mystic bourgeoisie: take a walk on the dark side

The following is a very brief (and OK, very one-sided) history of my life, with emphasis on the last three or four years since I started Mystic Bourgeoisie, and extra special attention to my virtual travels over the past 48 hours. You might want to equip yourself with a big bag of bread crumbs, since much name-dropping is about to ensue, and these are not woods you'd want to be lost in for long -- that is, leaving aside the fact that we've all been lost in them so long and so completely that we didn't even know they were woods. Just wanted to restate the theme of the blog there, in case anyone forgot. Right then, here we go.

Let's start out easy with C.G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships by Miguel Serrano. You all know C.G., right? And I'm guessing Hesse needs no introduction (you really loved Siddhartha; it made such a big impression on you in high school; but as I said, I'm just guessing). Who is this Serrano fellow, though? The book says the following "About the Author"...

Miguel Serrano, a Chilean diplomat and writer who has travelled widely in India studying Yoga, had a close friendship with Jung and Hesse at the end of their lives. This book is the outcome of his meetings and correspondence with them. Many letters are reproduced including documents of great importance written to the author by Jung shortly before his death, explaining his ideas about the nature of the world and of his work.

A Chilean diplomat already! So far so good. But then we come to the foreword Miguel wrote to Temple of Wotan: Holy Book of the Aryan Tribes. Hmmm. Well, they probably just mean "Aryan" as some kind of Asatru thing. Wikipedia defines that as "a Neopagan movement inspired by Germanic polytheism, in particular the Norse paganism as described in the Eddas and as practiced prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia." Live and let live, right? If some people want to dress up in bear skins and blow up Federal Buildings in Oklahoma, who am I to object? But let's look a bit more closely at how the book describes itself, shall we?

The mystical and essential foundation, practice and philosophy of Wotanism, detailing a comprehensive repertoire of sacred rites and rituals, art, poetry, runes, the Havamal and C.G.Jung’s Essay on Wotan.

And there's our pal Carl again! Pipe-smoking old patriarch of the collective unconsciousness. What could be bad? Oh and look, I just found a copy of Jung's Wotan essay, right from that very book! Pay no attention to the fact that the link takes you to the "Stormfront White Nationalist Community." If you don't like that organization, just google "Wotan Jung" -- you'll find it on any number of other neo-Nazi sites. And how did it get there? Yeah, you got it... TIME MACHINES!

Now here's a cool YouTube vid called Miguel Serrano en 1989. It's in Spanish, but I bet you can figure out what the old coot is saying. If not, here's a picture of him that I clipped from the video...

Yes, that's right kids, Miguel was a Nazi. And not just a little bit. He wrote book, as yet untranslated, called El Cordón Dorado: Hitlerismo Esotérico -- in other words: The Golden Thread: Esoteric Hitlerism (1978). He also wrote another one titled Hitler the Last Avatar -- if you read German, you can check that one out here. And oh ho! As I just now dropped in that very long URL, I noticed that it includes -- I mean, in the URL itself -- the following (I've removed the hyphens): "Adolf Hitler Der Letzte Avatar Ebook Feng Shui Esoterismo Cabala Tarot Magia Metodo Pilates Yoga Alquimia Rosacruz" -- the final two terms referring to Alchemy and Rosicrucianism. Feng Shui and Pilates today require no unpacking. I can hardly believe my luck! I'd love to meet whoever uploaded that. Can you say First Miss Mystic Bourgeoisie Centerfold?

And, the picture isn't very good but, here for good measure -- Om Mani Padme Nom Nom Nom -- is Miguel with the Dalai Lama...

Check the dark aviator glasses on the dudes in the middle. Cool, huh? But let's back up to that first Serrano title. Something about Esoteric Nazism, wasn't it? And damn, would you look at that? You just don't catch Wikipedia napping these days! Because here's the page for that repellent concept. Check especially the sections on "Miguel Serrano," and "The collective Aryan unconscious." The latter reads (still paying out those breadcrumbs, right?)...

In the book Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke reports how C.G. Jung described "Hitler as possessed by the archetype of the collective Aryan unconscious and could not help obeying the commands of an inner voice." In a series of interviews between 1936 and 1939, Jung characterized Hitler as an archetype, often manifesting itself to the complete exclusion of his own personality. 'Hitler is a spiritual vessel, a demi-divinity; even better, a myth.... the messiah of Germany who teaches the virtue of the sword. 'The voice he hears is that of the collective unconscious of his race'". Richard Noll has controversially argued that the early Jung was influenced by Theosophy, solar mysticism and völkisch nationalism in developing the ideas on the collective unconscious and the archetypes. Jung's suggestion that Hitler personified the collective Aryan unconscious deeply interested and influenced Miguel Serrano, who later concluded that Jung was merely psychologizing the ancient, sacred mystery of archetypal possession by the gods, independent metaphysical powers that rule over their respective races and occasionally possess their members. A similar esoteric thesis is also put forward by Michael Moynihan in his book Lords of Chaos.

OK, so here's where I linked off to Amazon to find out more about Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. And I'm all like oh THAT Michael Moynihan! Because see, where I know him from is he was co-founder and co-editor of a journal called TYR. Here are it's three issues, just so you'll know where to buy your very own set.

The reason I bought my very own set -- several years ago before the money ran out -- was that these guys like to call themselves "radical traditionalists" (read the fine print there), and were big into heavy-hitter wingnuts (excuse me, founder of the Nouvelle Droite) and outright fascists like Alain de Benoist and Julius Evola, respectively if not respectfully. In other words: my kinda people! (I have detailed files.)

Moynihan also co-authored The Secret King: The Myth and Reality of Nazi Occultism, and I suppose I really must get my hands on this new edition. There are a couple of excellent reviews on that page (you'll see right away which they are), and they provide even more interesting reading on our general theme here. In view of the time and in the interests of brevity -- a blessed but too frequently missing quality in much modern writing, on which, as you know, having read my work for so long now (for which many thanks), you also know I place enormous value -- why don't I just list the fuckers...

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke

The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement by Richard Noll

Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet and His Disciple by Joachim Kohler

But before we get any deeper into that morass, let's return to Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos and his Satanic Metal Underground. Casting about for more dope on M.M. and his subject, I stumbled onto a fantastic piece of writing titled How Black is Black Metal? by one Kevin Coogan. Here's a clip...

Michael Moynihan is an interesting fellow. Some might argue that he is actually three people -"Michael Jenkins," "Michael Moynihan Jenkins," and "Michael Jenkins Moynihan" – since all three monikers have graced his projects. In 1989 the youthful Bostonian joined forces with the San Francisco-based Abraxas Foundation, which he described as an "occultist-fascist think tank" linked to the Church of Satan.

I mean really: does it get any better than that? The piece is long but I highly recommend it. Look out especially for references to Asatru, Friedrich Nietzsche, Julius Evola, Oswald Spengler, Ezra Pound, Franco Freda, and divers other unsavory concepts and characters. In fact, the thing is so good I found myself saying (to the cat, if you must know) "damn, who is this guy?"

Oh! How quickly they (and I) forget. Turns out Coogan also wrote an absolutely KILLER book called Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Yockey was a fascinating whackjob, but not well known, then or now. You can read a bit about him on Wikipedia. Yockey himself wrote The Enemy of Europe: The Enemy of Our Enemies (with Revilo P. Oliver, another fucking nazi) and Imperium, an attempt to out-Spengler Spengler. (Be advised that these last two are published by Liberty Bell Publications and Noontide Press, respectively, and both are purveyors of neo-fascist literature. Perhaps you'd prefer a nice used copy.)

But pressing on... While I was perusing the Lords of Chaos book, I also came across True Norwegian Black Metal by Peter Beste, which is where this story comes to a close. For now. It turns out that Beste is also a filmmaker, and did a documentary on the subject, also called True Norwegian Black Metal. That link goes to the first of five segments on YouTube -- or you can watch the whole thing here. Beste doesn't really touch on the ideological components of the genre, such as we've suggested in the foregoing. But trust me, they're there if you watch it with the foregoing in mind. If you make it to the end, the last several minutes (no your browser didn't crash) are chilling.

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For Extra Credit: Norsk Svart Metall - A History of Norwegian Black Metal (for which thanks and a tip o' the hat to my Facebook informant, Ivan Bager.)