But Forrest and his brigade commanders were better informed. Mounted on his big sorrell horse, sabre in hand, sleeves rolled up, his coat lying on the pommel of his saddle, looking the very God of War, the General rode down our line as far as we could see him. I remembered his words, which I had heard more than once: "Get up, men. I have ordered Bell to charge on the left. When you hear his guns, and the bugle sounds, every man must charge, and we will give them hell."(299)
He stopped in front of Lyon and gave him orders.
"Charge and give 'em hell; and when they fall back keep on charging and giving 'em hell, and I will soon be there with you..."(300)
"The way to whip an enemy is to git 'em skeered, and then keep the skeer on 'em."(301)
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Nathan Bedford Forrest 1
But the third line dashed across the gully and charged the dismounted gray coats. Forrest's three hundred were now without ammunition; so they threw down their guns and drew their six-shooters, and with these repulsed, as Forrest reported "one of the grandest cavalry charges I had ever witnessed(269).
Forrest's raw soldiers fought well. The sight of the burning buildings stiffened their resolve. They were also anxious to behave well in Forrest's presence, and he was everywhere on the battle front. His command to Bartram's men, "Come on, boys" was significant, and it was one of the keys to his success on the field(270).
There is no way to measure in numbers and war material the value of such a commander's army, for its blade is double-edged. It makes such a leader's own people dare the impossible, and it places the enemy commander on the defensive, inclining his conduct to rashness or overcaution.
Forrest sent word to "Fight on, men, keep fighting till I come."(293)
Forrest's raw soldiers fought well. The sight of the burning buildings stiffened their resolve. They were also anxious to behave well in Forrest's presence, and he was everywhere on the battle front. His command to Bartram's men, "Come on, boys" was significant, and it was one of the keys to his success on the field(270).
There is no way to measure in numbers and war material the value of such a commander's army, for its blade is double-edged. It makes such a leader's own people dare the impossible, and it places the enemy commander on the defensive, inclining his conduct to rashness or overcaution.
Forrest sent word to "Fight on, men, keep fighting till I come."(293)
the God-Man's unrecognizability
The God-Man suffers because he is trapped in unrecognizability.
The imperfection in any human being's unrecognizability is the very arbitrariness with which he can annihilate it at any moment; the more he is able to prevent this and make it less possible, the more perfectly in earnest is the unrecognizability. but the God-Man's unrecognizability is an omnipotently maintained incognito, and the divine earnestness is precisely this - that it was maintained to such an extent that he himself suffered purely humanly under the unrecognizability.
In relation to unrecognizability or for someone in unrecognizability, direct communication is an impossibility, because the direct communication does indeed state what one essentially is...but unrecognizability means not to be in the character of what one essentially is. Thus there is a contradiction that nevertheless makes direct communication indirect, that is, makes direct communication impossible.
It is always painful to have to conceal an inwardness and have to seem to be other than one is.
The way to begin is to deny direct communication - that is earnestness
The imperfection in any human being's unrecognizability is the very arbitrariness with which he can annihilate it at any moment; the more he is able to prevent this and make it less possible, the more perfectly in earnest is the unrecognizability. but the God-Man's unrecognizability is an omnipotently maintained incognito, and the divine earnestness is precisely this - that it was maintained to such an extent that he himself suffered purely humanly under the unrecognizability.
In relation to unrecognizability or for someone in unrecognizability, direct communication is an impossibility, because the direct communication does indeed state what one essentially is...but unrecognizability means not to be in the character of what one essentially is. Thus there is a contradiction that nevertheless makes direct communication indirect, that is, makes direct communication impossible.
It is always painful to have to conceal an inwardness and have to seem to be other than one is.
The way to begin is to deny direct communication - that is earnestness
order/chaos
The universe is either a confusion, an intermingling of atoms, and a scattering; or it is unity and order and providence. If it is the former, why do I wish to tarry amid such a haphazard confusion and disorder? Why do I care about anything but how I may at last become earth? And why do I trouble myself, for my elements will be scattered, whatever I do. But if the other supposition is true, I revere, I stand firm, and I trust in him who governs.
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI, 10
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI, 10
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Saxon Code
No crown but ours shall govern here,
No strangers rule with gold or fear,
No plow but ours may slough the loam,
No prow but ours slash the spume,
No hand but ours may bind our kin,
No gods but ours proclaim a sin,
No law but ours may stay a blow,
No hand but ours may draw a bow,
No men but ours may hunt the land,
No sons but ours bear sword in hand,
No word but ours shall we trust,
No flags be flown except of us,
No land but ours do we demand,
No more than what we have farmed,
No strangers slaving on our soil,
No man unpaid or forced to toil
No heroes praised but ours alone,
No other kin but our blood and bone
No strangers to tell us who we are,
No obedience to any foreign laws.
http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2008/05/saxon-code.html
No strangers rule with gold or fear,
No plow but ours may slough the loam,
No prow but ours slash the spume,
No hand but ours may bind our kin,
No gods but ours proclaim a sin,
No law but ours may stay a blow,
No hand but ours may draw a bow,
No men but ours may hunt the land,
No sons but ours bear sword in hand,
No word but ours shall we trust,
No flags be flown except of us,
No land but ours do we demand,
No more than what we have farmed,
No strangers slaving on our soil,
No man unpaid or forced to toil
No heroes praised but ours alone,
No other kin but our blood and bone
No strangers to tell us who we are,
No obedience to any foreign laws.
http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2008/05/saxon-code.html
The Order
The substance of every true and stable political organism is something resembling an Order in charge of the principle of the imperium, comprising men who see loyalty as the basis of their honor ( as the saying of the Saxon code goes)(131).
...on the one side stand the masses, in which, besides changing feelings, the same elementary instincts and interests connected to a physical and hedonistic plane will always have free play; and on the other side stand men who differentiate themselves from the masses as bearers of a complete legitimacy and authority, bestowed by the Idea and by their rigorous, impersonal adherence to it.
The true task and the necessary premise for the rebirth of the "nation" and for its renewed form and conscience consists of untying and separating that which only apparently, promiscuously, or collectively appears to be one entity, and in reestablishing a virile substance in the form of a political elite around which a new crystallization will occur.
The essential task ahead requires formulating an adequate doctrine, upholding principles that have been thoroughly studied, and, beginning from these, giving birth to an Order.
This elite, differentiating itself on a plane that is defined in terms of spiritual virility, decisiveness, and impersonality, and where every naturalistic bond loses its power and value, will be the bearer of a new principle of a higher authority and sovereignty; it will be ab le to denounce subversion and demagogy in whatever form they appear and reverse the downward spiral of the top level cadres and the irrestible rise to power of the masses.
From this elite, as if from a seed, a political organism and an integrated nation will emerge, enjoying the same dignity as the nations created by the great European political tradition. Anything short of this amounts to a quagmire, dilletantism, irrealism, and obliquity.
-Julius Evola
...on the one side stand the masses, in which, besides changing feelings, the same elementary instincts and interests connected to a physical and hedonistic plane will always have free play; and on the other side stand men who differentiate themselves from the masses as bearers of a complete legitimacy and authority, bestowed by the Idea and by their rigorous, impersonal adherence to it.
The true task and the necessary premise for the rebirth of the "nation" and for its renewed form and conscience consists of untying and separating that which only apparently, promiscuously, or collectively appears to be one entity, and in reestablishing a virile substance in the form of a political elite around which a new crystallization will occur.
The essential task ahead requires formulating an adequate doctrine, upholding principles that have been thoroughly studied, and, beginning from these, giving birth to an Order.
This elite, differentiating itself on a plane that is defined in terms of spiritual virility, decisiveness, and impersonality, and where every naturalistic bond loses its power and value, will be the bearer of a new principle of a higher authority and sovereignty; it will be ab le to denounce subversion and demagogy in whatever form they appear and reverse the downward spiral of the top level cadres and the irrestible rise to power of the masses.
From this elite, as if from a seed, a political organism and an integrated nation will emerge, enjoying the same dignity as the nations created by the great European political tradition. Anything short of this amounts to a quagmire, dilletantism, irrealism, and obliquity.
-Julius Evola
the divine vessel
To win the empire through action and to master it,
That is the way that leads to failure.
For the empire is a divine vessel,
Which cannot be seized and acted upon.
One who desires to grasp it, does not understand it.
One who desires to take it, loses it.
He believes he is getting ahead, but falls behind.
He believes he is increasing, but he dwindles away.
He thinks himself strong, and reveals his weakness.
He thinks himself superior, and is defeated.
from the Tao te Ching
That is the way that leads to failure.
For the empire is a divine vessel,
Which cannot be seized and acted upon.
One who desires to grasp it, does not understand it.
One who desires to take it, loses it.
He believes he is getting ahead, but falls behind.
He believes he is increasing, but he dwindles away.
He thinks himself strong, and reveals his weakness.
He thinks himself superior, and is defeated.
from the Tao te Ching
The Ruling Faculty
Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when once it rallies, if it does nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy. How much more then when its judgment is rational and made with deliberation. Therefore the mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and be impregnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man; but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, pg 88
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, pg 88
The True Gentleman
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from goodwill and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy, whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
-John Walter Wayland
-John Walter Wayland
wei wu wei
This force that comes "from heaven," according to Lao-Tzu, acts without acting (wei wu wei) through an immaterial presence, or by virtue of just being present. It is as invisible as the wind and yet its actions are as ineluctable as the forces of nature. When this power is unleashed, the forces of common men, according to Meng-tzu, bend under it as blades of grass under the wind. Concerning wu wei, a text says:
"By its thickness and substantiality, sincerity = earth. And by its height and splendor it equals heaven. Its extent and duration are without limit. He who possesses this sincerity, without showing himself, he will shine forth, without moving he will renovate others; without acting, he will perfect them."
Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, Chapter 2
"By its thickness and substantiality, sincerity = earth. And by its height and splendor it equals heaven. Its extent and duration are without limit. He who possesses this sincerity, without showing himself, he will shine forth, without moving he will renovate others; without acting, he will perfect them."
Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, Chapter 2
Friday, April 24, 2009
Golden Dawn
But if we forget not to what noble city the winding path leads us, little danger can overtake any who pursue it steadfast to the end.
And seldom does that Genius leave its palace of the stars except when, voluntarily, the lower self opens itself to the higher self by an act of sincerest aspiration of self-sacrifice, which alone makes possible the descent of the Light within the heart and mind.
And seldom does that Genius leave its palace of the stars except when, voluntarily, the lower self opens itself to the higher self by an act of sincerest aspiration of self-sacrifice, which alone makes possible the descent of the Light within the heart and mind.
The Cosmic Doctrine
Perception ceases at the barrier of manifestation. Of that which lies beyond we can only know by analogy.
Of the Unmanifest, we can only say: IT IS.
The Unmanifest is the Great Negation, at the same time it is the infinite potentiality which has not occurred.
Think of the Unmanifest as inter-stellar space.
Think of the LOGOS as a Sun surround by his solar system of planets and of the emanations of the LOGOS as Rays.
Manifestation begins when duality occurs.
The prime duality is 'Space' and 'Movement'.
The first manifestation was a current in space.
When space moves two forces are at work:
a) the force which causes it to move
b) the force which had hitherto caused it not to move.
The desire for inertia continues as a check upon the movement; that is why there is no such thing as a straight line.
It eventually returns to the spot whence it started, and forms a spinning ring.
Ring-Cosmos - source of force from which evolution draws its momentum.
Ring-Chaos = source of force which dissolution draws its power.
...evolved from the reaction of the prime force in order to take its thrust.
It was the attraction of the Ring Chaos inducing a secondary spin in the Ring Cosmos which forms the Ring-Pass-Not.
Evolution is a thrust towards the center.
Devolution is a suction into Outer Space.
The Ring Cosmos seeks to extend the center.
The Ring Chaos seeks to expand the circumference.
These two influences are the source of all forms in the Cosmos.
Evil is simply that which is moving in the opposite direction to evolution.
Resist not Evil.
When you resist evil you lock up good.
You lock up the force of good which holds the evil inert.
You must hate with hate sufficiently to cause a locking up of the force.
You must hate the hate and, having rendered evil inert by opposition, the love can take its stand upon a firm platform and use it as a thrust block.
Therefore you can only oppose evil when you wish to do constructive work.
You never oppose evil when you wish to destroy.
You make a vacuum around it.
You prevent opposition from touching it.
Therefore evil, when unopposed, resolves itself into the undifferentiated raw material of existence.
It ceases to be organized...transmuted through neutrality into good.
Whatever stresses arise may be analyzed into the balancing of these three forces.
a) Ring Cosmos - tends toward the center
b) Ring Chaos - tends toward outer space
c) Ring Pass Not - holds the balance and prevents either from going to extremes
Of the Unmanifest, we can only say: IT IS.
The Unmanifest is the Great Negation, at the same time it is the infinite potentiality which has not occurred.
Think of the Unmanifest as inter-stellar space.
Think of the LOGOS as a Sun surround by his solar system of planets and of the emanations of the LOGOS as Rays.
Manifestation begins when duality occurs.
The prime duality is 'Space' and 'Movement'.
The first manifestation was a current in space.
When space moves two forces are at work:
a) the force which causes it to move
b) the force which had hitherto caused it not to move.
The desire for inertia continues as a check upon the movement; that is why there is no such thing as a straight line.
It eventually returns to the spot whence it started, and forms a spinning ring.
Ring-Cosmos - source of force from which evolution draws its momentum.
Ring-Chaos = source of force which dissolution draws its power.
...evolved from the reaction of the prime force in order to take its thrust.
It was the attraction of the Ring Chaos inducing a secondary spin in the Ring Cosmos which forms the Ring-Pass-Not.
Evolution is a thrust towards the center.
Devolution is a suction into Outer Space.
The Ring Cosmos seeks to extend the center.
The Ring Chaos seeks to expand the circumference.
These two influences are the source of all forms in the Cosmos.
Evil is simply that which is moving in the opposite direction to evolution.
Resist not Evil.
When you resist evil you lock up good.
You lock up the force of good which holds the evil inert.
You must hate with hate sufficiently to cause a locking up of the force.
You must hate the hate and, having rendered evil inert by opposition, the love can take its stand upon a firm platform and use it as a thrust block.
Therefore you can only oppose evil when you wish to do constructive work.
You never oppose evil when you wish to destroy.
You make a vacuum around it.
You prevent opposition from touching it.
Therefore evil, when unopposed, resolves itself into the undifferentiated raw material of existence.
It ceases to be organized...transmuted through neutrality into good.
Whatever stresses arise may be analyzed into the balancing of these three forces.
a) Ring Cosmos - tends toward the center
b) Ring Chaos - tends toward outer space
c) Ring Pass Not - holds the balance and prevents either from going to extremes
Eradication of Despair
Whether a man has been helped by a miracle depends essentially upon the degree of intellectual passion he has employed to understand that help was impossible, and next upon how honest he is toward the Power which helped him nevertheless.
The believer possesses the eternally certain antidote to despair...possibility.
This is the sound health of faith which resolves contradictions.
The contradiction in this case is that, humanly speaking, destruction is certain, and that nevertheless there is possibility.
Health consists essentially in being able to resolve contradictions.
The loss of possibility signifies: either that everything has become necessary to a man or that everything has become trivial.
Personality is a synthesis of possibility and necessity.
This is what GOD is: ONE FOR WHOM ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
For in order to pray there must be a God, there must be a self plus possibility, or a self and possibility in the pregnant sense, for GOD is that all things are possible, and that all things are is GOD.
Possibility is for the self what oxygen is for breathing.
And only the man whose being has been so shaken that he became spirit by understanding that all things are possible, only he has had dealings with GOD.
For in order to be aware of oneself and GOD imagination must enable a man to soar higher than the misty precinct of the probable...and it must teach him to hope and fear, or to fear and hope.
BY RELATING ITSELF TO ITS OWN SELF AND BY WILLING TO BE ITSELF THE SELF IS GROUNDED TRANSPARENTLY IN THE POWER WHICH POSITED IT.
-Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
The believer possesses the eternally certain antidote to despair...possibility.
This is the sound health of faith which resolves contradictions.
The contradiction in this case is that, humanly speaking, destruction is certain, and that nevertheless there is possibility.
Health consists essentially in being able to resolve contradictions.
The loss of possibility signifies: either that everything has become necessary to a man or that everything has become trivial.
Personality is a synthesis of possibility and necessity.
This is what GOD is: ONE FOR WHOM ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.
For in order to pray there must be a God, there must be a self plus possibility, or a self and possibility in the pregnant sense, for GOD is that all things are possible, and that all things are is GOD.
Possibility is for the self what oxygen is for breathing.
And only the man whose being has been so shaken that he became spirit by understanding that all things are possible, only he has had dealings with GOD.
For in order to be aware of oneself and GOD imagination must enable a man to soar higher than the misty precinct of the probable...and it must teach him to hope and fear, or to fear and hope.
BY RELATING ITSELF TO ITS OWN SELF AND BY WILLING TO BE ITSELF THE SELF IS GROUNDED TRANSPARENTLY IN THE POWER WHICH POSITED IT.
-Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Lion's Roar
Having destroyed the roots of the mania of the "I," for them the net of illusion has been burned, their hearts are transparent with light, they are divine beings, immune from intoxication, untouched by the world. As the "lion's roar" their word sounds:
"Supreme are those who are awakened! Invincible and intact beings, they appear as sublime supermen; lions who have left behind fear and terror; they see the past, they see heavens and hells, they know this world and that world, the kingdom of death and the kingdom free from death, time, and eternity. They are like tigers, like bulls, like lions in a mountain cavern, and are yet beings without vanity, appearing in the world for the good of the many, through compassion for the world, for the benefit, the good and the well-being of gods and of men."
"I have overcome the bramble of opinions, I have gained mastery over myself, I have followed the path. I possess the knowledge and have no one else as my guide"- thus says the Awakened One of himself. The Awakened One is he who is detached from life and death and who knows the way up and the way down, he is "bold, not knowing hesitation, a sure leader, pure of passion, resplendent as the light of the sun, resplendent without arrogance, heroic"; he is the Knower, whom no mania dazzles, no trouble conquers, no victory tempts, no spot stains, he is one who asks no more, and who has mastered the ascetic art: he is the great being, who lives strenuously, free from every bond, no longer slave to any servitude; he is the Valiant One, who watches over himself, constant in his step, ready to the call, who guards himself within and without, to nothing inclined, from nothing disinclined, the Sublime One whose spirit is impassible; he is the Awakened One whom no thirst burns, no smoke veils, no mist clouds: a spirit who honors sacrifice and who, like no other; towers in majesty.
Unconquered, supreme, he has laid down his burden, he has no "home" and he has no desireds. Passion, pride, and falsity have fallen from him like a mustard seed from the point of a needle. Beyond good, beyond evil, he is loosed from both of these bonds and, detached from pain, detached from pleasure, he is purified.
Since he knows, he no longer asks "how?". He has touched the depths of the element free from death. He has abandoned the human bond and he is freed from all bonds. The path of him, who can be conquered by none in the world and whose dominion is the infinite, is not known to the gods, nor to the angels, nor to men.
There are penitents and priests who exalt liberation. They speak in various manners glorifying liberation. But as for that which concerns the most noble, the highest liberation, I know that none equals me, let alone that I may be surpassed.
-Julius Evola, 'The Doctrine of Awakening'
"Supreme are those who are awakened! Invincible and intact beings, they appear as sublime supermen; lions who have left behind fear and terror; they see the past, they see heavens and hells, they know this world and that world, the kingdom of death and the kingdom free from death, time, and eternity. They are like tigers, like bulls, like lions in a mountain cavern, and are yet beings without vanity, appearing in the world for the good of the many, through compassion for the world, for the benefit, the good and the well-being of gods and of men."
"I have overcome the bramble of opinions, I have gained mastery over myself, I have followed the path. I possess the knowledge and have no one else as my guide"- thus says the Awakened One of himself. The Awakened One is he who is detached from life and death and who knows the way up and the way down, he is "bold, not knowing hesitation, a sure leader, pure of passion, resplendent as the light of the sun, resplendent without arrogance, heroic"; he is the Knower, whom no mania dazzles, no trouble conquers, no victory tempts, no spot stains, he is one who asks no more, and who has mastered the ascetic art: he is the great being, who lives strenuously, free from every bond, no longer slave to any servitude; he is the Valiant One, who watches over himself, constant in his step, ready to the call, who guards himself within and without, to nothing inclined, from nothing disinclined, the Sublime One whose spirit is impassible; he is the Awakened One whom no thirst burns, no smoke veils, no mist clouds: a spirit who honors sacrifice and who, like no other; towers in majesty.
Unconquered, supreme, he has laid down his burden, he has no "home" and he has no desireds. Passion, pride, and falsity have fallen from him like a mustard seed from the point of a needle. Beyond good, beyond evil, he is loosed from both of these bonds and, detached from pain, detached from pleasure, he is purified.
Since he knows, he no longer asks "how?". He has touched the depths of the element free from death. He has abandoned the human bond and he is freed from all bonds. The path of him, who can be conquered by none in the world and whose dominion is the infinite, is not known to the gods, nor to the angels, nor to men.
There are penitents and priests who exalt liberation. They speak in various manners glorifying liberation. But as for that which concerns the most noble, the highest liberation, I know that none equals me, let alone that I may be surpassed.
-Julius Evola, 'The Doctrine of Awakening'
Avatar
The word Avatar is derived from Sanskrit - "ava" means down and "tarati" means he who passes across - the descent and incarnation of a deity in earthly form; a transpersonal being who brings the lightning down from heaven and channels it through his own body in order to make it available for the use of mankind.
An avatar is a ray of perfected and effulgent glory, clothing itself in matter for the sake of service.
-Marcia Moore, Journeys into the Bright World
An avatar is a ray of perfected and effulgent glory, clothing itself in matter for the sake of service.
-Marcia Moore, Journeys into the Bright World
Lord of the Rings
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be the blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be the blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
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