Art is the language of the future...

In addition to the simple sensations of the sense organs (color, sound, touch, smell, and taste), in addition to the simple emotions of pleasure, pain, joy, anger, surprise, wonder, curiosity and many others, there is passing through our consciousness a series of complex sensations and higher (complex) emotions (moral, esthetic, religious). The content of emotional feelings, even the simplest, not speaking indeed, of the complex, can never be wholly confined to concepts or ideas, and therefore can never be correctly or exactly expressed in words. Words can only allude to it, point to it. The interpretation of emotional feelings and emotional understandings is the problem of art. In combinations of words, in their meaning, their rhythm and music; in sounds, colors, lines, forms - men are creating a new world, and are attempting therein to express and transmit that which they feel, but which they are unable to express and transmit simply in words, i.e. concepts. The emotional tones of life, i.e. of "feelings," are best transmitted by music, but it cannot express concepts, i.e. thought. Poetry endeavors to express both music and thought together. The combination of feeling and thought of high tension leads to intuition, i.e. to a higher form of consciousness. Thus in art we have already the first experiments in a language of intuition, or a language of the future. Art anticipates a psychic evolution, and divines its future forms.

At the present time mankind has attained to three units of psychic life: sensation, perception, conception (and idea), and attains only rarely the fourth unit, higher intuition, which finds its expression in art...(74)

Reflexes, instinctive and "conscious" actions, all may be regarded as reflected, i.e., as not self-originated. Both these and others, and still a third class, come not from man himself, but from the outside world. Man is the transmitting or transforming station for certain forces: all of his actions in these categories are created and determined by his impressions of the outside world. Man in these three species of actions is, in substance, an automaton, unconscious or conscious of his actions. Nothing comes from himself.

Only the higher categories of action, i.e., the intuitive, appear not to depend upon the outside world. But the aptitude for such actions is seldom met with - only in some few persons whom it is possible to describe as MEN OF A HIGHER TYPE. (80)

- P.D. Ouspensky, from Tertium Organum

The Luciferian Stone

In these legends, no matter how free of religious overtones, we find again the connection of the Grail, conceived as a heavenly stone, with a mysterious legacy and power associated with a primordial state that was somehow preserved during a period of exile. The reference to Lucifer, beyond a Christian and theistic context, may be seen as a variation on the theme of an aborted or deviated attempt at a heroic reattainment of this state. The theme of the host of angels descending from heaven with the Grail resembles the theme of the race of the Tuatha de Danaan, which was believed to be composed of diving beings. This race came to Ireland from heaven, carrying a supernatural stone (the stone of the legitimate kings) and other objects that, as we have noted, correspond exactly to those of the cycle of the Grail: a sword, a lance, a bowl that feeds people wihtout ever being depleted. At the same time, the homeland of the Tuatha was that Avalon which, according to a noted tradition, is also the seat of the books of the Grail and which has often been confused, owing to obscure associations, with the place in which the Grail was eminently revealed.

There is more. In some Celtic legends, the fallen angels are identified with the Tuatha de Danaan; in other legends mention is made of spirits who, as a punishment for their neutrality, were forced to descend on earth. They are described as the inhabitants of a Western-Atlantic region, which was visited by Saint Brendan. This region is a facsimile of Avalon, just as the journey is a Christianized image of the journey undertaken by various Celtic heroes to reach the "Island," the original homeland and inviolable center of the Tuatha. Thus we have a curious interference of motifs that finds an expression, for instance, in the Leabhar na h-uidhre, in that it is written that the Tuatha are "gods who begat wise men. It is likely that they arrived in Ireland from heaven, which explains the superiority of their science and of their knowledge."

A careful separation of themes may here differentiate that which refers to authentically Luciferian elements (to which we may correctly apply the idea of a "fall" and of life on earth as a punishment) from that which (through a tendentiously deformed representation) refers to earthly custodians of the power from above and of the tradition symbolized by the Grail as a persistent, unaltered, secret presence of that which was proper to the primordial and divine state. The neutrality of the Grail's angels (mentioned in Wolfram) is reminiscent of a state ideally prior to that differentiation of spirituality which the Luciferian theme characterizes. And if Wolfram later on presents a different version, making Trevrizent say that the neutral angels did not return to heaven(unlike the Tuatha, who returned to Avalon) but were responsible for their eternal downfall and that "those who want to be rewarded by God should not become an enemy of these fallen angels," we must remember how Christianity deformed prior traditions, substituting their original meaning with totally different interpretations.

Generally speaking, owing to its prevalently "lunar" view of the sacred, Christianity has often stigmatized as Luciferian and diabolical not only that which is truly such, but also any attempt at heroic reintegration and any spirituality that does not foster a relationship of devotion and of creaturely dependence on the divine, theistically conceived. Thus we often come across mixtures of motifs analogous to that of the Tuatha de Danaan in certain Syriac-Hebrew literature, in which the fallen angels eventually become one and the same with "those who are awake". Tertullian did not hesitate to attribute to the fallen angels the body of magico-hermetic doctrines, namely, those doctrines that helped Flegetanis penetrate the original texts of the Grail and that Le Morte de Arthur attributed to Solomon, conceived as a forefather of the heroes of the Grail, in the same terms as Tertullian's: "This Solomon was wise and knew all the virtues of stones and trees, and so he knew the course of the stars and many other diverse things." When Innocent III accused the Knights Templar of "following doctrines of demons", he no doubt had in mind the anti-Christolatric mysteries of the Knights Templar; this pope instinctively proceeded to the same assimilation, through which the primordial "divine race" was represented as the guilty or Luciferian race of the fallen angels.

I believe I have already supplied sufficiently precise reference points to help the readers orient themselves before similar distortions and establish both the limit that separates the Luciferian spirit from that which is not and the Christian perspective from the point of view of a higher spirituality. Thus, it will be easy to distinguish the individual elements that we encounter in the Grail cycle, which were mixed with many interpolations and deformations. Having showed that the titanic element is indeed the prime matter out of which the hero is made, it is understandable that Wolfram bestows upon Percival some Luciferian traits, though he makes him successfully complete his adventure, so much so that in the end Percival assumes the luminous form of a restorator and of a king of the Grail. In fact, Percival accuses God of having betrayed him, of not being faithful to him, and of having failed to assist him in the conquest of the Grail. He rebels and in his anger he says:

"I used to serve a being called God before I was ridiculed and covered with shame...I was his humble servant because I believed He would grant me His favor: but from now on I will refuse to serve him. If He persecutes me with his hatred, I will resign myself to that too. Friend [he says to Gawain], when the time for you to fight has come, may the thought of a woman [rather than God] protect you."

Animated by such indignation and pride, Percival, after failing in his first visit to the castle, fulfills his adventures. And thus, being separated from God, avoiding churches and performing "wild" knightly deeds he eventually triumphs, achieving the glory of the king of the Grail. Trevrizent will tell him, "Rarely was a greater miracle seen: by showing your anger you have received from God what you desired most." Also in Wolfram, Percival appears as the one who reaches the castle of the Grail in an exceptional way, without having been designated or called like others before him. His election occurs later on; in a way, it is the very adventures of Percival that bring his election about and almost bestow it upon him. Trevrizent says, "It never happened before that the Grail could be achieved by fighting." This trait too helps us recognize the heroic type, the one who, not by nature (as in the case of the Olympian type, to whom the legitimate king of the Grail may correspond, prior to his getting old, wounded, or falling asleep), but because of the reawakening of a deeper vocation and thatnks to his action, successfully participates in what the Grail symbolizes. This character reaches such heights as to become a knight of the Grail and finally achieves the supreme dignity of the Order of the Grail.

-Julius Evola, The Mystery of the Grail, Chapter 15

The Grail

In spite of everything, Christianity revived the generic sense of a supernatural transcendence. The Roman symbol offered the idea of a universal regnum, of an aeternitas carried by an imperial power. All this integrated the Nordic substance and provided superior reference points to its warrior ethos, so much as to gradually usher in ine of those cycles of restoration that I have labeled "heroic" in a special sense. And so, from the type of the mere warrior the figure of the knight arose; the ancient Germanic traditions of war waged in function of Valhalla developed into the supranational epic of the "holy war" or crusade; a shift occurred from the type of the prince of a particular race to the type of the sacred and ecumenical emperor, who claimed that the principle of his power had a character and an origin no less supernatural and transcendent than that of the Church.

This true renaissance, however, this grandiose development and wonderful transformation of forces, required an ultimate reference point, a supreme center of crystallization higher than the Christian though Romanized ideal, and higher than the external and merely political idea of the Empire. This supreme point of integration was manifested precisely in the myth of the Grail's regality, according to the intimate relation it had with the several variations of the "imperial saga." The silent problem of the Ghibelline Middle Ages was expressed in the fundamental theme of that cycle of legends: the need for a hero of the two swords, who overcomes natural and supernatural tests, to really ask the question: the question that avenges and heals, the question that restores power to its regality.

The Middle Ages awaited the hero of the Grail, so that the head of the Holy Roman Empire could become an image or a manifestation of the Universal Ruler; so that all the forces could receive a new power; so that the Dry Tree could blossom again; so that an absolute driving force could arise to overcome any usurpation, antagonism, laceration; so that a real solar order could be formed; so that the invisible emperor could also be the manifest one; and finally, so that the "Middle Age" could also have the meaning of an "Age of the Center."

Anyone who follows the adventures of the heroes of the Grail up to the famous question is bound to have the clear and unmistakeable feeling that something, all of a sudden, prevents the author from speaking freely, and that a trivial answer is given to conceal the real one. In fact, what really matters is not so much to know what are the objects according to the Christianized fable or to the ancient Celtic and Nordic legends, but rather to feel the tragedy of the paralyzed or wounded king; once one achieves that inner realization, the symbol of which is the Grail, what matters is to assume the initiative of the absolute action that brings about a restoration. The miraculously redeeming power that is attributed to the question can be perceived as extravagant only from this perspective. To ask is the equivalent of stating the problem. After all the conditions of the earthly and spiritual knighthood have been realized and the Grail has been known, the indifference that is considered a serious fault on the part of the hero is the indifference he displays when he witnesses without questioning the spectacle of the coffin and the surviving king, who is either maimed, killed, or retaining a merely artificial semblance of life. As I have already said, the dignity of the hero of the Grail is a dignity that obliges; such is its specific, prevalent, and antimystical character. Historically speaking, the kingdom of the Grail, which was supposed to be restored to even higher heights, is the Empire itself; the hero of the Grail, who would have become the "lord of all creatures," the one who has received the "supreme power," is the same historical emperor, Federicus, in the event he would have realized the mystery of the Grail, or would have been the one who becomes the Grail itself.

There are some texts in which such a theme is introduced in an even more immediate fashion. Once the chosen knight arrives at the castle, he directly addresses the king and asks in an almost brutal fashion, skipping every ceremonial form, "Where is the Grail?" meaning: "Where is the power of which you should be the representative?" Once this question is asked, a miracle ensues.

At this points fragments of ancient Atlantic, Celtic, and Nordic traditions are mixed with confused images of the Judeo-Christian religion. Avalon; Seth; Solomon; Lucifer; the ston-thunderbolt; Joseph of Arimathea; the White Island; the fish; the Lord of the Center and the symbolism of his seat; the mystery of the revenge and the deliverance; the "signs" of the Tuatha de Danaan, who in turn are confused with the race that brought the Grail to earth - they all form a whole in which the various elements, as I have endeavored to show, reveal a logical unity to those who are capable of penetrating its essence.

For about a century and a half, the entire knightly West lived intensely the myth of the court of King Arthur and his knights seeking the Grail. It was a progressive saturation of a historical climate that shortly after was followed by a break. This awakening of a heroic tradition connected to a universal imperial idea was destined to arouse inimical forces and lead to a clash with Catholicism.

The true reason why the Church became such a staunch antagonist of the Empire was the instinctive perception of the true nature of the force gaining momentum behind the external forms of the knightly spirit and the Ghibelline ideal. Even though on the other side, among the defenders of the Empire, an adequate awareness was present only in part, because of compromises, contradictions, and indecisions of which Dante himself was not exempt, the instinct of the Church was nevertheless absolutely correct. Hence the drama of medieval Ghibellinism, of the great knightly orders, and in particular, of the Order of the Knights Templar.

...It is hard to say through what representatives of the Holy Roman Empire the top of the hierarchy established an invisible connection with the center of the "Universal Ruler." Outside the Grail cycle, I have already mentioned legends foreshadowing the mysterious mandate that the Hohenstaufens allegedly received, a mandate that they sometimes took on and sometimes failed to understand or even lost. In any event, it was not a coincidence that the popular imagination was led to relive through their persons the myth of the emperor who in the end will reawaken and triumph.

- Julius Evola, The Mystery of the Grail, 121-7

Jeffersonian Dynamic 1

from the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798...

1. Resolved, That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each state is acceded as a state, and is an integral party; that this government, created, by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

...In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment to limited government, whether general or particular, and the rights and liberties of their co-states will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked on a common bottom with their own; but they will concur with this commonwealth in considering said acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration that the compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the general government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these states of all powers whatsoever. That they will view this as seizing the rights of the states, and consolidating them in the hands of the general government, with a power assumed to bind the states, not merely in cases made federal, but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent; that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-states, recurring to their natural rights not made federal, will concur in declaring these void and of no force, and will each unite with this commonwealth in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress.

-Thomas Jefferson