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WOTAN
"...a God has taken possession of the Germans and their house is filled with a `mighty rushing wind'... Perhaps we may sum up this general phenomenon as Ergriffenheit - a state of being seized or possessed. The term postulates not only an Ergriffener (one who is seized) but also an Ergreifer (one who seizes). Wotan is an Ergreifer of men, and, unless one wishes to deify Hitler - which has indeed actually happened - he (Wotan) is really the only explanation... A mind that is childish thinks of the Gods as metaphysical entities existing in their own right, or else regards them as playful or superstitious inventions... the Gods are without doubt personifications of psychic forces..."
[Jung, 'Wotan', 1936]
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Jung pointed out in the same essay that Nietzsche's versions of Dionysos and Zarathustra were REALLY versions of Wotan.
Whatever we call it, this is the Aryan religion of creative Rage.
Whatever we call it, this is the Aryan religion of creative Rage.
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"The impressive thing about the German phenomenon is that one man, who is obviously `possessed' has infected a whole nation to such an extent that everything is set in motion and has started rolling..." [ibid.]
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No matter what National Socialists CALLED the spiritual aspect of their movement [as we know, some were 'German Christians', some were Heathens, some were Nietzscheans etc.,], they were ALL IN EFFECT following the ancient pre-Christian religion of Wotan.
Even those who said they were followers of an Aryan Jesus, or a pagan Dionysos; even those who were devoted to the Fuhrer alone; essentially, they were all 'Wotanists'.
Now, we can argue that that is anachronistic. We have no real knowledge of what an 'organised' Wotanism would have been like; but then Jung is speaking of an organisation, but of that mythic archetype which is to be seen throughout the Aryan culture, and which manifested itself amongst the followers of Wotan/Woden/Odin.
We know that Wotanists DID convert to Christianity; but Jung is saying that only the names changed. Those Europeans remained Wotanists in SPIRIT.
Look at the Crusaders as an early example, and the NSDAP as a more recent one.
Even those who said they were followers of an Aryan Jesus, or a pagan Dionysos; even those who were devoted to the Fuhrer alone; essentially, they were all 'Wotanists'.
Now, we can argue that that is anachronistic. We have no real knowledge of what an 'organised' Wotanism would have been like; but then Jung is speaking of an organisation, but of that mythic archetype which is to be seen throughout the Aryan culture, and which manifested itself amongst the followers of Wotan/Woden/Odin.
We know that Wotanists DID convert to Christianity; but Jung is saying that only the names changed. Those Europeans remained Wotanists in SPIRIT.
Look at the Crusaders as an early example, and the NSDAP as a more recent one.
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Jung's essay is written as an objective look, from a psychologist's perspective, at the phenomenon of National-Socialism at that time, with its use of the Swastika, its torch-lit parades and its nigh-on heretical worship of a living figure in the Fuhrer.
Now, I don't doubt that there was a powerful Christian component to N-S, just as I would argue that paganism survived in Christianity.
However, Jung's argument that Wotanism is the basic religion of GERMANS is a sound one; especially when we acknowledge that the worship of Wotan, Thorburn etc., predates Christianity in Europe.
Such deep spiritual rivers are never completely dried up, and at certain moments in history they become full again.
So I believe that Jung was right to point to the Wotanist nature of the Third Reich; and let's be honest, it is no coincidence that Wotanism has always had a following amongst fascists etc.,
This is not to deny the Christian aspects of fascism/national socialism - a strong argument can be had there, too. But then, important figures such as Bormann and Darre favoured a purely pagan version of N-S.
Generally, I think it a feature of N-S that it is able to encompass strains of Christianity and Paganism within its ideology.
Jung's essay is an important document, and one that was genuinely prescient.
It must surely be an inward movement, an involution - a reaching back into the deepest recesses of one's Being.
The use of trance, group trance, to dissolve individuality and to bring out the Chaos of what one is - that inner dancing star.
The gods are at the very root of our Being and become encrusted over as time marches on.
So we need a kind of Archaeology of Being in order to rediscover the Race Soul.
The gods are the ancestral movers of that Race Soul.
Now, I don't doubt that there was a powerful Christian component to N-S, just as I would argue that paganism survived in Christianity.
However, Jung's argument that Wotanism is the basic religion of GERMANS is a sound one; especially when we acknowledge that the worship of Wotan, Thorburn etc., predates Christianity in Europe.
Such deep spiritual rivers are never completely dried up, and at certain moments in history they become full again.
So I believe that Jung was right to point to the Wotanist nature of the Third Reich; and let's be honest, it is no coincidence that Wotanism has always had a following amongst fascists etc.,
This is not to deny the Christian aspects of fascism/national socialism - a strong argument can be had there, too. But then, important figures such as Bormann and Darre favoured a purely pagan version of N-S.
Generally, I think it a feature of N-S that it is able to encompass strains of Christianity and Paganism within its ideology.
Jung's essay is an important document, and one that was genuinely prescient.
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Hitler is certainly quoted in the Table Talk as suggesting that he thought a revival of 'Odinism' not to be viable in the Germany of his day.
I infer that his position was;
i) once a belief system has died it cannot be effectively revived in exactly the same form [although the spirit of the past can be revived].
ii) that Odinism was 'lacking' in something in that it lost out in the cultural war to Christianity.
iv) to revive it would therefore be more theatrical than real [and one need only look at those who dress up as Odinist gothi today].
Those reasons suggest a 'darwinian' outlook on the Fuhrer's part.
If life is about the survival of the fittest, then Odinism didn't win that struggle for survival.
To Hitler the baton has now passed to National Socialism which will develop its own Germanic Spirituality.
That NS spirituality would've owed much to Odinism if the work of the inner SS is anything to go by!
Of course, Himmler was the mastermind of the spiritual vision here; Hitler was, by contrast, a very pragmatic man.
However, it cannot be forgotten that Hitler admired Wagner immensely, and it was said that if one wanted to understand NS then one needed to only understand Wagner first.
And of course, Wagner [in his Ring Cycle] gives us an awesome portrait of Odin [or Wotan].
Therefore Hitler only doubted the practical and political efficacy of an Odinic revival, as such.
I infer that his position was;
i) once a belief system has died it cannot be effectively revived in exactly the same form [although the spirit of the past can be revived].
ii) that Odinism was 'lacking' in something in that it lost out in the cultural war to Christianity.
iv) to revive it would therefore be more theatrical than real [and one need only look at those who dress up as Odinist gothi today].
Those reasons suggest a 'darwinian' outlook on the Fuhrer's part.
If life is about the survival of the fittest, then Odinism didn't win that struggle for survival.
To Hitler the baton has now passed to National Socialism which will develop its own Germanic Spirituality.
That NS spirituality would've owed much to Odinism if the work of the inner SS is anything to go by!
Of course, Himmler was the mastermind of the spiritual vision here; Hitler was, by contrast, a very pragmatic man.
However, it cannot be forgotten that Hitler admired Wagner immensely, and it was said that if one wanted to understand NS then one needed to only understand Wagner first.
And of course, Wagner [in his Ring Cycle] gives us an awesome portrait of Odin [or Wotan].
Therefore Hitler only doubted the practical and political efficacy of an Odinic revival, as such.
Hitler said;
"I envisage the future as follows: first of all, to each man his private creed. Superstition shall not lose its rights.
The Party is sheltered from the danger of competing with the religions. These latter must simply be forbidden from interfering in future with temporal matters".
[Adolf Hitler,'Table Talk' 14th october 1941, midday, special guest Himmler]
This makes a nice distinction - religion will be tolerated, but it will not be allowed to be political.
The political goal is the highest;
"The chief aim to be pursued by a national State is conservation of the ancient racial elements which by disseminated culture, create the beauty and dignity of a higher humanity".
[AH Mein Kampf II,11]
"I envisage the future as follows: first of all, to each man his private creed. Superstition shall not lose its rights.
The Party is sheltered from the danger of competing with the religions. These latter must simply be forbidden from interfering in future with temporal matters".
[Adolf Hitler,'Table Talk' 14th october 1941, midday, special guest Himmler]
This makes a nice distinction - religion will be tolerated, but it will not be allowed to be political.
The political goal is the highest;
"The chief aim to be pursued by a national State is conservation of the ancient racial elements which by disseminated culture, create the beauty and dignity of a higher humanity".
[AH Mein Kampf II,11]
By all accounts, pagan religion in pre-Xtian Europe was very much a 'family affair', with the head of the household presiding over household gods.
Worship was not formularised, and often done in the open [hence 'heath -en', 'pagan' etc.,].
I rather think that if you had examined all the various approaches to the gods in pagan Europe you would have seen a myriad of 'conflicting ideas' [think here of Hinduism in India].
However, because religion was then kept separate from 'politics', men did not fight over them.
I think a Viking would have thought it absurd to fight over an interpretation of the gods!
I believe that Hitler tapped into that pre-Xtian pagan archetype of the Germans which places religion back into the family enviroment, and thus revivifies all those group values you talk of which are the fundamentals of Race Thinking.
This was only achieved by paradoxically NOT making an issue of religion - the old gods were able to re-assert theirselves, as they had done already in the poetry of Rilke.
Just as the Romans allowed all subject peoples to keep their gods and assimilate them to the Roman gods. Disagreement only came in the Empire if such peoples refused to acknowledge the actual, political and spiritual figure of the Emperor as supreme - hence the trouble with the Jews and Jewish-Xtians in the Romanum Imperium: and here we are back to your point, but clarified: the problem is not with Xtianity, but with the Jews.
The point is that a theocracy is non-Aryan per se - it is Judaic. Nietzsche says that Jews were left in the strange position in antiquity of only having two levels of their society left - the priesthood and the rabble. Hence the Jewish promulgation of Theocracy, or rather Priestocracy.
In Aryan society the 'priesthood' such as it is, is always subordinate; Aryan Leadership is ideally a Warrior Leadership.
As I said, Aryan religion is a family affair, although great Aryan Leaders are always blessed by the gods [naturally through Leaders being of good family], and will dedicate their deeds to the innumerable gods.
It strikes me though, that belief in Aryanism has a spiritual foundation in itself. I think that those who are suffering Existentialist angst and are atheists, would also be dismissive of Aryanism.
What is an Aryan to a misanthropic nihilist?
Worship was not formularised, and often done in the open [hence 'heath -en', 'pagan' etc.,].
I rather think that if you had examined all the various approaches to the gods in pagan Europe you would have seen a myriad of 'conflicting ideas' [think here of Hinduism in India].
However, because religion was then kept separate from 'politics', men did not fight over them.
I think a Viking would have thought it absurd to fight over an interpretation of the gods!
I believe that Hitler tapped into that pre-Xtian pagan archetype of the Germans which places religion back into the family enviroment, and thus revivifies all those group values you talk of which are the fundamentals of Race Thinking.
This was only achieved by paradoxically NOT making an issue of religion - the old gods were able to re-assert theirselves, as they had done already in the poetry of Rilke.
Just as the Romans allowed all subject peoples to keep their gods and assimilate them to the Roman gods. Disagreement only came in the Empire if such peoples refused to acknowledge the actual, political and spiritual figure of the Emperor as supreme - hence the trouble with the Jews and Jewish-Xtians in the Romanum Imperium: and here we are back to your point, but clarified: the problem is not with Xtianity, but with the Jews.
The point is that a theocracy is non-Aryan per se - it is Judaic. Nietzsche says that Jews were left in the strange position in antiquity of only having two levels of their society left - the priesthood and the rabble. Hence the Jewish promulgation of Theocracy, or rather Priestocracy.
In Aryan society the 'priesthood' such as it is, is always subordinate; Aryan Leadership is ideally a Warrior Leadership.
As I said, Aryan religion is a family affair, although great Aryan Leaders are always blessed by the gods [naturally through Leaders being of good family], and will dedicate their deeds to the innumerable gods.
It strikes me though, that belief in Aryanism has a spiritual foundation in itself. I think that those who are suffering Existentialist angst and are atheists, would also be dismissive of Aryanism.
What is an Aryan to a misanthropic nihilist?
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There is a line of thought which says that only our own gods have any real power for us, and to worship 'strange gods' [i.e., non-Aryan gods], is to fall into the trap of the enemy.
That leads me to another point; if a Greek were to worship Wotan today, he would actually be worshipping Dionysos [or Hermes depending on the aspect he is emphasising], but under another name.
This points to the kindredness of all the Aryan deities & heroes.
The Romans were wise to see this long before comapartive mythology studies, aligning the Greek/Roman/Norse/Celtic deities in a most intelligent fashion.
So *within* the Aryan pantheons, some cross worship may be tolerable; but why do it?
And ultimately, are not the gods our *ancestors*?
Do we western Aryans [i.e., Anglo-Saxons and the rest] really *experience* the gods with the kind of force that the Germano-Aryans did?
That leads me to another point; if a Greek were to worship Wotan today, he would actually be worshipping Dionysos [or Hermes depending on the aspect he is emphasising], but under another name.
This points to the kindredness of all the Aryan deities & heroes.
The Romans were wise to see this long before comapartive mythology studies, aligning the Greek/Roman/Norse/Celtic deities in a most intelligent fashion.
So *within* the Aryan pantheons, some cross worship may be tolerable; but why do it?
And ultimately, are not the gods our *ancestors*?
Do we western Aryans [i.e., Anglo-Saxons and the rest] really *experience* the gods with the kind of force that the Germano-Aryans did?
Westerners are, whether we like it or not, children of a rationalised & secularised culture.
Not only that, but we are living through that necessarily godless period of nihilism which says, with Nietzsche, that God is dead.
True, the 'dead god' is only the middle eastern one of Christianity.
But have we re-emerged from out of the slough of nihilism far enough in order to be able to *derserve* our ancient gods?
I mean, do our pagan gods of old have the real *force* of reality for us in the way that they did for our ancestors before the advent of first Christianity & then the Enlightenment?
I ask this as a question of [pagan] conscience.
As regards the Hindu gods being unsuitable for Europeans, is that not rather because we have become estranged from our own polytheism too?
Would we not feel at home amongst the Vedas if we were *real* devotees of the gods of the Eddas?
Is Nietzsche right in suggesting that we need to create new gods amongst us - gods worthy of a New Master Race, based upon the coming heroes of the final race war?
Not only that, but we are living through that necessarily godless period of nihilism which says, with Nietzsche, that God is dead.
True, the 'dead god' is only the middle eastern one of Christianity.
But have we re-emerged from out of the slough of nihilism far enough in order to be able to *derserve* our ancient gods?
I mean, do our pagan gods of old have the real *force* of reality for us in the way that they did for our ancestors before the advent of first Christianity & then the Enlightenment?
I ask this as a question of [pagan] conscience.
As regards the Hindu gods being unsuitable for Europeans, is that not rather because we have become estranged from our own polytheism too?
Would we not feel at home amongst the Vedas if we were *real* devotees of the gods of the Eddas?
Is Nietzsche right in suggesting that we need to create new gods amongst us - gods worthy of a New Master Race, based upon the coming heroes of the final race war?
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"Our consciousness only imagines that it has lost its gods; in reality they are still there and it only needs a certain general condition in order to bring them back in full force." [Jung]
It must surely be an inward movement, an involution - a reaching back into the deepest recesses of one's Being.
The use of trance, group trance, to dissolve individuality and to bring out the Chaos of what one is - that inner dancing star.
The gods are at the very root of our Being and become encrusted over as time marches on.
So we need a kind of Archaeology of Being in order to rediscover the Race Soul.
The gods are the ancestral movers of that Race Soul.
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The seasons have turned, the sun is back again
The long nights are over, we have reached the serpent's end
Forget this new God, let the old ones be reborn
We'll hang him on a tree, and crown him with thorns
Our king's beneath a hill, an army by his side
They wait with sword and shield, ready to rise
Our queen is in the moon, the stars and the sky
From a blood red mouth comes a sigh
They said the child was mad, or must be telling lies
For deep in the forest she saw a god with one eye
[Sol Invictus, The Return]
The long nights are over, we have reached the serpent's end
Forget this new God, let the old ones be reborn
We'll hang him on a tree, and crown him with thorns
Our king's beneath a hill, an army by his side
They wait with sword and shield, ready to rise
Our queen is in the moon, the stars and the sky
From a blood red mouth comes a sigh
They said the child was mad, or must be telling lies
For deep in the forest she saw a god with one eye
[Sol Invictus, The Return]
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"Despite their crankiness, the Wotan-worshippers seem to have judged things more correctly than the worshippers of reason. Apparently everyone had forgotten that Wotan is a Germanic datum of first importance, the truest expression and unsurpassed personification of a fundamental quality that is particularly characteristic of the Germans (Aryans)." [ibid.]
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"...As we have largely lost our Gods and the actual condition of our religion does not offer an efficacious answer to the world situation in general and to the "religion" of communism in particular, we are very much in the same predicament as the pre- National Socialist Germany of the Twenties, i.e., we are apt to undergo the risk of a further, but this time worldwide, Wotanistic experiment." [Serrano, Letter to Jung, 1960]
"...When, for instance, the belief in the God Wotan vanished and nobody thought of him anymore, the phenomenon originally called Wotan remained; nothing changed but his name, as National Socialism has demonstrated on a grand scale. A collective movement consists of millions of individuals, each of whom shows the symptoms of Wotanism and proves thereby that Wotan in reality never died, but has retained his original vitality and autonomy. Our consciousness only imagines that it has lost its Gods; in reality they are still there and it only needs a certain general condition in order to bring them back in full force." [ibid.]
The Wotan/Odin archetype
"Mythology and religion (in the strict sense of the word) are two
distinct things that have become inextricably entangled, though
mythology is in itself almost devoid of religious significance ....
"Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting
strangeness. But ... many people dislike being 'arrested'. They
dislike any meddling with the Primary World [i.e., 'reality'], or such
small glimpses of it as are familiar to them.
They, therefore, stupidly and even maliciously confound Fantasy with
Dreaming, in which there is no Art; and with mental disorders, in
which there is not even control: with delusion and hallucination".
[JRR Tolkien, 'On Fairy Stories']
distinct things that have become inextricably entangled, though
mythology is in itself almost devoid of religious significance ....
"Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting
strangeness. But ... many people dislike being 'arrested'. They
dislike any meddling with the Primary World [i.e., 'reality'], or such
small glimpses of it as are familiar to them.
They, therefore, stupidly and even maliciously confound Fantasy with
Dreaming, in which there is no Art; and with mental disorders, in
which there is not even control: with delusion and hallucination".
[JRR Tolkien, 'On Fairy Stories']
This 'Odin' too is like Nietzsche's later Dionysos; i.e., a Dionysos/Wodan which has incorporated and sublimated the Apollonian/Tiwaz.
And does the perpetual strife now rage only within Himself, who is the eternal Androgynous One?
This is illustrated by Odin's practice of the female Seidr and Dionysos's hermaphroditism.
While I think the *origin* of Odin is Nordic/Aryan, it is possible that the later treatment of Odin in the Eddas is partly un-Nordic.
As Joseph Campbell wrote;
"There is the figure ... of Othin [Woden, Wotan], self-crucified on the World Ash as an offering to himself, to gain the occult wisdom of (the) runes, which is clearly a Hellenistic motif".
[Campbell, 'Creative Mythology', page 111]
So Wodan was a Nordic god, and that together with Tiwaz, in a kind of composite form, he gave birth to the Odin of the Viking age.
A well respected book by Ellis-Davidson says;
"The Germanic name Woden, that which relates it to 'wut', meaning high mental excitement, fury, intoxication, or possession... The Old Norse adjective, 'odhr', from which 'Odhinn', the later form of his name in Scandinavia, must be derived, bears a similar meaning: 'raging, furious, intoxicated', and can be used to signify poetic genius and inspiration".
['The Gods and Myths of Northern Europe', by H. Ellis-Davidson, p 147]
The name seems to suggest an indigenous deity then.
"We have good reason to believe that Odin as god of war has developed out of earlier conceptions among the Germanic peoples on the continent of the god who ruled the battle-field.
The god Wodan or Wotan, had the same type [i.e., as Odin] of sacrifice associated with his name.
The Heruli [Gothic tribe associated with the runes], for instance, worshippers of Wodan, practised a double ritual of stabbing and burning ...
According to Procopius, writing in the sixth century ['The Gothic War'], they were accustomed to lay such men [i.e., those chosen as victims] on the funeral pyre and to stab them to death before their bodies were burned ...
Jordanes, also in the sixth century, wrote ...
'The Goths ... devoted the first share of their spoil to the god of war, and in his honour, arms stripped from the foe were suspended from trees' ". [ib.,]
So the aspect of a god of war, of ritual stabbings and hangings is already there in Wodan, even if he was not originally the ruler of the gods [that was still Tiwaz].
"At the time of Tacitus [1st century AD], however there is reason to believe that the Roman god of war, Mars, was indentified not with Wodan [who was identified by them with Mercury], but with ... Tiwaz. Odin in fact appears to be the successor of both Wodan and Tiwaz, retaining some of the qualities and attributes of both these gods ..." [ib., p 56]
So it seems that the qualities of Odin are derived from these two Germanic gods, Wodan and Tiwaz;
"Since the Romans equated Wodan with Mercury, we may assume that simularities between the two deities existed as early as the days of Tacitus ..." [ib., p 140]
Perhaps it is this synthesis that makes Odin seem 'strange' to some.
Therefore;
"Odin was also the god of the dead and supreme practitioner in magic, with the ability to inspire his followers and grant them the ecstatic, trance-like state of intoxication. The ecstasy of battle, which inspired the berserks and filled them with such madness that they knew neither fear nor pain, was naturally viewd as a gift of the same god". [ib., p 70]
It is easy to see that Odin's shamanic qualities derive from these battle-trances, and the animal associations of the bear-serks, wolf-heads, swine-arrays etc., Combine this with his connection with dead warriors and visitations to the land of the dead [via his Valkyries], the ritual stabbings [being the background to the discovery of the runes], his eight-legged steed [typical of the shamanic] and the world-tree Yggdrasil [which means literally 'steed of Odin'], and we have a very Nordic god in Odin.
When Odin displaces Tiwaz [Tyr] as the ruler of the gods, his power is complete.
The mythology has him being the father of red-bearded Thor [with Fjorgynn], blond Baldr [with Frigga], of Tyr himself [with Saga] and of Hemdall [via the 9 wave maidens].
How could a non-Nord give father a Baldr or a Thor?
That he slept with 9 wave maidens shows that Odin was a god of prodigeous sexual appetite - and no 'puritan'!
He also is on record as fathering Hoder, vali, Bragi [god of poetry], Vidar, Hermod and Sigi.
I see little reason to impute a non-Nordic [let alone a non-Aryan] origin to Odin.
Concerning the Aryan-ness [or, I should rather say, Nordic-ness] of Wotan. This is an important qualification ['Nordic-ness', rather than 'Aryan-ness'].
Alfred Rosenberg [Myth of the 20th Century] is not coherent here; despite the overwhelming evidence of Wotan's participation in shamanism, he describes "Odin as the eternal mirrored image of the primal powers of Nordic man". [AR Myth, p 447]
He refuses to see Odin as he really is, and so skews his argument.
This is reminiscent of some National-Socialists [N-S] who have to try and prove that someone like Napoleon was 'Nordic'.
Another N-S writer, Hans Gunther ['Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans'] puts forward the very thesis that Odin is an alien god: he is at least coherent here.
But even if we explore such lines of thought, as we must, is 'non-Nordic' really tantamount to 'non-Aryan'?
I think not.
"Mysteries were religious or magic cults which arose from the worship of specific gods, particularly *healers*. Devotees conducted *secret rites*, often based on *myth-stories*, designed to help them pass freely between the natural and supernatural worlds. Often these rites were embodied in *coded-writings*, supposedly bequeathed by the god who inspired the cult and containing the secrets of immortality and universal order".
[McLeish, Dictionary of Mythology]
The cult of Odin fits the bill here perfectly, particularly in its Eddaic outline.
The arts of galdr and seidr are non-priestly.
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