For the soul when looking at things posterior to herself, beholds the shadows and images of beings, but when she converts herself to herself she evolves her own essence, and the reasons which she contains. And at first indeed, she only as it were beholds herself; but, when she penetrates more profoundly into the knowledge of herself, she finds in herself both intellect, and the orders of beings. When however, she proceeds into her interior recesses, and into the adytum as it were of the soul, she perceives with her eye closed, the genius of the Gods, and the unities of beings. For all things are in us psychically, and through this we are naturally capable of knowing all things, by exciting the powers and the images of wholes which we contain.

Proclus, Theology of Plato Book 1 Chapter 3

Whoever knows philosophy (hikmat) and perseveres in thanking and sanctifying the Light of the Lights, will be endowed with royal glory (kharreh) and with luminous splendor (farreh), and—as we have said elsewhere—divine light will further bestow upon him the cloak of royal power and value. Such a person shall then become the natural ruler of the universe. He shall be given aid from the high heavens, and whatever he commands shall be obeyed; and his dreams and inspirations will reach their uppermost, perfect pinnacle

Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi

Philosophy is the purification and perfection of human life. It is the purification, indeed, from material irrationality, and the mortal body; but the perfection, in consequence of being the resumption of our proper felicity, and a reascent to the divine likeness. To effect these two is the province of Virtue and Truth; the former exterminating the immoderation of the passions; and the latter introducing the divine form to those who are naturally adapted to its reception.

Hierocles, Commentary on the Golden Verses

The link between divinity and royalty cannot be understated. The degenerated concept of the vox populi and its offspring, the fallacy of populism, has given the world all the well-documented failures of democracy and republicanism. These examples within modernity give more than enough to form a negative (reactionary) opinion of the concept, but we of course have beliefs which positively deny the idea of popular sovereignty without ever needing to witness its wrongs or 'give it a chance' first. We know all power and authority are given to us from above, that is God, and not from below, as in the animalistic masses of people. The Divine does not ask for consent over all that which it governs, nor does it make concessions to its subjects. God rules over that which is His with the absolute power He gets from Himself. That is the ideal absolute authority from which all earthly authority descends.

Royalty and empire are manifestations of this authority from above. Royalty and royal lines are best understood in terms of Evola's thinking on race. In its genesis a royal line is an 'inner-race' or small subset of a race that has exemplified values of Tradition and achieved heroic victory. Such a victorious 'inner-race' reforms and characterizes its race's 'super-race', that is, by the virtues of its heroism the subset assumes its rightful place as leaders of the race and transforms it materially and spiritually by way of example. The empire is the result of the power and imperium earned by this ordained royal élite; the empire as a social structure is the expression of the authority granted to heroes and leaders of a victorious race. It is the traditional ideal form of society because it mirrors the natural order of reality with the ultimate authority in the Divine.

An empire begins with that small subset of a race whose heroic pursuits and ascetic mindset, if we recall from Metaphysics of War, "cannot help but tend towards an equally universal manifestation and end for his race; that is to say, it cannot but predestine his race for empire."

“A group experience takes place on a lower level of consciousness than the experience of an individual. This is due to the fact that, when many people gather together to share one common emotion, the total psyche emerging from the group is below the level of the individual psyche. If it is a very large group, the collective psyche will be more like the psyche of an animal, which is the reason why the ethical attitude of large organizations is always doubtful. The psychology of a large crowd inevitably sinks to the level of mob psychology. If, therefore, I have a so-called collective experience as a member of a group, it takes place on a lower level of consciousness than if I had the experience by myself alone.”

― C.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsciousi

Transmutation of Consciousness
and Genetic Morphology

One of the essential attributive capabilities (shaktis) of the atman is that of abiding within the substrative state of pellucid meditative awareness. The living being necessarily becomes, himself, like that object upon which he meditates. The nature of the object that the human person meditates upon ineluctably forms the phenomenologically qualitative basis of the consciousness of the meditator. If a person meditates on a being whose internal nature is good, the meditator will likewise reflect that goodness in his consciousness, behavior and demeanor. If, conversely, a person meditates on a being whose internal nature is evil, the meditator (or worshipper) will likewise reflect that evil in his consciousness, behavior and demeanor. The meditator becomes like that upon which he meditates. This process of meditative transmutation similarly transforms the consciousness, behavior and demeanor of a larger, interrelated group of people. On the larger social level, the practice of intergenerational meditative contemplation upon a given object has a direct genetic influence upon the morphological development of subsequent generations of a specific ethnic community that focuses upon the same object of meditation. Thus, if a group with a shared genetic inheritance (such as a tribe, a people or a race) worships, and thus meditates upon, a shared object of veneration for a duration of several generations, the end result is an alteration of the very genetic makeup of that people in a spiritual duplication of the inner nature of the object of worship.

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya, The Dharma Manifesto

"This joy in God is not like any pleasure found in physical or intellectual satisfaction. Nor is it such as a friend experiences in the presence of a friend. But, if we are to use any such analogy, it is more like the eye rejoicing in light."

+Saint Augustine of Hippo

"God makes kings in the literal sense. He prepares royal races; maturing them under a cloud which conceals their origin. They appear at length crowned with glory and honor; they take their places; and this is the most certain sign of their legitimacy. The truth is that they arise as it were of themselves, without violence on their part, and without marked deliberation on the other: it is a species of magnificent tranquility, not easy to express. Legitimate usurpation would seem to me to be the most appropriate expression (if not too bold), to characterize these kinds of origins, which time hastens to consecrate."

- Joseph de Maistre, Essay on the Generative Principle of Constitutions

"There are two elements within the traditions of those civilizations or of those castes characterized by a Uranian chrism. The first element is a materialistic or naturalistic one; it consists of the transmission of something related to blood and race, namely, a vital force that originates in the subterranean world together with the elementary, collective, and ancestral influences. The second element is 'from above,' and it is conditioned by the transmission and by the uninterrupted performance of rites that contain the secret of a certain transformation and domination realized within the abovementioned vital substratum. The latter element is the higher legacy that confirms and develops the quality the 'divine forefather' has either established ex novo or attracted from another world. This quality originates royal stock, the state, the city or temple, and the caste, the gens or the patrician family according to the supernatural dimension that acts as a 'form' shaping chaos. Both of these elements were found in the higher types of traditional civilizations."

- Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World

The first and perhaps the only source of all the ills we experience is contempt for antiquity, or, what amounts to the same thing, contempt for experience.

- Maistre