Immediately after these are the mortal gods, who are like what we call heroes and earthly gods or companions to heavenly gods— that is, kings, princes, and pontiffs who rule the world and dispose laws. We admire, worship, and venerate [such people] as gods, because God Himself has allowed His name to be shared, and with His own name has secured it to them, calling them gods, just as Moses said: “I have made you a god to Pharaoh.” He [also] taught elsewhere, saying: “You will not speak ill of the gods. . . [We read] elsewhere [in Psalms]: “God stood in the council of gods, but in their midst He judged the gods” and somewhat later: “I have said you are gods and all of you sons of the Most High.”

Hence, all ancients called their princes gods and worshipped them as divine powers, as Janus testified in the first book of Ovid’s Fasti, saying:

I reigned then when the gods of earth were powerful
And deities mixed with the bodies of humans.

The divine Plato wrote in the third book of The Republic that princes alive or dead should be celebrated with divine honors. This instruction was always received from all nations and from the first age—that is, to deify princes with divine honors and consecrate them with an eternal memory. Hence, they imposed their never abandoned names to cities, provinces, mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, and seas; then pyramids, colossi, triumphal arches, trophies, statues, shrines, games, and festivals were dedicated with great pomp. They also called the heavens, stars, days, months by their names; hence, January is from Janus, July from Julius, August from Augustus, thus the day Hermes from Hermes Trismegistus, and the day Jove from Jove.

Therefore, kings and pontiffs—but only if just—are companions to gods and strengthened by a similar power. Hence, they can cure the sick by only their touch or word and sometimes command the seasons and heavens, as Virgil sang of Augustus:

It rained the entire night, the shows in the morning returned:
Jove and Caesar share command.

…Likewise, Alexander the Macedonian marched his army. Sometimes [these godlike men] exert an influence by prophetic spirits, as we read of Caiaphas in the holy noscriptures that he prophesied that he would be the high priest that year. Therefore, since the Lord of the earth desires that kings and pontiffs be called gods and share their names and powers, surely it is appropriate that we deserve good from them and their judgments before ours and clearly obey, beseech them, and adore and worship them with every kind of veneration and revere the Most High God in them. [35. Of mortal and earthly gods.]

The Almighty God, as [Hermes] Trismegistus said, molded two images like himself—namely, the world and man—in which with one he would play in certain wonderful operations, but in the other, he might enjoy his delights. Since God is one, He created one world; since He is infinite, He created a round world; since He is eternal, He created an incorruptible and eternal world; since He is immense, He created the greatest world; since He is the sum of life, He has also adorned the world with vital seeds, begetting everything from itself; since He is omnipotent, with only His own will, He created the world without any necessary nature and no preexisting material, but from nothing. Since He is the sum of goodness, He embraced His word, which is the first Idea of all things. He did this with His greatest will and essential love, and made the outer world from the model of the inner. [The inner world] is the ideal world, yet nothing was transmitted from the essence of Ideas, but rather [God] created [the outer world] from nothing. He accomplished this through the Idea from the eternal.

Mercury Trismegistus.

God also created man in His image: for, as the image of God is the world, thus the image of the world is man.

…The image of God is the world, and the [image] of the world is man.

Nevertheless, the true image of God is His Word, wisdom, life, light, and truth, by which He Himself exists, of which the human soul is the image. Accordingly, we are said to be made in the image of God, not in the image of the world or creatures: for, as God cannot be touched, perceived with ears, or seen by eyes, thus the soul of man cannot be seen, heard, or touched. As God is infinite and cannot be compelled, thus the human soul is free and cannot be forced or measured. As God bears the entire world and all that is in it entirely in His mind, thus also the human mind embraces [the world] even in thought, and that which is singular only to God. As God moves and governs the entire world with only his nod, thus the human mind moves and rules his body with only a nod. Therefore, it is necessary that the mind of man is sealed with the Word of God and the human body endued to the most complete model of the world.

…Therefore, whoever recognizes himself will recognize that all things are to be found in himself. He will first recognize God, from whose image he was made; he will recognize the world, whose likeness he bears; he will recognize all creatures, with which he is a symbol, and what aid he can have and can obtain from stones, plants, animals, elements, the heavens, daemons, angels, and how each [thing] is made to fit in their place, time, order, measure, proportion, and harmony, attracting and repelling from itself like iron to a magnet.

Geber taught in the Sum of Alchemy that no one can come to perfection in this art if he does not recognize those principles in himself. But by how much more one recognizes himself, by that much he achieves a greater power of attracting it, and by that much more he works greater wonders and will rise to such a great perfection, that he is “made a son of God and transformed into the same image, which is God.” [36. Of how man was created in the image of God. ]

— Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Third Book of Occult Philosophy

Mithra, 2021, Dale

"Thus we can dearly see the difference between this perspective and the above-mentioned psychoanalytical theories concerning the subconscious or collective unconscious, in which the latter has become a sort of grab bag containing all kinds of things, all of which are considered, more or less, in terms of 'life;' 'atavism;' and the 'irrational:' What such theories regard uniformly as the 'unconscious' should rather be considered the superconsciousness. It is simply ridiculous to regard myths and symbols as manifestations or archetypes of 'life;' considering that their nature is essentially metaphysical and that they have nothing to do with 'life;' unless we are talking about their empty shells. It is pointless to remark, as C. G. Jung and Richard Wilhelm have done, that any positive consideration must be limited to the study of the manifestations of the 'unconscious;' understood as pure experiences, without any reference to transcendent elements.

The truth is that when there are no firm reference points, there is no hope of orienting oneself through various experiences, of understanding and evaluating them, especially when experience as a whole is abusively identified with some of its particular modalities, which at times are even affected by pathological factors. This has been abundantly demonstrated by the outcome of all the various psychoanalytical interpretations. These attempts fail to reach the plane of the spirit. Moreover, even when they do not lead to a subnormal world of neuropaths and hysterics by producing such aberrations as those found in Sigmund Freud's Totem and Taboo, they nevertheless produce (as in the case of Jung's theory of 'archetypes') confused perceptions that are greatly influenced by the new superstitious cult of what is 'vital' and 'irrational,' thereby proving not so much to lack assumptions as to have mistaken ones."

- Julius Evola, Mystery of the Grail

"Blood and spirit. The connection between the two has often been claimed, insofar as blood corpuscles and serum also show a spiritual correlation. Here we must differentiate between material and spiritual layers—a dual game of the worlds of images and thoughts. Yet in life both are closely allied, and only
rarely are they separate from each other. Images are carried off by the torrent of thought."
~ Ernst Jünger

Some channels to watch if you have the time:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzmVYmxIvkrjmBNgLJMJYEw/featured
https://www.youtube.com/c/WeltgeistYT
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-kyIbo2f1FAsCtWK8bpzYQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtR2i4BG6xgu39f4b2kt0Sw
https://www.youtube.com/c/PessimisticIdealism
https://www.youtube.com/user/Teutoniclordd
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHN7SCKlsa9lPYJmqqQ2uIg
https://www.youtube.com/c/KeithWoods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFaYLR_1aryjfB7hLrKGRaQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnIS3IE5cCBc9gpapMPnPIA

«Non auro, sed ferro, recuperanda est patria»

Famous phrase pronounced by Marcus Furius Camillus during the liberation of Rome from the Gauls. Not with gold, but with iron, will the fatherland be regained.

@collispalatinus

A video introduction to the thought of Oswald Spengler, in two parts. The first details Spengler's thoughts on the mechanics of history, civilization, and 'the West,' or what he calls the 'Faustian Civilization' beginning about 1,000 AD and which in his view is not contiguous with that of the Greco-Romans. Most interesting is about the high cultures and their spirits, and how they develop their unique modes of being.

https://youtu.be/lQGEuHJwun8

The second explores the development of Spengler's thought which expands beyond the scope of Decline of the West. Much like Evola, at the end of the Great War he had some hope towards the future of our Faustian Civilization, but upon witnessing the reality of what NS Germany turned out to be, his predictions for the future took a decidedly dark turn. To Spengler a major collapse is inevitable, but there may be potential to rise again after the dust has settled.

https://youtu.be/lt_rnVA7AlM

The Savage State (1)

No. 1., which may be called the ‘Savage State,' or ‘the Commencement of Empire,' represents a wild scene of rocks, mountains, woods, and a bay of the ocean. The sun is rising from the sea, and the stormy clouds of night are dissipating before his rays. On the farthest side of the bay rises a precipitous hill, crowned by a singular isolated rock, which, to the mariner, would ever be a striking land-mark. As the same locality is represented in each picture of the series, this rock identifies it, although the observer's situation varies in the several pictures. The chase being the most characteristic occupation of savage life, in the fore-ground we see a man attired in skins, in pursuit of a deer, which, stricken by his arrow, is bounding down a water-course. On the rocks in the middle ground are to be seen savages, with dogs, in pursuit of deer. On the water below may be seen several canoes, and on the promontory beyond, are several huts, and a number of figures dancing round a fire. In this picture, we have the first rudiments of society. Men are banded together for mutual aid in the chase, etc. The useful arts have commenced in the construction of canoes, huts, and weapons. Two of the fine arts, music and poetry, have their germs, as we may suppose, in the singing which usually accompanies the dance of savages. The empire is asserted, although to a limited degree, over sea, land, and the animal kingdom. The season represented is Spring.

– Thomas Cole

The Arcadian or Pastoral State (2)

No. 2. — The Simple or Arcadian State, represents the scene after ages have passed. The gradual advancement of society has wrought a change in its aspect. The ‘untracked and rude' has been tamed and softened. Shepherds are tending their flocks; the ploughman, with his oxen, is upturning the soil, and Commerce begins to stretch her wings. A village is growing by the shore, and on the summit of a hill a rude temple has been erected, from which the smoke of sacrifice is now ascending. In the fore-ground, on the left, is seated an old man, who, by describing lines in the sand, seems to have made some geometrical discovery. On the right of the picture, is a female with a distaff, about to cross a rude stone bridge. On the stone is a boy, who appears, to be making a drawing of a man with a sword, and ascending the road, a soldier is partly seen. Under the trees, beyond the female figure, may be seen a group of peasants; some are dancing, while one plays on a pipe. In this picture, we have agriculture, commerce, and religion. In the old man who describes the mathematical figure — in the rude attempt of the boy in drawing — in the female figure with the distaff—in the vessel on the stocks, and in the primitive temple on the hill, it is evident that the useful arts, the fine arts, and the sciences, have made considerable progress. The scene is supposed to be viewed a few hours after sunrise, and in the early Summer.

– Thomas Cole

The Consummation of Empire (3)

In the picture No. 3, we suppose other ages have passed, and the rude village has become a magnificent city. The part seen occupies both sides of the bay, which the observer has now crossed. It has been converted into a capacious harbor, at whose entrance, toward the sea, stand two phari. From the water on each hand, piles of architecture ascend — temples, colonnades and domes. It is a day of rejoicing. A triumphal procession moves over the bridge near the fore-ground. The conqueror, robed in purple, is mounted in a car drawn by an elephant, and surrounded by captives on foot, and a numerous train of guards, senators, etc. — pictures and golden treasures are carried before him. He is about to pass beneath the triumphal arch, while girls strew flowers around. Gay festoons of drapery hang from the clustered columns. Golden trophies glitter above in the sun, and incense rises from silver censers. The harbor is alive with numerous vessels – war galleys, and barks with silken sails. Before the doric temple on the left, the smoke of incense and of the altar rise, and a multitude of white-robed priests stand around on the marble steps. The statue of Minerva, with a victory in her hand, stands above the building of the Caryatides, on a columned pedestal, near which is a band with trumpets, cymbals, etc. On the right, near a bronze fountain and in the shadow of lofty buildings, is an imperial personage viewing the procession, surrounded by her children, attendants, and guard. In this scene is depicted the summit of human glory. The architecture, the ornamental embellishments, etc., show that wealth, power, knowledge, and taste have worked together, and accomplished the highest meed of human achievement and empire. As the triumphal fete would indicate, man has conquered man — nations have been subjugated. This scene is represented as near mid-day, in the early Autumn.

– Thomas Cole

Destruction (4)

No. 4.— The picture represents the Vicious State, or State of Destruction. Ages may have passed since the scene of glory — though the decline of nations is generally more rapid than their rise. Luxury has weakened and debased. A savage enemy has entered the city. A fierce tempest is raging. Walls and colonnades have been thrown down. Temples and palaces are burning. An arch of the bridge, over which the triumphal procession was passing in the former scene, has been battered down, and the broken pillars, and ruins of war engines, and the temporary bridge that has been thrown over, indicate that this has been the scene of fierce contention. Now there is a mingled multitude battling on the narrow bridge, whose insecurity makes the conflict doubly fearful. Horses and men are precipitated into the foaming waters beneath; war galleys are contending: one vessel is in flames, and another is sinking beneath the prow of a superior foe. In the more distant part of the harbor, the contending vessels are dashed by the furious waves, and some are burning. Along the battlements, among the ruined Caryatides, the contention is fierce; and the combatants fight amid the smoke and flame of prostrate edifices. In the fore-ground are several dead and dying; some bodies have fallen in the basin of a fountain, tinging the waters with their blood. A female is seen sitting in mute despair over the dead body of her son, and a young woman is escaping from the ruffian grasp of a soldier, by leaping over the battlement; another soldier drags a woman by the hair down the steps that form part of the pedestal of a mutilated colossal statue, whose shattered head lies on the pavement below. A barbarous and destroying enemy conquers and sacks the city. Denoscription of this picture is perhaps needless; carnage and destruction are its elements.

– Thomas Cole