The Constitution of a Traditional Society: Warriors (III)

⇐ Part II


This is the final segment on the role of the Warrior caste in a Traditional Society. Here we see that the point of war is to establish peace. The respective spheres of influence of the priests and warriors are made clear, although caste conflicts can still break out for the reasons specified. Guido De Giorgio then relates the roles of the castes to contemporary events [circa 1940]: when priests are no longer the bearers of the holy science, there is a state of perpetual war and democratic leveling, then spiritual ruin results, as man is left to his own devices.

The return to normality restores the people’s strength established of the Warrior caste which abides by love and whose sacrifice, different from that of the Priests, comprises an ascent of psychic energies oriented in the direction of heroic glorification. As action is subordinated to contemplation, so the warrior is subordinated to the priest, without however this subordination equalizing or confusing the two domains that are autonomous and separated and which constitute the spiritual authority and temporal power. These two jurisdictions are as cleanly separated and distinct as eternity is from time, therefore the two domains are unmistakable through the impossibility or reducing the first to the second or of extending the second to make it correspond to the first, since the eternal cannot be contained in the transient, nor can the transient cease to be such and to coincide with the eternal. This only consideration suffices to show that the temporal regiment is independent of the spiritual without however opposing it in any way, but rather in parallel turning to itself up to what is the maintenance of traditional unity that contains the both together and harmonizes them.

If in the primitive phase of perfection, with life being only contemplative, we can acknowledge a true unity of development oriented toward purely spiritual ends, this is not possible in the subsequent traditional forms where action appears immediately next to contemplation, temporal activity next to the spiritual, from which arises the separation of the two domains.

But this separation is necessary for the purity of the ends to which activity and contemplation tend: a fusion or an overpowering in part by one of these jurisdictions would constitute a true anomaly because it would confuse the divine with the human, the spiritual with the temporal, the sacred with the profane without reaching any profitable result. When we spoke of subordination we meant it only hierarchically, i.e., from the unique, traditional point of view that embraces and contains the contemplative life and the active life: in this sense one cannot escape anyone that the temporal is subordinated to the spiritual as and in the same measure that the human is subordinated to the divine from which it derives, and the existence and the justification of existence.

The Priest consecrates the Warrior and arranges that his action returns to the traditional sphere, but in his sphere the Warrior is autonomous and he neither can nor must collide with the Priest since his activity does not oppose the spiritual activity carried out in the bosom of the first caste. In a traditional society every dispute between the temporal and the spiritual is resolved in the unity the encompasses them; if, in fact, there is conflict, this must uniquely be ascribed to the temporary deviation of one or two domains due to essentially individual, and therefore unimportant, factors.

As long as the Priest remains priest and the Warrior, warrior, no conflict is possible because each one of them will understand he belongs to a sphere whose activity is clearly separated and distinct: this knowledge, this awareness, must guarantee the harmony between the temporal and the spiritual. But whenever, through complex circumstances that are not always easily discernible, a serious conflict between the two powers may happen, it is necessary to come back to the principles that safeguard traditional unity and then they will be resolved hierarchically in the seat of pure spirituality to rectify the deviations and annul the deflections that can be produced by one side or the other, with leading the two castes and therefore the two powers each back to its own domain.

The elimination of the purely individual factors will produce the placation of the dispute, because unfortunately these will take place only through the surpassing of certain personalities who respectively break the law and the norm which regulate activity and establish the limits of the two castes. The relationship between the two powers is very delicate and the development of Europe shows how often the disputes between the spiritual and the temporal have assumed immense proportions up to the point of becoming outright hostility. There is a reason for all that: the imperfect realization of the traditional unity, that must be ascribed to the defection of the priestly class which can always make its authority matter, with well understood spiritual means, provided they don’t distance themselves from sacred knowledge and in this, it only demands the defense of the highest values of the spirit. The temporal cannot undermine and diminish the eternal, and therefore the temporal power, in any way whatsoever and by whatever means, will not be able to harm the spiritual authority which will always know how, when it wishes, to withdraw from the world and allow it to deteriorate because it is deprived of divine help. Reflect very attentively on that in order to understand what is happening in Europe and in the world.

Nevertheless the bearers of sacred knowledge must at all cost maintain contact with traditional principles and undergo whatever duress, submit to any violation, in order to continue to save men by getting them back in touch with the eternal. The spiritual authority asserts itself with quite other means than those with which the temporal power asserts itself and we think that, in case of conflict, through oppressive or destructive that is the deviation and the overpowering of the temporal power, the spiritual authority will always have the upper hand, if it obstinately remains in its domain and does not descend into open battle with the temporal on the terrain of activity properly assigned that is not absolutely of its sphere.

We think instead that as much as it will stay in its domain, so much more effective will its own work be because therefore, as was said with the greatest absoluteness, it assumes its authority from God and not from the world, and its strength, nourishing itself fervently on the divine, will not be able to triumph over hidden dangers, incomprehensions, suppressions, and apparent collapse. Because if in addition the deviation of the temporal power assumes such proportions by becoming absolutely anti-traditional and sacrilegious and the Warriors, forgetting themselves, insulting the principle of love, which is the foundation of their existence, were exceeding their deplorable actions, compressive of every traditional spirituality, know that nothing can touch, profane, and be admitted to God’s Truth that is not God himself and that also the ruin of the world would leave perpetually together the Silence or where the divine mystery unfolds.

But we are convinced that the dispute between the two powers is almost always due to a remote deviation in the very heart of traditional unity and above all in the priestly caste whose members have often forgotten what is their only and great strength: sanctity. Whenever the spiritual authority, without any concession to the profane, takes up its true function, the maintenance of God’s truth in the world for its salvation, and the Priests, who are its bearers, may not fail in their task which is contemplation and not action, effective realizing knowledge and not pure external, literal science of holy things, the traditional unity would harmoniously include the two distinct powers, but in parallel tending toward a single end, the return of man to God, through time, into eternity.

The temporal power in fact, of which the Warriors are the bearers, offers as terms the realization of the divine through time, in a concert of all the faculties tuned by their own equilibrium. Until now, in regard to this caste, we have spoken of war, but it is now necessary to consider the positive aspect of war, i.e., peace. War is an imbalance that produces a balance which in its turn is broken through the intermittent character of human affairs:  but if one considers that in analogy with the spirit whose domain is eternity, war appears as a renewal, a purification, radical emendation, followed by the achievement of a state of absolute and permanent pacification that represents the fruition of beatitude.

As much as equilibrium is superior to disequilibrium, so peace is superior to war of which it is the crowning achievement. No consideration of aesthetic order may contaminate the vision of the truth in the seat of pure spirituality. The Warrior yearns for peace since his war is holy only if it leads to a permanent and definitive peace. War represents the germinative suffering, and peace, the flower and the coronal fruit. If intermittence is a type of destiny of human and temporal affairs, it must never be considered as a cyclic law on the part of the Warriors and the Leader, meaning to say by that, that each war must be completed for the end of the disequilibrium and the realization of peace. That intermittence exists, but it does not make law, this is the foundation of the right and healthy development of temporal power. If, as we said, war is in analogy with the Great War that represents the permanent conquest of the divine, it must tend to peace and this must be the true and holy goal of the Warriors: only a soft and superficial esthetic, ignorant of the profound truths of certain analogies and the symbolic relationship between the temporal and the eternal can consider war as the end in itself, a spastic state, fascinating for its own anomaly; only when true peace is not realized, can the nostalgia of war be felt, this very dubious sentiment of order because it belongs to the purely sentimental sphere.

In order to prevent this anomaly, it would be necessary to avoid, above all else, the wars that are not decisive, considering them as imperfect actions, true and proper permanent crises that contribute to the crumbling of traditional societies.

What has happened and is happening in Europe must be considered under this light and then one will understand the gravity of the current situation in which, through the confusion of castes, through consenting to an absolutely bestial democratic leveling, the detachment of the human from the divine takes place and therefore the very end of man is prepared. When we speak of the end, we mean the true and proper end that is certainly not that of the flesh, as every person gifted with the most elementary good sense can comprehend, but the spiritual ruin, the collapse of those bridge that connect the world to the Superworld, of which follows the instantaneous formation of the hidden ways that connect the earth to the darkness of the Underworld. If humanity does not want to become an immense and sterile hell, it is necessary that it brings back the great traditional ways by which only will new bases be found for new developments.

The Warriors must participate with the Priests for the restoration of order because these two castes are the bases of traditional unity: from their concordant action everything can be made smooth, the one being the bearers of sacred knowledge, i.e., of wisdom, the other the judges of power; the one, if you will, the club bearers, the others the fasces bearers. The harmony of the spiritual and the temporal can rebalance the world against all pessimisms and skepticism so acute and stupidly brayers of the current times; in no mode will be realized a permanent arrangement of the world without the cooperation of the spiritual authority and the temporal power because the return to normality must be effectuated from above to below, from the higher to the lower, and not the other way around.

For centuries the masses flounder in bestial tumults and will still flounder as long as the Priests and the Warriors permit it: that if these two castes feel the enormous weight of their responsibility and have the awareness of their respective domains and their true obligations, no one could prevent the restoration of traditional unity, the new equilibrium that would reopen the great passageway to eternity for the glory of God in heaven and the peace of men on earth.

11 thoughts on “The Constitution of a Traditional Society: Warriors (III)

  1. Pingback: Understanding The Warrior Archetype - Social Matter

  2. De Giorgio states that what provides meaning and legitimacy to war is peace. If the situation is such as that can not be achieved the only viable option is withdrawal to prepare and await the conditions that allow victory since we can not aim for anything other than the Greatest Peace. The Romans never fought any battles if the signs were not auspicious -corresponding to the will of the gods. Continuing the thought of “the roman”: when is the tiger tired? The Augurs silently gazed into the heavens.

    When anti-reality fought reality it became increasingly unreal while reality stayed the same. The separation widened until un-reality could no longer recognize what is real or not, starting to fight its own shadow. For unreality every sky became cloudy, but Reality will make itself known like a lightning from the eternal clear sky.

  3. This seems also to relate to the post on Evola and the intitiatic centers of Tibet falling to the communists. The church retracts materially in the face of the modern world just as the Tibetan Lamas would not act to safeguard sacred centers against communist invasion. Yet perhaps what seems like a loss only appears so from the perspective of action, for “[t]he spiritual authority asserts itself with quite other means than those with which the temporal power asserts itself.”
    Perhaps this retraction is what leaves so many dumbfounded and bemoaning the lack of a spiritual path in the west. They are looking without, rather than within. As De Giorgio states, the bridges to the superhuman may be crumbling, but the way remains open for those with the eyes to see.
    So what looks like a retreat is actually a safeguarding, an attempt to “maintain contact with traditional principles and undergo whatever duress, submit to any violation, in order to continue to save men by getting them back in touch with the eternal.”
    If I am not misunderstanding Tomberg in this regard, would this be a retraction of the church of St. Peter in order to safeguard the church of St. John?

  4. The Spiritual Center(s) never degenerate. It is only castes (and before all others the Priestly caste) that degenerate. There is little doubt that the priestly caste in Christendom has declined to the point of non-existence. Therefore it is only the solitary ascetics who carry the flame and enlighten humanity (albeit in a subliminal manner) in this darkest of ages.
    And, no! The solitary ascetics are not priests, although priests can be solitary ascetics. Guenon, De Giorgio, … are fine examples of solitary ascetics but there are many more whom we have never heard of!

  5. Interesting, I just finished reading Rama Coomaraswamy’s Destruction of the Christian Tradition where he mentions a quote of Paul VI about ‘auto-demotition’ and the whole book favors the version of destruction. Also it seems they are not only dismantling the Church but actively pushing for NWO. Doesn’t look ‘apparent’ to me, but what do I know? Can you please provide some context to what Benedict said about contraction?

  6. That is the way I read him. Of course, many structures have indeed degenerated, but no material action can destroy the spiritual center. It may be forgotten by many, but it can never be lost. Some day I’ll have to tell the story of the book’s publication. The manuscript was found several years after his death. The original editor had to use a pseudonym, although the book seems pretty tame today.

  7. If I understand him correctly, De Giorgio is saying that the spiritual centre has not degenerated but is voluntarily withdrawn from the world allowing the tides of history to take their courses ?

    The solitary ascetics are the priests……whose true nature is hidden……..

  8. De Giorgio gives his interesting take on it in one very telling paragraph (beginning with “The elimination of the purely individual factors …”). Certain personalities (e.g. Phillipe) will bring in individual factors. He ends with a cryptic claim, if anyone has any thoughts on it.

    To wit, the priestly class may choose to defect, since the priests should always be able to control the temporal power through spiritual means. Obviously, actions in time cannot affect the spiritual (“gates of hell”), which can also be found in Guenon. That is why the latter objects to Evola’s raising of action to the same level as contemplation. So the priests may “withdraw from the world and allow it to deteriorate”. De Giorgio concludes with this:

    “Reflect very attentively on that in order to understand what is happening in Europe and in the world.”

    How do you deal with that, Jason-Adam? Is the Church self-destructing as the secular media believes, or is there a deliberate withdrawal? Didn’t Benedict XVI says there will be a contraction in the church? And De Giorgio mentioned the “apparent collapse”; is that true or is the collapse real? And who are those “solitary ascetics”?

  9. Ah, you’ve cleared some things up – so far De Giorgio’s thoughts are in quite exact agreement with the teachings of the Church. I eagerly await the chapter on the Capo as I think it’s the most important one in the book.

    I am currently trying to understand the decline of Christendom – we all know the events of history – but I am more interested in the whys……so essentially the decline began in the Church, I suppose de Giorgio means, which is why Boniface was not able to control Phillipe ? but what caused the qulaity of the priests to descend from their former level ?

  10. Didn’t De Giorgio explain the conflicts in this segment? He certainly alluded to them. The causes may be the weakness of the Priests who no longer are the bearers of sacred knowledge, or occasionally individualistic or egoistic factors.

    De Giorgio is not refuting Boniface VIII. He emphasizes that the Warriors are subordinated to and consecrated by the priests; that is how they derive their power. The doctrine of the two swords does not mean that the priests are actively engaged in temporal affairs, just the opposite. In Unam Sanctam, Boniface VIII wrote:

    Both, therefore, are in the power of the Church, that is to say, the spiritual and the material sword, but the former is to be administered _for_ the Church but the latter by the Church; the former in the hands of the priest; the latter by the hands of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest. … one sword ought to be subordinated to the other and temporal authority, subjected to spiritual power

    So the temporal power is indirect, not directly controlled by the spiritual authority. But bring this up in the chapter on the Capo.

    The question is does Vatican II reject Unam Sanctam, which it certainly seems to have done.

  11. I am interested to know how de Giorgio would have explained the conflicts between the Popes and the Emperors in the Middle Ages……….

    also, if the spiritual and temporal realms are autonomous of each other, does that mean the two swords (spiritual and temporal power) that Boniface VIII claimed the church had is a wrong idea ?

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