The Gift: Serpent’s Walk
American Dissident Voices broadcast of 28 January, 2023
by Kevin Alfred Strom
TODAY I AM GOING to tell you of a White man named Phillip Barker, an American born in 1929 and who died in 2012 at the age of 82. Early in his life, he was drawn by the romance of the Arabian Nights, The Thief of Baghdad, and the Islamic mystics and poets, and when studying abroad as a young man, experiencing many different cultures, and becoming expert in Urdu and South Asian studies, he converted to Islam, married a light-skinned South Asian woman who he never abandoned, and took on the name Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker, or simply M.A.R. Barker, the name under which he wrote and became fairly well-known. Late in his life, he often reverted to to just plain “Phil.” An unlikely subject for an American Dissident Voices broadcast, you might think.
Barker was descended from early American settlers who came to this country in 1626. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study the languages of India in 1951. In his spare time, he immersed himself in the world of fantasy fiction, writing reviews, meeting authors, and gradually incubating his own ideas of what worlds he might create within the genre. He wrote a dissertation on and published the first-ever grammar and dictionary of the Klamath language, an ancient Amerindian language of the US northwest, something that — perhaps significantly — no Klamath-speaker had ever done.
He taught at McGill University’s Institute of Islamic studies and later headed the University of Minnesota’s Department of South Asian Studies, which he ran until his retirement in the early 1990s. He was one of the very early innovators in the field of fantasy role-playing games. When he died, his obituary was published in Forbes magazine, and probably many other publications as well.
Inspired by the early role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, a person-to-person non-computer game that inspired many, many artificial gaming worlds to come, Barker created a game — and entire fantasy world — he called “Tekumel” in the early 1970s. Its official name is “Empire of the Petal Throne: The World of Tekumel.” Characterized by a clash of fictional civilizations which Barker imagined in great detail, it is well-regarded and still played today. Podcasts and Web sites are still devoted to it, almost a half century later. There is even a Tekumel Foundation which curates and facilitates the future of Barker’s creation. Between 1984 and 2003 he also published five novels set in the world of Tekumel.
When he gave his gift to the National Alliance he was 62 years old, and was still running the Department of South Asian Studies, and still writing his Tekumel novels. In the midst of all that, around 1990, he wrote a sixth novel, set not in a fantasy world, but in the real world, in the mid-21st century. He called that novel Serpent’s Walk, named after a Hindu myth. It’s about the hundred-year-long underground survival of National Socialist Germany’s SS — and their gradual emergence into open conflict with the Jewish power structure. He entered into enthusiastic correspondence with William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, looking for a bit of collaboration and advice, and with an eye to having the Alliance publish this work, which it did in 1991. M.A.R. Barker had realized the truth about the toxicity of Jewish power, National Socialist greatness and benevolence, and the importance of the survival of our European race. And, before he died, he wanted to give what he had to give, with whatever literary and artistic talents he possessed, to the group that had perhaps done the most to open his eyes to truth — the National Alliance.
Dr. Barker wrote the book under the pseudonym Randolph Calverhall, a name based on one of his ancestors, and never revealed the truth of his secret gift during his lifetime. Thus we have Serpent’s Walk today. I can tell this story openly now, since the lesser minds and lesser men who now run the Tekumel Foundation discovered and then publicized Dr. Barker’s correspondence, manuscripts, and proofs relating to Serpent’s Walk last year and began to unnecessarily apologize all over the place for them and for the book, like the spineless and ignorant twerps that they apparently are. (It was also revealed at that time that Dr. Barker served for many years on the editorial advisory board of the Institute for Historical Review, where his name appeared, just under the Jew’s radar, as “Philip Barker, Ph.D, Minneapolis, Minnesota.”)
The book is sold today by our Cosmotheist book store.
Fairly early on in the book, one of the characters, a man called Wrench, tells another named Lessing who has just discovered that the SS didn’t disappear after World War 2, but continued to build its power just below the surface of many large business entities. Lessing is very skeptical:
“We’re in competition, Lessing. We win, it’s our genes that survive and our Western heritage — our Aryan culture, if you like — that provides the model for how people will live on this planet for the next millennium. If we lose and the Israelis win, then they run the bagel shop their way, exactly what they’ve been trying to do for centuries. If both of the above lose, then the Chinese, the Japanese, or some new booga-booga ‘power’ in the Third World gets to pilot the ship on the cruise down to Hell. As a White man, I wouldn’t want to live in such a mongrel world!”
…”Oh, sure. And while we’re at it, just what do you have in mind for the Jews and the Blacks? More gas chambers?”
“I told you: there never were such things. None. That was wartime propaganda that the Jews kept going in order to gain sympathy, support, and money for Israel. We don’t hate other races or ethnic groups; we just love our own people more. Our civilization is best fitted to run this ball of mud, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to slaughter all of our fellow inhabitants. If they cooperate, they’ll be a damned sight better off than they are right now.”
Lessing frowned. He could think of nothing to say.
“As I said, we’re in competition with those people for world supremacy. We will win because we are the best fitted to do so. If others choose to live in peace within their own regions, we won’t harm them. Those in our territory who are not our people will have to leave and settle elsewhere. It’s as simple as that. We’re willing to let other ethnic groups have their place in the sun, but as for living with us, running us, or grabbing what we have worked to build up for ourselves …no way! If that takes force to achieve … and maintain … then so be it. As the Jews say, ‘never again!”‘
Another bit of dialogue runs:
“The past must not dictate to the present and the future! The Jews have never been able to see this. They insist on their ancient tribal identity, right out of the Old Testament.”
“Yet you don’t want them to assimilate, to mingle and disappear into your population, do you?”
“Frankly, no. We don’t want them to change us. That’s happened enough already. When they carne to America as refugees, we took them in. Then they took the place over and started remaking it to suit themselves. They turned America into a multi-racial pigsty. We’ll breathe easier when we’re completely free of them and their influence.”
The book, as one might expect from a man who took the path he did, includes a sympathetic, yet definitely evolving White character with a non-White girlfriend. The book also contains some very realistic debates between characters — Islamists, White separatists, Black nationalists, Arabs, and others, that enter skillfully into uncomfortable territory for all concerned, but resolve into a shaky network of alliances against the Jewish power structure that dominates the world to everyone’s detriment. There are even a few Jews who see that their insane genocidal leaders aren’t worthy of support. Add in Israeli torturers, an institute called “Sperm Bank Lebensborn,” a nearly-sentient supercomputer that builds a duplicate of itself, quotes from Nietzsche and Clausewitz and Hitler, a bioweapon more deadly than whatever our misrulers were intending Covid to be, a group flying the red-white-and-black swastika flag calling itself “The Party of Humankind,” a life-or-death conflict between the newly-emerged SS and the Jews, and a world traveler’s, artist’s, and scholar’s understanding of the ways of the world, and it’s quite a read.
At one point, there’s a flurry of renaming of public and private institutions and places in America:
Renaming had grown into a major industry. The surprising thing was that in addition to the obvious heroes of the Party, there were requests for relative unknowns. Lessing had seen applications for commemorations of Otto Skorzeny, the commando who had rescued Mussolini by glider; for Hanna Reitsch, the woman test pilot who had once personally flown a V-1 rocket — and nearly made mincemeat of herself doing it; for Leon Degrelle, the heroic commander of a Belgian SS Division; for a whole gaggle of Ukrainians and East Europeans who had been persecuted back during the years of Jewish dominance; and for many others. Some college in Nebraska even wanted to name its agricultural school after Walter Darre, the Third Reich’s Minister of Agriculture….
It is definitely an action novel, but the book has real literary merit and is full of complex characters and bright imaginings of what might be one day; the descriptions and action are hewn with real artistic flair — these short excerpts miss that part — as befits a man who has been compared favorably with Tolkien.
So this is a story of a man who gave a gift. An imperfect man, a man with flaws. A man who’d made some mistakes and miscalculations, mistakes that he perhaps couldn’t simply “get out of” without, in his view, even greater harm and dishonor. A man who therefore decided to give a great gift to those who were fighting for what is right — a gift to the National Alliance. He was a man of art, a writer. A man whose gift consisted of his very best efforts, in the field in which his talents shone their brightest — in this case, a novel. A man who thereby made a statement, and showed a path for others.
I’ve talked often about gifts that the Alliance may receive in the future, as the lines of battle for the survival of our kind become clearer and clearer to millions of our Folk. Our people, the people of all nations of Europe and of the colonies they founded around the globe, are a great people. An artistic people. A people of subtle and refined learning and intelligence. A people of great dreams, of dreams that have never been dreamed before. A people which gives birth to the likes of William Pierce and William Gayley Simpson — and, yes, M.A.R. Barker. Remember, there was a time when William Pierce supported libertarianism and the John Birch Society. Remember, there was a time, a very long time, when William Simpson put all of his life-energy and talent into promoting a Christian message, and it was only late in life that he joined the National Alliance and decided to give his considerable literary and philosophical gifts to the cause of his race — including his truly great book, Which Way, Western Man?
What gifts can you give to the National Alliance, the organizational embodiment of European man’s will to live?
Some who have succeeded financially in life can give us money, so we can expand our outreach and pay our staff a living wage, and acquire more land and buildings — we’ve already made a good start — to make our racial community concrete and real. Someday will come along one, then a few, then a growing number of very successful men, men who have already made large contributions to society in business or the arts, perhaps some of them men who were pioneers in creating the new and honest money system of BTC that stands poised to beat the money-men who are trying to destroy us — who can make huge donations that will take the Alliance to an entirely new level. Some who may think of themselves as more humble and ordinary men, but who are just as noble, will dig deep from their income and their savings and help us with regular membership dues and donations. It is such men, made of greater stuff than they might give themselves credit for, who have made almost everything we have done possible.
Some will be more like me, and purposely choose a path in life that does not involve maximizing profits or wages and then making donations, but instead involves dropping out of the produce-and-consume game and devoting most of their time and most of their life-energies to making sure the Alliance succeeds and its message gets out to all of our people. They will work for us, part- or full-time. Some will move to Upper East Tennessee and join our intentional racial community there. These, too, give a great gift. Their spouses, too, give part of that gift, not only by making do with fewer material things, but by accepting and supporting the Alliance-building mission of their mates and all the risks that that entails. They also give by devoting their good names and reputations to our great cause. More and more such are arising.
Some may give a gift that we can’t even imagine. A scientific discovery that will allow us to harness forces that none of our enemies can oppose. Perhaps a research scientist will give us such a gift and in the same act deny that gift to the regime in Washington, which was expecting to get it. Perhaps it will be the discoverer of an unstoppable, revolutionary mathematical protocol, just as revolutionary as Bitcoin, that empowers the honest and the racially loyal and disempowers the regime and its minions — who will give the power of that protocol to us, early on. Perhaps it will be something that I’m not capable of understanding yet, but the giver will make sure that I do when the gift is given.
The story of M.A.R. Barker and his gift has many lessons for us. One is the lesson of noble action for a necessary cause. Another is that of gaining an understanding of those who have traveled a rough and crooked path to reach us. Another is that of humility, for even the seemingly lost may surprise us when the race-soul is stirred to action.
So, I am going to continue in the years to come to stir, so much as I am able, a few race-souls. What are you going to do?
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You’ve been listening to American Dissident Voices, the radio program of the National Alliance. This program is published every week at whitebiocentrism.com and nationalvanguard.org. Please write to us at National Alliance, Box 4, Mountain City, TN 37683 USA. We welcome your inquiries and your financial support in spreading our message of hope to our people. We also welcome your applications for membership in our community of the conscious. Once again, that address is Box 4, Mountain City, TN 37683 USA. Thank you for your help.
Dear Mr. Strom, much thanks for this truly interesting article about this unexpected theme and an absolutely fascinating person!
It’s a shame and pity that RPGs scene is overrun by Far Left activists, but maybe it is for the better. Once the White males lose their last save ground, they may finally rise up.
Greetings from occupied Europe.
Compared with Tolkien? That’s a bold statement. But I might just buy a copy of that book and give it a read.
I am new to this website but I was impressed with this message by Mr. (Dr.?) Strom, and particularly with the recognition that people go off onto all sorts of side-paths before they find the Way. Indeed, I think that these side-paths can contribute to a more insightful understanding of the Way, particularly with those of an artistic nature. I must admit that I had never heard of this man, but I am edified by his story!
The mystery is solved, thank you Mr. Strom for enlightening us. I recall several years back when Will Williams and I were discussing books that the topic of Mr. Calverhall’s real identity had come up, and the matter was still in confidence and couldn’t be disclosed to me. Now I know!
I did enjoy reading Serpent’s Walk, it’s a fine companion to The Turner Diaries and Hunter, those books are also available at our bookstore.
Beware Greeks (and miscegenating Aryan fantasists) bearing “gifts”!
The Trojan Horse hid troops who set Troy aflame; perhaps “Serpent’s Walk” also hides something destructive.
I’ve read Serpent’s Walk (hereafter SW) at least twice in the 20+ years it’s been in my possession, Mr. Contrarian. What I recall is that its a tale that moves along well, imparts concepts that are compatible with Cosmotheism, and leaves the reader with a favorable impression of White men overcoming enormous obstacles for the sake of our race in a realistic manner. Also realize that SW is fiction, a work meant to entertain and also put across concepts compatible with the life-philosophy related to an extent to that of Cosmotheism. As all men are flawed (I will say I am, can you?) so it is with their works. SW and its author is no exception here, but if you’re suggesting a Trojan Horse-sized flaw is contained within those pages,… Read more »
“…An imperfect man, a man with flaws. A man who’d made some mistakes and miscalculations, mistakes…” Wow, Kevin, what a great book review and it will inspire one of my next Cosmotheist purchases, but much info and insight into the author. When you began with his background, I was ready to stop listening, because I am islamophobic, and know that the muslims are not our allies and just like the Jews, are semitic, albeit a different version. You did not pass judgment against him for being racially irresponsible as he was. I find it encouraging that even a convert to Islam, such as the author, who took so much interest in the exotic cultures over that of western ones, turned around to support the National Alliance with book that seems… Read more »
Well said, Nom De Guerre.
Very nicely put. I have known some people like that myself, they proved that the concepts of racial purity or ideological orthodoxy, when taken to extremes can be not only ridiculous but also harmful. Thousands of European volunteers who served in the Waffen-SS were not perfect Nordic specimens or even not real National Socialists in the German classical sense (for example, the Belgian volunteers who were mostly conservative Catholics). Having said that, it would have been stupid if not downright criminal to reject them. Himmler understood this perfectly and that is why they were allowed to join the SS where they proved to be magnificent fighters and loyal comrades.
The National Socialists understood perfectly well that not every German or European was a perfect Nordic specimen, but were trying to strive towards that goal – improving the breed, rather than destroying it, which is what we have now.
Btw, the only non-Germanic soldiers who did not either turn tail and run or even switch sides when the going got rough in late ’42 were the Hungarians.
I agree with you and I know that; having said that, there were, particularly within the SS and Alfred Rosenberg’s circle, fools that insisted on the supremacy of the Nordic type and that led in many occasions to the arrogant treatment of some ethnic groups. If you read Alfred Rosenberg’s “Diary”, is full of complaints against the brutal attitude of Erich Koch (the governor of Ukraine) towards the Ukrainians.
On the other hand, what you said about the Hungarians is spot on. They were brave and loyal allies of the Reich and her heroism and loyalty must always be remembered. Hungarians are fairly aware of the obnoxious nature of the Jews. In fact, there are several groups that can be described as 100% National-Socialist in spirit.
Thank you Mr Strom, very enlightening and thought provoking
Mr. Strom, your ADV brodcasts are always full of wisdom and inspiration, but this is one of the ones I will remember for the rest of my life. Dr. Barker doubtlessly was one of those highly brilliant people who took an oddly convoluted path through life, but nevertheless ended up in the right place.
I have ordered a copy of Serpent’s Walk and eagerly look forward to reading it.
I ordered a copy based on this article – thank you for the interesting backstory/review!
“What you write about the Yids is quite correct. They fill everything up, they undermine everything, and they embody the spirit of the century. They are at the root of the revolutionary-social movement and regicide. They control the periodical press, the financial markets are in their hands, the popular masses fall into financial slavery to them, they guide the principles of present-day science, seeking to place it outside Christianity. And besides this, no sooner does a question about them arise then a chorus of voices speaks out for them in the name of ‘civilization’ or ‘toleration’ (by which is meant indifference to faith). As in Romania and Serbia, as with us – nobody dares say a word about the Jews taking over everything. Even our press is become Jewish. Russkaya… Read more »
I have a copy of Serpent’s Walk, purchased from the NA many years ago, and I always enjoyed it, and am very thankful for this article. I would like to write a review of this splendid book, and the background information is helpful, and also explains Barker setting much of his book in India, but with the West’s decline (and Jewification), and the possibilities of India becoming part of a new Russia-China-Iran economic union, this might be prophetic. It’s also no secret Erdogan is wanting to rebuild the Turkish empire. An Aryan nation joining this alliance? I always liked Lessing, and it was a solid fiction trait where the hero is an outsider who becomes converted. The plot (the SS re-emerging as a sort of corporate enterprise) is also very… Read more »
I remember enjoying this book which I bought in the 90s at a gun show, if I recall correctly. I always wondered who wrote it. Thanks to Mr Strom for letting us know.
found the audiobook version here:
https://archive.org/details/serpents-walk-chapter
best get it why its there
Thanks for exposing a pirated file, Mr. Whyte. Isn’t it funny how some Whites will stab each other in the back with copyright infringements in the name of “patriotically spreading the word?” But we in the National Alliance aren’t laughing, stealing resources from us is frowned upon just like White cowboys of old frowned upon cattle rustlers — before they hanged them.
Here’s the genuine, honest edition of Serpent’s Walk: https://cosmotheistchurch.org/product/serpents-walk-by-randolph-calverhall/
Best get it while it’s here. Proceeds go towards real Alliance building, not to satisfy thieves.
speaking of audiobooks, you know about Librivox.org?
https://librivox.org/
A lot of audiobooks for classic stories in the public domain including Treasure Island, the John Carter of Mars trilogy, Robert E Howard’s Hour of the Dragon and more. Stockpocked a bunch of Robert E Howard tales from there myself
Books published by the former National Vanguard Books and of the current Cosmotheist Church Books aren’t in the public domain, Mr. Whyte. Let’s remember this so that all upright Whites can assist us in crushing the piracy of our titles.