Category: Middle Ages
-
A Way Out, Further In
One of Evola’s most prescient suggestions is that the modern aspirant towards transcendence should “ride the tiger” – the individual (or the person, but not the personality) should use the negative energies of the modern world to advance himself, until they are exhausted, for opposing them directly would invite destruction. There is an important qualification:…
-
The Glory of God
“The essential American soul is hard, stoic, isolate, and a killer. It has never yet melted”. – DH Lawrence If it is true that the “Great Divide” was the Middle Ages, it might be worthwhile examining to what extent they remain with us, and how we might recover such. Ordinarily, it is claimed that Luther…
-
Action and Contemplation in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Titus Burckhardt, in his essay “Because Dante Was Right,” argues that one of the main themes of the Commedia is “the reciprocal relationship between knowledge and will.” Knowledge of the eternal truths is potentially present in the human spirit or intellect, but its unfolding is directly conditioned by the will, negatively when the soul falls…
-
Nine worthies: Champions of Chivalry
The Worthies are archetypal and the symmetry of the scheme reflects the Medieval view of history and destiny of European man. The Old Law prepared the way for the New. The Pagan law created the Pax Romana that allowed the spread of the New Law.
-
The Symbolism of the Horse
Within a single organization, a kind of double hierarchy can exist, especially when the apparent leaders are themselves unaware of any link to a spiritual center. In such cases there may exist beside the visible hierarchy made up by those apparent leaders, an invisible hierarchy of which the members may not fulfil any ‘official’ function…
-
Random thoughts on Chivalry
Classical ethics, classical jurisprudence and classical philosophy, though by no means irreconcilable with Christian thought and exercising a powerful influence upon it, belonged to a pre-Christian tradition. Chivalry was thus reminded, forcefully, of the separation of the origins of its institutions from those of the priesthood, and of the original independence of its function —…