Vril
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cover of one 1871 Blackwood “edition”[1] | |
Author | Edward Bulwer-Lytton |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Genre | Science fiction novel |
Publisher | William Blackwood and Sons |
Publication date | May 1871[2] |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 292[3] |
OCLC | 7017241 |
Dewey Decimal | 823.8 |
LC Class | HX811 1871 .L9[3] |
Text | The Coming Race at Wikisource |
The Coming Race is a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published anonymously in 1871. It has also been published as Vril, the Power of the Coming Race.
Some readers have believed the account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called “Vril”, at least in part; some theosophists, notably Helena Blavatsky, William Scott-Elliot, and Rudolf Steiner, accepted the book as based on occult truth, in part.[4] One 1960 book, The Morning of the Magicians by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels, suggested that a secret Vril Society existed in Weimar Berlin.
Vril-WikipediaContents
- 1History
- 2Plot summary
- 3Literary significance and reception
- 4Stage adaptation
- 5Vril Society
- 6See also
- 7References
- 8External links








































































History
The original, British edition of The Coming Race was published anonymously in May 1871, by Blackwood and Sons of Edinburgh and London.[2] (Blackwood published four more “editions” in 1871.)[1] Anonymous American and Canadian editions were published in August, as The Coming Race, or The New Utopia, by Francis B. Felt & Co. in New York and by Copp, Clark & Co. in Toronto.[5][6] Late in 1871 Bulwer-Lytton was known to be the author.[citation needed] Erewhon, which was also published anonymously in March 1872, was initially assumed to be a Coming Race sequel by Bulwer-Lytton. When it was revealed that Samuel Butler was the writer in the 25 May 1872 issue of the Athenaeum; sales dropped by 90 percent.

Plot summary
The novel centers on a young, independent, unnamed, wealthy traveler (the narrator), who visits a friend, a mining engineer. They explore a natural chasm in a mine that has been exposed by an exploratory shaft. The narrator reaches the bottom of the chasm safely, but the rope breaks and his friend is killed. The narrator finds his way into a subterranean world occupied by beings who seem to resemble angels. He befriends the first being he meets, who guides him around a city that is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian architecture. The explorer meets his host’s wife, two sons and daughter who learn to speak English by way of a makeshift dictionary during which the narrator unconsciously teaches them the language. His guide comes towards him, and he and his daughter, Zee, explain who they are and how they function.
The hero discovers that these beings, who call themselves Vril-ya, have great telepathic and other parapsychological abilities, such as being able to transmit information, get rid of pain, and put others to sleep. The narrator is offended by the idea that the Vril-ya are better adapted to learn about him than he is to learn about them. Nevertheless, the guide (who turns out to be a magistrate) and his son Ta behave kindly towards him.

The narrator soon discovers that the Vril-ya are descendants of an antediluvian civilization called the Ana, who live in networks of caverns linked by tunnels. Originally surface dwellers, they fled underground thousands of years ago to escape a massive flood and gained greater power by facing and dominating the harsh conditions of the Earth. The place where the narrator descended houses 12,000 families, one of the largest groups. Their society is a technologically supported Utopia, chief among their tools being an “all-permeating fluid” called “Vril”, a latent source of energy that the spiritually elevated hosts can master through training of their will, to a degree that depends on their hereditary constitution. This mastery gives them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will. It is this fluid that the Vril-ya employ to communicate with the narrator. The powers of the Vril include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things; the destructive powers in particular are immense, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to destroy entire cities if necessary.
Men (called An, pronounced “Arn”) and women (called Gy, pronounced “Gee”) have equal rights. The women are stronger and larger than the men. The women are also the pursuing party in romantic relationships. They marry for just three years, after which the men choose whether to remain married, or be single. The female may then pursue a new husband. However, they seldom make the choice to remarry.
Their religion posits the existence of a superior being but does not dwell on his nature. The Vril-ya believe in the permanence of life, which according to them is not destroyed but merely changes form.
The narrator adopts the attire of his hosts and begins also to adopt their customs. Zee falls in love with him and tells her father, who orders Taë to kill him with his staff. Eventually, both Taë and Zee conspire against such a command, and Zee leads the narrator through the same chasm from which he first descended. Returning to the surface, he warns that in time the Vril-ya will run out of habitable space underground and will claim the surface of the Earth, destroying mankind in the process, if necessary.
Vril in the novel
The uses of Vril in the novel amongst the Vril-ya vary from destruction to healing. According to Zee, the daughter of the narrator’s host, Vril can be changed into the mightiest agency over all types of matter, both animate and inanimate. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure. It is used to rend ways through solid matter. Its light is said to be steadier, softer and healthier than that from any flammable material. It can also be used as a power source for animating mechanisms. Vril can be harnessed by use of the Vril staff or mental concentration.
A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril. The narrator describes it as hollow with “stops”, “keys”, or “springs” in which Vril can be altered, modified, or directed to either destroy or heal. The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user’s preferences. The appearance and function of the Vril staff differs according to gender, age, etc. Some staves are more potent for destruction; others, for healing. The staves of children are said to be much simpler than those of sages; in those of wives and mothers, the destructive part is removed while the healing aspects are emphasised.
Literary significance and reception
The book was quite popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word “Vril” came to be associated with “life-giving elixirs”. The best known use of “Vril” in this context is in the name of Bovril (a blend word of Bovine and Vril). There was even a Vril-ya Bazaar held at the Royal Albert Hall in London in March 1891.

It also had a strong influence on other contemporary authors. When H. G. Wells‘ novella The Time Machine was published in 1895, The Guardian wrote in its review: “The influence of the author of The Coming Race is still powerful, and no year passes without the appearance of stories which describe the manners and customs of peoples in imaginary worlds, sometimes in the stars above, sometimes in the heart of unknown continents in Australia or at the Pole, and sometimes below the waters under the earth. The latest effort in this class of fiction is The Time Machine, by HG Wells.”
Recent research has shown that Bulwer-Lytton developed his ideas about “Vril” against the background of his long preoccupation with occult natural forces, which were widely discussed at that time, especially in relation to animal magnetism or, later, spiritualism. In his earlier novels Zanoni (1842) and A Strange Story (1862), Bulwer-Lytton had discussed electricity and other “material agents” as the possible natural causes for occult phenomena. In The Coming Race, those ideas are continued in the context of a satirical critique of contemporary philosophical, scientific, and political currents. In a letter to his friend John Forster, Bulwer-Lytton explained his motives:
I did not mean Vril for mesmerism, but for electricity, developed into uses as yet only dimly guessed, and including whatever there may be genuine in mesmerism, which I hold to be a mere branch current of the one great fluid pervading all nature. I am by no means, however, wedded to Vril, if you can suggest anything else to carry out this meaning namely, that the coming race, though akin to us, has nevertheless acquired by hereditary transmission, etc., certain distinctions which make it a different species, and contains powers which we could not attain to through a slow growth of time; so that this race would not amalgamate with, but destroy us. […]
Now, as some bodies are charged with electricity like the torpedo or electric eel, and never can communicate that power to other bodies, so I suppose the existence of a race charged with that electricity and having acquired the art to concentre and direct it in a word, to be conductors of its lightnings. If you can suggest any other idea of carrying out that idea of a destroying race, I should be glad. Probably even the notion of Vril might be more cleared from mysticism or mesmerism by being simply defined to be electricity and conducted by those staves or rods, omitting all about mesmeric passes, etc.
Bulwer-Lytton has been regarded as an “initiate” or “adept” by esotericists, especially because of his Rosicrucian novel Zanoni (1842). However, there is no historical evidence that suggests that Bulwer-Lytton can be seen as an occultist, or that he has been the member of any kind of esoteric association. Instead, it has been shown that Bulwer-Lytton has been “esotericized” since the 1870s. In 1870, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia appointed Bulwer-Lytton as its “Grand Patron.” Although Bulwer-Lytton complained about this by letter in 1872, the claim has never been revoked. Other claims, such as his membership in a German masonic lodge Zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe, have been proven wrong.[16]
Those claims, as well as the recurrent esoteric topics in Bulwer-Lytton’s works, convinced some commentators that the fictionalized Vril was based on a real magical force. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, endorsed this view in her book Isis Unveiled (1877) and again in The Secret Doctrine (1888). In Blavatsky, the Vril power and its attainment by a superhuman elite are worked into a mystical doctrine of race. However, the character of the subterranean people was transformed. Instead of potential conquerors, they were benevolent (if mysterious) spiritual guides. Blavatsky’s recurrent homage to Bulwer-Lytton and the Vril force has exerted a lasting influence on other esoteric authors.[17]
When the theosophist William Scott-Elliot describes life in Atlantis in The Story of Atlantis & The Lost Lemuria (first ed.), 1896, the aircraft of the Atlanteans are propelled by Vril-force.[18] His books are still published by the Theosophical Society. Scott-Elliot’s description of Atlantean aircraft has been identified as an early inspiration for authors who have related the Vril force to UFOs after World War II.
George Bernard Shaw read the book and was attracted to the idea of Vril, according to Michael Holroyd‘s biography of him.
French writer Jules Lermina included a Vril-powered flying machine in his 1910 novel L’Effrayante Aventure (Panic in Paris).
In his 2011 book of correspondences with David Woodard, Swiss writer Christian Kracht discusses his longstanding interest in Vril.[19]: 166–171 David Bowie‘s 1971 song “Oh! You Pretty Things” makes reference to the novel.[20]
Stage adaptation
A stage adaptation of the book was written by journalist David Christie Murray and magician Nevil Maskelyne. The production premiered at Saint George’s Hall in London on 2 January 1905. Both Nevil Maskelyne and his father John Nevil Maskelyne collaborated on the special effects for the play. The play did not meet with success and closed after a run of eight weeks.
Vril Society
Willy Ley
Willy Ley (right) in a discussion with Heinz Haber and Wernher v. Braun, 1954
Willy Ley was a German rocket engineer who had emigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1947, he published an article titled “Pseudoscience in Naziland” in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.[22] He wrote that the high popularity of irrational convictions in Germany at that time explained how Nazism could have fallen on such fertile ground. Among various pseudoscientific groups he mentions one that looked for the Vril: “The next group was literally founded upon a novel. That group which I think called itself ‘Wahrheitsgesellschaft’ – Society for Truth – and which was more or less localised in Berlin, devoted its spare time looking for Vril.”
Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels
The existence of a Vril Society was alleged in 1960 by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels.[23] In their book The Morning of the Magicians, they claimed that the Vril-Society was a secret community of occultists in pre-Nazi Berlin that was a sort of inner circle of the Thule Society. They also thought that it was in close contact with the English group known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Vril information takes up about a tenth of the volume, the remainder of which details other esoteric speculations, but the authors fail to clearly explain whether this section is fact or fiction. Historians have shown that there has been no actual historical foundation for the claims of Pauwels and Bergier, and that the article of Willy Ley has only been a vague inspiration for their own ideas. Nevertheless, Pauwels and Bergier have influenced a whole new literary genre dealing with the alleged occult influences on Nazis which have often been related to the fictional Vril Society.
In his book Monsieur Gurdjieff, Louis Pauwels[25] claimed that a Vril Society had been founded by General Karl Haushofer, a student of Russian magician and metaphysician Georges Gurdjieff.
Publications on the Vril Society in German
The book of Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels was published in German with the title: Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend: von der Zukunft der phantastischen Vernunft (literally Departure into the Third Millennium: The Future of the Fantastic Reason) in 1969.
In his book Black Sun, Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke refers to the research of the German author Peter Bahn. Bahn writes in his 1996 essay, “Das Geheimnis der Vril-Energie” (“The Secret of Vril Energy”),[26] of his discovery of an obscure esoteric group calling itself the “Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft”, which revealed itself in a rare 1930 publication Vril. Die Kosmische Urkraft (Vril, the cosmic elementary power) written by a member of this Berlin-based group, under the pseudonym “Johannes Täufer” (German: “John [the] Baptist”). Published by the influential astrological publisher, Otto Wilhelm Barth (whom Bahn believes was “Täufer”), the 60-page pamphlet says little of the group other than that it was founded in 1925 to study the uses of Vril energy. The German historian Julian Strube has argued that the historical existence of the “Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft” can be regarded as irrelevant to the post-war invention of the Vril Society, as Pauwels and Bergier have developed their ideas without any knowledge of that actual association.[28] Strube has also shown that the Vril force has been irrelevant to the other members of the “Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft,” who were supporters of the theories of the Austrian inventor Karl Schappeller (1875–1947).
Esoteric neo-Nazism
Main article: Esoteric Nazism
After World War II, a group referred to by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke as the Vienna Circle elaborated an esoteric neo-Nazism that contributed to the circulation of the Vril theme in a new context.[30] In their writings, Vril is associated with Nazi UFOs and the Black Sun concept. Julian Strube wrote that a younger generation related to the Tempelhofgesellschaft, has continued the work of the Vienna Circle and exerts a continuous influence on the most common notions of Vril. Those notions are not only popular in neo-Nazi circles but also in movies or computer games, such as Iron Sky, Wolfenstein, and Call of Duty.[11]
The Secret Vril Society: What Is It Hiding?
The Vril Society is an alleged secret society many believe gave birth to the Nazi Party. The World War II era was a time when many mysteries were created, when no one was really sure whether or not the rumors that they heard were true.
This was especially true about Nazi Germany. For many historians, the Vril Society remains a prime example of how truly bizarre some of the rumors about the Nazi regime were. For occult researchers, the Vril Society quickly became an example of how technology and magic can be used for evil.
Named after a popular 19th century novel by the name of Vril, the Power of the Coming Race. The book was widely appreciated throughout the English speaking world, and talked about an antediluvian race that had access to a highly advanced energy source called Vril.
The Vril-ya, the race who lived underground, supposedly had telepathic powers, highly advanced technology, and were able to do incredible amounts of damage simply by using a Vril wand. The superior, ancient race that had control of Vril will run out of habitable spaces underground, and that they would move up to the surface world.
Since many people at the time believed in the possibility of an antediluvian race, there were people who accepted The Coming Race as fact instead of fiction. It was the hyper-popularity of this 1870’s book that propelled the idea of the Vril Society into the realm of potential reality.
Much of the Vril Society’s work was supposed to have happened before World War II, with the Society’s activity tapering off once Hitler had lost the war. Originally connected to secret societies such as the Thule Society and other similar societies tied to Nazi occultism, the Vril Society quickly became the stuff of legend among those who heard the rumors of the super technology associated with this mysterious sect.
One of the most bizarre issues about the Vril Society was how little was written about it during what would have been their most active years. Much of the written accounts of the rumors of the Vril Society were first found in a book by Louis Pawels and Jacques Bergier in 1967.
A large portion of the book spoke about the Vril Society’s doings, including their involvement in legendary Nazi inventions, their communications with aliens, occult dealings, and aiding Hitler and his highest ranking soldiers escape to the South Pole.
Unfortunately for those who were curious to find out the truth about some of the more “out there” Nazi rumors, neither Pawels nor Bergier actually said whether or not the book’s section was fictional, fact, or just sheer speculation.
Prior to the 1967 book, the only mention of anything close to the Vril Society was in a 1947 article by a German defector who spoke of a society that “searched for Vril” in Berlin. The 1990’s saw yet another wave of Vril-focused books being published by conspiracy theorists.
According to those who have researched the Vril Society at length, this secret society was initially established as the All German Society For Metaphysics, headed by a medium by the name of Maria Orsic and another medium who only went by the name of Sigrun.
These two mediums had gotten into contact with the Aryan aliens, and were given the goal of spaceflight to reach the Aryan home planet of Aldebaran. Many of the original members were also active in the Thule Society, which was known to be an occult movement around the turn of the century. In some circles, the names were used interchangeably.
Unlike many secret societies, people who have heard about the actions of the Vril Society were quick to admit that the group’s highly-focused programs went into effect faster than anyone could have imagined. Officially, the Vril Society was first really founded in 1921.
By the end of 1922, the Vril Society had supposedly created their first flying disc, also known as the “Other World Flight Machine” that was meant to be a test for interplanetary flight. The pace of technology creation, invention, and communication with high-ranking Nazi personnel was shocking to everyone who had heard of them.
Much of the heavy communication with government officials in Germany was facilitated by the fact that the society’s members were often high ranking officials. As many people who have heard of the Vril Society may know, Adolf Hitler was one of the supposed members of the sect. It should come as no surprise that two of the other members of Vril received government money for their flying saucer work, and that yet another member designed the Nazi flag was associated with both the Thule and Vril societies.
By the early 1940’s, people had begun to suspect Hitler’s involvement in secret societies practicing the occult. In order to save face and to avoid such allegations, Adolf Hitler had to take steps to dismantle secret societies in Germany.
In 1941, Hitler made a strict change of law by banning all secret societies. The members of the Vril Society were quickly joined into the Nazi E-IV Unit. During the 1940’s, the Vril Society was credited with the construction of multiple flying discs, and working in conjunction with the Nazi’s Occult Unit. Other units were developed in order to cover up sightings of the alien replica craft reported by soldiers, civilians, and people who lived in other countries.
1945 marked the year when the Vril Magic Eye was developed. The Magic Eye was supposedly a highly accurate Nazi reconnaissance and espionage device that had a probe that could appear and disappear at will, as well as arc through dimensions spy at any location at any time.
Engel supposedly used similar technology to arm unmanned aircraft with cameras. None of the unmanned vehicles that were made were noticed by Allied forces, and none were shot down. No evidence of such craft were ever found.
After the war and the defeat of the Nazi regime, the Vril Society supposedly escaped to Antarctica, where they remain to this day.
Nowadays, the only actual news or hearings of the Vril Society comes from the exiled government of Sealand, which currently promotes Vril free energy and Vril disc aircraft. This supports the allegations that the head of Sealand is in contact with modern day Neonazis. No one knows for sure whether or not the Vril Society ever really existed, but the fact is that the legends alone have made a huge impact on the way people viewed 1940’s occultism in Germany.
See also
- Aether (classical element)
- Aether theories
- Agartha, a legendary kingdom that is said to be located in the Earth’s core popular with 19th- and 20th-century occultists theosophists.
- Animal magnetism
- Bovril (aliment)
- Energy (esotericism)
- Etheric body (spirituality)
- Etheric plane (spirituality)
- Jules Verne
- Kerry Bolton, author of The Nexus
- “The Mound” by H. P. Lovecraft from a short description by Zealia Bishop— underground civilization fiction apparently clearly inspired by Lytton set in the southwestern U.S.; part of the Cthulhu Mythos
- Mysticism
- Nazism and occultism
- Nazi UFOs
- Odic fluid
- The Phantom Empire— film serial with a similar theme that was perhaps inspired by Lytton and in turn an inspiration on Richard Sharpe Shaver’s work
- Prana
- Qi
- Richard Shaver — claimed to know of a civilization such as that depicted in Vril
- Stanislav Szukalski developed strange theories about Earth being ruled by a race called the Sons of Yeti.
- Thule
- Unidentified flying object
- Us (2019 film) directed by Jordan Peele depicts a race of subterranean machine-like humans designed to copy their counterparts on the surface.
- Wilhelm Reich‘s Orgone energy
- Southern Television broadcast interruption (Vrillon television hoax)
References
Notes
- ^ Jump up to:a b Blackwood published five “editions” dated 1871, all 292 pages (perhaps impressions or printings of one edition), one in 1872, and two in 1873, 280 pages. See WorldCat library records indexed as 1871 to 1874 (“Formats and Editions …”). For instance, records OCLC 943154319, 7791481, and 946735485, report copies of the 2nd, 5th, and 8th editions.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Classified advertisement (Publications). The Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1871, p. 1. Quote in full, with original layout and approximate typography:This day is published,
THE COMING RACE. In one volume octavo,
price 10s. 6d.
William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London.Five days later The Scotsman published a version of the data, as “This day”, above an excerpt from a review in the Daily News (p. 8). In The Observer for 21 May it was “Just published” (p. 1). - ^ Jump up to:a b “The coming race” (first edition). Library of Congress Online Catalog. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
Apparently that record reports a copy of the 1st “edition” where LCCN 09-12503 reports a copy of the 4th “edition”, perhaps 1st and 4th printings of the first edition. - ^ Strube (2013), 55–123.
- ^ Classified advertisement (New Publications). The New York Times, 9 August 1871, p. 6. Quote: “Published This Day”. Price $1.25.
- ^ Classified advertisement (Books and Stationery). The Globe (Toronto), 8 August 1871, p. 2. Quote: “Ready in a Few Days”. Price 50 cents (C$0.50).
- ^ Redfield, Marc (1996). Phantom Formations: Aesthetic Ideology and the Bildungsroman. Cornell University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-8014-3236-1.
- ^ Bulwer Lytton, Edward. “Vril: The Power of the Coming Race”. wikisource.com. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- ^ Seed, David; Bulwer‐Lytton, Sir Edward (2007) [1870], The Coming Race, Wesleyan University Press, pp. xvii, 159.
- ^ Hadley, Peter (1972), A History of Bovril Advertising, London: Bovril, p. 13.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Strube (2013), 48ff.
- ^ “‘The Coming Race’ and ‘Vril-Ya’ Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity”. Royal Albert Hall. 27 August 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ HG Wells’ The Time Machine reviewed – archive, 1895 HG Wells | Books | The Guardian
- ^ Strube (2013), 13–44.
- ^ Lytton, Victor Alexander Robert (1913), The Life of Edward Bulwer Lytton, First Lord Lytton, vol. 1, London: Macmillan and Co., p. 466f.
- ^ Strube (2013), 55–74.
- ^ Strube (2013), 69ff., 77ff.
- ^ de Camp, L Sprague (1954), Lost Continents (first ed.), p. 67.
- ^ Kracht, C., & Woodard, D., Five Years (Hanover: Wehrhahn Verlag, 2011), pp. 166–171.
- ^ Pegg 2016, p. 167.
- ^ Steinmeyer, Jim (2004), Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear (trade paperback), Carrol & Graf, pp. 184–85.
- ^ Ley, Willy (May 1947), “Pseudoscience in Naziland”, Astounding Science Fiction, 39 (3): 90–98.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke (2002), 113.
- ^ Strube (2013), 126–142.
- ^ Pauwels, Louis, Monsieur Gurdjieff (in French), FR: Amazon, ASIN 2226081968.
- ^ Bahn, Peter (1996), “Das Geheimnis der Vril-Energie: Berichte und Erfahrungen zu einer mächtigen Naturkraft”, in Schneider, Adolf; Schneider, Inge (eds.), Neue Horizonte in Technik und Bewusstsein : Vorträge des Kongresses 1995 im Gwatt-Zentrum am Thunersee, Bern: Jupiter-Verlag A.+l. Schneider, pp. 137–46, ISBN 978-3-906571-14-0.
- ^ Täufer, Johannes (1930), “”Vril” Die Kosmische Urkraft Wiedergeburt von Atlantis”, Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Reichsarbeitgemeinschaft “Das kommende Deutschland” Zentralbüro (in German), Berlin: Astrologischer Verlag Wilhelm Becker. See image in German Wikipedia
- ^ Strube (2013), 126–140.
- ^ Strube (2013), 98–123.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke (2002).
Bibliography
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2002). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3155-0.
- Strube, Julian (2013). Vril: Eine okkulte Urkraft in Theosophie und esoterischem Neonazismus. Paderborn/München: Wilhelm Fink. ISBN 978-3770555154.
Further reading
- Sünner, Rüdiger (2001). Schwarze Sonne: Entfesselung und Mißbrauch der Mythen in Nationalsozialismus und rechter Esoterik. Freiburg: Herder.
External links
![]() | Wikisource has original text related to this article: Vril: The Power of the Coming Race; The New Utopia |
- The Coming Race at Project Gutenberg – transcript of unidentified edition that was published as “by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton”
- Vril, The Power of the Coming Race, Sacred-texts.com – transcript of another unidentified edition
The Coming Race public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- The Coming Race title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Secret Flying Discs of the Third Reich, Laesie works, archived from the original on 10 October 2004.
- Conspiracy archive, Vril Society.
- The Development of the German UFOs from before WW2, Galactic server.
- “The Nazi Connection with Shambhala and Tibet”, Kala chakra, Study Buddhism.
- 1871 British novels
- Novels by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
- 1871 science fiction novels
- British science fiction novels
- Social science fiction
- 1871 fantasy novels
- British fantasy novels
- Nazism and occultism
- Fictional species and races
- Novels about extraterrestrial life
- Books about conspiracy theories
- Pseudoscience
- Dystopian novels
- Lost world novels
- Utopian novels
- Fictional materials
- Fictional secret societies
- Works published anonymously
- British novels adapted into plays
- Gender role reversal
‘The Coming Race’ and ‘Vril-Ya’ Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity
6 March 1891
This event is widely regarded as the first sci-fi convention ever held, being a gathering specifically inspired by a science fiction story.
Dr Herbert Tibbits, founder of the London Massage and Galvanic Hospital invited the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, the Countess of Cromarty, Lady Georgiana Spencer Churchill and other fashionable people to staff 16 stalls in the arena of the Royal Albert Hall made to represent the city of Vril-ya as described in Lord Lytton’s sci-fi book, ‘Vril: The Power of The Coming Race’. The book told of an American adventurer who encountered a race of winged, subterranean super-beings known as the Vril-ya. Their power of ‘vril’ was described as being a force akin to electricity, channelled by special mechanical ‘rods’, it could be harnessed to almost any goal, either creative or destructive.
The Hall’s auditorium was decorated with structures in a style similar to that of ancient Eygpt, Sumperia and India. The stalls seats were decorated with palms, ferns and flowers. In the centre of the arena was the grand Pillar of Vril-ya, modelled on Cleopatra’s Needle and decorated with flowers and palm fronds. Mannequins representing the winged Vril-ya flew back and forth above the auditorium. Guests were entertained by musical entertainments, vril-themed magic shows and fortune telling and grand feasts were held each day. Stalls sold handicrafts, paintings, dolls, satin cushions, petticoats, and perfumes. One stall offered the novelty of fishing in an indoor pond. Interestingly another stall sold cups of Bovril (the beef extract) drink, whose brand name was a created from a mix of the words ‘Bovine’ and ‘Vril’ – symbolising the vril energy one could gain from it.
Fancy dress was highly encouraged and visitors were advised to visit John Simmons and Sons, historical costumiers to Queen Victoria to view an array of ‘Coming Race’ costumes. Many visitors donned wings. Committee members of the the bazaar wore a variety of costumes ranging from Japanese, Elizabethan English , mock-Indian and other eclectic styles. The character of Princess Zee, from the novel, was played by a young lady wearing a black satin dress and silver flower tiara that glowed with electric lights.
HRH Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg officially opened the bazaar.
Originally meant to last three days, organisers decided to extend the bazaar by two days. The venture was a financial disaster, due to lack of interest from the public, bankrupting Dr Tibbits as a result. The event was criticised as being badly constructed and shabby and was unable to draw the visitor numbers after the opening day’s attendance by Royalty.
Dr Tibbits had previously held an ‘Ice Carnival’ at the Hall in 1890.
Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete
Cover of the programme for the event from https://thereaderwiki.com/en/Vril-Ya_Bazaar_and_Fete
The Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete (more fully billed as ‘The Coming Race’ and ‘Vril-Ya’ Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity) was an event held March 5–10, 1891 at the Royal Albert Hall in the British capital of London. It was organized by Herbert Tibbits to celebrate The Coming Race, an 1871 science fiction novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The Royal Albert Hall and others have described the event as the world’s first science fiction convention.
History
Tibbits was the founder of the London Massage and Galvanic Hospital, and the Vril-Ya Bazaar was one of a number of events he had produced as fundraisers for the hospital. For each, Tibbits recruited wealthy and socially prominent individuals as a host committee for the event.
For the 1891 event, Tibbits chose as the theme the world created by Bulwer-Lytton in The Coming Race. The novel features a subterranean race of winged superhuman beings, the “Vril-ya”, with telepathic and other parapsychological abilities who wield vast power derived from “Vril”, a mysterious form of energy that the Vril-ya are able to control through their miraculous skills. In the years following its publication, the novel had achieved widespread popularity, and some occultists claimed that Bulwer-Lytton had based his novel on an actual secret race that had mastered a limitless energy source. Diagram of hall showing stalls
Tibbits’ fundraising event sought to exploit the popularity of the novel. Bulwer-Lytton had described the architecture of the underground Vril-ya city as resembling the architecture of ancient Egypt, Sumeria, and India, and Tibbits had the Royal Albert Hall decorated with Egyptian artistic motifs, including a grand Pillar of Vril-ya, modeled on Cleopatra’s Needle. Illustration of the event
Suspended, and sometimes moving as if flying, above the crowd were mannequins costumed as the winged Vril-ya.[5] Entertainments were presented that sought to evoke the mystical powers of the Vril-ya, with magic shows and a fortune-telling dog. Booths offered various products and handcrafts for sale, including Bovril, a meat extract that had been named, in part, for Vril power in The Coming Race.
Guests were encouraged to wear costumes, and event organizers directed them to the firm John Simmons and Sons, historical costumiers to Queen Victoria, to view an array of Coming Race costumes, many sporting wings. The volunteer committee members wore various exotic costumes from a range of cultures and eras.
The youngest child of Queen Victoria, Princess Beatrice and her husband Prince Henry of Battenberg attended on the first day to officially open the event. The host committee that Tibbits recruited to help organize the event and staff the stalls included the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, the Countess of Cromarty and Lady Georgiana Spencer Churchill.
Reception
The event was originally scheduled to run for only three days, but the organizers extended it for an additional two days, “due to popular demand”.[5] However, reviews of the event were unfavorable. Newspapers criticized decorations as badly constructed and shabby.[2] A reviewer in the Leeds Times called it “a very sorry affair, inartistic, stupid … a vulgar entertainment in the name of charity”.[5] Despite the extended run, the event was a financial failure. Tibbits had covered the costs associated with holding the event from his own funds, and the failure of the event to bring in expected revenues bankrupted him.[5][2]
References
- ^ a b c d e Smith, Lydia (2 March 2016). “5–10 March 1891: Bovril and the first ever Sci-Fi convention, at the Royal Albert Hall”. Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h “‘The Coming Race’ and ‘Vril-Ya’ Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity”. Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Stokes, Tim. “Not just the Proms: An unexpected history of the Royal Albert Hall”. BBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
- ^ Jonsson, Emelie (7 November 2019). Trotta, Joe; Filipovic, Zlatan; Sadri, Houman (eds.). “Dystopia and Utopia after Darwin: Using Evolution to Explain Edward Bulwer Lytton’s ‘The Coming Race'”. Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalyses and Dystopias in Popular Culture. Routledge.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Munro, Michael (2 April 2014). “The ill-fated, SF-themed “Coming Race Bazaar” of 1891″. Observation Deck. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
External links
- Selected pages from the programme, courtesy of the Royal Albert Hall Archive. (Ref. RAHE/1/1891/5)
- “World’s First Sci-Fi Convention,” Objectivity episode 184 (video about the event)
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Copyright
- This page is based on the Wikipedia article Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.


https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_vril06.htm
Haushofer and the Vril
from Watcher Website
This secret community was founded, literally, on Bulwer Lytton’s novel The Coming Race.
The book describes a race of men psychically far more advanced than ours. They have gained powers over themselves and over things that make them almost godlike. For the moment, they are in hiding. They live in caves in the center of the Earth. Soon they will emerge to reign over us.
This appears to be as much as Dr. Ley could tell us.
He added with a smile that the disciples believed they had secret knowledge that would enable them to change their race and become the equals of the men hidden in the bowels of the Earth. Methods of concentration, a whole system of internal gymnastics by which they would be transformed. They began their exercises by staring fixedly at an apple cut in half…. We continued our researches.
This Berlin group called itself The Luminous Lodge, or The Vril Society.
The vril [the notion of the ’vril’ is mentioned for the first time in the works of the French writer Jacolliot, French Consul in Calcutta under the Second Empire. Is the enormous energy of which we only use a minute proportion in our daily life, the nerve-centre of our potential divinity.
Whoever becomes master of the vril will be the master of himself, of others round him and of the world. [Reich’s “orgone“…? -B:.B:.]
This should be the only object of our desires, and all our efforts should be directed to that end. All the rest belongs to official psychology, morality, and religions and is worthless.
The world will change: the Lords will emerge from the centre of the Earth. Unless we have made an alliance with them and become Lords ourselves, we shall find ourselves among the slaves, on the dung-heap that will nourish the roots of the New Cities that will arise. [shades of Crowley’s Liber AL? -B:.B:.]
The Luminous Lodge [Silver Star, Argon Astron, L.V.X. and latter-day “Lightworkers” woven together in this Luciferian tapestry? -B:.B:.] had associations with the theosophical and Rosicrucian groups.
According to Jack Fishman, author of a curious book entitled The Seven Men of Spandau, Karl Haushofer was a member of this lodge.
We shall have more to say about him later, when it will be seen that his association with this Vril Society helps to explain certain things.
The Vril Society
from LetUsReason Website
The Vril Society was one of he most influential of the occultic groups in post-WWI Germany, many of Germany’s social elite were members.
Like the Thule Society, the Vril Society was at the base of the Nazi gnosis for the early leaders of the movement. The Vril Society was also known as the Lodge of Light, and as the Luminous Lodge. It is difficult to obtain reliable information most secret initiations in the Vril Society. As it is with most secret lodges like the Masons one must leave to divulge any information.
This society finds its beginnings in France and associated with French writer Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890). Who drew on the esoteric materials from occultic sources such as the Swedenborgians.
Also associated with the Vril Society was the 16th-century teachings of mystic Jacob Boehme (a cofounder of modem Rosicrucianism) and Claude de St. Martin, a leader from French Illuminism during the early 19th-century.
There seems to be a thread of parallelism of these and others related to the illuminati in the 18th cent from Bavaria (Adam Weishapt) (Ravenscroft)
The Vril movement is said to still exist throughout the orient where, it is claimed by Angebert, (The Occult and the Third Reich by Jean-Michel Angebert) there can be as many as two million converts, mostly in India. The current Vrilists are sun worshippers. Vril temples in India are said to be decorated with swastikas.
One of the primary qualifications for admission to the Vril Society was minimum competence in Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine. Karl Haushofer was alleged to be a master of the secret doctrines exposed by Blavatsky, and it was he who initiated prisoner Adolf Hitler at Landsberg Prison.
Haushofer eventually became one of the earliest members of the fledgling German Workers Party (DAP), which is the group that changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or “Nazi”) when Hitler became its leader.
The Mother of The Nazi Party
from Whale Website
The Vril Society was the mother of the Nazi party.
“Vril” means the Light Force. What Light force? Lucifer the light bearer’s light force. The true nature of Nazism is being concealed. When Hitler came to plan, he was placed into power in accordance with the Illuminati plan which was spelled out in writing.
This plan said,
“Nowadays if any state raise a protest against us it is only pro forma (provided in advance) at our discretion and by our direction, for their anti-semitism is indispensable to us for the management of our lesser brethren.”
Illuminati international bankers brought Hitler to power, and Illuminati kingpins like Rockefeller, Onassis and the King of Sweden traded with the Nazis.
Spain stayed neutral during the war to serve as a conduit of supplies to keep Hitler’s war going. Hitler was a participant in rituals where human sacrifices were carried out. He himself killed a number of men by pulling their hearts out of their bodies while they were alive. One Monarch slave remembers his father, who was powerful in the Illuminati, describing how Hitler killed a man in front of him by pulling his heart out.
Some of Hitler’s key advisors and key men were in the Illuminati.
There are also lots of tie ins with the OTO, the Vril Society, the Thule Society, the Society of Green Men. The head of the Tibetan Monks that Hitler imported to help him lead Germany was known as The Man with the Green Glove. The monks were posted in Berlin, Munich, and Nuremberg.
By the way, the NWO is still using Tibetan Monks.
Have you ever watched how much travel the Dalai Lama gets in? And did you notice that Tibetan Monks were imported in the Bakaa Valley Colorado by a U.N. leader?
The Mishpuka (Jewish Mafia) leader Pritzker who lives in seclusion on Haulon Rd., Libertyville, IL 60048 on a 1300 acre piece of expensive real estate, had the Dalai Lama consecrate a shrine for him.
Haulon Rd. has two access points, a northern and a southern.
(The road was bought by Pritzker and is guarded. Pritzker has been active in Chicago for the Mishpuka. He is reported to have spent millions renovating his house, where for some reason, dead bodies keep showing up on its estate grounds.)

Occult Secrets of Vril: Goddess Energy and the Human Potential Paperback – May 26, 2015
by Robert Sepehr (Author)4.6 out of 5 stars 401 ratings
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Is mankind on the threshold of a new age of enlightenment? Or are we descending a dwindling spiral, doomed to repeat the lessons from history which we either forget or never seem to learn? In pre-WWII Germany, the Vril Society used the swastika emblem to link Eastern and Western occultism. They advanced the idea of a subterranean matriarchal utopia ruled by a race of Aryan beings who had mastered a mysterious force called Vril. This breakaway civilization had survived the antediluvian cataclysms which ended the ice age, and passed on their guarded occult knowledge through initiation into sacred mystery schools. Vril was known to these mystics as a natural and abundant energy, having disseminated it’s divine wisdom world wide under many names. The Chinese referred to it as “chi”, the Hindu as “prana”, and the Japanese as “reiki”. Albert Pike said: “There is in nature one most potent force, by means whereof a single man, who could possess himself of it, and should know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change the face of the world.” Helena Blavatski, the foundress of the Theosophical Society, described this Vril energy as an aether stream that could be transformed into a physical force. What are the Occult Secrets of Vril?