Black Sun (occult symbol)

The term Black Sun (German "Schwarze Sonne"), also referred to as the "Sonnenrad" (the German for "Sun Wheel"), is a symbol of esoteric or occult significance, notable for its usage in Nazi mysticism. Today, it may also be used in occult currents of Germanic neopaganism, and in Irminenschaft or Armanenschaft-inspired esotericism.

Historical background

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Artgemeinschaft booklet.] ]

The design has loose visual parallels in Migration Age Alemannic brooches ("Zierscheiben"), possibly a variation of the Roman swastika fibula, thought to have been worn on Frankish and Alemannic women's belts. [' [http://www.derhain.de/SchwarzeSonne.html Derhain website article (In German)] " on the Schwarze Sonne ( [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.derhain.de/SchwarzeSonne.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BDerhain%2Bschwarze%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D In English] ); [http://www.jadu.de/mittelalter/germanen/gk/pages/zierscheiben_jpg.htm Jadu article] ; [http://www.museum-haag.de/museum/geschos1.htm Haag Museum] ; ' [http://www.jamestwining.com/TBS_Facts/BS_Sun.htm Personal website] ' of James Twining."; " [http://www.artfond.de/schwarzesonne.htm Artfond website article on the Schwarze Sonne] "] Some Alemannic or Bavarian specimens incorporate a swastika symbol at the center. [' [http://www.jadu.de/mittelalter/germanen/gk/pages/zierscheiben_jpg.htm Jadu article] ; [http://www.museum-haag.de/museum/geschos1.htm Haag Museum] '] The number of rays in the brooches varies between five and twelve.

Goodrick-Clarke (2002) does connect the Wewelsburg design with the Early Medieval Germanic brooches, and does assume that the original artefacts had a solar significance, stating that"this twelve-spoke sun wheel derives from decorative disks of the Merovingians of the early medieval period and are supposed to represent the visible sun or its passage through the months of the year." ['Black Sun (book by Goodrick-Clarke): : Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity' by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke."] He further refers to scholarly discussion of the brooches in Nazi Germany, [References in Rüdiger Sünner, "Schwarze Sonne: Entfesselung und Mißbrauch der Mythen in Nationalsozialismus und rechter Esoterik (Freiburg: Herder, 1999), pp. 148, 245 (note 426)":'Die durchbrochenen Zierscheiben der Merowingerzeit' (Mainz: Röm-German. Zentralmuseum, 1970) by Dorothee Renner. Examples of symbols very similar to the Wewelsburg sun wheel occur in "Mannus 28 (1936), 270; Walther Veeck, "Die Alemannen in Württemberg" (Berlin and Leipzig:DeGruyter, 1931); Hans Reinerth (ed.), "Die Vorgeschichte der Deutschen Stämme", 3 vols. (Berlin: Bibliographisches Institut, 1940), vol. 2, plate 219. ] allowing for the possibility that the designers of the Wewelsburg mosaic were indeed inspired by these historical precedents.

The Wewelsburg mosaic

The shape of the symbol as it is used within Germanic mysticist esotericism and Neo-Nazism today is based primarily on the design of a floor mosaic at the castle of Wewelsburg (built 1603), a Renaissance castle located in the northwest of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

During the Third Reich the castle was to become a representative and ideological center of the order of the SS. Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, wanted to establish the "Center of the New World" [ [http://www.nationalsozialismus.de/lexikon/ss-die-wewelsburg SS - Die Wewelsburg] In German: "SS - The Wewelsburg"; quote: "... es sollte nach dem "Endsieg" das "Zentrum der neuen Welt" entstehen." - "... after the "final victory" the "Center of the New World" was to arise (here)."] . A focus of the actual SS-activities at the castle were archaeological excavations in the surrounding region and studies of Germanic early history [ [http://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/finde/langDatensatz.php?urlID=474&url_tabelle=tab_medien Takeover of the Castle by Himmler 1934] (German)] [ [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/ss_zweckforschungen.html Information about archaeological activities] (German)] .

The mosaic is placed in the ground floor room of the North-Tower of the castle in the so called "Obergruppenführersaal" ("Obergruppenführer hall", completed 1939-1943) ['Wewelsburg 1933 bis 1945. Kult-und-Terrorstätte der SS. Eine Dokumentation (Schriftenreihe des Kreismuseums Wewelsburg 1), 2nd Edition Paderborn 1987.' by Karl Hüser and translated into English in 2000 by Robin Benson] ( [http://www.roland-harder.de/burgen-und-schloesser/imageTA6.jpgsee photo of the room] ). The "Obergruppenführer" (literally: "Upper-Group-Leaders") were the highest ranking SS-generals. It is not known if the SS had a special name for the ornament nor if they attributed a special meaning to the ornament. In their study of sense characters the sun apart was interpreted as "the strongest and most visible expression of god", the number twelve as significant for "the things of the target and the completion" [ Walther Blachetta: "Das Buch der deutschen Sinnzeichen" (The book of German sense characters); reprint of 1941; page 15/16: interpretation of the sun and page 80: interpretation of the number twelve.] . The mosaic at Wewelsburg itself is dark green (see [http://www.ruedigersuenner.de/schwarze%20sonne.jpgphoto] ) on a whitish/greyish marble floor. Probably a golden disc was placed in the middle of the ornament originally. [The "Schwarze Sonne" documentary by Rüdiger Sünner contains as bonus material an interview with the DVD-producer in which he states this.] [ At the end of [http://www.nationalsozialismus.de/lexikon/ss-zukunftsplane this] article a "plate of pure gold in the axis of the sun wheel" is mentioned.] Verify credibility|date=July 2007

Instead of Christianity, Himmler wanted a moral doctrine raised from the pre-Christian pagan Germanic heritage. Cultic ceremonies and rituals were part of the everyday life of the SS. The Wewelsburg was to be a center of a "kind-accordant" religion (German: "artgemäße" Religion) [ [http://www.nationalsozialismus.de/lexikon/ss-die-wewelsburg "SS - Wewelsburg (Castle)"] ; quote: "Sie sollte ein Mittelpunkt der "artgemäßen" Religion werden und einen Repräsentationsbau für das SS-Führerkorps darstellen" - "(Wewelsburg Castle) was to be a center of the "kind-accordant" religion and a representative building for the SS-leader-corps"] [ [http://www.nationalsozialismus.de/lexikon/heinrich-himmler Heinrich Himmler] , quote: "Sie sollte nach dem “Endsieg” zum “Zentrum der neuen Welt” und “artgemäßen Religion” werden." (Wewelsburg Castle) was to become "Center of the New Word" and the "kind-accordant religion" after the "final victory".] - a world-view which was to be neo-heathenish and Germanic-aryan.

The North-Tower of the castle was to be the center of a planned circular estate, 1.27 kilometres in diameter [ [http://www.nationalsozialismus.de/lexikon/ss-die-wewelsburg Nationalsozialismus.de » SS - Die Wewelsburg ] ] [ [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/index.html#architektur Kreismuseum Wewelsburg - Die SS Schule Haus Wewelsburg ] ] (also see the [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/bild_41.html architectural drawing] and [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/modell.html model] from 1944). The architects called the complex the "Center of the World" from 1941 on.

The North-Tower, which had survived a ruin after 1815, only assumed importance for Himmler starting in the autumn of 1935. In the process of Himmler establishing the castle as a cult site (an ideological and religious center of the SS), probably the tower was to serve the highest-ranking SS leaders as a center for their race cult which had accentuated religious aspects. Nothing is known about the possible way and the kind of arrangement of designated ceremonies in the tower—the redesigned rooms were never used. [In the [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/index.html German article] this is stated.] According to the architects, the axis of the North-Tower was to be the actual "Center of the World" [The "Schwarze Sonne" documentary by Rüdiger Sünner contains as bonus material an interview with the DVD-producer in which he states this.] .

SS architect Hermann Bartels presented a first draft of plans that envisioned using the North Tower on three different levels:

* Where primary a cistern was a vault after the model of Mycenaean domed tombs was created which probably was to serve for some kind of commemoration of the dead (see [http://www.hansgruener.de/pictures/hermannsborn/7811_02.jpgphoto] ).
* A "columned hall" was to be constructed on the ground floor for the SS-Obergruppenführer. The sun wheel–shaped ornament, later called the "Black Sun", is placed here ( [http://www.hansgruener.de/pictures/hermannsborn/7809_02.jpgsee another photo of the room] ).
* Finally, the upper floors were to be completed as a meeting hall for the entire corps of the SS Gruppenführer.

However, a meeting in the first floor mosaic room never occurred—the building work at the room was stopped in 1943. ["Wewelsburg 1933 bis 1945. Kult-und-Terrorstätte der SS. Eine Dokumentation (Schriftenreihe des Kreismuseums Wewelsburg 1), 2nd Edition Paderborn 1987." Karl Hüser; translated into English in 2000 by Robin Benson and [http://www.dergral.de/rlc/interviews/john-stucke.htm Interview with Kirsten John-Stucke, Vize-Director of the memorial-place Wewelsburg (in German)] ]

In 1945, when the "final victory" didn't materialize, the castle was partially blasted and set on fire by the SS but the two redesigned rooms in the North-Tower stayed intact.

Usually the room where the sun wheel is placed can only be viewed from the outside through a lattice door. Due to the lighting conditions, the mosaic in the floor looks black and not green (see [http://www.wewelsburg-alte-muehle.de/Bilder/wburg07.jpganother photo] ).

It is not known whether or not this symbol was placed in the marble floor at Wewelsburg before or after the National Socialist Regime and the taking over of the castle by Himmler. There is speculation as to whether the symbol was put into the hall by the Nazis or whether it was there a long time before but there is no definitive proof either way. It must be noted that book sold by the Wewelsburg museum on the history of the castle from 1933 to 1945 makes no mention of who put it there. The plans for the North Tower by SS architect Hermann Bartels make no mention of it. Scholars today are reluctant to say with any certainty why it was put there, or by whom. ['Wewelsburg 1933 bis 1945. Kult-und-Terrorstätte der SS. Eine Dokumentation (Schriftenreihe des Kreismuseums Wewelsburg 1), 2nd Edition Paderborn 1987.' by Karl Hüser and translated into English in 2000 by Robin Benson and 'Black Sun (book by Goodrick-Clarke): Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity' by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and extensive pictorial illustration is provided by Stuart Russell and Jost W. Schneider, Heinrich Himmler's Burg. Das weltanschauliche Zentrum der SS: Bildchronik der SS-Schule Haus Wewelsburg 1934-1945 (Landshut, Germany: RVG, 1989). Photographs of the Sun Wheel appear ibid, pp. 81-82 - this has been translated into English and is sold by the Wewelsburg museum] Because the ceilings of the North-Tower were cast in concrete and faced with natural stone during the Third Reich, it is more likely that the ornament was created during the Himmler era. There is, although its origins are unknown, an identical rendition of the Wewelsburg Schwarze Sonne in a wall painting at a World War II military bunker memorial to Bismarck at Hamburg below a statue of Bismarck (see Bismarck-Monument (Hamburg)). [' [http://www.geocities.com/irminenschaft/Cosmology/Schwarzesonne.html Die Schwarzesonne (Revised)] ' by Steve Anthonijsz (Radböd Ártisson)."] [' [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck-Denkmal_%28Hamburg%29 German Wikipedia article on Bismarck-Denkmal (Hamburg)] '."] Verify credibility|date=July 2007

The Vienna Circle

The "Black Sun" is often associated with the mystic-esoteric aspects of National Socialism. Origin of a phantastic post war "SS mysticism" which refers to the "Black Sun" is a right-wing esoteric circle in Vienna in the early 1950s. [ [http://www.iivs.de/~iivs01311/H-B-K/deba.hi.05.htm Wien als Brutstätte des okkulten Faschismus] Vienna as hatchery of occult fascism: "Die beiden Wiener Wilhelm Landig und Rudolf J. Mund müssen als die eigentlichen Stifter dieses "SS-Mystizismus" angesehen werden, der sich heute um das Symbol der "Schwarzen Sonne" gruppiert." The two Vienneses Wilhelm Landig and Rudolf J. Mund must be seen as the actual founders of this "SS mysticism" which refers to the "Black Sun" nowadays.]

The former SS member Wilhelm Landig of the Vienna Circle (esoteric) "coined the idea of the Black Sun, a substitute swastika and mystical source of energy capable of regenerating the Aryan race" ["Black Sun" by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2002)]

Rudolf J. Mund (also a former SS member and later also member of the Vienna Circle) discusses a relationship of the Black Sun with alchemy. The visible sun is described as a symbol of an invisible anti-sun: "Everything what can be comprehended by human senses is material, is the shadow of the invisible spiritual light. The material fire is - seen in this way - also only the shadow of the spiritual fire." [Rudolf J. Mund: Das Mysterium der Schwarzen Sonne; Kapitel: Die Esoterik der "Schwärze" (The mystery of the Black Sun; chapter: The esotericism of the "black")]

Nazi and Neo-Nazi significance

The term "Black Sun" may originate with the mystical "Central Sun" in Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy. This invisible or burnt out Sun (Karl Maria Wiligut's "Santur" in Nazi mysticism) symbolizes an opposing force or pole. Fact|date=February 2007 Emil Rüdiger, of Rudolf John Gorslebens "Edda-Gesellschaft" (Edda Society), claimed that a fight between the new and the old Suns was decided 330,000 years ago, and that Santur had been the source of power of the Hyperboreans. Fact|date=February 2007

The Wewelsburg symbol can be deconstructed into three swastikas; a "rising", a "zenith" & a "setting" one, the design is popular among German Neo-Nazis as a replacement for the outlawed singular swastika symbol. Another interpretation is that the symbol incorporates twelve reversed "Sig runes" of the Armanen runes.

Allegedly, the design was drawn for Heinrich Himmler from an "old Aryan emblem", [http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsblacksun.htm] and was meant to mimic the Round table of Arthurian legend with each spoke of the sun wheel representing one "knight" or Officer of the "inner" SS. According to James Twining, "The symbol of the Black Sun unites the three most important symbols of Nazi ideology - the sun wheel, the swastika and the stylised victory rune." and that it is symbolic in its form representing "the twelve SS Knights of The Order of the Death's Head and their three retainers)". [' [http://www.jamestwining.com/TBS_Facts/BS_Sun.htm Personal website] ' of James Twining."]

Erich Halik was the first to link the esoteric SS with the Black Sun roundel insignia carried by German aircraft in the polar region at the close of World War II. ["Black Sun" by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2002)] [" "Um Krone und Gipfel der Welt" " (Mensch und Schicksal 6, No. 10 (1 August 1952), pp. 3-5) by Erich Halik (Claude Schweikhart)]

An image in Elemente, (No. 6, 1998) the journal of the Kassel-based Thule-Seminar [http://www.thule-seminar.org/] , shows a martial warrior holding a shield decorated with the Wewelsburg sun wheel. His upheld sword proclaims the struggle for "rebirth of Europe" against the "holocaust of peoples on the altar of multiculturalism." The German volkish magazine Sol Invictus (magazine) uses the symbol as its masthead. The issue devoted to 'Midnight' shows two sombre knights standing guard beneath the sun wheel symbol.

Contemporary esotericism

Black Sun Oasis is a chartered local body of Ordo Templi Orientis, (located in Akron, Ohio).

The [http://www.myspace.com/blacksunrisingpylon Black Sun Rising Pylon] is a local body of the Temple of Set in New York, NY.

The symbol has been used by a variety of esotericists; for example, as the name of the well-known Black Sun Press of Mary Phelps Jacob, as well as the official symbol of the occult group Black Order of the Theozoa.

Occasionally, and unscientifically, black dwarfs are referred to as black suns. This is not entirely unrelated to the esoteric meaning, since ariosophy alleges a burnt out sun that was the source of power of the Aryans in some mystical past (see also Karl Maria Wiligut). Others regard the Black Sun as a black hole; before the term black hole was invented in 1967, black holes (then still theoretical) were sometimes called black stars or dark stars. (In episode number 21 of the original Star Trek, Tomorrow Is Yesterday (TOS episode), made before the term black hole was invented, what we today call a black hole was termed a "black star".) Still others, such as Miguel Serrano, think of the Black Sun as a wormhole. Uses of the term in science fiction and fantasy literature are influenced by a combination of the esoteric and the astronomical meaning. See Black Sun (disambiguation) for examples of the term as used in popular culture.

In Edmonton, Canada, there is a company called 'Black Sun Rising', a book and media store, which uses the 'Black Sun' as its logo, as well as selling T-shirts with the 'Black Sun' image and the words "Truth, Honour, Loyalty" and the company name encircled around it. [http://www.blacksunrising.net/bsr.gif]

ee also

*Black Sun (book by Goodrick-Clarke)
*Sun cross
*Fascist symbolism
*Nazi occultism
*Thule-Seminar
*Karl Maria Wiligut
*Suns in alchemy
*Solar symbols

References

Further study

;Scholarly
* Rüdiger Sünner: Schwarze Sonne (book). Entfesselung und Missbrauch der Mythen in Nationalsozialismus und rechter Esoterik. Freiburg i. Br. Verlag Herder/Spektrum, 1999, ISBN 3451271869. Sünner also produced the DVD documentary of the same name to accompany his book.
* Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas: . New York University Press, New York 2003.
* Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas: The Occult Roots of Nazism
* Friedrich Paul Heller, Anton Maegerle: Die Sprache des Hasses. Rechtsextremismus und völkische Esoterik. Schmetterling-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001
* Friedrich Paul Heller, Anton Maegerle: Thule. Vom völkischen Okkultismus bis zur Neuen Rechten. 2. Aufl. Stuttgart, Schmetterling-Verlag 1998
* Cook, Stephen, Heinrich Himmler's Camelot: Pictorial/documentary: The Wewelsburg Ideological Center of the SS, 1934-1945 (Kressmann-Backmeyer, 1999)

;Occult
* M. B. Hasler, Die Schwarze Sonne. Göttliches Licht der Erkenntnis, ISBN 3980879402
* Rudolf J. Mund, Mythos Schwarze Sonne, ISBN 3833411228

;Documentary
*"Schwarze Sonne" documentary by Rüdiger Sünner. Sünner also produced a book to accompany this documentary.
*"" (1998), directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, narrated by Malcolm McDowell.
*The Occult History of the Third Reich, Starring: Patrick Allen, Director: Dave Flitton
**Adolf Hitler - Occult History Of The Third Reich
**The SS: Blood And Soil - Occult History Of The Third Reich
**Himmler The Mystic - Occult History Of The Third Reich
**The Enigma Of The Swastika - Occult History Of The Third Reich
*"Decoding the Past" Episode: The Nazi Prophecies" by the History Channel [http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/Conflict/programme_3089.php] [http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74536&browseCategoryId=&location=&parentcatid=&subcatid=]
*Hitler and the Occult by the History Channel [http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=72289]
*
*In 1994, Channel 4 ran a Michael Wood documentary entitled "Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail", as part of its "Secret History" series. [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/n-s/nazimyths.html]
*Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: Occult & Secrets, also known as Volume 3 in the series.
**Rudolf Hess (Occult)
**Hitler's Secret Weapons
**Enigma of the Swastika (Occult)
**Himmler's Castle: Wewelsburg (Occult)
**The Last Days of Hitler
**Decision At Dunkirk/Stalin's Secret Armies(Different editions have different episodes) [http://www.amazon.ca/dp/6305202885] [http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:OKxPi3EdqgwJ:www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vlink/056775007195.html+%22Unsolved+Mysteries+of+World+War+II%22+VOLUME+3&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=5] [http://www.amazon.com/dp/6305202958] [http://web.singnet.com.sg/~jollyroger/GM2/books/dvd1.htm]

External links

* [http://www.ruedigersuenner.de/schwarze%20sonne.jpgTopview on the floor-ornament in the Obergruppenführersaal]
* [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.net/nrw/en/wewelsburg/thema_1/nordturm.html The North Tower of Wewelsburg Castle]
* [http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsblacksun.htm Alt Religions entry for the Black Sun]
* [http://www.jamestwining.com/learn-more/the-black-sun/the_black_sun.htm James Twining on the black sun]
* [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/ss_architektur.html Wewelsburg: Building projects and Sun Wheel (in German)]