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Michael Moynihan

The Secret King – Moynihan & Flowers (2007)

The second and revised edition is starting to have the price of the original edition. Good that there is also a Kindle version with a normal price.

“The Myth and Reality of Nazi Occultism” is the subtitle of the book and this is also the theme of the introduction, the most interesting part in my opinion. Michael Moynihan and Stephen Flowers describe how the myth of Nazi occultism took root and how it developped. Basically, there is but one person to whom the myth can be acribed: Karl Maria Willigut (1866-1946), also known as Weisthor, Jarl Widar and Lobesam.

Here we have a high ranking person who actually experimented with the occult. He was also a fairly active author. There is an interesting history why Willigut thought he stood in a long, magical tradition, his theories, alleged troubles between “Irminists” and “Wotanists”. At the end of the book there is an interview of Manfred Lenz with Gabriele Dechend who knew Willigut when she was young. The interview has some interesting details, such as that the symbol of the Wewelsburg (see cover of the book) was only called “black sun” in hinsight.

Between these introductions and appendices, there are translations of texts of Willigut. He had a very messy, inpenetrable, tickly layered writing style with all kinds of mythological and occult references. Hard to read, hard to follow. The texts do contain writings such as Gotos-Kalanda and the Halgarita Charms.

I found the texts of Willigut the least interesting part of the book.

2007 Feral House, isbn 1932595252

Tyr 1 (magazine) * Johua Buckley & Michael Moynihan (editors) (2002 ultra publishing * isbn 0972029206 / issn 15389413)

I bought the second volume of this book/magazine in 2004 when I was in Seattle. I had been in doubt before doing so. The articles didn’t seem too interesting and the cd just alright. I am glad that I bought it, because the articles proved very interesting and the cd very good. Then I was in doubt whether or not to buy the first 2002 volume. When I finally decided to do so, I found out that it is no longer available and hard to get second hand, at least, in Europe. In the end I bought a second hand copy via Amazon.com for (I believe) $ 25,- including shipping, coming close to the new price. I already noticed that the prices can go way up. When I write this, Amazon has only one second hand copy for the price of $ 95,03!! Everyone in doubt, I can advise to get your copy, but look around to avoid paying incredible prices.

The first volume is a little bit thinner than the second one (286 pages) and has no cd. The cd in the second volume was a brilliant marketing stunt by the way, because it seems that every kid around, suddenly became a “radical traditionalist” like the editors of Tyr. There are some nice articles in Tyr 1. After a nice preface, an alright article of Stephen Edred Flowers about ‘integral culture’ follows. Collin Cleary then writes about Knowing the Gods, an article in which the writer shows himself very “Traditionalistic”. He sure has some points, but I don’t agree with him everywhere. Alain de Benoist has interviewed Georges Dumézil a long time ago and an English translation can be found in Tyr. There are articles about Northern mythology, such as Steve Pollington on Odin/Wodan, and Moynihan with a very well written article about the figure of Hagen and the Nibelungenlied. Alby Stone follows the footsteps of Dumézil, noone else than Joscelyn Godwin writes about Evola and there are less interesting articles about the Goddes Zisa, mountaineering and Herman Lönns. After an interview with Ian Read, Collin Cleary has a lengthy article about the 1960’ies TV-seriers The Prisoner. This name is smacked around my ears way too often but Cleary lit a burning desire in my to watch it! The journal closes off with (mostly lengthy) book- and musicreviews with not the most typical titles. So my conclusion can only be that this journal is surely worth a read and I advise you to be quick if you don’t have a copy of either volume. Since we now live in 2006 and the previous volumes are of 2002 and 2004, I can only hope that volume 3 will see the light of day soon.
(6/8/06 -4-)
Read quotes from Tyr here.

Tyr 2 (magazine) * Joshua Buckley and Michael Moynihan (editors) (2004 ultra publishing * ISSN 15389413 / ISBN 0972029214)

Earlier I reviewed the <a href="“>cd that comes with issue two of the annually published magazine “Tyr”. However a magazine, Tyr also has an ISBN code and this is not for nothing. Tyr has 450 pages and is bound like a book, has the size of a book and looks like a book. Actually it is a book with articles. So here we have an American magazine about the ancient culture of Northern-Europe, in the past and nowadays, but the subject is taken widely, because there is much room for “Völkish” and nationalistic ideas as well. The editors claim to be “radical Traditionalists” in the tradition of Guénon and (particularly) Evola.
After a long introduction by the editors about the first issue and the reactions to it (because of the subjects, the magazine is pushed in the (extreme-)right corner) and similar subjects. Then there is a translation of an article by Julius Evola about “The Traditional Doctrine Of Battle And Victory” which is a nice -but rather long- read. Collin Cleary continues an article of the first issue (which I don’t have) about the gods of ancient Europe. This is a heavy philosophical article about how the gods could be part of everyday life. Next up is Alain de Benoist with “Thoughts On God” and then an interview with this Frenchman by Charles Champetier. Moynihan then has “Reflections On […] Myths Of Divine Sacrifice”, Steve Pollington writes about the “Origins of The Germanic Warband”, Nigel Pennick tells you about “Heathen Holy Places In Northern Europe”, John Matthews about giants and Christian Rätsch about “sacred plants” (drugs in ancient times). The following article is one of the more interesting: “The First Northern Renaissance” by Stephen Edred Flowers. After this you can read at lenght how the ́satrú revival was started in the USA by Stephen A. McNallen who write the article himself. Then two persons who alligned with the Nazis (either or not slavely following their ideas): Ludwig Fahrenkrog (article by Markus Wolff) and the Dutchman Herman Wirth (Joscelyn Godwin writes about “Herman Wirth On Folksong”. After all this there is an interview with Gerhard of the Austrian industrial project Allerseelen and then many book reviews with a great variety of subjects. Then musicreviews, also not restricted to one scene.
(23/11/04)
Read quotes from Tyr here.