Editing Ariosophy (section)

==Theozoology==
[[Image:Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels.jpg|thumb|250px|Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels ([[code name]] of the fascist agitator [[Adolf Joseph Lanz]])]]
In 1903–04, a [[Vienna|Viennese]] ex-[[Cistercian]] monk and inventor named [[Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels|Jörg Lanz-Liebenfels]] (subsequently, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels) published a lengthy article under the Latin title "''Anthropozoon Biblicum''" ("The Biblical Man-Animal") in a journal for Biblical studies edited by Moritz Altschüler, a Jewish admirer of Guido von List. The author undertook a comparative survey of ancient [[Near East]]ern cultures, in which he detected evidence from iconography and literature that seemed to point to the continued survival, into early historical times, of [[hominid]] ape-men similar to the [[Neanderthal]] men known from fossil remains in Europe, or the [[Pithecanthropus]] (now called ''[[Homo erectus]]'') from [[Java]].<ref name="LL1903:337-9">{{harvnb|Lanz-Liebenfels|1903|pp= 337–39}}</ref> Furthermore, Lanz systematically analysed the [[Old Testament]] in the light of his hypothesis, identifying and interpreting coded references to the ape-men that substantiated an illicit practice of interbreeding between humans and "lower" species in antiquity.

In 1905 he expanded these researches into a fundamental statement of doctrine titled ''Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron''<ref name = "Theozoologie">{{citation | url = https://archive.org/details/EuropaHouseTheozoology |publisher=Archive |title=Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron|language=de}}.</ref> ("''Theozoology, or the Science of the Sodomite-Apelings and the Divine Electron''"). He claimed that "Aryan" peoples originated from interstellar deities (termed Theozoa) who bred by electricity, while "lower" races were a result of interbreeding between humans and ape-men (or Anthropozoa). The effects of racial crossing caused the atrophy of [[paranormal]] powers inherited from the gods, but these could be restored by the selective breeding of pure Aryan lineages. The book relied on somewhat lurid sexual imagery, decrying the abuse of white women by ethnically inferior but sexually active men. Thus, Lanz advocated mass [[castration]] of racially "apelike" or otherwise "inferior" males.<ref name="L2002">{{harvnb|Lanz von Liebenfels| 2002}}</ref> In the same year, Lanz commenced publication of the journal [[Ostara (magazine)|''Ostara'']] (named after a pagan Germanic goddess of spring) to promote his vision of racial purity.

=== Order of the New Templars ===
[[File:Flag of the Order of New Templars.svg|thumb|175px|Flag of the Order of the New Templars]]
On December 25, 1900, Lanz founded the [[Fascism|fascist]] [[secret society]] [[Order of the New Templars]] (''Ordo Novi Templi'', or ONT) – a project to unite and mobilise right-wing extremists using [[Western esotericism|esotericism]] to justify violence, such as the castration of innocent people.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hieronymus |first=Ekkehard |title=Handbuch zur "Völkischen Bewegung" 1871-1918 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110964240.131/html |chapter=Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels |date=2012-08-28 |pages=131–146 |publisher=K. G. Saur |isbn=978-3-11-096424-0 |language=de |doi=10.1515/9783110964240.131}}</ref> The ONT was modelled after the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[military order (religious society)|military order]] [[Knights Templar|Knight Templars]] and similar in its hierarchical structure to the [[Order of Cistercians]], the group that had trained Lanz.<ref name=":0" /> Members used [[code name]]s to make betrayal more difficult.<ref name=":0" />

The ideological association was headquartered at Burg Werfenstein, a castle in [[Upper Austria]] overlooking the river [[Danube]]. Rituals were designed to beautify life in accordance with Aryan aesthetics, and to express the Order's theological system, which Lanz called ''Ario-Christianity''. The Order was the first to associate the [[swastika]] with Aryanism, with its flag displaying a red swastika facing right on a yellow field and surrounded by four blue [[fleurs-de-lys]].

The ONT declined from the mid-1930s and – even though it had pioneered many ideas that the Nazis later adopted – it was suppressed by the [[Gestapo]] in 1942. By this time it had established seven communities in Austria, Germany and Hungary. Despite suspending its activities in the [[Nazi Germany|Greater German Reich]], the ONT survived in Hungary until around the end of [[World War II]].<ref name = "GC1985:119,22">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|pp= 119, 122}}</ref> It went underground in Vienna after 1945, but was contacted in 1958 by a former [[Waffen-SS]] lieutenant, [[Rudolf Mund]], who became Prior of the Order in 1979.<ref name="GC2003:135">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p= 135}}</ref> Mund also wrote biographies of Lanz and Wiligut.

=== Ariosophy ===
The term "Ariosophy" (wisdom concerning the Aryans) was coined by Lanz in 1915, with "Theozoology" describing its genesis and "Ario-Christianity" as the label for the overall doctrine in the 1920s.{{refn|"The term "Ariosophy", meaning occult wisdom concerning the [[Aryan]]s, was first coined by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915 and became the label for his doctrine in the 1920s. List actually called his doctrine "Armanism", while Lanz used the terms "Theozoology" and "Ario-Christianity" before the First World War. In this book [i.e. ''[[The Occult Roots of Nazism]]''] 'Ariosophy' is used generically to describe the Aryan-racist-occult theories of both men and their followers."<ref>{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=227, note 1 to the Introduction}}</ref>|group=Note}}

This terminology was taken up by a group of occultists, formed in [[Berlin]] around 1920 and referred to by one of its main figures, {{ill|Ernst Issberner-Haldane|de}}, as the 'Swastika-Circle'. Lanz's publisher, {{ill|Herbert Reichstein|de}}, made contact with the group in 1925 and formed it into an institute with himself as director. This association was named the Ariosophical Society in 1926, renamed the ''Neue Kalandsgesellschaft'' (from ''Kaland'', Guido von List's term for a secret lodge or conventicle) in 1928, and renamed again as the ''Ariosophische Kulturzentrale'' in 1931, the year in which it opened an Ariosophical School at [[Pressbaum]] that offered courses and lectures in [[runic]] lore, [[biorhythms]], [[yoga]] and [[Qabalah]].

The institute maintained a friendly collaboration with Lanz, its guiding intellect and inspiration, but also acknowledged an indebtedness to List, declaring itself as the successor to the ''Armanen'' priest-kings and their [[hierophant]]ic tradition. Reichstein's circle therefore established the historical precedent for a broad conception that was followed by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in 1985 when he redefined Ariosophy as a general term to describe Aryan-centric occult theories and hermetic practices, including both Lanz's Ario-Christianity and the earlier Armanism of List, as well as later derivatives of both systems. If the term is employed in this extended sense, then Guido von List, and not Lanz von Liebenfels, was the founder of Ariosophy.

The broader definition has been justified on the basis that List and Lanz had influenced each other mutually. The two men joined one another's societies; List figures in Lanz's pedigree of initiated predecessors; and Lanz is cited several times by List in ''The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric'' (1910).