For everything the understanding can grasp, and everything desire demands, is not God. Where understanding and desire have an end, there it is dark, there does God shine. Continue reading
The Metaphysics of Nonbeing
Christian Gnosis: Meister Eckhart
Eckhart, with the possible exception of Dante, can be regarded from an Indian point of view as the greatest of all Europeans. ~ Ananda Coomaraswamy Continue reading
Justification and Postmortem States
Thus Heaven and Hell are understood as opposed responses to the Divine Light of Christ as Judge. The saved will experience the Light as glory, but it will be painful for the damned. So in a sense Hell is “empty”. God does not “send” people to Hell, rather it is their choice, that is, it corresponds to their particular state of being in a precise way. Continue reading
Dreaming in the Dog Days
But when the artichoke flowers, and the chirping grasshopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius parches head and … Continue reading
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
A farmer’s product might be wheat; a builder’s, a house; and so on. But for the intellectual class — e.g., journalists, lawyers, politicians — their very product is words. That is why, in the news media, concrete acts matter less than what people say, and beliefs are more important than truth. Hence, the discussion is primarily about who said what, what terms were used, how quickly did he say it, and the like. This class is entirely nominalist and has taken the place vacated by an ineffectual spiritual caste. Continue reading
Heroes and Vibhutis
The thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. Continue reading
The Condor and the Anarch
A dog does not aspire to be a “good” dog, it has no essence as a task. Stirner applies this to man, also. For a man to aspire to be good, or rational, etc., is to aspire to be other than what he is. For Stirner, the fact of man is the exercise of force or strength. So who has the most force? Obviously, the man who is most conscious, who has self-mastery. Can I propose that as a goal? Not in Stirner’s eyes, but some men will choose it, just as the rose chooses to bloom. It is an error to presume that all men are alike. Continue reading
Reactionary Chic
In The Romance of the Rose, there is speculation about what would happen if animals had free will. Perhaps the hens would refuse to lay eggs, the cattle would conspire against the cowboys, and your dog would stop sniffing your ass. Continue reading
The Holy Knights Templar
There are two ways to do history. The ordinary way is two-dimensional. The esoteric way is three-dimensional. Continue reading
The Bernard Option
And Raphael said to Tobias: As soon as thou shalt come into thy house, forthwith adore the Lord thy God: and giving thanks to him, go to thy father, and kiss him. And immediately anoint his eyes with this gall of the fish, which thou carriest with thee. For be … Continue reading