“Death found an author writing his life. . .” from Edward Hull’s Danse Macabre, 1827.
1,180 words
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…)
Muriel Gantry
7,874 words
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…)
8,304 words
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…)
3,735 words
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…)
2,287 words
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…)
1,297 words
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…)
Niall Ferguson
7,568 words
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…)
An illustration of the Mandala-brahmana Upanishad, in which the god Narayana, a form of Vishnu, teaches yoga to Yajnavalkya.
3,744 words
Part I here, Part II here, Part III here
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…)
Lord Yama instructs Nachiketa, as related in the Katha Upanishad.
4,644 words
Part I here, Part II here, Part IV here
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…)
Yama, the Vedic god of death
4,058 words
Part I here, Part III here, Part IV here
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…)
Lord Vishnu as Vishvarupa, illustrating the three realms: heaven (head to belly), earth (groin), and underworld (legs). Painting c. 1800-50, Jaipur.
2,774 words
Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here
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…)
3,778 words
Part 3 of 3
“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…)
4,241 words
“Dear Friend”: Gandhi’s Letters to Hitler
The most famous examples of Gandhi’s humanization of Hitler are two open letters he wrote to the German chancellor (more…)
3,429 words
“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…)
2,591 words
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…)
4,011 words
Koenraad Elst
Return of the Swastika: Hate and Hysteria versus Hindu Sanity
London: Arktos, 2015
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…)
1,219 words
Savitri Devi
The Lightning and the Sun
Third Edition, Complete and Unabridged
Ed. R. G. Fowler
San Francisco: Counter-Currents Publishing, 2015
If Savitri Devi’s The Lightning and the Sun isn’t the most controversial book of the twentieth century then it must surely come close. (more…)
4,492 words
Friedrich Schelling, 1775–1854
Part 6 of 6
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…)
1,714 words
Part 5 of 6
1. The Emergence of the Gunas from Brahman
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…)
Georges Dumézil
1,362 words
Part 1 of 6
Author’s Note:
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…)
1,661 words
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…)
1,175 words
Alain Daniélou
Virtue, Success, Pleasure, and Liberation: The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India
Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1993.
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…)
1,740 words
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Dance of Reality
7,465 words
Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky
Rochester Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2008
1. Introduction
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…)
1,404 words
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…)
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Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya was born in New York City. (more…)
Illustration: A propaganda double entendre: Thomas Hart Benton’s “The Year of Peril. Again” (1941)
10,279 words
Translated by R. G. Fowler
Chapter 10 of Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne (Memories and Reflections of an Aryan Woman)
“The fools scorn Me when I take on human form;
My essence, supreme source of beings, escapes them.” (more…)
4,045 words
Part 1 of 2
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…)
Heidegger walks his path
2,760 words
Translator anonymous
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…)
3,188 words
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…)
