The Holy Grail and the Order of the Trapezoid

From the archive, a foray into a strange and mysterious legacy

For this project I've thrown myself headlong into the strange world of Satanism, Nazi Occultism and secretive oaths which extend beyond death to try to understand how a group of Setians calling themselves The Order of the Trapezoid (O.Tr) have integrated the Holy Grail legends. To maintain some kind of order we'll be keeping to a loose chronology. The first goal is to peer into the murky depths of Arthurian legend to define exactly what we, and the Satanists in question mean by “Holy Grail”. In order to properly conceptualize the beliefs of the Order of the Trapezoid we must venture into the mercurial and hazardous waters of Nazi Occultism, particularly the doings of the SS under Hienreich Himmler. The Order of the Trapezoid, like the SS, draw heavily from Germanic myths, such as those of Ricard Wagner, and the Arthurian legends. And after discussing the Nazis' we'll then discuss the formation of the Order and some of its philosophies. I must add two disclaimers firstly, it is no small task to differentiate the crypto-historical narrative of Antiquarians from more genuine articles of historical scholarship. And, the Order of the Trapezoid finds the actions of the Nazi's and SS to be abhorrent and there is no reason to believe that this group is in some way neo-facistic or in some way.

We'll eventually flesh out some ideas held by the Order, and finally their ideas on the Holy Grail. There are so many rabbit-holes in this topic, so things will be kept rather shallow at points for the sake of length, and unfortunately, for the same reason the influence of H.P Lovecraft is omitted.

The Holy Grail is a popular concept throughout western culture, and for this reason many different conceptions of the Holy Grail exist today. After all my research I do not personally know what to think about the Grail. In a desperate attempt to find a succinct definition, I came across Derrick Everett's description from Monsalvat.no, a website dedicated to information on Wagnarian Mysteries provides an excellent passage about the grail:

“The Holy Grail is the object of the Grail Quest. In Arthurian legend (the Grail Romances) there are varying descriptions of this object. In the earlier accounts the Grail is either described (by Wolfram von Eschenbach) as a stone that was brought to earth by angels; or in other versions as a bowl, or a cup, or "a dish of considerable size", large enough to contain a salmon. Wolfram also refers to it as lapis exillis, which has been interpreted as "the stone of the exiles", by which alchemists referred to the philosophers' stone. Or it can be "a magic talisman of plenty", a cornucopia, that magically provides delicious food and drink. In other romances it becomes a relic of Christ's passion: either the dish from which Christ and the disciples ate the Last Supper, or the chalice in which Joseph of Arimathie caught the Saviour's blood (sang real, from which, sankgreal or sangrail) on the cross.”

We're going to add one more definition, Peter Bassett writing for Limelight magazine defines:”‘The Holy Grail’ is a potent and persistent image in Western culture; a metaphor for all that is prized, mysterious and elusive.”. One defining feature of the Grail legend is the Grail Quest, a holy mission, a pilgrimage of sorts to find the Holy Grail. These Quests, performed famously by knights like Parsival, Galahan, Arthur, etc,(Wood 23) represent the motif of initiating into the 'Mysteries' from Pagan* antiquity. In this way, we might see the Grail as a symbol for the Christian Mysteries, and in part as a syncreticism of Christianity and the Hermetic-Alchemical tradition(s) of the ancient Mediterranean(Vikernes).

Eventually, due to political events and migrations (Wood 52), these Mysteries traveled north and would embed itself parenthetically into the Germanic myth cycles. Mythologist and legendary composer Richard Wagner would consolidate Germanic myths in the form of the famous Der Ring des Nibelungen operas (commonly referred to as The Ring Cycle). Later, Wagner provided a bridge to the Grail legend in the equally influential Parsifal, another opera. This time based of Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th-century epic poem about the Quest for the Holy Grail taken by Parsifal. Many have noted Wagner's interest in the Runic Mysteries. Some commentaries and analyses of The Ring Cycle and Parsifal suggest vast wisdom of Human archetypes and religious motifs, especially if one were interested in Runic Lore. Ricard Wagner was all the rage for the intellectual and religiously educated of the late 19th century and beyond, heavily influencing figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, J.R Tolkien (Remember the Ring Cycle?), and perhaps most famously Adolf Hitler and company.

I'd like to reiterate that just because Hitler liked something does in no way make it invalid or inherently wrong. There are many things which were good and fine until Hitler and the Nazis' would 'ruin' or sour the disposition of a general audience. And so in this way I regard the Germanic myths, the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Operas of Richard Wagner in the same category as the Swastika: Ruined by Hitler. Interestingly regarding the Swastika, is the fact that the Swastika used globally until 1940-ish usually denotes luck, sunshine and warmth. The Swastika of the Nazi's was inverted, as this diagram denotes. Additionally color scheme of the Nazi Swastika is unique and not found elsewhere (Mowe).

The waters become very deep and notoriously murky at this juncture. The SS Occult project lead by Heinrich Himmler, has been rooted in public imagination with films like Indiana Jones, and video games like the Wolfenstein series. For good or bad, the extreme majority of SS documents are either destroyed or inaccessible. If there were to be one central motif the Nazi occult program was known for it would be their work with the “Black Sun”(Kingsepp). Fascinating how the SS took a symbol related to the Sun, inverted it, and used that as a standard to inspire fear into their enemies. In this way, we might regard certain actions carried out by the SS “occult division” as a similar art for which Joseph Goebbels was famous, psychological warfare and the weaponization of symbols. Dr Aquino would define this 'art' as “Lesser Black Magic”(Aquino 72). The HQ of SS occult activities was a Castle called Wewelsberg near central Germany. Himmler wished to transmute the castle into a Grail Castle by employing pentagonal sacred-geometrical features akin to the French Grail-significant Rennes-le-Chateau. For a time, the Spear of Longinus was allegedly housed in the would-be Grail Castle. The Pentagonal relation relates to a popular Nazi conception of the Grail, the special and guarded bloodline of Mary Magdalene (Lincoln). In the esoteric dimension of Christianity Mary Magdalene is associated with Venus. In this GIF we can see how the number five is related to the Planet Venus, every eight years it makes a pentagram.

https://grandtrines.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/venus-earth-orbit.gif?w=550

The Mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau are hidden into Nicholas Poussin's The Shepherds of Arcadia, you can see below that this painting is of geometrical significance and relates to the pentagonal motif of Venus. Apparently the 3 mountains in the background are specific to the region. See how easy it is to get distracted?

The schematic for the Wewelsburg reconstruction is featured on above on the right. You can see the pentagonal structure, which includes a Spearhead, where the castle is located. This construction was never completed. The Wewelsburg Castle is famous for it's Wallhalha Chamber which will be dicussed later.

Eva Kingsepp of the Contemporary Esoteric Research Network (ContERN) quotes Dr. Aquino on the Nazi-Satanic relation:“The Order of the Trapezoid (O.Tr.) extracts the positive, the constructive, the exalted, and the Romantic from the Germanic magical tradition – and just as carefully avoids and rejects those excesses, distortions, and cruelties which have made this tradition an object of the most extraordinary fear, condemnation, and suppression in the postwar period. The Germanic tradition is also

part of the legacy of the Prince of Darkness, hence is appropriate to an Order within the Temple of Set, which embraces all manifestations of the Powers of Darkness in the world. (Aquino 1990) Satanism describes itself as a “Left Hand Path” (LHP) tradition. From the Black Runa (of which more will be discussed) we have a very concise definition of the LHP. “Essentially, the Left-Hand Path is then the path of non-union with the objective universe. It is the way of isolating consciousness within the subjective universe and, in a state of self-imposed psychic solitude, refining the soul or psyche to ever more perfect levels. The objective universe is then made to harmonize itself with the will of the individual psyche instead of the other way around....” ”... An eternal separation of the individual intelligence from the objective universe is sought in the Left- Hand Path. This amounts to an immortality of the independent self consciousness moving within the objective universe and interacting with it at will.”

This topic is quite rich, and merits its own research paper alone to get into the philosophical dimensions and arguments. It requires mention here for the purpose of context, but in the interest of brevity we'll leave it with the selected quotes.

These groups seem to be primarily contrarian, and their existence is largely predicated on opposition to Abrahamic values, or at the very least holds that as it's starting position. The Temple of Set holds Antinomianism and Individuality as core values (Xeper.org). These contrarian attitudes certainly be is case today, with many similar organizations engaging in religious discrimination lawsuits, and often being flagrant and inflammatory for the sake of religious freedom activism. One example of this is the lawsuits about a group suing to place a statue of Baphomet next to a Ten Commandments statue at a state capital, or different groups trying to get Satanic coloring books in schools which allow Christian Material (Honestly the Satanic Coloring book is quite wholesome!). These actions, and similar attitude embody an dimension of the “Satanic Project”which is that of rebellion an rascality (who could have seen that coming?).

Many of these groups are out-rightly atheistic, and those that are theistic do not worship the devil. From some of the literature many rites hold the goal of 'befriending' “the Prince of Darkness”, or engaging in some kind of practical relationship, but will claim worship is the incorrect attitude for the project of Satanism (Webb 22). For a variety of reasons I will not anywhere here reproduce ritual material, but from what I have read these rites are well within the ken of the larger Western Esoteric tradition, and the sources I've read don't advocate for anything vile, no sacrificing cats in a cemetery or blood of children or anything like that. From what I've read Anton LeVay was extremely strict in regard to not tolerating crime, perhaps this was a morale decision but I think that it was so there would be no excuse to destroy his movement for organizing or condoning crime. LeVay probably knew what happened to Timothy Leary. Apropos one of the things which would set Satanism apart from other counter-cultural movements in the 1960s' was their refusal to take LSD, they would step on sugar-cube- acid, hang pictures of Timothy Leary upside down and urinate on marijuana (Krassner). The Order of the Trapezoid emerged out of an organization created by Dr. Michael Aquino called the Temple of Set. In 1975 Aquino left Anton Levay's Church of Satan (Cos) after LaVey announced that positions within the CoS could be honored based on financial contributions to the Church. To Aquino, this act violated LeVay's authority as Exarch of Hell via what he called the “Infernal Mandate”. And so the Temple of Set was formed, and 7 years later the Order of the Trapezoid would emerge Normally, in the history of small esoteric groups or magical orders the founders don't relinquish power during their lifetime. In this way, the O. Tr is different, and to this day has had 7 different High Priests and Priestesses(Flowers 365). In order to properly contextualize the Order of the Trapezoid I have found a “mission statement” of sorts from an internal document called Black Runa. The order is defined as such: “The Order of the Trapezoid is a magical concept, a magical body that exists beyond the limitations of time and space. For example, it was darkly perceived in the dream-stapes of the American fantasy and science fiction writer, H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote of an Order of the Shining Trapezohedron in his tale "Haunter of the Dark." This document written by scholar and influential member Dr. Stephen Flowers . It has been an indispensable resource for my research. Dr. Flowers attributes the following quote to founder Dr. Michael Aquino during the formation of the Order in 1982 at Wewelsburg Castle, in the Walhalha Chamber. (Yes the castle from earlier) “The Order of the Trapezoid is an order of knighthood characterized by strict personal honor and faithfulness to the quest for the Grail. The O.Tr. is a knighthood in that its members are pledged to traditional chivalric virtues as appropriate to each situation encountered. By honor is meant a sense of justice, ethics, and responsibility prior to personal comfort, convenience, or advantage. This honor is known by ones faithfulness to the Quest for the Grail, which is the self, soul or psyche made perfect through conscious refinement and exercise of the Will. Attainment of the Grail results in transformation of the individual into a state of dynamic existence energized by the psyche, not by the physical body derived from the material universe. Hence the O.Tr. is the gate to psychecentric immortality beyond physical death.” This quote is followed by the mysterious statement: ”For Whomsoever understands these words a gate shall be opened”(Flowers 5) The Order claims that joining is no small commitment. From the Order's website itself we have a list of requirements to becoming a “Knight of the Order”. These include: reaching 2nd degree in the Temple of Set, possess a “deep resonance” with the Order, find a sponsor, undergo an initiation where “the candidate must take the sacred Oath of the Order, to which he or she will be bound beyond death.”(Trapezoid.org).

A collection written by Dr. Aquino called the Jeweled Tablets of Set, which is pseudo- eponymously titled in reference to the legendary Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus, a mainstay in the western magical tradition. From this collection we have access to only two works. All the others, named after precious stones, are restricted to members. And they seem to be doing a great job of retaining their secrets because despite my best efforts I cannot obtain even an excerpt from the Ruby, Sapphire, or Onyx tablets. We do however, have access (at the behest of the O. Tr or not) to Black Magic in Theory and Practice (a nod to Aleister Crowley's famous work of a similar name) and The Book of Coming Forth by Night Analysis and Commentary. While these documents are central to the Temple of Set, The Order of the Trapezoid is an extension of the Temple of Set. Stephen Flowers in Black Runa gives his take on the Grail (Graal) and makes the claim that it is not, in fact a christian concept, but that writers like Wolfram are in-fact Christian Apologists. He posits the Graal Mystery is really in fact the addition of 3 runes to a Runic tradition somewhere around 700-800 CE. These three runes mean roughly: Calc- Chalice, Stan- Stone, Gar-Spear.

Flowers suggests this Calc-Stan-Gar combination is a “magical formulae” and denotes the Germanic understanding of the Graal as both Chalice and Stone. From this formulae, we have Gar, and again see that when the Holy Grail is around, the Spear of Destiny (a different one for the Germanic myths than Christian) (Flowers 41)

Despite how irresponsible it feels for me to divulge these secrets in a manner such as this there are no outright oaths for secrecy, or desire for the content to be discussed only in initiated circles. Normally in documents of this genre normally some kind of disclaimer which typically is some variation of “Don't talk about this stuff with people who might not understand or are likely to take things out of context” some even warn of potential misuse of the material. To the Order of the Trapezoid, the Holy Grail is many things. It is a Chalice, it is a stone, it is the key to immortality, and it is a deeply transformative symbol (goal?) akin to the alchemical Philosopher's Stone. After all my research I still do not feel conclusively on the nature of this thing, I retain other possibilites, after all it could be some kind of matter which possesses strange properties, or an unknown element. Perhaps something always around us that is so much stranger than anything we could imagine that in order to begin to comprehend it years of mental training are required to perceive it without abject madness. There is so much more to discuss.

Works Cited:

Aquino, Michael. Black Magic. Michael Aquino, 2002.

Bassett, Peter. “RICHARD WAGNER & THE HOLY GRAIL. (Cover Story).” Limelight, Aug. 2017, p.

30. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=f6h&AN=124163037&site=eds-live.

Everett, Derrick. “The Holy Grail in Tradition and Literature.” The Grail Quest: from Ancient Stories

to Wagnerian Opera, 27 Mar. 2020, www.monsalvat.no/grail.htm.

FLOWERS, STEPHEN EDRED. DARK RUNA: Containing the Complete Essays Originally Published

in Black Runa (1995). LODESTAR BOOKS, 2019.

Flowers, Stephen E. Lords of the Left-Hand Path: Forbidden Practices & Spiritual Heresies. Inner

Traditions, 2012.

Kingsepp, Eva. “Eva Kingsepp – The Power of the Black Sun: (Oc)Cultural Perspectives on Nazi/SS

Esotericism.” Contemporary Esotericism Research Network, 3 Nov. 2012,

contern.org/cyberproceedings/papers-from-the-1st-international-conference-on-contemporary-

esotericism/eva-kingsepp-the-power-of-the-black-sun-occultural-perspectives-on-naziss-

esotericism/.

Krassner, Paul. “Dark Shadows.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2002,

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-aug-11-bk-krassner11-story.html.

Lincoln, Henry. “The Official Website for Henry Lincoln : Geometry : Author of Holy Blood Holy

Grail, Key to the Sacred Pattern.” RSS, 1971, www.henrylincoln.co.uk/geometry.php.