The Morning of the Magicians is a 1960 book by the journalists Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. Often referenced by conspiracy-theory enthusiasts and those interested in the occult, it presents a collection of "raw material for speculation of the most outlandish order", covering topics like cryptohistory, ufology, occultism in Nazism, alchemy and spiritual philosophy. Written in French, Le Matin des magiciens was translated into English by Rollo Myers in 1963 under the title The Dawn of Magic, and in 1964 released in the United States as The Morning of the Magicians. A German edition was published 1962 with the title Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend. The Morning of the Magicians became a cult classic within the youth culture in France through the 1960s and 1970s. Cautioned by the hostile reception by skeptic reviewers, Pauwels and Bergier went on to pursue their interest in the paranormal in the magazine Planète, dedicated to what they termed réalisme fantastique. Both The Morning of the Magicians and the Planète magazine had considerable influence on the esotericism of the 1960s–1970s counterculture, heralding the popularization of New Age ideas.
Background
Pauwels and Bergier worked on the book over five years, compiling voluminous documentation incorporated into the Bibliothèque nationale de France as Fonds Pauwels in 2007. Heavily influenced by Charles Fort's work and ideas, the authors' primary aim was to arouse the curiosity of their readership, stating "Let us repeat that there will be a lot of silliness in our book, but this matters little if the book stirs up a few vocations and, to a certain degree, prepares broader tracks for research".
Influence
In a 2004 article for Skeptic, the author Jason Colavito wrote that the book's tales ofancient astronauts predated Erich von Däniken's works on the topic, and that the ideas are so close to the fictional works of H. P. Lovecraft such as "The Call of Cthulhu" or At the Mountains of Madness that, according to Colavito, it is probable that Lovecraft's fiction directly inspired the book. The book is the origin of the conspiracy theory that the Vril Society and the Thule Society were the philosophical precursors to the Nazi Party. The book is the origin of the claims of a fictional Maria Orsic, a Vienna-born Croatian woman who was supposedly involved with the Vril Society and vanished in 1945, going to "Aldebaran". The mythology of Maria Orsic has spread in the internet age, particularly among those inclined to Esoteric Nazism. The fifth track on The Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is called "In the Morning of the Magicians", referencing the novel.
