Ben Kadosh (aka Carl William Hansen), Den ny morgens gry (1906)

This chapter describes Carl William Hansen’s (aka Ben Kadosh) Luciferian manifesto, Den ny morgens gry (1906). Throughout his life, Hansen was a member of several masonic and occult organizations operating in Denmark and was well known (or perhaps notorious) in the Danish occult milieu. Even though Den ny morgens gry appears to be a very original work, it ties in with late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century occultism in several ways. Hansen’s speculations about the pagan roots of Freemasonry, his interest in Pan, and his preoccupation with the idea of a universal life-force and its “phallic” expressions were all recurring motifs in this religious environment. It would also appear that there was a certain amount of affinity between the worldview of Den ny morgens gry and the so-called phallicist literature of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, the book is more or less unique for its time in that it so clearly presents itself as an argument for the cult of the Devil, represented (in part) by the figure of Lucifer.