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{{short description|White nationalist neopagan movement}}
{{otheruses4|the white separatist movement|the Germanic mysticist concept of Guido von List|Wotanism (Guido von List)}}
{{use mdy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=January 2021}}
'''Wotanism''' is the name of a racial religion promulgated by ]. ''']''' is the German name for the Germanic god known in Norse as ]. Lane's ''Wotanism'' is distinctly different and separate from ], which is a type of ].
{{About|the white supremacist movement|the Germanic mystical concept of Guido von List|Wotanism (Guido von List)|the worship of Wotan|Wotan (disambiguation)}}
__NOTOC__
{{Infobox religious group
Based on the essay entitled ''Wotan'' by ], the term ''Wotanism'' in modern times heavily emphasizes ] and ] (NS). W.O.T.A.N. is also used as an acronym for ''Will Of The Aryan Nation'', used by some Wotanists.<ref> Wotanism (Odinism) - By David Lane</ref> Unlike Germanic neopagans, most Wotanists emphasize ] and view the Gods as Jungian ]. <ref> see: Gambanreidi Statement; Wotanism by Professor Carl Gustav Jung Compiled by the late, Jost Turner </ref> <ref> Gardell (2003), p. 270 </ref>
| group = Wotanism
| flag =
| population =
| founder = ], Ron McVan, Katja Lane
| regions = ], ]
| tablehdr =
| region1 =
| pop1 =
| ref1 =
| region2 =
| pop2 =
| ref2 =
| region3 =
| pop3 =
| ref3 =
| religions = ] (])
| scriptures = ''Temple of Wotan: Holy Book of the Aryan Tribes'', ''Creed of Iron: Wotansvolk Wisdom'', the "]", "]", '']'' <!--find a reliable source before adding any additional works -->
| related-c =
| notes =
}}
{{Neo-fascism}}


'''Wotansvolk''' (English: "'''Odin's ]'''") promulgates a ] variant of ]—founded in the early 1990s by Ron McVan, Katja Lane and ] (1938–2007) while Lane was serving a 190-year prison sentence for his actions in connection with the white supremacist revolutionary ] organization ]. 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 2000s.
Wotanist groups include the ''Gambanreidi Statement'', ''WotansVolk'' and the ''Temple of Wotan''. WotansVolk and the Temple of Wotan were both founded under the direct influence of David Lane, by his wife Katja Lane (Katuscha Maddox) and Ron McVan, a former high ranking member of the ].


==History==
The Temple of Wotan organization was inspired by the book ''Temple of Wotan''. Late in his life, Lane authored a short story entitled ''KD Rebel'', a fictional account of a colony of Wotanists who live up in the mountains and liberate young girls and women from urban areas and marry them into polygamy to further the Aryan race.<ref>Lane, David (2004). ''''</ref>
Wotansvolk was launched following the publication by ] of a 1995 article titled "Wotan's Folk", which gave the group its name. ''Wotan'' is the Germanic name for ], a central figure in ] and other ]. Lane had been publishing white supremacist and neopagan work under the name "14 Word Press", along with his wife Katja Lane and Ron McVan, an artist who had become involved in the ] movement from the 1970s after reading the works of ].<ref name=":2">{{harvp|Gardell|2004|pp=205–206}}</ref> Headquartered at a mountain outside ], ], Wotansvolk rapidly evolved into "a dynamic propaganda center that spread its message throughout the United States and abroad".<ref name=":3" />


Established at a time when Internet was beginning to revolutionize communication means, the group set up a website in 1995, and got its own domain in 1997, "14words.com". In 2001, an online chat was created, in order to link Heathens around the world in a common white power culture. The first European Wotansvolk group was established in spring 1996 in ].<ref name=":0">{{harvp|Gardell|2003|pp=224–225}}</ref> According to ], Wotansvolk was not founded as a membership organization but rather as a propaganda center, providing "a philosophical foundation for independent ] and fraternities" with a large number of individual supporters helping disseminate Wotansvolk materials in their local communities.<ref name=":0" /> Besides illustrating the group's publications, McVan extended Odinism to a business by selling artifacts such as rune-staffs, Thor's hammers or ceremonial drinking horns.<ref name=":1">{{harvp|Kaplan|2000|p=202}}</ref>
Since 2007/2008, a new form of Wotanism has been preached. Hardy Lloyd, a former high ranking member of the ], has proclaimed himself to be the "living prophet of Wotan". Mr. Lloyd's version of Wotanism is very different than that of Lane's or McVan's, whom Hardy criticizes as being false prophets. In Mr. Lloyd's book, "The Wotanist Bible", he puts forth the following religious beliefs: The act of Martyrdom sends the Aryan soul to Valhalla, Wotanists should only live in tight-knit family units which act as cells fighting a Jihad against all non-believes, that white people are non-Aryan, that Aryans must have light eyes, and that the ]s and Sagas are false translations. The "Wotanist Bible" also has over 300 Commandments, that all Wotanists are to follow. And that Wotan reveals Revelations to Hardy Lloyd through prayer. <ref>"The Wotanist Bible" by Hardy Lloyd. ''''</ref>


A number of pagan white-power bands have referenced Wotansvolk in their lyrics, including Darken's ''Creed of Iron'' album and Dissident's album ''A Cog in the Wheel.'' The original group eventually split in 2002, when administration of Wotansvolk was transferred to John Post in ], ].<ref name=":3">{{harvp|Lewis|Petersen|2014|pp=413–415}}</ref> In March of the same year, Post announced the formation of the National Prison Kindred Alliance, as a joint effort of Wotansvolk and a number of independent Asatrú/Odinist tribal networks seeking to improve their religious rights in penitentiaries.<ref name=":4">{{harvp|Lewis|Petersen|2014|pp=417–418}}</ref>
===Prison-outreach program===


=== Presence in US prisons ===
WotansVolk and the Temple of Wotan were known for having prisoner outreach ministries. In 2001 there were prison kindreds linked with Wotansvolk in all ] and the groups supported more than 5000 prisoners. Research by ] indicated "''a pagan revival among the white prison population, including the conversion of whole prison gangs to the ancestral religion.''".<ref> Gardell (2003), p. 217 </ref>
Wotansvolk operated a quite successful prison outreach program.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Research by ] indicated "a pagan revival among the white prison population, including the conversion of whole ]s to the ancestral religion partly due to the reputation of Lane and its association with the legendary ], Wotansvolk's name-recognition is high among the Aryan prison population".<ref name="Gardell217">{{harvp|Gardell|2003|p=217}}</ref> As of January 2001, Wotansvolk catered to more than 5,000 prisoners,<ref name=":4" /> including several members of ] like David Lane and Richard Scutari.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2000/neo-pagans-peter-georgacarakos-david-lane-and-richard-scutari-publishing-prison|title=Neo-Pagans Peter Georgacarakos, David Lane and Richard Scutari Publishing from Prison|access-date=August 17, 2017 |work=Intelligence Report|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|date=Spring 2000}}</ref> There were fewer than a hundred prison kindreds by the fall of 1996; more than three hundred of them were present by the year 2000. Prison authorities however often break groups by disseminating their members to various establishments. Lane's campaigning has contributed to the fact that all states now allow any prisoner to wear a ]'s hammer as a religious medallion.<ref name=":4" />


If there are many white supremacist groups active in prison, the organization seemed according to Gardell "more successful in its outreach efforts than other Asatrú/Odinist programs".<ref name="Gardell217" /> Non-racist versions of Asatrú and Odinism are protected in the US under freedoms of speech and of religion, but violent and racist religious materials, such as Wotanism, may be banned or restricted from prisons.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League Discusses Race-Based Gangs and other Extremists in Prison|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/mark-pitcavage-anti-defamation-league-discusses-race-based-gangs-and-other-extremists|access-date=29 May 2017 |work=Intelligence Report|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|date=Winter 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Supreme Court Requires Prisons Give Special Consideration to Racist Pagans |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/supreme-court-requires-prisons-give-special-consideration-racist-pagans|access-date=29 May 2017|work=Intelligence Report|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=Fall 2009}}</ref> While the movement is primarily associated to prison culture in the media, Wotansvolk co-founder Katja Lane asserted in a 1999 interview that prisoners constituted only an estimated 20 percent of Wotansvolkers in the United States.<ref name=":4" />
''"Partly due to the reputation of ] and its association with the legendary ], Wotansvolk name-recognition is high among the Aryan prison population."''<ref>Gardell 2003: 217</ref>


==Beliefs==
The Temple of Wotan dissolved and reformed into the National Prison Kindred Alliance, (NPKA) which has no relation with Wotanism.
Wotansvolk is based on a combination of white separatism, ] psychology, the ], ] and ] from other ] and religious movements, notably the ]. Lane was an early proponent of the ], a belief that the U.S. government and the ] is dominated by "traitors and Jews working towards the establishment of a ]". Convinced the white race was on the verge of extinction, Lane popularized the "Fourteen Words" slogan as a rallying point in the ] movement.<ref name=":3" /> The group praises a mythologized version of the ], with ] as a religious component.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Wotansvolkers also cite as influential the works of ] ] and philosopher ].<ref name=":3" />


=== Race ===
Wotansvolk and the NPKA are not the only groups active in prisoner outreach; however, in 2001 "''Wotansvolk seem'' ''more successful in its outreach efforts than other Asatrú/Odinist programs.''" <ref>Gardell (2003), p. 217 </ref> The feminist women's group Sigrdrifa focuses on White cultural identity and has chapters in the United States and Canada. Sigrdrifa runs a special "Odinism in Prison" project. The ] and the ''Asatru Alliance'' also have extensive prisoner outreach programs, albeit not based on race or politics.
Wotansvolk promotes "white racialism" derived from a ]. They attribute various wars occurring in ] and ] as consequences of artificial borders imposed by the enemies of the white race to divide and conquer. Wotansvolk followers have defended Hitler and the Nazis as "prisoners" of these artificial boundaries.<ref name=":0" />
In an Interview <ref>Interview with Mark Pitcavage - </ref> about the role of race-based ]s and other extremists in America's prisons, the historian ] came to the conclusion that, "''on-racist versions of Asatrú and Odinism are pretty much acceptable religions in the prisons.''" But materials from racist variants of these religions may be prohibited by corrections departments.


Followers of the movement often selectively cite Carl Jung's theories of an "Aryan" ], which they equate with the "]" of Nazism. Wotansvolk followers specifically cite Jung's 1936 essay "Wotan".{{sfnp|Gardell|2004|pp=208, 210–212}}
==Distinctions from Germanic neopaganism==
From the beginning, Wotanism has been distinctly different from, and even antagonistic to Germanic neopaganism. Adherents of Asatru and Odinism have rejected what they perceive as an attempt to appropriate their religion for political and racial ends.<ref> see: Gardell (2003), 273-283</ref> Lane explains:
{{cquote|So, I first chose the name Wotanism over Odinism. First because W.O.T.A.N. makes a perfect acronym for Will Of The Aryan Nation. Secondly because he was called Wotan on the European continent and only called Odin in Scandinavia. Therefore Wotan appeals to the genetic memory of more of our ancestors. And finally because a split had to be made with the game players, deceivers and universalists who had usurped the name Odin.''}}


=== White revolution ===
Ron McVan and Katja Lane have also repeatedly stated their antipathy for Germanic neopaganism, and stated that they reject even the "folkish" Asatru as not being militant enough.<ref> (2000)</ref>
Desiring a "white revolution", Wotansvolk endorsed the "]" strategy originally developed by ]. Their own version involved the tactical separation between an open propaganda arm and a paramilitary underground. The mission of the overt part was to "counter system-sponsored propaganda", "educate the Folk", and "provide a man pool from which the covert or military arm can be ."<ref name=":3" /> Predicting that the openly racist propaganda arm would be "under scrutiny", Lane emphasized by 1994 the need for members to "operate within the parameters" and keep themselves "rigidly separated" from the military underground. The paramilitary wing would have to "operate in small, autonomous cells, the smaller the better, even one man alone", in order for its members to primarily target "weak points in the infrastructure" of industrialized societies with "fire, bombs, guns, terror, disruption, and destruction". Lane added that "whatever and whoever perform valuable service for the system are targets, human or otherwise", and that "special attention and merciless terror are visited upon those White men who commit race treason".<ref name=":3" />

Lane considered loyalty to the United States "race treason", as he viewed the United States as actively committing ].{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|p=67}}<ref name="adl">{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/lane.asp?xpicked=2&item=lane|title=David Lane |website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103094309/http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/lane.asp?xpicked=2&item=lane |archive-date=November 3, 2008}}</ref>

While Wotansvolk followers have endorsed the white separatist project of the ], they mostly dismissed the constitution of the ] proposed by ] in April 1996 on the ground that it restricted liberties, especially the ].{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|pp=112–113}}

=== Anti-Christianity ===
David Lane attributed the current weakness of the "Aryan man" to Christianity, a creed "diametrically opposed to the natural order" and part of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world.{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|pp=202, 381}} "God is not love", he said, "God the Creator made lions to eat lambs; he made hawks to eat sparrows. Compassion between species is against the law of nature. Life is struggle and the absence of struggle is death."<ref name=":3" />

Despite Lane's contempt for Christianity, he described the ] as containing secret codes hidden by pre-Christian, non-Jewish Aryan masters. Lane stated that this ] was carried over into the ], which he believed ] had translated. Lane also taught something which he called "Pyramid Prophecy" which, according to him, said his name and birthdate were prophesied in the Bible as being connected to the coming of the ] and embodying the spirits of ], ], and ] while being described as "the Man of prophecy", the "666 Man", and the "] of Wotanism".{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|p=381}} Ron McVan dismissed the African-Americans who "zealously emphasize the rigors of 200 years of slavery in this country" and Jews who "rant hysterically and endlessly about an alleged holocaust", while highlighting the "freethinking Aryan pagans, alchemists, and scientists suffered under the Christian pogroms and Inquisition. This was a deliberate, religious slaughter of the innocents unparalleled in the Western world".<ref name=":0" />

McVan argued that the main cause of the fall and degeneration of Aryan golden age was the spiritual advent of Jewish Christianity. According to him, the folk then began to gradually lose consciousness of itself as a race: "If ever there were a birth of tragedy, it was when Aryan man turned his back on the indigenous Gods of his race," McVan wrote in 1999.<ref name=":3" />

=== Wotanism ===
Ron McVan developed Wotansvolk ] in two books titled ''Creed of Iron'' (1997) and ''Temple of Wotan'' (2000), with the project to get the lost "folk consciousness" to re-emerge, and reconnect white people to their "roots the Aryan race". Wotanism is presented by McVan as "the inner voice of the Aryan soul, which links the infinite past with the infinite future". To McVan, Wotan—a Germanic name for ]—symbolizes "the essential soul and spirit of the Aryan folk made manifest" as an iron-willed warrior god.<ref name=":3" /> The name "Wotan" was also chosen instead of "Odin" because it was also used as an acronym for "will of the Aryan nations". According to James R. Lewis and Jesper A. Petersen, "there is no ontological distinction separating Aryan man and Aryan gods. They are conceived of as kin, differing in power rather than nature". McVan cultivated the "mystery of the blood", the belief that unmixed Aryan blood carries a genetic memory of the racial lineage with all its gods, demigods, and heroes of the aboriginal golden age. Given that the Aryan can reconnect to the archetypal gods of the blood, "man is able", in the words of McVan, "to awaken to a divinity which flows within him". "A race without its mythos and religion of the blood", McVan followed, "shifts aimlessly through history".<ref name=":3" />

Wotanism, contrary to a self-denying Christianity, is seen by Wotansvolkers as a "natural religion", preaching "war, plunder, and sex".<ref name=":3" /> Lane's followers, who regard him as a ],<ref name="SPLC1998"/> see Lane's writing, such as the "]" and the "88 Precepts" manifesto, as ] and foundational texts. They primarily consider the gods through a "]" lens as ], although Lane said one could be a ], a ], or an ] and still be Wotansvolk.<ref>{{cite web |website=Gambanreidi Statement |title=Wotanism by Professor Carl Gustav Jung. Compiled by the late, Jost Turner |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021005043705/http://www.geocities.com/gambanreidi.geo/wotanjung.html |archive-date=2002-10-05 |url=http://www.geocities.com/gambanreidi.geo/wotanjung.html}}</ref>{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|p=270}} McVan and Lane have described many rituals and practices, none of which are required of practitioners.{{sfnp|Gardell|2004|pp=214–217}} Lane often used "Odinist" and "Wotanist" as synonymous in his writings, and the ] regards Lane's Wotanism as a form of Odinism, whereas Ron McVan labelled it "Heathen".<ref name="SPLC1998">{{cite news |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1998/new-brand-racist-odinist-religion-march |title=New Brand of Racist Odinist Religion on the March|date=Winter 1998 |work=Intelligence Report |access-date=30 May 2017|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center}}</ref>

Universalist Asatruars—notably ]—along with some non-folkish ], have rejected what they perceive as an attempt to appropriate the revival of the ancient native faith of ] for ] and ] ends.{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|pp=273–283}} Folkish Heathens on their side, such as ] of the ], generally support Lane's ], although they are not generally in favor of ] to establish a ].<ref name="SPLC1998"/>


==See also== ==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* ]
*{{annotated link|Ariosophy}}
* ]
*{{annotated link|Christian Identity}}
* ]
*{{annotated link|Creativity (religion)}}
* ]
*{{annotated link|Irminism}}
*{{annotated link|National Socialist Kindred}}
*{{annotated link|Neopaganism}}
*{{annotated link|New religious movement}}
*{{annotated link|White Separatism}}
*{{annotated link|Ynglism}}
{{div col end}}


==Notes== ==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}} {{reflist}}


'''Bibliography'''
==References==
* {{cite book | first =Matthias | last =Gardell | authorlink = | coauthors = | year =2003 | month = | title =Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism | chapter = | editor = | others = | edition = | pages = | publisher =Duke University Press | location = | isbn =0-8223-3071-7 | url = }} * {{cite book|last=Gardell|first=Mattias|author-link=Mattias Gardell|title=Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIwwWSSL5JIC|year=2003|publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3071-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Gardell |first=Mattias |author-link=Mattias Gardell |title=Controversial New Religions |title-link=Controversial New Religions |publisher=] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515682-9 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=1st |location=New York |language=en |chapter=White Racist Religions in the United States: From Christian Identity to Wolf Age Pagans |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard}}
* {{cite book | first=Ron | last=McVan | authorlink= | coauthors=David & Katja Lane | year=1997 | title=Creed of Iron - Wotansvolk Wisdom | edition= | publisher=14 Word Press | location= | isbn=0-9678123-0-5 }}
* {{cite book | first=Miguel | last=Serrano | authorlink= | coauthors=Ron McVan, Katja Lane | year=2000 | title=Temple of Wotan - Holy Book of the Aryan Tribes | edition= | publisher=14 Word Press | location= | isbn=0-9678123-3-X }} * {{Cite book|last=Kaplan|first=Jeffrey|date=2000|title=Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-0340-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNWbbhUYv8oC&pg=PA202}}
* {{cite book | first=Hardy | last=Lloyd | authorlink= | coauthors=Lisa Lloyd | year=2008 | title=The Wotanist Bible (1st edition) | edition= | publisher=Self Published | location= | id=ISBN }} * {{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=James R. |last2=Petersen |first2=Jesper Aagaard |title=Controversial New Religions |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780199315314 }}


'''Further reading'''
{{paganism}}
* {{cite book|ref=none |last=Goodrick-Clarke |first=Nicholas |title=Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity |year=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8147-3155-0 }}
* {{cite book|ref=none |last=Kaplan |first=Jeffrey |title=Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah |publisher=Syracuse Academic Press |location=Syracuse |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8156-0396-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780815603962 }}


{{Authority control}}
]
]


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Latest revision as of 07:13, 16 September 2024

White nationalist neopagan movement

This article is about the white supremacist movement. For the Germanic mystical concept of Guido von List, see Wotanism (Guido von List). For the worship of Wotan, see Wotan (disambiguation).
Wotanism
Founder
David Lane, Ron McVan, Katja Lane
Regions with significant populations
American Mountain States, Europe
Religions
Heathenry (Nordic racial paganism)
Scriptures
Temple of Wotan: Holy Book of the Aryan Tribes, Creed of Iron: Wotansvolk Wisdom, the "Fourteen Words", "88 Precepts", Hávamál
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Wotansvolk (English: "Odin's Folk") promulgates a white nationalist variant of Neo-Paganism—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 supremacist revolutionary domestic terrorist organization The Order. 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 2000s.

History

Wotansvolk was launched following the publication by David Lane of a 1995 article titled "Wotan's Folk", which gave the group its name. Wotan is the Germanic name for Odin, a central figure in Norse faith and other Germanic mythologies. Lane had been publishing white supremacist and neopagan work under the name "14 Word Press", along with his wife Katja Lane and Ron McVan, an artist who had become involved in the white supremacist movement from the 1970s after reading the works of Ben Klassen. Headquartered at a mountain outside St. Maries, Idaho, Wotansvolk rapidly evolved into "a dynamic propaganda center that spread its message throughout the United States and abroad".

Established at a time when Internet was beginning to revolutionize communication means, the group set up a website in 1995, and got its own domain in 1997, "14words.com". In 2001, an online chat was created, in order to link Heathens around the world in a common white power culture. The first European Wotansvolk group was established in spring 1996 in London. According to Mattias Gardell, Wotansvolk was not founded as a membership organization but rather as a propaganda center, providing "a philosophical foundation for independent kindreds and fraternities" with a large number of individual supporters helping disseminate Wotansvolk materials in their local communities. Besides illustrating the group's publications, McVan extended Odinism to a business by selling artifacts such as rune-staffs, Thor's hammers or ceremonial drinking horns.

A number of pagan white-power bands have referenced Wotansvolk in their lyrics, including Darken's Creed of Iron album and Dissident's album A Cog in the Wheel. The original group eventually split in 2002, when administration of Wotansvolk was transferred to John Post in Napa, California. In March of the same year, Post announced the formation of the National Prison Kindred Alliance, as a joint effort of Wotansvolk and a number of independent Asatrú/Odinist tribal networks seeking to improve their religious rights in penitentiaries.

Presence in US prisons

Wotansvolk operated a quite successful prison outreach program. 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". As of January 2001, Wotansvolk catered to more than 5,000 prisoners, including several members of The Order like David Lane and Richard Scutari. There were fewer than a hundred prison kindreds by the fall of 1996; more than three hundred of them were present by the year 2000. Prison authorities however often break groups by disseminating their members to various establishments. Lane's campaigning has contributed to the fact that all states now allow any prisoner to wear a Thor's hammer as a religious medallion.

If there are many white supremacist groups active in prison, the organization seemed according to Gardell "more successful in its outreach efforts than other Asatrú/Odinist programs". Non-racist versions of Asatrú and Odinism are protected in the US under freedoms of speech and of religion, but violent and racist religious materials, such as Wotanism, may be banned or restricted from prisons. While the movement is primarily associated to prison culture in the media, Wotansvolk co-founder Katja Lane asserted in a 1999 interview that prisoners constituted only an estimated 20 percent of Wotansvolkers in the United States.

Beliefs

Wotansvolk is based on a combination of white separatism, Jungian psychology, the neo-völkisch movement, Western esotericism and syncreticism from other far-right subcultures and religious movements, notably the Church of the Creator. Lane was an early proponent of the Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory, a belief that the U.S. government and the Western world is dominated by "traitors and Jews working towards the establishment of a New World Order". Convinced the white race was on the verge of extinction, Lane popularized the "Fourteen Words" slogan as a rallying point in the White pride movement. The group praises a mythologized version of the Viking Age, with Odinism as a religious component. Wotansvolkers also cite as influential the works of ariosophist Guido von List and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Race

Wotansvolk promotes "white racialism" derived from a white identity. They attribute various wars occurring in Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia as consequences of artificial borders imposed by the enemies of the white race to divide and conquer. Wotansvolk followers have defended Hitler and the Nazis as "prisoners" of these artificial boundaries.

Followers of the movement often selectively cite Carl Jung's theories of an "Aryan" collective subconscious, which they equate with the "race-soul" of Nazism. Wotansvolk followers specifically cite Jung's 1936 essay "Wotan".

White revolution

Desiring a "white revolution", Wotansvolk endorsed the "leaderless resistance" strategy originally developed by Louis Beam. Their own version involved the tactical separation between an open propaganda arm and a paramilitary underground. The mission of the overt part was to "counter system-sponsored propaganda", "educate the Folk", and "provide a man pool from which the covert or military arm can be ." Predicting that the openly racist propaganda arm would be "under scrutiny", Lane emphasized by 1994 the need for members to "operate within the parameters" and keep themselves "rigidly separated" from the military underground. The paramilitary wing would have to "operate in small, autonomous cells, the smaller the better, even one man alone", in order for its members to primarily target "weak points in the infrastructure" of industrialized societies with "fire, bombs, guns, terror, disruption, and destruction". Lane added that "whatever and whoever perform valuable service for the system are targets, human or otherwise", and that "special attention and merciless terror are visited upon those White men who commit race treason".

Lane considered loyalty to the United States "race treason", as he viewed the United States as actively committing genocide against white people.

While Wotansvolk followers have endorsed the white separatist project of the Northwest Territorial Imperative, they mostly dismissed the constitution of the white ethnostate proposed by Aryan Nations in April 1996 on the ground that it restricted liberties, especially the freedom of religion.

Anti-Christianity

David Lane attributed the current weakness of the "Aryan man" to Christianity, a creed "diametrically opposed to the natural order" and part of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. "God is not love", he said, "God the Creator made lions to eat lambs; he made hawks to eat sparrows. Compassion between species is against the law of nature. Life is struggle and the absence of struggle is death."

Despite Lane's contempt for Christianity, he described 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 his name and birthdate were prophesied in the Bible as being connected to the coming of the Antichrist and embodying the spirits of Mars, Thor, and King David while being described as "the Man of prophecy", the "666 Man", and the "Joseph Smith of Wotanism". Ron McVan dismissed the African-Americans who "zealously emphasize the rigors of 200 years of slavery in this country" and Jews who "rant hysterically and endlessly about an alleged holocaust", while highlighting the "freethinking Aryan pagans, alchemists, and scientists suffered under the Christian pogroms and Inquisition. This was a deliberate, religious slaughter of the innocents unparalleled in the Western world".

McVan argued that the main cause of the fall and degeneration of Aryan golden age was the spiritual advent of Jewish Christianity. According to him, the folk then began to gradually lose consciousness of itself as a race: "If ever there were a birth of tragedy, it was when Aryan man turned his back on the indigenous Gods of his race," McVan wrote in 1999.

Wotanism

Ron McVan developed Wotansvolk ariosophy in two books titled Creed of Iron (1997) and Temple of Wotan (2000), with the project to get the lost "folk consciousness" to re-emerge, and reconnect white people to their "roots the Aryan race". Wotanism is presented by McVan as "the inner voice of the Aryan soul, which links the infinite past with the infinite future". To McVan, Wotan—a Germanic name for Odin—symbolizes "the essential soul and spirit of the Aryan folk made manifest" as an iron-willed warrior god. The name "Wotan" was also chosen instead of "Odin" because it was also used as an acronym for "will of the Aryan nations". According to James R. Lewis and Jesper A. Petersen, "there is no ontological distinction separating Aryan man and Aryan gods. They are conceived of as kin, differing in power rather than nature". McVan cultivated the "mystery of the blood", the belief that unmixed Aryan blood carries a genetic memory of the racial lineage with all its gods, demigods, and heroes of the aboriginal golden age. Given that the Aryan can reconnect to the archetypal gods of the blood, "man is able", in the words of McVan, "to awaken to a divinity which flows within him". "A race without its mythos and religion of the blood", McVan followed, "shifts aimlessly through history".

Wotanism, contrary to a self-denying Christianity, is seen by Wotansvolkers as a "natural religion", preaching "war, plunder, and sex". Lane's followers, who regard him as a folk hero, see Lane's writing, such as the "14 Words" and the "88 Precepts" manifesto, as holy scriptures and foundational texts. They primarily consider the gods through a "soft polytheistic" lens as Jungian archetypes, although Lane said one could be a deist, a pantheist, or an atheist and still be Wotansvolk. McVan and Lane have described many rituals and practices, none of which are required of practitioners. 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, whereas Ron McVan labelled it "Heathen".

Universalist Asatruars—notably The Troth—along with 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. Folkish Heathens on their side, such as Stephen McNallen of the Asatru Folk Assembly, generally support Lane's Fourteen Words, although they are not generally in favor of domestic terrorism to establish a white ethnostate.

See also

  • Ariosophy – Esoteric philosophy
  • Christian Identity – White supremacist interpretation of Christianity
  • Creativity (religion) – Religion classified as a neo-Nazi hate group
  • Irminism – Esoteric philosophyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
  • National Socialist Kindred – Neo-Nazi and racial paganism organization
  • Neopaganism – Religions shaped by historical paganismPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
  • New religious movement – Religious community or spiritual group of modern origin
  • White Separatism – Belief in the superiority of white peoplePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
  • Ynglism – Branch of Rodnovery

References

Notes

  1. ^ Gardell (2004), pp. 205–206
  2. ^ Lewis & Petersen (2014), pp. 413–415
  3. ^ Gardell (2003), pp. 224–225
  4. ^ Kaplan (2000), p. 202
  5. ^ Lewis & Petersen (2014), pp. 417–418
  6. ^ Gardell (2003), p. 217
  7. "Neo-Pagans Peter Georgacarakos, David Lane and Richard Scutari Publishing from Prison". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2000. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  8. "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 2017-05-29.
  9. "Supreme Court Requires Prisons Give Special Consideration to Racist Pagans". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2009. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  10. Gardell (2004), pp. 208, 210–212.
  11. Gardell (2003), p. 67.
  12. "David Lane". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 2008-11-03.
  13. Gardell (2003), pp. 112–113.
  14. Gardell (2003), pp. 202, 381.
  15. Gardell (2003), p. 381.
  16. ^ "New Brand of Racist Odinist Religion on the March". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1998. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
  17. "Wotanism by Professor Carl Gustav Jung. Compiled by the late, Jost Turner". Gambanreidi Statement. Archived from the original on 2002-10-05.
  18. Gardell (2003), p. 270.
  19. Gardell (2004), pp. 214–217.
  20. Gardell (2003), pp. 273–283.

Bibliography

Further reading

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