The Will Spencer Podcast The Occult Religion Behind Modern Extremism
What looks like online extremism, grievance politics, or internet trolling is something much older, and much darker.
In this episode, Will Spencer shares audio from the first two sessions of his Book Club reading Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity by historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. The discussion explores how Nazism functioned not merely as a political movement, but as a religious system, complete with ritual, myth, demonology, and a vision of racial salvation.
Drawing from history, theology, and personal experience, Will explains how neo-Nazi movements reorganized almost immediately after World War II, how figures like George Lincoln Rockwell and Julius Evola fused politics with occult spirituality, and why many modern online movements cannot be understood politically alone.
This conversation is about spiritual formation, discernment, and clarity—and why Christians must take the religious roots of extremist ideologies seriously.
Topics Covered
- Why Nazism functioned as a religious system, not just a political ideology
- How extremist movements regrouped immediately after World War II
- George Lincoln Rockwell’s mystical “conversion” and American neo-Nazism
- Julius Evola, occult philosophy, and anti-Christian spiritual elitism
- How grievance politics distorts spiritual development
- Why these ideas persist in modern online masculinity culture
- The personal and relational cost of extremist belief systems
Books Mentioned
- Black Sun — Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
- American Veda — Philip Goldberg
- The Myth of Mental Illness — Thomas Szasz
- The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment — Jeremiah Burroughs
- The Christian Mind — Henry Blamires
- Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon — Dave McGowan
About the Book Club
The Book Club is a private reading group where we work through serious books slowly and carefully, not for hot takes, but for Christian spiritual and intellectual formation. The goal isn’t information alone, but depth, clarity, and long-term stability in a culture designed to keep us reactive and distracted.
Learn more and join at willspencer.blog
Production Note
These conversations were recorded live on Zoom and lightly edited to remove long pauses. Audio quality is not studio-perfect. The substance of the discussion is the focus.