Dear Friends,
In That Hideous Strength, a novel by C. S. Lewis, a sociologist is gradually seduced by an NGO. As the final stage of the process by which he will become One Of Us, he must trample on a crucifix.
This, he does not do; he is not religious, but something has welled up in him, something typically British: whoever Jesus may have been, he was “straight”; this NGO is crooked.
I often wonder if, for us, such instincts will be enough.
Underlying such instincts are deep structures of consciousness, the causeways which connect us to the mother ship. As fingers connect with the hand — each in its own way — so do the world’s great cultures connect with Reality. This connection, Heidegger calls Dasein (“being there”, one might say “being in context”).
Aleksandr Dugin suggests that the role which in Liberalism was played by the individual, in Fascism by race, and in Communism by class, may in a fourth political theory be played by Dasein. The great attempts of modernity having proven insufficient, Tradition must light the way.
As a musician, I am always in the presence of these deep structures; every note I play evokes them.
“Take me home, country roads / To the place I belong…” Words and music alike shine a torch in those deep caverns where the heroes sleep.
In my life as well, I sense these deep structures.
Within me has always been the longing for independence — independence from the World.
The World is not people. It is that social order which has forgotten its origin:
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”
(Gospel of John, 15:18)
We are only independent from the World when we have a point of contact with Reality: the “little castle in the soul” (Meister Eckhart), “four corners of earth” (Charles Péguy).
Since arriving in Thailand, late in 2018, my wife and I have been searching for those four corners. The search has always been within: the gradual uncovering of the dream, the removal of those other dreams which had partially occluded it.
The lockdowns were, for me, a great purification: they showed what not to depend on.
Now, as of this week, we are camped on the land which is ours, a gentle hillside ringed round by mountains, above it the vast sky with its infinite varieties of blue…
May all beings find that dream within!
“I myself will dream a dream within you…”
God’s Dream (Charles Péguy)
Thank you so much.
With every good wish,
Ishmael
I offer lessons online in music theory; for a taste of the insights to which it may lead, please see my website:
Charles Péguy (1873-1914); photograph by Eugène Pirou
'The World' has been engaged in breaking our bonds with reality. I mean as long as it has existed(~6000 years?) it has been doing this, but I was thinking of the rise of Progressivism especially. The question that we are all waiting to find out is, 'Are they right in thinking that they can fundamentally disconnect people from humanity's created conditions? Is there a 'singularity' where humanity becomes something different?' Their hope is our nightmare. They think that they are becoming gods. Our friend Mark Bisone thinks that they are making orcs. For myself, I have seen over the last few years how easily all of their pasteboard creations fall apart when the winds of fortune change. An army of spineless men is little more than a blob or ooze to be pushed into a dumpster. The Antifas will all take straight jobs when the pickles run out. When there is no blue hair dye on the shelves and no incentives for witchcraft the harpies will put on aprons and learn the ancient art of getting to a man's heart. I suspect that the New World Order, and each of our rebel hearts, will offer about as much resistance as the dark does when you flip the switch.(Flip it soon, Lord Jesus!)