Castle Werfenstein and the Wonder Women of Vril: Maria Orsic and the Beings of Light

The Vril Society, or Luminous Lodge, was a secret community of occultists in pre-Nazi Berlin. The Berlin Vril Society was in fact a sort of inner circle of the Thule Society, it was also in close contact with an English group known as the Golden Dawn. The Vril Society in Berlin apparently sought connection with supernatural beings in the entrails of the earth, and its members practiced the techniques which would eventually strengthen their mastery of the divine energy, the Vril, empowering them to master people and events. The term "Vril" came to the attention of the Western world through the writings of a not well known French author, Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890). Jacolliot was an avid reader of occult literature, and was familiar with the work of Swedenborg, of the theosophist Jacob Böhme and of Louis Claude de Saint Martin. In the course of his professional career Jacolliot had been president of the tribunal at Chandernagor, India, and afterwards French consul in Calcutta. The works of Jacolliot have inspired several writers and occultists, among them Rudyard Kipling and H.P. Blavatsky. Among Jacolliot's many books are: La Bible dans l'Inde ou la Vie de Iezeus Christna (1859); Les Fils de Dieu (1873); Christna et le Christ (1874); Les Traditions indo-européennes (1876); La Genèse de l'humanité (1879); and L'Olympe brahmanique (1881). The main theme in his books is that modern civilizations were originated from a single, primordial nucleus, which was the same for India, western Asia, and Europe. The Semitic and indo-European races were not different at the beginning, but the Semitic races degenerated in the process, while the Aryans remained pure. A code of law rules civilized people, the Code of Manu, name of the divine ruler in India, while in Egypt he was called Menes, Moses among the Hebrews, and Minos in Crete. According to Jacolliot, Jesus Christ is but a recent reconstruction of an old indo-aryan tradition, that of Iezeus-Christna. Jesus of Nazareth is only a different characterization of the same personage. North of Europe a magic civilization has existed for millennia and its name is Thule. The superior beings of Thule live in huge caverns in the entrails of the earth. They possess an extraordinary source of magic energy: the Vril. The theme of the Vril is exalted in most of Jacolliot's writings. Vril is an energy latent in man, but he utilizes only a fraction of it. It is the source of divinity, the source of the coming superman. He who discovers it and masters its use acquires great powers. He can become a master of men. In many of his works, particularly in Les Fils de Dieu, and in Les Traditions indo-européenes, Jacolliot affirms that he discovered the existence of Vril among an Indian sect: the Jains, still active in the regions of Mysore and Gujerat, and counting millions of adepts. The discovery of Vril by Jacolliot created extraordinary interest among European intellectuals, avid of knowledge about traditional oriental wisdom. Inspired by his writings a group of Rosicrucians from Berlin founded, by the end of the 19th century, the Vril Society to divulge the writings of the French master. Jacolliot's ideas were introduced in England by S.L. Matthews at the Golden Dawn Society, of which he was the Great Master. With the passage of time, apparently the term Vril fell in disuse. Interest on Vril was renewed after it was used again in a novel with occult and prophetic overtones, The Coming Race , written by the Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Bulwer-Lytton was an English writer and occultist better known as the author of the best seller The Last Days of Pompeii. In The Coming Race he describes the existence of a superhuman race of beings living in huge caves in the entrails of the earth. Their plans are, one day, to take control of the earth.