Ariosophy
Ariosophy and Armanism are esoteric ideological systems that were largely developed by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and Guido von List, respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term 'Ariosophy', which translates to wisdom of the Aryans, was invented by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915, and during the 1920s, it became the name of his doctrine. For research on the topic, such as Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's book The Occult Roots of Nazism, the term 'Ariosophy' is generically used to describe the Aryan/esoteric theories which constituted a subset of the 'Völkische Bewegung'. This broader use of the word is retrospective and it was not generally current among the esotericists themselves. List actually called his doctrine 'Armanism', while Lanz used the terms 'Theozoology' and 'Ario-Christianity' before the First World War.
The ideas of Von List and Lanz von Liebenfels were part of a general occult revival that occurred in Austria and Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; a revival that was loosely inspired by historical Germanic paganism, holistic philosophy, and Christianity, as well as by esoteric concepts that were influenced by German romanticism and Theosophy. The connection between this form of Germanic mysticism and historical Germanic culture is evident in the mystics' fascination with runes, in the form of Guido von List's Armanen runes.
Overview
The ideology regarding the Aryan race, runic symbols, the swastika, and sometimes occultism are important elements of Ariosophy. By 1899 at the earliest or by 1900 at the latest, esoteric notions entered Guido von List's thoughts. In April 1903, he sent his manuscript, proposing what Goodrick-Clarke calls a "monumental pseudoscience" concerning the ancient German faith, to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna onwards. These Ariosophic ideas contributed significantly to an occult counterculture in Germany and Austria. A historic interest in this topic has stemmed from the ideological relationship between Ariosophy and Nazism, and it is obvious in such book titles as:- The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
- Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab, Wilfried Daim's biography of Lanz von Liebenfels
'Ariosophic' writers and organisations
While a broad definition of the term 'Ariosophy' is useful for some purposes, various of the later authors, including Ellegaard Ellerbek, Philipp Stauff and Günther Kirchoff, can more exactly be described as cultivating the Armanism of List. In a less broad approach, one could also treat rune occultism separately. Although the Armanen runes go back to List, Rudolf John Gorsleben distinguished himself from other völkisch writers by making the esoteric importance of the runes central to his world view. Goodrick-Clarke therefore refers to the doctrine of Kummer and Gorsleben and his followers as rune occultism, a description that also fits the eclectic work of Karl Spiesberger. Highly practical systems of rune occultism, influenced mainly by List, were developed by Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer. Also worthy of mention are Peryt Shou, the occult novelist; A. Frank Glahn, noted more for his pendulum dowsing; Rudolf von Sebottendorff and Walter Nauhaus, who built up the Thule Society; and Karl Maria Wiligut, who was the most notable occultist working for the SS.Organisations include: the Guido von List Society, the High Armanen Order, the Lumen Club, the Ordo Novi Templi, the Germanenorden and the Thule Society.
Armanism
Guido von List elaborated a racial religion premised on the concept of renouncing the imposed Semitic creed of Christianity and returning to the native religions of the ancient Indo-Europeans. He recognised the theoretical distinction between the Proto-Indo-European language and its daughter Proto-Germanic language, but frequently obscured it by his tendency to treat them as a single long-lived entity. In this, he became strongly influenced by the Theosophical thought of Madame Blavatsky, which he blended with his own highly original beliefs, founded upon Germanic paganism.Before he turned to occultism, Guido List had written articles for German Nationalist newspapers in Austria, as well as four historical novels and three plays, some of which were "set in tribal Germany" before the advent of Christianity. He also had written an anti-semitic essay in 1895. List adopted the aristocratic von between 1903 and 1907.
List called his doctrine Armanism after the Armanen, supposedly a body of priest-kings in the ancient Aryo-Germanic nation. He claimed that this German name had been Latinized into the tribal name Herminones mentioned in Tacitus, and that it actually meant the heirs of the sun-king: an estate of intellectuals who were organised into a priesthood called the Armanenschaft.
His conception of the original religion of the Germanic tribes was a form of sun worship, with its priest-kings as legendary rulers of ancient Germany, who were immortalized as the gods of the various Aryan faiths. Religious instruction was imparted on two levels. The esoteric doctrine was concerned with the secret mysteries of the gnosis, reserved for the initiated elite, while the exoteric doctrine took the form of popular myths intended for the lower social classes.
List believed that the transition from Wotanism to Christianity had proceeded smoothly under the direction of the skald poets, so that native customs, festivals and names were preserved under a Christian veneer and only needed to be "decoded" back into their heathen forms. This peaceful merging of the two religions had been disrupted by the forcible conversions under "bloody Charlemagne – the Slaughterer of the Saxons". List claimed that the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria-Hungary constituted a continuing occupation of the Germanic tribes by the Roman Empire, albeit now in a religious form, and a continuing persecution of the ancient religion of the Germanic peoples and Celts.
He also believed in the magical powers of the old runes. From 1891 onwards he claimed that heraldry was based on a system of encoded runes, so that heraldic devices conveyed a secret heritage in cryptic form. In April 1903, he submitted an article concerning the alleged Aryan proto-language to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Its highlight was a mystical and occult interpretation of the runic alphabet, which became the cornerstone of his ideology. Although the article was rejected by the academy, it would later be expanded by List, and grew into his final masterpiece, a comprehensive treatment of his linguistic and historical theories, published in 1914 as Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache.
List's doctrine has been described as gnostic, pantheist, and deist. At its core is the mystical union of God, man, and nature. Wotanism teaches that God dwells within the individual human spirit as an inner source of magical power, but is also immanent within nature through the primal laws that govern the cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. List explicitly rejects a Mind-body dualism of spirit versus matter, or of God over or against nature. Humanity is therefore one with the universe, which entails an obligation to live in accordance with nature. But the individual human ego does not seek to merge with the cosmos. "Man is a separate agent, necessary to the completion or perfection of ‘God's work’". Being immortal, the ego passes through successive reincarnations until it overcomes all obstacles to its purpose. List foresaw the eventual consequences of this in a future utopia on Earth, which he identified with the promised Valhalla, a world of victorious heroes:
List was familiar with the cyclical notion of time, which he encountered in Norse mythology and in the theosophical adaptation of the Hindu time cycles. He had already made use of cosmic rhythms in his early journalism on natural landscapes. In his later works, List combined the cyclical concept of time with the "dualistic and linear time scheme" of western apocalypticism, which counterposes a pessimism about the present world with an ultimate optimism regarding the future one. In Das Geheimnis der Runen, List addresses the seeming contradiction by explaining the final redemption of the linear time frame as an exoteric parable that stands for the esoteric truth of renewal in many future cycles and incarnations. This is counter to the original Norse myths and Hinduism, where the cycle of destruction and creation is repeated indefinitely, thus offering no possibility of ultimate salvation.
Guido von List Society and High Armanen Order
Already in 1893 Guido List together with Fanny Wschiansky, had founded the Literarische Donaugesellschaft, a literary society.In 1908 the Guido von List Society was founded primarily by the Wannieck family as an occult völkisch organisation, with the purpose of financing and publishing List's research. The List Society was supported by many leading figures in Austrian and German politics, publishing, and occultism. Although one might suspect a völkisch organisation to be antisemitic, the society included at least two Jews among its members: Moritz Altschüler, a rabbinical scholar, and Ernst Wachler. The List Society published List's works under the series Guido-List-Bücherei.
List had established exoteric and esoteric circles in his organisation. The High Armanen Order was the inner circle of the Guido von List Society. Founded in midsummer 1911, it was set up as a magical order or lodge to support List's deeper and more practical work. The HAO conducted pilgrimages to what its members considered "holy Armanic sites", Stephansdom in Vienna, Carnuntum etc. They also had occasional meetings between 1911 and 1918, but the exact nature of these remains unknown. In his introduction to List's The Secret of the Runes, Stephen E. Flowers notes: "The HAO never really crystallized in List's lifetime – although it seems possible that he developed a theoretical body of unpublished documents and rituals relevant to the HAO that have only been put into full practice in more recent years".