Many years ago I noticed Meyrink’s (Meyer’s) The Golem in a box of reduced price pocket books and as I knew that Meyrink was a member of the Golden Dawn and for a short time a Theosophist bought and read it. Meyrink wrote The Golem form 1907 to 1914. Later he become a Buddhist, but in The Golem you see mainly references to Kabbalah and Theosophy. Yesterday I remembered that the book described the Jewish ghetto of Prague very much in the way as I think Theosophists of the beginning of the 20th century saw Jews, a degenerated race, just to check that they really thought so. This depressive description of the ghetto is there in the beginning of the book and quite as I remembered it: Meyrink shows Jews as degenerated predators, who do not any more have the vitality to prey on their victims, only Aaron Wassertrum, a junk dealer, blackmailer, criminal and millionaire still masters the old Jewish tricks. There are also two saintly Jews, Kabbalist Hillel and his daughter Miriam, so Meyrink is not one-sided in his evaluation of ghetto Jews.
After reading the novel I checked what the infallible Wikipedia has to say of Meyrink and Golem. To me, the Wikipedia missed the whole idea, so I thought that maybe I should write a post explaining what the book actually says.
It is always foolish to write anything about what some author of a book really wanted to say, but as Meyrink is dead and I am not, and as I have been reading quite much text from esoterics and occultists during this small study of the New World Order conspiracy that I decided to undertake some 10 years ago, I think maybe this time I should provide an explanation.
The book starts with the narrator picking up a wrong hat, one belonging to gem-maker Athanasius Pernath, and he remembers or dreams of what had happened to Pernath some thirty years ago. In the beginning Pernath watches how a 14-years old Jewish prostitute Rosina plays with the feelings of two Jewish brothers Loisa and Jaromir. A strange looking man comes to Perneth and asks him to repair a letter in a magical book with the name Ibbur. The man has a yellow face, tilted eyes and no beard. Sounds like a man from the Far East, but he was the Golem, as Kabbalist Hillel explains. Every thirty three years Golem is seen walking in the ghetto of Prague and in those times something bad always happens. Pernath, being rather mixed up – he is mentally ill and has lost his memory – wanders in underground passages of Prague and ends up to a room where there is a window but no door. The entrance is thorough a trapdoor in the floor. Pernath finds a tarot pack and old clothes from the room, and dresses in the clothes as it is cold. In the morning he walks in these old clothes and people think he is Golem. Pernath learns that a man called Zottman, called the Freemason, was murdered at the same time when Pernath felt Golem’s presence.
A noble lady, Angelina, applies to Pernath for protection: she has an extramarital affair with one Dr. Savioli, who is seriously ill at the moment, and Wassertrum tries to kill Savioli and blackmail her. Pernath naturally would like to help her. Pernath meets a student Charousek, who hates Wassertrum and tries to persuade Wassertrum to kill himself. The reason is that Charousek is Wasserman’s son and the latter mistreated Charousek’s mother. Charousek explains that Wassertrum tries to kill Savioli because he thinks that Savioli drove Wassertrums son, one Dr. Wassory, to suicide, but it actually was Charousek, who uncovered the cheater Wassory and got him to kill himself.
Wassertrum tricks Pernath to take a gold watch of Zottman and gives a hit to the police, so Pernath is arrested as the suspected murderer of Zottman. Pernath is in the jail for a long time. There is also Loisa, also suspected of murdering Zottman. Loisa escapes from the jail and kills Wassertrum jus before Charousek manages to persuade Wassertrum to make a suicide. Charousek inherits Wassertrum and he gives some of the money to Pernath and the rest to the batallion. The batallion is a Jewish gang of petty thieves and cheaters in the ghetto, Charousek is one of its leaders. Angelina has run away with Savioli. Perneth notices that he loves Miriam. Perneth is released from the jail and evidence shows that Loisa murdered Zottman and his brother Jaromir sold it to Wassertrum.
In the end the narrator returns to hat to Pernath. Pernath is married with Miriam and they live in a house on Alchemistengasse. The wall is covered with mosaics showing rites of Osiris. And that’s it.
Golem is a classic of horror books, so you may wonder why the plot does not contain anything especially horrifying. Some of the book reflects Meyrink’s personal experiences. The Wikipedia tells that Meyrink was in the jail for two months because of bank fraud, and that in his autobiographical book he tells of having intended to kill himself when somebody pushed a spiritual booklet under his door. Meyrink also lived in Prague and this is reflected in the book. However, those personal experiences are not an explanation of the book.
I would start like this. It is a horror book, but the actual content is not horrifying. Thus, it is a horror book of the type of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein rather than Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Frankenstein is an allegory of revolutionary Freemasonry, so it is a fair assumption that The Golem is also about Freemasonry. The Golem appears ever 33 years and Perneth has lost his memory. Thus, the plot should have events that are separated by 33 years over a longer time period. The natural period for Freemasonry is a bit before the French revolution of 1789 to the time when The Golem was written, that is, 1914.
We need a starting point. The Finnish translator has kindly suggested one starting point: in the book the old bridge of Prague collapses when Golem is seen and the bridge collapsed in 1890. I do not agree with this timing suggestion. There were no special events of importance in 1890. There was a highly important event in June 28, 1914, Archduke Ferninand was shot. The war started in 1914, but it had been coming for several years. Catholic press did inform in 1912 that Freemasons plan to assassinate Archduke. Meyrink, as an occultist, may have understood what is happening well before 1914. Taking 1914 as the starting point and not going earlier than a bit before 1789, we get the following years. I have added the characters of the book to the years.
– 1914, Archduke Ferninand was shot and the First World War started. Lanz von Liebenfell’s Ostara appeared in Vienna. German “Völkisch” movements ban some Meyrink’s books. In the time period 1914-1947 ghettos of Europe disappeared, most Jews were pushed out of Europe. In the book Zottman’s murder corresponds to Archduke’s assassination. In the book thirty years later the ghetto is gone. Pernath and Miriam are in the house on Alchemists street with mosaics of the rites of Osisir. In the book says that Osiris has the head of a rabbit and it is the origin of the Easter Bunny. Meyrink, as an occultist, must have known that these claims are not true and there is a purpose why the book says so. The origin of the Easter bunny is Germanic god Eostre, also called Ostara. The book also says that Prague was created by Asiatic Brethren. This is naturally not true. Asiatic Brethren (Knights of St. John the Evangelists for Asia in Europe) were a secret society created by Heinrich Baron von Ecker und Eckhoffen and Moses Dobruschka (Baron von Schönfeld), a cousin of Jacob Frank. It was the first Freemason lodge to accept Jews. Theosophists recreated this sex-rite practicing secret society as the Hermetic Order of Luxor. Hints like this give the correct meaning of The Golem.
– 1881, in the period 1881-1914 there was the anti-Semitic movement. Arthur de Gobineau died 1882, the work was continued by the Gobineau Society and the Bayreuth Circle. Charousek hated Wassertrum’s Jewish blood and Wassertrums son’s Wassory’s fraud.
– 1848, the crazy year of Europe, many Masonic revolutions. Napoleon III got into power in France. In the period 1848-1881 leftist Freemasonry, Carbonaries and Communists tried to make revolutions. Rosina may symbolize Jewish revolutionaries, Loisa and Jaromir different groups of revolutionaries, such as the Black Hand which assassinated the Archduke.
– 1815, Napoleon loses in Waterloo. Winners of the war tried to stop the revolutionary movement. Russian secret police tried to keep secret societies, especially Freemasons, in control. Pernath, an occultist as he read the magical book, was arrested by the secret police.
– 1782, about the start of Cagliostro’s Egyptian Freemasonry, Cagliostro was arrested of involvement in the affair of the Diamond Necklace in 1784-85. The period 1782-1815 was the period of revolutionary Masonry of Egyptian Freemasonry/Jacobins. The affair of Angelina may correspond to the affair of the Necklace threatening Maria Antoinette. Angelina run away, European nobles lost their power.
Thus, the book is an allegory of Masonry, just like Frankenstein. That is where you find the horror of this book. Let us add 33 years to 1914 to get the next data point. It is 1947. Israel was founded in 1948. The implication is that in the time 1914-1948 Freemasons are married to Jews. In the book Pernath married the Jewish girl Miriam. Of course, in all Masonic plots there are puppet masters. It is not surprising that we find a puppet master Zwakh from the book, a friend of Pernath.
Thus, The Golem may be Meyrink’s short explanation of recent world history and why the world was going towards a world war in 1914. I do not think there was any 33 year period in Masonic plans, but Meyrink may have found one appearing like a period, like the Book of Daniel has an explanation to history as four times. Notice, that Meyrink may have guessed that in about 30 years from 1914 there would not be ghettos any more. Meyrink explains the goal of the Masionic plan.
Masons in the book are symbolized by the narrator/Pernath, who turns into Golem. Remember that in the Golem story Golem was created to protect Jews, but later it attacked Jews. Miriam is the Jewish people, who believes in miracles (Pernath helps Miriam by repeating the classical Cabbalistic miracle of hiding a coin into a loaf of bread and a righteous Jew believes it is a miracle). The marriage of Pernath and Miriam is also the marriage of the Messiah and the Jews. This is clear from many references to hermaphrodite (the Messiah and the Bride join into a hermaphrodite God, this symbolism is from Zohar (Idra Rabbi) and Zohar is mentioned in the book. Clearly, the intention of the Masonic plan is messianic. That implies that Jews must be restored to Palestine. Indeed, Pernath wants to take Miriam to a funtrip (unfortunately, it meant camps). Notice that Meyrink implies that the anti-Semite Charousek is a part of the Masonic-Jewish plan.
Of course, you are completely free to claim that The Golem has no such explanation and that it is simply absurd fantasy based on Meyrinks own personal experiences and dreams. But as a word of warning: European esoteric secret societies from 1750 to 1950 simply loved to write their messages to horror and fantasy books. The majority of horror and fantasy books are just storied, but there were many writers in the esoteric circles who wanted to say something in their way. Maybe you think that Tolkien’s Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have no allegoric meaning, but in Hobbit the dwarfs are Jews and in the Return of the King the dead of the mountain, who are bound by an oath resemble Freemasons a bit too much. How about the Matrix movie, does it have any interpretation?