Cult of the Crow Father



The cult of the Crow Father or in the original German, “Rabenvater”, was a society of occultists in Germany and Austria in the later half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th with German’s occult revival. The organization was a contemporary of the Ordo Templi Orientis and many considered it to be little more than ‘just another social organization with a hint of neopaganism thrown in for color’.

Whereas the OTO and other ‘Mystery Societies’ were content to discuss theory and the like about arcane matters, the Cult went much darker and much deeper. From their castle deep in the Black Forest, the cult is rumored to have made contact with a ‘Dark Father’ of terrible and wondrous power.

Involved Search
The Cult’s activities became known only after their collapse when diaries of one of their members surfaced after his death. The diary, a simple black, leather tome adorned with the runic symbol of a ‘y’ with a central line drawn through it, was filled with his activities within the organization. He detailed the capture of dozens of children, all boys, who were taken to the castle and sacrificed to this ‘Rabenvater’ in the hopes that it would rouse him from his slumber.

Every black moon (new moon) the cult would gather and they would offer up three children to this ancient being in the hopes to gain power and knowledge. The author, whose name was never mentioned, revealed that he had gained knowledge of how to commune with spirits and brew elixirs that would allow him to grow strong and maintain his youth and vigor.

Eventually the Cult’s activities ceased though it’s never described as to why or how. Their mission, as detailed within the journal, was to find the Dark One’s crown - only with that could he be brought back to our world.

Very Involved Search
The contents of his journal have been photographed and turned into a pdf. However, there are some notes which suggest that additional papers and photographs were included within the journal. They are listed as “note 1, photo 1, etc.” One is described as “poetry fragment” but is available only through request and is not described further in the journal’s contents.