Draft:Nazi-Satanism

Nazi-Satanism

Symbol of the Order of Nine Angles

Logo of the Order of the Jarls of Baelder

Logo of the Abraxas Foundation

A symbol used by the Order of the Black Ram

Symbols of several groups involved in the history of Nazi-Satanism

Neo-Nazi Satanism, also called Nazi Satanism or satanic neo-Nazism, is a type of Satanism that embraces neo-Nazism. The extent to which neo-Nazism and Satanism overlap has been the subject of scholarly debate. Since the origins of modern Satanism, currents of Satanism have had connections to far-right politics, particularly neo-Nazism. Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, from which nearly all modern Satanist movements derive, had close connections to several neo-Nazis and white supremacists. It became particularly prominent in the black metal genre, resulting in the creation of National Socialist black metal. The association has been criticized by both Satanists and neo-Nazis.

Ideology

Neo-Nazi Satanism operates as a blend of Satanism with National Socialist ideology.

Satanism as a term can describe a variety of ideologies and worldviews; Mattias Gardell said it is "a collective term that encompasses different outlooks and ideologies with conflicting notions about what Satan is and Satanism means".

Social Darwinism

Might Makes Right, which

influenced by paganism

Neo-Nazi satanist groups vary widely in their beliefs

influenced by occult fascist Savitri Devi and the Chilean occult fascist Miguel Serrano.

"The original stigmatization of Nazism as pure evil was thus inverted to celebrate the very taboos of the lib-eral democratic world as the forbidden gods of a dark realm."

Several Northern European neo-Nazi satanists were responsible for church burnings, resulting in controversy.

Neo-Nazi Satanists frequently saw the cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson as an avatar of Hitler, a view promoted by James Mason, the author of Siege. This idea met resistance among most neo-Nazis.

Extent

Most Satanists are not far-right.

In the 1970s, many American Satanist groups embraced aspects of Nazi themes for shock value, rather than in genuine belief. However, by the 1990s there were several genuine Satanic neo-Nazi movements. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke wrote that they "link[ed] anti-Christian paganism to a transgressive praise of Hitler and the Third Reich"

In 2001, scholar James R. Lewis found he found most other satanists, particularly outside of Northern Europe where neo-Nazi satanism was then most prominent, to regard neo-Nazi satanists and Nazism negatively, though said Satanists "are not uniform on this point". In a survey of satanists in 2009, he found that, out of 260 respondents surveyed on their evaluations of Nazism and neo-Nazism, 10% of Satanists regarded Nazism in a positive light; "122 (or 48.2%) were extremely negative, 48 (or 19.0%) were negative, 57 (or 22.5%) were neutral, 12 (or 4.7%) were positive, and 14 (or 5.5%) were extremely positive". He considered that this was not a large current other scholars disagreed with his interpretation of the data

racist Satanists and

darkside heathens have made a discernible imprint on the Aryan revolution-

ary counterculture, much to the consternation of national socialist–oriented

pagans and Christians.

Background

See also: Occultism in Nazism

Cover of the 1964 English version of The Morning of the Magicians, a book that influenced ideas of Nazi-Occult connections, which in turn influenced Nazi-Satanism

Contemporary to Nazi Germany and the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, there were a few sources that portrayed him as inspired, influenced, or possessed by demons or other occult forces. These early works were mostly of French origin. Hermann Rauschning's 1939 book Hitler Speaks – which claimed to be based on actual discussions with Hitler, though they were probably entirely Rauschning's invention – was influential to later developments in its suggestion that Hitler was possessed by demons. In one such passage, Rauschning writes:

Hitler was abandoning himself to forces which were carrying him away—forces of dark and destructive violence. He imagined that he still had freedom of choice, but he had long been in bondage to a magic which might well have been described, not only in metaphor but in literal fact, as that of evil spirits.

Following World War II, there emerged a "quasi-religious" interpretation of Nazism; Goodrick-Clarke wrote that "outside a purely secular frame of reference, Nazism was felt to be the embodiment of evil in a modern twentieth-century regime, a monstrous pagan relapse in the Christian community of Europe".

With the frequent usage of Nazism as a stock element in a variety of pop culture, there emerged by the 1960s a sensational genre of literature that proposed that Nazism was occult or satanic in nature, based in part on the earlier works of authors like Rauschning. Nazi Germany was cast as a "metaphysical evil" and Hitler as a "master magician". These "Nazi Mysteries" portrayed Nazism as a fundamentally occult ideology; the first such work was the 1960 book The Morning of the Magicians, authored by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier that sought to link Nazism to a range of occult topics, and which quotes extensively from Rauschning. It was translated into numerous languages and had a great influence on the overall genre. A number of other books followed.

The "Nazi Mysteries" generally proposed the Third Reich had ties to gnosticism, secret societies and theosophy, rather than any historical focus on the ideology's real atrocities. According to Goodrick-Clarke, these books "persistently represented the Nazi phenomenon as the product of arcane and demonic influence". The specific narratives and occult forces claimed to be at play varied from telling to telling, but they were unified by their perception of Nazi Germany as a force for Satanic goals. Later versions of the mythos incorporated the concept of Vril, taken from the 1871 novel The Coming Race. The Thule Society was a particular subject of focus. The Nazis were said by these writers to have a "satanic compact to achieve a magical transformation of consciousness and even the physical nature of life on earth, the inauguration of a new aeon."

The concept of a Satanic and occult backing to Nazism eventually spread from these works to broader popular culture. This mythos, in turn, fueled actual occult and esoteric neo-Nazis from the 1970s on, who utilized their mythos to form new neo-Nazi groups that incorporated occult and Satanic ideology. Religious historian Mattias Gardell wrote that "speculations produced by this line of reasoning have inspired racist Satanists to see Hitler the devil as an exemplar, thereby contributing to the fear that clandestine cults are practicing black Nazi magic and lending a resemblance of factuality to that fantasy."

History

1960s–1970s: Madole and early Satanism associations

Virtually all modern Satanist organizations descend from the Church of Satan,(cn) a group founded by Anton LaVey in 1966; LaVey was a musician and carnival performer with an interest in the occult and macabre topics.

Connections between neo-Nazism and Satanism have been present since the origin of modern Satanism in the 1960s.

close friends with Nick Bougas, a filmmaker and illustrator later revealed to be the artist of the white supremacist A. Wyatt Mann cartoons (Sunshine)

James H. Madole was the leader of the neo-Nazi group the National Renaissance Party (NRP), based in New York City. In comparison to his contemporary, American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, Madole was far more obscure. Unlike most of the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements of the era, Madole was extremely hostile to Christianity, perceiving it as a Jewish creation; as a result, he and some of his followers embraced occultism, Satanism, and neopaganism. Madole developed a number of occult, esoteric, and Satanic contacts. When the Church of Satan was formed, Madole quickly sought out connections with LaVey.

Cover of the tenth issue of Liber Venifica, the magazine of the Order of the Black Ram, one of the earliest groups to combine Satanism and neo-Nazism

LaVey and Madole attempted to ally with each other in the late 1960s, and there was some overlap in their group memberships. According to a former NRP member, LaVey and Madole frequently met. He also said that Madole had at one point set up a Satanic altar in his apartment and that he would play LaVey's Satanic audio recordings during NRP meetings. A picture from the NRP's periodical during that time shows Madole and several NRP members alongside Satanists.

In 1973, Seth Kliphoth, the NRP's Michigan state organizer and a Church of Satan member, founded a Satanist group, the Order of the Black Ram (OBR), that mixed Satanism with neo-Nazism. They allied with Madole and the National Renaissance Party and maintained close ties to the NRP throughout its existence, which ceased later in the 1970s. Scholar Spencer Sunshine identified the Order of the Black Ram as one of the earliest neo-Nazi Satanist groups.

After Madole discovered that LaVey had Jewish ancestry, he abandoned efforts to ally with him. Madole continued to espouse occult neo-Nazi ideas, such as his esoteric idea of the "New Atlantis" of Aryan occultism. He continued writing along these lines, largely isolated from the broader neo-Nazi scene, until he died in 1978 from cancer, aged 51, a largely obscure figure who was initially forgotten following his death. Scholar Jeffrey Kaplan found his most significant legacy to be in his forging of connections between neo-Nazism and occult and satanist ideology. Goodrick-Clarke wrote that the 1960s "contacts between Madole's occult fascism and satanism anticipated the pagan alliances of neo-Nazis and satanists in the 1990s". Later neo-Nazi Satanist groups rediscovered Madole's message in later decades and republished him.

connections with neo-nazis continued in CoS schism groups

The Temple of Set, another CoS founded

aquino claimed that "anti-semitic Nazism" was a mistake but advocated the embrace of Heinrich Himmler's

Michael A. Aquino split with the Church of Satan; he . It is debatable to what extent he actually held National Socialist ideology,

unclear if he was actually a neo-Nazi but had a fixation on it (sunshine)

Finland's most prominent neo-Nazi Pekka Siitoin founded the Nazi-Satanist Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences in 1971. The society's members were responsible for the arson and bombing of a communist printing house.

In 1977, the British Satanist magazine Dark Lily was founded by Thomas Victor Norris as the organ of his Anglican Satanic Church. Norris was a neo-Nazi and a pimp who had previously been convicted of child sex offenses. He was a friend of David Myatt, a fellow neo-Nazi interested in Satanism. The Anglican Satanic Church did little besides publish the magazine; it was one of several groups operated by Norris. Norris recruited as magazine editor Magdalene "Magda" Graham, who became co-leader of the organization. Graham and Norris later had a split over his neo-Nazi views and she took over the periodical. She continued publishing the magazine, now without its previous neo-Nazi ideation. The magazine was controversial for its connections to Nazism. Scholar of Satanism Massimo Introvigne noted it as an example of "connections with neo-Nazism, prostitution, and pedophilia plague[ing] for decades the small British Satanist organizations".

1980s–1990s: Countercultural neo-Nazism and Satanism, black metal

The Black Metal music genre, which emerged in the early 1980s, frequently involved nihilistic and Satanist themes. Some black metal came to frequently invoke Nazism as well, leading to the emergence of National Socialist black metal (NSBM). The Black Circle was a loose international network of Satanic neo-Nazi black metal bands active in the 1990s.

In the 1980s, the Abraxas Foundation was formed

In the 1990s, there were several groups

Boyd Rice, Nikolas Schreck, publisher Adam Parfrey, also Schreck's wife Zeena LaVey, LaVey's daughter

James Mason and Siege

Mason was embraced by black metal satanists at a time where he was outcast from the rest of the Nazi movement for his Charles Manson worship.

Satanic Panic

embraced transgressive and taboo subjects, satanism, occult Nazism, serial killers

heavily influenced by the Church of Satan

Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground moynihan, member of abraxas focused on satanic Moynihan was also a member of the Church of Satan,.

Moynihan also published James Mason's siege

Kerry Bolton and the Black Order

Bolton, far-right activist and avowed Satanist, frequent writer on Francis parker yockey at times wrote for the black flame

founded several occult groups, Order of the Left-Hand path, Black Order, and published several periodicals The Black Order incorporated Nazi Satanism with several other ideas, and promoted Miguel Serrano

The National Union Council (KLN), founded in 1994, was an umbrella organization of esoteric neo-Nazi groups adhering to neo-Nazi satanism and Finnish neopaganism. KLN affiliate Aryan Germanic Brotherhood managed to get a local city council seat in Hartola.

2000s–present

The circumstances of the ONA's founding are confused and uncertain. It is unclear when the ONA was actually founded.

David Myatt, a British neo-Nazi activist, is generally considered by scholars to be the true identity of Anton Long (koch, sunshine, gc), though he has denied this for decades.

Bolton promoted David Myatt

Bolton also attempt to shape the black metal scene, of which satanism was a frequent element, to a fascist direction

Order of the Jarls of Bælder

Atomwaffen Division John Cameron Denton and TOB (variously considered a part of the ONA or an affiliated group)

History of study

Modern Satanism was traditionally an ignored current, only becoming a field of scholarly study in the early 2010s. The field of modern Satanism studies was established in the late 2000s among Scandinavian researchers.

; however, even within. Scholars of fascism similarly ignored it

There were a number of nonacademic works that focused. The New Satanists,

Lucifer Rising

The first serious look at neo-Nazi Satanism was the book Black Sun by English historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Published in 2002, it is a general look at fringe religious currents of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, but contains material related to the connection; it devotes a chapter to it, "Nazi Satanism and the New Aeon". Shortly after Black Sun was published, Gods of the Blood, a 2003 book by Swedish religious historian Mattias Gardell also devoted attention to the subject, with a chapter entitled "Hail Loki! Hail Satan! Hail Hitler! Darkside Asatrú, Satanism, and Occult National Socialism".

In 2009, Praeger Publishers published Chris Mathews's book Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture. It is both a history of Satanism and an extended ethical critique of the Church of Satan and related movements for, in Mathews's view, being essentially Social Darwinist and cryptofascist in nature. Mathews discusses the connections between many modern Satanic movements and neo-Nazis in a chapter entitled "The Plague of Nazism: Satanism and the Extreme Right". This book received a polarized reception among scholars, with some criticizing it for its immense negativity towards the subject matter and its perceived overemphasis on the connection with neo-Nazism, though it received some praise from other scholars for its research and writing.

The field of modern Satanism studies was established in the late 2000s among Scandinavian researchers.

Sociologist and antifascist activist Spencer Sunshine argued that most of the scholars studying Satanism downplayed the Nazi-Satanism connection, particularly the Scandinavian academics. In naming exceptions to this, he argued Ruben van Luijk's Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism was a good look, and that Massimo Introvigne's 2016 book Satanism: A Social History was perhaps the best recent book in its discussions of the subject.

There was an increase in attention paid to the concept of neo-Nazi Satanism in the 2020s, primarily in the context of the Order of Nine Angles.

Response

Left-wing Satanists have criticized neo-Nazi satanism

The existence of neo-Nazi satanism was unpopular among pagan and Christian neo-Nazis.

Neo-Nazis have criticized the tie to Satanism

Accelerationist neo-Nazi Joseph Tommasi criticized other neo-Nazis in the 1970s for allegedly being Satanists. "to put it BLUNTLY…he's a satanist, a devil worshipper"

In 2008, the British fascist magazine Conflict published a booklet criticizing several fellow fascists for their connections to Satanism, entitled Satanism and Its Allies: The Nationalist Movement Under Attack. The book criticizes a variety of neo-Nazi figures and groups for their ties to Satanism, including, among others, Bolton, Madole, Mason, Myatt, the American Front, and the Abraxas Foundation.

References

Works cited

• Baddeley, Gavin (2006) [1999]. Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship, and Rock'n'Roll (2nd ed.). London: Plexus. ISBN 978-0-85965-378-7.
• Coogan, Kevin (1999). Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Brooklyn: Autonomedia. ISBN 978-1-57027-039-0.
• Dornbusch, Christian; Killguss, Hans-Peter (2005). Unheilige Allianzen: Black Metal zwischen Satanismus, Heidentum und Neonazismus (in German). Münster: Unrast Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89771-817-3.
• Dyrendal, Asbjørn; Lewis, James R.; Petersen, Jesper Aagaard (2016). The Invention of Satanism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518110-4.
• Faxneld, Per; Petersen, Jesper Aagaard, eds. (2013). The Devil's Party: Satanism in Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-977924-6.
• Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-8450-2.
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2002). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3124-6.
• Introvigne, Massimo (2016). Satanism: A Social History. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-28828-7.
• Kaplan, Jeffrey (July 1, 2001). "The Post-War Paths of Occult National Socialism: From Rockwell and Madole to Manson". Patterns of Prejudice. 35 (3): 41–67. doi:10.1080/003132201128811214. ISSN 0031-322X.
• Koch, Ariel (October 2, 2024). "The ONA Network and the Transnationalization of Neo-Nazi-Satanism". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 47 (10): 1172–1199. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2021.2024944. ISSN 1057-610X.
• van Luijk, Ruben (2016). Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-027510-5.
• Lewis, James R. (2001). "Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile". Marburg Journal of Religion. 6 (2): 1–25. doi:10.17192/mjr.2001.6.3748. ISSN 1612-2941.
• Lewis, James R. (2011). "The Devil's Demographics: Changes in the Satanic Milieu, 2001–2009". Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review. 2 (2): 248–286. doi:10.5840/asrr2011224. ISSN 1946-0538.
• Mathews, Chris (2009). Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture. Westport: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-313-36639-0.
• Petersen, Jesper Aagard (2011). ""Smite Him Hip and Thigh": Satanism, Violence, and Transgression". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). Violence and New Religious Movements. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 351–376. ISBN 978-0-19-973563-1.
• Häkkinen, Perttu; Iitti, Vesa (2022). Lightbringers of the North: Secrets of the Occult Tradition of Finland. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-64411-464-3.
• Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57601-0.
• Sunshine, Spencer (September 15, 2026). "A Short History of Nazi-Satanism". Journal of Right-Wing Studies. 4 (1): 86–118. doi:10.5070/RW3.47008. ISSN 2770-9698.

Category:Satanism and Nazism