From the Manifesto of the Rose + Croix, (2 IX 1881) quoted by Joséphin Palédan in Comment on devient Mage (How to become a Mage). Foretelling the end of the Latin race due to the Barbarian invasion yet to come, in the midst of its own decadence, this is a Manifesto for living among the ruins.

Nous ne croyons pas ni au progrès ni au salut. A la race latine, qui va mourir, nous préparons une dernière splendeur, afin d’éblouir et d’adoucir les Barbares qui vont venir …

Soyons le Tout-Passé en face de Tout-Paris. Soyons l’enthousiasme, en face de la blague. Soyons des patriciens en face de la canaille. Soyons nous-mêmes, et que nos personnalité, réfractaires au milieu où se meuvent, triomphent du péché et du public.

We believe neither in progress nor salvation. To the Latin race, which is going to die, we will prepare a final glory, before dazzling and softening the Barbarians who are going to come…

Let us be the “everything past” in the face of “everything Paris”. Let us be gusto in the face of the joke. Let us be patricians in the face of the rabble.
Let us be ourselves,
and may our characters, resistant in the midsts in which they move, triumph over sin and the public.

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

The following passages are from Ernst Junger’s philosophical-metahistorical novel Eumeswil, a book which complements Julius Evola’s Ride the Tiger quite nicely.

“I am an anarch – not because I despise authority, but because I need it.  Likewise, I am not a nonbeliever, but a man who demands something worth believing in. …  Thus I take my duties seriously within an overall context that I reject for its mediocrity.  The important thing is that my rejection actually refers to the totality and does not take up within it a stance that can be defined as conservative, reactionary, liberal, ironic, or in any way social.”

“The lack of ideas or – put more simply – of gods causes an inexplicable moroseness, almost like a fog that the sun fails to penetrate.  The world turns colorless; words lose substance, especially when they are to transcend sheer communication. …  Loss of history and decay of language are mutual determinants.”

“Any man who swears allegiance to a political change is a fool, a facchino for services that are not his business.  The most rudimentary step toward freedom is to free oneself from all that.  Basically each person senses it, and yet he keeps voting.”

“If and how far a mind penetrates matter, and whether it grasps the crown of the root from which the details branch off – these things are perceived even in practice.”

“Man should not be the sun’s friend, but the sun itself.  And that he is; the mistake lies in his failure to recognize his place, his home, and thereby his right.”

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

Traditionally, the spiritual path has been likened to war.  Julius Evola wrote about the possibilities of transcendence to be found in the experience of battle, but also about combat as a metaphor for the spiritual path.  Both the warrior and the aspirant work towards being able to stare death in the face, without fear or hope, and thus there has been much cross-fertilization between their discourses.

The examples of this which one most commonly encounters are the Islamic tradition’s notion of the greater and lesser holy war, and the use of Zen Buddhism by the Samurai.

Here, I would like to present a less-well known example, at least in the realm of Traditional studies.

In the early years of the 20th century, the German military historian Hugo Baron von Freytag-Loringhoven published his study on The Power of Personality in War.  This book was a commentary on Clausewitz’s classic On War, and specifically on certain aspects of psychology elucidated in that work.  Freytag opens each chapter with a quote from Clausewitz, and these are here presented for readers’ consideration and contemplation.

Although our intellect always calls for clarity and certainty, our spirit is often attracted by uncertainty.  The intellect leads us by the narrow path of philosophical inquiry, seeking logical conclusions.  Almost unconsciously we come into a realm where we feel ourselves strangers, where all familiar things seem to leave us.  Our spirit, however, prefers to remain in imagination, in the realm of uncertainty.  Instead of dealing with the stern reality of fact, it takes wings and revels in the riches of the possible.  Danger and daring are the element into which it throws itself, like a bold swimmer plunging into the stream.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.  If one is not to be overcome by these features, he must possess a certain physical and mental strength, native or acquired, which makes him indifferent to them.

In war, everything is slowed by the influence of innumerable insignificant circumstances which cannot be evaluated on paper, and which lead one to fall short of his aim.

War is the domain of uncertainty.  Three-fourths of the things upon which action in war is based are more or less hidden in a mist of uncertainty.  A keen and penetrating intelligence is necessary to ascertain the truth.

The commander in war must work in a medium which his eyes cannot see; which his best deductive powers cannot always fathom; and with which because of constant changes he can rarely become completely familiar.

No other feeling, however more common it may be or however more highly it may generally be regarded – patriotism, devotion to an ideal, revenge, enthusiasm of any kind – none of these can make ambition and thirst for glory unimportant.  There never was a great leader without ambition, nor is it possible to conceive of such a thing.

A strong mind is not one which is simply capable of strong exertion.  It is one which, in the midst of the strongest exertions, can maintain its equilibrium, so that in spite of internal tumult, power of decision and insight remain as steadfast as the needle of the compass, which, regardless of the tossing of the ship, retains its accuracy.

One must believe strongly in the value of well-tested principles, and remember that momentary impressions, however strong, are unreliable.  Then when we are tempted to doubt the correctness of our decisions, our faith in these principles and our engrained distrust of transitory sensations will help us hold fast to basically sound decisions, and our actions will thereby gain that steadfastness and consistency we call ‘character.’

The military virtues are for all individuals what the genius of the general is for the whole army.

Military genius is a harmonious blending of forces.

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

To discover one point and extend it infinitely, to comprehend the whole universe in one totality – this is called consciousness.  To know the branch on seeing the root, spot the target on seeing the pointing finger, hold to oneness and thus respond to multiplicity, grasp the essential and thus govern the particular – this is called art.  To live by what wisdom means, go where wisdom goes, work for what wisdom holds, and act on when wisdom proceeds – this is called the Way.

from the Huainanzi, a 2nd century B.C. compendium of Taoist wisdom

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

Difendere un ideale e tenere le posizioni anche se esse dovessero essere posizioni perdute — o per meglio dire: anche quando dovesse essere problematico che coloro che ancora rimarranno a vegliare durante la notte possano incontrare coloro che appariranno nel nuovo mattino.

To defend an ideal and take a stand even if the position is lost — or better said: even when it would be problematic that those who still continue to stay awake during the night will be able meet those who will appear at the new dawn.

~ Julius Evola, from “La Vita Italiana”

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

The quality known as repose in the ancient Greek is a manifestation of that serenity which belongs to a people not yet disturbed by self-doubt, self-immolation and self-contempt. It is the extreme harmony of a mentality not yet shaken by the tortures of introspection or inner conflict, by what Goethe called ‘two souls throning within one bosom’. The beauty of the Greeks is the beauty of men who have never in their wildest dreams beheld the horrors of Dante’s Inferno.

Poorer than the moderns in this respect, they consequently have the bliss which is partly ignorance, and this bliss is revealed in their art. Everything that has appeared in western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire is certainly less serene, less blissful, more foolish, perhaps, in its wisdom, than was the partial ignorance of the Greeks; but it is more fretful, more nervous, more subterranean and subcutanesous, more full of insight and second sight, and consequently, therefore, more disturbing.

~ Anthony Ludovici, Perosnal Reminiscences of Auguste Rodin

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

Christianity urges one to give away what is one’s own.
Socialism urges one to take what belongs to others.

~ Vladimir Solovyov (“Lectures on Divine Humanity”)

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

Pain establishes a certain equality between all those who suffer, which is to establish it between all men, for all suffer: by pleasure we are separated, by pain united in fraternal bonds. Pain removes the superfluous, and gives us what we want, and establishes a most perfect equilibrium in man: the proud man does not suffer without losing some of his pride, nor the ambitious man some of his ambition, nor the passionate man some of his anger, nor the impure man some of his impurity. Pain is sovereign in extinguishing the fires of the passions. At the same time that it removes what injures us, it gives us what ennobles us—the hard-hearted do not suffer without feeling themselves more inclined to compassion, nor the disdainful without feeling more humble, nor the voluptuous without feeling more chaste. The violent become tamed, the weak fortified. No one comes out of that furnace of pain worse than he entered: the greater number come out with sublime virtues they knew not of. One goes in impious, and comes out religious; another avaricious, and comes out an almsgiver; another without ever having wept, and comes out with the gift of tears; another heart-hardened, and comes out merciful. In pain there is something fortifying, manly, and profound, which is the origin of all heroism and of all greatness; no one has felt its mysterious contact without improving: the child acquires by pain the vitality of youth, youth the maturity and gravity of men, men the bravery of heroes, heroes the sanctity of saints.

~ Donoso Cortes

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Toil, pain, and death are the great auxiliaries that keep humanity from falling into the bottomless abyss of evil. Through toil, human beings are preserved from irresolute passivity; through pain, they are protected from the danger of excessive subjectivity, because through pain they are reminded of the surrounding world; and through death, they are rescued from a complete severance from the spiritual world. Toil, suffering, and death preserve the human will from passivity, feeling from aloofness, and thinking from obscurity.

~ Valentin Tomberg

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press

The Russian nihilists have a sort of syllogism of their own — man is descended from a monkey, consequently we shall love one another.

~ Vladimir Solovyov

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Gornahoor Press