Agartha: Secret underground kingdom beneath Asia allied to the Third Reich; it is ruled by the King of the World.
Ahnenerbe: SS research organization for study of Germany’s “ancestral heritage,” especially its occult, racial, or para-scientific aspects.
Ariosophy: Specifically Aryan interpretation of theosophy focused on Teutonic paganism, rune lore, and the race-consciousness of the German people.
Armanenschaft: According to Guido von List, the elite, totalitarian sorcerer-priest caste of the ancient German people.
Artamanen: Back-to-the-land movement current in Germany in the 1920s, combining nature appreciation, agronomy, and defense of the country against Slavic incursions.
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (ERR); organization officially tasked with confiscation of all artistic and cultural material from the occupied territories.
Externsteine: Natural stone formation revealed by Wiligut as the sacred center of the Irminist faith; magical proving ground for Ahnenerbe.
Feuerball: Fireball; German name for the “foo fighter” program of electrostatic interceptors.
Fraternitas Saturnii: Brotherhood of Saturn; ritual sex-magick lodge founded in 1928 by Eugen Grosche; suppressed by the Gestapo in 1936.
Germanenorden: German Order; elite quasi-Masonic völkisch order founded in 1912 to work for unification of all German territories and promote anti-Semitism.
Geweckt: Literally “awakened” or “illuminated”; term in Sonderverband Z for a soldier who had encountered the supernatural.
Haunebu: Vril-powered experimental aircraft.
Hexensoldat: “Witch-soldier,” a colloquial term for magically trained military personnel.
Irminsul: Legendary pillar worshiped by the pagan Saxons; badge issued to Ahnenerbe survivors of exercises at Externsteine.
(das) Laternenträger Projekt: Project Lantern-Bearer; SS project to construct a vril reactor on the pattern of a Lemurian bell; also called die Glocke, “the Bell.”
Leuchtendeloge: Luminous Lodge; esoteric lodge founded in 1925 to study the vril.
Marineforschungsabteilung: Naval Research Institute (MFA); special occult research unit set up within the Abwehr (later under the Kriegsmarine) initially for purposes of “unconventional reconnaissance.”
Mireniamu: Japanese project to develop werewolves and other supernatural beings.
Order of the New Templars (ONT): Knightly and occult order founded by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels for the renewal of the German nation and race.
Organisation Consul (OC): “Vehme” death-squad run by underground members of the Ehrhardt Brigade of the Freikorps.
Raumenergie: “Space-energy” similar to ether or zero-point energy; the cover term used for vril in official papers of the SS technical development staff.
RSHA Amt VII B: Office within RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or Reich Security Main Office) tasked with maintaining a complete library and archive of “hostile ideological” material, including Masonic, Jewish, and occult lore.
Ryokuryūkai: Green Dragon Society; the Japanese equivalent of the Ahnenerbe operating under the umbrella of the Japanese Navy.
Sonderauftrag H: Special Commission H; the office within RSHA Amt VII B devoted to assembling a complete record of witchcraft trials in Germany.
Sonderverband Z: Special Group Z; military unit associated with the Ahnenerbe; tasked with occult warfare operations.
SAC:ST: Supreme Allied Headquaters: Shadow Theatre, the division of the Allied military set up specifically to combat Axis occult programs.
SS Entwicklungsstelle-IV (SS E-IV): SS directorate for alternative technical research.
Theosophy: System of esoteric knowledge drawing on both religion (primarily Hinduism) and science (primarily quasi-Darwinism) to elaborate a unified theory of human development both spiritually and physically.
Thule Gesellschaft: Recruiting movement for the Germanenorden in Bavaria that developed into an esoteric political party.
Todesbruderschaft: Brotherhood of Death; institute of the Ahnenerbe concerned with necromancy.
Vehme: Medieval courts of justice administered by secret societies in Germany and Austria.
Vimana: Flying chariot from Vedic mythology.
Völkisch: German term meaning “ethnic,” “folkloric,” and “populist,” applied to various occult political and cultural movements in Germany and Austria between c. 1880 and 1940.
Vril: Fundamental cosmic force of the universe, both physical and metaphysical, unifying heat, gravity, and electromagnetism.
Vril-Gesellschaft: Term of convenience used to refer to the secret core behind several overlapping societies dedicated to the study, unlocking, and utilization of vril.
Wahrheitsgesellschaft: Society of Truth; an esoteric study group devoted to the search for vril.
Welteislehre: World-Ice Theory; the catastrophist belief in a series of icy explosions that defines the creation of the solar system and the continuing development of Earth and its moons.
Werwolf: Both a last-ditch insurgent network in the final days of Nazi Germany and a secret program of lycanthropic covert operatives.