The German Volkish Movement: Our Spiritual Forbearers

‘Aryan’ Paganism, in particular, stands as the spiritual dimension of fascism, often fleshed out along Ariosophic lines; that is, it reflects a racial mysticism that considers the Aryan race divine. This racial mysticism connects the current revival of racist paganism to the occult roots of National Socialism in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, with many of the influential heathens of today specifically representing their projects as extensions of the efforts made by philosophers and mystics of that era [hey, that’s us!].

Indeed, observed from the perspective of globalization, the racist heathen milieu of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries in many ways parallels the pagan revival that emerged a century earlier in Europe, during what Roland Robertson terms the ‘take off’ phase of globalization, from 1880 to 1924. In the wake of industrialization, modernization, urbanization, rationality, positivism, secularization, and imperialism arose a nostalgic idealization of the agrarian past, ancient traditions, magic occultism, secret societies, lost worlds, paganism, vegetarianism, Theosophy, anthroposophy, and primitivism. This was the time of Wagner, Nietzsche, Evola, Blavatsky, Crowley, Jung, von List, and Spengler—all philosophers and artists who also exert a powerful influence in the current pagan revival. Out of that earlier environment, the fascist and national socialist projects were eventually constructed, suggesting that the trajectory of the new pagan revival should be taken quite seriously.

American heathens tend for find important predecessors in the German volkisch movement. Asatru magazines and website frequently carry articles about volkisch philosophy, secret societies, and pagan revivalism. Asatru veteran and rune magus Eldred Thorsson has popularized volkisch thought by translating Ariosophic classics and publishing studies of Germanic magic and rune lore…

The meaning of the German word Volk transcended the literal sense of ‘people’ or ‘folk’ to connote the spiritual qualities of the imagined nation, the unique personality of the German ‘folk soul’. Searching for the soul of the German nation, volkisch ideologies turned to folk-lore and mythology, traveling the countryside to record old tales, folk music, and traditions. The volkisch movement was integral to construction of a pan-German nationalism aimed at ‘reunification’ of all German settlements at the territorial expense of other European states, a philosophy that later propelled the German war effort.

A romantic revolt against the ‘ills’ of modern society, industrialization, urbanization, materialism, and rationalism, volkisch culture yearned for mysteries, irrationality, nature, and heroic legends. Constructing a counter order by idealizing rural life and inventing traditions of the past, volkisch ideologues rejected democracy and egalitarianism, upholding instead the values of hierarchy, nobility, and spirituality. Fragmented according to orientation, volkisch activists engaged in sun worship, rune magic, nudism, pagan traditions, race mysticism, vegetarianism, herbal medicine, biodynamic gardening, and excursions into nature or sites of ancient ‘German’ presence. Untainted German blood symbolized the spiritual link with the heathen forefathers and was envisioned as a carrier of ancestral memories harkening back to the mystical golden age of national greatness…

Although volkisch activity fell sharply into disrepute in popular culture [after the war], a flickering occult sub-culture remained during the subsequent decades, and at the brink of the millennium, Ariosophic concerns suddenly resurfaced among a new generation of heathens across the Atlantic…

-Mattias Gardell “Gods of the Blood: Pagan Revival and White Separatism” (2003)