Editing Wotansvolk (section)

==Beliefs==
Wotansvolk is based on a combination of white separatism, [[Carl Jung|Jungian]] psychology, the [[Völkisch movement#Modern usage in Heathenry|neo-völkisch movement]], [[Western esotericism]] and [[syncreticism]] from other [[far-right subcultures]] and religious movements, notably the [[Creativity (religion)|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 (conspiracy theory)|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.<ref name=":3" /> The group praises a mythologized version of the [[Viking Age]], with [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Odinism]] as a religious component.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Wotansvolkers also cite as influential the works of [[Ariosophy|ariosophist]] [[Guido von List]] and philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].<ref name=":3" />

=== Race ===
Wotansvolk promotes "white racialism" derived from a [[White people|white identity]]. They attribute various wars occurring in [[The Troubles|Northern Ireland]] and [[Yugoslav Wars|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.<ref name=":0" />

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".{{sfnp|Gardell|2004|pp=208, 210–212}}

=== 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 [recruited]."<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 [legal] 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 [[White genocide conspiracy theory|genocide against white people]].{{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=[[Anti-Defamation League]]|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 [[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]].{{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 [[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 (mythology)|Mars]], [[Thor]], and [[David|King David]] while being described as "the Man of prophecy", the "666 Man", and the "[[Joseph Smith]] 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 [who] 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 [[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 [in] 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.<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 [[folk hero]],<ref name="SPLC1998"/> see Lane's writing, such as the "[[14 Words]]" and the "88 Precepts" manifesto, as [[religious text|holy scriptures]] and foundational texts. They primarily consider the gods through a "[[Polytheism|soft polytheistic]]" lens as [[Jungian archetypes]], although Lane said one could be a [[deist]], a [[pantheist]], or an [[atheist]] 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 [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] 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 [[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.{{sfnp|Gardell|2003|pp=273–283}} 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]].<ref name="SPLC1998"/>