There has been such a reversal of roles that Hellenes are now barbarians and the barbarians Hellenes. . . [I]f a pretentious barbarian visited us and talked to people in Hellas or any part of our continent, he would treat the majority of the men not as asses but as of mulish stupidity. The greater part of the population know nothing of the world of nature or of what lies beyond it, the remainder think they know everything but do not in fact even know the route towards knowledge. Some claim to be philosophers and a great many more are anxious to learn. But the teachers sit with smug faces and long beards, looking pale and grim, with a frown, shabbily dressed. They dig up Aristotle from the underworld, from the depths of Hades, and give the impression of passing judgement on everything that he covered in a cloud of obscurity. When they ought to be expounding at length his confusing brevity, they give instead many brief explanations of the broad range of his researches. Our barbarian visitor is convinced that this is a childish game, gloats over our incompetence, and departs, with no addition to his knowledge but reduced to a state worse than ignorance.

— Michael Psellus, Oratoria minora 19.35-55

In the same vein perhaps we should learn how to learn from our past, and in our quest for Solar virtue not fall into the trap of summarizing the 'old ways' and busying ourselves reconstructing the meanings of the old symbolisms used by the ancients. This often comes from a place of Lunar sentimentalism about 'ancestral' elements and confusion about the use of naturalistic symbols, which came about naturally and circumstantially by and for the ancients themselves. This is a slippery slope that often results in accidentally substituting chthonic, telluric (from the Earth, materialistic, Lunar) forces for the eternal values the symbols actually represented. That is not at all to say one should not study the ancients, but rather, one should not dress up as and imitate them so to speak. 'Expounding at length [their] confusing brevity' to ascertain true meaning and not being content with platitudinal takeaways.

In lieu of resurrecting the spiritual language of the ancients, both literally in symbology and figuratively in specific rites, we must instead speak our own tongue. Evola when describing the 'primordial' aspect of the Solar invokes the 'Uranic' symbol of the primordial god Uranus, who is associated with the heavens, and together with his primordial Lunar counterpart Gaia fathered the Titans; he established cosmic order with absolute authority and virility (lost via his castration by his youngest son Chronos*). Perhaps this is what is missing that leads so many astray: a firm foundation on which to root Solar philosophy that is not subject to confusion by Gaian intercession. The divine Solar nature of cosmic order extending from above the heavens of the gods themselves, is perhaps this foundation. It is this that the more familiar and developed 'Apollonian' aspect of the Solar can be seen as built atop of; the 'Olympian' gods literally proceeding from the primordial as their grandchildren.

*The link to the timelessness of Tradition and the traditional worldview that was wholly antithetical to the modern notion of linear progression temporality should be obvious. That the primordial Solar is defeated via an act of castration by his youngest son Time, who was the only titan able to be convinced by his Mother Earth to overthrow his father, illuminates this. That it was done specifically with a sickle, an agricultural tool, is very interesting.

Religion has to change, to live. The Egyptians understood this. We mustn't be afraid to 'add our own bits'

And so it is done! My personal compilation of my favourite essays and texts by Julius C. Evola. I tried to included as few essays from well-known works as possible for the sake of novelty.

Essays and Texts included:

A Decadent “Europe”

Spiritual and Structural Presuppositions of the European Union

The Spiritual Pre-requisite

The United Europe

The Bite of the Tarantula

The Heroic Unity of the Family

L’Anti-Bourgeoisie

Service to the State and Bureaucracy

Some Thoughts on Electoral Politics

The State as power

Temporal Power and Spiritual Authority

Being of the Right

The Forms of War-like Heroism

Greater and Lesser War

the Warrior Element and the New Europe

The Roman Conception of Victory

Misunderstandings of Paganism I-II

Mountain and Race

The Doctrine of Race

Race As a Builder of Leaders

The Doctrine of the Castes

Svadharma and Existentialism

On the Secret Of degeneration

Party or Order?

The Order of the Iron Wreath

The Crisis of Modern Society

The Decay of Words

In ancient times there lived, it is supposed on the highest elevation of Central Asia, a noble race of men, called the Aryan. Speaking a language not yet Sanskrit, Greek, or German, but containing the dialects of all, this clan which had advanced to a state of [pastoral] civilisation had recognised the bonds of blood, and sanctioned the bonds of marriage. That they worshipped Nature,— the sun, moon, sky, earth,— a comparison of ancient religions and mythology in the lands peopled by Aryans, demonstrates. Their chief object of adoration was the Sun. To this race, in the infancy of its civilisation, the sun was not a mere luminary, but a Creator, Ruler, Preserver, and Saviour of the world.

Sarah Elizabeth Titcomb, Aryan Sun Myths: The Origin of Religions (1889)

If you haven't already, watch Asha Logos' Subverted History series on YouTube or another platform. His production is impeccable and his wealth of knowledge is illuminating. The history of our people goes much deeper than a being a mix of related tribes. We were one race led by an unbroken royal lineage back to the genesis of "Indo-European" culture which, according to its own most ancient accounts, itself stems from the far more ancient Atlanteans and Hyperboreans. Our genetic and cultural lineage is shared, in varying degrees, in peoples all across the globe that met our ancestors in war and peace.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru9zi8j7G3Nsz03pkBzFdv_1tRxdCMJo

"If there is something specifically peculiar to the Aryo-Western tradition, it is the spontaneous joining together of free men proud of serving a leader who is really such." - Julius C. Evola

My reading and inspired ranting is being held up by work and family again. Fear not, OC quotes and rants will come frequently again. In the mean time I hope you don't mind all the forwards from other great channels I see in those windows of time I get to catch up with the wider world.

Perhaps, then, someone might say: “Then are you not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed the sort of pursuit from which you now run the risk of dying?”

I would respond to him with a just speech: “What you say is ignoble, fellow, if you suppose that a man who is of even a little benefit should take into account the danger of living or dying, but not rather consider this alone whenever he acts: whether his actions are just or unjust, and the deeds of a good man or a bad."

~Plato, The Apology of Socrates

The Supreme Divine Personality said: O Arjun, The persons who are transcendental to the three guṇas neither hate illumination (which is born of sattva), nor activity (which is born of rajas), nor even delusion (which is born of tamas), when these are abundantly present, nor do they long for them when they are absent. They remain neutral to the modes of nature and are not disturbed by them. Knowing it is only the guṇas that act, they stay established in the self, without wavering.

Those who are alike in happiness and distress; who are established in the self; who look upon a clod, a stone, and a piece of gold as of equal value; who remain the same amidst pleasant and unpleasant events; who are intelligent; who accept both blame and praise with equanimity; who remain the same in honor and dishonor; who treat both friend and foe alike; and who have abandoned all enterprises – they are said to have risen above the three guṇas.

Bhagavad Gita

Those who serve me with unalloyed devotion rise above the three modes of material nature and come to the level of Brahman.

I am the basis of the formless Brahman, the immortal and imperishable, of eternal dharma, and of unending divine bliss.

Bhagavad Gita

For everything that is qualified is not what it is absolutely - for example, that which is qualifiedly beautiful or qualifiedly equal; quality, being a characteristic, makes something beautiful or equal in a particular way, so that quality is not to be applied to the One in the essential and absolute sense, in order that it may not become a particular kind of One instead of the One itself. If, then, the One Itself and the primal entity are the same, and the primal entity is God, it is plain that the One Itself and God are the same, and that is not some particular God, but God Himself. Those, then, who say that the first God is Demiurge or Father are not correct; for the Demiurge and the Father is a particular god. This is obvious, for not every god is demiurge or father, whereas the first principle is simply God and all gods are gods through it, but only some, such as are demiurges, through the Demiurge, and fathers, through the primary Demiurge or Father. Let the One then be termed simply God, as being the cause for all gods of their being gods, but not for some particular gods, as for instance demiurgic or paternal or any other particular type of godhead, which is a type of qualified divinity, not divinity in the simple sense.

Proclus, Commentary on the Parmenides 1096