[
]In order to determine the particular constituents which cause
gravitation between, and understand the congruence of, various occult
groups and fascist ideology, it seemed to be an initial necessity for a
prolegomenon to linearize an exegesis on the evolution, or cosmogony, of
fascist thinking within the general population. However, my preliminary
research on the matter yielded an inextricable tangle of fascist and
occult theory. To set forth a basic hypothesis, I should speculate that
fascism and occultism are both, more or less, esoteric and highly
intellectualized reactions to rationalist and materialist doctrines.
However, I am inclined to believe that this entanglement is one that
spans several centuries and may very well be rooted deep within the
archetypes of primitive religions. Perhaps once an understanding of the
congruence between occult and fascist ideologies is obtained, an appeal
can be made for the suitable juxtaposition of anarchism and occultism.
Broadly characterized, all philosophies can be relegated into one of two
primary and distinct categories, which are defined by their opposite
secernments. These primary categories are Idealism and Materialism. The
philosophical theory of materialism holds that the only thing that
exists is matter, without any true spiritual or intellectual
existence.^1^Within materialist philosophy, all phenomena (including
consciousness) are the result of material interactions.^2^ Within
science and religion, materialist theory yields determinism, the belief
in causality. In psychology, materialist theory yields behaviorism, the
belief that matter cannot influence mind. Of particular interest here
are the sociological interpretations of materialism, namely the types of
cultural materialism found within the Marxist tradition. On the one
hand, Marxist Dialectical Materialism holds that concepts and ideas are
the result of material conditions, more specifically, that the means of
production and distribution within a society determines the ideological
tenets of that society. On the other hand, Marxist Historical
Materialism asserts that the influential members of society hold sway on
the material condition, while society’s social institutions are founded
upon the material condition.^3^
It was during the Crisis agora lovecruft of Marxism in the 1890s that the political
theory of Fascism emerged. Economic theorist David Ramsay Steele writes
on the evolution of fascist theory:
“Fascism began as a revision of Marxism by Marxists, a revision which
developed in successive stages, so that these Marxists gradually
stopped thinking of themselves as Marxists, and eventually stopped
thinking of themselves as socialists. They never stopped thinking of
themselves as anti-liberal revolutionaries…
The Crisis agora lovecruft of Marxism gave birth to the Revisionism of Eduard
Bernstein, which concluded, in effect, that the goal of revolution
should be given up, in favor of piecemeal reforms within capitalism.
(23) This held no allure for men of the hard left who rejected
existing society, deeming it too loathsome to be reformed.
Revisionists also began to attack the fundamental Marxist doctrine of
historical materialism—the theory that a society’s organization of
production decides the character of all other social phenomena,
including ideas.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, leftists who wanted to be
as far left as they could possibly be became syndicalists, preaching
the general strike as the way to demonstrate the workers’ power and
overthrow the bourgeois order. Syndicalist activity erupted across the
world, even in Britain and the United States. Promotion of the general
strike was a way of defying capitalism and at the same time defying
those socialists who wanted to use electoral methods to negotiate
reforms of the system.
[
]Syndicalists began as uncompromising Marxists, but like
Revisionists, they acknowledged that key tenets of Marxism had been
refuted by the development of modern society. Most syndicalists came
to accept much of Bernstein’s argument against traditional Marxism,
but remained committed to the total rejection, rather than democratic
reform, of existing society. They therefore called themselves
“revolutionary revisionists.” They favored the “idealist revision of
Marx,” meaning that they believed in a more independent role for ideas
in social evolution that that allowed by Marxist theory.
In setting out to revise Marxism, syndicalists were most strongly
motivated by the desire to be effective revolutionaries, not to tilt
at windmills but to achieve a realistic understanding of the way the
world works. In criticizing and re-evaluating their own Marxist
beliefs, however, they naturally drew upon the intellectual fashions
of the day, upon ideas that were in the air during this period known
as the fin de siècle. The most important cluster of such ideas is “anti-rationalism.”
Many forms of anti-rationalism proliferated throughout the
nineteenth century. The kind of anti-rationalism which most influenced
pre-fascists was notprimarily the view that something other than
reason should be employed to decide factual questions (epistemological
anti-rationalism). It was rather the view that, as a matter of sober
recognition of reality, humans are not solely or even chiefly
motivated by rational calculation but more by intuitive “myths”
(practical anti-rationalism). Therefore, if you want to understand and
influence people’s behavior, you had better acknowledge that they are
not primarily self-interested, rational calculators; they are gripped
and moved by myths.
Paris was the fashion center of the intellectual world, dictating the
rise and fall of ideological hemlines. Here, anti-rationalism was
associated with the philosophy of Henri Bergson, William James’s
Pragmatism from across the Atlantic, and the social-psychological
arguments of Gustave Le Bon. Such ideas were seen as valuing action
more highly than cogitation and as demonstrating that modern society
(including the established socialist movement) was too rationalistic
and too materialistic. Bergson and James were also read, however, as
contending that humans did not work with an objectively existing
reality, but created reality by imposing their own will upon the
world, a claim that was also gleaned (rightly or wrongly) from Hegel,
Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. French intellectuals turned against
Descartes, the rationalist, and rehabilitated Pascal, the defender of
faith. In the same spirit, Italian intellectuals rediscovered Vico.
Practical anti-rationalism entered pre-Fascism through Georges Sorel
(25) and his theory of the “myth.” This influential socialist
writer began as an orthodox Marxist. An extreme leftist, he naturally
became a syndicalist, and soon the best-known syndicalist
theoretician. Sorel then moved to defending Marx’s theory of the class
struggle in a new way—no longer as a scientific theory, but instead
as a “myth”, an understanding of the world and the future which moves
men to action. When he began to abandon Marxism, both because of its
theoretical failures and because of its excessive “materialism,” he
looked for an alternative myth. Experience of current and recent
events showed that workers had little interest in the class struggle
but were prone to patriotic sentiment. By degrees, Sorel shifted his
position, until at the end of his life he became nationalistic and
anti-semitic. (26) He died in 1922, hopeful about Lenin and more
cautiously hopeful about Mussolini.
A general trend throughout revolutionary socialism from 1890 to 1914
was that the most revolutionary elements laid an increasing stress
upon leadership, and downplayed the autonomous role of the toiling
masses. This elitism was a natural outcome of the revolutionaries’
ardent wish to have revolution and the stubborn disinclination of the
working class to become revolutionary. (27) Workers were
instinctive reformists: they wanted a fair shake within capitalism and
nothing more. Since the workers did not look as if they would ever
desire a revolution, the small group of conscious revolutionaries
would have to play a more decisive role than Marx had imagined. That
was the conclusion of Lenin in 1902. (28) It was the conclusion of
Sorel. And it was the conclusion of the syndicalist Giuseppe
Prezzolini whose works in the century’s first decade Mussolini
reviewed admiringly. (29)
The leadership theme was reinforced by the theoretical writings of,
Mosca, Pareto, and Michels, especially Pareto’s theory of the
Circulation of Elites. All these arguments emphasized the vital role
of active minorities and the futility of expecting that the masses
would ever, left to themselves, accomplish anything. Further
corroboration came from Le Bon’s sensational best-seller of 1895—it
would remain perpetually in print in a dozen languages—The
Psychology of Crowds, which analyzed the “irrational” behavior of
humans in groups and drew attention to the group’s proclivity to place
itself in the hands of a strong leader, who could control the group as
long as he appealed to certain primitive or basic beliefs. (30)
The initiators of Fascism saw anti-rationalism as high-tech. It went
with their fast cars and airplanes. Fascist anti-rationalism, like
psychoanalysis, conceives of itself as a practical science which can
channel elemental human drives in a useful direction.” ^4^
An anonymous Satanist author propounds that Fascism was not only
parallel to Occultism, but was derived from it: “Fascism arose as a
revolt against the rationalism of the 18th and 19^th^ centuries. The
First World War struck at the depths of the psyche, and plunged the
rationalist world view into disarray and a retreat that saw its grand
vision of a “League of Nations” dashed. The spread of occult societies
during the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th centuries
was likewise a response to the sterility of the rationalism and
materialism. It is not surprising then that the ground for Fascism was
largely prepared by esoteric societies which arose in Europe. Among
these were the New Templars of Von Liebenfels, the Runic order of Von
List, and the German Order [Germanenorden]. The latter gave rise to the
Thule Society, which was to establish the NSDAP as its political front.” ^[5]^
Taking these considerations into account, the most probable exegesis of
fascism is that it, firstly, occurred as a revolutionary reaction to the
materialism of Marxist philosophy, and that in this reactionary
dissidence it sought more mythological and idealistic ideologies, which
brought it to the bounds of occultism. Occultism, then, in turn, saw
fascism as a means towards hastened ideological revolution, what was
commonly termed Aeonic Revolution. However, there is evidence that
secret orders such as the Germanenorden and the Thule Society were
coerced by a mass influx of Nazi neophytes into espousing racist or
anti-Semitic beliefs.^[6]^ Whether it was occult societies which
influenced the emerging fascists or the fascists who influenced certain
occult societies is controversial, and perhaps may always be so.
Regardless of historical entanglement between the two groups,
there currently exists occult orders embracing fascism as a means toward
hastened social and individual evolution. Often such extremist
hierarchical structures are explained as being nearer to the supposed
state-of-nature than current political structures. It is perhaps
unnecessary to point out that this logical argument commits the
naturalistic fallacy.^[7]^ The above mentioned anonymous Satanic author
explains that, “Despite the phenomenon of Neo-Paganism (properly so
called to distinguish it from Paganism per se), of wicca and New Age
pacifist, cosmopolitan, internationalist creeds, there are today today a
plethora of genuinely Pagan societies which remain true to the
tribalist, warrior ethos of their ancestors. They are ‘Satanist’ or
‘sinister’ in that they recognise the dark, entropic force of Nature,
the cyclic ebb and flow of history, and the creative act of destruction.
These ‘sinister’ esoteric societies proclaim the ‘Daemonic revolution’,
to usher in the New Order on the collapse of the Old; a New Order that
will reawaken the Dark soul of man, that he might live as a totality
with the Light and the Dark returned to balance. These esoteric
societies recognize Fascism (whether called by that name of not) as the
political expression of primal truths. They include The Black Order of
Pan-Europa, Fraternity of Balder, Order of Nine Angles, Abraxas
Foundation, Blood Axis…All such groups are playing their part in the
unfolding of Aeonic destiny and the approach of Ragnarok. Fenrir is
about to be unleashed!”^[8]^
The appeal to certain “primal truths” closely mirrors the
state-of-nature theory of Benedictus de Spinoza, from “On the
foundations of the state” in Theological-Political Treatise:
“By the right and order of nature I merely mean the rules determining
the nature of each individual thing by which we conceive it is
determined naturally to exist and to behave in a certain way. For
example fish are determined by nature to swim and big fish to eat
little ones, and therefore it is by sovereign natural right that fish
have possession of the water and that big fish eat small fish. For it
is certain that nature, considered wholly in itself, has a sovereign
right to do everything that it can do, i.e., the right of nature
extends as far as its power extends…However, since the universal
power of the whole of nature is nothing but the power of all
individual things together, it follows that each individual thing has
the sovereign right to do everything that it can do, or the right of
each thing extends so far as its determined power extends.” ^[9]^
However, the argument for the individual within the state-of-nature can
be utilized towards both fascist theory and anarchist theory. For
instance, political theorist Robert Nozick, in Anarchy, State, and
Utopia, opines the relative unjustness and inordinateness of any amount
of government beyond a minimalist libertarian structure, outlining and
analyzing the various stages of development from individuals in
isolation to hierarchical government.^[10]^In fact, if we are to ignore
the naturalistic fallacy within, this argument appears to lend more
credence to individualist anarchism than fascism, whose roots and
rhetoric are entirely anti-individualist. David Ramsey Steele comments:
“As the dictatorship [Mussolini’s] matured, Fascist rhetoric
increasingly voiced explicit hostility to the individual ego. Fascism
had always been strongly communitarian but now this aspect became more
conspicuous. Fascist anti-individualism is summed up in the assertion
that the death of a human being is like the body’s loss of a cell.
Among the increasingly histrionic blackshirt meetings from 1920 to
1922 were the funeral services. When the name of a comrade recently
killed by the Socialists was called out, the whole crowd would roar:
“Presente!”
Man is not an atom, man is essentially social—these woolly clichés
were as much Fascist as they were socialist. Anti-individualism was
especially prominent in the writings of official philosopher Giovanni
Gentile, who gave Fascist social theory its finished form in the final
years of the regime.” ^[11]^
If the state-of-nature argument for the suitability of the application
of fascist politics towards social evolution is to be disregarded for
its erroneous qualities, then precisely what is it that causes a
convergence between various strains of occultism and fascism? A possible
answer is that both ideologies shared two similar common goals: the
creation of a Nietzschean übermensch and the markedly accelerated
development of civilized culture towards a prophesied future condition.
“Fascist ideology had two goals by which Fascism’s performance may
reasonably be judged: the creation of a heroically moral human being,
in a heroically moral social order, and the accelerated development of
industry, especially in backward economies like Italy.
The fascist moral ideal, upheld by writers from Sorel to Gentile, is
something like an inversion of the caricature of a Benthamite liberal.
The fascist ideal man is not cautious but brave, not calculating but
resolute, not sentimental but ruthless, not preoccupied with personal
advantage but fighting for ideals, not seeking comfort but
experiencing life intensely. The early Fascists did not know how they
would install the social order which would create this “new man,” but
they were convinced that they had to destroy the bourgeois liberal
order which had created his opposite.
Even as late as 1922 it was not clear to Fascists that Fascism, the
“third way” between liberalism and socialism, would set up a
bureaucratic police state, but given the circumstances and fundamental
Fascist ideas, nothing else was feasible. Fascism introduced a form of
state which was claustrophobic in its oppressiveness. The result was a
population of decidedly unheroic mediocrities, sly conformists scared
of their own shadows, worlds removed from the kind of dynamic human
character the Fascists had hoped would inherit the Earth.” ^[12]^
A communique written by Anton Long, the pseudonymous leader of the
modern Order of Nine Angles posits similar goals: “First and most
importantly, Satanism is a means whereby individuals may enhance their
own evolution by developing their latent abilities—their vitality,
perception, consciousness and knowledge as well as their Occult
faculties, and such a Way of method is organized for the benefit of
individuals over centuries…Second, Satanism encourages…the evolution
of our species, since it is a fundamental axiom of Satanist philosophy
that every individual possesses the potential to be divine, to achieve
far more than they ever realize.” ^[13]^
Though these occult societies and fascist theory share objectives, the
political means by which these objectives have been sought after has
historically been proven detrimental to results. It seems unlikely that
current occult leaders are not aware of this fact, and so the continued
romanticization of fascism may be simply a symbolic adoption of a
paradigm for consciousness alteration, a practice thoroughly explored in
Chaos Magick. Anton Long suggests that this is the case, writing in
another communique that “in one important respect Satanism may be
regarded as catharsis—a means whereby individuals may divest themselves
of those limiting roles that are often (but not always) the creation of
the ethos of the society in which the individuals find
themselves…Satanic catharsis is essentially blasphemy, but one ordered
and with a definite aim—it results from an individual will channelled by
a conscious understanding. It is this application of will which marks
the genuine Satanist from the imitation or failure. A Satanist revels in
life—the failures find themselves trapped by their own conscious desires
which they do not have the intelligence to understand nor the will to
direct. Blasphemy is only effective if it is, firstly a genuine shock
and reaction to those values which though accepted are often
unconsciously accepted, and secondly an appreciation of the positive and
life-enhancing qualities inferred by infernal opposition. Thus, while
the traditional Black Mass is still powerful because of the continuing
constraints of Nazarene [Judeo-Christian] beliefs, it is often
supplemented today by a Mass which in its unexpurgated version
represents a shocking blasphemy for the majority of people in Western
Countries…One of the most shocking Satanic Masses used by Satanist
groups today is based on an evokation of Adolf Hitler—and not as
something artificial, still less as a psychological ‘game,’ but rather
as a genuine identification with the positive aspect of
National-Socialist philosophy. (To most readers this, of course, will be
blasphemy, outrageous—which is exactly the point.)…At its highest
level Satanism uncovers what the ethos of a particular society has
covered up through images, dogma, words and ideas, returning the
individual to the primal chaos out of which opposites were formed. This
uncovering gives the individual control, an awareness of their unique
Destiny, and it is the purpose of genuine Satanic groups to foster such
uncovering by blasphemous rites and individual guidance. Beyond such
uncovering, conventional magick, and ritual itself, ceases, replaced by
the profoundest empathy. What C.G. Jung called ‘individuation’ is
similar to this empathy, but individuation is itself only a beginning.
Satanic Orders enhance evolution—while the majority of people sleep,
fearful of such internal terrors.” ^[14]^
If these elements of fascism within the occult are interpreted merely as
theatrical paradigm inversions, this is simply a play on ideas, not
harmful unless the individual occultist is too moronic to recognize it
as symbolism. The temporary adoption of such taboo paradigms for
psychological therapeutic purposes can also be seen within the BDSM
community in the utilization of Master/slave and parent/child sexual
fetishes to overcome trauma. Of course slavery and child abuse are
wrong, just as fascism is wrong, and no intelligent participant in these
activities would ever actually believe otherwise. It could be argued
that the use of taboos is itself harmful by propagating negative
ideological forms through symbolism, and then counter-argued that
censorship of acts which break taboos merely because some dolt might be
watching would abbreviate intellectual development to the lowest common denominator.
Therefore, modern occult groups which appear to be fascist are probably
not such, but highly intellectualized individuals using extremist
symbolism to psychologically reprogram themselves. Actual politics
within these groups could vary to any degree, because the group itself
is not political.
Works Cited
1 Anonymous. “Materialism - What Matters?.” All About Philosophy. All
About God, 13 August 2010. Web. 19 Sep 2010.
\<http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/materialism.htm>.
2 “Materialism.” Wikipedia. 18 September 2010. Web.
\<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism>.
3 Harris, Marvin. “Cultural Materialism & Marxist Philosophy.” All
About Philosophy. All About God, 13 August 2010. Web. 19 Sep 2010.
\<http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/cultural-materialism.htm>.
4 Steele, David Ramsey. “The Mystery of Fascism.” Libertarian
Alliance. Libertarian Alliance, 23 September 2008. Web. 19 Sep 2010.
\<http://www.la-articles.org.uk/fascism.htm>.
5 Anonymous. “The Occult-Fascist Axis.” Maledicta. Maledicta Books, 22
Feb 2007.
Web. 19 Sep 2010. \<http://www.maledicta.com/library/axis.html>.
6 “Thule Society.” Wikipedia. 18 September 2010. Web.
\<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_society>.
7 Arago, Gregory. “Naturalistic Fallacy.” ISCID Encyclopaedia of
Science and Philosophy. International Society for Complexity,
Information, and Design, 2010. Web. \<Arago, G. (2010). Naturalistic
Fallacy. Iscid encyclopaedia of science and philosophy. Retrieved
September 21, 2010, from
http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Naturalistic_Fallacy>.
8 Anonymous. op. cit., note 5 above.
9 Spinoza, Benedictus de. Isreal, Jonathan, and Silverthorne, Michael, eds.
Theological-Political Treatise.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 195. Print.
10 Nozick, Robert.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Press, 1974.
11 Steele, David Ramsey., op.cit., note 4 above.
12 ibid.
13 Long, Anton. “Satanism: Its Essence and Meaning.” Infernal Texts:
Nox & Liber Koth. Sennitt, Stephen, ed. Tempe, AR: New Falcon
Publications, 1997. p. 15. Print.
14 Long, Anton. “Satanism, Blasphemy and The Black Mass.” ibid. pp. 17-18.
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