In 1931 Austrian Oskar Ernst Bernhardt published a book of Christian mysticism called In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message under the name Abd-Ru-Shin which devotees claim means Son, workman or servant of the light. The book is a complex read, rewarding to the academic in that it shows the influence of Theosophy, Orientalism and what we’ll simply call the pre-New Age movement on Christian seekers increasingly separated from traditional theology in the rational age.

The Nazis banned the book and arrested Bernhardt. They released him on the condition he no longer have contact with the growing Grail Message movement he was leading. Later the Communist East Germans banned the book. For most academics this is simply indicative of authoritarian regimes squashing movements that have messages counter to political orthodoxy. But is there a more sinister aspect to the Grail Message that even Nazis and Communists, both movements of extraordinary bloodthirstiness, found horrifying?

One key point to Bernhardt’s writings is the idea that intellect, unguided by spirituality, is a tool of darkness. It is through pure rationalism that Lucifer lures us from the light of God, according to Bernhardt, and while it’s a metaphysically interesting point it is also one that can be easily twisted into supporting the idea of irrationality as holy. That in turn is a slippery slope for those of unstable character, as this recent horrific case from the Czech Republic proves:

A BOY of eight was kept chained in a cellar by his cannibal family — as they ATE parts of him.

Sobbing Ondrej Mauerova was rescued alive when a neighbour’s TV picked up footage from a camera filming his agony.

He had been partially skinned after monstrous mum Klara, 31, caged him for months while relatives who were also in a sick cult feasted on his raw flesh, an appalled judge heard yesterday.

The Christian understands that the flesh and blood of Christ consumed at the mass are not literal bits of flesh and blood, but are transmogrified by Christ to contain the essence of him which he passes on to his followers. However the weak willed and the deviant will often be attracted to the cannibalistic and vampiric undertones of Christian mythology, and coupled with a lack of centralized religious authority groups may pervert the Christian symbolism into a more sinister ritual

Aleister Crowley’s Mass of the Phoenix, for example, contains literal interpretation (some would say blaspheming) of the Mass wherein supplicants cut their chest and soak a wafer in their own blood to be consumed later in the rite. While this rite of Crowely’s own devising may be essentially harmless it illustrates the manner in which pseudo-Christian blood rites may come into being. Crowley incorporated the anti-Catholic imaginings of his fundamentalist protestant family into his Thelemic works, thus producing what most Christians would probably mistake for a Black Mass.

Likewise these Czech Grailists, who the mainstream Grail Movement claims they cut ties with sometime in the early 90s due to their “imaginings and fantasies,” were no doubt re-enacting the communion within the context of some other framework. The Grail myth is inextricably linked to blood and death, and for unstable people this might be the foundation for a modern cannibal cult that most people would have previously thought was mere fiction.

The case is also extremely bizarre because it centers around the mysterious “Anna” A.K.A. Barbora Skrlova, who the mother of the victim is even now claiming brainwashed her into committing horrible atrocities. Yet when the police raided the home Skrlova posed as a 13-year-old girl and was taken into protective custody. The 34-year-old then fled and was later arrested posing as a boy in Norway. Some reports claim that the mother of the victim falsified documents so she could adopt the non-existent “Anna” who was attempting to create an entirely new identity.

The Sun is reporting that Skrlova, sisters Klara and Katerina Mauerova and three other adults all took orders from another cult member called “The Doctor” who contacted them by phone, leading to speculation that the cult is much larger than we would think. So far six people are under arrest in this case. But how much larger might this group have grown in the 11 or so years since they were excommunicated from The Grail Movement.

Bernhardt’s writings are prosaic by today’s standards. But is there a seed of horror waiting to bloom in the minds of those who believe that humanity has fallen due to its embrace of its intellect?

When Bernhardt’s disciples preach a new gospel of irrationality are they sowing the seeds of nightmares in the minds of their followers? The simple answer is yes, that a radical theology based on devolution produces devolved adherents. A movement that sees man as fallen fosters antinomianism and ultimately criminality.

When a cult sees man and his laws as in league with evil, there is no law or taboo that remains, in their minds, intact.