Ancient Mysteries no. 17, October 1980 (continuation of Journal of Geomancy)
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It is often stated in materialist histories that the Nazi use of paranormal phenomena as part of their wartime armoury is an indication of the evil or demonic nature of National Socialism. Whilst the crimes of this latter-day manifestation of Prussian militarism are not disputed, the dismissal of their other arts as evil does not withstand logical analysis. Interest in geomancy in Germany was at its height in the Nazi period and <in> the occult-minded Reichsführer-SS (Imperial Leader of the Defence Corps) Heinrich Himmler and so it was natural that dowsing should be given its full place in the military arts, for, just like their counterparts in Britain, German militarists recognized that dowsing, especially that of the remote or {59} ‘map’ kind<, might be useful>. As Heinrich Himmler had set up, under the auspices of the SS, an institute for map dowsing, it was natural that the art should be used to find missing persons. One such person was Benito Mussolini, the deposed Fascist dictator of Italy. On July 25th, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III had dismissed the dictator who had ruled Italy since 1924.
When news reached Hitler at his base in East Prussia, the Wolfsschanze (Fort Wolf) at Rastenburg*, he made immediate plans to liberate his former ally. Hauptsturmführer SS Otto Skorzeny, the man whom Himmler had approached to steal the Holy Grail for the SS, was sent for. At a private meeting with the Führer, Skorzeny was given the task of rescuing the erstwhile dictator from his imprisonment.
* Hitler’s famous headquarters at Rastenburg, the Wolfsschanze, was on a geomantically-defined position, having been constructed on the site of a spa. More at a later date.
But the Nazis did not know where Benito Mussolini was being held, so they turned to the pendulum men. Skorzeny meanwhile flew to Italy to await instructions. Given information that Mussolini was on the island of Maddalena, Skorzeny and his men landed only to find that Mussolini had been moved. This happened several times, the dowsers pinpointing the place, but the Italians moving him before Skorzeny’s men could arrive.
Finally it was found that Mussolini had been moved to the Gran Sasso mountain, in the hotel Albergo-Rifugio, reached only by a passenger cableway. Skorzeny took the mountain by an aerial landing and rescued the Duce, gaining a place in the military hall of fame. But had it not been for the dowsers back in Berlin, it could never have happened.