His­tory of Nazi Involve­ment with the Occult

by Peter Lev­enda
2002, Con­tin­uum Inter­na­tional Pub­lish­ing Group
ISBN 0826414095
423 pages, illustrated.

From ravenoir.com
This com­pre­hen­sive pop­u­lar his­tory of the occult back­ground and roots of the Nazi move­ment shows how the ideas of a vast inter­na­tional net­work of late 19th– and early 20th cen­tury occult groups influ­enced Nazi ide­ol­ogy, from Madame Blavatsky and Aleis­ter Crow­ley to the Thule Gesellschaft, the Order of the Golden Dawn, the Order of the East­ern Tem­ple, and the pseu­do­sci­en­tific expe­di­tions to Ice­land and Tibet of the Ances­tral Her­itage Research and Teach­ing Soci­ety. Nazi appro­pri­a­tion of the occult was a weird far­rago of astrol­ogy, Freema­sonry, racism rooted in occultism and pop­u­lar Euro­pean folk­lore (the Cathars, the Holy Grail, the Knights Tem­plar, the Arthurian leg­ends). It also traces the Nazi move­ments as they con­tin­ued their activ­i­ties after the war (the Nazi rat­lines to South Amer­ica, the Colony of Right­eous­ness in Chile) or “mor­phed” into neo-Nazi, skin­head and satanic groups such as the Chris­t­ian Iden­tity and White Aryan Resis­tance movements.

Engag­ingly writ­ten, Unholy Alliance is a com­pre­hen­sive, pop­u­lar his­tory of the occult back­ground and roots of the Nazi move­ment, show­ing how the ideas of a vast inter­na­tional net­work of late 19th– and early 20th-century occult groups influ­enced Nazi ide­ol­ogy. Lev­enda takes read­ers through the teach­ings of Madame Blavatsky, Aleis­ter Crow­ley, the Thule Gesellschaft — the occult secret soci­ety that formed the ide­o­log­i­cal heart of the early Nazi Party — the Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Order of the East­ern Tem­ple and demon­strates how each influ­enced Nazi ide­ol­ogy. He also details the expe­di­tion to Tibet of the Ances­tral Her­itage Research and Teach­ing Soci­ety, com­prised of the same SS offi­cers who would later be involved in grisly med­ical exper­i­ments on con­cen­tra­tion camp pris­on­ers. Lev­enda traces the Nazis’ move­ments as they con­tin­ued their activ­i­ties after the war or mor­phed into neo-Nazi, skin­head, and satanic groups, such as the Chris­t­ian Iden­tity and White Aryan Resis­tance move­ments. Levenda’s is not only a “major work of inves­tiga­tive report­ing,” but also the strik­ing story of the unholy alliance between pol­i­tics and reli­gion — or pol­i­tics and occultism — that has dom­i­nated events in Europe and the Amer­i­cas since World War I, with all its impli­ca­tions for con­tin­u­ing racial and reli­gious vio­lence in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT. Avail­able com­mer­cially. Learn more about Peter Lev­enda.