• Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed
Counter-Currents
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy

LEVEL2

  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Print
November 26, 2019 5 comments

Autumnal Reflections

William de Vere

1,209 words

This time of year, when autumn fades into winter, has been particularly evocative to me ever since I was a child. Of course, “the holiday season” has a special meaning for many people, and their reasons are probably for the most part quite similar to mine. There is a shared seasonal nostalgia for the cold autumn air, the brilliant foliage, Jack-o’-lanterns and Christmas trees, eggnog and pumpkin pie and sugar cookies, Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas mornings. These are the warm remembrances, recalled and built upon every year, that make the season so magical those who are susceptible to its charms. It is a season of family and childhood and warmth.

Aside from these nostalgic and sentimental associations, there is undeniably a more spiritual dimension to this season, which goes further in explaining its uniquely evocative nature. As an exercise in self-indulgence – perhaps to see if there is anyone else who shares my feeling – and as an ode to the season itself, I will share what this time of year means to me.

Though I have several pleasant and meaningful memories of summer, particularly the summers of my childhood, it has always overstayed its welcome. The oppressive heat and aimlessness of those languid summer days eventually become stultifying. Summer has always been associated with a certain listlessness on my part, as though I were waiting for something, some sign to begin my work again.

With the coming of the fall, that changes. The cold air sharpens senses dulled by the summer heat, and I feel more awake and alert than I have in months. Children begin school again, which – whatever its objective merits – at least restores a sense of discipline and order in their lives. We begin preparing for the festivities to come, cleaning and decorating our homes, planning family gatherings, attending seasonal events and services. The general feeling of good cheer and excitement is palpable, though among the adult participants it is often mingled with anxiety and fatigue.

The season typically begins with the autumn equinox and the lead-up to Halloween. As Halloween approaches, people often like to watch scary movies. While these can have a salutary effect as a kind of memento mori when viewed in the right spirit, I find most contemporary horror films distasteful and lacking any redeeming value. So with the exception of particularly atmospheric supernatural tales (Dr. Caligari, Let the Right One In, The Witch, or cosmic horror like Alien), I tend to read Gothic literature to get in the right mindset. My personal favorites include the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, Byron’s Manfred, and some of Hawthorne’s tales. The stories of H. P. Lovecraft have had a marked effect, for better or worse, on my worldview, and are required reading during the Halloween season. My favorite work by Lovecraft, combining his antiquarian love for old New England, his fascination with genealogy and diseased bloodlines, and his presentment of tentacled eldritch abominations lurking beyond our ken, is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The otherworldly (and afterworldly) atmosphere of Halloween, therefore, serves in some ways to banish the languid animal nature of summer and make us more susceptible to the transmundane. After the efflorescence of summer, fall is a season in which the reality of death is most apparent to us: Houses are decorated with headstones, skulls, and ghosts, and the leaves turn red and gold before fading away. Samhain was regarded as the new year by the Celts, as it was a time when the world went dormant in preparation for the rebirth of spring. It was, appropriately, a period of remembrance for the dead in ancient Christendom: All Hallows’ Eve is immediately followed by All Saints Day and All Souls Day, when we visit the graves of our loved ones, pray for the souls of the departed, and set offerings for them at our tables.

Throughout the month of October, we therefore become more susceptible to higher realities. This feeling continues to develop throughout the month of November, as the air grows colder, which tends to dispel summer doldrums and invigorate our higher faculties. Due perhaps to its associations with autumnal New England, I find myself reading a lot of Emerson and Thoreau during this season, as well as their German Idealist and Romantic antecedents. These figures combined a veneration of God and love of nature with an attempt to overcome the mechanistic philosophy of the modern age. They teach us that there is a divinity and sublimity beyond the mundane, and that the human soul possesses a spark of this divine. These are the writers for crisp autumn mornings when the sun glistens off the red and yellow leaves, those mornings of infinite possibility and sublime beauty.

Just before the Christmas season begins, we have the American feast of Thanksgiving, which – once shorn of its many materialistic and gluttonous elements – represents an ancestral festival giving thanks to God and recognizing the ties that bind us to our forebears and descendants.

The mind thus prepared, we ascend to the season of Advent. On the one hand, the midwinter is a time when the earth is still, dormant, silent. Advent represents a time of spiritual preparation for the birth of Christ within us. I generally spend more time in prayer and meditation, and taking walks through the woods at twilight has always been a favored pastime during this season. I try to make time to read the Gospels as well as a few favored works of mysticism, which I find myself returning to year after year: the sermons of Meister Eckhart, the German Theology, the Imitation of Christ. I apply a little more discipline to the correction of my faults and attempt with renewed commitment to live in the noble manner to which we are called.

These steps towards inner purification and attempt to live on a higher plane, in combination with the invigorating cold, also makes me inclined to a more austere, Spartan form of living during the colder months. It is a season of vigorous outdoor exercise, asceticism, cold baths, the martial virtues. This part of the year is a time of interiority, of purification, of focusing on the essentials. It is a time for our old self to die and our new self to be reborn.

However, in addition to its associations with purification and solemn interiority, Yuletide is also a period of festivity and good cheer. The Yule log, the bonfire, the Christmas tree, all represent light in the darkness of midwinter, life arising from death, the overcoming of death and sin, our rebirth into beauty and holiness through Christ. The predominant sense of goodwill and charity, brotherhood and childhood innocence, that arises during this time seems to contain what is best in mankind. In the Christmas season there is mingled nostalgia and melancholy and joy.

This is a season of transcendence and purity, of romanticism and memory, of mystery and faith, of beauty and sublimity. Every year, even in the midst of adult life and its unceasing anxieties and indignities, I attempt to join with my children in appreciating the wonder of this season – its magic reminding me of the nobility which we once possessed, and which we are called upon to regain.

Source: https://integral-ecology.blog/2019/11/23/autumnal-reflections/

Related

  • 600 Lumps of Coal

  • Living in Truth:
    A Yuletide Homily

  • The Winter Solstice & Christmas Ruminations

  • Some Thoughts on Yule

  • Christmas:
    Beauty in Life

  • Christmas Wishes 

  • It’s a Wonderful Life

  • Christmas Special
    Merry Christmas, Infidels!

Tags

ChristmasThanksgivingWilliam de Vere

Previous

« The Counter-Currents 2019 Fundraiser
Two Pieces of Good News

Next

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance »

5 comments

  1. Mike R says:
    November 26, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    Interesting.

    The enjoyment of fall and winter seems to be a common theme on the dissident right. I agree about how evocative this time of year can be, though I personally enjoy it less as I get older and spring and summer are more “special” now.

    Either way, it’s an excellent example of how climate and environment affect us. People of Northern European decent often seem to have a low tolerance for heat and intense sunlight — which makes sense — and perhaps thrive better in cool, overcast regions. A negative aspect of those regions is that they usually become extremely liberal.

  2. HamburgerToday says:
    November 26, 2019 at 4:17 pm

    Lovely essay.

  3. inq says:
    November 27, 2019 at 1:01 am

    Ego says: “Once everything falls into place, I will find peace.”
    Spirit says: “Find peace and everything will fall into place.”
    — Anonymous

  4. Bobby says:
    November 27, 2019 at 3:16 am

    A wonderful little essay that reminds me of one that the late Dominique Venner wrote on the subject of Christmas, in much the same style.

  5. John Wilkinson says:
    November 27, 2019 at 10:12 am

    I read my two sons “The Raven” or the “Tell-Tale Heart” every Halloween.

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

Recent posts
  • Are We Ready For “White Boy Summer”?

    Robert Hampton

    22

  • Can the Libertarian Party Become a Popular Vanguard?

    Beau Albrecht

    13

  • Every Phoenix Needs Its Ashes

    Mark Gullick

    10

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 334
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    1

  • If I Were Black, I’d Vote Democrat

    Spencer J. Quinn

    12

  • The Silence of the Scam:
    The Killing of Dr. Lesslie

    Stephen Paul Foster

    6

  • Proud of Being Guilty:
    Fighting the Stigma of Lawfare in Sweden & Winning

    HMF Medaljen

    6

  • The Halifax Grooming Gang Survivor

    Morris V. de Camp

    17

  • Get on the Right Side of the Paywall

    Greg Johnson

    12

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    April 4-10, 2021

    Jim Goad

    13

  • Forthcoming from Counter-Currents:
    Jonathan Bowden’s Reactionary Modernism

    Jonathan Bowden

  • Remembering Prince Philip

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    14

  • Remembering Jonathan Bowden
    (April 12, 1962–March 29, 2012)

    Greg Johnson

    7

  • Today’s Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

  • Paywall Launch, Monday, April 12th

    Greg Johnson

    10

  • Galaxy Quest:
    From Cargo Cult to Cosplay

    James J. O'Meara

    13

  • Biden to Whites: Drop Dead!

    Spencer J. Quinn

    20

  • Politicians Didn’t Invent Racial Divisions

    Robert Hampton

    7

  • London: No City for White Men

    Jim Goad

    51

  • Republicans Should Stop Pandering to Blacks

    Lipton Matthews

    18

  • Quotations From Chairman Rabble
    Kenneth Roberts: A Patriotic Curmudgeon

    Steven Clark

    6

  • Remembering Emil Cioran
    (April 8, 1911–June 20, 1995)

    Guillaume Durocher

    5

  • An Interview with Béla Incze:
    The Man Who Destroyed a BLM Statue

    Béla Incze

    15

  • Heidegger’s History of Metaphysics, Part Six:
    G. W. Leibniz’s Will-to-Power

    Collin Cleary

    12

  • The Importance of Survival Skills

    Marcus Devonshire

    22

  • The Oslo Incident

    Greg Johnson

    2

  • Mihai Eminescu:
    Romania’s Morning Star

    Amory Stern

    1

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World & Me

    Beau Albrecht

    21

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 333
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    3

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    March 28-April 3, 2021

    Jim Goad

    18

  • Murder Maps:
    Agatha Christie’s Insular Imperialism

    Kathryn S.

    29

  • A Clockwork Orange

    Trevor Lynch

    21

  • Easter Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Greg Johnson

    1

  • Our Big, Beautiful Wall

    Greg Johnson

    4

  • Agrarian Populism & Cargo Cult Fascism

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    9

  • One Carjacking Embodies the New America

    Robert Hampton

    38

  • The de la Poer Madness:
    Before and After Lovecraft’s “Rats in the Walls”

    James J. O'Meara

    9

  • Requiem for a Jigger

    Jim Goad

    39

  • The Promise & the Reality of Globalization 

    Algis Avižienis

    17

  • When They Destroy Memorials, We Raise Our Own to the Fallen

    Hawkwood

    8

  • The Counter-Currents Newsletter, March 2021

    Greg Johnson

    3

  • Making Lions out of Lambs:
    A Response to Max Morton of American Greatness

    Spencer J. Quinn

    9

  • How the Coronavirus Took Over the World

    Veiko Hessler

    13

  • Culture, History, & Metapolitics in Poland:
    An Interview with Jaroslaw Ostrogniew, Part 2

    Ondrej Mann

    3

  • With Brasillach in Spain & Germany: Remembering Robert Brasillach (March 31, 1909 – February 6, 1945)

    Margot Metroland

    2

  • Et tu, AOC?

    Travis LeBlanc

    22

  • Mrs. America Redux

    P. J. Collins

    9

  • British Broadcasting Coercion

    Mark Gullick

    6

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 332
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    2

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    March 21-27, 2021

    Jim Goad

    10

Recent comments
  • In the USA, we've had lots of white flight since the 1960s. It hasn't done anything to slow the...
  • This is a positive development.
  • Zero credit to him. "White boy" is a black term at this point. He's a race traitor wigger. That some...
  • This essay gives me courage to stay with the program. Sometimes the news is so depressing, and the...
  • I agree that many Libertarians are like children, and most arguements with them tend to degenerate...
Editor-in-Chief
Greg Johnson
Our titles
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • Imperium
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Novel Folklore
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • The Homo and the Negro, Second Edition
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • The End of an Era
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Lost Violent Souls
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • Baader Meinhof ceramic pistol, Charles Kraaft 2013
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher, Second Expanded Edition
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Artists of the Right
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Under the Nihil
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Hold Back This Day
  • The Columbine Pilgrim
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Toward the White Republic
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
Distributed Titles
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Copyright © 2021 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd. Autumnal Reflections

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.