Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail

When Steven Spielberg made a movie about an intrepid archaeologist’s fight to keep a precious and powerful artifact — the Holy Grail — out of the hands of the Nazis, it was not widely known that the tale was based on truth. There really was a Nazi archaeological unit and it did send teams across the world to try to find the Grail.

History meets Indiana Jones in HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL, a one-hour documentary airing on PBS Monday, November 27, 2000, 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). Host Michael Wood (IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT) explores how history was used as a political tool and how the theories of the Nazi historical department provided the ideology used by the SS (Schutzstaffel – "protection squadron") to justify genocide.

The program outlines how the racialist theories of the SS were drawn from archaeology, myth and legend, as well as selected history. Nazi ideas about "Aryans" and the "master race" came out of historical and ethnic fantasies in which legends such as the Holy Grail and the lost city of Atlantis — supposed to be a home of the Aryan race — played their part.

HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL contains rare and previously unseen footage, including

* color film of the Nazi expedition to Antarctica;
* film of the Nazi expeditions across the world, from the Baltic to Venezuela;
* footage of the 1938 expedition to Tibet, with the measuring of skulls of Tibetans;
* documentary evidence for expeditions to Peru, Iceland and Iran, and footage of SS chief Heinrich Himmler at archaeological sites.

The film conjures the eerie world that permeated the thoughts of key members of the Nazi leadership, especially Himmler, and shows how top scholars, some of them still alive, collaborated in this project.

HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL includes interviews with a former member of Himmler’s personal staff and the wife of a top SS commander, who give unique and unrepentant insight into the mentality of the Nazi inner circle. The program also includes a dramatic recording of the Nuremburg trial of Wolfram Sievers, the head of the SS Ahnenerbe ("Ancestral Heritage Society"), Himmler’s archaeological and historical unit. The Ahnenerbe’s task, according to Himmler, was "to restore the German people to the everlasting godly cycle of ancestors, the living and the descendants."

Himmler was a member of the Thule Society, an extreme nationalist group named after one of the mythical homes of the German people. It was the society’s almost mystical belief in the greatness of the German past — to which Himmler subscribed with fanatical devotion — that was to provide the intellectual ballast to Nazi belief in race and destiny.

The chief administrator of the Ahnenerbe, Dr. Wolfram Sievers, had been heavily involved in the criminal medical experiments that were carried out on Jews in concentration camps, all to prove racial differences and the superiority of the Aryan race. After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Sievers was brought before a war crimes tribunal, found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 2, 1948. The archaeological world of the Ahnenerbe died with Hitler, Himmler and Sievers; the Ahnenerbe, too, melted away. Many of its top archaeologists, however, returned, unpunished, to university life, only to re-emerge as leading academics in postwar Germany.

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The book does sound interesting.

Yeah, its fascinating stuff. For example, all of the head honchos in the nazi regime thought they were reincarnations of historic personalities; Himmler thought he was Fredrick the Great (this is actually pretty well documented) and Goering thought he was Tiberius. The book says that Goering even had a villa on the island of Capri, like Tiberius, the preverted Roman emporer during the life of Christ.

As for Hitler, he is associated w/ a character from the Grail legends, whose name escapes me (Klingsor?), but who was a sorcerer from Sicily or southern Italy, arch-enemy of Parsival and the Grail knights.

The story's primary narrator, Stein, also believes he, Stein, was a noble in Charlemagne's court where he did battle w/ the Hitler/Klingsor personality who was at that time (c800AD) the Pope.

While all of this sounds distinctly unchristian (reincarnation), the life of Christ is viewed as the single most important cosmic event in world history, and the "quest" for the Holy Grail, is the path by which initiates move to a truer understanding of the ultimate reality personified by Christ.

I don't take much of this stuff at face value, but it is fascinating, particuarly in light of "real" history that has a self-educated rabble-rouser taking over, arguably, the most sophisticated people on earth and starting a war that kills upwards of 50 millions in a little over five years. That's truly preposterous.

Orion's Diagram and Shape

This is Orion, the brightest constellation in the sky. It is easy to find if you look for the three bright stars that make up Orion's belt. Once you have found this distinctive pattern, two other very bright stars will help you define the rest of the constellation. The first star, Betelgeuse, is located at Orion's right shoulder. The second, Rigel, is at his lower left.
Orion is the hunter, aiming his arrow and holding a club over his head. His sword hangs from his belt. In the area of this sword are found a number of very exciting star formation regions, including the Great Nebula of Orion. The nebula is visible with the unaided eye, as a smudge about halfway down the sword.

Deep Space objects in Orion

The Great Nebula of Orion (M42) is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. It is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy spot about halfway down the sword of Orion. This area is a collection of gas and dust where stars are being born. The central bright star that is illuminating the gaseous cloud is actually four stars known as the Trapezium. The nebula itself is one of the nearest regions of star formation at only about 1,500 light years away. It has formed stars recently, only 300,000 years ago. The nebula is populated with many newly created stars and protostars.
The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula, giving off light from its own glowing gases, as well as being illuminated by the Trapezium. This was the first nebula to be successfully photographed, in 1880 by Henry Draper. The Orion nebula is Messier Object number 42 (M42), the 42nd object that Charles Messier added to his famous catalogue of objects. M43 can be seen in this photograph directly above M42. Both objects are part of a larger group that includes the Horsehead Nebula as well.
Photograph of the Orion Nebula by David Malin. Copyright © ROE/Anglo-Australian Observatory. Photograph produced from UK Schmidt Plates. Used by permission.

Star Colors in Orion

You can probably recognize Orion in this photograph by the three stars in the belt. The photograph was exposed for about a half an hour. The stars were in focus to start, but every few minutes, the focus was adjusted to make the stars more and more out of focus. The gradual loss of focus combines with the natural movement of the stars across the sky to produce an image where star color is made more obvious. This technique, called a step focus, was discovered by accident by the well known photographer David Malin, who took this picture.
The photograph illustrates that stars have very different colors from one another. Color tells us about a star's temperature, composition, age, size and even its distance from us. Red stars are generally older, cooler stars that have used up much of their hydrogen fuel. Blue stars are generally younger and hotter. (In astronomy, the phrase "red-hot" doesn't work.)
Most of these stars are blue, with the obvious exception of the very red star Betelguese (located at Orion's right shoulder). Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. Rigel, the blue star at the lower left is a blue supergiant. The red streak in the sword area is the Orion Nebula.
Betelgeuse is diferent from the other stars here in that it is at the end of its life; it has burned up much of its hydrogen fuel and is much cooler than the blue stars. Small stars like the Sun conserve their energy and last for billions of years. Large, hot stars like Rigel burn up fast and may last only a few million years. The Sun is the kind of star where life and intelligence can have the time they need to evolve. Our Solar system is 4.6 billion years old and will probably last another 4 or 5 billion years.
Photograph of Stars in Orion, Step Focus by David Malin. Copyright ©Anglo-Australian Observatory. Push Processing, Hasselblad. Used by Permission.

The Individual Stars of Orion

These are the "common names" for Orion's individual stars, but astronomers often refer to stars by their Greek letters, also shown here. An astronomer named Johann Bayer assigned lower case Greek letters to the stars in each constellation, often in order of brightness. Thus, Betelgeuse is alpha Orionis, Rigel is beta Orionis, etc. (The form Orionis is the Latin genitive case; it is the possessive, and means "of Orion.") Astronomers use these Greek letters and the genitive case to identify stars.
Common names for stars are often Arabic. During the middle ages, the Arab world kept the ancient Greek knowledge of astronomy alive. They were interested in the individual stars and named many of them. These names are often descriptive and colorful. For example, Betelgeuse means "armpit of the central one." Orion may have been called the Central One (Al Jauzah) because it is directly over the Earth's equator. Betelgeuse was discovered to be a variable star by Sir John Herschel in 1836. Betelgeuse has a companion star with a five year orbit; we know that from examining the spectrum of the star, so Betelgeuse is called a "spectroscopic binary."
Rigel means "left leg of the Jauzah." It is a blue super giant and also a double star. It is the seventh brightest star in sky. Some stars are bright because they are nearby and others are bright because their absolute magnitude (true brightness) is very great. Rigel is both: it is only about 910 light years away and it is about 150,000 times as bright as the Sun.
Bellatrix is known as the Amaxon Star. "Women born under this star shall have mighty tongues," (T. Hood). Mintaka means "the belt," in arabic. It is the northernmost star in the belt and is very the near celestial equator. Alnilam means "the string of pearls." It is the central star of the belt. Saiph means "sword."

The Mythology of Orion

Orion, from the Greek word for "warrior," was the mighty hunter. The Syrians called him Al Jabbar, the giant. He was so tall he could wade through any ocean on Earth. He was also the most beautiful man in the world, and his story is filled with exploits. He was blinded by one lover, only to have his sight restored by another. Orion fell in love with all seven of the Pleiades, the seven sisters, and he pursued them all. Zeus placed the sisters in the sky to spare them heartache, but Orion still pursues them across the sky.
Orion was a bad omen for sailors, signifying the beginning of the winter and of winter storms. The Chinese called Orions belt "Tsan," meaning "Three side by side.
Orion and Scorpius are never seen in the sky together, because they are located in opposite directions from one another. The story arose that the sky was not big enough for both of them. Scorpius the scorpion stung Orion to death. Orion is said to fear the poisonous sting and to flee the scorpion's arising each night.
Urania's Mirror, by "A Lady." Published by Samuel Leigh, London, c.1825.

Location of Orion

Orion is visible from every part of the Earth. It is located on the celestial equator. This line is a projection into space of the Earth's equator and is shown here as a green line. Early navigators relied on the constellations as they travelled, and distinctive stars like the three in Orion's belt were important to them.
This is an easy constellation to find. Start on a winter evening if you are in the northern hemisphere. Look toward the southeast for the three bright stars that make up the belt. The farther north you are, the lower Orion will be on the horizon. Orion's outstretched upper arm is located in the Milky Way.
Orion is the hunter, and his two hunting dogs are located to his right. One of these, Canis Major, contains the brightest star in the sky. This star is Sirius, and in this diagram it is located just where the dog's neck meets his body. Sirius should help you to find Orion. Orion shoots his arrow toward Taurus the Bull.
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I understand the blood stain on the sword, but what's up with the red star sholder? Head wound or sholder?
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I expected that response. But I encourage you to take a skeptical view of skepticism.

The materialist worldview is internally contradictory.

For example, if my thought that "materialism is false," and your thought that "materialism is true" are both the result of sheer, random, chance, then there exists no objective criterion for judging the validity of our statements. Both contradictory statements would be necessarily "valid." But this contradicts the Law of Non-contradiction.

Similarly, if your mind is simply a "machine," then there exists no means for determining whether your "machine" is functioning properly.

Finally, the self eludes explanation in strictly material terms. Is the self a "scanning mechanism" in the brain? If so, then there would be as many "selves" as discrete acts of scanning. And the "self" dissolves.

No, thought is essentially and ultimately a spiritual, non-material process. Only a non-material "vantage point" allows the self to see the world objectively. And only a non-material property of the self makes the possibility of thought itself logically coherent.

Another intuitive argument against materialistic reductionism is the existence of:

humor
love
beauty
goodness
oneness
music

which, if their existence is granted, cannot be explained materially.

Once the existence of the non-material is granted, the existence of the occult cannot be rejected a priori.

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