Many people would like to adopt a sentimental and, at the same time, naturalistic conception of the nation, notions foreign to the highest European political traditions and irreconcilable with the same idea of the State which we spoke about. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Christian Initiation in Clementine Literature
This is a continuation of thoughts from my source, as well as a running summary/commentary on the events described. Please note the tremendous import of one claim made in this treatise: Baptism is a powerful rite because Christ the Only-Begotten made the waters (upper & lower). Peter is initiating Clement … Continue reading
Thoughts on Initiation
Noli foras ire, in te ipsum redi: in interiore hominis habitat veritas. ~ St. Augustine Rene Guenon has written extensively on the conditions and facts of initiation, but hardly enough on what occurs after initiation. I offer, here, some thoughts on initiation, and bring up the question of its necessity and … Continue reading
Letters from Guenon to Evola (IX)
The problem of the possible and the real seems very simple and obvious to me, but, of course, under the condition of examining it from the metaphysical point of view. It is obvious that, from the philosophical point of view, one can always think anything whatsoever and discuss a problem endlessly without ever reaching a conclusion; it is even what characterizes profane speculation, and I have never been able to entertain any interest for those so-called “problems” that fundamentally have only a verbal existence. Continue reading
Orientations: Point 7
⇐ Point 6 Point 8 ⇒ Highlights of point 7: The ideal is a virile and organic political unity This unity is fundamentally a spiritual unity The dignity and freedom of the human person is found in an organic society, not in individualized liberalism Evola rejected the Salo Republic because it … Continue reading
Clement’s Initiation: Peter and Shimon Magus debate
This is a continuation of a previous post. My source document is here, and I have already noted the problems with dates – it is part of the Clementine literature, involving at least two Clements, but its contents are noteworthy. Simon Magus is an under-appreciated character, even though modern sensibilities … Continue reading
Turning the Tables
We have given free rein to Guenon’s critique of Evola which, as far as it goes, is justified. Now we can turn the tables and explore what Evola found lacking in Guenon, specifically, the two issues of “Guenonian Scholasticism” and “Bureaucratic Initiation”. The mutual critiques are of different orders, but … Continue reading
Letters from Guenon to Evola (VIII)
According to what you explained to me this time, it seems that you consider the words “possible” and “real” in the sense of “non-manifested” and “manifested”; if that were so, one could say that it is merely a question of terminology and that, in spite of this expressive difference, we are basically in agreement on the point in question. However, such a use of the words “possible” and “real”, in a sense much different from how we use it, does not seem to be acceptable, because the non-manifested is not only just as real, but even more real than the manifested. Continue reading
Orientations: Point 6
⇐ Point 5 Point 7 ⇒ There are several important issues brought in Point 6. That these are in dispute today is incredible, if, in fact, they are even noticed. Perhaps the professional politicians do know it, but are coy enough not to mention them publicly. The first is the reduction … Continue reading