Wotansvolk

Wotanism
Founder
David Lane, Ron McVan, Katja Lane
Regions with significant populations
American Mountain States, Europe
Religions
Heathenry (Nordic racial paganism)
Scriptures
The "Fourteen Words", "88 Precepts", Hávamál

Wotansvolk is a form of white nationalist, neo-völkisch paganism which was founded in the early 1990s by Ron McVan, Katja Lane and David Lane (1938–2007) while Lane was serving a 190-year prison sentence for his actions in connection with the white separatist revolutionary domestic terrorist organization The Order, of which he was a member. After the founding of 14 Word Press by David Lane and his wife Katja to disseminate her husband's writings, Ron McVan joined the press in 1995 and founded Temple of Wotan (co-writing a book by that name). 14 Word Press - Wotansvolk proceeded to publish several books for the practice of Wotanism before becoming defunct in the early 2000's.

History

Wotansvolk was launched after Lane published an article in 1995 titled "Wotan's Folk", which gave the group its name. Wotan is the Germanic name for Odin, a central figure in Norse mythology and other Germanic mythologies. Lane had been publishing white supremacist and neopagan work under the name "14 Word Press" with his wife Katja Lane, and Ron McVan, an artist who had become involved with white separatism in the 1970s after reading the works of Ben Klassen. During this time, Wotansvolk published monthly pamphlets, maintained a website, and made and sold Odinist religious objects. The publishers also operated a prison outreach program.[1]

By 2001, prison groups in the US were linked with Wotansvolk. Research by Mattias Gardell indicated "a pagan revival among the white prison population, including the conversion of whole prison gangs to the ancestral religion....Partly due to the reputation of Lane and its association with the legendary Brüders Schweigen, Wotansvolk's name-recognition is high among the Aryan prison population".[2] Several members of The Order were practicing Wotanists, including its founder Robert Mathews, David Lane and Richard Scutari along with Richard Kemp.[3] Wotansvolk is one of many groups active in prisoner outreach, but, according to Gardell, "Wotansvolk seem[ed] more successful in its outreach efforts than other Asatrú/Odinist programs".[2] Non-racist versions of Asatrú and Odinism are protected as free speech, but violent and racist religious materials, such as Wotanism, may be banned or restricted from prisons.[4][5]

Beliefs

Wotansvolk practitioners see their religion as being rooted in ancestral European paganism which was driven underground, calling it the true spiritual heritage of the "Euro-Tribes". Followers of the movement often selectively cite Carl Jung's theories of an "Aryan collective subconscious", specifically his 1936 essay "Wotan".[6] The term Wotanism in modern times emphasizes white nationalism, white separatism and an ethnocentric, pan-European interpretation of modern Paganism.

Unlike many Germanic neopagans within Heathenry, most Wotanists do not exclusively revere the Norse pantheon of Asatru but rather all the deities of European mythology. Wotanists may reject dualism, include Hermetic ideas, and see David Lane as a prophet. Lane's followers see the 14 words and the 88 Precepts as scripture and they primarily see the gods as Jungian archetypes, although Lane said one could be a deist, a pantheist, or an atheist and still be Wotansvolk.[7][8] McVan and Lane have described many rituals and practices, none of which are required of practitioners.[9] Some Wotanists consider the Hávamál to be their holiest text while rites of practice are taken from Lane's writings.

Lane often used 'Odinist' and 'Wotanist' as synonymous in his writings, and the Southern Poverty Law Center regards Lane's Wotanism as a form of Odinism.[10] Lane stated that he had chosen the name "Wotanism" in conscious contrast to anti-racist heathens and those motivated by "universalist" ideology who Lane deemed were advancing white genocide.

Although Lane was contemptuous of Christianity, viewing it as part of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, he viewed the Bible as containing secret codes hidden by pre-Christian, non-Jewish Aryan masters. Lane stated that this Bible code was carried over into the King James Version, which he believed Sir Francis Bacon had translated. Lane also taught something which he called "Pyramid Prophecy" which according to him, said that his own name and birth-date were prophesied in the Bible as being connected to the coming of the Antichrist, and embodying the spirits of Mars, Thor, and King David.[11]

Universalist Asatruars (notably The Troth) and some non-folkish Odinists have rejected what they perceive as an attempt to appropriate the revival of the ancient native faith of northern Europe for political and racial ends.[12] Folkish Odinists, such as Stephen McNallen of the Asatru Folk Assembly, generally support Lane's version of Wotanism and the Fourteen Words.[10]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Gardell 2004, p. 205–206
  2. 1 2 Gardell 2003, p. 217
  3. ↑ "Neo-Pagans Peter Georgacarakos, David Lane and Richard Scutari Publishing from Prison". SPLCenter.org. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League Discusses Race-Based Gangs and other Extremists in Prison". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  5. ↑ "Supreme Court Requires Prisons Give Special Consideration to Racist Pagans". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  6. ↑ Gardell 2004, pp. 208, 210–212
  7. ↑ see: Gambanreidi Statement; Wotanism by Professor Carl Gustav Jung Compiled by the late, Jost Turner
  8. ↑ Gardell 2003, p. 270
  9. ↑ Gardell 2004, pp. 214–217
  10. 1 2 "New Brand of Racist Odinist Religion on the March". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1998. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  11. ↑ Gardell 2004, pp. 202–204, 381
  12. ↑ Gardell 2003, pp. 273–283

Sources

  • Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Duke UP. pp. 202, 381. ISBN 9780822330714.
  • Gardell, Mattias (2004). "White Racist Religions in the United States: From Christian Identity to Wolf Age Pagans". In Lewis, James R.; Petersen, Jesper Aagaard. Controversial New Religions. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 387–422. doi:10.1093/019515682X.003.0018. ISBN 978-0-19-515682-9.
  • Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2003). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3155-0.
  • Kaplan, Jeffrey (1997). Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah. Syracuse: Syracuse Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0396-2.

Further reading

  • Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3071-7.
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