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.[1] Some identify as neo-fascist, neo-Nazi, or Third Positionist; others are politicised around some form of white ethnic nationalism or identity politics,[1] and may show anarchist tendencies.[2] 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).
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Among the terms used are Nazi Satanism and Fascist Satanism. Sometimes these groups self-identify as "Traditional Satanism" 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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] The ONA was allegedly led by Myatt[6] who converted to Islam in 1998, but renounced Islam in 2010[7] in favor of his own Numinous Way philosophy.[8][9] Myatt however has always denied any involvement with the ONA and Satanism, and repeatedly challenged anyone to provide any evidence of such allegations.[10][11]
The Order of Nine Angles is a purported secretive Satanist organization which has been mentioned in books detailing Satanist and far right groups.[10][12][13][14] 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)[15] and around what it calls sinister tribes.[8][16][17]
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 1980s, with the Order of Nine Angles,[18][19] Cox having published the ONA's book Naos in 1990 under the imprint of his Coxland Press[20] and also, in 1993, Antares by the ONA's C. Beest.[21]
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."[22]
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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25] Its symbol was later changed to a representation of the world tree embracing the yin-yang and maze with sun and stars.
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".[26] 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.[27][28][29]
On the basis of research by Mattias Gardell,[30] 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.[31] 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".[32]
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".[33] 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.[33]
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.[34]
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.[35] 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)[36] and musician/journalist Michael Moynihan (who turned to "metagenetic"[37] Asatru in the mid-1990s),[38] though Moynihan states that he has no political affiliations.[39] 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.[40] Schobert alleges a neo-Nazi "cultural offensive" targeting the Dark Wave subculture.[41]
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.[42] Kaplan claims that there is a growing interest in one form of Odinism among members of the radical racist right-wing movements.[43] 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".[44] 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".[45]
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 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 Sumerian 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.[24]
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