occultism

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Occultism (from Latin occultus 'hidden', 'covered', 'secret') is a fuzzy collective term for a wide variety of phenomena , practices and ideological systems, whereby occult can be synonymous with esoteric , paranormal , mystical or supernatural . In a narrower sense, mainly used in science, the term is used for certain esoteric currents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This article follows this understanding. In today's parlance, the term often has a pejorative connotation .

Concept history

The Latin adjective occultus is derived from the hypothetical verb obcelere , from which occulere ("to hide, to hide") comes. In obcelere , which has the proto-Indo-European verbal root * kele / -o ("veil, conceal"), there is celere ("hide, conceal, conceal"). The adjective occult was used as early as the Middle Ages . In the context of Aristotelian natural philosophy, a distinction was made at that time between perceptible qualities of things such as color or taste and imperceptible occult qualities such as magnetism , the influences of the stars (in the sense of astrology ) and the healing powers of various substances that can only be experienced indirectly through their effects. Medieval scholasticism was of the opinion that the occult qualities, in contrast to the directly perceptible ones, could not be the subject of scientific investigation. When natural science began to study phenomena such as magnetism in the 17th century, the talk of occult qualities acquired a derogatory meaning because it was seen in connection with the scholastic view of inexplicability.

The term occult philosophy has been proven since the early 16th century . It seems to go back to Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim , who used it in 1510 in a first, handwritten version of his work De occulta philosophia . In this book, which was initially distributed in the form of copies and only appeared in printed form in 1531, Agrippa combined elements of hermeticism , Neoplatonism and Christian Kabbalah . Occult philosophy or Philosophia occulta established itself as the name for such religious-philosophical teachings, especially for those of the late 15th to 17th centuries. Representatives of occult philosophy such as Agrippa and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola tried to develop philosophies that assimilate Hermetic, Hebrew and Classical knowledge and to unite this fusion with Christian theology. Despite their esoteric character, the hermetic and cabbalistic ideas underlying occult philosophy were initially well received in Renaissance Europe . Historian Frances A. Yates even considered occult philosophy to be the central driving force behind the Renaissance itself. It is probably no coincidence that occult philosophy, which emphasized unity, became popular during the Reformation and the Renaissance; possibly it and its association of sources as diverse as classical wisdom, magic, Hebrew Kabbalah, and Christianity were expected to provide a solution to the religious and political schism of the time. While the scholastic Middle Ages demanded faith and piety, the Renaissance demanded individual striving and the search for knowledge; the hermetic tried to unite knowledge and belief. However, towards the end of the 16th century, Christian magi like Agrippa and John Dee were suspected of their theurgy , and as part of the Counter-Reformation , the reaction against Renaissance Neoplatonism and associated occult currents also grew. The Christian Kabbalah, which initially served to legitimize occult thought, has now been devalued because of the occult association and associated with witchcraft. Dee and Giordano Bruno were discredited because of their philosophy; The former spent his final years in poverty, the latter was burned in 1600.

Also in the 16th century the term occult sciences came up, with which astrology, alchemy and magic were meant.

As part of a counter-movement to the Enlightenment and the associated mechanistic and materialistic natural science, occult forces were postulated from the 18th century onwards , which should be inaccessible to “normal” science. In addition, there was speculation that ultimately everything could be traced back to just one occult force. Popular candidates were magnetism and electricity . These speculations reached their climax in Blavatsky's syncretic work The Secret Doctrine ( The Secret Doctrine , 1888).

The German loan word occult did not appear until the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, although Agrippa von Nettesheim already referred to all the secret doctrines of his time as "Occulta Philosophia". The neo-Latin formation of the noun occultism took place especially after the foundation of the Theosophical Society at the end of the 19th century and was first recorded in a French dictionary from 1842, albeit only as a term for a political "system of occultism" that opposed priests and judge aristocrats. It first became popular in French through Éliphas Lévi , who first used it in 1856 in Dogme et rituel de la haute magie . In 1853 it had already been used by the Masonic author Jean-Marie Ragon in his popular book Maçonnerie occulte , which Levi was well known. Similar to Lévi, Ragon associated the term occultisme not only with the modern occult sciences, but also with contemporary socialist theories, particularly those of Charles Fourier . The term was apparently introduced into English in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ; in German, Carl Kiesewetter in particular coined this usage in the 1890s. There is no generally accepted definition of occultism in the scientific literature. In the broadest sense, the word is sometimes used as a synonym for esotericism . In the narrowest version, mainly represented by Antoine Faivre , it stands specifically for the French direction of esotericism founded by Lévi and Papus . In most cases, however, similar and more or less simultaneous currents are added in other countries.

Another, etymologically related term of more recent origin is the occult , which u. a. was coined by Colin Wilson ( The Occult: A History , 1971) and is mainly used in sociology and journalism as a vague collective term for the unexplained .

Directions

Basically, two directions of occultism can be distinguished: empirical and esoteric occultism. The former deals with occult phenomena and wants to research them. Its origins lie in mesmerism and experimental spiritism . Esoteric occultism, on the other hand, deals with "secret knowledge" that is only accessible to " initiated " people.

According to a suggestion by Edward A. Tiryakian, only the practically oriented direction should be referred to as occultism, while the theoretical direction should be assigned to esotericism. This linguistic usage was widespread, but was also rejected as an artificial distinction and was not generally accepted.

history

Éliphas Lévi (1862)

The roots of occultism can be traced back to antiquity ( Gnosis , Hermetics , Neo-Platonism , Kabbalah ). (See History of Western Esotericism .) In the narrower sense, often referred to as modern occultism, it was founded in France by Alphonse-Louis Constant alias Éliphas Lévi , who published several influential compilations on various topics of esotericism in the years 1854 to 1861 also made the term occult popular. Lévi developed his ideas in the context of early socialist and progressive Catholic currents. This strongly pronounced socialist, social reform tendency originated from the close intertwining of early socialism and esotericism since the July monarchy and continued into the decades around 1900. Other important representatives of French occultism were Papus , Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan ; In the English-speaking world, G. R. S. Mead and Arthur Edward Waite are the most important, in Germany Carl du Prel and Franz Hartmann , in Russia P. D. Ouspensky . According to Hans Biedermann, the occult books of the 19th century “mostly seem like misunderstood copies of older people. Works, even if the existence of real traditions as links from the time of the newer 'Hermetiker' to the 19th century cannot be completely dismissed ”.

Helena Blavatsky (1877)

The Theosophical Society , which was founded in New York in 1875 under the direction of Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and whose goals include research into occult phenomena and forces as well as comparative studies of religions, philosophies and natural science, emerged from the preoccupation with spiritualism . to uncover hidden "truths". In the following years Blavatsky developed a syncretistic esoteric doctrine, modern theosophy , which promises initiation into occult secrets and combines elements of gnosis, hermetics and other traditions of western esotericism with those of eastern religions. It found enthusiastic followers in the United States, Europe and India, where the Theosophical Society was temporarily headquartered.

Germany

In the German-speaking world, too, the origin of the modern occult movement is closely linked to Spiritism , which came to Germany from the USA around 1860 . The meetings of the physicist Karl Friedrich Zöllner with the medium Henry Slade , in which other important scientists (including Gustav Theodor Fechner ) took part and published detailed reports on the Zöllner from 1878 , aroused a broad interest in occult phenomena . Zöllner expected evidence of the existence of a fourth dimension from these séances and wanted to establish a “ transcendental physics”. While the occult phenomena occurring at séances were traditionally interpreted as utterances by deceased people, a new animistic trend arose in Germany in the 1880s (from the Latin anima = 'soul'), which regarded the causes of these phenomena as unknown and reduced them to psychological ones Wanted to examine level. The most important representatives of this direction were Gregor Konstantin Wittig and Alexander Aksakow, who together with the publisher Oswald Mutze published the journal Psychische Studien . A well-known supporter was the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann with his work Der Spiritismus (1884).

In 1886 there were two important new foundations in the field of occultism in Germany: the Psychological Society and the theosophical journal Sphinx . The main aim of the Psychological Society was to gain new insights into the human psyche through strictly scientifically conducted experiments with mediumistic test subjects . The Sphinx , edited by Wilhelm Huebbe-Schleiden , brought scientific reports on occult phenomena such as telepathy and magnetism as well as contributions to the "occult sciences" such as astrology and magic. It also counted well-known scientists such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Eduard von Hartmann as well as other important persons such as Leo Tolstoy or the social democrat Kurt Eisner among its authors. In addition to occult magazines such as the Sphinx , the mainstream press such as Die Gegenwart also reported on the work of the Psychological Society .

Carl du Prel (around 1885)

Within the Psychological Society , differences soon arose between the two most important employees, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Carl du Prel . The philosopher du Prel wanted to create a counterbalance to the prevailing materialism with the establishment of a " transcendental psychology" and saw an important contribution to this in the experiments of society in that he hoped to be able to empirically refute materialism through them . On the other hand, the psychiatrist Schrenck-Notzing pursued the rather pragmatic and inversely oriented goal of introducing certain puzzling phenomena, which he was able to evoke through hypnosis , from the realm of the mystical to that of "official science". In 1889 there was a break when a society for experimental psychology split off under the leadership of du Prels , in which the goal of a transcendental psychology was pursued, while the remaining parent company under Schrenck-Notzing followed the direction from which parapsychology emerged .

The goal of du Prel and Hübbe-Schleiden to make the spiritual the subject of scientific research was a central theme of the German occult movement from around 1890. In the course of the 1890s, however, interest shifted from scientific research to subjective experience. Occultism was increasingly understood as a matter of personal development in which the "occult arts" played a key role and which, in keeping with the spirit of the fin de siècle , was linked to the development of alternative lifestyles. Meanwhile, there was a mass movement with many local and national companies, with numerous publishers, who have released occult among other literature, and with a number of own journals, of which next to the Sphinx (1886-1896) by Franz Hartmann published theLotusblüten (1892- 1900) and Paul Zillmann's [Neue] Metaphysische Rundschau (1896–1918) were the most important. Leading representatives of occultism, which is oriented towards one's own spiritual development and experience, were the theosophists Franz Hartmann and Rudolf Steiner , who in 1902 took over the management of the newly founded German section of the Theosophical Society and later founded anthroposophy .

While the theosophists strived for the creation of an "all-embracing brotherhood of mankind" on the basis of the spiritual development of the individual, especially in the German-speaking world in the early 20th century, ariosophy was a movement that combined occult elements with racism and nationalism . The Ariosophs, whose most important representatives were Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels , propagated a racially pure “ Aryan ” society and selectively adopted certain ideas from theosophy, including the doctrine of the root races . Within the occult movement, however, ariosophy was only a marginal phenomenon, while, conversely, occult topics, for example in the publications of Lanz von Liebenfels, only played a very small role.

In the first decades of the 20th century, occultism was able to develop quite freely in almost all of its varieties in Germany and enjoyed growing popularity. There were opponents such as the Catholic Church, and especially in Bavaria there was a “ juggling ” paragraph in the penal code that offered a means of prosecuting palm readers and astrologers, but overall acceptance for “the occult” grew. Some leading Nazis were also interested in occult issues. So took Rudolf Hess 's services regularly astrologers , magnetic healers and clairvoyants to complete. Heinrich Himmler promoted the ariosophene Karl Maria Wiligut as his "private magician" and clairvoyant. He had developed his own variant of a historical myth of superhuman Aryan ancestors. Wiligut became head of the Department of Prehistory and Early History of the SS and contributed to the expansion of the Wewelsburg as an SS ceremonial site. In 1939, however, he was expelled from the SS - among other things because he became aware of a previous schizophrenia. For Adolf Hitler , on the other hand, occultists were already a bunch of muddled heads in Mein Kampf (1925/26).

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 occult associations were classified as "subversive sects". The most important charges were that occultists rejected the racism that was of central importance for National Socialism and that the Theosophists in particular even propagated an “all-embracing brotherhood of mankind” and that they, like the Freemasons , allegedly pursued a “dangerous” influence on the masses. From 1935, criminal prosecution of occult activities is documented, and in 1937 all Masonic lodges, theosophical associations and related groups were banned by a decree of the Ministry of the Interior. The situation worsened after Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess flew to Great Britain on his own in May 1941 to initiate peace negotiations. In a campaign immediately launched by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , Hess was described as a mentally ill person suffering from hallucinations due to the influence of astrologers, mesmerists and other occultists . Extensive police actions followed against astrologers, spiritualists, anthroposophists and all followers of similar tendencies, including the völkisch ariosophors, with the order that these persons be sentenced to forced labor or sent to concentration camps and their publications and other materials confiscated.

The aim of this action against secret doctrines and so-called secret sciences was the complete and permanent elimination of these people and their organizations. Goebbels noted in his diary: “This [sic!] Whole obscure swindle is now finally being eradicated. The miracle men, Hess 'darlings, are put under lock and key. "Hitler is reported to have attributed a strong complicity to Hess' actions to astrologers in particular and said:" It is therefore time to radically clear up this astrological nonsense. " was actually achieved, however, is unclear. Goebbels noted after the action: “All astrologers, magnetopaths, anthroposophists etc. arrested and all their activities paralyzed. This finally put an end to this hoax. ”This assessment has been largely adopted in the specialist literature. In contrast, in a more recent study by Uwe Schellinger et al. pointed out that the instructions provided for exemptions for members of the armed forces, leading party members and senior state officials, and the implementation of experiments with pendulums to locate enemy ships in the navy was documented in 1942.

United Kingdom

After reading Alfred Percy Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism (1883), GRS Mead contacted the London theosophists Bertram Keightley and Mohini Chatterji and joined the Theosophical Society in London. His interest in spiritualism led him to France to the University of Clermont-Ferrand , where he later to his theory of vitalism known Henri Bergson met. After Blavatsky had settled in London in 1887, Mead visited her there regularly and was her private secretary from 1889 until her death in 1891; in addition, in 1889 he became co-secretary of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society together with Keightley. While the Theosophical Society fought for leadership in the 1890s, Mead devoted himself to religion as the root of theosophy as well as the western roots of esotericism. He tried a general theosophy and combined Eastern and Western traditions in his writings, initially leaning heavily on Hellenistic theosophy and Gnosis. Mead had no interest in magical or occult arts and made a strict distinction between those practicing them and "real" occultists. In 1909 Mead broke with the Theosophical Society and founded the Quest Society, of which Arthur Edward Waite was one of the vice-presidents . Waite too went from Spiritism to the Theosophical Society; after his break with this he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . William Wynn Westcott , who founded the Golden Dawn together with Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and William Robert Woodman in 1888, took over the structure and the basic system of the Rosicrucian Order Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA), to which all three founders also belonged.

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky

Around Georges I. Gurdjieff and PD Ouspensky , a movement known as the Fourth Way arose , which combined an elaborate cosmology and spiritual self-development with artistic expression. In 1907 the Russian polymath Ouspensky discovered theosophy and began studying occult literature. His first major philosophical work, Tertium Organum (1912), dealt with the cognitive power of higher states of consciousness. Strongly attracted by yoga and Eastern wisdom, he traveled to India and visited the Theosophists in Adyar in 1913 . On his return he met Gurdjieff, who had been looking for esoteric wisdom in Central Asia. Ouspensky believed that Gurdjieff had discovered a new system of thought and all-encompassing knowledge. Gurdjieff, meanwhile, worked on ballet and sacred gymnastics, and his work attracted the composer Thomas de Hartmann , the painter Alexander von Salzmann and the ballet teacher Jeanne de Salzmann , among others . Gurdjieff's group emigrated via revolutionary Russia , Constantinople and Germany to France, where he established his school at Fontainebleau in 1922 .

The enneagram

In Beelzebub's stories for his grandson , Gurdjieff presented his ideas in the form of a myth-creating cosmogony with a hierarchy of subordinate levels in a living universe and a division of human history into a conscious and an unconscious, an initiatory and a profane current. He saw man as a prisoner of his mechanical reactions to and false identification with external stimuli; the path to enlightenment consists in awakening the essential being and gaining true self-knowledge. Gurdjieff placed the human condition in a cosmic context of biology, metaphysics and cosmology. His ray of creation, reminiscent of the terminology of the Theosophists, connected the microcosm of the human heart and mind with a hierarchy of planets and stars up to the absolute as the source of all creation. Only after the knowledge of one's own essential being is one able to access the universal energies. Personal spiritual ascent must be achieved individually.

Although Gurdjieff's system took up traditional ideas of western esotericism, it also included innovations such as the semitonic intervals on the diatonic scale in contrast to Robert Fludd's musical correspondences . Gurdjieff's Laws of Three and Seven underpin his key symbol, the enneagram , and his food diagram, which relates food, air and impressions in the microcosm. Ouspensky tried to bring Gurdjieff's teachings into a metaphysically coherent system, published in In Search of the Wonderful (1950). British interpreters Gurdjieffs and Ouspenskys continued their work in their own groups, institutes and writings, including Rodney , the scientist, technologist and philosopher John G. Bennett , who contacted Ouspensky in the late 1940s and wanted to bring his system into harmony with modern science Collin and the psychiatrist and jungian Maurice Nicoll .

Occultism in the Context of Modernity

Traditionally, occultism is interpreted as a counter-movement to modernity , as a departure from reason and as a relapse into pre-modern views. Theodor W. Adorno formulated this particularly drastically in Minima Moralia in 1951 , when he spoke of a “regression of consciousness” and a “ metaphysics of stupid guys”. Even James Webb , who in 1971 with The Flight from Reason presented first a study of occultism in cultural-historical perspective, emphasized even more the aspect of counter-movement, the "flight from reason". In contrast, more recent literature takes the approach of understanding occultism as a component of modernity itself. Antoine Faivre, in Esoteric Review (2001), points out that the occultists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were generally opposed neither to scientific progress nor to modernity, and he suggests that occultism of the time be considered To see the expression of the "modernity confronted with itself". Corinna Treitel explains this in A Science for the Soul (2004) especially for the German-speaking region and, similarly, Alex Owen in The Place of Enchantment (2004) for Great Britain.

effect

art

Occult beliefs and practices have had a major impact on contemporary (modern) art. Writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke , Gustav Meyrink and Thomas Mann took up occult ideas and experiences. In films like Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1919) and The Golem, How He Came Into the World (1920) incorporated occult motifs. Two staunch occultists, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Albin Grau , played a key role in the production of the vampire film classic Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror (1922) . Painters influenced by occultism were Wassily Kandinsky , Max Ernst , Piet Mondrian , Paul Klee , Hans Arp and others. Kandinsky's groundbreaking work On the Spiritual in Art (1911) was preceded by an intensive examination of the occult works of Zöllner, du Prels and Aksakows, as well as articles in the Sphinx . In her study A Science for the Soul (2004) Corinna Treitel therefore describes occultism and the new aesthetics of modernity as two facets of the same phenomenon: the emergence of a new sensibility based on intuitive experience.

medicine

In the field of alternative medicine , practices from the field of occultism have often been used, so that one can speak of "occult medicine". Examples of these occult practices are clairvoyance , pendulum , graphology , iris diagnosis , spiritualistic mediumism and astrology .

Criminology

Especially in the 1920s, the supposed abilities of clairvoyants and telepaths in Germany were often used to solve crimes, both by private clients and in direct cooperation with the police. Famous representatives of this criminalistic mediumism were Else Günther-Geffers and August Christian Drost . The use of such persons by state organs was, however, controversial, and some of them were convicted as fraudsters, while Drost and Günther-Geffers, for example, were accused of fraud but found innocent.

For fraudsters who use occult methods or "occult, the superstitious setting of their outgoing groups of people" exploit for their own purposes, the lawyer Herbert Schäfer in 1959 led to the concept of Okkulttäters , where he real between believing in the correctness of his allegations " "And the" fake "occult perpetrators who take advantage of" foreign superstitions "when there is" better insight ". This type of offender has "always existed in terms of its basic structure", but its "actual field of activity" only provided him with the triumph of rationalism ; only since then has he been interesting and accessible for criminological research as a type of offender who differs from others through his special mental attitude. Schäfer limited himself in his investigations to the area of ​​the Federal Republic of Germany and three types of occult perpetrators: the witch banner, little known to the public and mainly active in the country, whose " insidious work" harms certain villagers, the sensational magical healer, whose activities harmed the health of his followers, and the earth radiator , who disguises himself as a researcher and with his radiator and shielding devices, considerably endangers the health and wealth of technically fascinated superstitious people.

military

In the war year 1942, the German Navy carried out experiments with pendulums to test their suitability for locating enemy ships. This was preceded by a noticeable accumulation of losses of German submarines. There was evidence that the British Navy was able to use pendulums to locate submarines. However, the experiments did not produce any useful results and were apparently discontinued after less than a year. The unusual successes of the British Navy later found another explanation: The British had temporarily succeeded in decoding German radio communications (see Enigma ).

reception

conspiracy theories

The reception of occultism includes an extensive literature on conspiracy theory that developed from the 1960s onwards, but can be traced back to the late 1930s and postulates significant occult influences on National Socialism and in particular on Adolf Hitler, which explain its rise and power should. According to Hans Thomas Hakl , the most important origin of these legends was the book Hitler m'a dit by the ex-National Socialist Hermann Rauschning , which was published in Paris in 1939 and shortly afterwards in an English ( Hitler Speaks , 1939) and a German edition ( Conversations with Hitler , 1940) appeared. Rauschning claimed to have had numerous conversations with Hitler, which, based on recent research, are now largely or entirely fictitious. On the basis of this supposedly intimate knowledge of Hitler, he wrote that Hitler was under the influence of dark and destructive magical powers. Rauschning's assertions found widespread use in France, especially on the radio, which, as Hakl writes, "broadcast longer excerpts from the book practically every day until the invasion by the German troops". Also in Paris in 1939 the book Hitler et les Forces Occultes by Edouard Saby appeared, in which Hitler is described as a magician and initiate who is under the influence of occult secret societies. Saby claimed to be the first to depict "the occult work of Adolf Hitler". Similar writings, in which Hitler was associated with occultism and Satanism and thus the military opponent was demonized, appeared in Great Britain around 1940. Lewis Spence's The Occult Causes of the Present War (1940) can be regarded as pioneering work here .

The 1960 book Le matin des magiciens (German: Departure into the Third Millennium , 1962) by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier triggered a veritable boom in such publications about alleged “Nazi occultism” . It claimed that the National Socialists sought contact with a mysterious underground civilization that possessed a tremendously powerful energy called "Vril", which could be used to fundamentally change the world. The Vril and underground civilization are motifs from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's fictional work The Coming Race from 1871, which had a great influence on Helena Blavatsky and other influential theosophists and occultists such as William Scott-Elliot or the early Rudolf Steiner . In German occult circles, the Vril was received primarily in the context of occult natural forces and there it became very popular. Pauwels and Bergier were inspired by these historical roots and claimed that a “ Vril Society ” had been set up in Berlin with the aim of creating a new human race. As Julian Strube was able to show in his work on the genealogy of the Vril, the claims of Pauwels and Bergier lack any historical basis. Pauwels and Bergier ascribed an even more important role to the Thule Society , which secretly was actually the guiding force of the Nazi state and whose alleged members Dietrich Eckart and Karl Haushofer influenced Hitler by conveying secret knowledge. A Thule Society actually existed, but it only existed from 1918 to around 1925, and neither Eckart nor Haushofer were among its members. Nor can it be considered the powerful occult order as which it was described by Pauwels and Bergier.

In Before Hitler Came (1964), Dietrich Bronder expanded this fiction further by taking up elements from Blavatsky's theosophy. According to this, Haushofer had been initiated into Tibetan secret doctrines, and the Thule Society had been in contact with a secret monastic order in Tibet. Trevor Ravenscroft described in The Spear of Destiny (1972, German: Der Speer des Schicksals ) that Hitler was an avid student of the occult during his time in Vienna and planned to take possession of the Holy Lance kept in the Hofburg there , to use their supposed magical powers to achieve world domination. Later he was initiated into black magic rituals by Eckart and Haushofer and made an instrument of evil forces.

Right-wing extremism

In addition to the flood of writings on the theory of conspiracies, in which Hitler and National Socialism were demonized by fictitious connections with occultism and Satanism and which were also used in part by Allied propaganda during the war , there were also a few authors in the post-war period who wrote this "occult myth" picked up in order to use it to propagate right-wing extremist views and goals, such as Wilhelm Landig , Savitri Devi and Miguel Serrano . At the center of this amalgamation of right-wing extremism and esotericism has been the motif of the so-called black sun since the 1950s, which has enjoyed great and growing popularity especially since the 1990s. Continuities from the first generation around Landig to groups that are still active today, such as the authors around the Tempelhof Society , have been demonstrated.

literature

  • Nicolette Bohn, Roland Biewald: Lexicon of Sects - Lexicon of Occultism , Directmedia Publishing , Berlin 2008, digital library , KDB 52, CD-ROM, ISBN 978-3-89853-352-2 .
  • Claudia Dichter, Hans Günter Golinski, Michael Krajewski, Susanne Zander (Eds.): The Message - Art and Occultism . König, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-86560-342-5 .
  • David Allen Harvey: Beyond Enlightenment . Occultism and Politics in Modern France . Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 2005, ISBN 0-87580-344-X .
  • Sabine Doering-Manteuffel : Occultism . Secret doctrines, belief in spirits, magical practices . Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61220-6 .
  • Alex Owen: The Place of Enchantment . British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2004, ISBN 978-0-226-64204-8 .
  • Priska Pytlik: Occultism and Modernity . A cultural-historical phenomenon and its significance for literature around 1900 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71382-5 .
  • Julian Strube: Socialism, Catholicism and Occultism in France in the 19th Century. The genealogy of the writings of Eliphas Lévi . De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-047810-5 .
  • Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, ISBN 0-8018-7812-8 .
  • James Webb : The Occult Underground . Open Court, La Salle 1974, ISBN 0-8126-9073-7 .
    • German: The escape from reason . Politics, Culture and Occultism in the 19th Century . Marix, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-86539-213-8 .
  • James Webb: The Occult Establishment . Open Court, La Salle 1976, ISBN 0-87548-434-4 .
    • German: The age of the irrational . Politics, Culture & Occultism in the 20th Century . Marix, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-86539-152-0 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Occultism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Occultism  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eberhard Bauer , Bernhard Wenisch : Occultism , in: Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller, Friederike Valentin: Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen and Weltanschauungen , Herder, Freiburg, 6th edition 2000, pp. 768–775, here p. 768.
  2. ^ Gerhard Wehr , Lexikon der Spiritualität , Cologne 2006, p. 251; Helmut Zander : Anthroposophy in Germany. Theosophical worldview and social practice 1884–1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-36753-7 , p. 936.
  3. ↑ Alois Walde : Latin etymological dictionary. 3rd edition provided by Johann Baptist Hofmann , I – III, Heidelberg 1938–1965, I (1938), p. 196 f., And II, p. 198.
  4. ↑ Michiel de Vaan: Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden, Boston 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16797-1 , p. 423 f.
  5. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff : Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, p. 884 f.
  6. ↑ a b c Wouter J. Hanegraaff : Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, p. 886.
  7. ↑ a b Carl Kiesewetter : History of modern occultism , Wiesbaden 2007, p. 20 f.
  8. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad : What is esotericism? Little history of secret knowledge , C. H. Beck, Munich 2004, p. 107 f.
  9. ↑ a b Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, p. 887.
  10. ↑ Antoine Faivre : Esoteric Overview , Freiburg 2001, pp. 73–77.
  11. ↑ See also Frances A. Yates : The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age , 1979; German: The occult philosophy in the Elizabethan age , Clemens Zerling, Berlin 2001; and Martin Dembowsky: Occult Philosophy: History of a Forgotten Source of Inspiration in Philosophy .
  12. ↑ Andrew Duxfield: Doctor Faustus and Renaissance Hermeticism . In: Sara Munson Deats (Ed.): Doctor Faustus . A critical guide. Continuum, London et al. 2010, p. 100 .
  13. ↑ Andrew Duxfield: Doctor Faustus and Renaissance Hermeticism . In: Sara Munson Deats (Ed.): Doctor Faustus . A critical guide. Continuum, London et al. 2010, p. 98 .
  14. ↑ a b Andrew Duxfield: Doctor Faustus and Renaissance Hermeticism . In: Sara Munson Deats (Ed.): Doctor Faustus . A critical guide. Continuum, London et al. 2010, p. 108 .
  15. ↑ Andrew Duxfield: Doctor Faustus and Renaissance Hermeticism . In: Sara Munson Deats (Ed.): Doctor Faustus . A critical guide. Continuum, London et al. 2010, p. 107 .
  16. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, p. 885 f.
  17. ^ Julian Strube: Socialism, Catholicism and Occultism in France in the 19th Century. The genealogy of the writings of Eliphas Lévi . De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-047810-5 , pp. 13-14 .
  18. ^ Julian Strube: Socialism, Catholicism and Occultism in France in the 19th Century. The genealogy of the writings of Eliphas Lévi . De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-047810-5 , pp. 445-450 .
  19. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, pp. 887 f .; Antoine Faivre: Access to Western Esotericism , Albany 1994, p. 34 f .; Eduard Gugenberger, Roman Schweidlenka: Mother Earth - Magic and Politics between Fascism and the New Society , Vienna 1987, p. 69.
  20. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Occult / Occultism , in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism , Leiden 2005, p. 888.
  21. ↑ Eberhard Bauer, Bernhard Wenisch: Occultism , in: Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller, Friederike Valentin: Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen and Weltanschauungen , Herder, Freiburg, 6th edition 2000, pp. 768–775, here p. 769.
  22. ↑ Edward A. Tiryakian: Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture . In: On the Margin of the Visible - Sociology, the Esoteric, and the Occult , 1974, pp. 257-280.
  23. ^ Robert Galbreath: Explaining modern occultism . In: Howard Kerr, Charles L. Crow (Eds.): The Occult in America - New Historical Perspectives , 1983, pp. 11-37.
  24. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , The occult roots of National Socialism , licensed edition Wiesbaden 2004, p. 23.
  25. ^ Antoine Faivre: Esoteric Overview , Freiburg 2001, p. 111.
  26. ^ Julian Strube: Socialism and Esotericism in July Monarchy France . In: History of Religions . tape 57 , no. 2 , 2017, p. 197-221 , doi : 10.1086 / 693682 .
  27. ^ Julian Strube: Occultist Identity Formations Between Theosophy and Socialism in fin-de-siècle France . In: Numen . tape 64 , no. 5-6 , 2017, pp. 568-595 , doi : 10.1163 / 15685276-12341481 .
  28. ^ Julian Strube: Socialist Religion and the Emergence of Occultism. A Genealogical Approach to Socialism and Secularization in 19th-Century France . In: Religion . tape 46 , no. 3 , 2016, p. 359-388 , doi : 10.1080 / 0048721X.2016.1146926 .
  29. ^ Antoine Faivre: Esoteric Overview , Freiburg 2001, pp. 112–114.
  30. ^ Occultism . In: Hans Biedermann (Ed.): Handlexikon der Magischen Künste . From late antiquity to the 19th century. 2nd, improved and significantly increased edition. Academic printing and Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1973, ISBN 3-201-00844-3 , p. 377 .
  31. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad: What is esotericism? Little history of secret knowledge , C. H. Beck, Munich 2004, 200–203.
  32. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 85 f.
  33. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The occult roots of National Socialism , licensed edition Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 24–27.
  34. ↑ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul - Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London 2004, pp. 37-40.
  35. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 3-24.
  36. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, p. 39.
  37. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 40 f., 52 and 83 f.
  38. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 41-45.
  39. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 50-53.
  40. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 56-76.
  41. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 93-102.
  42. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 102-107; detailed by Goodrick-Clarke 2004.
  43. ↑ In the post-war period, a new draft law was presented in the Bavarian State Parliament in 1954, the penal provisions of which in Article 27 focused on the “very popular clairvoyants and astrologers”. The draft law submitted in 1955 no longer contained a juggling article, presumably due, among other things, to the non-criminality in other federal states (however, corresponding prohibitions were maintained in Württemberg-Baden and Hesse), the "reliable delimitation of punishable fortune-telling practices from the vast area of ​​the Parapsychology ”and the dubious proximity of the article to the fraud provision and thus the contradiction to federal law , which regulates the penalties for fraud in the penal code. In addition to the legislation, the case law also showed “clear tendencies towards softening”: Clairvoyants were no longer convicted of fraud, and “[t] he numerous proceedings against the emanating dowsers ended with suspension or acquittal”. (Herbert Schäfer: Der Occulttäter . KRIMINALISTIK, Verlag für Kriminalistische Fachliteratur, Hamburg 1959, p. 6th f . )
  44. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 192-209.
  45. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, p. 213.
  46. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The occult roots of National Socialism , licensed edition Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 155–166.
  47. ^ Andreas Klump: Right-wing extremism and esotericism - connecting lines, manifestations, open questions. 2001, archived from the original on June 21, 2008 ; Retrieved December 28, 2010 .
  48. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 220 f.
  49. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 222 f.
  50. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 224-226.
  51. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 213 f.
  52. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, 224 f.
  53. ↑ Quoted from Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche: Between scientism and occultism. Frontier science experiments by the German Navy in World War II . In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 10: 287–321 (2010), quotation on p. 293.
  54. ↑ Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche: Between scientism and occultism. Frontier science experiments by the German Navy in World War II . In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 10: 287–321 (2010), here p. 292.
  55. ↑ Quoted from Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche: Between scientism and occultism. Frontier science experiments by the German Navy in World War II . In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 10: 287–321 (2010), quoted on p. 294.
  56. ↑ a b Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche: Between scientism and occultism. Frontier science experiments by the German Navy in World War II . In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 10: 287–321 (2010), here p. 295.
  57. ↑ Clare Goodrick-Clarke: G. R. S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest . Ed .: Clare Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (=  Western Esoteric Masters Series ). North Atlantic Books, Berkeley 2005, ISBN 1-55643-572-X , pp. 2–10 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 3, 2012]).
  58. ↑ Clare Goodrick-Clarke: G. R. S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest . Ed .: Clare Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (=  Western Esoteric Masters Series ). North Atlantic Books, Berkeley 2005, ISBN 1-55643-572-X , pp. 19–25 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 3, 2012]).
  59. ↑ Chic Cicero, Sandra Tabatha Cicero: The Essential Golden Dawn . An Introduction to High Magic. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul 2004, ISBN 0-7387-0310-9 , pp. 45 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 3, 2012]).
  60. ↑ Chic Cicero, Sandra Tabatha Cicero: The Essential Golden Dawn . An Introduction to High Magic. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul 2004, ISBN 0-7387-0310-9 , pp. 44–47 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 3, 2012]).
  61. ↑ Chic Cicero, Sandra Tabatha Cicero: The Essential Golden Dawn . An Introduction to High Magic. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul 2004, ISBN 0-7387-0310-9 , pp. 99 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 3, 2012]).
  62. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction . Oxford University Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-532099-2 , pp. 232 f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 2, 2013]).
  63. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction . Oxford University Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-532099-2 , pp. 233 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 2, 2013]).
  64. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction . Oxford University Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-532099-2 , pp. 233 f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 2, 2013]).
  65. ↑ Quoted from Sabine Doering-Manteuffel : Occultismus , Beck, Munich 2011, p. 7.
  66. ^ Antoine Faivre: Esoteric Overview , Freiburg 2001 p. 112.
  67. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 108-110. See also Priska Pytlik: Occultism and Modernism. A cultural-historical phenomenon and its significance for literature around 1900 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2005.
  68. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 154-161.
  69. ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul . Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2004, pp. 143-150.
  70. ^ Herbert Schäfer: The occult perpetrator . KRIMINALISTIK, publishing house for criminalistic specialist literature, Hamburg 1959, p. 4-10 .
  71. ↑ Uwe Schellinger, Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche: Between scientism and occultism. Frontier science experiments by the German Navy in World War II . In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 10: 287–321 (2010).
  72. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 186-193; HT Hakl : National Socialism and Occultism , in Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 194–217.
  73. ↑ Hakl, p. 211 f.
  74. ↑ Hakl, p. 211.
  75. ↑ Hakl, pp. 212-214.
  76. ↑ Hakl, p. 215 f.
  77. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 188 f .; Hakl, p. 217.
  78. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 187.
  79. ^ Julian Strube: Vril. An occult elemental force in theosophy and esoteric neo-Nazism . Munich / Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-7705-5515-4 , pp. 55–123.
  80. ↑ Strube 2013, pp. 126–142.
  81. ↑ See Hermann Gilbhard, Die Thule-Gesellschaft. From the occult mummery to the swastika . Munich, Kiessling 1994.
  82. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 189 f.
  83. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 190-192.
  84. ↑ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: In the shadow of the black sun , marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2009.
  85. ↑ Julian Strube: The invention of esoteric National Socialism under the sign of the black sun. In: Journal for Religious Studies. Vol. 20, Issue 2, 2012, ISSN  0943-8610 , pp. 223-268, doi: 10.1515 / zfr-2012-0009 .