Fiery Milk

Every traditional civilization is characterized by the presence of beings who, by virtue of their innate or acquired superiority over the human condition, embody within the temporal order the living and efficacious presence of a power that comes from above.

One of these types of beings is the Pontifex - which means "builder of bridges" or of "paths" connecting the natural and supernatural dimensions.

In the world of Tradition the most important foundation of the authority and of the right of kings and chiefs, and the reason why they were obeyed, feared, and venerated, was essentially their transcendent and non-human quality.

Beyond the variety of mythical and sacred expressions, the recurrent view of kingship is expressed in temrs of an "immanent transcendence" that is present and active in the world.

The king - who was believed to be a sacred being and not a man - by virtue of his "being," was already the center and apex of the community.

In him was also the supernatural strength that made his ritual actions efficacious. In these actions people could recognized the earthly counterpart of supernatural "ruling" as well as the supernatural support of life in the world of Tradition.

For this reason, kingship was the supreme form of government, and was believed to be in the natural order of things.

It imposed itself mainly and irresistably through the spirit.

"The dignity a god enjoys on earth is splendid, but hard to achieve for the weak. Only he who sets his soul on this objective is worthy to become a king." - Ancient Indo-Aryan text

The ruler appears as a follower of the discipline that is practiced by those who are gods among men.

"Thou art Power, the force of Victory, and Immortal...made of Gold, thou rise, at dawn, together with Indra and with the Sun."

By coming forward, Agni has created kingship in this world...

The solar "glory" or "victory" in reference to kingship was not reduced to a mere symbol, but rather devoted to a metaphysical reality. Eventually it came to be identified with a nonhuman operating force, which the king did not possess in and by himself.

One of the most characteristic symbolic expressions of this idea comes from the Zoroastrian tradition, wherein the hvareno (glory that the king possesses) is a supernatural fire characterizing heavenly (and especially solar) entities that allow the king to partake of immortality and that give him witness through VICTORY.

In the oldest texts, the scepter is portrayed as the zigzag bolt of lightning. The regal "force" thus appears as a manifestation of the dazzling, heavenly force. The combination of signs represented the concept of "life-force" from a word for FIERY MILK (anshas) which is the nourishment of the immortals.

This word is not without relation to uraeus, the divine flame, at times life-giving, at other times dangerously destructive, which crowns the head of the Egyptian king in the shape of a serpent.

The king empowered with a non-terrestrial force with its roots in something that is "more than life," naturally appeared as one who could eminently actualize the power of the rites and open the way leading to the superior world.

...an auspicious event was understood not so much as the absence of the mystical power of fortune abiding in the king, but rather as the consequence of something that the king, as a mortal man, had done, thus compromising the objectiveness of his power.

-Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, from Chapter 1 - Regality