The Lightning and the Sun

The Lightning and the Sun is Savitri Devi's magnum opus and one of the founding texts of post-World War II National Socialism. Written in Europe from 1948 to 1956 and published in India in 1958, The Lightning and the Sun sets forth a unique and stunning synthesis of National Socialism with the cyclical Traditionalist philosophy of history and Hindu mythology. Savitri Devi's goal was to create a new National Socialist religion. She aspired to be the Saint Paul to Hitler's Jesus. Paul of Tarsus took Jesus, who was a religious prophet and a failed political revolutionary, and turned him into a divine incarnation, creating a religion which served as the vehicle for the triumph of Jewish values over Rome. Savitri Devi sought to transform Adolf Hitler, who was also both a prophetic figure and a failed political revolutionary, into a divine incarnation-an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu-hoping to create a religion that would serve as the vehicle for the triumph of National Socialism over egalitarian modernity. The Authoress Savitri Devi (1905-1982) is one of the most original and influential National Socialist thinkers of the post-World War II era. Born Maximine Julia Portaz in Lyons, France, she was of English, Greek, and Italian ancestry and described her nationality as "Indo-European." She earned Master's degrees in philosophy and chemistry and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Lyons. Her books include A Warning to the Hindus (1939), L'Etang aux lotus (The Lotus Pond) (1940), A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt (1946), later republished as Son of the Sun (1956), Akhnaton: A Play (1948), Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany (1952), Defiance: The Prison Memoirs of Savitri Devi (1958), Pilgrimage (1958), Impeachment of Man (1959), Long-Whiskers and the Two-Legged Goddess (1965), Souvenirs et réflexions d'une Aryenne (Memories and Reflections of an Aryan Woman) (1976), And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews (2005), and Forever and Ever: Devotional Poems (2012)