“To be disconnected from your ancestors is to become a dried leaf that blows aimlessly in the wind, easily shaken, easily programmed. Come back to your roots, come back to your ancient path and the tree of knowledge created by the ancestors, that the globalists have fought so hard to take from us. The old Gods never went away, and they are rising.”
― Fiona Ædgar, Road to Algiz
Image: Protection by Brian Froud
Notes: If you would like to learn more about Fiona’s work check out her Astrology channel here and new Pagan channel here. View more of her writings and various services including heathen astrology here.
― Fiona Ædgar, Road to Algiz
Image: Protection by Brian Froud
Notes: If you would like to learn more about Fiona’s work check out her Astrology channel here and new Pagan channel here. View more of her writings and various services including heathen astrology here.
“For more than 99 percent of human history, the world was enchanted and man saw himself as an integral part of it. The complete reversal of this perception in a mere four hundred years or so has destroyed the continuity of the human experience and the integrity of the human psyche. It has very nearly wrecked the planet as well. The only hope, or so it seems to me, lies in a reenchantment of the world.”
― Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World
Image: Psyche Entering Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse
― Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World
Image: Psyche Entering Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse
The Mystery of the Grail: T.S Elliot’s Modern Waste Land
The symbolic flexibility of the Grail has never been more apparent than in the tumultuous landscape of the 20th century. It reflects the major concerns of a Western world grappling with the scars of industrialisation, war, and the decline of religion. Among the themes most resonant with the Grail in this era was the concept of the wasteland. In the aftermath of the First World War, a new wasteland emerged, forged by the industrialised scale slaughter of Europeans.
The Grail legend played a pivotal role in T.S. Eliot's poetic masterpiece, The Waste Land, revised and edited by the legendary Ezra Pound. Many regard this work, penned in 1922, as one of the most significant poems of the 20th century. Eliot's work can be seen in a sense as a poetic manifestation of Oswald Spengler’s influential treatise, "Decline of the West” which was also published in 1922. However, Eliot’s vision is characterized by a somewhat less pessimistic and fatalistic outlook with the suggestion of the possibility of halting or even reversing decline.
Eliot’s notes on the poem reveal his debt to Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance, a work that explores ancient fertility and vegetation rites, particularly as they relate to the Grail stories.
The poem is less concerned with the Grail itself and instead hones in on the lack of spirituality and sacred qualities in contemporary society. Eliot focuses on an exploration of the character of the wounded Fisher King and his realm, now laid to waste in the aftermath of his injury, which has rendered both himself and his kingdom infertile. The Fisher King is transported by Eliot from a medieval kingdom and placed amidst the barren, urban wasteland of London, fishing in a canal behind a gas house. Through this character study, Eliot highlights the broader social and cultural malaise of the contemporary world, where materialism and scientific rationalism have supplanted religious faith and traditional values.
Eliot paints a harrowing picture of a questing knight journeying to the Grail chapel through a waterless desert landscape, suffering from thirst and fatigue. Upon finding the ruined chapel, a storm breaks, and the flash of lightning ushers in the life-renewing force of rain. This allusion to the return of water echoes the revival of the Fisher King's lands. In the final portion of the poem, however, the King appears to suffer from a kind of powerless inertia, musing:
"Fishing, with the arid plain behind me,
Shall I at least put my lands in order?"
Eliot, a professed Conservative and Royalist, lamented the collapse of the traditional, hierarchical and classical social order that characterized post-First World War Europe. Eliot channels the despair and sense of chaotic disorder that dominated at that time infusing the work with a deep sense of anxiety and hopelessness. The increasingly secular society of the early 20th century was becoming more sterile, vacuous, and culturally arid. Sexual relationships are portrayed as empty and meaningless, serving as symbols of this spiritual drought.
However, despite its bleak outlook The Waste Land does offer a rare glimmer of hope in its final section. In this concluding section, Eliot employs a language that speaks to the possibility of a spiritual awakening and the hope of redemption. He attempts to fuse together the insights of the East and the West in a manner that transcends the boundaries of dogma and doctrine, creating a space for the possibility of an emergence of a more comprehensive and holistic worldview.
The symbolic flexibility of the Grail has never been more apparent than in the tumultuous landscape of the 20th century. It reflects the major concerns of a Western world grappling with the scars of industrialisation, war, and the decline of religion. Among the themes most resonant with the Grail in this era was the concept of the wasteland. In the aftermath of the First World War, a new wasteland emerged, forged by the industrialised scale slaughter of Europeans.
The Grail legend played a pivotal role in T.S. Eliot's poetic masterpiece, The Waste Land, revised and edited by the legendary Ezra Pound. Many regard this work, penned in 1922, as one of the most significant poems of the 20th century. Eliot's work can be seen in a sense as a poetic manifestation of Oswald Spengler’s influential treatise, "Decline of the West” which was also published in 1922. However, Eliot’s vision is characterized by a somewhat less pessimistic and fatalistic outlook with the suggestion of the possibility of halting or even reversing decline.
Eliot’s notes on the poem reveal his debt to Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance, a work that explores ancient fertility and vegetation rites, particularly as they relate to the Grail stories.
The poem is less concerned with the Grail itself and instead hones in on the lack of spirituality and sacred qualities in contemporary society. Eliot focuses on an exploration of the character of the wounded Fisher King and his realm, now laid to waste in the aftermath of his injury, which has rendered both himself and his kingdom infertile. The Fisher King is transported by Eliot from a medieval kingdom and placed amidst the barren, urban wasteland of London, fishing in a canal behind a gas house. Through this character study, Eliot highlights the broader social and cultural malaise of the contemporary world, where materialism and scientific rationalism have supplanted religious faith and traditional values.
Eliot paints a harrowing picture of a questing knight journeying to the Grail chapel through a waterless desert landscape, suffering from thirst and fatigue. Upon finding the ruined chapel, a storm breaks, and the flash of lightning ushers in the life-renewing force of rain. This allusion to the return of water echoes the revival of the Fisher King's lands. In the final portion of the poem, however, the King appears to suffer from a kind of powerless inertia, musing:
"Fishing, with the arid plain behind me,
Shall I at least put my lands in order?"
Eliot, a professed Conservative and Royalist, lamented the collapse of the traditional, hierarchical and classical social order that characterized post-First World War Europe. Eliot channels the despair and sense of chaotic disorder that dominated at that time infusing the work with a deep sense of anxiety and hopelessness. The increasingly secular society of the early 20th century was becoming more sterile, vacuous, and culturally arid. Sexual relationships are portrayed as empty and meaningless, serving as symbols of this spiritual drought.
However, despite its bleak outlook The Waste Land does offer a rare glimmer of hope in its final section. In this concluding section, Eliot employs a language that speaks to the possibility of a spiritual awakening and the hope of redemption. He attempts to fuse together the insights of the East and the West in a manner that transcends the boundaries of dogma and doctrine, creating a space for the possibility of an emergence of a more comprehensive and holistic worldview.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, 1949
Image: The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, 1949
Image: The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David
“Jung compared the absence of the gods to a dry riverbed: their shapes remain, but devoid of the energy and substance that would make them live among us as they used to. What we await is the energy and substance to flow once more into the forms.”
— Stephen E. Flowers (Edred Thorsson)
Image: August Malström
— Stephen E. Flowers (Edred Thorsson)
Image: August Malström
Forwarded from The Fyrgen • ᚫᛚᚢ:ᚢᛚᚫ
Is the Old English word 'scop' related to the verb 'scapan', which comes to us in modern English as 'shapen'? My friend Hwitgeard urges caution on this connection, but it nevertheless offers food-for-thought.
A scop is a storyteller, and for the Anglo-Saxons, to tell a story is to weave a spell - to shapen the reality of those who listen. I've heard it said that the Celts of Britain told tall tales which are rarely proven factually true; but it doesn't matter. Those tales were true for those tribes, and became their reality.
Fast forward to our current struggle, where we've been plied with science-fiction for decades, often dystopian. Is it any wonder that what seemed far-fetched and confined to the realm of 'entertainment' is manifesting? These are stories... spells... which whether by design or not, shape our reality. And when the Hidden Hand shows itself, far from marking the end of its control, it reaffirms the narrative which we find ourselves swept along by. We must weave our own 'spell'.
A scop is a storyteller, and for the Anglo-Saxons, to tell a story is to weave a spell - to shapen the reality of those who listen. I've heard it said that the Celts of Britain told tall tales which are rarely proven factually true; but it doesn't matter. Those tales were true for those tribes, and became their reality.
Fast forward to our current struggle, where we've been plied with science-fiction for decades, often dystopian. Is it any wonder that what seemed far-fetched and confined to the realm of 'entertainment' is manifesting? These are stories... spells... which whether by design or not, shape our reality. And when the Hidden Hand shows itself, far from marking the end of its control, it reaffirms the narrative which we find ourselves swept along by. We must weave our own 'spell'.
“The collective and the group members do not experience the world objectively, but mythologically, in archetypal images and symbols; and their reaction to it is archetypal, instinctive, and unconscious, not individual and conscious.”
― Erich Neumann
Notes: The idea of experiencing the world through archetypal images and symbols is rooted in the theories of psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Jung asserted that archetypes are universal patterns of behaviour and imagery that are reflected in myths, dreams, and religious beliefs providing a framework for how individuals perceive and interact with the world around them.
Jung also believed that the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of archetypal images and symbols, plays a significant role in shaping behaviour and thoughts. This collective unconscious is the source of the archetypes that often subconsciously guide the group's perception and response to the world, as opposed to individual conscious thought.
Image: The Bard Bayan by Viktor Vasnetsov
― Erich Neumann
Notes: The idea of experiencing the world through archetypal images and symbols is rooted in the theories of psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Jung asserted that archetypes are universal patterns of behaviour and imagery that are reflected in myths, dreams, and religious beliefs providing a framework for how individuals perceive and interact with the world around them.
Jung also believed that the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of archetypal images and symbols, plays a significant role in shaping behaviour and thoughts. This collective unconscious is the source of the archetypes that often subconsciously guide the group's perception and response to the world, as opposed to individual conscious thought.
Image: The Bard Bayan by Viktor Vasnetsov
“The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear. This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by mis-orientation and built of misinformation… We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.”
―Buckminster Fuller
Image: Study for a Head (1952) by Francis Bacon
―Buckminster Fuller
Image: Study for a Head (1952) by Francis Bacon
“The glory of the polytheistic anschauung (view) is that it never asserted a single and obligatory path for everyone. It never caused the assertion that everyone was fit for initiation and it never caused an attempt to force people into a path alien to their sensibilities. Paganism never feared knowledge. It feared ignorance, and under a flood of ignorance it was driven out of its temples.”
― Ezra Pound, Terra Italica, The New Review, Winter 1931-2
Image: Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Arkona by Laurits Regner Tuxen
― Ezra Pound, Terra Italica, The New Review, Winter 1931-2
Image: Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Arkona by Laurits Regner Tuxen
The Mystery of the Grail: Wagner’s Failed Quest
The Grail legend in Richard Wagner's opera, "Parsifal," can be said to incorporate both Christian and pre-Christian elements, as well as a philosophical strain influenced by Schopenhauer's philosophy of Buddhism. Schopenhauer similar to the Gnostics believed that individuals were entrapped in "Maya," a veil of deception that blinds them from the truth. Schopenhauer believed that those trapped in Maya can only be redeemed through compassion. This idea is reflected in the character of Parsifal, who initially lacks the knowledge of good and evil, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He is Will-to-action without purpose but eventually gains enlightenment through his resistance to temptation and his compassion towards others, achieved through the transmutation of lust into compassion.
Wagner himself referred to "Parsifal" as a "Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage," with the aim of encouraging the audience to participate in the themes of redemption and suffering.
lrike Kienzle conducted a significant study of Wagner's "Parsifal," examining the philosophical and religious ideas that shape the work. Kienzle suggests that while the opera reflects Christian beliefs, it does not necessarily endorse the doctrines of the church. Instead, Kienzle asserts that the incorporation of both medieval and modern mysticism in "Parsifal" is firmly rooted in Christian thought. Additionally, Kienzle argues that "Parsifal" represents a distinctive blend of Vedic and Christian beliefs, which promotes an ongoing inter-religious dialogue that speaks to contemporary concerns.
Italian philosopher, esotericist, and traditionalist Julius Evola wrote extensively on the mysteries surrounding the Grail. In his view, Wagner’s Parsifal “deforms and twists the whole myth” primarily due to its Christianisation which obscured and occluded the essence of the mystery and detracted from its true meaning.
Friedrich Nietzsche was said to have expressed his disgust towards Wagner's "Parsifal," perceiving it as a renunciation of the composer's earlier aspirations to form a new German culture untainted by Christian values. Alfred Rosenberg similarly criticised the central focus on compassion in Wagner’s work. Modern adaptations of Wagner’s "Parsifal" extend the trajectory set forth by Wagner even further, retaining the Christian message of humanitarianism and universal compassion, albeit without the explicit Christian imagery.
It is intriguing to consider the potential ramifications had Wagner embraced a version of "Parsifal" purged of Christian influence, given the profound impact and influence his own version is said to have had on a notable historical figure. One can only speculate about the alternative course of world events that might have unfolded if Wagner had remained true to both his own supposed intentions and the original spirit of the grail mythos.
The Grail legend in Richard Wagner's opera, "Parsifal," can be said to incorporate both Christian and pre-Christian elements, as well as a philosophical strain influenced by Schopenhauer's philosophy of Buddhism. Schopenhauer similar to the Gnostics believed that individuals were entrapped in "Maya," a veil of deception that blinds them from the truth. Schopenhauer believed that those trapped in Maya can only be redeemed through compassion. This idea is reflected in the character of Parsifal, who initially lacks the knowledge of good and evil, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He is Will-to-action without purpose but eventually gains enlightenment through his resistance to temptation and his compassion towards others, achieved through the transmutation of lust into compassion.
Wagner himself referred to "Parsifal" as a "Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage," with the aim of encouraging the audience to participate in the themes of redemption and suffering.
lrike Kienzle conducted a significant study of Wagner's "Parsifal," examining the philosophical and religious ideas that shape the work. Kienzle suggests that while the opera reflects Christian beliefs, it does not necessarily endorse the doctrines of the church. Instead, Kienzle asserts that the incorporation of both medieval and modern mysticism in "Parsifal" is firmly rooted in Christian thought. Additionally, Kienzle argues that "Parsifal" represents a distinctive blend of Vedic and Christian beliefs, which promotes an ongoing inter-religious dialogue that speaks to contemporary concerns.
Italian philosopher, esotericist, and traditionalist Julius Evola wrote extensively on the mysteries surrounding the Grail. In his view, Wagner’s Parsifal “deforms and twists the whole myth” primarily due to its Christianisation which obscured and occluded the essence of the mystery and detracted from its true meaning.
Friedrich Nietzsche was said to have expressed his disgust towards Wagner's "Parsifal," perceiving it as a renunciation of the composer's earlier aspirations to form a new German culture untainted by Christian values. Alfred Rosenberg similarly criticised the central focus on compassion in Wagner’s work. Modern adaptations of Wagner’s "Parsifal" extend the trajectory set forth by Wagner even further, retaining the Christian message of humanitarianism and universal compassion, albeit without the explicit Christian imagery.
It is intriguing to consider the potential ramifications had Wagner embraced a version of "Parsifal" purged of Christian influence, given the profound impact and influence his own version is said to have had on a notable historical figure. One can only speculate about the alternative course of world events that might have unfolded if Wagner had remained true to both his own supposed intentions and the original spirit of the grail mythos.
“If you are a conservative Christian who feels there is a "woke" movement attempting to subvert your civilisation out of your hands. You feel exactly like a Roman Pagan did 1700 years ago. Christianity was the woke movement of Rome.”
―Uberboyo
Notes: View the rest of this fascinating thread here and check out Uberboyo’s latest video on the topic ‘What if Christianity was Rome’s Woke Movement?’ here.
Image: Fire in Rome (‘Mostly Peaceful Protests’) by Hubert Robert
―Uberboyo
Notes: View the rest of this fascinating thread here and check out Uberboyo’s latest video on the topic ‘What if Christianity was Rome’s Woke Movement?’ here.
Image: Fire in Rome (‘Mostly Peaceful Protests’) by Hubert Robert
“I condemn Christianity; I bring against the Christian Church the most terrible of all accusations that an accuser has ever had in his mouth. It is, to me, the greatest of all imaginable corruptions; it seeks to work the ultimate corruption, the worse possible corruption. The Christian Church has left nothing untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthlessness, and every truth into a lie, and every integrity into baseness of soul."
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ
Image: Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche by Edvard Munch
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ
Image: Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche by Edvard Munch
“The so-called 'Irish Catholic faith' was a living hell for most Irish people who were told to get on their knees and thank a Jewish god in the Middle East for their misery and suffering. There was no beautiful tradition. There was no spirituality. Mass emigration proves there was even no connection to the land… Gaelic people were reduced to the level of salivating dogs while what little they had was garnished by the clergy and handed to the Pope in Rome. Only the Irish Pagan gods can ever know and love the Irish people enough to tell them to get up off their knees and stop serving imported gods. The country is called Eire and not Jehovah for a reason."
―Thomas Sheridan
Image: The Magic Cup by Jim FitzGerald
―Thomas Sheridan
Image: The Magic Cup by Jim FitzGerald
“What we observe in the population today are the three destructive symptoms of persons whose minds are controlled by alien forces:
1. Amnesia, i.e. loss of memory.
2. Abulia, i.e. loss of will.
3. Apathy, i.e loss of interest in events vital to one’s own health and survival.”
―Michael A. Hoffman II, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare
Image: Nature of Fear by Nicola Samorì
1. Amnesia, i.e. loss of memory.
2. Abulia, i.e. loss of will.
3. Apathy, i.e loss of interest in events vital to one’s own health and survival.”
―Michael A. Hoffman II, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare
Image: Nature of Fear by Nicola Samorì