Once I am done the next essay, all the Despair & Woe of the past half decade will look like shrubs of joy in comparison 🤩
Your honorary son will make sure to totally up-end things such that all your noble woeful musings over here seem optim… er I mean sanguine, in comparison! 😘 😉
Elendilian....doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Aenean sounded better.
And should we really be mining the lore of such an extreme techno skeptic? Steam engines were orc technology in Middle Earth.
And both Aeneas and Elendil were leaving the remnants of military/spiritual catastrophes, not environmental depletion catastrophes.
The fiction writer who wrote the most about solving environmental problems by getting into space was Jerry Pournelle -- who was a polymath (two PhDs and a master's in an unrelated field).
The other two major writers who mixed conservatism, space travel, and environmentalism were Jack Vance and Poul Anderson. For D&D, Vance is nearly as influential as Tolkien.
Anderson had a future history of a post nuclear war depleted Earth trying to get into space. "Orion Shall Rise" was the climax. But I don't recall any truly compelling character from that series.
When it comes to a fictional character that characterizes our age in the short run, I'd go with Delos D. Harriman -- from Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon." Given how we are also in the midst of the Crazy Years...
Well, this is why I did it as a two-part test -- is the author himself worthy of being a voice for the age being the first part. Otherwise I'd have been on an endless hunt for a protagonist out of millions of fantasy stories.
Kind of why I wound up with Heinlein. While Heinlein is not as well known to the general masses as Tolkien, he was a huge influence over those who want to get into outer space. And he was a polymath of sorts -- more of action than classroom study.
If AI, recombinant DNA, nuclear war, or other such disaster befalls us, and a remnant of the religious emerge from the rubble to restore something of the West that was, THAT would definitely be an Age of Elendil.
He was a naughty nudist who would likely have done the Bruce Jenner thing had he been born later.
But he also filled his fiction with Biblical allusions in the mode of C. S. Lewis.
Well, at times he was debating with God, much as Paul Verhoeven debated with Heinlein when he made the "Starship Troopers" movie. However, important truths got out, truths danced around or ignored by most denominations.
Heinlein from birth was always a man straddling the two worlds. Bulter, Missouri was right on the divide between the Confederate south and Yankee north. He was a free thinker who was also a patriotic Navy man. He was into both Darwin and the Oz books, facts and fantasy from boyhood. He went to Annapolis with the help of the corrupt political machine of Kansas City but cut his teeth as a Social Credit minor figure in CA. He named characters after Lincoln and Jackson and Lee. He was a dappling artist in Greenwich Village where he married a very liberal woman into free love, then he married a more conservative but still independent Navy woman after his divorce. This made him a VERY interesting man because his progress was unpredictable.
The Luddites and the Romantics were right about somethings. Thomas Jefferson and some other Founding Fathers also called for a return to the Agrarian.
For an Eastern example, the Confucius leaders of all East Asia venerate their farmers and the rural vote, urbanization and rural depopulation notwithstanding.
Consciously managing urbanization will be the civilizational challenge of the next Age. Which will only get more important when we think about the multigenerational high-density confinement on spaceships.
> For an Eastern example, the Confucius leaders of all East Asia venerate their farmers and the rural vote, urbanization and rural depopulation notwithstanding.
And that is why China was basically stagnant for two millennia.
"Stagnant" in some sense, but they also avoided the Babel Towers of global commerce (to some extent). Looking at today's psychiatric illness rates, it is clear that the Eastern model was healthier than Western. Freud had a bustling business, after all.
Few people get to enjoy the benefits of a global ruling elite. Everybody else is content with a good family life.
"Successor" - non-Originator, not Geographically Bounded.
The Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Chinese & Mesoamerican High Cultures are all Cradles.
The Apollonian, Magian & Faustian are Succesors.
In the case of Cradles, Spengler hypothesized in his earlier writings that they would be resurrected in 'petrified' forms, & while they may rise in prominence & become 'like giants,' it will be a sort of Farce. China's Rise comes to mind (& so does India's), whereby the Sinic world does 'return,' but with a Faustian core which (to this day) still dominates.
Successors, on the other hand, are fundamentally antagonistic to one another.
The Magian was Antagonistic to the Apollonian & had to Defeat it utterly. Rome comes to mind, & so does Byzantium (to a lesser extent), who had to be defeated.
Likewise, the Faustian was Antagonistic to the Magian. The Gunpowder Empires come to mind, which had to be squished by Faustian Technics & Industrialism.
While I enjoyed the essay, I think, ultimately, this is a non-negotiable for not just myself, but I would argue the Lions' share of Spengler's students (Naif, i.e., Arabian Magus, comes to mind). Simply put, "For the New to be Born, the Old Must Die."
At the micro, you see this with Succession occurring among the Ottoman & Mughal princes. Aurangazeb (to become emperor) had to put all his brothers to the sword & imprisoned his own father, who later died in captivity, a withered, hollow shell of his former self.
At the macro, Successor Civilizations follow a similar Fated/Destined trajectory, whereby the previous Civilization is likewise 'put to the sword,' captivated, etc.
I don't think this is a trend that will be changing anytime soon.
So, while the essay is excellent, I think that ultimately, the Ninth Spenglerian High Culture / Civilization will have to 'do an Aurangazeb' except because we are talking about the entire Globe, as opposed to princes & emperors fighting at the micro...
... it will mean the death, suffering, misery, woe & DOOM of billions.
I doubt India will rise, geography is destiny so that it will once supply chains restructure and perish, and when war breaks out between it and China that it will be burnt to the ground and will see hundreds of millions starve to death.
On top of that I'd argue once American farming along with that of Europe and Canada falters and they prioritize themselves Africa will likely starve alongside the Mid-East. Civilization will retreat to Europe, Americas and Asia.
Billions might perish but my suspicion is that the next major Civilizational Era will centre around China and if they can get their act together France & Germany.
Spengler's thesis was that when they would rise once again, it would be in a petrified form, whereby they imitate others (we see this with how both of them imitate the Technics of the Faustian West).
China & India are far more food secure than Europe & Europeans. Andrei Zorvin, Simon Michaux & a few others ran the numbers and while it's true that food insecurity would decimate them, on a percentage basis they would fare much better than most city dwellers in Europe who would starve to death during Mass Energy crunches & whatnot.
Africa has lots of Agricultural ability & many of the bigger nations are net food exporters. Europe has a deficit with Africa in materials & energy... both of which mean that without said things Europeans die en masse. We have to also remember something very important:
African demographics are about to hit their sweet spot for Median Age while Europeans continue to die off en masse from High Median Ages. Think Raspail's Camp of the Saints, except far more brutal. That's what will happen next century and beyond as huge migration flow come into Europe.
America will have to deal with Migration flows from Latin America & Aridoamerica, but they will fare much better than the older, more frail Europeans who will be decimated due to their dependance on Materials & Energy, coupled with Demographic Winter & Ecological Overshoot in key areas.
Eurabia depends on African Energy imports to keep their grandmas & grandpas alive during the Winter months.
Your 'rejoinder' has been Moot for decades, since the majority of African nations have long since climbed up the the pecking order, & today exert enormous sway on most of the deraccinated, Old, Euro-vassals.
It just means Mass Migration into Eurabia to grab further resources & expand that way. Disease, Starvation, etc. in a *Young* population means Mass Migration, followed by Ethnic Conflict & War.
Your view of the world is exceptionally Naive. Open up a history book & refer to what kicked off the Mass Westward migrations from North Asia to Europe (hint: It wasn't just the Han wars against said Nomads).
Africa has plenty of indigenous ability to deal with disease by itself. But in the off chance that 'things go sour' on *insert disease here*, it will mean the Rapid Eurafricanizing of the Peninsula in a mere few decades.
Anyhow, get an education first & come back here. You bore me.
Ahnaf, I think you are pointing in the right direction here - all of the High Cultures reject key aspects of their predecessors' worldview, while the Aenean/Elendilic Culture just seems to be Faustian culture purged of the parts that grate upon Mr. Tree-of-Woe.
That said, I personally think that Spengler - ever the pessimist - picked too strong of a metaphor when he accuses the civilizations of patricide. One does not kill one's parents merely by being different from them. Toynbee I think had a more balanced view of how civilizational parentage worked. There are lots of elements in the worldview of Early Modern Europe that are borrowed straight from Greece, Rome, or Israel, and would be very out of place in more alien civilizations like China. So I'm not really convinced that the Elendilic civilization needs to "slay" the ghost of the Faustian in order to rise - it is enough that, after being reinvigorated by a Dark Age, our descendants decide that there are some qualities of our civilization that are worth imitating and others that are not.
Gosh, I hope that's not how Aenean/Elendilan is being perceived, as nothing more than the Faustian with the parts I don't like rubbed off. I don't even really *like* Faustian culture very much. I actually spend most of my professional time focused on Antiquity. The setting for my fictional world is Greco-Roman, my ancestry is Greco-Roman, my college studies were ancient history, etc. The science-fiction game I'm working on is based on "Greeks in Space" (archeo-futuristic). I'd rather be accused of being "Apollonian with the parts of Faustian I like fused on". I wrote a whole essay about how I consider my aesthetics to be Hellenistic!
I suppose I'd been misreading you then. I will need to look more into your essays/fiction dealing with Greece and Rome. Perhaps it was the big focus on space travel in your first "Aenean Age" post that left me with that impression - since it seemed the goal was to pick up the Faustian expansion dream right where it left off after the Apollo Program and keep on going ad infinitum. Though I must admit, now that I think about it, that your ideas in "Liminal Religion" - especially an afterlife belief in which most people just get reborn while a few of the bravest heroes become angels or minor deities - are much more Greco-Roman in outlook.
The reason I think space exploration is important is (a) resource limitations on Earth and (b) existential threats to life on Earth. I think we will need the resources on the asteroids and I think we'd be wise to have some space assets in the event of e.g. asteroid strikes.
I tend to think of the Faustian mentality as "to boldly go where no man has gone before". I think of the Aenean mentality as "to wisely go to exactly where we need to go to do what we need to do."
The Aenean seems ambitious and bold only in comparison to the Ecotopian who thinks that we need to "live within Mother Earth" and "accept the inevitability of extinction" and all that deep ecological philosophy. It's intended to be the alternative to the retrotopian/environmentalist society that JMG et al. suggest is our future.
Or, to use a story to tell it, imagine you have a tribe of farmers that lives in the north of Siberia during the nice warm period before the last ice age. It's a good life in fertile land and the population is growing. The young Neolithic Faust says "Let's head south and see what's there! The horizon is no limit for our tribe!" He goes off, no one ever hears from him again.
Later, the weather cools, the ice begins to accumulate, the crops begin to fail, the tribe begins to shrink. Neolithic JMG says "We must abandon agriculture and become hunters of the wooly mastodons who can survive the ice. We will not enjoy bread anymore but we will be in harmony with the land. This is the way of things." JMG never liked farming anyway.
Neolithic Aeneas says "This cold sucks. Let's all head south to find farms where it's warmer." Aeneas thinks it's better to struggle with a great journey then settle for a worse way of life. But until then Aeneas was perfectly happy to stay in the north.
Meanwhile Neolithic Normie says "Y'all are ridiculous. Go back to hunter-gathering? Fuck that. Travel south? No way. Dudes, it's barely 0.5 F cooler, nothing ever happens, we'll be fine. Besides we just elected a great new chief and he's going to make Siberia warm again, if you'd all just stop blackpilling."
Towards the end of his life Spengler considered the question of whether there can be something other than a “cradle” or a “successor” since he did recognize that human organizational structures and units do shift (the last big shift being the Neolithic revolution and the ensuing settler living standards we developed).
He did consider therefore the question “can the ninth civilization be something that is a different category?”… sadly he passed away before fleshing out said idea fully. But if I had to add onto it… I would say the Ecotechnic society of several millennia in the future would be a candidate, but again this idea needs more time to formulate by yours truly 😉 😘
"Elendilian Age" seems a bit of a mouthful. Perhaps "The Age of Exile?" Of course, that breaks the Spenglerian theme...
There's one critical thing you're forgetting about the Long Defeat: it's not the full story. Central to Tolkein's writings was the theme of the eucatastrophe--the sudden turn of events for the better. It features at the conclusion of every age of Tolkein's mythos: the War of Wrath (1st age), The Last Alliance (2nd), and the completion of Frodo's quest. And given the nature of Tolkein's world, the ultimate folly is to fight a long defeat without expecting a eucatastrophe. As Gandalf himself says to Frodo: "There are other forces at work in this world besides the one of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring, in which case you also were meant to have it." So, even in the midst of the Long Defeat, there is a faithful Providence working all things toward a better end.
Even the Akallabeth was itself a eucatastrophe. The destruction of a wicked empire and the preservation of a faithful remnant allowed the survival of the best men in Middle Earth and sowed the seeds for Sauron's ultimate destruction (in which the destruction of Numenor was repaid). Death comes to all empires and ages for the same reason that it comes to all men: as a wage for iniquity, and as a mercy. See the conclusion of "The Magicians Nephew" by Lewis for a fuller treatment of this.
So an Elendilian Age is one characterized not only by duty, responsibility, noble obligation, and potential contraction; it is also characterized by the assurance of good things hoped for. And if such faith is not present, then it isn't Elendilian.
You contempate this on the Tree of Woe, and I will contemplate it in the Hall of Fire.
I think God's autism has led you into an error. Spengler's naming conventions were by no means so rigid. He named neither Sinic, Hindic, Russian, nor Egyptian cultures for fictional or mythological characters. Apollonian civilization was named for a god, not a fictional character.
Moreover, even if the name "must" be taken from a culture's native mythology, nothing is really accomplished by adopting Tolkien in preference to Virgil. Tolkien was very much a product of late Faustian civilization. The Aenean civilization does not exist yet; its mythology has not yet been written. If we insist on naming Aenean civilization using its own native mythology, it must remain nameless.
It is by the way a rather Faustian thing in itself to even propose to describe the properties of a civilization that does not yet exist. It would have occurred to no previous culture to even contemplate the possibility. Only Faustians (and probably the descendants of Faustians) have the ability to get outside of their own culture in this fashion, to project their imaginations into the future and foresee promise, peril, and incommensurable difference from our own era.
With that said, it may be that the misstep, if misstep it is, in naming the Aenean era is not to be fixed by adopting another backward-looking fantasy - but to look instead to science fiction.
Fair enough! I, too, like Aenean Age aesthetically.
Though I cannot express how disappointed I am that you missed the chance to suggest Barsoomian instead of Arrakian. You're John Carter and we're going to MARS and it was RIGHT THERE.
I couldn't put my finger on why I couldn't fully agree with what was otherwise a solid analysis, but this is it right here.
I'd also like to mention, it's not only visions of the future that are Faustian, but also of the past. It was Faustian civilization that deciphered hieroglyphs, invented the field of archaeology, and cast light onto our prehistoric origins, which were previously shrouded in myth.
The absolute advantage of the Aenean Age is in its alliterative appeal allowing for additional assistance in adoption and aiding in its academic authority.
Also, I already started using Aenean Age in the novel I am publishing here on substack, and I don't particularly want to edit that term out.
I am in alignment with the awesomeness of the Aenean Age. After accepting it as an accurate assessment of America ex ante, I am ambivalent about adjusting to another title.
I sincerely don’t know enough about Meloni to understand the criticism. All I’ve read is second-hand accounts of the influence of Tolkien on the Italian Right. Can you elaborate?
She's just another Clown World puppet in a "right wing" skin. When it comes to any political question of actual import (immigration, Ukraine, getting the fuck out of the EU), she's perfectly in step with the rest of the Euroclots.
This is not so well known because Italy's fallen off the map a bit as Germany and France and the UK really start sliding into the shitter, but the Italian leadership isn't any better, they and the rest of the Italians are just used to more chaos.
I am a huge fan of John Galt and Atlas Shrugged. At one time in my life I definitely would have looked to, say, Rand's Anthem for the future. Unfortunately, I concluded Objectivism probably can't sustain a civilization because it doesn't make fatherhood and motherhood important enough. Objectivism leads to the low fertility rates that are wrecking us.
Every time, someone bring up Ayn Rand’s individualism, my answer was always “John Galt could not stop the motor of world without the collective action.” That pissed many off to no end. She’s a smart lady and was very close to being European in spirit, but her novels were far superior to her essays, which I considered to be mostly a waste. Novels forced her to at least include some sense of realism in comparison to a more Platonic idealism of a Napoleonic figure in her nonfiction. Murray Rothbard was much more forgiving and entertaining than she was and far more American in spirit than his ethnic rivals and enemies.
This. Objectivism is too individualistic, and provides no place for family/clan/community/nation. It's also overly reliant on logic and reason, which are powerful tools to be sure, but ultimately limited.
I wrote this a couple of years ago, The Hubris of Morgoth and The Rings of Power - the Story of Fight against Sauron a Demon who lives out of the Body, thrown out of the body by having the One Ring cut off his finger by Isildur
If you are looking for the symbol of civilisation, it's GANDALF! not because of what is, but what is needed.
Gandalf was the Guy who killed the the Worm, Dragon, Smaug - the Agent, Ally of Sauron who would have been very handy to Sauron in the future war at Gondor - through his intention, through his psychic influence.
Gandalf was the Guy who killed the Balrog of Morgoth who again as the Agent, Ally of Sauron would have been very handy to Sauron in the future war at Gondor - through his intention, through his psychic influence through the giving up of his own life to rise on the third day - Gandalf was always the Image of the Christ as written by Tolkien.
Gandalf was the Christ, the seed who impulsed every action, impulsed every character in the Lord of the rings.
Gandalf was the Word of God!
And Tom Bombadil the Father. - his coat was blue and his boots were yellow.
Tolkien, like Gandalf, through his sacred writings has impulsed every action, every person in the world since the publication of his books.
Tolkien is the Word of God, behind every action in this New Age.
It is not the Actor who is the most important, like Elendil, Isidur, Aragorn, Theoden; It is the Impulse of God…
The Energy Connection with God, the Aura, the Energy, the Psychic Influence which affects, aligns, coordinates, impulses the whole of society.
From Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings.
From Tolkien! out into the World.
Tolkien was an Angel of God sent to change the world.
And it is we who must take up the Gauntlet, like Aragorn, like Elendil, to act.
Here is an except from, The Hubris of Morgoth and The Rings of Power - the Story of Fight against Sauron a Demon who lives out of the Body, thrown out of the body by having the One Ring cut off his finger by Isildur
Just as today the Satanic Phoenician Mega Trillionaires seek immortality in Transhumanism, uploading into the machine, downloading into a new body, eternally as 10,000 years ago their Phoenician ancestors perfected the spiritual technology of leaving the body to live in private universes on the astral plane downloading in Satanic Ritual into Eton "whipping and fagging" prepared, destroyed, minds - easy to possess to become heads of the top Phoenician families to manage their human plantation. All they have to do is totally block their Heart Chakras and vampirise the spiritual energy of humanity. They have to maintain their control of humanity to do that
Sauron was captured by the Númenororians and was imprisoned but then like an evil Joseph worked his way up to becoming the high advisor to the king. A cult of Morgoth was established complete with human sacrifice of the Elf Faithful humans with the goal of achieving immortality. Finally, the last king of Númenor launched an invasion of Valinor to steal immortality. Iluvatar Himself intervened and destroyed the entire fleet of Men by opening a chasm in the sea.
Then Númenor itself was sunk beneath the waves during a night of fire and whatever that will cost a lot to CG. The Elf Faithful escaped under the leadership of Elendil, who became their king and founded Gondor. Making Elendil, Aragorn’s remote but direct ancestor. And yes, Elendil is the same king Sauron kills on the battlefield at the start of Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Read this sentence again: A cult of Morgoth was established complete with human sacrifice of the Elf Faithful humans with the goal of achieving immortality.
Fascinating, is it not, that a high fantasy writer could foresee today’s transhuman global technocrats in the 1940s? It’s because their goals are no different than they were 10,000 years ago, back before the dawn of recorded human history: To be Satanic. To institute human sacrifice. To live forever. To be like God.
Against Satanism by Satchidanand Volumes 1 to 12 - “The Occulted Satanic History of the World” - Your Worldview Will Never Be the Same! - in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
Satanic Spiritual Movie Reviews by Satchidanand Volumes One - “Blacklisted” and Two “AI and Transhumanism” in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
"If what was true of Middle-Earth is true of our own era, then what lies ahead is neither the dawn of a golden age or the night of a dark age, but rather a long twilight—an era where the remnants of greatness, having averted or avoided total annihilation, nevertheless must struggle to resist an ever-encroaching darkness at great cost."
Whilst it's true that the ride never ends, remember that Tolkien wrote his stories in part to create his own mythical history of (our) Earth. Numenor fell, and the twin realms of Gondor and Arnor were but a pale imitation of its heyday. But then came Egypt, and Greece, and Rome. And then... well, we're a couple of weeks late in this column, but I trust all the readers here know what then happened in the stable of a fully-booked inn.
=====
'Tell me,' he said, 'is there any hope? For Frodo, I mean; or at least mostly for Frodo.'
Gandalf put his hand on Pippin's head. 'There never was much hope,' he answered. 'Just a fool's hope, as I have been told...'
A good point. An earlier commenter pointed out I had failed to mention the eucatastrophe. I think that's because I struggle to believe it. I have the northern courage but not the hope, sometimes.
"Maddow, being barely capable of grasping the mainstream right-wing views of The Lord of the Rings fans, is entirely unprepared for the far right extremism found in The Silmarillion aficionados. The truly extreme thinkers, of course, go even further; they embrace R.E. Howard’s Conan over Tolkien’s Elendil. But that is another story..."
This essay is too focused on trying to describe the present period and not on inspiring a new age. Focus on the past and weakness and thinking the best days are in the past are the signs of a scleroid mind and old men. It’s rather Jewish in a way, full of sadness.
I prefer to see today as the leftover clay after the flood to be used for a new sculpture to model. Our task is not to mourn the fallen age with the soul of an old man. Our task is to see potential in the ruins with a youthful zeal. Ours is to build a brotherhood dedicated to unite the Heartlands of Europe against the scleroid imperialists of the Axis of Red Capital. Ours to build a new confederation of the European men who will enjoy their sovereignty even as they united in a spiritual congress in the common struggle against those who hate our fathers’ sacred fire. Our brotherhood will create the New Dominion across the million stars of such power and grace that will outshone the former suns of all our fathers before us. With decentralized confederation across many nations and many stars, the Red Capital will be hard put to destroy even the tenth of us. With such a thrilling dream, who can fail to not be stirred to action?
"Vance even named his venture capital firm “Narya,” after one of the Elven Rings of Power in Tolkien's mythology. Vance’s friend and mentor, Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist and political donor, has also drawn inspiration from Tolkien's legendarium. Thiel named his data analytics company "Palantir," after the seeing-stones in The Lord of the Rings"
Then there's Anduril, probably the most dynamic of the new crop of defense companies trying to inject life into a sclerotic US military-industrial complex.
The absolute advantage of the Aenean Age is in its alliterative appeal allowing for additional assistance in adoption and aiding in its academic authority.
Also, I already started using Aenean Age in the novel I am publishing here on substack, and I don't particularly want to edit that term out.
Never was nerdy enough to tackle the Silmarillion myself, although I had friends at school who did. Tolkien is the man alright, but I'd humbly suggest that the Third Age action of LOTR provides the correct analogies for our present age predicament. My vote would go with commenter Satchidanand; to Gandalf.
Gandalf is the pivotal agent whose visits to the rubes in the Shire red pills the hero who ultimately saves the day. Before this, Frodo & his Fellowship mates lived in speleo-Platonic ignorance of the evil forces in the world. Tangentially, David Rogers Webb comes to mind as a modern day Gandalf telling us clueless Hobbits how it really is. He is a very brave man who has reconciled himself to a meeting with the Balrog, should it come to that.
Tolkien's villains and their infrastructure have eerie analogs today. Sauron de Rothschild has created the rings of power (the central banks) and right now his minions are striving with CBDC development to bind us all in darkness, in the land of Basel (where the shadows lie). The BIS HQ itself is Barad-dûr and <strike>Saruman's</strike> Thiel's creation is the thing that sits at its top.
As for the quest that destroys the One Ring, I'd like to think of today's Frodo as a Satoshi Nakamoto like figure. He/she will probably be an anonymous Geek Right hacker who conjures the right spell to bring down the whole rotten edifice, in the nick of time of course.
Btw, if you ever get a chance to visit Wales I'd highly recommend a tour of the gigantic slate mines which inspired Tolkien's mines of Moria. Long ago I had the opportunity to explore these unguided and the experience left a lasting impression, as it must have done on J. R. R. himself.
I could be persuaded that Gandalf, not Elendil, is the hero of our age. Someone should write that up full length and I’m happy to post it as a guest column.
Great stuff, Sir! Every word a pleasure to read. At the same time as I read, I am living this. I feel my Being, drawn to the Divine, is daily assaulted by personalities subsumed by beastialiy spawning egregores. Egregores who are relentlessly flailing the Earth, howling for death and destruction. How can they be vanquished, then? It is by the Light of Consciouness!
TREE OF WOE DECADE IN REVIEW
Start of 2020 Despair and woe
End of 2020 Despair and woe
Star of 2021 Despair and woe
End of 2021 Despair and woe
Start of 2022 Despair and woe
End of 2022 Despair and woe
Start of 2023 Despair and woe
End of 2023 Despair and woe
Start of 2024 Despair and woe
End of 2024 Perhaps there is hope for something that isn't completely awful
Start of 2025 I might have been slightly too optimistic at end of 2024
First Comments of 2025: WTF is with this whitepilled bs, billions will die
The title of the next essay for the DOOM furnace is as follows 😉 😘:
“The Next 100 Years: Predicting 2025—2125, War, Famine, Disease, Scarcity, Poverty, Outage & Death in The Industrial Twilight”
Not to worry Pater! Your honorary son will make sure that my next essay tops everything in the DOOM department! 😊
Addendum: Don’t worry Pater!
Once I am done the next essay, all the Despair & Woe of the past half decade will look like shrubs of joy in comparison 🤩
Your honorary son will make sure to totally up-end things such that all your noble woeful musings over here seem optim… er I mean sanguine, in comparison! 😘 😉
Black pills are for sissies.
Elendilian....doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Aenean sounded better.
And should we really be mining the lore of such an extreme techno skeptic? Steam engines were orc technology in Middle Earth.
And both Aeneas and Elendil were leaving the remnants of military/spiritual catastrophes, not environmental depletion catastrophes.
The fiction writer who wrote the most about solving environmental problems by getting into space was Jerry Pournelle -- who was a polymath (two PhDs and a master's in an unrelated field).
The other two major writers who mixed conservatism, space travel, and environmentalism were Jack Vance and Poul Anderson. For D&D, Vance is nearly as influential as Tolkien.
Anderson had a future history of a post nuclear war depleted Earth trying to get into space. "Orion Shall Rise" was the climax. But I don't recall any truly compelling character from that series.
When it comes to a fictional character that characterizes our age in the short run, I'd go with Delos D. Harriman -- from Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon." Given how we are also in the midst of the Crazy Years...
But it doesn't quite match your grander theme.
Must contemplate further.
Well, this is why I did it as a two-part test -- is the author himself worthy of being a voice for the age being the first part. Otherwise I'd have been on an endless hunt for a protagonist out of millions of fantasy stories.
Kind of why I wound up with Heinlein. While Heinlein is not as well known to the general masses as Tolkien, he was a huge influence over those who want to get into outer space. And he was a polymath of sorts -- more of action than classroom study.
If AI, recombinant DNA, nuclear war, or other such disaster befalls us, and a remnant of the religious emerge from the rubble to restore something of the West that was, THAT would definitely be an Age of Elendil.
Heinlein was a creator of the moral catastrophe.
Yes. Rather mixed bag, Heinlein was.
He was a naughty nudist who would likely have done the Bruce Jenner thing had he been born later.
But he also filled his fiction with Biblical allusions in the mode of C. S. Lewis.
Well, at times he was debating with God, much as Paul Verhoeven debated with Heinlein when he made the "Starship Troopers" movie. However, important truths got out, truths danced around or ignored by most denominations.
Why do you think Heinlein would have been trans? I've heard a lot of crazy stuff about Heinlein, but not that!
Heinlein from birth was always a man straddling the two worlds. Bulter, Missouri was right on the divide between the Confederate south and Yankee north. He was a free thinker who was also a patriotic Navy man. He was into both Darwin and the Oz books, facts and fantasy from boyhood. He went to Annapolis with the help of the corrupt political machine of Kansas City but cut his teeth as a Social Credit minor figure in CA. He named characters after Lincoln and Jackson and Lee. He was a dappling artist in Greenwich Village where he married a very liberal woman into free love, then he married a more conservative but still independent Navy woman after his divorce. This made him a VERY interesting man because his progress was unpredictable.
"I Will Fear No Evil", "All You Zombies", and the story of Slipstick Libby in "Time Enough for Love."
Steve Sailer even referenced Heinlein when talking about autogynephilic men vs. very gay men.
Well his last novel, *I Will Fear No Evil*, is certainly suggestive.
The Luddites and the Romantics were right about somethings. Thomas Jefferson and some other Founding Fathers also called for a return to the Agrarian.
For an Eastern example, the Confucius leaders of all East Asia venerate their farmers and the rural vote, urbanization and rural depopulation notwithstanding.
Consciously managing urbanization will be the civilizational challenge of the next Age. Which will only get more important when we think about the multigenerational high-density confinement on spaceships.
Definitely!
> For an Eastern example, the Confucius leaders of all East Asia venerate their farmers and the rural vote, urbanization and rural depopulation notwithstanding.
And that is why China was basically stagnant for two millennia.
"Stagnant" in some sense, but they also avoided the Babel Towers of global commerce (to some extent). Looking at today's psychiatric illness rates, it is clear that the Eastern model was healthier than Western. Freud had a bustling business, after all.
Few people get to enjoy the benefits of a global ruling elite. Everybody else is content with a good family life.
> Looking at today's psychiatric illness rates, it is clear that the Eastern model was healthier than Western.
Look at China's demographics today.
Urbanization bad.
There have been Eight Spenglerian High Cultures so far:
1. Egyptian
2. Babylonian
3. Indian
4. Chinese
5. Mesoamerican
6. Apollonian
7. Magian
8. Faustian
These Civilizations can be further subdivided in several ways, one of which is as follows:
"Cradle" - Originator Civilization, Geographically Bounded.
"Successor" - non-Originator, not Geographically Bounded.
The Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Chinese & Mesoamerican High Cultures are all Cradles.
The Apollonian, Magian & Faustian are Succesors.
In the case of Cradles, Spengler hypothesized in his earlier writings that they would be resurrected in 'petrified' forms, & while they may rise in prominence & become 'like giants,' it will be a sort of Farce. China's Rise comes to mind (& so does India's), whereby the Sinic world does 'return,' but with a Faustian core which (to this day) still dominates.
Successors, on the other hand, are fundamentally antagonistic to one another.
The Magian was Antagonistic to the Apollonian & had to Defeat it utterly. Rome comes to mind, & so does Byzantium (to a lesser extent), who had to be defeated.
Likewise, the Faustian was Antagonistic to the Magian. The Gunpowder Empires come to mind, which had to be squished by Faustian Technics & Industrialism.
While I enjoyed the essay, I think, ultimately, this is a non-negotiable for not just myself, but I would argue the Lions' share of Spengler's students (Naif, i.e., Arabian Magus, comes to mind). Simply put, "For the New to be Born, the Old Must Die."
At the micro, you see this with Succession occurring among the Ottoman & Mughal princes. Aurangazeb (to become emperor) had to put all his brothers to the sword & imprisoned his own father, who later died in captivity, a withered, hollow shell of his former self.
At the macro, Successor Civilizations follow a similar Fated/Destined trajectory, whereby the previous Civilization is likewise 'put to the sword,' captivated, etc.
I don't think this is a trend that will be changing anytime soon.
So, while the essay is excellent, I think that ultimately, the Ninth Spenglerian High Culture / Civilization will have to 'do an Aurangazeb' except because we are talking about the entire Globe, as opposed to princes & emperors fighting at the micro...
... it will mean the death, suffering, misery, woe & DOOM of billions.
Going forward I ask that EVERY comment you make end with
"... it will mean the death, suffering, misery, woe & DOOM of billions."
If it doesn't, I will assume your account has been compromised by Neo-Zoroastrian Iranian Radicals and take appropriate action.
Not to worry Pater! 🫡
This account will only be jeopardized the moment I finally hit the bucket, in which case one of the Boyz will take charge of it. 😊
I doubt India will rise, geography is destiny so that it will once supply chains restructure and perish, and when war breaks out between it and China that it will be burnt to the ground and will see hundreds of millions starve to death.
On top of that I'd argue once American farming along with that of Europe and Canada falters and they prioritize themselves Africa will likely starve alongside the Mid-East. Civilization will retreat to Europe, Americas and Asia.
Billions might perish but my suspicion is that the next major Civilizational Era will centre around China and if they can get their act together France & Germany.
China is a Cradle, & so is India.
Spengler's thesis was that when they would rise once again, it would be in a petrified form, whereby they imitate others (we see this with how both of them imitate the Technics of the Faustian West).
China & India are far more food secure than Europe & Europeans. Andrei Zorvin, Simon Michaux & a few others ran the numbers and while it's true that food insecurity would decimate them, on a percentage basis they would fare much better than most city dwellers in Europe who would starve to death during Mass Energy crunches & whatnot.
Africa has lots of Agricultural ability & many of the bigger nations are net food exporters. Europe has a deficit with Africa in materials & energy... both of which mean that without said things Europeans die en masse. We have to also remember something very important:
African demographics are about to hit their sweet spot for Median Age while Europeans continue to die off en masse from High Median Ages. Think Raspail's Camp of the Saints, except far more brutal. That's what will happen next century and beyond as huge migration flow come into Europe.
America will have to deal with Migration flows from Latin America & Aridoamerica, but they will fare much better than the older, more frail Europeans who will be decimated due to their dependance on Materials & Energy, coupled with Demographic Winter & Ecological Overshoot in key areas.
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY8sJwGH4yw
The Peninsula is Moribund; and it will be partitioned between Eurabia & Eurafrica, with Eurosiberia taking up the East. Relevant essay:
https://www.arktosjournal.com/p/eurabia-and-eurafrica-are-europes-future
You assume that the AIDS medicine subsidy will continue.
Eurabia depends on African Energy imports to keep their grandmas & grandpas alive during the Winter months.
Your 'rejoinder' has been Moot for decades, since the majority of African nations have long since climbed up the the pecking order, & today exert enormous sway on most of the deraccinated, Old, Euro-vassals.
Nope.
It just means Mass Migration into Eurabia to grab further resources & expand that way. Disease, Starvation, etc. in a *Young* population means Mass Migration, followed by Ethnic Conflict & War.
Your view of the world is exceptionally Naive. Open up a history book & refer to what kicked off the Mass Westward migrations from North Asia to Europe (hint: It wasn't just the Han wars against said Nomads).
Africa has plenty of indigenous ability to deal with disease by itself. But in the off chance that 'things go sour' on *insert disease here*, it will mean the Rapid Eurafricanizing of the Peninsula in a mere few decades.
Anyhow, get an education first & come back here. You bore me.
Ahnaf, I think you are pointing in the right direction here - all of the High Cultures reject key aspects of their predecessors' worldview, while the Aenean/Elendilic Culture just seems to be Faustian culture purged of the parts that grate upon Mr. Tree-of-Woe.
That said, I personally think that Spengler - ever the pessimist - picked too strong of a metaphor when he accuses the civilizations of patricide. One does not kill one's parents merely by being different from them. Toynbee I think had a more balanced view of how civilizational parentage worked. There are lots of elements in the worldview of Early Modern Europe that are borrowed straight from Greece, Rome, or Israel, and would be very out of place in more alien civilizations like China. So I'm not really convinced that the Elendilic civilization needs to "slay" the ghost of the Faustian in order to rise - it is enough that, after being reinvigorated by a Dark Age, our descendants decide that there are some qualities of our civilization that are worth imitating and others that are not.
Gosh, I hope that's not how Aenean/Elendilan is being perceived, as nothing more than the Faustian with the parts I don't like rubbed off. I don't even really *like* Faustian culture very much. I actually spend most of my professional time focused on Antiquity. The setting for my fictional world is Greco-Roman, my ancestry is Greco-Roman, my college studies were ancient history, etc. The science-fiction game I'm working on is based on "Greeks in Space" (archeo-futuristic). I'd rather be accused of being "Apollonian with the parts of Faustian I like fused on". I wrote a whole essay about how I consider my aesthetics to be Hellenistic!
I suppose I'd been misreading you then. I will need to look more into your essays/fiction dealing with Greece and Rome. Perhaps it was the big focus on space travel in your first "Aenean Age" post that left me with that impression - since it seemed the goal was to pick up the Faustian expansion dream right where it left off after the Apollo Program and keep on going ad infinitum. Though I must admit, now that I think about it, that your ideas in "Liminal Religion" - especially an afterlife belief in which most people just get reborn while a few of the bravest heroes become angels or minor deities - are much more Greco-Roman in outlook.
The reason I think space exploration is important is (a) resource limitations on Earth and (b) existential threats to life on Earth. I think we will need the resources on the asteroids and I think we'd be wise to have some space assets in the event of e.g. asteroid strikes.
I tend to think of the Faustian mentality as "to boldly go where no man has gone before". I think of the Aenean mentality as "to wisely go to exactly where we need to go to do what we need to do."
The Aenean seems ambitious and bold only in comparison to the Ecotopian who thinks that we need to "live within Mother Earth" and "accept the inevitability of extinction" and all that deep ecological philosophy. It's intended to be the alternative to the retrotopian/environmentalist society that JMG et al. suggest is our future.
Or, to use a story to tell it, imagine you have a tribe of farmers that lives in the north of Siberia during the nice warm period before the last ice age. It's a good life in fertile land and the population is growing. The young Neolithic Faust says "Let's head south and see what's there! The horizon is no limit for our tribe!" He goes off, no one ever hears from him again.
Later, the weather cools, the ice begins to accumulate, the crops begin to fail, the tribe begins to shrink. Neolithic JMG says "We must abandon agriculture and become hunters of the wooly mastodons who can survive the ice. We will not enjoy bread anymore but we will be in harmony with the land. This is the way of things." JMG never liked farming anyway.
Neolithic Aeneas says "This cold sucks. Let's all head south to find farms where it's warmer." Aeneas thinks it's better to struggle with a great journey then settle for a worse way of life. But until then Aeneas was perfectly happy to stay in the north.
Meanwhile Neolithic Normie says "Y'all are ridiculous. Go back to hunter-gathering? Fuck that. Travel south? No way. Dudes, it's barely 0.5 F cooler, nothing ever happens, we'll be fine. Besides we just elected a great new chief and he's going to make Siberia warm again, if you'd all just stop blackpilling."
Towards the end of his life Spengler considered the question of whether there can be something other than a “cradle” or a “successor” since he did recognize that human organizational structures and units do shift (the last big shift being the Neolithic revolution and the ensuing settler living standards we developed).
He did consider therefore the question “can the ninth civilization be something that is a different category?”… sadly he passed away before fleshing out said idea fully. But if I had to add onto it… I would say the Ecotechnic society of several millennia in the future would be a candidate, but again this idea needs more time to formulate by yours truly 😉 😘
You’re gonna hate this:
There’s a character who fits many of the same criteria, but is already more popular than Elendil.
Hear me out:
Obiwanian age.
Honestly if it weren't for Disney Star Wars I'd feel a lot better about living in the Kenobian Age
I have confidence that Disney Star Wars won’t stand the test of time that the Original Trilogy did.
I agree. The original Star Wars and even the Prequels to an extent were powerful mythology. Disney Star Wars isn't even good pulp.
*Darth Vader voice*
NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Elendilian Age" seems a bit of a mouthful. Perhaps "The Age of Exile?" Of course, that breaks the Spenglerian theme...
There's one critical thing you're forgetting about the Long Defeat: it's not the full story. Central to Tolkein's writings was the theme of the eucatastrophe--the sudden turn of events for the better. It features at the conclusion of every age of Tolkein's mythos: the War of Wrath (1st age), The Last Alliance (2nd), and the completion of Frodo's quest. And given the nature of Tolkein's world, the ultimate folly is to fight a long defeat without expecting a eucatastrophe. As Gandalf himself says to Frodo: "There are other forces at work in this world besides the one of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring, in which case you also were meant to have it." So, even in the midst of the Long Defeat, there is a faithful Providence working all things toward a better end.
Even the Akallabeth was itself a eucatastrophe. The destruction of a wicked empire and the preservation of a faithful remnant allowed the survival of the best men in Middle Earth and sowed the seeds for Sauron's ultimate destruction (in which the destruction of Numenor was repaid). Death comes to all empires and ages for the same reason that it comes to all men: as a wage for iniquity, and as a mercy. See the conclusion of "The Magicians Nephew" by Lewis for a fuller treatment of this.
So an Elendilian Age is one characterized not only by duty, responsibility, noble obligation, and potential contraction; it is also characterized by the assurance of good things hoped for. And if such faith is not present, then it isn't Elendilian.
You contempate this on the Tree of Woe, and I will contemplate it in the Hall of Fire.
Great point! The Eucatastrophe is central to Tolkien.
I think God's autism has led you into an error. Spengler's naming conventions were by no means so rigid. He named neither Sinic, Hindic, Russian, nor Egyptian cultures for fictional or mythological characters. Apollonian civilization was named for a god, not a fictional character.
Moreover, even if the name "must" be taken from a culture's native mythology, nothing is really accomplished by adopting Tolkien in preference to Virgil. Tolkien was very much a product of late Faustian civilization. The Aenean civilization does not exist yet; its mythology has not yet been written. If we insist on naming Aenean civilization using its own native mythology, it must remain nameless.
It is by the way a rather Faustian thing in itself to even propose to describe the properties of a civilization that does not yet exist. It would have occurred to no previous culture to even contemplate the possibility. Only Faustians (and probably the descendants of Faustians) have the ability to get outside of their own culture in this fashion, to project their imaginations into the future and foresee promise, peril, and incommensurable difference from our own era.
With that said, it may be that the misstep, if misstep it is, in naming the Aenean era is not to be fixed by adopting another backward-looking fantasy - but to look instead to science fiction.
Arrakian Civilization, anyone?
Fair enough! I, too, like Aenean Age aesthetically.
Though I cannot express how disappointed I am that you missed the chance to suggest Barsoomian instead of Arrakian. You're John Carter and we're going to MARS and it was RIGHT THERE.
I couldn't put my finger on why I couldn't fully agree with what was otherwise a solid analysis, but this is it right here.
I'd also like to mention, it's not only visions of the future that are Faustian, but also of the past. It was Faustian civilization that deciphered hieroglyphs, invented the field of archaeology, and cast light onto our prehistoric origins, which were previously shrouded in myth.
The absolute advantage of the Aenean Age is in its alliterative appeal allowing for additional assistance in adoption and aiding in its academic authority.
Also, I already started using Aenean Age in the novel I am publishing here on substack, and I don't particularly want to edit that term out.
I am in alignment with the awesomeness of the Aenean Age. After accepting it as an accurate assessment of America ex ante, I am ambivalent about adjusting to another title.
You had me until "Tolkien’s influence is evident in the career of Giorgia Meloni". If so, that is a most unfortunate result of said influence.
I sincerely don’t know enough about Meloni to understand the criticism. All I’ve read is second-hand accounts of the influence of Tolkien on the Italian Right. Can you elaborate?
She's just another Clown World puppet in a "right wing" skin. When it comes to any political question of actual import (immigration, Ukraine, getting the fuck out of the EU), she's perfectly in step with the rest of the Euroclots.
This is not so well known because Italy's fallen off the map a bit as Germany and France and the UK really start sliding into the shitter, but the Italian leadership isn't any better, they and the rest of the Italians are just used to more chaos.
Oh, that's too bad to hear.
John Galt could be an interesting option -> "Who is John Galt?" (irrespective, kudos to the contemplator.)
I am a huge fan of John Galt and Atlas Shrugged. At one time in my life I definitely would have looked to, say, Rand's Anthem for the future. Unfortunately, I concluded Objectivism probably can't sustain a civilization because it doesn't make fatherhood and motherhood important enough. Objectivism leads to the low fertility rates that are wrecking us.
Every time, someone bring up Ayn Rand’s individualism, my answer was always “John Galt could not stop the motor of world without the collective action.” That pissed many off to no end. She’s a smart lady and was very close to being European in spirit, but her novels were far superior to her essays, which I considered to be mostly a waste. Novels forced her to at least include some sense of realism in comparison to a more Platonic idealism of a Napoleonic figure in her nonfiction. Murray Rothbard was much more forgiving and entertaining than she was and far more American in spirit than his ethnic rivals and enemies.
This. Objectivism is too individualistic, and provides no place for family/clan/community/nation. It's also overly reliant on logic and reason, which are powerful tools to be sure, but ultimately limited.
I wrote this a couple of years ago, The Hubris of Morgoth and The Rings of Power - the Story of Fight against Sauron a Demon who lives out of the Body, thrown out of the body by having the One Ring cut off his finger by Isildur
If you are looking for the symbol of civilisation, it's GANDALF! not because of what is, but what is needed.
Gandalf was the Guy who killed the the Worm, Dragon, Smaug - the Agent, Ally of Sauron who would have been very handy to Sauron in the future war at Gondor - through his intention, through his psychic influence.
Gandalf was the Guy who killed the Balrog of Morgoth who again as the Agent, Ally of Sauron would have been very handy to Sauron in the future war at Gondor - through his intention, through his psychic influence through the giving up of his own life to rise on the third day - Gandalf was always the Image of the Christ as written by Tolkien.
Gandalf was the Christ, the seed who impulsed every action, impulsed every character in the Lord of the rings.
Gandalf was the Word of God!
And Tom Bombadil the Father. - his coat was blue and his boots were yellow.
Tolkien, like Gandalf, through his sacred writings has impulsed every action, every person in the world since the publication of his books.
Tolkien is the Word of God, behind every action in this New Age.
It is not the Actor who is the most important, like Elendil, Isidur, Aragorn, Theoden; It is the Impulse of God…
The Energy Connection with God, the Aura, the Energy, the Psychic Influence which affects, aligns, coordinates, impulses the whole of society.
From Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings.
From Tolkien! out into the World.
Tolkien was an Angel of God sent to change the world.
And it is we who must take up the Gauntlet, like Aragorn, like Elendil, to act.
Here is an except from, The Hubris of Morgoth and The Rings of Power - the Story of Fight against Sauron a Demon who lives out of the Body, thrown out of the body by having the One Ring cut off his finger by Isildur
Just as today the Satanic Phoenician Mega Trillionaires seek immortality in Transhumanism, uploading into the machine, downloading into a new body, eternally as 10,000 years ago their Phoenician ancestors perfected the spiritual technology of leaving the body to live in private universes on the astral plane downloading in Satanic Ritual into Eton "whipping and fagging" prepared, destroyed, minds - easy to possess to become heads of the top Phoenician families to manage their human plantation. All they have to do is totally block their Heart Chakras and vampirise the spiritual energy of humanity. They have to maintain their control of humanity to do that
Sauron was captured by the Númenororians and was imprisoned but then like an evil Joseph worked his way up to becoming the high advisor to the king. A cult of Morgoth was established complete with human sacrifice of the Elf Faithful humans with the goal of achieving immortality. Finally, the last king of Númenor launched an invasion of Valinor to steal immortality. Iluvatar Himself intervened and destroyed the entire fleet of Men by opening a chasm in the sea.
Then Númenor itself was sunk beneath the waves during a night of fire and whatever that will cost a lot to CG. The Elf Faithful escaped under the leadership of Elendil, who became their king and founded Gondor. Making Elendil, Aragorn’s remote but direct ancestor. And yes, Elendil is the same king Sauron kills on the battlefield at the start of Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Read this sentence again: A cult of Morgoth was established complete with human sacrifice of the Elf Faithful humans with the goal of achieving immortality.
Fascinating, is it not, that a high fantasy writer could foresee today’s transhuman global technocrats in the 1940s? It’s because their goals are no different than they were 10,000 years ago, back before the dawn of recorded human history: To be Satanic. To institute human sacrifice. To live forever. To be like God.
https://satchidanand.substack.com/p/the-hubris-of-morgoth-and-the-rings
Great essay. Thanks for sharing it. Remarkable indeed that Tolkien foresaw so much of the technocratic peril we'd face.
Many thanks for your kind comments on The Hubris of Morgoth and The Rings of Power. https://satchidanand.substack.com/p/the-hubris-of-morgoth-and-the-rings
It is just a short article but I have many more thoughts on the Satanism of Sauron in the world which we Must oppose with the light of Christ!
All 16 Energy Enhancement Meditation Books - “The Only Solution to Satanism” in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
https://againstsatanism.com/Sacred-Energy/All-Energy-Enhancement-Meditation-Books-Swami-Satchidanand.rar
ALL FIVE BOOKS OF STUDENT REPORTS OF THE SPIRITUAL WARRIORS ON THE ENERGY ENHANCEMENT QUANTUM VIDEO MEDITATION COURSE PATH TO SELF REALISATION
https://www.energyenhancement.org/Sacred-Energy/5-Spiritual-Warrior-Books.rar
Against Satanism by Satchidanand Volumes 1 to 12 - “The Occulted Satanic History of the World” - Your Worldview Will Never Be the Same! - in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
https://againstsatanism.com/Sacred-Energy/Against-Satanism-Volumes-1-12.rar
Mind Control Black Assassins by Satchidanand Volumes 1 to 11 in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
https://againstsatanism.com/Sacred-Energy/Black-Assassins-Volumes-1-11.rar
Satanic Spiritual Movie Reviews by Satchidanand Volumes One - “Blacklisted” and Two “AI and Transhumanism” in an easily downloadable file from our own website.
https://againstsatanism.com/Sacred-Energy/Spiritual-Movie-Reviews-Vols-1-and-2-Energy-Enhancement-Swami-Satchidanand.zip
I would also like to praise your Goethe and Faust for a New Age - I was very interested in Spengler and Goethe "Connect, only Connect" - Goethe.
Thanks for sharing your links!
Many thanks, here is my latest inspired work with a tribute to yours...
https://satchidanand.substack.com/p/tolkien-and-gandalf-for-a-new-age
"If what was true of Middle-Earth is true of our own era, then what lies ahead is neither the dawn of a golden age or the night of a dark age, but rather a long twilight—an era where the remnants of greatness, having averted or avoided total annihilation, nevertheless must struggle to resist an ever-encroaching darkness at great cost."
Whilst it's true that the ride never ends, remember that Tolkien wrote his stories in part to create his own mythical history of (our) Earth. Numenor fell, and the twin realms of Gondor and Arnor were but a pale imitation of its heyday. But then came Egypt, and Greece, and Rome. And then... well, we're a couple of weeks late in this column, but I trust all the readers here know what then happened in the stable of a fully-booked inn.
=====
'Tell me,' he said, 'is there any hope? For Frodo, I mean; or at least mostly for Frodo.'
Gandalf put his hand on Pippin's head. 'There never was much hope,' he answered. 'Just a fool's hope, as I have been told...'
A good point. An earlier commenter pointed out I had failed to mention the eucatastrophe. I think that's because I struggle to believe it. I have the northern courage but not the hope, sometimes.
"Maddow, being barely capable of grasping the mainstream right-wing views of The Lord of the Rings fans, is entirely unprepared for the far right extremism found in The Silmarillion aficionados. The truly extreme thinkers, of course, go even further; they embrace R.E. Howard’s Conan over Tolkien’s Elendil. But that is another story..."
**Waves**
This essay is too focused on trying to describe the present period and not on inspiring a new age. Focus on the past and weakness and thinking the best days are in the past are the signs of a scleroid mind and old men. It’s rather Jewish in a way, full of sadness.
I prefer to see today as the leftover clay after the flood to be used for a new sculpture to model. Our task is not to mourn the fallen age with the soul of an old man. Our task is to see potential in the ruins with a youthful zeal. Ours is to build a brotherhood dedicated to unite the Heartlands of Europe against the scleroid imperialists of the Axis of Red Capital. Ours to build a new confederation of the European men who will enjoy their sovereignty even as they united in a spiritual congress in the common struggle against those who hate our fathers’ sacred fire. Our brotherhood will create the New Dominion across the million stars of such power and grace that will outshone the former suns of all our fathers before us. With decentralized confederation across many nations and many stars, the Red Capital will be hard put to destroy even the tenth of us. With such a thrilling dream, who can fail to not be stirred to action?
"Vance even named his venture capital firm “Narya,” after one of the Elven Rings of Power in Tolkien's mythology. Vance’s friend and mentor, Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist and political donor, has also drawn inspiration from Tolkien's legendarium. Thiel named his data analytics company "Palantir," after the seeing-stones in The Lord of the Rings"
Then there's Anduril, probably the most dynamic of the new crop of defense companies trying to inject life into a sclerotic US military-industrial complex.
The absolute advantage of the Aenean Age is in its alliterative appeal allowing for additional assistance in adoption and aiding in its academic authority.
Also, I already started using Aenean Age in the novel I am publishing here on substack, and I don't particularly want to edit that term out.
S-level pessimist here to brighten your day.
Never was nerdy enough to tackle the Silmarillion myself, although I had friends at school who did. Tolkien is the man alright, but I'd humbly suggest that the Third Age action of LOTR provides the correct analogies for our present age predicament. My vote would go with commenter Satchidanand; to Gandalf.
Gandalf is the pivotal agent whose visits to the rubes in the Shire red pills the hero who ultimately saves the day. Before this, Frodo & his Fellowship mates lived in speleo-Platonic ignorance of the evil forces in the world. Tangentially, David Rogers Webb comes to mind as a modern day Gandalf telling us clueless Hobbits how it really is. He is a very brave man who has reconciled himself to a meeting with the Balrog, should it come to that.
Tolkien's villains and their infrastructure have eerie analogs today. Sauron de Rothschild has created the rings of power (the central banks) and right now his minions are striving with CBDC development to bind us all in darkness, in the land of Basel (where the shadows lie). The BIS HQ itself is Barad-dûr and <strike>Saruman's</strike> Thiel's creation is the thing that sits at its top.
As for the quest that destroys the One Ring, I'd like to think of today's Frodo as a Satoshi Nakamoto like figure. He/she will probably be an anonymous Geek Right hacker who conjures the right spell to bring down the whole rotten edifice, in the nick of time of course.
Btw, if you ever get a chance to visit Wales I'd highly recommend a tour of the gigantic slate mines which inspired Tolkien's mines of Moria. Long ago I had the opportunity to explore these unguided and the experience left a lasting impression, as it must have done on J. R. R. himself.
I could be persuaded that Gandalf, not Elendil, is the hero of our age. Someone should write that up full length and I’m happy to post it as a guest column.
Great stuff, Sir! Every word a pleasure to read. At the same time as I read, I am living this. I feel my Being, drawn to the Divine, is daily assaulted by personalities subsumed by beastialiy spawning egregores. Egregores who are relentlessly flailing the Earth, howling for death and destruction. How can they be vanquished, then? It is by the Light of Consciouness!