Priesthood. The non-ordained degrees - the I° & II° - had similarly possessed a dignity of their own. Barrett and
Norton attempted to reduce all three of these degrees to mere “apprenticeships”, to make the IV° a mere acceptance
of the “mystical” Xem, and to grant a V° to anyone professing a “mystical” Per-t. After complying with my request
for his resignation, Norton wrote to Priest Whitaker on 7/25:
I alone see Xem on a level higher than that of a Master. Second, the nature of my Task allows me a
further vision that even an Ipsissimus lacks. Third, creation is the key to the manifestation of Xem, and so
far only I am a working example of this neter.
Such blind megalomania is the fate of a Magus who refuses the Curse thereof, as admonished by Aleister
Crowley in the previously-quoted passage from Liber B vel Magi. Mystics Barrett and Norton and those who
worship at their feet have effectively cast from themselves the true essence of magical initiation.
The Masters of the Temple must now consider whether the pre-Set-3 concept of Xem may retain its standing as
a V° Word despite the fall of the Magus who Uttered it. As for Per-t, it is now apparent that it never was more than a
mystical fantasy, clothed in the dignity of a V° Word by Norton and Barrett and accepted as such by a trusting
Temple.
As Barrett’s Recognition to the VI° proved a mockery due to his prior, secret decision to reject the Temple, so
Norton’s V° is revealed in the cold light of day as a mistake honestly and sincerely accepted by the Temple, but a
mistake nonetheless.
I can offer no better epilogue to the aftermath of Set-IV than the Book of Satan #II-12 from the Satanic Bible:
Whatever alleged “truth” is proven by results to be but an empty fiction, let it be unceremoniously flung
into the outer darkness, among the dead gods, dead empires, dead philosophies, and other useless lumber
and wreckage!
- 355 -
A58: Secrets of the Vehm
- by Michael A. Aquino VI°, GM.Tr.
Runes #I-3 (November 1983) & #II-6 (November 1984)
Order of the Trapezoid
The heritage of the Order of the Trapezoid extends back through various secret societies and Orders of the non-
Mediterranean, northwest European tradition. It would be misleading, however, to lump the Order of the Trapezoid
with every pagan, Druidic, or “Odinist” movement which may have existed in the past. The Left-Hand Path is
significant by its focus upon the unique, personal psyche, not upon submergence of the conscious self in pagan
nature-worship. [Initiates of the Order may study this distinction in some detail in Franz Winkler’s For Freedom
Destined.] Hence we focus much of our research on the Ahnenerbe (the secret magical organization within the
infamous SS), the turn-of-the-century Thule Gesellschaft, and the medieval Vehm. Information concerning any of
these organizations is very difficult for the outsider to uncover, but the O.Tr. has access to archives whose existence
is scarcely known to conventional historians and academics. Much of our information concerning the Vehm comes
from archives of the Ahnenerbe concerned with the history and significance of the Wewelsburg in Westphalia.
The Wewelsburg Castle is built on the site of ancient Saxon fortifications described in the Annals of the Saxons.
Ahnenerbe archæologists estimated those fortifications to have been used in King Henry I’s defense against the
Hungarian invaders in 930, but their first reliable dating comes from 1123, when an anonymous chronicler reported
Count Friedrich von Arnsberg to have constructed a stone stronghold over the Saxon ruins. In 1301 the Bishop of
Paderborn Otto von Rietberg acquired the territory from the Counts von Waldeck, who had built a new stone hall on
the Wewelsburg. Archbishop Theodore von Fürstenberg constructed the present castle in 1604-7. It was damaged
heavily by Swedish artillery during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and had fallen into serious neglect by 1815,
when the North Tower was struck and nearly destroyed by lightning. When the SS acquired the Wewelsburg as its
inner sanctum in 1933, it was the North Tower that Heinrich Himmler reconstructed and remodeled as the
Directly above the subterranean Hall of the Dead/“Walhalla” (location of the XVII/1982 Wewelsburg Working)
is the Marble Hall ( Marmorsaal), a circular chamber constructed by Himmler to replace the original chapel of the
castle. There has been much speculation concerning the design and purpose of the Marble Hall [as has also been the
case of the “Walhalla”]. Not until my visit to the castle for the Wewelsburg Working did I gain access to documents
and other information clearing up much of the confusion and mystery.
The peculiar design of the Marble Hall is inspired by the controversial Hall of the Grail which Alfred Roller (set
designer for Max Reinhardt - see my Church of Satan, Chapter #24) created on Adolf Hitler’s orders for the 1934
Parsifal at Bayreuth. Set in the center of the red Italian marble floor is a black/green marble disk from which extend
twelve Sig-runes sinister (left-handed, bending like the letter “Z”). This odd design has usually been explained by
bewildered scholars as a “solar glyph”, but in fact it is one of the secret sigils of the Westphälischen Femgerichte,
better known as the Vehm. The Marble Hall was thus created to serve a dual purpose: that of shrine for the Grail [of
which more remains to be said] and of formal court for the deliberations of the SS’ most esoteric affairs. Original SS
blueprints for the North Tower reveal the Marble Hall itself to be a chamber eventually to be concealed beneath the
planned main ceremonial hall for the tower, the Gruppenführersaal (SS-Generals’ Hall). On march 31, 1945 the
Wewelsburg was blown up on Himmler’s orders to prevent its secrets from falling into the hands of the Allies. SS-
Major Heinz Macher, holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, succeeded in burning out the entire castle -
except for the Marble Hall and the Walhalla, whose 20.6-meter stone/concrete walls resisted destruction.
The Vehm did not yield its secrets easily, even to the Ahnenerbe. Many myths and legends have grown up
around its “secret tribunals”, most of which portray it as an evil shadow on ancient Westphalia (something akin to
the Sicilian Mafia or American Ku Klux Klan). Sir Walter Scott’s House of Aspen and translations of Goethe’s Götz
von Berlichingen exemplify this approach, as does the most recent sensationalistic treatment by Nigel Pennick in
Hitler’s Secret Sciences. In actuality, however, the Vehm represented almost the only guarantor of justice during the
most anarchic period of German history, and its proceedings compared favorably with those of other systems of
justice in medieval Europe.
To understand the phenomenon of the Vehmgerichte, one must first know something about the political and
cultural climate in that period of medieval Germany.
The Emperor Charlemagne (r. 771-814 CE) devoted some 30 years to a war against the Saxons in the north,
finally conquering them in 785 [Pennick’s dates ion #14M are in error], destroying the sacred column of Irmin, and
forcing them to accept Christianity. Some 14th/15th century writers, such as the Dominican Henry of Hervorden,
attributed the creation of the Vehm to Charlemagne as a governing device. Henry’s account is the apparent source of
Pennick’s dating of the Vehm to 772, but there is no confirming evidenc
e of Vehm action prior to the 13th century.
Medieval Westphalia was somewhat larger than the present-day German province of that name. It generally
embraced the “red earth” lands of old Saxony, between the Rhine and Weser, south to Hesse and north to what is
today Holland. After Charlemagne’s conquest this region began to suffer increasingly under Viking raids, most
pronounced during the reign of Louis “the German” (843-876). Louis responded by according greater authority to
the Dukes of Saxony, the first being Count Ludolf of Gandersheim. One of the more famous Dukes was the first of
- 356 -
the Saxon kings of Germany, Henry I “the Fowler” (919-936), whom Heinrich Himmler would later claim as a
previous incarnation. Henry drove off an invasion by the Magyar Hungarians in 933, and his character was
romanticized by Richard Wagner in the opera Lohengrin.
After the reign of Henry III “the Black” (1039-1056), there ensued periods of instability and insurrection in
northern Germany, with a succession of comparatively weak Dukes and rival warlords holding regional power
interspersed with strong monarchs, most notably Frederick I “Barbarosa” (1152-1190). The death of Conrad IV in
1254 brought about the “Great Interregnum” (1254-1273) that marked the end of the medieval Holy Roman Empire.
There followed a period of relative weakness in the monarchy until 1493, when the accession of Maximillian I
brought the Hapsburgs into power.
It is therefore not surprising that the first historical record of the Vehm dates to 1267, when Engelbert, Count of
the Mark, freed one Gervin of Kinkenrode from the feudal obligations of his inheritance of Broke in the County of
Mark, pronounced at Berle in a court in the presence of the Vehmenotes (initiates of the Vehm). In 1280 the
Vehmenotes are mentioned in another document, following which there are many records of their activities and
institutions.
Like “Baphomet”, the origins of the term “Vehm” are clouded in mystery and antiquity, and Pennick shies away
from a definitive explanation. Order of the Trapezoid sources include suggestions that its roots come from Fahne
(standard), Femen (to skin), Fehde (feud), the Latin Vemi ( væ mihi = woe is me), the northern Ve or Vnem (holy), the old German Vitte (prudence), Vette (punishment), the Salic law Fimmiha, and/or the Swedish Fem/ Islandic
Fimm (five = the number of judges in a Vehm court). Most probably it derives from the Latin Fama (fame),
referring to the Vehm’s prerogative for summoning persons to justice on grounds of their infamous reputations
alone, without an accuser being required. Fem is moreover an old German term for “condemnation”; hence such
courts could loosely be titled “criminal courts”. Alternately they were called Secret Tribunals ( Heimliche Gerichte),
Silent Tribunals ( Stillgerichte), or Forbidden Tribunals ( Verbotene Gerichte). [In some of the old records “Acht”
appears in place of “Gerichte”.]
Each tribunal of the Vehm was presided over by a Stuhlherr (tribunal lord, lord of the seat [of judgment]), who
sometimes appointed a Count ( Freigraf) to preside in his place. Next to the Count were the Assessors ( Schöppen),
divided into knights and commoners since according to feudal custom one could be judged only by one’s peers.
By the 14th-15th centuries, from which come the only reliable Vehm records, some 100,000 had been initiated.
After their initiation Schöppen were called Wissende (“those who know”) or Vehmenotes. For his initiation before
the Freigraf, each Schöppe would appear bareheaded for questioning, then kneel with the thumb and forefinger of
his right hand on a sword and an execution-rope and utter the following oath:
I promise on the holy marriage that I will henceforth aid, keep, and conceal the Holy Vehm, from wife
and child, from father and mother, from sister and brother, from fire and wind, from all that the Sun shines
on and the rain covers, from all that is between sky and ground, especially from the man who knows the law,
and will bring before this free tribunal, under which I sit, all that belongs to the secret jurisdiction of the
emperor, whether I know it to be true myself or have heard it from trustworthy people, whatever requires
correction or punishment, whatever is Vehm-free (i.e. a crime committed in the county), that it may be
judged or, with the consent of the accuser, be put off in grace; and will not cease to do so for love or for fear,
for gold, silver, or precious stones; and will strengthen this tribunal and jurisdiction with all my five senses
and power; and that I do not take on me this office for any cause other than for the sake of right and justice;
moreover that I will ever further and honor this free tribunal more than any other free tribunals; and what I
thus promise will I steadfastly and firmly keep, so help me God and his Holy Gospel.
The secret sign of the Vehm - the solar “wheel” later to be inlaid into the floor of the Grail Hall of the
Wewelsburg by Heinrich Himmler - was then communicated to the new initiate. [Pennick’s recounting of alleged
secret signs such as the initials “SSGG” and a dagger turned towards oneself on a table are unsubstantiated by O.Tr.
sources.]
Initiation into the Vehm brought with it both the duty and the right to track down criminals and bring them to
justice before a Vehm court - or to execute them immediately if caught in the act. Those outlawed or Vervehmt by
the court were hanged on trees, not gallows, to demonstrate the Vehm authority to carry out its sentences anywhere
in the land.
Throughout Westphalia agents of the Vehm operated freely, since the populace knew that injury to a Vehm
initiate would result in the offender’s certain death. Similarly abuse of the Vehm oath was virtually nonexistent,
since the Masters of the Vehm knew that the Order’s success depended upon the populace’s perception of it as a
dispenser of justice, not a means of persecution. Death was the penalty for breaking the Vehm oath, and Æneas
Sylvias, secretary to Frederick III (1440-1493), wrote that no one had ever broken that oath. The Vehm he went on
to describe as “grave men and lovers of right and justice”, a characterization generally echoed by other chroniclers of
his time. The picture emerges of a system of what Americans would call “frontier justice”, administered by
representatives from a number of social classes all sworn to secrecy and integrity, owing nominal allegiance to the
German feudal monarch but in fact assessing each case on its particular merits. In point of fact each German
emperor, at the time of his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, was also initiated into the Vehm by the Count of
Dortmund.
- 357 -
Exempted from Vehm concern were clergy, nobles of ducal or higher rank [because of the difficulty of providing
peer judgment at such levels], women and children [because of their sex & age], and heathens & Jews [because of
their unworthiness]. Otherwise those accused of acts forbidden by the Vehm - such as murder, adultery, rape, and
treason - could be summoned before the nearest court to answer the charges. Those who refused to appear
voluntarily were declared vehmbar and were thus subject to immediate seizure by any tribunal.
Vehm courts were usually held in the open under an Oak tree [as again illustrated in Act I of Lohengrin] and
generally in the morning as is customary with German courts. Legends of secret Vehm “inquisitions” in
subterranean castle-chambers at midnight are tan
talizing but unsubstantiated. In fact Vehm courts differed from
Inquisitional proceedings in a number of features, including the judges’ inclination towards mercy, the right of
appeal to higher Vehm courts, the right to be heard and to present witnesses in one’s own defense, and a generally
unbiased trial atmosphere. Appeals were heard once a year, at the Vehm Order court which met at either Dortmund
or Arensburg.
There is no reliable date for the termination of the Vehm’s activities. As a creature of necessity it grew in
influence to provide for justice where none existed, and as the Hapsburg Dynasty grew in strength and jurisdiction,
the necessity for the Vehm faded away. Within another century it had become the stuff of legends, and today
knowledge of it is all but nonexistent.
Why should the O.Tr. regard the Vehm as one of our earliest predecessors? Not because we are cruel, because
the Vehm was not excessive in its deterrents or punishments given the violence and callousness of the middle ages.
But perhaps because it took a solitary stand for justice at a time when neither church nor state insisted upon it, and
because it considered justice not just a social convenience but a sacred duty, to whose service a sacred oath would be
sworn. At a time when many other areas of Europe were ravaged by outlaws, brigands, robber barons, and corrupt
feudal monarchs, Westphalians could breathe free and walk their land without fear. For this the Vehm deserves an
honorable mention in history. Profane historians may disdain it, but the ghosts of its initiates may raise their mead-
horns in the halls of the Order of the Trapezoid.
- 358 -
A59: Project Star Gate: $20 Million Up in Smoke and Mirrors
- by Michael A. Aquino VI°, GM.Tr.
Runes #II-2, March 1984)
Order of the Trapezoid
[ The original title of this article in Runes was “ESP and the Electromagnetic Spectrum”. I later revised
and expanded it for publication under the “Project Star Gate” name in The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S.
Intelligence Studies , Volume 11, Number 2 - Winter 2000 of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers
(AFIO). It is reprinted here in that version. ]