Jackson walked to the water cooler and poured himself a cup of icy water before ambling back and sliding his spectacles up his nose where they had started to slip off. He took a breath and started again.
'Now Hanna had learned that earlier in the year, Maria had been invited to attend a rented forester's lodge in the area around Berchtesgaden, now regarded by many as the spiritual home of Nazism. She was accompanied by another medium known only as Sigrun at the time and it was here that Maria is purported to have received the first messages containing the technical data for a flying machine, allegedly transmitted from the inhabitants of a distant planet in the Aldebaran star system, part of the constellation that we know as Taurus.'
'The spaceship lady!' nodded Dale.
Ignoring the comment, Jackson continued.
'It turns out that Maria had been very busy and had become something of a
cause célèbre
for many occult groups, at least those that were not jealous of her success in gaining attention. The content of her messages inspired the creation of a new group, the
Wahrheitsgesellschaft
, or 'Society for Truth' which acted as a kind of recruitment centre for scientists and engineers who were interested in pushing the boundaries of science as they were understood at the time.'
Jackson put a finger to his lips and thought for a moment.
'Things were becoming complicated and Hanna was just as confused with events as the State Department was in receiving her updates. They were ostensibly interested in the new political activities of the Thule Society and the fruits of its spiritual soil, the Nazi Party. They wanted to hear the gossip between leading Nazi members as they relaxed at the Thule meetings, now primarily concerned with furthering a national socialist agenda than any real occult programme.
'As it was, Hanna was telling them how the Vrilerinnen was growing in influence, new members seemingly coming out of nowhere, how the Vril Society was maintaining the former esoteric aspects of the Thule Society and how it was transforming into a kind of hub for instigating off-shoot societies with specific interests and agendas of their own but all ostensibly interconnected for a common purpose, one such example being the Society for Truth which was promoting the strangest kind of ideas which she could barely comprehend.'
Jolene spoke up with a slight hint of derision in her voice.
'So the State department considered that her intelligence was useless and decided to cut her loose?'
'Almost, but not quite,' Jackson quickly responded.
'Although her intelligence was regarded as incidental, we kept running Hanna just in case she came up with anything useful. In retrospect, it is all rather useful now as we see a picture emerging whereby the Vril Society was being converted into a kind of holding group, spawning a youth organisation for young women, mostly late teens and early twenties. I don't think they bothered with young men simply because they could see the writing on the wall even then and realised that another war was inevitable.
'The Society for Truth was being used as a recruiting centre for, shall we say,
radical
scientists; from physicists to chemists to straight forward engineers. It was based in Berlin and through the Vrilerinnen, Maria Orsitsch basically controlled the membership and direction of the entire group. Another group was concerned with lobbying industry for finance, promoting an agenda of scientific revolution to revive Germany's fortunes. In the mean time, the Vrilerinnen itself was consolidating its position, extending its influence over the higher ranking members of the Nazi Party.'
'Like who?' Dale asked.
'Heinrich Himmler, Rudolph Hess, Dietrich Eckart,' Jackson said, raising a finger from a balled fist for each name he mentioned.
'Hitler himself had no real interest in the occult except where it could help to create the new Nazi expression of ideology as a political religion. Other less well known members included, Gottfried Feder, an economic theoretician who acted as Hitler's first finance mentor, Hans Frank, essentially the Nazi Party's lawyer and Alfred Rosenberg, eventually the leader of the Foreign Policy office of the Nazi Party.'
Jackson paused for effect.
'Ultimately though, it was Heinrich Himmler who proved to be the most useful contact for Maria Orsitsch and her Vrilerinnen, but that comes later!'
Dropping her head down towards her outstretched arms in an exaggerated illustration of exhaustion, Jolene slapped the table with the palms of her hands.
'The book Jackson, just tell us about the book, that is why we are here!'
Jackson seemed somewhat chastised by Jolene's outburst and nodded ruefully.
'Yes, I was just coming to that. In around 1921, Hanna could see that her opportunities within the Thule Society were diminishing; the Society itself was slowly crumbling away, in fact, it was effectively dissolved around four years later. The Nazis had recruited their own administrative team with a clear political agenda in mind so she decided to jump ship and managed to engineer herself an appointment as a kind of team leader within the Vril Society, appealing directly to Maria Orsitsch for a position. Her credentials were impeccable since she not only had purported psychic skills but she was also possessed of very long blonde hair stretching down to her lower back, just like all of the other Vrilerinnen.'
He tapped his keyboard and a grainy black and white picture of a group of teenage girls appeared, each dressed in a uniform of white short-sleeved shirt, black neckerchief, black pencil skirt, ankle socks and black shoes. The picture was made particularly sinister by the fact that each girl held aloft a flaming wooden torch in her right hand.
'This would appear to be the
Bund Deutscher Mädel
, or League of German Girls in English, commonly known as the BDM. However, in this case, this is not the BDM, in fact, this particular image pre-dates the BDM by about nine years and even the earliest incarnations by about two years. No, this picture shows a group of girls in late 1921, in the newly formed
Vril-Gesellschaft Schwesternschaften
- effectively meaning the Vril Society Sisterhood. Using the agency's image enhancement tools I've even been able to get clear images of their badges, although I've no idea whether they were awarded for campcraft or witchcraft!'
He waited for derisory comments to his humorous remark but Jolene simply stared at the screen and Dale appeared more than a little perturbed at the sight of a group of intense teenage girls brandishing flaming torches like the youth section of some medieval lynch mob.
Jackson coughed self-consciously and pressed on.
'As I said, Hanna Paulus had assumed a kind of scout leader position within the new Sisterhood and she was directed in her syllabus of training by Maria. The topics covered physical training, academic subjects including mathematics and science, but also basic esoteric training in themes such as astrology. All of this was wrapped up in mystical rituals which acted to bond the students to the Sisterhood, creating a kinship that could not readily be shared with parents or as an extension of their regular schooling.
'As part of this process, different grades were assigned according to the achievements of students and the highest ranking students were encouraged to undertake special extra-curricula activities.'
He paused and looked between the faces of his small audience.
'Of particular interest to us are the sessions that Maria led, using
Dirigo Lux
as a kind of initiation guide, translating the English text for her chosen few.'
Jolene's face lit up.
'So the book
was
in the possession of Maria Orsitsch who you are implying was also creating some kind of cult! How does it link to the Sun of the Sleepless?'
Jackson raised a finger and very deliberately aimed it down at his laptop computer, slowly lowering it to depress the space bar on his keyboard. The screen suddenly showed the slightly mottled title page of
Dirigo Lux
, exuding at least some of its two hundred and seventy-five years of age.
'At the bottom of this title page you will see the Latin phrase,
Cum Privilegio Sacrae Sol Insomni
, which basically means, with the privilege or permission of the Holy Sun of the Sleepless.'
Jackson eyed his audience.
'For the most part, this book takes the form of testimony to a purported truth, conveyed in a convoluted and typically occult way, explicitly referring to the metaphor of the underground stream as a route of delivering knowledge and using other indecipherable metaphors and anecdotes which provide vague hints at doctrine.
'After a brief preface, it is divided into two parts,
a priori
and
a posteriori
, Latin phrases which in this context refer respectively to the personal exposition of the purported author followed by a more evidential presentation of the nature of the universe but from a metaphorical and spiritual point of view. To an amateur eye it may seem Masonic in nature, but that would be a big mistake to make. This book belongs to a whole other sect of fraternities and sororities.'
Jolene was eager for Jackson to get to the point and nodded as she spoke.
'- and the Sun of the Sleepless, what does it tell us about them?'
'The second part,' Jackson smiled benignly.
'
a posteriori
. It uses alchemical allegories and occult references to explain the beginning of the universe. The text is incompatible with the Catholic teachings which would have been prevalent within Southern Germany in the early eighteenth century when this book was written and even in the early 1920's it would have caused something of a stir.
'However, it tells of a group called the Sun of the Sleepless which it indicates has maintained certain knowledge throughout the history of mankind and which aspires to create a society built on enlightenment and an understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the spiritual and physical planes of existence.'
'Sounds a bit wacko to me!' Dale grimaced.
Jackson ignored the comment and pressed on.
'The spiritual plane it speaks of refers to an understanding of science beyond that which was prevalent at the time. It tells of the beginning of the universe as emanating from
The All
, a name that is related to a non-dimensional existence prior to the emergence of the physical universe; God if you will. In the beginning is
The All
which then sacrifices its pure form to become the universe as we know it. However, the book proclaims that all created matter was infused with the spirit of
The All
, manifesting as a contiguous field of energy, animating life and interconnecting and binding each particle of the universe. It was a kind of sea of energy in which everything floated and from which everything was derived.'
Jolene had a faraway look on her face and it took her a while to speak as Dale just looked uncomprehendingly from Jackson to her and then back again. Eventually she came to a conclusion and frowned as she spoke.
'This is metaphor for the Aether, right?'
Jackson looked surprised but then nodded sagely.
'Very good Jolene, known at the time as the Aether but something that has been at the core of the majority of outlandish alternative physics theories right into modern times. Some people even connect it to dark matter or zero-point energy but in the main it appears as the staple ingredient of conspiracy theories concerned with so-called suppressed physics - the antithesis of what is generally accepted in the mainstream scientific community.
'It may be conceived of as a pure energy state, however, the esoteric and occult history of mankind stretching back over two millennia suggests that it could also manifest as a physical substance. In later times within alchemical circles it was most often called the Quintessence and represented an immensely powerful elemental force or entity.'
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' proclaimed Dale, shaking his head, 'I don't see why people would be taken in by this, surely it is all nonsense?'
Jackson indulged the question, aware of how ridiculous it all looked.
'Dale, Albert Einstein published a paper in 1905 which introduced the Special Theory of Relativity, ultimately, it provided one of the cornerstones for the science that we pursue even today. Einstein was Jewish, as indeed were any number of brilliant scientists and mathematicians of the time; John von Neumann, James Frank, Carl Jacobi, Heinrich Hertz, Albert Michelson, all had Jewish ancestry. The point is, for a party that expounded the ideal of the Aryan master race, it was useful for the Nazis to create a new interpretation of science, looking for ways to describe the universe that wasn't, as they saw it, tainted by ostensibly 'Jewish' physics theories and the theory of the Aether provided them with just this opportunity. It provided an alternative understanding of the nature of the universe and was something that they could appropriate for themselves.'
'So what is the Aether?' Dale queried. 'Is this some kind of super explosive or radioactive material?'
Jolene looked for confirmation from Jackson as she decided to answer Dale.
'No, not quite. In the very earliest days of so-called scientific theory, all matter was basically made up of four elements, earth, air, fire and water, but there was a fifth element which was largely indefinable -'