiligut, Marby and
others, are notoriously difficult to translate due to their frequent
use of
puns and wordplays to illustrate their folk-etymlogical practices.
Where it
has been found necessary I have included the original German word in
square brackets: [/]. There is additional editorial information
which also
appears enclosed in square brackets. This includes certain notes and
commentaries as well as the frequent supply of an original German
word
where the philosophical content of that word might help those with
some knowledge of German better understand the original thought
behind the translation.
List is known for his incredibly long and often convoluted
sentences,
which are sometimes difficult to follow in German, but would create
impossible English sentences if the translation always kept the
sentences
as long as the original. However, in this translation I have tried
to retain
as much of the original quality of List's style as possible.
Old Norse words are usually left in the form that List used,
although
the orthography he uses is obviously influenced by continental
German
usage.
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