|
THE MIAMI DAILY NEWS Miami, Florida, U.S.A. 15 February 1931
STARTLING REVELATIONS OF WEIRD, MYSTERIOUS CULTS THAT HAVE BROKEN OUT AROUND THE GLOBE.
By BRUCE GANT
IN THE SILENCE Edward Jones [Charles Stansfeld Jones], Ardent Disciple of Aleister Crowley, "Beast of the Apocalypse," Soulfully Meditating on the Psychic Mysteries of the "O.T.O." Love Cult.
Throughout the religions and mythologies of the ages the virgin has been an object of adoration. It was always through the medium of a pure young girl that a god had contact with this mundane sphere and it was here he always shoes as the mother of his earthly representative.
This idealism has been brought up to date by Joseph Weissenberg, of Berlin, who, for his part, modestly claims to be not only the Holy Ghost in person; but also the reincarnations of the Prophet Elias, the Archangel Michael, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist.
Weissenberg is the head of a religious cult with more than 200,000 adherents in Germany. Even royalty, in the person of Princess Carolina of Hesse, believes in the supernatural power he says he receives through his score or more of virgins. The tenets of this cult are a mixture of a mystic interpretation of the Bible, political nationalism, occultism and prophetic divination.
Looking back through the many religions and beliefs, we find that this virgin-worship has always been closely identified with parthenogenesis, or immaculate conception. The Rig-Veda says that Indra was miraculously born of a virgin from a like source after the heifer had been touched by a moonbeam or a flash of lightning. The Mexican god of war, Huitzilopochtli, was born of a devout woman; who one day while attending in a temple saw a ball of feathers floating before her. She took the feathers and deposited them in her bosom. In due course of time the dread deity was born.
The Greeks believed that after the god Jupiter had visited Leda in the form of a swan the prominent characters in Homer's Iliad came into being—Castor and Pollux and Clytemenstra and Helen. And the Romans thought that after Rhea, a vestal, had bathed in water sacred to Mars, she gave birth to two sons—Romulus and Remus. Amulius, king of Alba, threatening to punish her transgression of the vow of chastity taken by all vestal virgins, she claimed that Mars himself was the father, and she was spared, but her two children were exposed, only to be mothered by a "she-wolf," and to found the city of Rome.
The Chinese believe that once a maiden walked in the fields and a rainbow descended from heaven and embraced her; her son became the first emperor of China. The rainbow, in China, is a serpent deity—therefore China is called the Celestial Empire and the emperor was called the "Son of Heaven."
In the good old days there were so many gods that the historians had a hard time keeping up with all the details.
Anyway, Weissenberg has recruited his corps of mediums and is doing a rushing business. Through these mediums he not only heals the bodily ails but the social and mental ails as well. His main prediction is that Germany will be resuscitated and France will perish through pestilence. This idea has brought him a large following from former royal circles at Potsdam and many former imperial employees.
Weissenberg's Array of Mediums Draw Huge Crowds at Every Séance.
His séances in Berlin are always overcrowded. It was only recently that he repeated a prophecy dear to their hearts—Germany will flourish; some day Germany and Austria will join hands and become a great nation; the leaders shall be men like Kaiser Wilhelm and Emperor Francis Joseph; unity will conquer; shackles shall be loosened; France will be punished by famine; the people of the earth shall beg the Lord's forgiveness and live again as in Paradise; faith shall enter every family and the Lord will bless them; "for his indulgence and patience are great."
The hall in Potsdam where the meetings are held is elaborately decorated with flags. On the stage, near the rostrum, are musicians and a choir. In front of these are the virgin mediums through whose utterances the spirits reveal themselves to the public.
When the great leader, squat little man of seventy-five, with a hoarse voice and military bearing, appears on the stage, the audience rises and gives him the military salute. He responds with a solemn "God bless you." Without another word he goes from one girl to the other, places his hands on their foreheads, and thus plunges them into a trance.
This done, he commands the various spirits to speak through his mediums. The most popular spirit is that of Bismark, who makes himself known through the mediumship of a little, old spinster. But others are equally interesting to the audience—Frederick the Great, King David, Abraham Lincoln, The High Priest Caiphas, Queen Louise of Prussia, Henry VIII and Sarah Bernhardt.
Lincoln is strong for the people of India and usually upbraids Great Britain for her policy in that country. Bismark generally recites some anecdotes about Napoleon III, and Sarah Bernhardt tells the Jews of Germany they had better go to Palestine. All the spirits are unanimous in their exhortations that the people return to God. They threaten the most hideous punishments, otherwise.
This is followed by an unusual scene. Men and women collapse. Those who are still conscious shout and howl like maniacs. The spectacle has been described by Carl de Vidal Hunt, International News Service representative in Berlin, as "worse than that in an insane asylum."
As a "magnetopath" and health restorer, Herr Weissenberg receives a large clientele every day in his house in North Berlin. The place is filled with beribboned pictures of the saints and the Kaiser—draped in black-white-red flags. His patients are mostly women. Often the street in front of his place is crowded with handsome limousines.
The healer has built his own settlement near Berlin, called "New Jerusalem," and, like most men with such visions, is extremely wealthy. In New Jerusalem he has schoolhouses, water-works, administration buildings and all the things which go to make up an independent community. He also publishes his own newspaper, Der Weisse berg (The White Mountain), a play on his own name.
German Police Keep a Wary Eye on the Cult's Healing Activities.
Germany has more or less ignored the various cults which have shown up since the war. Yet the authorities have been keeping a wary eye on Herr Weissenberg. As yet they have done nothing legally. Dr. Weiss, vice-president of the Berlin police and former hear of Kriminalpolizei, says the police are knowing nothing unlawful about his activities.
Yet Her Weissenberg did get a little trouble a while back. The Tempo, a Berlin newspaper relates:
"Joseph Weissenberg, the magnetic healer has been called before the local tribunal of Moabit-Berlin, to explain his connection with the death of the druggist, Rudolf Wernicke, and the blindness of 16-month-old Hildegard ______. The two above names are supposed to be the victims of Weissenberg's 'cure.' Thousands of adherents of Weissenberg thronged the streets about the courthouse to uphold their 'Master.'
"Presiding Judge Arndt first called Weissenberg to the stand and asked him how he knew he had the power to heal. Weissenberg answered by first quoting in a loud voice passages from the Bible and then lowered his voice and gave his life's history.
"There was a driving force in me which kept saying, 'you must do it,' he said. 'I knew it lay in my power and I only followed Holy Writ.'
He admitted he had no education and that his parents died of cholera. As an 11-year orphan he was sent to work with a shepherd. This shepherd was known to have helped many sick people. Here Weissenberg learned "cures" and as a small boy is said to have cured cases of St. Vitus dance. After this he became a soldier, later a waiter, a servant, a hack-driver and lastly an innkeeper. In court he shouted:
"Jesus Christ called me from my
hack-driver's seat to help Him in His Holy labors!" He
added, "I had found I could cure disease in man."
When the judge asked his if he examined his powers he answered that it was not necessary because his "guardian angel" stood before him and looked him in the eye and knew what to do.
Notwithstanding all this, Weissenberg's influence is constantly growing. He is said to be the most popular man in Berlin. His meetings are so well recognized that a number of preachers in his ______ are compelled to hold overflow meetings outside his hall in nearby places.
The ready "medicines" he prescribes are _____ of cottage cheese to afflicted parts and a tea made from herbs—a tea he learned to concoct of the shepherd. He is said to have cured _____, even the opium habit.
There are many strange cults in Germany to-day, the most popular are those which advocate free life in the open—without clothes. These are cults of the sun. There are at least dozens of magazines, many with large circulations, devoted to the interests of these cults, which have a tremendous following.
Possible the most popular is the Reichsverband für Freikörperkultur, "The Imperial Society for Free Body Movement." During the summer months the members of this sun cult live on the banks of a lake twenty miles from Berlin in the garb of Mother Nature. Here men, women and children go about without a stitch of clothing. The cults are given charters and are not molested by prudish law enforcers.
"The grounds of the Reichsverband für Freikörperkultur are ideal for this 'natural life,' " a writer recently explained. "From a thickly wooded section we emerged on a grassy path screened from the lake by tall bulrushes. And we followed, talking as we walked, until we reached a meadow where perhaps two-score men and women were performing a series of exercises in a huge circle.
"Even at first glance there was nothing shocking about it—the physical instructor, who stood in the center of the circle with a gong which he struck to accentuate the rhythm of the class, was a superb figure of a man. And the men and women in the circle were bronzed by the sun and looked more like statues than humans."
Nature Enthusiasts Dance for Health in Their "Birthday Suits."
The writer and his companion decided to take a dip in the cool, inviting waters of the lake. Here they found "a dozen women bathers, as innocent of bathing suits as ourselves," but no one paid the slightest attention to them.
"It would be impossible to describe the feeling of freedom and well-being I experienced as I walked along the lovely path to the lake," the writer continues, "with the sun filtering in between the soft carpet for my bare feet. . . .
"I soon became unconscious of the fact that I was naked and I hardly noticed the men and women who were lying on the grass or walking across the meadow. The majority of those I saw were middle-aged people—husbands and wives—for a married man can bring on his own wife to the shore of the Motzener See and a married woman must be accompanied by her husband. No alcohol or tobacco is permitted.
"Nakedness is obligatory, for the reason that the founders of the cult believe it promotes health. Everyone lives what its members term a 'natural life'—spending the entire day in the open air, sleeping under the stars (although tents are available for those who wish them) and cooking the simplest food over camp fires."
In Germany a great deal of fun has been poked at this idea by some people. But the best of people belong, and on that particular lake there are fourteen such colonies. The members consist of men and women physicians, lawyers, business men and their wives, and in many instances their entire families. There is no spirit of levity here.
These folk believe that they derive a great deal of good from this sort of life. And leading medical authorities have backed them. In fact, it was the testimony of doctors that enabled these cults to survive, because when the first wave of sun cultism spread over Germany there were arrests and court proceedings. Now, however, they are chartered and can live where they cannot be seen by outsiders.
Estimates are that in Germany alone there are at least one hundred thousand persons who have adopted this extreme cult of the sun as a part of their lives. In both Prussia and Bavaria such cults are given charters, although in some of the smaller German States such societies are prohibited.
When the summer months are over some of these cultists continue their nude activities in clubhouses. Hence they foregather to disport themselves in a state of nudity—without shame. They sit around and chat and play at various indoor games, after having doffed their clothes in the anterooms. But these cults, for the most part have for their object a more aesthetic ideal—beauty. They declare that the human body is a beautiful thing and nothing of which to be ashamed. But, of course, that is a matter of individuality.
BENEATH A SEARING SUN When Jane Wolfe, Former Movie Star, Swore to Renounce the World, the Flesh and the Devil, She Became a Member of Aleister Crowley's "Abbey of Thelema," at Cefalu, Sicily. As a Test of Her Spiritual Strength, Miss Wolfe Used to Sit for Hours on the Hot Sands.
CONCLUDING NEXT WEEK: The revivals of Rosicrucian mysteries; Aleister Crowley's daring "Do What Thou Wilt" creed; "Lahissa," the astounding Chicago seer and healer; Javanese dagger cults; the Belgian Congo's savage "leopard men"; the Romany cannibal societies; mummy ceremonies, and Pierre Bernard's interesting colony at Nyack, N.Y. |
