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The Nazi Trapezoid - Nazis and the Occult
THE NAZI TRAPEZOID
by Tim Maroney
11 November 1990
There has been much discussion lately within the cloisters of occultism
of Michael Aquino and his group, the Temple of Set. As little as a
decade ago, a Satanic group of this kind would have been dismissed out
of hand by most occultists and pagans, because of reflexive prejudices
against Satanism. But the 1980's brought a greater openness to Satanic
perspectives, as well as a certain feeling of solidarity between Satanists,
who were the targets of harassment by police and the media, and other
occultists, who are aware that they figure on all the same target lists.
Aquino himself has been the target of some of the worst modern witch
hunting, being falsely accused of child molestation based on a statement
by a Christian minister. Despite having much of his personal property
seized by the police, his name and face splashed all over papers and
television as a child molester, and his career interfered with, he was
never formally charged with any crime. It is not only clear that he did
not do it; it is clear that he couldn't have done it, since he was not
even in the vicinity when the alleged abuse occurred.
Censorship attempts remain one of the surest ways to boost book sales, and
young religious movements still thrive on persecution. In typical fashion,
the attempts at supression by these modern-day anti-occult Comstocks
actually leant popularity to their target. Aquino has justly garnered a
good deal of sympathy from this affair, and the Temple of Set is becoming
more popular and respected within the occult community.
But unsettling questions remain concerning this organization. It harbors a
subgroup, the Order of the Trapezoid, which is dedicated to Nazi occultism.
Aquino is known to have participated in black magical rituals at Wewelsburg
Castle, set up as a place of occult working for the SS by Heinrich Himmler.
Aquino counts Nazi occultism as one of his chief interests, and the heraldry
and symbolism of the SS is one of his favorite topics of discussion. These
facts would seem to indicate, at least on the face of them, that Aquino is
sympathetic to Nazism.
Aquino himself will neither confirm or deny this. He refuses to answer
questions on his feelings about the ethical quality of Nazism or the reality
of the Holocaust. He will say only that the general consensus against
Nazism in the West today is the result of the victors writing the history
books. If pressed on the subject, he becomes hostile, but remains
uncommunicative.
In his materials for the Order of the Trapezoid, he is somewhat more overt
in his sympathy. Consider this passage from "Order of the Trapezoid -
Statement":
"Crucial also to German Romanticism were the concepts of _dynamism_ and
_life-worship_. The former term represents an urge towards constant
movement and evolution, whether intellectual, artistic, or social. [...]
The uncanny attraction of the Third Reich - Nazi Germany - lies in the
fact that it endorsed and practiced both dynamism and life-worship
without restraint and to a world-shaking degree of success."
As he will not in public debate, Aquino also discusses here his trifling
criticisms of Nazism:
"Just as the Third Reich's dynamism got out of hand, leading it to embark
on irrational and destructive foreign invasions, so its life-worship - which
could have been a truly evolutionary synthesis of the most sublime concepts
of Hegel and Nietzsche - became perverted into crude xenophobia, hatreds
built upon superficial notions of 'race', and ultimately a maddened stampede
towards a Wagnerian _Goetterdaemmerung_ in defiance of a return to
rationalism."
Apparently, the only flaw of Nazism was that it took its great ideas too
far. Aquino thinks of Nazism as a wonderful movement that went wrong.
Therefore, it seems fair to refer to him as a Nazi sympathizer, though
perhaps not as a Neo-Nazi.
In the same file, Aquino states that "social discretion" is needed in
a member of the Order of the Trapezoid. Those of us who have discussed
the subject with Aquino in public are well aware of the nature of this
"discretion", and would describe it instead as "evasion". Aquino is
a military intelligence officer by profession. What he refers to as
"discretion" is more commonly known in the intelligence community as
"plausible deniability". This is the principle that, when carrying out
a covert action, one should always make sure that the avenues are open
to a plausible denial of involvement.
In this case, "discretion" or "plausible deniability" means that a
member of the Order of the Trapezoid would not state in public any
straightforward sympathies for Nazism; instead, he must use ambiguous
language which could readily be identified by fellow sympathizers, but
which would not be amenable to a short proof of sympathy. A careful
investigator can find an undeniable pattern of involvement, but most
people will never pay enough attention to the investigation to notice
its results. It takes more than a fifteen-word "text bite" to prove
involvement -- Aquino will never say "Heil Hitler, the greatest man
of our age" any more than Reagan will ever say "I knew and approved of
the sale of arms to Iran" -- so it is unlikely that the facts will
ever achieve wide circulation.
This "discretion" in discussing the elements of the Temple of Set which
are sympathetic to Nazism is also evident in the Temple of Set reading
list on the subject of "Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic". Aquino
repeatedly implies in this list that he would like to endorse Nazi
"philosophy", but he wouldn't want to be accused of "crimethink", so
read it and decide for yourself.
The reading list makes it clear that Aquino is not only a Nazi
sympathizer but an advocate of Nazi racial policy -- albeit of an
enlightened interpretation based on the prime movers of the party
rather than the "hatreds built upon superficial notions of 'race'"
practiced by the rank and file. Yet it was the philosophers and the
movers and shakers, not the rank and file, who created the policy of
vernichtung, the "final solution", annihilation of the Jews -- a subject
on which Aquino maintains silence. In one review, he even admits that
the only reason he holds back from outright endorsement of "a European
race history that would have done credit to Hitler" is that he "wouldn't
want to get in trouble for even appearing to endorse it".
Here are some extracts from that reading list, written by Aquino in 1988.
The constant references to how unfairly Hitler and Nazi racial policy have
been treated are as clear as Aquino can be while maintaining deniability.
Despite his "discretion", though, these excerpts form a clear proof of
strong sympathies for Hitler and Rosenberg.
Also, please note the statement of intent at the beginning; this material
is presented so that "the magician [...] can thus control or avoid"
principles of fascist manipulation. The word "control" appears first.
All parenthetical and bracketed notes are Aquino's, except for the
elisions (marked with "[...]") for brevity's sake, which are mine.
No editorial comments have been interpolated.
"Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic"
"This is a very potent, controversial, and dangerous area of magic, whose
implications are rarely examined, understood, or appreciated by the profane
[which is just as well]. Much of the data concerning it derives from Nazi
Germany, whose character as a state based upon magical rather than
conventional principles goes a long way towards explaining the 'peculiar'
fascination which that episode continues to exert on students of history
and political science. Many of the techniques pioneered or perfected by
the Nazis continue to be used/abused - generally in a superficial and
ignorant fashion - by every country of the world in one guise or another.
The magician who can recognize and identify these techniques and the
principles behind them can thus control or avoid their influence as
desired."
14F. _Mein Kampf_ by Adolf Hitler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943.
(TS-5) (OT-3) MA: "Everyone knows that this is 'the most evil book ever
written', but few have taken the time to actually read it, hence cannot
really explain why. Further complicating the situation is Hitler's
interspersion of political philosophy (interesting) with emotional tirades
(not so interesting). Look for the discussions concerning the selection of
leaders, control of the masses, and the justification for human social
organization. You may be surprised at what you discover. [...]"
14K. _Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944_ by H.R. Trevor-Roper (Ed.).
NY: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953 [simultaneously published in England as
_Hitler's Table Talk_ by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London]. (TS-5) (OT-3) MA:
"Martin Bormann was sufficiently fascinated by Adolf Hitler's private
conversational comments on various topics that he persuaded Hitler to allow
them to be stenographically recorded. [...] Hitler's conversations cover an
astonishingly broad spectrum of topics - organized religion, metaphysics,
dogmatism, Voltaire, origins of the human race, aesthetics, Egyptian & Greek
culture, Hoerbiger's cosmology, genius, philosophy of law, superstition,
mental diseases, etc. An impressive look into the mind of an individual whom
the postwar world has been conditioned to dismiss as a crude, criminal, and
unintrospective thug. Read, then judge for yourself."
14N. _The Passing of the Great Race_ by Madison Grant. NY: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1916. (TS-5) MA: "You can still find #14F in print, because
it's a good whipping-boy for sanctimonous finger-waggling. It is less easy
to find the books from 'our side' that argued along similar lines. This is
[was!] one of the more famous, and you may still uncover an occasional copy
in the back room of a used-book store or in the darkest corners of obscure
libraries. Grant was not exactly a nonentity or lunatic-fringe fanatic. He
was Chairman of the New York Zoological Society, Trustee of the American
Museum of Natural History, and a Councilor of the American Geographical
Society. In this book [by a prominent publisher] he argues a forceful case
for a European race history that would have done credit to Hitler and
Rosenberg. The most interesting aspect of this book is that only a very few
years ago it was accepted as a respectable contender in the
academic/scientific community. After World War II it was, in Orwell's terms,
guilty of Crimethink and thus condemned to be an Unperson. There is a lesson
to be learned here concerning the durability and invulnerability of
'established scientific fact' when it becomes politically or socially
inconvenient. I hereby suggest that you make up your own mind as to whether
the book is convincing. After all, I wouldn't want to get in trouble for
even appearing to endorse it."
14O. _Race and Race History and Other Essays_ by Alfred Rosenberg (Robert
Pois, Ed.). NY: Harper & Row (Harper Torchback #TB-1820), 1974. (TS-5) MA:
"Extracts from the major race-history writings of the Nazis' 'official
philosopher' - with a finger-waggling introduction, of course. It is O.K.
for this book to be in print; it has the appropriate editorial condemnation.
[See also #14S.]"
14S. _The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology_ by
Robert Cecil. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1972. (TS-4) (OT-3) MA: "The best
biography and critical analysis concerning Alfred Rosenberg, 'official
philosopher' of the Nazi movement. Much of the material otherwise in
existence concerning Rosenberg is suppressed by the Soviet Union, while
previous Western biographies and editions of his memoirs were crudely
edited to portray him as more of a monster than a human being, much less
a philosopher. [...] [See also #14O.]"
It could of course be objected that these selections are out of context.
Both length and copyright considerations prevent quoting the entire file
here, but it can be obtained from the electronic bulletin board system
WeirdBase in St. Louis, at 314-741-2231. (I do not know whether this
board is still in operation, but these files were originally retrieved
from its Aquino-sanctioned Temple of Set area.)
However, a book-by-book breakdown by category is appropriate. Here is
a summary of the classifications, followed by an in-depth explanation
and listing of each category. I believe the numbers speak for themselves.
PRO-NAZI (7)
BOTH ANTI-NAZI AND ANTI-COMMUNIST (2)
ANTI-NAZI (1)
NAZI OCCULTISM (7)
NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2)
NEUTRAL HISTORY (5)
---
PRO-NAZI (7)
Obviously, any investigation of Nazism must include a study of source
materials from within the movement. Therefore, presentation of the
opinions of Hitler, Rosenberg, Haushofer, etc., was not considered a
criterion for classifying a source as pro-Nazi. These citations are
considered pro-Nazi because Aquino's review praises their opinions,
and those opinions are clearly pro-Nazi.
Please note that I have not had time to track down all twenty-four books
on this list, and it is possible that sources I have classed as "neutral"
below actually belong in this category, just as I might have mistakenly
classified Viereck's book as neutral if I had not already known of it.
14F. _Mein Kampf_ by Adolf Hitler.
14K. _Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944_ by H.R. Trevor-Roper (Ed.).
14N. _The Passing of the Great Race_ by Madison Grant.
14O. _Race and Race History and Other Essays_ by Alfred Rosenberg.
14P. _Geopolitics: The Struggle for Space and Power_ by Robert Strausz-Hupe.
14Q. _Wewelsburg 1933 bis 1945: SS Kult- und Terrorstaette_ by Prof. Dr.
Karl Hueser.
14T. _Metapolitics from the Romantics to Hitler_ by Peter Viereck.
---
BOTH ANTI-NAZI AND ANTI-COMMUNIST (2)
14A. _The Mass Psychology of Fascism_ by Wilhelm Reich.
14E. _1984_ by George Orwell.
These sources are mentioned by Aquino as reflecting badly on both Nazism
and Nazism's chief political enemy in Germany, Communism.
Their reason for inclusion is made clearer by the cross-reference to
Orwell's _1984_ in the reading list, in the discussion of the pro-Nazi
book _The Passing of the Great Race_: "After World War II [this book]
was, in Orwell's terms, guilty of Crimethink and thus condemned to be
an Unperson." In Aquino's universe, the architects of 1984 are the
Communists and modern Westerners who insist on slandering the Nazis.
The books are also explicitly mentioned as indicting two other
ideological enemies of Aquino; Reich against Christianity, and Orwell
against British socialism. Any criticism of Nazism comes in a distant
third in this category, though these books' inclusion in that light
serves the purposes of plausible deniability.
---
ANTI-NAZI (1)
14V. _The True Believer_ by Eric Hoffer. NY: Harper & Row, 1951.
This is the one book in the list mentioned as simply indicting Nazism.
Even here, Aquino can't resist new apologetics for Nazism and yet more
complaining about how unfairly it is treated, which is why I hesitate
to classify the review as anti-Nazi at all. Aquino ends his recommendation
with "The book's strong point is Hoffer's famed common-sense, but this
same feature is also its weak point, because it is obvious that Hoffer
is not aware of [or does not understand] the principles discussed, for
example, in #14T." (#14T is Viereck's pro-Nazi book _Metapolitics from
the Romantics to Hitler_. Like other bracketed notes, "[or does not
understand]" is Aquino's, not mine.)
---
NAZI OCCULTISM (7)
The books on Nazi occultism which carry special ideological endorsements
are listed in the pro-Nazi section above. This section contains only
those books which are endorsed as historical surveys but not as
ideological tracts. In other words, this is the list of relatively
neutral citations, containing phrases like "well footnoted" and
"fact-packed", and perhaps ideological warnings about Theosophical
and Thelemite bias as well.
14B. _The Occult and the Third Reich_ by Jean-Michel Angebert.
14D. _The Spear of Destiny_ by Trevor Ravenscroft.
14L. _The Voice of Destruction_ by Hermann Rauschning.
14M. _Hitler's Secret Sciences_ by Nigel Pennick.
14R. _Hitler: The Occult Messiah_ by Gerald Suster.
14W. _Astrology and the Third Reich_ by Ellic Howe.
14X. _The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany
1890-1935_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.
---
NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2)
A surprisingly slim selection, considering how often Aquino and his
associate in the Order of the Trapezoid, Stephen Flowers ("Edred Thorsson"),
use the phrase "Germanic occultism" rather than "Nazi occultism". Obviously
the preferred phrase is a euphemism.
14C. _The Grail Legend_ by Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz.
14U. _For Freedom Destined: Mysteries of Man's Evolution in the Mythology
of Wagner's "Ring" Operas and "Parsifal"_ by Franz E. Winkler.
---
NEUTRAL HISTORY (5)
As with the section on Nazi occultism, above, this list consists of
those books which were praised for their scholarship, without any comments
about the virtues of their subject matter. In other words, these are
ideologically neutral historical citations.
Please note the absence of books on the Holocaust -- a subject which is
mentioned nowhere in this list, nor in the Trapezoid statement referred
to above. I don't know whether Aquino is a Holocaust revisionist,
because when myself and others have asked him about the subject, he has
refused to answer.
From the title, it may seem that _The Myth of the Master Race_ deserves
to be classified as anti-Nazi. However, the citation does not present it
as such, but rather as an objective appraisal of Rosenberg's "weaknesses
as well as his strengths". For that reason I have classified it as
neutral.
14G. _Hitler: Legend, Myth, & Reality_ by Werner Maser.
14H. _The War Path_ and Hitler's War by David Irving.
14I. _The Bormann Brotherhood_ by William Stevenson.
14J. _Three Faces of Fascism_ by Ernst Nolte.
14S. _The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology_ by
Robert Cecil.
---
So what has been shown? It has been shown that Aquino thinks highly of
Hitler and Rosenberg; that he presents little criticism of Nazi ideology,
and what little he does present is hemmed around by disclaimers concerning
the glorious romanticism of Nazism; that he unambiguously endorses the
study and practice of Nazi occultism; that he will not come right out and
say what he thinks on the subject, but insists on hiding behind a coy facade
of "I wouldn't want to get in trouble for even appearing to endorse it".
Under serious examination, the plausibility of his denials becomes as
threadbare as they did in the case of his fellow lieutenant colonel in
military intelligence, Oliver North.
The sympathy many now feel for the unjustly attacked Temple of Set is a
disturbing echo of Aquino's own misguided attempts to reclaim Nazism.
Just as Aquino seems to have overreacted against the simplistic demonization
of Nazism and swung to the opposite extreme, just so occultists today may
look at the ignorance and prejudice of Aquino's own persecutors and react
against it to the point of forming allegiances with Aquino. In both cases
this reaction fails to come to grips with the complicated ethical fact that
demonization is no proof of virtue. Someone may be unjustly accused, and
oversimplified to the point of caricature; this does not imply that the
person is actually a saint. We should limit our reactions to defense on
the points of unfair attack; we should not wholeheartedly embrace whoever
becomes a popular demon.
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