The Eighth Victory of Hercules Over the Mares of Diomedes

    

     Hercules is sent against another tyrant, Diomedes, who owns man-eating horses in barbarous Thrace, as king of the warlike Bistonians, descended from Mars. Since the myth teaches us that these horses to be fetched are mares, we can identify them as the female psychological side of the male, that is to say, the region of the subconscious psyche, where the Anima dwells, unawakened, and therefore unable to unify with the male psyche and heal its division. Diomedes is the apex of this condition, and represents the false Ego, which is oh-so-certain that it can control the subconscious forces of the mind, riding them to tyranny, and feeding their inordinate passion on the flesh of the innocent. 

     This condition represents a wide awake nightmare, and the visual embodiment of such can be pictured here. Moderns are fond today of reinstating The Matriarchy. This represents a re-descent into the group, collective trajectory of mankind. It is of no more use to return to Matriarchy, and perhaps a great deal less, than it would be to reinstitute earlier phases of what is called "the Patriarchy": the Patriarchy was actually a step up in the struggle of man, and created the preconditions for the Age of Courtly Love, for it is only in eternal and infinite Love that man and woman can find qualitative equality. It was Love that summoned Abraham out of the tribes of Chaldea, that built the limes and roads of ancient Roma which lead to the sacred seven hills, and that raised the towers of the Gothic arches over Europe. Christ Himself said He came to earth not to bring peace, but a sword. To quote an old Internet acquaintance, when the man puts on his hat, and comes around, there is conflict. It is a difficult truth to face, but wars, plagues, devastation, and human suffering (the four horseman of the Apocalypse), are servants to the Living Word of God, who is brighter than the Sun and has a sword coming out of His mouth. This is not the Jesus that the Episcopal Church in America (our unofficial national liberal denomination along with Zionism) likes to paint from the pulpit every Sunday. 

     Because mankind is "behind the level of the Times" (unequal to the Cosmic Law's progression), there are periodic upheavals and convulsions on the earth. This is why Jesus comforted His followers: "Fear not, for greater am I that are in you, than He that is in the world". The prince of this world is Satan, and he is a deputy of Cosmic Law, fulfilling a very specific role in the economy of the fallen and fractured universe, ruling man with fear, hunger, and libido dominandi. It is he that will drag man, willy-nilly, collectively toward a final confrontation with the truth about human nature. Do not mistake this Zeitgeist for the Holy Spirit. 

     Unintegrated man cannot reassimilate to God and overcome the fractured condition of the Fall because he has lost his sleeping queen. He cannot respond in freedom towards God - he is alienated, not just from God, but from the truth, from his true self, and from Reality. He is a thrall to Satan. Every single one of his one-sided reactions flow out of this fundamental aversion to coming to grips with Love. This is expressed poetically in Francis Thompson's The Hound of Heaven. :

‘Come then, ye other children, Nature’s—share
With me’ (said I) ‘your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning	65
With our Lady-Mother’s vagrant tresses,
Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured daïs,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,	70
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.’
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one—
Drew the bolt of Nature’s secrecies.	75
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise
Spumèd of the wild sea-snortings;
All that’s born or dies	80
Rose and drooped with; made them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine;
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers	85
Round the day’s dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning’s eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;	90
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven’s grey cheek.	95
For ah! we know not what each other says,
These things and I; in sound I speak—
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,	100
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o’ her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.

     If you were told that every single one of "the world's problems" has its ugly root in the darkest recesses of your own soul, would you give it serious energy and investigation? Or would you flee into deeper projections of your shadow? Some have even decided to join the shadow, and meld themselves as much as possible into that projection, to deepen the illusion past repair in this life, saving the extraordinary grace of God. "

"You are as spiritual as you desire to be, that is all." They were somewhat annoyed at the abruptness of his words, and turned away. At once he spoke to them in a loving tone. "My dear children, I said your spirituality was what you wish it to be so that you would understand that your spirituality is entirely in proportion to your good will. Then enter into yourselves: don't ask other about your progress. Examine your good will, and from that alone you will discover the measure of your spirituality."  (John Ruysbroeck, speaking to pilgrims, in European Mystics, by Rudolf Steiner, p44.)

     It doesn't matter what happens to the world, if you lose your own soul. This Anima is asleep deep within, the pearl of great price, an analogy for the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within you. It is Hercules, the deputy of the true self from the human aspect and the true self from the aspect of his immortal descent, who must tame the Mares of Diomedes. He and only he can can bring them to heel. This is part of the process of purification proceeding illumination and theosis. The personal unconscious has to be overcome before the subconscious can be reintegrated, and Hercules embodies a more or less purified consciousness who can face the subconscious. 

     Do not be deceived. The Mares of Diomedes do not feed on other horses. They feed on human flesh, and Hercules will turn them against the Satanic ego that is so hubristic as to think that they can wield them as a weapon against others. This motif, for those who are too modern for Greek myths, can be found in the Game of Thrones as well. One way or the other, as we will see below, the un-purified personal consciousness will be unable to tame, or even keep locked up, the forces of the subconscious. Carl Jung remarked that men over 40 are either religious, or they are neurotic. Confucius gave the age of 40 as important, holding out hope for anyone that was straying, until they reached at least that age. A man ought to have a few things figured out by then. There is an old African proverb as well : "After the age of forty, a man is responsible for his own face". But for those who do make the choice of some higher path, and attain personal results, and embark on the labors, there is great reward and consolation for their struggle and sacrifice. They are able to begin the real work. We shouldn't think it is just a matter of "getting saved", or "getting our act together philosophically". There is a point beyond the point. 

     The Mares submit to Hercules (naturally), but he (for the time being) leaves them in the hands of his companion Abderis. One cannot try to tame the subconscious, or face it, or even behold it, with anything less than the highest sum of all that is true, beautiful, and best in one's self (the Soul), and so this leads to the death of his companion. The lesson here is that nothing can be held back, that full commitment is necessary, in order to journey into the shadow realm. Hercules turns back to face Diomedes, and his companion dies. One could also say that the old personality has to "die" in order for the Soul to complete the Labor. 

     Hercules is always getting sidetracked, albeit in an understandable and sympathetic way. There is an inevitable human sanguinity about him, whether using a river to wash out the stables, or going berserk and killing everyone he can get his hands on. We have seen this several times in the myths. People get hurt when this happens. Inevitably. Perhaps the best lesson one could draw from this is to not get sidetracked. Have you considered that wavering on the goal, although perhaps not fatal to yourself in the long run, may very well prove fatal to important parts of yourself, and incur karmic debt? Or to other, important people in your life story? Hercules will have to found a town in honor of his friend, which is another sidetrack, of a more forgivable kind. Although he is always "in the right" and "doing something good", it is not always, in every exactitude, the unum necessarium. Be careful about pursuing sideline goals, and postponing your spiritual journey. 

     It is as if the entire story of Creation, all of written and unwritten human history, stretching back the flickering fire light of caves or even the time of proto-genesis, is a progressive tightening of focus around the ever-more-definable question of What does it mean to be Human? In the fullest sense of that word, Man must encompass all of Creation: its lowest depths as surely as its highest heights. But the moral movement is upward, Without the upward moral and spiritual movement, all is chaos, an analogy for what will be more defined in Hades, which takes its meaning precisely from that upward moral movement. Without an upward movement, there is no "Down" either. 

     Modern man has at his beck and call all the primordial tradition of the past, scattered about like the body of Osiris, in the form of vast potential knowledge and development in many sciences which were not available to the ancient world in total form. What use are we making of those resources? And yet, Cologero has noted that ancient man (enviable in many ways compared to the modern version) was nonetheless degenerate, that they were circumscribed by Fate just as we are. Everywhere and at all times, "History is a crime" (Nicholas Berdyaev). Those times of ignorance have past. The guardians and tutors have withdrawn, and the winter of the world has come, for there is a spiritual evolutionary test being administered, to see who can stand (in popular parlance, we might call this the "Matrix"). Since "now is the day of salvation", this time period was the best time for you to appear. 

Acts 17:30-31 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

     There are "cracks in the great wall", as one author puts it. For those who can read the signs of the Times, the Reign of Quantity symbolizes both the "best of times" and the "worst of times". Man will have to make progress, individually most of all, but he will be forced to it by the heavenly and the infernal powers, all the same, in an outer sense. That is why Darwin, Marx, and Freud were given domination over the Modern Era. The motto of Freud was flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo: 'If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell. This is why we inhabit, simultaneously, the most important of times (the present is always the scene of the struggle), and the least enviable of times (karmic debts have mounted). The Scriptures promise that God would not destroy the world with water again; the day of judgement will be a day of Fire (2 Peter). This Fire will either be experienced as Love, or as terrible Fire, depending upon the spiritual condition. 

9The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be dissolved in the fire, and the earth andits works will not be found. 11Since everything will be dissolved in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness… 

     We have behind us birth and baptism (Water) and in front of us Fire (the energetic state of Love that is destiny, and also the consequences for falling short). The entire metaphysics of Jacob Boehme explain the workings of the four elements in man and in Creation, which are combining to create and purify the spirit of Man, and they can be related to these ideas and patterns of God allowing (in the fallen state), Nature to urge and constrain itself to find a way out "further in". This perfect and theotic state (N Berdyaev terms man a "theocosm" and not just a "microcosm") will not come without struggle and effort, and we will continue to see this conflict waged in the projected, externalized world, which groans for redemption. This is why Kukai could say, "The Mind and the World Co-Arise". 

     Hercules will have more labors to accomplish. Defeating one enemy, and completing one labor, is not enough. He must work through the entire Zodiac circle, for this is the Cosmic Law. But in the process, He will be refined, until the day when "heaven and earth kiss", when the double oath of God, on earth as it is in heaven, is complete. Every time, every age, starts afresh in a sense - God has set eternity in our hearts. The answer will not be found in one outer battle or triumph, which may just turn out to be a diversion or distraction. Do not foolishly ask "why is this time so much worse than other times?" The good old ways, the paths of the Lord, are found within you, for it is in the lines of the human heart that the meaning, the purpose, and the answer will be found. Along that path will you find the answers to all the other questions. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. It is a matter of winning the Greater War and the Inner Struggle. It always was. And it always will be, until it is done. Beware of seeking your true self - you might find God. Beware of seeking God - it may be that you will find your true self. This was vividly illustrated in the story of a Catholic martyr during WWII, when the self and God no longer had need even for the Scriptures or outer forms. 

She said that Jochmann entered Jägerstätter’s cell the night before the execution. He was the priest who said the prisoner refused to sign the document that could have spared his life. He said Jägerstätter had already received the last sacraments in the afternoon. Jochmann offered to bring Jägerstätter devotional reading material but the prisoner declined and he also declined to hear readings from scripture. According to the priest, Jägerstätter explained, “I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord, and any reading would only interrupt my communication with my God.” 

     The labors of Hercules contain the keys to unlocking the fairy tale, and awakening the sleeping beauty, transforming Cinderella, or winning the favor of the Valkyries. This eighth labor is particularly notable for the devouring presence of the unintegrated parts of consciousness (the "mares" of the Anima), because "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". The overt tyrant or stereotypical, over-compensated "male" will not be able to control these forces, and in fact, not even a plain "good man" can control them either, hence the death of Hercules' companion. Only the presence of the true man on the quest can hope to quell and tame these forces, which later go on to serve usefully as bloodlines for great steeds for Alexander the Great. 

     To quote Cologero: 

Man is self-sufficient, since in him the anima is the passive element. To give birth to the True Self, the anima must be pacified so that it can receive the imprint of a higher source. That is why Jung says that a physical woman is not absolutely necessary for the individuation process. Rather, she is a privation, so the energy of the anima exists in the man and can be claimed in an act of self-possession. 

     

     You may also notice that Hercules is not a sage or an intellectual: he is a warrior and an ascetic. We live in an era dominated by the Lunar influence of Intellect, and under its thrall. The age to come will not be one of Philosophy, Religion, or Science, but of Art, the Fourth Age, which is the unity of the preceding three. This is symbolized in John's Gospel, the fourth Gospel, which speaks the entire and full truth of the divinity of the Logos. But of the three kinds of men (natural, religious, and intellectual), it is the religious "knights" who will be most needed and called upon to undertake the artful transformation and balancing of man into the higher form. Natural or pagan man has no "path", and intellectuals today think only with their tongues. The men of "heart" cannot consent to either path, and are forced into transformation. You can find more teaching on this in Mouravieff's Gnosis, which is part of the basis of the Gornahoor web seminars started by Cologero. 

     Knowing things with the mind will help clear cobwebs away, but it isn't the same thing as beginning the journey. And it is interesting that Alice Bailey places the "Eighth" labor of Hercules, by rotation of the Zodiac, in the place of the First Labor. We could relate this to the First Arcanum of the Tarot, the Magician, which is the foundation for practicing the others. This would make sense, given that experientially knowing the Anima places a "knight" in a position of potency and power for accomplishing all of the subsequent Labors. 

     Follow your clues and commence the Quest.     

    

Western Social Order – Part 2

Posted on 2014-02-24 by Logres

A recent comment by John of Salisbury made me think:

“Not only were these scholars unable to drive out the bad scholars, but in combating insanity, they temporarily became insane…”

I thought about this question in relation to other questions or comments relating to the “inner struggle” of the man of Tradition in today’s very untraditional world. I had a good acquaintance on the Internet give up study in that area because he needed something more cheerful. If you will notice, Cologero does not restrict his reading to Guenon and Evola, but also studies a wider range of writers on a diverse array of subjects. It is probably true that a steady diet of Evola and Guenon has the potential to unsettle one. Caleb is planning to put up a post that addresses part of this, in that Tomberg’s Meditations are designed to lay a firm foundation, without which (if you neglect the first card of the Tarot), the rest becomes unstable. Cologero has done a fine job of supplementing Evola and Guenon (whom he terms the “Master of Tradition”), with the meditations on the Meditation. The Tarot discussion list (and Caleb’s article) is designed to assist in this process. In trying to imitate our betters, we often overstep or over-estimate our own capabilities, sometimes not deliberately, as we try to “come up to speed”. Incidentally, much of Phillip Rieff’s thought in Culture and Its Second Death explores the danger of being initiated into our elder’s/better’s debates too swiftly, including the fundamentally erotic desire to criticize those to whom we owe everything. Rosenstock-Huessy called this “Teaching too Early, Learning to Late”, in which the danger is that we learn just enough to be dangerous, to ourselves and others.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing – drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring!

I can certainly relate to this, having passed in and through and back into such phases, over the course of my short 40 years. In the case of Gornahoor, the best possible foundation has been laid down, but it has been made freely and openly available (with no secrets) laying out the Arcanum that must be mastered before entrance into the Mysteries. But the danger is still there, just a necessary one: in our chaotic age, one has to invite everyone, since those who should be ready are not. Jesus gave this in parable form in the tale of the Wedding Feast invitations.

John of Salisbury cites a medieval authority who claimed that there are three types of souls: those who fly, those who crawl, those who walk. Those who fly learn much, and swiftly, but soon forget. They make poor students (I think this is my soul’s danger, for instance). Poetry may be a help to such students. Those who crawl are dull of soul – in Pythagorean circles, they would not be allowed to be initiated, for instance, during the old days. Those who walk, steadily and constantly, those who are pilgrims, make the best students, fit to climb Parnassus and drink from its springs.

There was another recent article on Gornahoor that explained some of this quite well – different types or souls have to be handled differently. MIchel’s comment on this post by Cologero gets to an esoteric root that lies behind a lot of misunderstandings that occur during these confusing times. Different types or differing potentials require completely different spiritual trajectories: in Mouravieff’s words, if the center is God, and we all find ourselves scattered at various circumferences, the trajectory back of necessity takes a variety of angles and forms. And some people don’t necessarily manage to make a straight line, either!

All of this is to say that the “care of souls” remains paramount: even if one is caring for one’s own soul, in which case, even more “care” is required, not less.

In some denominations of Christianity, the cure of souls (Latin: cura animarum), an archaic translation which is better rendered today as “care of souls” is the exercise by priests of their office. This typically embraces instruction, by sermons, admonitions and administration of sacraments, to the congregation over which they have authority from the church. In countries where the Roman Catholic Church acted as the national church, the “cure” was not only over a congregation or congregations, but over a district. The assignment of a priest to a district subdividing a diocese was a process begun in the 4th century AD. The term parish as applied to this district comes from the Greek word for district, ????????. Those who earned their living on a position without cure of souls were known to have a sinecure (hence the expression).

Even when one is taking the “dry path”, and investigating the layers of one’s own soul in an esoteric manner, there is a care or “art” involved, & note merely a science (this may be where the balance between
East and West is reached, as the East approaches spiritual things almost mechanistically).
This pervasive feeling of hopelessness, of fighting against fearful odds, of being doomed, can be viewed and attacked from several angles. Since I’ve been asked several questions lately that pertain to it, I assume it’s relevant, and am relating it back to the conquest or reconquest of Western Social Order. It may relate to the “noonday demon” that attacked the desert monks, a lassitude and despair that could only be overcome with productive work: this is why Cologero has emphasized that practicing one’s caste and craft is as important as becoming “enlightened”. This is in the spirit of the Patristic fathers, who had monks weave baskets, plant gardens, build buildings, etc., because (as the Philokalia teaches) Satan can only attack along one front when we are working, rather than all fronts simultaneously.

First, as noted above, it is paramount to appreciate that simultaneously, Guenon is both the measuring rod (for several reasons, not least of which is that our teacher, Cologero, regards him as such) & also that which is to be transcended. That is, the goal is to not make Guenon’s mistakes. For a Westerner, then, we recognize that Guenon advocates a path away from exoteric form, in favor of an East that (in his day) was less tainted, and a source of hope. Of course, today, we see that the East has imitated the West, and that Coca-Cola and blue jeans have flattened the globe. Cologero has done a huge service in upholding Guenon’s standards, but eschewing some of his conclusions.

Secondly, we avoid the pit of getting caught up in erotic disputations over nothings. We’ve seen a lot of posters come and go – many wanted to dispute with Cologero over various bagatelles or supposed critical mistakes. The Hermetic method (favored by Western thought that is faithful to Plato, Bonaventura, etc.) eschews such disputes, as does St. Paul. Avoid fruitless disputation….

Thirdly, for the above reasons, we should probably avoid a pure diet of Guenon and Evola and traditional thinkers, if for no other reason (this is an additional one) than that those who battle vampires and monsters develop a kind of hardness about them that can be monstrous. It is not natural (and they would have recognized this) to have to spend your whole life in combating insanity, from dusk till dawn. Rejoice over their gift to us, but don’t forget to plant a fig tree. Our times are conditioned by different possibilities; many battles are lost, others are looming, and some new possibilities have deepened or awakened. As our master Goethe says, a man who is not of his own times, can be a man of no other time. Read a mystery novel, watch a movie. Even the medieval thinkers (such as the author of Philobiblikon) says that it is possible to appreciate modern thinkers and writers, along with the ancient ones. Evola and Guenon have modern dimensions to their thinking. The entire Quantity/Quality distinction can become (at times) almost a quantitative category which taints our perception of Quality. The medievals emphasized the value of Estimation, in which the beginner practiced his craft of working by esteeming that which had objective, natural moral value, in their own day. Even in our day, there are people which have dignity, things or activities which have value, etc.

So temper it. If it gets you down so much you can’t function at all, and quenches the inner fire, even down to the last spark, find something more cheerful for awhile. But realize it isn’t Guenon or Evola’s fault – its a privation within ourselves. Luckily, within the Christian esoteric and exoteric tradition, we are allowed holy-days and feast days, in which we can re-create ourselves in the wonder of Creation, which abides, even in our horribly dark days.  As our teacher Wordsworth says, one impulse from a vernal wood, can teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can. Presumably, Wordsworth didn’t even have access to the sages which we do, so temper this with grateful knowledge, and spend some time learning the constellations, or admiring the wonder of a storm. In the Romance of the Rose, an initiatic text, the writer asks rhetorically, what can be done with someone who doesn’t appreciate the approach of Spring and the gods of Love!

Fourthly, there are other thinkers out there, perhaps secular ones, who can be as circumstantially valuable to us as Evola and Guenon, under certain conditions. I would class Phillip Rieff in this category, at least for those like myself. He gives a feeling of “utter hopelessness”, but this is meant to be curative, in the spirit of Kafka. And it is aimed at the hubris and ignorance of our modern self. Some self-hatred and the cutting off of limbs or eyes is appropriate (symbolically speaking) as most moderns are in a rather unique bind, being cut off from their own soul, which is naturaliter anima Christiana (Tertullian). So a little Theodore Dalrymple, Richard Weaver, Phillip Rieff, Christopher Lasch, or other such notable secular saints is of great value to many – if nothing else, it’s a safer way to process (like the liver) the toxins of our intellectual age, which are in the air we breathe. Just realize that (being creatures) we have to balance our diet intellectually (until we are enlightened, when all things become pure). If you read Rieff, you’ll realize you should probably be listening to Haydn’s classical music (or some other classical composers!). However, the trip is worth it. Rieff shows us (in Culture, Its Second Death) that all of our spiritual states (even the Sartrean hell, which lurks for us today) are manifestations of our soul’s possibilities along the Vertical. There is no escape (or no false escape) from the vertical – we have to face up to the real problems and questions, first. As Solomon says, the house of mourning is more fruitful than the house of laughter, if it is a mourning of repentance. If (however) one is past this, then one is past it.

Christians are “ahead of the times”: we are not immersed in them. So just because this is the Kali Yuga, it (everything) still matters very much. One of my teachers, a Lithuanian who taught literature, once berated me for reading Christianity into Shalamov’s work: the whole point of his story was how small acts had meaning in and of themselves, regardless of a Christian interpretation or outcome! The character (interned in a camp) had found a can of condensed milk. For a short time, this can was God’s grace, without being officially God’s grace! Such is the mighty, eternal, and infinite mercy of God, which mercy endures forever, His chief attribute. This is the lesson Tomberg teaches also – not control, but mercy and Love, which is the Queen of Magic.
This is our burden, this is our time. It is hard, and we have to help each other. We have to show mercy, while remembering Truth. I hope this is encouraging, & look forward to being taught and helped by others on this path.

Remarks on Aristotle, the Traitor

Rene Guenon

See remarks on Aristotle

Sur le symbolisme Guénon est imbattable

"It must be admitted that the progressivists are not entirely wrong in thinking that there is something in religion which no longer works; in fact the individualistic and sentimental argumentation with which traditional piety operates has lost almost all its power to pierce consciences, and the reason for this is not merely that modern man is irreligious but also that the usual religious arguments, through not probing sufficiently to the depth of things and not having had previously any need to do so, are psychologically somewhat outworn and fail to satisfy certain needs of causality. If human societies degenerate on the one hand with the passage of time, they accumulate on the other hand experiences in virtue of old age, however intermingled with errors their experience may be; this paradox is something that any pastoral teaching should take into account, not by drawing new directives from the general error but on the contrary by using arguments of a higher order, intellectual rather than sentimental; as a result some at least would be saved -- a greater number than one might be tempted to suppose -- whereas the demagogic scientistic pastoralist saves no one."


The likes of Kurzweil are opposed to Tradition.

Guenon on St. Bernard.

Correspondence.

Reading the Brussels Journal on Guenon.

A good introduction for Protestants, although they will find much to disturb and alarm them.

Anyone familiar with Eric Voegelin’s usage of the same term will, however, recognize that Guénon frequently addresses the identical phenomenon of antinomian rebellion, motivated by libido dominandi and expressing itself in apocalyptic language, as addressed by Voegelin. Such self-aggrandizing rebellion, which would impose itself on the whole world, attempts to disguise its libidinousness under the banner of sweeping moral imperatives. Crusading slogans of this type make an appeal to the compensatory self-righteousness of the frustrated and resentful...Guénon even anticipates Voegelin in his assertion that radical preaching, whether for the advancement of socialism or for the disestablishment of authority, invariably employs “a sentimental and ‘consoling’ moralism,” just as in modern liberal oratory, with its parade of alleged victims of iniquity. Such “moralism” finds fertile ground in the varieties of Protestantism, especially in its Puritan offshoots, like Unitarianism. “The modernist mentality and the Protestant mentality,” Guénon writes, “differ only in nuance,” both being directed at an ancien régime, or religious establishment, denounced as intolerable; both being moralistic; and both being politically messianic.... In this way, by recruiting a large exoteric enrollment, the actual ruling minority provides itself with an instrument of willing drones and propagandists. Idealism finds its locus in the movement in the large following. The inner circle, by contrast, aware of its own manipulative character and jealous of its privileges, quickly becomes cynical if it were not so from the beginning; it extracts money from the membership and delegates to volunteers the workaday and unsavory tasks that it prefers not to undertake directly on its own. Gothic Christianity represents for Guénon a temporary positive “readjustment” to tradition. The so-called Renaissance, which follows the Middle Ages “was in reality not a rebirth but the death of many things,” so much so that in respect of the medieval mind modernity is “unable to understand its intellectuality.” Together the Renaissance and the Reformation correspond with “the disruption of Christendom” and they therefore together mark “the starting-point of the modern crisis” in a “definitive rupture with the traditional spirit. Guénon denounces “the pseudo-principle of… ‘equality,’” which as he says, “almost all of our contemporaries blindly accept.” Along with pseudo-principles there are “pseudo-ideas” such as “progress” and “democracy,” which have “nothing in common with the intellectual order.” These “false ideas” are, properly speaking, “suggestions,” rooted in sentiment, whose “contagious” character endows them with propagandistic effectiveness; these “verbalisms” are the “idols” of the contemporary masses. As for democracy, “The higher cannot proceed from the lower, because the greater cannot proceed from the lesser.” “The modern mentality… cannot bear any secret or even any reserve,” but “such things appear [to it] only as ‘privileges.’” The modern mentality again despises “any kind of superiority” of intellect or mastery because the fact that these things require preparation, capacity, and attunement “is just what ‘egalitarianism’ so obstinately denies.”

Excerpted.

What is remarkable about Guenon (and other traditionalists) is that they seem to have an uncanny spiritual insight into the roots of the disorderly cancer that is devouring us alive, and hence, offer the possibility of at least understanding our fate in the latter "Days of Iron". It is important to note, here, that the heart of their critique is a positive and reactionary perception of Order which hinges on a truth that (in Davila's words) "will not die". Modern Christians, steeped in Jewish anti-intellectualism, would do well to turn on their minds in order that they can again think.

God's Forms in Nature (Jonathan Edwards?)

"For so the whole round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God" ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Tree of Life is symbolized by many particular trees: the oak, the ash, the fig and others throughout the world. The axis is the Way itself, the way of return to the Absolute. It is also symbolized by man-made things: the ladder, the mast, weapons like the lance, and the central pillar of edifices. As architects know, many buildings are built round a central axis which is not in fact there, which is not Religio Perennis materialized. Very often in traditional houses the hearth is the center of the house and the chimney through which the smoke rises is another figure of the axis. And things which are normally horizontal are symbols of the axis: a bridge is also a symbol of the world axis. Witness the title Pontifex, the maker of the bridge, which is given to the highest spiritual authority of the Church -- the bridge, which is the bridge between Heaven and earth. Another fundamental symbol is the river. There are three aspects to the river: the crossing of the river symbolizes the passage from this world to a higher world, always, but then there is the river itself. There is the difficulty of moving upstream which symbolizes the difficulties of the spiritual path, of returning to one's source against the current. There is also the symbolism of moving in the other direction to the ocean, of returning finally to the ocean; that is another symbol of the Way. In this book amongst many other symbols, Guénon also treats of the symbolism of the mountain, the cave, the temporal cycle. In the temporal cycle the solstices of summer and winter are the gates of the gods according to Hinduism. The gate of the gods is the winter solstice, in the sign of Capricorn; the gate of the ancestors is the summer solstice, in the sign of Cancer.

Rene Guenon's doctrine, & perhaps that of Jonathan Edwards as well