18 Feb 1904 Otto Rahn born, Michelstadt. Parents Karl & Clara (nee Hamburger)
1910-1916 Junior school at Bigen
1916-21 Secondary school at GrieBen
1922 obtains Baccalaureat
1924 obtains Bachelor in Philology and History
1930 Rahn begins his European travels (Paris, Provence, Switzerland,
Catalonia, Italy)
1931 Rahn visits French Pyrenees. Visits "Spion" in Pyrenees with Himmler and
Abetz
1932 Rahn leads a Polaires expedition in Pyrenees
13.12.33 Rahn joins the German Writers Association
1934 publishes "Kreuzzug gegen Gral" (Crusade against the Grail)
1935 appointed to personal staff of Heinrich Himmler
29.2.36 Rahn joins Allgemeine-SS, member 276 208
1936 Rahn visits Iceland with 20 men
1937 publishes "Luzifers Hofgesind. Eine Reise zu denguten Gelstern Europa"
(Lucifer's Court in Europe
Rahn sent back to Languedoc (Montsegur), says he will return in 1939. Time of
alleged Corbieres visit?
20.4.37 promoted to sub-lieutenant (Untersturmfuhrer)
Sep-Dec1937 military service for "disciplinary reasons" at Oberbayern
Regiment, Dachau
24.1.38 Rahn's Certificate of Racial Origin requested for his SS-dossier but
never materialises
11.9.38 promoted to lieutenant (Obersturmfuhrer)
end 1938 Rahn to Buchenwald for two months tour of duty
1939 Rahn invited Wiligut and Himmler to his wedding
28.2.39 submits letter of resignation to Karl Wolff
13.3.39 Rahn disappears on Wilder Kaiser, Kufstein, Tyrol
17.3.39 Rahn's resignation from SS is granted
------------------------------------------------------------------------ The early years
According to the resume which Rahn wrote for his SS entry dossier, he was born
on 18 February 1904, son of Karl (tribunal officer of Mayence) and Clara(nee
Hamburger) in Michelstadt in the Hesse region.
In 1910 Rahn entered junior school, firstly at Bigen on the Rhine, and then at
Gieben where, in 1922, he obtained his Reifeprufung (baccalaureat). Duringa one
year period in his early teens Rahn meditated on the protective role of the
rose-thorn. The Rose has long been a symbol of eternal life and Rahn did believe
that we live many lifetimes; that the last lifetime had to have a frugal,
primitive quality, returning for this final earth experience to the essence of
the first men.
Rahn's mother introduced him at an early age to the Grail romances and the
stories of Parzival, Siegfried etc.
Rahn's birthplace at Michelstadt was near Marbourg-on-Lahn, between Rhenanie and
Thuringe. This whole area was impregnated in European legend. Rahn wrote: "my
ancestors were pagans and my grandparents were heretics". Michelstadt is the
Odenwalt: the forests of Odin, the grand god of the North, Oddhinn Alfaddir. It
is here that the hero Siegfried, immortalised by Wagner, the killer of dragons
in the Nibelung Saga, would be assassinated. Michel is the Christianised pagan
Siegfried, hence the derivation of the name Michelstadt, the town of Michel the
dragon slayer. Rahn said: "I am therefore come from a world in the orbit of the
Grail. Parzifal, Siegfried and Odhinn-Wotan were my Godfathers".
A few leagues distant Marbourg is the ancient seat of the notorious
Inquisitor, Conrad, and was a centre of repression of heresy. The odour of the
butchers was no less a stench in Marbourg than in the South of France. Otto Rahn
believed that a number of his ancestors had been slain by Conrad and his fellow
Inquisitors.
He gained his Bachelor degree in 1924, following the course of the faculty
ofletters and of philology, specialising in literary history of the language
and romances of meridional France. Rahn's thesis was titled "to the Research of
Master Kyot of Wolfram von Eschenbach" dedicated in 1929 to the author of
Parzifal, to Wagner and to the troubadours.
He continued his studies at the universities of Giessen, and Fribourg in
Brisgau, before deciding on a career in writing and publishing. He pursued
these studies in Berlin and Heidelberg, and, from 1928, spent several years in
Switzerland (where he worked in Geneva as a language teacher and translator) and
France.
He aspired to become a literary critic but in 1930 the effects of the
economic crisis began to make itself felt throughout Germany. To survive,
Otto Rahn had to content himself with taking on all sorts of menial jobs:
cinema attendant, salesman, proof-reader, translator, film extra and screen
writer for the budding talking picture industry. He was 26 years old. Like
Parzifal he was inspired to seek the Grail in the source of the traditional
sentiment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ RAHN AND POLAIRES
In March 1932 a controversy broke out in La Depeche, which published articles
about the activities of a group of Polaires (a society linked to the
Theosophical Society, particularly active in France and England), who were
excavating in the caves of Ussat and Ornolac. Otto Rahn was said to be the
leader of this group, and suspicions were raised because of his nationality
(there being much anti-German feeling at this time arising from WW1). Antonin
Gadal wrote in Rahn's defence, saying that his visit had nothing to do with the
Polaires, and Rahn himself subsequently wrote to the newspaper, saying that he
had never heard of the Polaires before coming to the Ariege, and that he was a
simply a writer interested in the Cathars.
Another enigmatic figure involved in this debate was an engineer from
Bordeaux named Arnaud, who was also engaged in excavations for "Cathar
treasure", although not connected with the Polaires. According to Paul Ladame it was the writer-poet, Maurice Malgre, who
encouraged Rahn, at that time researching at the Bibliotheque Nationale in
Paris, to go do his research "on the ground". However, Malgre's respect and
admiration for Rahn did not last, having a dig at Rahn in "La Cle des Choses
Cachees" in saying that "...his book, while written with love, carries an
abundance of documentation". Malgre ended up suspecting that the young German
was, in truth, a spy. Perhaps Magre was convinced that the nationalist political
events of the early thirties were bound to exert an influence such that even a
passionate scholar and adventurer like Rahn could not resist.
However, it may be something to do with the Polaires connection that changed
Magre's opinions. There are suggestions that Rahn was a Polaires member. Magre
was himself a member, a joint contributor to the preface to Accomani's (Zam
Botiva) Asia Mysteriosa. Later, however, Magre was to leave this group after a
fracas. Before he reached this point, though, he introduced Rahn to a number of
his occitan friends, including the comtesse Pujol-Murat, with whom Rahn enjoyed
a deep platonic firendship, and Arthur Caussou, an old Ariegois who told Rahn
the legend of Esclarmonde (literally `light of crystal') de Foix (Repanse de
Joie in Parzifal). According to this legend, on the evening of the fall of
Montsegur the young woman was given custody of the Grail which had been guarded
by Cathar Parfaits. The handover complete,
Esclarmonde transformed herself into a dove and flew off towards the East.
Magre especially wanted to introduce Rahn to Antonin Gadal, premier historian of
the Syndicate of Initiative of Ussat-Ornolac. Gadal-Rahn. Master-pupil.
Father-son. The young German would speak of his mentor as "Trevrizent whom I
never expected to discover". Gadal's medieval hero was Galahad, in French Galaad,
and he was proud that his surname was an anagram for the Grail Knight. Perhaps
Malgre was simply jealous of the younger man's charm and enthusiasm.
Bernadac attempted to trace the affiliations of the Polaires. The address
given in their publications was that of the Theosophical Society in Paris.
However, the archives of that society, along with the archives of many other
groups, were taken by the Nazis during the Occupation.
According to Joseph Mandement, the Polaires were looking for traces of
Christian Rosenkreutz, who they believed had passed through the area. Some
recall Italian members of the group visiting Lordat as late as 1960, and an
anonomous informant told Bernadac that Rahn, too, had shown a particular
interest in Lordat and had returned there several times after the war.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rahn in France
Speaking both French and the langue d'oc he made his way to the southern French
Pyrenees in 1931, after having stayed a while in Paris, in Provence, in
Switzerland, in Spanish Catalonia, and in Italy. It was the meagre salary he
earned in Geneva teaching German and French that sustained him on these travels.
In 1931 Rahn made an extensive exploration of the Montsegur area. He explored
the grottoes of the Sabarthez area, notably Ornolac and the massive cavern of
Lombrives. Here was a huge chamber called by locals "the Cathedral". There was a
stalagmite called "The Tomb of Hercules" and another called the "Altar". These
names were those used by Eschenbach. Rahn also discovered that the chambers
within Sabarthez were covered with Templar symbols, side by side with Cathar
emblems. There was also a carving of a lance, a bleeding lance. This greatly
excited Hitler/Himmler. Otto Rahn also fell in with an old band of boisterous
Pyrenean poets ("Les Seigneurs de Belisse") who eulogised the grandeur and myths
of the Ariege, and the existence of the Pyrenean Grail.
None of the youngsters in the region were interested in the myths and legends
and it was Rahn who got the discussions going on hidden treasure and their proud
past. The locals called him a "seducter doubled with believer, an eternal
adolescent with a superhuman passion for the Grail and the Hermetic Tradition".
According to the Tarascon poet Jean-Baptiste Faure-Lacaussade, who met Rahn
several times in 1931, he had a "great, but disorderly intelligence" and was
sometimes too much of a dreamer to make a good student, but would pursue
obsessively any subject that excited his imagination. Faure-Lacaussade also
recalled that Rahn said little about his childhood and youth.
Paul Ladame states that it was Rahn's love of Wagner that led him to study the
work of Wolfram von Eschenbach, which in turn drew him into study of the
Minnesingers and the Troubadours. Rahn asked Ladame if he would accompany him in
exploring the caves around Ornolac in 1932. This was because of Ladame's
experience in potholing and climbing; Rahn did not enjoy these activities and
endured them as the price to pay for his researches. Ladame learned about Rahn's
aims: to discover the secret of the Grail which he believed would unify Europe.
Other contacts which Rahn and Ladame made in the area included M.Arnaud (whom
Rahn mistrusted), and a man known to everybody as M. Rives but whose real name,
Ladame learned later, was Arthur Caussou.
Paul Bernadac, grandfather of Christian Bernadac, author of "Le Mystere Otto
Rahn: Du Catharisme au Nazisme" 1978, was an enthusiastic potholer with an
interest in local history. Rahn accompanied him on several excursions in 1932.
Paul recalled Rahn being roughed up by Joseph Mandement, President of the
Syndicat d'Initiative of Tarascon-sur-Ariege, when he caught Rahn faking Cathar
engravings.
According to several people, the theories in Rahn's Crusade came directly
from Gadal, who published nothing himself. Many people resented Rahn's
cursory acknowledgement of Gadal and his passing off of Gadal's work as his own.
Gadal believed that Catharism derived from a gnostic form of Christianity - 'Johannic'
- that originated in Alexandria in the early centuries AD and was brought to
Spain by Mark of Memphis around the year 300. It gradually spread across the
Pyrenees to the Occitan, where it flourished. 'Bogomil' missionaries arrived in
the area around year 1000, found this established gnostic religion, and the
fusion of the two gave rise to Catharism.
'Johannic Christianity' was based on the teachings of St John the Evangelist,
and it was believed that the Cathars possessed the original version of John's
Gospel. M. Arnaud was also searching for this Gospel and was apparently financed
in his search by the French Theosophical Society. Arnaud believed the Gospel to
be hidden at Montsegur. When Rahn asked him how he could be so specific with his
information Arnaud told him he couldn't elaborate because he was part of a
society that required silence from its members on these subjects.
At this time there was a widespread belief among the Languedocian
aristocracry that, unlike the peasantry, they were descended from Nordic or
German blood, and saw themselves as cousins of the Germans. Rene Nelli believes
that, when they read Rahn's work, the Nazis saw the potential of exploiting this
belief.
There is a mystery concerning Rahn's finances. During his initial stays in
France it was known that he had little money, but in May 1932 he suddenly paid
15,000 francs for the first year of a 9-year lease on the
Hotel-Restaurant des Marroniers in Ussat-les-Bains. Among his staff Rahn
struck up a particular friendship with a black barman.
Where did he obtain the funds and why did he encumber himself with this
responsibility when Gadal and the elderly occultist Comtesse Pujol-Murat
provided largely for his needs in France? Arnaud d'Apremont writes of
excursions into the surrounding areas where Rahn is accompanied by a number of
unsavoury characters, sorties whose goal seemed incompatible with serious and
scholarly archaeological research.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rahn back in Germany and the publication of his Grail Dissertation
Rahn left France in September 1932 and returned to Germany, leaving various
unpaid bills. In October a petition for bankruptcy was made by Antoine Arques,
owner of the hotel-restaurant.
Between this event and 1935 there is very little information relating to Rahn's
life, only the biographical notices in his SS file and 17 letters he wrote to
Gadal. The extracts from his journal that form the basis of Lucifer announce, on
31 March 1933, his intention to voyage to 'Ultima Thule', but the only places
mentioned on this itinerary are London and Copenhagen.
It has been suggested that Rahn while in France was in the secret service of
Otto Abetz who headed the Dienstelle (Office) Ribbentrop in the early 1930's,
engaging in espionage to influence French politics, posing as journalist and
hotelier.
Again, he went hungry. Rahn wrote to Gadal saying he had had to leave his watch
at a bakery to buy bread; that his shoes were full of holes. However, the tide
would soon turn.
In 1934, following on from his library researches and his ground studies in the
Pyrenees, Rahn completed on the day of the Summer Solstice in Heidelberg
Kreuzzug gegen den Graal. It was not a best seller, selling 5000 copies in
Germany and as many again in France. But it touched deeply those who came to it.
Rahn saw in Parzifal that the Eschenbach's heroes and were modelled after real
Middle Ages personalities: Parzifal was le vicomte de Carcassone Trencavel, one
of the foremost and heroic victims of the Crusade; Respanse de Joye was
Esclarmonde de Foix; the mother of Trencavel Adelaide de Toulouse made a perfect
Herzeloide; the hermit Trevrizent was the Cathar Bishop Guilhabert de Castres;
the King Anfortas, Raimon-Roger de Foix; and Montsegur was Montsalvage.
Moreover, Montsalvage is protected by a Fountain "Salvage" in which Rahn
believed he recognised the intermittent fountain of Fontestorbes, a few
kilometres from the Pog, Montsegur's promontory.Also, the forest around
Montsalvage is called the "Briciljan" and close by Montsegur is
Priscilien Wood. Rahn firmly concluded that the Fortress Castle of Montsegur was
the Temple of the Grail.
Rahn associates the Cathar Church with the Church of the Grail, with the
mystical group Fideles d'Amour of Dante. He believed that the Templars after
their enforced dissolution found refuge in the Pyrenean caverns. Rahn wrote of
the many indications that the white tunic with octagonal red cross of the
Templars was to be found with the black cassocks with yellow cross of the
Cathars in the dark grottos of Sabarthez.
Rahn believed that the Grail consisted of several tablets of stone engraved with
runic or even pre-runic inscription. He believed that it was either one perfect
emerald with 144 facets or 144 tablets of stone engraved in emerald.
This emerald would have graced the Crown of Lucifer, symbolising his third eye,
and which fell to earth, precisely on the Pog of Montsegur! Kreuzzug gegen
Gral"is at once an erudite essay, a mystical treatise, a reverie and a chanson
d'amour.
Arnaud d'Apremont writes in the preface to Luzifers Hofgesind (1937) that this,
Rahn's second book, is written in more an ideological style, vaguely racist,
anti-semitic, to all appearances national-socialist. However, more perceptive
critics see Rahn in a quandary, having to toe the nationalist party line, suck up
to the censor, and had been unable to write the full objective and integrated
text he would have liked and that he indicated the irony of his position in the
book's title. The irony suggestion seems, however, unlikely as Rahn did not see
Lucifer as synonymous with Satan or the Devil; to Rahn Lucifer was the Pyrenean
Abellio, the Celtic Belenos, the Nordic Balder, the Greek Apollo, all luminous
gods today asleep. The Cathars called this god Lucibel. These are the light
bearers, an attribute that Rahn, himself, wished to be recognised for: a
Lucifer. Above all else Rahn wished with all his soul to reawaken the grand
European dream.
For Rahn, the Polaire, the Light came not from the East but from the North. He
travelled around the ancient and sacred places of Europe: Forest of Teutoburg,
scene of Arminius' victory over the Roman legions of Varus; Externsteine, site
of Irminsul, sacred symbol of the Saxons; Thingveillir, place of assembly of the
ancient Icelanders, and Reykholt, birthplace of Snorri Sturlusson, the Nordic
Homer and author of the Edda.
The Court of Lucifer is an expedition through the "garden of roses", Rahn's
affectionate term for the Kingdom of the Asgardian Elfin, Lorin, and a realm
closed to non-believers or the uninitiated. Rahn dreams of a return to Thule,
the primordial centre of the European Hyperboreans. He pines for a return to the
Golden Age.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rahn in the S.S
On 13 December 1933 Otto Rahn joined the German Writers Association. In his SS
dossier of candidature we read that Rahn affirms himself to be "ready to defend
without reservation German literature in conformity with the spirit of National
Socialism". Christian Bernadac believes that Rahn had been a member of Roehm's
Brown Shirts.
Around this time Rahn had a lady friend named Bricon, a collaborative of
Daladier who had come to Germany to learn all about National-Socialism.
Bricon's nom de guerre for her writings for "La Republique" was Etienne. Rahn
saw in the 1933 New Year with her (according to a letter he wrote to Antonin
Gadal).
In 1934 Rahn saw in the Winter Solstice in Italy at the Albergo Alpino
Plancios, Bressanone.
On 29 February 1936, Karl Wolff, SS Divisional General, wrote to the SS
recuitment office to convey Himmler's personal instruction that Rahn be
admitted. He was accepted into the SS on 12 March 1936, and the following month
was promoted to Untersharfuhrer, joing Himmler's staff. Otto Rahn joined the
Black Order the Allgemeine-SS (as distinct from the Waffen-SS, the combattant
branch), member 276 208.
Paul Ladame met up with Rahn during the Winter Olympics in February 1936.
According to Ladame, Rahn received a mysterious telegram while he was staying in
Paris in 1933, depressed over his difficulites in raising the finances for the
French publication of Crusade. The author did not state his name but praised
Kreuzzug gegen den Graal and offered Rahn 1000 DM per month to write a second
publication in the same vein. At the same time a sum was telegraphed to Rahn in
Paris so he could settle his affairs there and return to Berlin to an address
supplied. When Rahn turned up at 7 Prinz Albrechstrasse he was taken aback to
discover that the secretive telegram sender was no less than Heinrich Himmler
who welcomed the writer personally! Himmler organised an office and secretary
for him.
Rahn's initial pleasure at his change in fortune soon gave way to worries as he
realised the nature of the regime under which he had to work and the constant
scrutiny he found himself under. In December 1936 Rahn's superior was arrested,
and Ladame himself (who had tried to intervene on behalf of the arrested man's
wife) found he was under surveillance. It was, in fact, Rahn that was ordered to
keep watch on him, but Rahn tipped his old friend off and Ladame left Berlin,
which was the last time he saw Rahn. (This doesn't seem somehow to ring true.
This is important because we rely largely on Ladame for details of Rahn's life).
Opinions differ on the level of Rahn's commitment to the Nazi cause. Rene
Nelli and Paul Ladame believe that his work was simply too useful as
propaganda for the Nazis, and was therefore co-opted in to the SS - an offer
that coudn't be refused. Christian Bernadac, however, believes that Lucifer,
which as we have said carries a distinct antisemitic thread, was not written
under orders as some claim, but that it was based on personal and mystical
exploration of the mythology of the Grail and, moreover, based on Rahn's journal
kept before, during and after his time in France. Bernadac believes that, from
their context, the antisemitic passages were present in the original journal.
Bernadac cites documents written by Rahn in his SS file. A note dated 23
February 1936 is headed "My combat for the Third Reich before 1933" and states
that "Before the taking of power, I had written abroad...a book (The Crusade
against the Grail) and articles that today represent an inheritance of the
National Socialist thought..."
When Bernadac asked Faure-Lacaussade whether Rahn was antisemitic he replied
that he did not recall Rahn ever talking specifically about the Jews, but that
he certanly held racist attitudes towards Arabs and blacks.
Isabelle Sandy, writer and poet who lived at Foix in the 1930's, told
Bernadac that Rahn had 'protectors' in the area but refused point-blank to
name them. She said that Rahn was an admirer of Hitler but he did not regard
war, especially with France, as inevitable, and that he hoped his work would lay
the foundation of a Franco-German alliance.
During his visit to France in 1932, Rahn was accompanied by an individual
named Nat Wolff. This person travelled on an American passport and claimed that
he was on a photographic mission for the US government. In fact, according to
the police files, on different occasions Wolff used two
passports (giving different birth dates), and was suspected of being a
German agent, eventually being the subject of an expulsion order by the
Minister of the Interior. Bernadac thinks this could have been the Nazi
Karl Wolff.
Wolff was one of the original members of the SS on its formation in 1926.
He was given the task of cultivating individuals and groups that were
sympathetic to the Nazis, initially in Germany and later abroad. He was
engaged in this work until 1933 when he was returned to Germany as Himmler's
personal assistant. He became chief of Himmler's personal staff in 1936, and
liaison officer between Hitler and Himmler in 1937. In 1943 he was appointed
head of the SS and police in Italy.
During his time with the S.S. Rahn noticed that his telephone was tapped and
that he was being spied upon. He was under orders to deliver a book to Himmler
by 31 October 1937 and another by in 1939.
(Rahn was said to have had a godson who was seized by the S.S.).
From archive documents unearthed by current German research into Otto Rahn, we
know that Rahn read and lectured at the Dietrich-Eckart Club. Dietrich Eckart
was the wealthy publisher and co-editor of an antisemitic journal called In
Plain German. Eckart was also a commited occultist, drug addict, master of
magic, and was a member of the Thule Society. Eckart was an enormous influence
on Hitler who dedicated Mein Kampf to him. In Dr Wolff Heinrichsdorf's account
of one lecture we read that Rahn told his rapt audience that although the
Cathars were long dead their spirit lived, and that although the representatives
of Christ (Catholics) could burn men and women they were mistaken if they
thought that in doing so their devotion and yearning for the teachings of
Luzifer - "The Lightbringer" -would also perish. The audience saw that this
spirit became alive, real and glowing in Otto Rahn, a descendant of the old
troubadours. Rahn talked about his belief in a world of pure spirit for the
servants of Luzifer - as opposed to the fear of hell - the negative Jehovah and
the Jewish teaching. That evening's host, Kurt Eggers, closed the lecture with
the greeting "Luzifer, who suffered unjustly, I salute you".
From 23 November to 21 December 1937, Rahn served obligatory military service
with the Oberbayern Regiment, SS-Totenkopf division at Dachau. It appears that
it was a disciplinary measure according to a letter to the Chief of Staff of the
Reichsfuhrer-SS dated 28 August 1937. This memo stated that Rahn had promised to
abstain from alcohol for two years, and had promised to acquit himself in his
forthcoming tour of duty at Dachau for his reproachable conduct at Arolsen and
which Rahn bitterly regretted. What was this shameful thing that Rahn did to
earn such approbation from the S.S. authorities?
On 29 February 1938 Karl Wolff wrote an astonishing letter to the SS Office of
Racial Questions, informing them that Rahn had been unable to produce a
certificate of racial origin, a certificate that this letter points out had been
an absolute requirement for SS membership since 1 January 1935. Wolff's letter
grants Rahn one more month to meet this rule. Even so, there is nothing in
Rahn's file to indicate that such a certificate was produced before his
disappearance over a year later.
At the end of 1938 Rahn spent two months duty at Buchenwald.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Otto Rahn and Karl Maria Wiligut-Weisthor
One of the most enigmatic personalities of the Nazi era was Karl Maria
Willigut (he changed his name to Weisthor on entering the SS), born 10
December 1866 in Vienna. Willigut claimed a royal lineage, issue of a long
tradition of Germanic sages, the Uiligotis of the Asa-Uana-Sippe, a link
which would have conferred on him a most particular power: ancestral
clairvoyant memory. His old friend Richard Anders, member of the Order of the
New Temple of Jorg von Liebenfels, became an SS officer and introduced Willigut
to Himmler. And so, aged 67, in September 1933, Willigut joined the ranks of the
SS, rising to Brigadefuhrer, and attached to prehistoric study as head of the
department of RuSHA (Rasse und Siedlungshauptamt, principal race and population
bureau of the SS). One group of the researchers grouped around Weisthor was to
form the backbone of the Ahnenerbe but Weisthor, in common with many others
close to him personally, never joined the Ahnenerbe which did not regard him
with any seriousness.
In October 1934 Weisthor became head of Section VIII, archives, of the RuSHA.
Rahn made frequent visits from his home in Grunewald and got on very quickly
with the much older man. From May 1935, Rahn was commissioned by civil order to
join Himmler's personal office to assist Weisthor. Between them they sought to
recreate a cult founded on the ancient Germanic traditions.
However, in February, Karl Wolff, chief of Himmler's office, announced to
Weisthor that he should quit his duties and he was therefore officially
decommissioned of his responsibilities on 28 August 1939. Nothing in
Weisthor's SS dossier indicates that he failed in his duties except that the
Hitler regime was replete with petty jealousies and maybe he was a target in
this respect. Weisthor's section was incorporated into the Ahnenerbe.
The relationship between Rahn and Weisthor was so close that in 1939
Weisthor received an invitation to Rahn's wedding, Perhaps surprisingly,
Himmler was also invited.
(Rahn's fiancee was called Asta Baeschlin and was born in Holtz which may be in
Switzerland. At the time of Rahn's disappearance she was around 27 years of age.
Details of only one other friend of Rahn's in Germany have come up in the very
brief opportunities to scan Rahn's SS files. His name was Raymond Perrier and
the places associated with Perrier are Muggenbrunn (Schwarzwald), Berlin,
Quedlingburg, and Freiburg/Breisgau).
Himmler regarded Rahn as a very important member of the team. Himmler personally
ordered one hundred copies of Luzifers Hofgesind and had one of the deluxe
editions offered to Hitler. After Rahn's death, even with his hands full with
the war and despite the paper shortages, Himmler had an additional one thousand
copies printed. Rahn seemed to incarnate the highest ideals of the SS in
Himmler's regard, representing a savoir-faire founded in the most fundamental
knowledge of the old traditions.
Working with Karl Maria Wiligut-Weisthor, Rahn received in 1936 his next
assignment which was to visit Iceland. Rahn with twenty comrades visited
Lake Laugarvatn. He spent the summer solstice in Reykholt, the birthplace of
Snorri Sturlusson, the Nordic Homer, author of the Edda. He searched for
evidence of Hyperborea.
In 1937 he was sent back to Languedoc for reasons never clarified. He stayed
brief time in Montsegur and then left saying he would be back in 1939. This
wasn't to be. Was this 1937 trip the time when Rahn is said to have visited the
Corbieres near Rennes-le-Chateau, an expedition connected with the "forbidden
merchandise" in search of which the Otto Skorzeny's Das Reich team massacred the
inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glame in 1944?
Current critical opinion (certainly in France) is that it is incontestable
that Rahn was a Nazi. However, there is still a lot of conjecture about
Rahn's supposed Jewishness. The writer E. Mila says that Rahn's Jewish
status is irrefutable. Rahn's mother was Clara Margaret Hamburger and his
grandfather was Simeon Hamburger, a name form frequently used by central
European Jews. His maternal grandmother, Lea Cucer, was equally Jewish. Cucer
comes from Cocer, a name of profession widely used by Jews of central Europe. If
he was Jewish, Rahn was far from being the only Jew in National Socialism eg
Frederic Heilscher and Martin Buber; also the Ahnenerbe chief Wolfram Sievers.
Rahn began to talk freely. He opposed the coming war, believing instead that
Germany and Europe should be transformed into a race of "Pure Ones" or Cathars.
On February 28 1939 Rahn submitted his letter of resignation from the SS to
Gruppenfuhrer Karl Wolff writing: "Unfortunately, I must ask you to intervene
with the Reichsfuhrer SS (Himmler) for my immediate discharge from the SS. The
reasons that have led me to this resolution, this decision, are of so grave a
nature that I can only explain them to you orally".
Rahn was dismissed from the SS on 17 March 1939, four days after his death. On
May 18 1939 "Volkischer Beobachter" published Rahn's obituary signed WOLFF,
SS-Gruppenfuhrer: "Due to a mountain snowstorm, last March, SS-Obersturmfuhrer
Otto Rahn tragically lost his life. We weep for our late comrade, an honest SS
man and an excellent author of historical and scientific works."
On 17 July Rahn's father wrote to a writers' association, of which Rahn was a
member, informing them that his son had died in a snowstorm at Ruffheim on 13
March 1939.
In February 1939 Wiligut-Weisthor retired from the SS on grounds of age and
ill-health. On 13 November 1939 a dossier de liquidation comprising Rahn's
research files, was sent from Himmler's office to the chief of SS personnel.
The final sentence reads: "The decision concerning the former Brigadier
General Weisthor is pending".
There is apparently fragmentary evidence that Rahn tried to save his life by
requesting that he live out his days in the Pyrenees. The proposition is
that this was refused and he was left with the options of death by suicide
or by execution. On March 13 1939 Rahn disappeared. Prior to his
disappearance he told friends in Fribourg that he had been "denounced".
Some say Rahn committed suicide but why would he have taken this course? He was
working on a number of projects: a book on Conrad of Marbourg (as stated in
Kreuzzug gegen Gral), Promethius Unbound (sequel to Luzifers Hofgesind),
According to God and to Right (a book for the French, according to Rahn's SS
dossier), Laurin (a novel as per Rahn's letter to Gadal of 14.7.34) and
Montsalvat and Golgotha (per letter to Weisthor 27.9.35). In addition he was
preparing a grand novel "Sebastian", a 2000 page manuscript that he had been
working on for several years. Rahn had told Himmler he would work at his cottage
in the Black Forest. That would also improve his bronchial catarrh.
(A thought: are Lorin and Sebastian the same draft work?).
The mountain on which Rahn died, the Wilder Kaiser, is somparatively low and it
is rare to find life-threatening conditions there. (However, it is 40 km from
Hitler's 'eagle's nest' at Berchtesgaden, and was in the defensive zone
surrounding it.)
There were said by many to be no traces of Rahn's body, neither at the civic
facilities at Kufstein nor at Michelstadt. There is no known tomb. Others, such
as Otto Vogelsang, editor of Kreuzzug gegen Gral , believe Rahn to be buried at
Mayence, giving the date of death as 10 May 1939 and interrment on 20 May.
Vogelsang had dined with Rahn a few days before his death and had found Rahn to
be happy and confident about the future.
An Austrian author, Kadmon, relates that while walking towards the
Totenkirchl, a promontory of the Wilderkaiser where, traditionally, war
victims had come to commit suicide, he met an old man who told him that in 1939,
while out climbing, he had come across Rahn's search party. The old man pointed
to a small hill surrounded by saplings and told Kadmon that it was the place
where the searchers had found the young man's body. There was no markings,
nothing to indicate the scene. The man said that the group had searched for
several days before finding in the falling snow a body. The back of the head and
the shoulders were buried in the snow. He said there was something "sacred, the
saintliness of a hermit, of a sage. The face displayed a great gentleness and
softness; there was no sign of agony."
In "Luzifers Hofgesind" Rahn writes: "To open the Kingdom of Lucifer, you
must equip yourself with a Dietrich (skeleton-key)...I carry with me the key".
Compare Dietrich also to Sepp Dietrich, commandant of the Liebstandarte SS Adolf
Hitler, of which Rahn was also said to have been a member. On 13 November 1939 a
confidential note containing appendices on Otto Rahn was sent to SS
Gruppenfuhrer Schmitt at the office of the Chief of Staff SS:
APPENDIX 1 said that Rahn had been receiving a Captain's pay ever since he had
been a Lieutenant.
APPENDIX 4 said that Rahn had been "decorated" with the "Jultenchter", the
Candlestick of the Winter Solstice, which certified the spirit of the SS and its
nordic renewal. This was an exceptional measure for Rahn as the
Jultenchter was exclusively reserved for couples and families.
APPENDIX 5 said that Rahn had stayed at one time in one of the fourteen
houses of the Lebensborn Association, dedicated to racial purity. This was a
commitment to prove that one had handed over one's life to Himmler as an "homme
de la SS" (Himmler's Order).
Bernadac compares Rahn's obituary to those of 11 other SS officers who dies
around the same period. In every other case the notice was signed by their
family - only Rahn's is written and signed by Karl Wolff.
In none of the other 11 examples is the press notice included in the
officer's SS file - only in Rahn's case. In 8 of the other cases, what is
included are the legal proceedings, inquest details etc - but they are not
found on Rahn's file.
Why was the letter from Rahn's father in the SS file? Stranger still, the
letter is signed R. Rahn - his father's name was Karl. And the letter ends
"Heil Hitler", which was usually only used by Party members.
Bernadac found that no notice of death had been received by the town council of
Michelstadt, Rahn's place of birth. The normal procedure was to send a notice
within 30 days, and this rule was strictly applied even for
soldiers dying in combat. Rahn's father was a civil servant, and would have
known this rule. And there is nothing on record concerning Rahn's
inheritance, which would have included royalties from his books.
Bernadac and a fellow-researcher also went to Kufstein, the nearest town to the
Wilder Kaiser. The mayor of the time remembered nothing of the discovery of the
body, and there is nothing in the town's archives concerning the event. They
were unable to find any records in any of the relevant towns concerning the
death, recovery of the body or inquest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTO RAHN AND RUDOLF RAHN: the links
Christian Bernadac advances the theory that Otto Rahn and Rudolph Rahn,
Germany's ambassador to Italy in WW2 were, in reality one and the same person,
the subject of a carefully conceived cover-up within the higher echelons of the
Nazi regime.
In April 1941 a German diplomat was sent to Beirut, with a pro-German
Frenchman named Guerard, to handle the delivery of arms to rebels in Iraq. The
diplomat, chosen because of his excellent command of French and knowledge of the
country, was Rudolph Rahn. He was the advisor to Abetz, the German ambassador to
France, and subsequently became Nazi Germany's last ambassador to Rome. However,
in both the memoirs of Jeanne de Schoutheete (the wife of the Belgian diplomat
in the Lebanon) and Henri Seyrig (director of the Institut Francais in Beirut),
he appears under the name Otto Rahn.
There are some correspondences in respect of this theory that are worth
looking at. On 23 February 1944 someone repaid an outstanding loan from
Himmler's "black fund" to Otto Rahn in the sum of DM 5471, about £3000 in
today's money. Who would think this necessary five years after the Rahn's death?
Rudolph Rahn's Certificate of Aryanisation was missing from his file, a
curious coincidence bearing in mind Otto Rahn's missing certificate of
racial origin.
Otto Rahn and Rudolph Rahn employed the same secretary , the former in 1932,
calling her Tita, the latter in 1943 in Rome. Otto Rahn at one time wrote to
Gadal saying that his secretary was "indispensible".
Rudolph Rahn said he was often called or liked to be called Otto in memory of
his brother who died in infancy in 1904 aged 3. Rudolph was born 16 March 1900
at Ulm.
During his mission in the Middle East, Rudolph also went under the name of
Robert Renouard. He explained to Mme Schoutheete that he chosen the name
Raynouard (his initial choice, he told her, was Renoir) after a 19th-century
Provencal writer, but that his superior officer had mistakenly spelt this as
'Renouard' on his papers. Otto Rahn was in a rush to leave the Hotel des
Marronniers at Ussat, and in his hurry he left behind in his bedside cabinet a
book of occitan poems translated by Raynourd.
In his memoirs Rudolph Rahn writes of his mystical "jeu d'images" phenomenon he
experienced as a young child. He had the "gift" as it were. He said it was
always at his shoulder, impossible to escape from. He could foretell coming
events. His phantoms often took the form of numbers. He could visualise numbers
and geometric lines to form pathways to locate missing objects, the numbers
being footprints and the lines the direction to take to find the missing item.
These memoirs have several identical elements to Otto Rahn's own writings. For
example, Otto in Lucifer writes: "Soon, my little alarm clock will ring seven
times. In two hours it will be night...". In Rudolph Rahn's
autobiograhy Vie Sans Repos (thought: why did Rudolph call it: Life without
Rest?) writes: "The clock rings two chimes first, seven after..."
In Vie San Repos we read that after attending University (Berlin and
Heidelberg - also attended by Otto), Rudolph, like Otto, lived in Geneva
where he worked as a teacher and translator. Here he met an elderly spinster,
who took him to Provence. Strangely, he does not name this benefactor, who
Bernadac thinks is reminiscent of the Comtesse Pujol-Murat.
Rudolph Rahn was Germany's ambassador to Italy in the final days of the war.
Karl Wolff at this time was head of the German military in Italy.
Bernadac showed photos of Rudolph Rahn to Paul Ladame, and photos of Otto Rahn
to Jeanne de Schoutheete. Both said there were certain resemblances.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- RAHN'S ALLEGED PRE-CONNECTION WITH THE 1944 MASSACRE OF ORADOUR-SUR-GLAME
Robin Mackness has written a book called: "Oradour: Massacre and Aftermath"
published by Bloomsbury Books.
Oradour-sur-Glame was a small village in the Limoges area that was visited by
Otto Skorzeny's crack SS team: the Das Reich in 1944. The SS made a
house-to-house search; they were apparently looking for gold but also for
"forbidden merchandise", said to be documents/archives of some description.
Whether the SS found anything is not clear but they concluded their visit by
massacring the village; there were apparently two survivors.
An SS contingent, led by Skorzeny, then went to the Corbieres, the arid
region around Rennes-le-Chateau and searched the mountains and caves.
It has been suggested that Otto Rahn made a previous visit to the Corbieres in
the 1930's and this visit was also connected with the "forbidden merchandise".
According to a letter recently received from France by the UK Rennes group,
whose members are verifying the convenance of the letter and its author, the
merchandise concerns some occult documents, apparently stolen from Hector
Dagobert in the Napoleonic era by `Chef Dubien'. This member of the Dagobert
family is said to be the real identity of le Comte de St Germain. Dubien was a
member of the Philadelphus Society and it was he who introduced Alfred Sauniere
to aristocratic circles. The inference is that Dagobert's documents and the
"forbidden merchandise" are one and the same.
According to Preston Nicholls and Peter Moon, authors of the Montauk series, a
remarkable event was said to have happened in Germany in 1923: a massive time
travel experiment which involved the Nazis. Key members of the Thule group
collaborated with Alisteir Crowley's Lodge, the Astrum Argentinium (Order of the
Silver Star of Illuminati) and a hybrid project was created called the
Phisummum. This project and the purpose of the secret order behind it, the Order
of the Black Sun, was time travel. Elizabeth van Buren has called WW2 a War of
Time. The Black sun stood for the centre of the galaxy.
In project Phisummum the Order of the Black Sun wanted to retrieve the Holy
Grail from a past century and put it into the hands of the groomer of the
Antichrist. Sex magic was employed and the Spear of Longinus was supposedly used
as a magical power source. A small but distorted time window was created and all
involved began to feel the overwhelming power building up.
Later in the year Dietrich Eckart died and his successors made a botch of
things and created a time rift which rippled forward to Philadelphia 12
August 1943 and to several other points in time. Is there some kind of weird
synchronicity between the Philadelphus Society and the Philadelphia
experiment?
Preston/Nicholls go on to say that in 1939 the most adventurous Ahnenerbe
experiment was set up: the harnessing of all natural and supernatural forces
from modern technology to medieval black magic; from the teachings of Pythagoras
to the Faustial pentagram incantation. If true was this a decisive turning point
for Rahn when he consequently sought his immediate dismissal?
------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE DOORWAY/HOLE/POLAR THEME
Joscelyn Godwin writes at length in "Arktos" about the Spriritual Pole and
the experience of mystical ascent to it. The mystic Persian theosophers did not
situate their "Orient" towards the East but in the direction to the
North, beyond the north. There is a darkness around this pole which
corresponds to the shroud around one's individual spritual centre. Through
self-discipline the initiate can make a Pilgrimage to this Polar Orient that is
not found on maps. The Pole is also a mountain, called in Iranian lore Mount
Qaf, whose ascent, like Dante's climbing of the Mountain of Purgatory,
represents the individual's progress through spiritual states. The Mountain of
Qaf is the Sphere of Spheres surrounding the totality of the visible cosmos; an
emerald rock is the keystone of this celestial vault, the pole.
Of course, the mountain is not a physical geographical entity because it is
an allegory for individual spiritual ascent. It can be symbolized, therefore,
by any place on the earth but there are earthly topographies which do have a
power of which men and women may avail themselves in their Quest for
enlightenment. Montsegur is clearly one such place; Pic de Canigou is another.
There is abundant hollow earth literature on green lights, green children
etc. Najm Kobra speaks of green as the colour of the pole. The pilgrim at
first finds himself in a deep well and then he is suddenly illuminated by
an extraordinary green light that at first shines at the mouth, then, in
the course of the ascent, suffuses the whole of the well so that one is
travelling up a luminous shaft "of green light because it has become the
place to which descend the Angels and the divine Compassion".
There is an old legend that Rahn recounts in "Crusade" that is very
apposite. He writes of an ancient lake "entre Montsegur et la cime du
Thabor". It is a lake of dark (green) waters surrounded by sheer cliff
walls. It is the Lake of the Trouts (note that TROUTS contains the word
OURS=bear) or the Lake of Sins. It is situated between the mountain of Saint
Bartholomew (opposite Montsegur and known locally as Thabor) and the Pic de
Soularac (Saint Bartholomew's twin summet). It is the lake where the druids
threw gold, silver and precious stones in a time before Jesus. This treasure was
said to be the fabled treasure of the Temple of Delphi. In 279 BCE, Brennus, the
Celtic chief led two hundred thousand soldiers into Greece to raid this
treasure. On the point of victory at Parnassus, a series of natural calamities:
lightning storms, falling rocks, hail stones and heavy snow assailed the
Brennus' troops causing mass slayings of the beseigers.
The Oracle told the townsfolk of Delphi that Apollo would not let allow them to
suffer distress. However, some accounts say that the Celts were finally
victorious, stole the treasure and brought it to Toulouse (Tolosa), but because
of the nature of its procurement the booty was cursed.
Celtic settlers in the Montsegur area began dying in numbers of an
inexplicable ailment. A man healthy in the morning could be dead by
nightfall. Never before had such a malady struck in the mountains. The
druids divined by the flight of the birds that the people would never get
well unless the treasure was diposed of and they advised the mountain folk to
throw away the Delphian spoils as gifts for the subterranean divinities,
mistresses of life and death. On chariots drawn on stone wheels, the mountain
people brought their riches to the lake and plunged them in the fathomless
depths. Then the druids traced a magical circle around the pond.
Immediately, all the fish perished and the waters, once green, became black. At
this moment the people were cured of their terrible affliction. The legend says
that all the gold and silver will belong to he who can break the magic circle.
But, it warns, as soon as the finder touches these treasures he will succumb to
the same malady as the old mountain-folk (and presumably perish).
This mysterious lake in the Pyrenees, and the lake of the Grail of Wolfram
von Eschenbach: are they one and the same...?
Rahn writes also that a part of the Treasure of Solomon, the "Table of
Solomon", was brought to Carcassone by the Visigoths in 410. Spanish
romances say that this Table was hidden in the magical grotto of Hercules in the
Pyrenees.
The gold of Tolosa has echoes of La Toison d'Or: the Golden Fleece, and of the
legend of Hercules. Hercules, after having skinned the cattle of Geryon, seduced
the daughter of Bebryx, Pyrene. He then abandoned her. Pyrene, fearing the wrath
of her father, fled but was met by wild beasts. In desperation Pyrene called out
to Hercules but he arrived too late. She was dead. His lamentations reverberate
around the grottos and caverns to the echo of the name Pyrene, such is how the
range got its name. The name of Pyrene will never perish because always the
mountains will carry it.
In the Argonauts' epic adventures the Golden Fleece was hung upon a sacred oak,
nature symbol of the Druids,a group so bound up in the history of the Pyrenees
and the development of the Cathar faith and beliefs. Rahn posits that the
Cathars were a scion of earlier Druidism converted to Christianity by missionary
Manicheans.
As in Ireland, Druidism was able to maintain itself well into the progress
of Christianity in the Pyrenees. The druid Vates were the astrologers, seers and
healers; the Bardes were the poets and singers. They were guardians of dualist
mysteries that we cannot fathom because they were transmitted orally from master
to pupil.
TOISON D'OR = IN OT(T)O'S DO(O)R. In medieval times the Philosophers Stone was
also called la Toison d'Or. Wolfram von Eschenbach had Parsifal looking for a
stone, the Lapsit exillis (Lapis ex coelis), the "Desire of Paradise".
For those on the path, the joys of paradise are to be found in the stars,
the grandeur of the firmament, transmuting nature's power within one's
spirit-self and creating a state of grace and balance. This is the essence
of alchemic endeavour. It was not gold the old alchemists wished to find but God
within. The possession of the Golden Fleece hoisted the Argonauts towards the
stars. Hercules prepared himself to become one with God, to take his place in
the constellations between the Lyre, the Crown, between Castor and Pollux. The
good ship "Argo" which had brought the precious relic across the sea was
transported to the Milky Way to join its sister stars in celebrating the
infinite luminescence of God in the Heavens.
The Argonauts were Hyperboreans. The inhabitants of Crotona in the sixth century
BCE made out that Pythagoras was no other than Apollo reborn, arrived from
Hyperborea to announce to mankind a new doctrine of hope and welcome.
Later, Cicero saw that druidic doctrine, which included a belief in eternal
life and the transmigration of souls, was Pythagorean in origin but a meld
also of natural sciences and of Hindu and Babylonian affinities. The druids
taught that the earth and all that grows and walks upon it is a creation of
the God of Death, Dispater. The immortal souls was obliged to migrate from
existence to existence to eventually purify itself and reconnect with its divine
essence and enter the world of pure spirit. The druids' God was
Belenus or Belis. This God was Apollon-Abelio, God and the Light. Dispater was
the latinised name of the Prince of Darkness, Pluto, sovereign of pale souls, of
the dead, and guardian of all hidden treasures. The druids held earthly
treasures to no account and it was on their order, as we have seen, hat the gold
of Tolosa was thrown into the lake.
Returning to the "green" theme, Iranian philosophers refer continually to
this colour: emerald rocks, giving access to emerald cities, and to the
Green Island where the hidden Imam lives (compare with this with Avalon or the
Island of Apples, the resting place of Arthur). All these seem to be
transcripts of the same visio smaragdina (emerald vision). The cosmology of
Hermes Trismegistus was written on an emerald tablet.
The Taoist designation for the Pole Star is the Pivot of Jade, a green stone.
Metaphyicians teach that green is the colour of the Philosophic Bridge; that
once a person has reached a point in his earth-plane completion cycle when he is
going beyond religion, asking questions on why, what, where and how (Parzifal
found that the Grail castle disappeared because he did not have the wit to ask
the question), then the aura takes on a beautiful emerald hue. The image of the
Jade Pivot fits this Bridge concept perfectly. It is green because it is the
colour of nature and it is in nature that we begin to perceive an appreciation
of the beauty within. This is our Grail and Otto Rahn knew this, too.
In Parzifal the Grail is a stone. The human heart is often compared to stone
when it is unfeeling and perhaps it also resembles this inanimate state before
it is enlivened by the passion of Quest. When a person's inner nature is at one
with outer nature it is an emerald illumination, a Jade Pivot.
From that moment on there is no going back; to borrow from Castenada, there is
no retun to Ixtlan once the question has been asked: Who Am I? It is then that
the heart, whose chakra colour is green, transmutes from simple stone i.e.
simple flesh and blood, to an altogether higher quality of creation. It is that
alchemical process which demarcates a major signpost along the mountain trail of
the Grail Quest.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LES VEILLEURS/AFFRANCHIS
Rene Schwaller, 1887-1961, organized in 1919 his Theosophical companions in
Paris into a group called L'Affranchis. This group renamed itself in July of
that year as Les Veilleurs. The Affranchis/Veilleurs split themselves into two
groups: the "Centre Apostolique" which was Theosophical in nature, and the
Mystic Group Tala translated as the `link'. The young Rudolf Hess was a member
of the Veilleurs.
Another member of this group was Oscar Vladislav de Lubicz Milozz
(1877-1939). He wrote a journal for the group called "La Revue Baltique"
where we read of the myth of Aryan origins on the Amber Coast of the Baltic Sea.
It is not clear what connection, if any, exists between Les Veilleurs and
Otto Rahn and needs further investigation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a Tibetan connection?
The Russians came across about one thousand Tibetan corpses in the eastern
sector of Berlin in 1945 dressed in German army uniforms bereft of any insignia
of rank. According to Pauwels and Bergier, a small trans-Himalyan colony was
established in Berlin and Munich in 1926. One of its members, a Tibetan monk
known as the "man with the green gloves", was said to have "possessed the keys
to the kingdom of Agarthi". This monk took a keen interest in the growing Nazi
movement and gained notoriety by accurately predicting how many party members
would win seats in the Reichstag. Hitler consulted with him regularly.
Alongside the state religion of Lamaism was Tibet's aboriginal religion of
Bon. The Bon-pas followed a primitive, animalistic creed full of dark
rituals and spells. The Bon-pas priests had a reputation among the common people
as magicians. They were atavistic dark occultists.
The Thule group believed in an esoteric history of mankind and believed that
knowledge of this was preserved in Tibetan monastary archives.
The Nazis began to organise expeditions to Tibet when sufficient funds built up
and these succeeded without interruption up to 1943.
A little before 1880 a young lama arrived in Lhasa. He had been born in
Azochozki, on the shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia, of the Mongolian Buriat
race. In Tibet he was known as Comang Lobzang, later called Khende-chega and
later still Tsannyis Khan-po. Also known as Ngaku-wang-dorje and Akohwan
Darjilikoff. In Russia he was known as Hambro Akvan Dorzhieff or Dorjieff. This
latter name is a Russian verion of the Tibetan word for thunderbolt.
On his arrival in Tibet as a young man he entered the Drepung monastery. After
years of study he became professor of metaphysics.
In 1898 he was sent back to Russia. He made futher trips back and forth and
returned towards the end of 1901 with a draft treaty between Tibet and Russia.
The British invaded Tibet in December 1904. Dorjieff disappeared but
evidence that he returned to Tibet and was visited there by Karl Haushofer in
1903, 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908. Haushofer went on to found the Thule group,
which was moulded on similar esoteric Tibetan groups, studying the Stanzas of
Dzyan, the cornerstone of Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine".
Haushofer also founded the Vril Society based on the Bulmer-Lytton's "The Coming
Race" published in the late 1800's. There is a body of opinion that Haushofer
initiated Hitler into the rites and secrets of the Japanese Zen Green Dragon
Society.
Notwithstanding Haushofer's role in its establishment, the Thule
Gesellschaft had its origins in the Germanenorden conference held at Thale in
the Harz Mountains, Pentecost, 1914. Out of this conference was born the
Geheimbund (the "secret band"). Most of the original Thule group were Catholic,
but several had Jewish origins.
The group practised a form of divination using a special Tibetan `Tarot'
pack, used also to keep contact with the secret master, the King of Fear.
Brennan suggests that this "King" was Gurdjieff. Both Gurdjieff and Aliester
Crowley are believed to have sought contact with Hitler.
By the 1920's when the Thule group was formed Dorjieff was living in France. He
was then known as George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. He died in 1949 aged 103 years.
Stalin had been a fellow student of Gurdjieff's in the Seminary at Alexandropol.
From 1907-10, Haushofer lived mostly in Japan where he was initiated into the
Green Dragon Buddhist society. It is possible that Rasputin was also a member of
this society for its lodges fringed Russia. He gave a gift to the Tsarina of a
pair of small emerald green dragons, the Order's insignia, which was discovered
to have been sewn into her dress in 1918.
Alexandra, the last Tsarina, inscribed the left-hand swastika with the date
1918 on the wall of her prison quarters at Ekaterinburg where she was
subsequently murdered. Her doctor, Badmaiell, was a practitioner of Tibetan
medicine. The Tsarina also used the swastika as a secret sign of recognition in
her correspondence. The swastika was also used by Russian monarchists who, after
defeat of Germany in WW1, allied with General Ludendorff's entourage as
protector to Hitler.
Dietrich Bronder published "Bevor Hitler Kam" in 1964. He wrote of the SS
expedition to Tibet set up with the express purpose of establishing a radio link
between the Third Reich and the lamas. The `Stanzas of Dyan' were used as the
code for all messages between Berlin and Lhasa during the war.
In Wilhelm Landig's "Gotzen gegen Thule", 1971, we read the fictional
account of two Nazi airmen named Recke and Reimer finding sanctuary in a secret
base in Arctic Canada called Point 103. Its symbol is the Black Sun. Its number
is 666. Consider this with link to Crowley and the material the Montauk volumes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A FLEETING THOUGHT
If, as I believe, Otto Rahn survived his "death", indeed lived through the
war, does this place hold a clue to his fate....?
OTTO RAHN BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Le Mystere Otto Rahn" Christian Bernadac
"The Grail Legend" Emma Jung
"The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle" edited by Ivan Cooke
"The Occult and the Third Reich" Jean-Michel Angebert
"Nazis and the Occult" Dee Sklar
"Trail of the Serpent" Stoddard
"The Dawn of the Magicians" Pauwels & Bergier
"The Lost World of Agarthi" Alec McClelland
"Le Croisade Contre le Graal" Otto Rahn
"Genisis: the First Book of Revelations" David Wood
"Geneset: Target Earth" David Wood & Ian Campbell
"Hitler and the Age of Horus" Gerald Shuster
"La Cour de Lucifer" Otto Rahn
"Emerald Cup-Ark of Gold" Col. Howard Buechner
"The Order of the S.S." Frederic Reider
"Arktos: the Polar Myth" Joscelyn Godwin
"Montauk Project: Experiments in Time" Preston Nicholls & Peter Moon
"Montauk Revisited" Nicholls/Moon
"Pyramids of Montauk: Experiments in Consciousness" Nicholls/Moon
"The Occult Roots of Nazism" Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
"Die Welt" article: `the Double Rahn & the Holy Grail' 12 May 1979
"Storm Troopers of Satan" Michael Fitzgerald
"Hitler's Secret Sciences" Nigel Pennick
"The Occult Reich" H. Brennan
"The Spear of Destiny" Trevor Ravenscroft
"The Berkut" Joseph Heywood
"Jules Verne: Initie et Initiateur" Michel Lamy
excerpt from "The Magi of the North" James Webb
