Flowers Stephen E. - The Occult in National Socialism

THE OCCULT
IN NATIONAL
SOCIALISM

Much ink has been spilled on the topic of occult Nazism, but this book goes wider and deeper than most previous literature on this subject. It aims, as the author writes, to bring the question of Nazi occultism into sharper focus with a more refined lens of understanding. One of the great merits of the book is that Flowers examines not only the question of the actual nature and extent of occult elements in the Nazi movement and its antecedents but also the huge amount of myth and hype that has grown up around the subject since the end of the Second World War. A central theme of the book is the power of myths, including those that lead to misery and destruction, as in the case of the Third Reich. This searching book sheds new light on a troubled subject.

CHRISTOPHER MCINTOSH, AUTHOR OF OCCULT RUSSIA: PAGAN, ESOTERIC, AND MYSTICAL TRADITIONS

Going way beyond the typical sensationalistic tabloid press approach toward the occult undercurrents of National Socialism, as adopted invariably by most authors on the subject for far too many decades, this book is equally a highly welcome counterweight to Nicholas Goodricke-Clarkes pioneering scholarly study. Himself a well-acknowledged and established occult practitioner as well as an academic scholar, Stephen Flowers deploys the entire arsenal of his critical tradecraft, both emic and etic (in-depth research, shrewd analysis, informed interpretation, historical contextualization, etc.), to present us with a sweeping detailed overview of the contemporary occult and political scene and its eventual culmination in the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust: a soberand soberingdepiction that is certain to set new standards for coming research well into the foreseeable future.

FRATER UD, AUTHOR OF PRACTICAL SIGIL MAGIC, HIGH MAGIC, AND LIVING MAGIC

Although nothing is easy about this booknot its argument, subtleties, or beneath-the-floorboards historyStephen E. Flowerss study of Nazism and the occult resounds with vitality and depth; this work must be encountered and reckoned with by anyone who hopes to make a serious consideration of its subject.

MITCH HOROWITZ PEN AWARDWINNING AUTHOR OF OCCULT AMERICA AND UNCERTAIN PLACES

In The Occult in National Socialism, Stephen Flowers approaches this murky and phantasmal historical grotto with a bright lantern of illumination, an undistorted analytical lens, and a keen, unflinching eye. His exploration dispels propaganda from all sides, including that of the Nazis themselves as well as from the Catholic and Protestant churches; overturns cartloads of dubious claims; and punctures a host of untethered hot-air balloons fueled by vaporous theorizing. But this is more than just a debunkers manual. Flowers is equally adept at cataloging and elucidating the hidden (or even occult) influences, shadowy organizations, and mysterious personalities that did exist in the pre-Nazi period and the Third Reich. Likewise groundbreaking is the final part of the book: a methodical survey of the postwar era of mythologizing, in which the smoldering ashes of a defeated criminal aggressor-state became a quaggy garden for the cultivation of bizarre tales and pseudo-history. Overall, this volume is a complex study of competing spiritual and ideological forces in a period when the obscured truth often turns out to be more unsettling than the overblown fictions that replaced it.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN, PH.D., COAUTHOR OF LORDS OF CHAOS AND COEDITOR AND TRANSLATOR OF THE RUNE POEMS: A REAWAKENED TRADITION

Stephen Flowers rises to the unenviable task of sorting fact from fiction in one of the most notorious questions of the 20th century: To what extent was the Third Reich influenced by and reliant on occult ideas in its quest for world domination? The further we are removed in time from these earth-shattering events, the more the facts about the Nazis supposed occult interests will be lost in neo-mythology; we need someone like Flowers to put this history in its proper context and to give a sober assessment of what actually lay behind the few genuine occult interests at work within the Third Reich. Flowers skillfully examines the influences on the intellectual and spiritual life of Germany in the early 20th century, while avoiding the typical sensationalist narrative that takes every insinuation of sinister influence at face value. The bar is now considerably higher with the publication of this long-awaited expert analysis.

TOBY CHAPPELL, GRAND MASTER OF THE ORDER OF THE TRAPEZOID AND AUTHOR OF INFERNAL GEOMETRY AND THE LEFT HAND PATH

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I especially wish to thank Michael Moynihan for his erudite help in many aspects of this project. Others who were of significant help in one way or another include Michael A. Aquino, Joshua Buckley, Larry Camp, Robert Zoller, Paul Newell, Seth Tyrssen, Mitch Horowitz, Dr. Ulrich Hunger, Stephen Wehmeyer, Timothy Ryback, and Cort Williams.

All errors of fact, or heresies of interpretation are, of course, entirely my own, for which I take complete responsibility.

NOTE TO THE READER

The author of this book is not a National Socialist, nor is he a promoter of Nazi ideology, which he finds reprehensible on many counts. At the same time this is not an anti-Nazi propaganda work. As a scholar, the author simply seeks to understand the hidden dimensions of German history that led to the Nazi period as well as the myths and legends that followed in its wake. Just because the author does not deploy pejorative adjectives at every opportunity (an apparent shielding technique used by many) does not mean he agrees with an idea. As an act of political disclosure, the author is a libertarian and proponent of tribal (not nationalistic) organization of society. He is also a Ph.D. (1984) scholar trained in Germanic philology and comparative mythology.

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