The Morning of the Magicians


The Morning of the Magicians: Introduction to Fantastic Realism is a 1960 book by the journalists Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. It covers topics like cryptohistory, ufology, occultism in Nazism, alchemy, spiritual philosophy. The second half of the book is entirely dedicated to the Nazi-Occult connections; the book is widely credited with the proliferation of numerous myths related to occultism in Nazism.

Background and publication history

Pauwels and Bergier worked on the book over five years, compiling voluminous documentation incorporated into the Bibliothèque nationale de France as Fonds Pauwels in 2007. Heavily influenced by Charles Fort's work and ideas, the authors' primary aim was to arouse the curiosity of their readership, stating "Let us repeat that there will be a lot of silliness in our book, but this matters little if the book stirs up a few vocations and, to a certain degree, prepares broader tracks for research".
Written in French, Le Matin des magiciens was translated into English by Rollo Myers in 1963 in the United Kingdom under the title The Dawn of Magic, and in 1964 released in the United States as The Morning of the Magicians. A German edition was published 1962 with the title Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend. It was also translated into several other languages.

Contents

As the authors disclaim in their preface, the book is intended to challenge readers' viewpoints on historic events, whether they believe the explanations or not, but with the goal to give readers the opportunity to test their level of cognitive dissonance and critical thinking skills. It covers topics like cryptohistory, ufology, occultism in Nazism, alchemy, spiritual philosophy and is thus often referenced by conspiracy-theory enthusiasts. The second half of the book is entirely dedicated to the Nazi-Occult connections, under the title "‘A Few Years in the Absolute Elsewhere".

Influence and criticism

The Morning of the Magicians became a cult classic within the youth culture in France in the 1960s and the 1970s. Cautioned by the hostile reception from skeptic reviewers Despite the book originally being in French, it was mostly discussed by English- and German-speaking audiences.
The book was a commercial success and bestseller. Pauwels and Bergier went on to pursue their interest in the paranormal in the magazine Planète, dedicated to what they termed réalisme fantastique. Both The Morning of the Magicians and the Planète magazine had considerable influence on the esotericism of the 1960s–1970s counterculture, heralding the popularization of certain New Age ideas.
In a 2004 article for Skeptic, the author Jason Colavito wrote that the book's tales of ancient astronauts predated Erich von Däniken's works on the topic, and that the ideas are so close to the fictional works of H. P. Lovecraft such as "The Call of Cthulhu" or At the Mountains of Madness that, according to Colavito, it is probable that Lovecraft's fiction directly inspired the book.
Kenneth Feder comments on this book in his book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. After noting several major errors relating to archaeology, he comments that "The often bizarre claims in 'The Morning of the Magicians that were related to physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and history seemed plausible to me primarily because I did not have the knowledge necessary to assess them intelligibly." Christian Giudice described it as an "an allegedly nonfiction exposé of occult influences on historical events, conspiracy theories, and what may be defined as proto- ancient astronaut theories". He also credited it with helping start the New Age movement.
The book is widely regarded as being responsible for the proliferation of numerous myths related to occultism in Nazism. Stéphane François credits it with the beginning of the literary trend of books regarding occultism in Nazism, crediting the book with truly bringing to life the "myth of Nazi esotericism". Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke noted that numerous successive works on Nazi occultism were in some part influenced by the book.