From Esotericism, Religion, and Nature (Studies in Esotericism), ed. Arthur Versluis, Claire Fanger, Lee Irwin, and Melinda Phillips (Mankato, Minnesota: North American Academic Press, 2010).
Savitri Devi (1905–1982[1]) was born Maximine Julia Portaz in Lyons, France, of English, Italian, and Greek ancestry.[2] She was a highly gifted and eccentric child. Early on, she embraced vegetarianism and animal rights out of a strong aesthetic revulsion to slaughter and other forms of cruelty to animals. (more…)
“Death found an author writing his life. . .” from Edward Hull’s Danse Macabre, 1827.
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It always sounds silly to me when people tell the dead to “rest in peace.”
Practically speaking, don’t you have to disturb their rest to tell them that? It makes about as much sense as nudging someone who’s snoring to say, “Hey — HEY! Wake up and go to sleep.”(more…)
Editor’s Note: The following text by Muriel Gantry (1913–2000) is a bit more than half of the “Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry: All You Ever Wanted to Know and a Great Deal You Probably Didn’t,” which she prepared in 1995 for Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, who was writing a biography of her friend Savitri Devi. (more…)
The very idea sounds absurd. Militant supporter of National Socialism, foundational figure of Esoteric Hilterism, the iron maiden known to academia — insofar as she is known at all — as “Hitler’s Priestess”: dissociating Savitri Devi from her fanatical loyalty to Hitler’s Germany seems as futile as denazifying The Führer himself. (more…)
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
— Matthew 6:24
There must be an immediate and permanent cessation of all immigration into our nation, from this point forward. We do not need immigrants from anywhere, for any occupation, especially given that many have no occupation. (more…)
I’d like to remind or inform my readers of a delightful, forgotten, and yet wholly wholesome and wise movie that was released in England in 1959. Its name: North West Frontier. The movie’s setting is the North West Frontier province in British India in 1905. The film’s McGuffin is a six-year-old heir to a local Hindu Maharaja. The boy is given over for protection to a British Officer named Captain Scott (Kenneth More) because Islamic insurgents are on the warpath and wish to kill the lad — from start to finish, this movie is something of a Western. (more…)
1. Steele Brand, Killing for the Republic: Citizen-Soldiers and the Roman Way of War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
This is an excellent work of military history that examines the tradition of civic militarism in the Roman Republic. Brand combines detailed analyses of battles with insights about Roman culture and society. His analysis of the Battle of Sentinum (295 BC), for instance, includes diagrams of battle formations as well as a discussion of the history of the devotio, (more…)
In 2011 there appeared two major scholarly works that attempted to investigate the sources of Western supremacy in the modern world, especially in view of the recent rise of China as a potential threat to this supremacy. These are the Puerto Rican-Canadian social historian Ricardo Duchesne’s The Uniqueness of Western Civilization[1] and the British economic historian Niall Ferguson’s Civilization: The West and the Rest.[2](more…)
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is quite long, and we can only scratch the surface here. In truth, even the shortest of the Upanishads could justify a long commentary. The texts of Vedanta are a whole, each of the parts of which reflects the whole in miniature. In other words, within each text one may find the whole teaching. This does not mean, of course, that the whole teaching is explicitly stated. Rather, one will find that to truly understand the full significance of any one statement in the Upanishads, we must situate it within the context of the entire teaching.
“Brihadaranyaka” means “of the great forest.” Aranyaka means “of the forest” or “of the wilderness.” The Aranyakas are understood to be a type of ancient Hindu literature, along with the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads. (more…)
In the last installment of this series, we saw that the Katha Upanishad tells the story of Nachiketa, a boy who is tutored by Yama, the god of death. The boy makes a request of Yama, which at first the god does not want to grant: “When a person dies, there arises this doubt: ‘he still exists,’ say some, ‘he does not’ say others. I want you to teach me the truth.” But Yama soon realizes that Nachiketa is a worthy student, and begins to teach. (more…)
The Katha Upanishad tells the story of a boy named Nachiketa whose father, Vajasravasa, decides to curry the favor of the gods by giving away his possessions. However, it seems that he was rather selective in what he gave up, only parting with things that were now useless to him. Nachiketa, who is quite pious, sees through his father’s insincerity: “What merit is there,” the boy asks, “in giving away cows that are too old to give milk?” This question, from a mere child, wounds Vajasravasa’s pride. Foolishly, Nachiketa persists: “To whom will you offer me?” he asks. Vajasravasa ignores the question at first, but when Nachiketa repeats it his father answers angrily, “To death I give you!” (more…)
In this series of self-contained essays, I will offer an introduction to Vedanta, the philosophy of the Upanishads, through brief commentaries on individual Upanishads. These essays are geared toward individuals drawn to the path of Traditionalism – and especially the Left-Hand Path of Evolian Traditionalism.They place Vedanta in the context of Tradition. Further, they make clear the relevance of this path for those of us who are not just in revolt against the modern world, but who wish to live the ideal of “self-overcoming” – an ideal for all ages. (more…)
“Out-Hitlering Hitler”: Allied-Axis Moral Equivalence & the Dialectics of Violence
In contrast with the literal demonization of Hitler in Allied propaganda and postwar culture, Gandhi constantly morally equated Hitler’s violence with that of Churchill, Stalin, or Roosevelt. (more…)
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi[1]
There are few world leaders in history who differ as starkly as Mohandas Gandhi and Adolf Hitler. The one is revered in his nation and throughout the world as the Mahatma, an apostle of nonviolence and non-discrimination. The Führer in contrast is officially and widely loathed both in his home country and across the West as a criminally insane warmonger pursuing of racial domination. (more…)
Otra palabra para el Hinduismo, tal vez incluso más expresiva, podría ser la de “paganismo hindú”.
Los misioneros cristianos llaman “paganos” a todos aquellos que no son ni cristianos, ni musulmanes, ni judíos; es decir, todos aquellos cuya tradición religiosa nada tiene que ver con la Biblia ni la tradición judía. Aceptamos el término porque es apropiado; remarca algún tipo de similitud entre todas las religiones de credo del pasado y las del presente. (more…)
Hindu nationalism is perhaps the largest and most successful nationalist movement in the world. They have steeled themselves over the past century fighting first the British, then the Muslims, then Nehruvian secularists. Along the way, they have endured incessant condemnation by Marxists and, later, postmodernists. (more…)
1. Schelling’s Influences: The Christian Trinity and Jacob Boehme
I turn, finally, to a different Indo-European tradition, that of German Idealism of the 19th century. I include this material so as to show the perennial character of Indo-European thought. One could argue that the entire history of Western (and Indian) philosophy is a long, unconscious attempt to recollect the wisdom known “directly” by our Indo-European ancestors. (more…)
We are obviously dealing with three principles which manifest themselves in different forms. These principles have the status of Platonic ideas: transcendent forms which we may approach through their various expressions in the world. But can we express the three principles in the abstract? (more…)
This essay was originally written almost exactly thirteen years ago. I have withheld it from publication for all these years, because I considered the ideas in it a bit too speculative and daring. (more…)
Alain Daniélou The Myths and Gods of India
Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1991.
(Originally published as Hindu Polytheism by Bollingen Foundation, New York, 1964.)
Typically, those who profess an interest in what might be called “Indo-European spirituality” gravitate toward either the Celtic or Germanic traditions. The Indian tradition tends to be ignored. In part, this is because present-day Indians seem so different from us. (more…)
One hears a great deal today about “multiculturalism,” and the multicultural society. We (i.e., we Americans) are told that ours is a multicultural society. But, curiously, multiculturalism is also spoken of as a goal. (more…)
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Dance of Reality is an extraordinary film. Born in Chile in 1929 to a Jewish family originally from Ukraine, Jodorowsky began his career on the stage as an actor and director, then moved into film. His earlier films are Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (The Mole, 1970), The Holy Mountain (1973), Tusk (1978), Santa Sangre (1989), and The Rainbow Thief (1990). In the mid-1970s he also worked on an abortive adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic Dune.
Alejandro Jodorowsky is known to English-speaking audiences as the director and star of the cult film El Topo (1970). His other films (of which there are only a few) are lesser known, and his work outside of film is hardly known at all in America. (more…)
Aristokratia II
Edited by K. Deva Manticore Press
322 pages
Available for purchase from Amazon here
Readers of Aristokratia I that were eagerly awaiting more — and who wouldn’t? — will be pleased that this esoteric but accessible project is continuing, with the latest results appearing in a new volume, Aristokratia II. (more…)
On first receiving Karlfried Graf Dürckheim’s book, Hara: Man’s Terrestrial Center,[1] we had thought of writing one of the usual reviews, calling attention to it as an interesting contribution to our knowledge of the psychology, the behavior, and the “existential morphology” of the Far Eastern, or rather of the Japanese, man; (more…)
In an earlier essay I pointed out the importance of clearing up the points in which a connection between the doctrines of the traditional East and certain very advanced intellectual trends of the West emerges. I then said that in many cases a serious and not amateurish knowledge of the former might well serve to complete the latter, liberating them from their aspect as opinions of a purely individual speculative nature, and also from everything affected by an atmosphere of crisis, such indeed as is that of our own modern Western civilization. (more…)
The theme of an original duality or polarity related to that of the sexes occurs in the traditions of almost all cultures. This duality is sometimes expressed in purely metaphysical terms, sometimes in that of divine or mythological figures, cosmic elements, principles, gods, and goddesses.
It seemed evident to the early historians of religion of recent times that this was due to anthropomorphism. In their opinion, as man had created his gods in his own image, (more…)
The following essay was originally published in English in East and West, vol. 9, no. 4 (1958): 349–55. This is chapter 15 of Julius Evola, East and West: Comparative Studies in Pursuit of Tradition, ed. Greg Johnson, (more…)
« Lorsque les rites enseignés par les textes traditionnels et lorsque les institutions établies par la loi seront sur le point de disparaître, lorsque le terme de l’âge sombre sera proche, une partie de l’être divin existant par sa propre nature spirituelle selon le caractère du Brahman, qui est le Commencement et la Fin (…) descendra sur la terre (…). (more…)
« Le problème avec nos païens occidentaux modernes, c’est qu’ils ne croient pas vraiment en leurs dieux, ils croient seulement croire en eux. » (Cleary, Summoning the Gods, 21). (more…)
“The problem with our modern, Western pagans is that they do not genuinely believe in their gods, they merely believe in believing in them” (Cleary, Summoning the Gods, 21). (more…)
The following essay was originally published in English in East and West, vol. 1, no. 1 (April 1950): 28–32.
One
One of the characteristics of the Hindu doctrine that may be described in a general way as Tantrism is its claim to offer a formulation of the traditional doctrine that is only suitable to the last epoch of the present cycle, i.e., for the Kali Yuga. (more…)
Woman’s love of petty power is obvious and hardly requires demonstrating. It arises from the species’ urgent need of some adult animal which, when the offspring is born, will take an instinctive delight in looking after it. Apart from the pleasant sensations that the healthy female, whether animal or human, derives from suckling, there must also be an instinct which makes it a pleasure to nurse, to fondle and to tend the infant of the species.
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is an extraordinary film. Born in Chile in 1929 to a Jewish family originally from Ukraine, Jodorowsky began his career on the stage as an actor and director, then moved into film. His earlier films are Fando y Lis (1968), 
(The Mole, 1970), 
(1973), Tusk (1978), 
(1989), and 
(1990). In the mid-1970s he also worked on an abortive adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic 
.
