Blavatsky and contemporary politics 4/5 - Fascism and the Occult (Right wing (and left wing) ideologies)

1 - Theosophical Society was established with apolitical and non-violent peace- building policies.

 

Firstly, the early Theosophical Society was established with apolitical and non-violent peace-building policies.

Theosophists are of necessity the friends of all movements in the world, whether intellectual or simply practical, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind. We are the friends of all those who fight against drunkenness, against cruelty to animals, against injustice to women, against corruption in society or in government, although we do not meddle in politics. We are the friends of those who exercise practical charity, who seek to lift a little of the tremendous weight of misery that is crushing down the poor. (Letter I — 1888 Second Annual Convention — April 22-23, CW 9:247)

In the neo-theosophical period, Annie Besant makes a conspicuous exception to the apolitical  policy (motivated by esoteric reasons) when she becomes president of the Indian National Congress. Personally, I think she had an overall positive impact, however, since there is only one full book (Isaac Lubelsky: Celestial India. Madame Blavatsky and the Birth of Indian Nationalism, Sheffield (UK)/Oaksville (US): Equinox 2012,) (with several articles as well) on the role of the Theosophical Society in India’s independence movement. It's not bad, but a lot more could be written on the subject. The recent Imagining the East: The Early Theosophical Society (Oxford, 2020) adds some much-needed research and discussion.

My personal view is that the original policies entail that a writer, lecturer or administrator in a theosophical organization should refrain from publicly taking active political roles and expressing partisan political views.

 

2- Tendency in the mass media to consider everything in terms of conservative or liberal political leanings.

 

One problem related to misconceptions, is a marked tendency in the mass media to consider everything in terms of conservative or liberal political leanings. In Blavatsky’s case, she gets identified, for better or worse, in right wing and left wing camps. For example, both Gandhi and certain Nazis have been considered to be influenced by theosophy. Also, she is targeted in both globalist woke and antifa racist conspiracy theories. To me, that indicates her views encompass something more complex than simple right or left wing categories.

 

In contemporary times, some researchers express surprise to find that certain groups or protagonists don’t fit into comfortable left wing hippie or right wing white collar political categories, whereas the alternative spiritual movement has always been characterized by an individualist ‘salad bar’ mix of diverse beliefs and practices, so one could ask if that categorizing tendency is not inherently inadequate. There is also the spiritual-materialist opposition, so a political conflict often involves complex four-way tensions between the spiritual left, the materialist left, the spiritual right, and the materialist right.

 

3- Occultism and Fascism connections

 

With this part we reach the crux of the problem, since most of the recent volatile political situations with occult connections come from right-wing factions, related to a general upswing in right-wing political movements. It’s understandable that there is serious concern with this situation and I can see how the greater focus on this problem has valid motivations. The gist of my observations, besides arguing that Blavatsky’s name need not be dragged through the mud in all this, is to note how the current coverage of the situation can be counter-productive, mainly due to over-reliance on outdated political assumptions that do not have the nuances needed to fully explain the nature of the problem. 

 

I think the main problem is that the current political situation might have augmented an anti-esoteric stance in political studies. Some esoteric historians have complained of this (Review of Kurlander's Hitler's Monsters) The result tends to leave the discourse conditioned by the unfortunate agenda set by The Morning of the Magicians. For example, the promotion of the Kurlander book seemed to capitalize on media sensationalism, which tended to increase misconceptions related to conspiracy theories, rather than to diminish them. It seems that even Peter Staudenmaier  may have noticed the problem and felt the need write a corrective (The Nazis as occult masters? It’s a good story but not history). Despite much solid effort in the last twenty years in the area of esoteric history,  I would say there is still a lot that we simply do not know, and I think we are far from coming to terms with the legacy of the second world war (For example, a more accurate understanding of Adolf Eichmann only emerged in the mainstream less than ten years ago, thanks to the exceptional historical research of Bettina Stangneth). Progress has been made, but there’s still work to be done on integrating esoteric history into mainstream history. Additionally, I haven’t seen much historical research of the considerable influence of the theosophical movement on the 1960s counter-culture movement, which I think could open up a wider field of understanding into today’s situation (A lot of that discourse is influenced by Lopez' Prisoners of Shangri-La, which is unsatisfactory to me. I don't know if something better has been written yet).

 

Moreover, Jason Colavito has argued that one could find significant ties of the occult with politics in many countries, and not just Germany specifically (Eric Kurlander's New Book Attempts to Explain Nazi Supernatural and Occult Beliefs). Recently Julian Strube wrote a study that opens a wider perspective of exploration, which includes left wing occult influences:

 

'It would be misleading, however, to regard occultism as a generally leftwing, liberal, or progressive field. Its heterogeneity makes any generalisation impossible. Right-wing tendencies in the form of racism, anti-Semitism, or nationalism surged especially at the beginning of the twentieth century. This was a reflection of broader tendencies within European culture and politics, from which occultism – and this is the crucial point here – was not isolated. Quite the contrary, the many shades of occultism formed a prominent and integral part of avant-garde culture across Europe, and it is not surprising that they continued to influence especially the most radical political tendencies of its time. Racism, antisemitism, and related sentiments had always been commonplace across the left side of the political spectrum, too, but they were especially radicalised within the identity politics of rightwing movements. At this point, we simply lack the research to understand the historical development of politics within these contexts, their obvious relevance notwithstanding. This especially applies to a comparative perspective that takes into account the different national contexts, particularly in the period after World War I.' (229)

 

'In addition to this lack of scholarship on the entanglement of esotericism and fascism or National Socialism, there is a general disinterest in the history of the left side of the political spectrum. Our knowledge of this milieu, which had been thriving in the decades around 1900, is especially limited in the German context, firstly due to the focus on “Nazi occultism,” and secondly, as a consequence of the far-reaching eradication of political opponents in the Third Reich. There is, however, valuable scholarship on Russia and the Soviet Union demonstrating the relevance of esotericism in Communism. Certainly, occultism cannot simply be placed on one side of the political spectrum but has a much more complex history than is often assumed.'  (231) (Doesn't Occultism Lead Straight to Fascism?  Hermes Explains Thirty Questions about Western Esotericism Amsterdam University Press 2019)

Recently, scholars in the field of archaeology have decided to be more vocal in opposing right-wing alternative science conspiracy theory excesses related to QAnon and the Starseed movements.  (Believe in Atlantis?) As with the Kurlander case, well-intentioned no doubt, but the actual gist of their arguments about problematic colonialist-influenced sources (which has existed in the scholarship since the early 1990s, I believe) have been convincingly questioned. (Kenneth Feder is failing on Atlantis. Thorwald C. Franke) Here again, I find that the approach used for the mass media coverage of such a volatile and sensitive topic creates a sensationalistic atmosphere that is more alarmist than informative. Julian Strube has written a recent study, that indicates that the problem is more complex and nuanced than what has been conveyed in the mass media coverage:

 

'Moving towards a more complex understanding of esotericism, but also of related subjects such as religion or “Western culture,” means exploring the ways in which the history of colonialism is more nuanced than a unilateral act of appropriation, as Theosophy serves to illustrate. Identities across the globe, even within the colonial framework characterized by power asymmetries, have formed through a complex dependency on, and interactions with, the perceived other. It is crucial to take that “other” into full account, to investigate it in its own right, specifically if it is subaltern, rather than delegating it to the margins. The case of “Western esotericism” demonstrates that these historical complexities can only be grasped through a decentering of research from its supposed European core.' (Theosophy, Race, & the Study of Esotericism  Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 89, Issue 4, December 2021, Pages 1180–1189)

 

On a personal level, among my theosophical acquaintances, I have not found a case of strong right-wing concentration. Rather I have encountered Theosophists who freely express their political views across a wide political spectrum, including far left, far right and sadly, I must confess, millenialist conspiracy theories and even fascist, neo-nazi beliefs (which I directly and publicly object to, when I can).

 

My own perception is that there is an alternative spiritual demographic that has been present since the beginning of the twentieth century and that mainstream historians have had difficulty in perceiving it and quantifying it adequately. Moreover, traces of occult groups within a political movement could simply be a sign of politicians noticing a significant demographic and catering to them to obtain their vote, like they do with any other demographic group, and using some of their ideas that seem useful to them for propaganda purposes, without necessarily identifying with them. Politics make strange bedfellows indeed.

 

4- Christianity

 

One point that seems clear enough to me in looking at the major cases of theosophy influence in politics today, is that it is more akin to a 20th century neo-theosophy form, and more specifically forms of Christian neotheosophy or traditionalism. My view is that centuries of ingrained Christian superstitions and attitudes will take time to change. Blavatsky was dealing with problems with scientific thought that was still moving away from making research conform to what was understood as Biblical chronology and was living in a world where dominant forms of Christianity seemed to be more akin to the rigid, conservative nature of fundamentalist Christianity. 

 

Moreover, she was working in an environment where Christianity was dominant in society and showed few obvious signs of decreasing, although scientific thinking was making headway as the main guiding authority. It was only in the twentieth century that Christianity began a noticeable massive decline and dealing with the loss of stable social values, albeit rigid, outdated and superstitious, that this entails is still a relatively new process.

 

It seems that the theosophical movement is still too new for many, and the tendency to fall back on the old ingrained Christian attitudes prevails, even though it is mixing in new forms. So what were seeing in politics is perhaps less an emergence of new beliefs, but rather a persistence of a fading conservative Christian mentality with an immature theosophically-influenced covering. A lot of the new age millenialist currents seem to be based on modified biblical apocalyptic beliefs. At the same time, the alternative spirituality movement has grown tremendously since Blavatsky’s time. Time will tell if it continues to thrive while conservative Christian forms and attitudes continue to decline. The decline of Christianity would probably have been even more pronounced had it not been for televangelism, the considerable success of missionary movements in the twentieth century, and the Pentecostal movement, which itself has mystical tendencies.

 

5- Repressive, dismissive attitudes

 

An underlying theme of this post has been related to problems of underestimating the role of spiritual beliefs in society. As has been seen in recent times, because people have strange esoteric beliefs does not mean that they aren’t capable of taking concerted organized action within socio-political structures; they are active agents in society and their numbers are considerable. Moreover, it would seem that forms of distorted, diluted, neo/pseudo Theosophy have motivational power. Apparently, they can give people a sense of greater direction, healthier living, clearer purpose than the options currently available to them.

 

A lot of times, a hyper-mystical new age attitude indicates a kind of intellectual dissociation that is accompanied with very materialistic behaviours and pursuits, and often such people can be very competent in mundane affairs. In certain cases, complicated lawsuits resulted in positive results for religious freedom, for example, in the Guy and Edna Ballard case, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 landmark decision held that the question of whether the Ballards believed their religious claims should not have been submitted to the jury, and remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the fraud conviction. Interpreting this decision, the Ninth Circuit later found that the Court did not go so far as to hold that "the validity or veracity of a religious doctrine cannot be inquired into by a Federal Court." (Cohen v. United States, 297 F.2d 760 (1962)

 

Certain tendencies that I’ve noticed that tend to categorize them strictly in terms of social or intellectual deviance, to sensationalize or exaggerate their potential danger, excessively focusing on extreme cases without considering the many peaceful examples can lead to dehumanizing, scapegoating, marginalizing, and ostracizing attitudes that are ultimately forms of repression. From a historical perspective, has repression ever worked? Despite centuries of violent repressions, esoteric movements keep on returning. Blunt repression is not considered effective at a psychological level; it only creates a pressure cooker situation of pent-up energy that will re-emerge in full force. Perhaps it is similar with history. Gary Lachman has written an interesting recent article on the question of the relation of psychology and political repression :

 

'What does this mean? It may mean that the magical, mythical, spiritual side of the psyche, that the west has repressed for some time now and which, even with all the New Age bells and whistles, it still hasn’t integrated in any serious way into its conscious outlook, is popping up in some unlikely and inconvenient places. Does this mean that Putin and a revived Holy Russia are the remedy, a means for the west to regain its soul? No. But it may mean that we need to throw more light and awareness on a side of the mind and ourselves we have ignored for too long. Otherwise it will remain a region where the far-right meet the far-out, leaving we enlightened ones in the dark.' (The Return of the Dark Side)

Part 5

 

PS- For a more systematic essay on this question see:

Wouter J. Hanegraaff Esotericism & Democracy: Some Clarifications  

October 07, 2022 

http://wouterjhanegraaff.blogspot.com/2022/10/esotericism-and-democracy-some.html