The SS as a Mystical Order
The Nazi SS wasn’t merely a military unit—it was conceived as a quasi-religious order of “Aryan knights.” Heinrich Himmler, the founder, required members to prove racial purity and participate in elaborate pagan rituals as they advanced in rank. He designed Nordic ceremonies to replace Christian traditions like weddings and baptisms, viewing Christianity as tainted by Jewish influence. Even the SS lightning-bolt insignia derived from ancient Nordic runes.
The Death’s Head Rings
Himmler created powerful totems for his officers: ceremonial swords, daggers, and most significantly, the Totenkopfring—the Death’s Head Ring. Each ring bore skull-and-crossbones imagery, mystical symbols, oak leaves, the recipient’s engraved name, and Himmler’s signature. He believed these rings connected wearers to Thor, the Nordic war god, and bound them to the SS until death. The ring’s importance superseded the individual wearing it.
Wevelsburg: The Dark Camelot
In 1934, Himmler selected Wevelsburg Castle—a triangular fortress with a history of witch trials—as his cult’s headquarters. Using slave labor from a dedicated concentration camp (where some 4,000 prisoners suffered, many dying), he transformed it into an occult temple. The interior mixed mythologies indiscriminately: a black sun emblem on one floor, rooms named after Arthurian legends, a round table with twelve chairs, and a converted cistern for pagan rituals in the tower.
The Ring Shrine and Its Purpose
At the castle’s heart, Himmler established a shrine for collected rings. When SS soldiers died in combat, their rings were removed and returned to Wevelsburg. Himmler genuinely believed he could draw power from this accumulating collection—wielding the combined spiritual force of every fallen SS member. As the war progressed and casualties mounted, his collection grew substantially.
The Hidden Rings
By 1945, with Germany’s defeat imminent, Himmler removed the rings from Wevelsburg and sealed them in a secret mountain crypt. He believed they would “charge with totemic power” underground, awaiting the Third Reich’s resurrection. He ordered the castle destroyed, though it largely resisted demolition. When American forces arrived, they found it abandoned—the SS guards having vanished into the civilian population. The rings’ location remains unknown.
Observation: Evil as Religious Enterprise
This account reveals something profound about human capacity for evil: it often operates through religious frameworks rather than against them. Himmler didn’t reject spirituality—he constructed an elaborate alternative faith complete with sacred objects, rituals, priests, shrines, and eschatological hope. The SS death cult demonstrates that evil can be as thoroughly religious an undertaking as any faith-based creed. It marshals the same human impulses—the desire for transcendence, belonging, sacred purpose, and eternal significance—toward monstrous ends. This should caution us: religiosity itself guarantees nothing about moral direction. The question isn’t whether humans will worship, but what they will worship and whom it serves.