Remembering Savitri Devi:
September 30, 1905–October 22, 1982
Greg Johnson
792 words
Savitri Devi was a philosopher, a religious thinker, and a tireless polemicist and activist for the causes of animal rights, European pagan revivalism, Hindu nationalism, German National Socialism, and — after the Second World War — pan-European racial nationalism.She also sought to found a religion, Esoteric Hitlerism, fusing National Socialism with the Traditionalism of René Guénon and Julius Evola. All told, she was one of the most extraordinary personalities of the 20th century.
She was born Maximine Portaz born in Lyons, France on September 30, 1905. Her mother, Julia Nash was English, descending from Viking stock. (She claimed that the name Nash is derived from Ash, as in the World Ash Tree.) Her father, Maxim Portaz, was three fourths Italian from Savoy, one fourth Greek. Because of her mixed-European heritage, she identified herself simply as “European.” She also described herself as a “nationalist of all nations.”
For an account of her life and work, read R. G. Fowler’s tribute to Savitri Devi on her 100th birthday: “Woman Against Time: Remembering Savitri Devi’s 100th Birthday.” (Translations: German, French, Czech, Norwegian)
Savitri Devi died on October 22, 1982 in Sible Hedingham, Essex, England at the home of her friend Muriel Gantry. For a sad account of her passing, see Muriel Gantry’s “The Last Days of Savitri Devi,” selected from her correspondence by R. G. Fowler.
For more information on Savitri Devi’s life, work, and influence see R. G. Fowler’s website The Savitri Devi Archive.
Counter-Currents has reprinted several works by Savitri Devi online:
- “Akhnaton on Racial Diversity,” an excerpt from The Lightning and the Sun
- “Cosmotheism in Savitri Devi,” an excerpt from Defiance
- “Feminism and National Socialism” in Greek
- “Gandhi: A Man Against Time”
- “History, Action, and the Timeless,” chapter 5 of Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne
- “Hitlerian Esotericism and the Tradition,” chapter 10 of Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne
- “Hitlerism and Hindudom” in Greek
- “The Jews and the Dark Age”
- “In Memory of May 1st, 1945,” a poem written under the pen name Clara Sharland
- “Incurable Decadence,” chapter 11 of Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne
- “The Meaning of Dunkirk,” an excerpt from chapter 14 of The Lightning and the Sun
- “National Socialism and Anti-Semitism,” an excerpt from The Lightning and the Sun
- “Paul of Tarsus, or Christianity and Jewry,” an essay from 1957, Norwegian translation here
- “Race, Economics, and Kindness: The Ideal World,” chapter 11 of Impeachment of Man
- “Remembering Sven Hedin,” an excerpt from And Time Rolls On
- “The Religion of the Strong,” chapter 1 of Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne
- “Paganismo indio: la última expresión viva de la belleza aria” (in Spanish)
Savitri Devi audios:
Counter-Currents has also published or reprinted several works about Savitri Devi:
- Jonathan Bowden, “Savitri Devi,” Podcast, Transcript; also reprinted in Extremists
- Paul Brundsen, “Life is Worship: Savitri Devi’s Son of the Sun.” French translation here
- R. G. Fowler, “Enemy and Exemplar: Savitri Devi on Paul of Tarsus.” Translations: German, French
- R. G. Fowler, “Woman Against Time: Remembering Savitri Devi’s 100th Birthday.” Translations: German, French, Czech, Norwegian, Portuguese
- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Interview with Muriel Gantry, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Juleigh Howard-Hobson, “After the Avatar, 1945,” a sonnet
- Juleigh Howard-Hobson, “Hope and Wait”
- Greg Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed About Savitri Devi on the BBC”
- Greg Johnson, “Robert Stark Interviews Greg Johnson on Eco-Fascism”
- Alex Kurtagić, Review of Defiance
- Alex Kurtagić, Review of Gold in the Furnace
- Christopher Pankhurst reviews The Lightning and the Sun
- Robert Stark Interviews Greg Johnson on Eco-Fascism (French translation here)
- J. A. Sexton, “Savitri Devi’s Defiance and Gold in the Furnace”
- Video: “Savitri Devi: Woman Against Time”
Savitri Devi is also quite widely tagged at Counter-Currents.
Six of Savitri Devi’s books are currently in print in English and available for purchase at Counter-Currents:
- The most recent volume in the Centennial Edition of Savitri Devi’s Works is her magnum opus, The Lightning and the Sun, available in a limited, numbered hardcover edition of 200 copies as well as in paperback and Kindle.
- Forever and Ever: Devotional Poems is the first volume of her previously unpublished writings, available in a limited, numbered hardcover edition of 200 copies as well as in a paperback edition.
- For her views on animal rights, vegetarianism, and Deep Ecology, see her manifesto Impeachment of Man.
- For accounts of her clandestine propaganda activities in Occupied Germany see Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Occupied Germany.
- On her subsequent arrest, trial, and imprisonment, see Defiance: The Prison Memoirs of Savitri Devi.
- The best introduction to Savitri Devi’s life and work is And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews.
Counter-Currents has now taken over publication of the Centennial Edition of Savitri Devi’s Works. The next volume will be Pilgrimage, to be followed by a complete English translation of Memories and Reflections of an Aryan Woman.
9 comments
I know that I must read more of ‘Savitri Devi’, but have tried several times. I do not have a short attention span, have read and do read much complex writing.
…. and I can see that several people whose work and writing I respect think that she was great.
For me, Savitri Devi was a crazy costume player, which is true, after all, it is not even her name.
Posing in a sari and heavy kohl, etc, great from the PoV of exotica, and a very interesting life, but everything I have tried to read (several different ones by now) is just too turgid.
Gnome Chompsky, perhaps I do you an injustice, but if you have the misfortune to find her writing is just too turgid, then maybe you are young or have no imagination.
If you utterly deplore the destruction of the White world taking place before our eyes, then put yourself in the shoes of Maximine Portaz , aka Savitri Devi, who had witnessed close up the whole White world go mad and set about destroying their racial kin in Germany, and then she had to live with the result.
If it helps you, re-read her poem, “1953”, which describes the dreary, empty existence of living after the catastrophe of the Second World War. Yes, I know that the US Americans enjoyed their phony euphoria of “We won the War”, for which they are paying the price now, but for us living in 1950s Britain life was one long dreary existence in a land that had lost all its energy and any raison d’etre. I know, I was there.
Read Savitri Devi’s “1953”: “And time rolls on…And every empty day; And time rolls on…And every dreary hour…. “. However, there’s a challenge at the end…for those who enjoy challenges.
Jack Donovan recently referred to her as Hitler’s no. 1 fan girl.
Finally, a Cat Lady we can admire!
Thank you, Richard.
The few lines that you quote definitely make me want to read that poem. … and I with ‘turgid’ I meant the few essays that I started reading and found very boring.
I also stand by the costume player part.
Yes, I am aware of the history of the 1914 to 1974 wars (in my consciousness, a continuum, although in memory, only the very tail end) and that the parts of it that pitted Britain and (some factionst) of the French empire against NS Germany, were tragic and very stupid.
I have my radio set to start at midnight when I am home at that time, I hate most of the nog song, last night’s was particulary evil, every verse was nigsplaining, the chorus, sung in falsetto by black females (who would generally be in a lower register if not doing falsetto, or able to hold a steady note, and then autotuned up) had really ugly references to non-nogs, and the refrain of ‘We own this city’, an obvious threat, i switched it off, suppose it is from Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, or similar. Possibly the title, a truly ugly song, ‘We own this city’may be the title.
Sure puts me off ever going there (U.S.A.).
.
The audio of Savitri is a precious gift, Thank you all!
You should do one of these for Miguel Serrano.
Savitri Devi was a key thinker to my awakening. She was a fearless witness to the truth of her time. I have virtually all her written work. She understood the metaphysical contest and struggle our people face. She understood nature and it’s laws. She is an intellectual cornerstone to our future. Like Dr. William Luther Pierce and Ben Klassen.
A word of thank you.
I recently learned of Savitri Devi through CounterCurrents. I find in her work a kindred spirit, that is, one repulsed by forced egalitarianism and moved by a reverence for the natural world. Stewardship is indeed the highest ideal, but a stewardship of strength and discernment–not guilt and pathological altruism.
It is always invigorating to find one’s dim and scattered intuitions mirrored and illumined by a writer so gifted with language.
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