Gewusst, Erkannt, Geahndet – Schelling
What is now called the Christian religion already existed among the ancients, and was not lacking at the very beginnings of the human race. When Christ appeared in the flesh, the true religion already in existence received the name of Christian. ~ Augustine of Hippo
So much comes back to the union of opposites, the basis of alchemy – the turning of lead into gold, the union of male & female, etc. One might suggest that the fourth chakra is the balancing chakra (the heart chakra) which unites heaven & earth. Perhaps one reason that Alistair Crowley is merely mined by Evola for insight, rather than endorsed as a master, is that Crowley essentially attains deification rather than divinization – that is, he bypasses the heart chakra totally (and all considerations of morality, even in the act of unconsidering it), dedicating one’s self to “service-to-self”. This is a difficult path; most humans have some feeling at least for their kith & kin, which (of course) is why Chesterton argued that the gods of Rome were “human” in a way that the gods of Carthage were not~
The Roman augurs and scribes who said in that hour that it brought forth unearthly prodigies, that a child was born with the head of an elephant or that stars fell down like hailstones, had a far more philosophical grasp of what had really happened than the modern historian who can see nothing in it but a success of strategy concluding a rivalry in commerce. Something far different was felt at the time and on the spot as it is always felt by those who experience a foreign atmosphere entering their own like a fog or a foul savor. It was no mere military defeat, it was certainly no mere mercantile rivalry, that filled the Roman imagination with such hideous omens of nature herself becoming unnatural. It was Moloch upon the mountain of the Latins, looking with his appalling face across the plain; it was Baal who trampled the vineyards with his feet of stone; it was the voice of Tanit the invisible, behind her trailing veils, whispering of the love that is more horrible than hate. The burning of the Italian cornfields, the ruin of the Italian vines were something more than actual; they were allegorical. They were the destruction of domestic and fruitful things, the withering of what was human before that inhumanity that is far beyond the human thing called cruelty. The household gods bowed low in darkness under their lowly roofs; and above them went the demons upon a wind from beyond all walls, blowing the trumpet of the Tramontane. The door of the Alps was broken down; and in no vulgar but a very solemn sense, it was Hell let loose. The war of the gods and demons seemed already to have ended; and the gods were dead. The eagles were lost, the legions were broken; and in Rome nothing remained but honor and the cold courage of despair.
I do not presume to judge the Crowleys of the world who invoke Koranzon; I am sure that God can do that all on His own.
However, it does seem to me that the Pagan/Christian split is rather out of date today; one can find plenty of neo-pagans & neo-Christians who agree that the world is essentially “secular”. Likewise, one can find plenty of pagans & Christians who actually desire to raise a standard against the modern world, although the means for doing so are disagreed over. Most Christians will view the attempt to forge a deeper unity as potential syncretism. A large-minded Christian friend of mine wrote that “I see certain challenges with the presentation of Christianity as an esoteric doctrine which is rooted in a kind of pan-religious, metaphysical syncretism”. Certainly. If we explore the fear (which I share) of straying from the “Way” (for those who are rooted in Christianity as I am), I am lead to conclude that there is finally a kind of violence which is practiced on the self; Jesus gave this as “taking heaven by storm”, or “violence carrying it away”. One can either obviate the need to struggle by cutting out the heart chakra entirely and proceeding by way of bizarre practices which are not strictly speaking necessary for those who are not “seared” or “vulnerable masters”, engage in fundamentalist fantasy, or integrate the Left & the Right hand paths at a much higher level than that given to us by the conditions we live in. In other words, “syncretism” is only a necessary problem at the exoteric level – it is a potential problem at the esoteric.
Now even Evola, in Revolt of the Modern World, speaks of the beginning usefulness of drugs to create an alternate sense of reality, but a fading of that need as progress is made. Here we have the “Christian” tendency from the other direction, just as there is a legitimate “pagan” tendency from “ours”. This places Evola squarely in the camp of those who wish to preserve the entirety of the human being. This is close to what St. Paul must have meant when he said “all things are lawful, not all are profitable” – the keeping of Torah was a re-affirmation of a concrete and concretely discerned “path of heaven”. It seems to me that such a deep drive to preserve the entirety of human aspiration and integral wholeness is ultimately what is meant by purity, or true religion. Thus, the division innate between exoteric meanings only carries us so far – a pagan who communes with Odin, yet who wishes to preserve the full meaning of “Englishness”, is committed inescapably to certain Christian aspirations.
Defining what that looks like is difficult, even humanly impossible. If we abandon the “we” of exotericism, & focus upon the “I” of transformation, the difficulty of finding the “we” will become considerably less. This is the task facing the West – re-embrace metaphysics, or have the metaphysics of the alien imposed upon us, as Guillame Faye has argued will occur in Europe.
Whereas Christianity and the Church and “paganism” may ultimately decide that some measure of separation is beneficial, it cannot be the case that a hard line divides those who practice esoteric paths. This is not “syncretism” – provided the sage does not trouble the faithful with their wisdom. This is simply the attaining of poetic opposites in a manner which dissolves the need to have a “war of ideas”. As John Ruskin points out, the “pathetic fallacy” in poetry is only a fallacy in the hands of an amateur. Likewise, here, the “reunion” of Christianity with the faithful pagans is attainable by the non-vulnerable master (one committed to totality in totality, with the whole of the balancing chakra). The common person can grasp this purely on the level of poetry, but in the supreme heights of God’s kingdom, in Valhalla, heaven and earth will kiss, righteousness and peace will make peace. This dream built the imperium of Europe, from the times of Boethius through Zwingli’s insistence that Socrates would be found in heaven, all the way to the days of Kitchener’s storming of Khartoum and Lord Cromer’s administration of Egypt. This dream did not begin with the Catholic Church being “syncretic” or harboring esoteric doctrine (which it did). It did not die, in spite of such disasters as the crusade against the Cathars in Southern France. It began with the touching of Christ’s teaching with the Mediterranean world around Alexandria (at least in our memory). St. Peter and St. Mark transmitted the teaching of the perfection of the kingdom to Clement, who endeavored to “conceal” it openly in the Stromata. The fact that this secret teaching was both “secret” and “Judaic” or based on Torah is not a contradiction to the true aspirant, should he choose it. The teaching was concerning the architect of the Cosmos, and the path of those who desired to set themselves free from “demons”. This was because the “flesh” had to be superseded. Man’s destiny was to be more than human. “Greater than the angels”. This teaching is both “pagan” (in the sense that it accepts the reality of the supernatural), “Gnostic” (in the sense that this world is not made ultimately for bourgeoise comfort), and “Christian” (in that it aims for the Father of Lights in Valhalla). It is inimitable. It is what it is. It is the Tradition. Here is a “Gnostic”, Alexander Dugin:
The mankind has always had two types of spirituality, two paths — “Right Hand Path” and “Left Hand Path”. The first one is characterized by the positive attitude to the surrounding world; the world is seen as harmony, equilibrium, good, peace. All the evil is viewed as a particular case, a deviation from the norm, something inessential, transient, without deep transcendental reasons. Right Hand Path is also called “The Way of Milk”. It doesn’t hurt a person, it preserves him from radical experience, withdraws from immersion into suffering, from the nightmare of life. This is a false path. It leads into a dream. The one going by it will reach nowhere…
In the apostle’s day, the way of milk was using demons for fortune-telling to make a buck or two.
Tennyson made the point that “kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood”; Heaven’s Truth, being additive, can simply add that the perfection is both the attainment of Norman blood, and the purity of simple faith with kind hearts, crowned with the corona. Likewise, esoterically, we seek to listen to those who can “discern the spirits” so that true North, all of it, comes into view, if happily we search for it, and find it. This is why Gornahoor attempts to harmonize Donoso Cortes with Julius Evola.
There is a great line in a very modern movie – focus is somewhere in between rage & serenity. In our decaying age, what is needed is focus, beginning in the Self. The one who truly wishes to find the Tao will listen to whomever speaks at hand with wisdom, judging in their heart, the heart. Here, in the kingdom of Heaven, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile”. That is the meaning of Saint Paul’s comments; since Grace perfects, and does not eradicate Nature, he is not teaching One-World Utopianism, in which a sexless, raceless, classeless drone inhabits the void created by technology on the earth. He is saying that Aratus and Socrates are in heaven, or could have been. It is finally only the struggle with the Self – not only “every sin” but “every weight” must be laid aside, for all things “are lawful, but not all are convenient”. Upaya, skillful means, or the balancing of the fourth chakra must occur, for in no other way can “Thy Kingdom Come”. There are plenty of “Christians” who have no idea what the Basileia tou Theou means, or even that it exists. In our day, the brightest line is between those of bad will who are trapped by the self, and those of good will who have risen to the struggle. To tell the difference, begin to look deep inside.
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