The Pursuit of Metaphysical Mysteries

 

By Richard Kieninger

 

The pursuit of occult and metaphysical mysteries by unlearned men presents a danger to the world. The popular appetite for fantasy, magic and esotericism could plunge the nations into a repeat of Nazi Germany’s hysterical romance with hidden powers and super-beings; indeed, we may merely be experiencing but a lull in man’s growing fascination with demonic forces. People unsophisticated in the sciences and metaphysics and who have little background in alternative concepts will often tend to be one-sidedly influenced by science fiction and allegorical novels as presenting probable reality, and thus they romantically come to view a portion of their world in terms of a fantasy. The authors of such works can serve to expand our perceptions and provide a fresh, objective look at ourselves and institutions, but new views and ideas must always be tempered by cautious, rational adherence to science and experience. The innate arrogance of being in on what one considers to be the “real lowdown” can lead to fanatic absurdities. The compelling persuasion of many metaphysical and occult fantasies has already had a disastrous influence on the lives of many people during the past half century.

 

In 1887 a secret society which was an offshoot of the English Rosicrucian Society was formed in England and called the “Golden Dawn.” Some of England’s most brilliant minds were attracted to become members, and most were already leading Freemasons. Unfortunately, their attention was caught up with weird and fascinating aspects of Oriental Mysticism, Kabalistic magic, Tibetan sorcery, Merlin lore and pagan mythology. Their preoccupation with ceremonial magic seemed to carry them away from Christ-inspired considerations, especially under the leadership of the neo-­paganist, Aleister Crowley. The Golden Dawn was in contact with similar German societies, and the Germanic mind at that time was much taken with Wagnerian hero tales of Nordic mythology. Germans shared with the English certain Druidic lore and a common bond in the traditions of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Bulwer Lytton, a member of the Golden Dawn, wrote a fantasy novel, The Coming Race, about the imminent arrival of men psychically advanced with godlike powers and living in the bowels of the Earth like Nordic demigods. This played into the superman views expounded by Nietzsche, and found fertile ground among some Germans. Willy Ley, the rocket expert who fled Germany in 1933, revealed the existence in Berlin of a spiritual community founded literally on Bulwer Lytton’s book as if it were a factual treatise! It was called The Luminous Lodge and also The Vril Society.

 

The frustrated intelligencia and nobles of Germany were dreaming heroic glories of a Parsifal deliverance of the Germans into a return to world power, and many other German people of influence were exploring the seductively glorious myths of Wagner, Nietzsche and Lytton as if they were valid. The strange ability of the Germans to live in a real world while projecting themselves into an imaginary world tended to deliver them into the hands of Hitler and the metaphysicians who promoted him. Hitler espoused a mixture of magic paganism and modern technology which had a timely emotional appeal to the defeated, impoverished Germans.

 

The great tragedy is that there was a grain of truth in the superman legends in light of man’s real ability to elevate himself into an exalted state through character uplift and a determined pursuit of truth leading to sainthood. The “black” occult writings in both the East and the West in referring to the sinister “Unknown Supermen” may have actually been perverting ancient traditions of the genuine Masters of the Brotherhoods.

 

One is almost certain to draw the influence of Nether Entities into his life if he actively seeks occult or mental power over others. Christ’s Way is to work to improve oneself Egoically in order to better serve others. These English and German intellectuals sought magic through pro­pitiation of the Dark Powers revealed in occult lore. Had they been inspired by the esoteric truths of Christ’s plans for mankind rather than by occult myths, which in most cases are cunningly inferred to be great knowledge reserved for the mighty, then we might well have already seen a true beginning of Civilization in the middle of this century. If the English and German researchers had tested their magical theses against science, they might have found Truths even more exciting than legend. Indeed, modern science stands at the threshold of concepts of space and matter more fascinating than metaphysical fancy. The Golden Dawn society had the resources at their disposal to penetrate the truth, but the wacky Hindu, Tibetan and Teutonic myths apparently promised more rapid and dramatic results through occultism.

 

Hitler believed himself to have experienced personal contact with the cruel, powerful “Unknown Supermen.” They were supposedly living under the Earth after having come from other planets. Hitler’s “divine” mission was to prepare the world for the glorious emergence of these Supermen. General Karl Haushofer, a hypnotist, seer and dabbler in Oriental mysteries, apparently developed Hitler as a medium and began the secret “Thule Society.” Haushofer chose the swastika as their symbol and propounded the Aryan-Atlantean superiority theories. Thule is a legendary island in the North Atlantic Ocean where Nordic demigods served as intermediaries between man and Giants who sup­posedly control the world. The elite “Lords” of the Thule Society were to become the masters of the world and be protected by Satanic powers derived from Tibet. To invoke and insure these magical Satanic powers, the Nazis purpose­fully made a human sacrifice of 750,000 Gypsies. The dreaded Schutz Staffel members (SS) were organized like a religious order of monks, and their “Black Order” was a mystical aspect of the Thule Society. The cadets in the SS seminaries learned their destiny was killing and dying for supernatural powers. They dedicated their lives to bringing the Third Reich into existence by fanatically eliminating all so-called “pseudo-men” (i.e. Negroes and Jews) and any “under-men” (non-Aryans) who might foolishly resist the Nazi super-race. The moral scum of Germany emerged to exalt their vicious depravity in the name of divine destiny. Men of good will must ever be on guard against the types of men who exult in such sport.

 

Hitler declared, “There is a Nordic, National-Socialist Science which is opposed to Judeo-Liberal Science.” The “holy” conflict of World War II was to decide which view of man the world was to live—the magical or humanist. Hans Horbiger, with Hitler’s backing, intimidated the learned Herr Doctor Professors of German universities, by threat of ouster from their posts, into adopting the state doctrine of “Eternal Ice” which held that the stars are really ice and that all humanity rises and ebbs in response to a continual struggle between ice and fire. All employees in government and businesses were even required to sign affidavits of their belief in the doctrine of Eternal Ice. The Nazis also taught that the Earth is hollow and we are living inside it. Rays from the Sun supposedly press us against the surface instead of gravity. They officially declared that man is on the brink of a formidable mutation due to a cosmic cycle which will confer upon him the powers of the gods and that a few such men are already here. These fantastic notions are far from dead! A result of the long Nazi occupation of Europe and their takeover of the schools is that millions of people in and outside of Germany still believe in these ideas wholeheartedly. Many are the new books propounding the same nonsense. This large proportion of Western Man expects that extra­terrestrial, superhuman beings are on their way to bring salvation and a glorious Edenic life to Earth and to confer godlike powers on us mortals.

 

The Nazis were strongly anti-intellectual and against established scientific knowledge and theoreticians—they burned books and killed men of knowledge. Nazis believed that the people’s minds were being poisoned by Western Science. Modern astronomy and mathematics were supposedly Jewish lies which could not be corroborated by ancient Nordic mythology. Between 1933 and 1945 the science of Germany digressed into a fantasy which makes almost no sense to rational scientists. The Universe is admittedly still largely unfathomable, but we must adhere to scientific rules of evidence or be cast adrift from reasonable hope of ever perceiving truth. The anti-rational lunacy that gripped Nazi Germany is apparently still gathering momentum underground. Truth is difficult to acquire, whereas fantasies do not require precision or proofs and are more effortless to disseminate. Many more millions of people may have to die in even greater wars to decide if Christ or demonic myth is to prevail on Earth. The antichrist mentioned in the Book of Revelation may well be catapulted into power by the millions of Europeans who hunger after economic security, political stability, and racial dominance through the leadership of a savior who can successfully stage a claim to superhuman or occult powers. The sheer madness of this century’s murderousness and hatred has its roots in wide-spread popular acceptance of demonic occultism and anti-scientific mytholo­gies. (This is not to say that science doesn’t need to root out myths of its own.) Every student of metaphysics must beware of the horrors and extremism of mysticism-gone-wild as in the all-too-real example of Nazi Germany.