In 'The Pole and the Hyperborean Region', Julius Evola pointed out
that the tradition of many peoples provides confirmation of
the 'polar myth', that is, of the polar origin of the Aryan race. In
support of this thesis, he quoted Lie Tseu, the Vedas and the
Mahâbhârata, many texts of the Nordic-Scandinavian tradition, Toltec
and Aztec traditional scriptures, Plutarch, Homer, and so on. What
evidence do you have to support your claim that Evola was cautious
about the 'polar myth'?
In the third paragraph of this chapter of 'Revolt against the Modern
World', Evola indicated that the memory of this arctic seat is part
of the patrimony of many ancient peoples, both as actual geographical
allusions and as symbols. In fact, historical considerations and meta-
historical considerations are remarkably interwoven in this chapter,
as they are in general, and this is one of the most remarkable
qualities of Evola's thought, in his whole work. This is the thought
of someone who, to quote a medieval expression, had his head in the
skies and his feet planted firmly on the ground. Wirth, as for him,
had in mind mostly a concrete polar location, indeed.
As for the 'hollow earth' ('natura abhorret
vacuum', doesn't it?) thesis, is it really based on this
interpretation of the word 'hyperborea'? If 'hyperborea'
meant 'beyond the North', to be consistent with themselves, those who
interpret this word in this manner should have come up with a
diametrically opposed thesis, that according to which the Aryan race
comes from Polaris, the North Star, since the only thing which
lies 'beyond the North' is Polaris, and the other stars which are
part of the constellation of Ursa Minor. In fact, 'hyperborea'
derives from the Greek 'hyper' ('above', 'beyond') and 'boreas'
('north winds'). Literally, it means 'beyond the north wind'; 'of the
extreme North'.
Thompkins&Cariou
-- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "vandermok@a..."
<vandermok@l...> wrote:
> Regarding the sentence
>
> "..since the Winter Solstice is subject to a shift over time in
relation to the zodiac, caused by the precession of the equinoxes, so
in each successive epoch a new typical mode of writing the 'sacred
series' appeared, characterised by the corresponding zodiacal sign":
>
>
>
>
> presently, the names attributed to the Ages correspond only to the
sign of the equinox, the winter solstice not being involved any more,
even if the four key-moments of the year, equinoxes and solstices,
are all important, according to the various civilisations, also in
the choice of the beginning of the year in the calendars. It is well
known, for instance, that the masonry chose the autumn equinox...Rome
the spring equinox, but with phases in which the winter solstice
prevailed (the name January comes from Janus, god of the beginning
and of the doors). Evola wrote on the Natalis Solis Invicti in many
occasions, since1938.
>
> As for the theory of the artic or polar provenance of the Aryans, a
rational explanation speaks of a migration due to a climatic change
after a displacement of the terrestrial axis; a less rational
hypothesis interprets the word hyperborean literally: beyond the
North...That suggested the curious theory of the provenance from the
famous Holy Earth. Strange coincidence, Ulysses finds the entrance to
the underworld in the land of the Cimmerians, another folk often
confused with the Hyperboreans.
>
> We know Evola treats with some caution of that northern Land of the
Sun in many places, especially in the chapter "Il polo e la sede
iperborea" ("Rivolta contro il mondo moderno").
>
>
>
> F.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> evola_as_he_is <evola_as_he_is@y...> wrote:
>
>
>
> A Brief Critical Note on the Work of Herman Wirth : 'Der Aufgang
der
> Menschheit (Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Religion, Symbolik
und
> Schrift der Atlantisch-nordischen Rasse)', Iena, 1928.
>
> It is no simple matter to evaluate Wirth's work. To retrace his
> steps, through his colossal reconstitution of history, religion,
and
> the symbolism of the 'Nordic-Atlantean race', while checking its
> validity step by step, is absolutely impossible here. We will thus
> limit ourselves to a glance at the thesis as a whole, and add a few
> words on the 'method'.
>
> Wirth starts by inverting the idea of the 'evolutionary'
development
> of culture. In the darkness of prehistory (and as far back as the
> Stone Age), there was no coarse and savage humanity, but a great
> culture, of a cosmically symbolic type, carried by a single race.
>
> This race originated in the Arctic regions. Twice, during periods
of
> glaciation, there were emigrations from North to South. Hence,
there
> were also genetic mixings : the Aryans themselves were a late
product
> of 'isovariations' of the primordial white Arctic stock. More
> recently, there was a further movement, from West to East, from
> America and Atlantis (our author admits its existence, hence his
> expression "Nordic-Atlantean race") to Europe and Western Africa.
> There was subsequent colonisation of the Mediterranean basin,
> which is the unitary phenomenon behind the pre-historical findings
of
> the Magdalenian culture, of Altimira and Gourdain, of the ancient
> black cultures of Vai and Jorubi (Frobenius), of white Berber
stocks,
> of very ancient linear writing (such as the pre-dynastic Egyptian,
> the South Arabian, and the Minoan), of the culture of El-Hosch,
etc.
> There followed developments of this wave towards the East, along
> various routes which Wirth sought to identify, culminating in the
> white Maori stocks, who possess involuted remains of this culture.
> Various meetings and mixings with Southern races occurred, as well
as
> with those peoples which had come directly from the North in the
> first emigrations.
>
>
> Following the destruction of Atlantis (which was the centre of this
> culture), the unitary link of the unique tradition to the unique
> prehistoric stock was first broken, then lost to memory. But the
> various colonies, up to historical times, would continue to testify
> to it, both by their racial make-up and by their language roots,
> symbols, myths, and cults. It is precisely these many
correspondences
> that led Wirth to reconstitute it, inductively, as the most
immediate
> explanatory hypothesis.
>
> In the sphere of religion, at the centre of the Nordic-Atlantean
> tradition, lay the understanding of the yearly course of the sun as
> being an expression in the realm of the senses of the supreme
cosmic
> law of death and rebirth, the year-god in his death and
resurrection.
> The Winter Solstice, the critical point of the solar cycle, was the
> key to the ritual, symbolic and linguistic system of these races.
> Wirth's idea was that the various 'moments' of the sun-god in the
> year, as related to the zodiacal signs, constituted a 'sacred
> series', the skeleton of a unique primordial system of symbols,
and,
> in conjunction with certain fixed speech roots, of a unique
> primordial language.
>
> However, since the Winter Solstice is subject to a shift over time
in
> relation to the zodiac, caused by the precession of the equinoxes,
so
> in each successive epoch a new typical mode of writing the 'sacred
> series' appeared, characterised by the corresponding zodiacal
sign :
> after the Lion, [the Crab is omitted here - Ed.], the Twins, the
> Bull, and finally the Ram. Hence there came about corresponding
> variations and modifications of signs and words, as well as the
> passage from the motifs of one cult to those of another.
>
> Wirth considers that the cycle of myths in which a divine figure
dies
> and is born again, or rises, recurrently, represents the echo of
the
> one great prehistoric Nordic-Atlantean myth, and in this cycle he
> includes Christianity. In the Virgin, the Cross, the Lamb, the date
> of birth of the God, and so on, Wirth is certain he can recognise
its
> traces.
>
> How much importance should we accord to Wirth's construction? The
> first thing to be said is that Wirth is neither a 'theosophist' nor
> an 'esotericist'. However daring his syntheses, he remains a
> specialist, an expert, whose erudition regarding prehistory,
> primitive cultures, comparative philology, paleology, and
mythology,
> is absolutely extraordinary. The material he has used in this
volume
> (to be followed by another one, which will reproduce five thousand
> illustrations in support of his thesis) is immense and complex :
> anthropology, even the most recent research into blood types,
> symbolism, etymology, archeology, the texts of the great traditions
> such as the Veda and the Avesta, all provide him with convergent
roads
> towards the unitary goal. Is this goal 'scientific'? It is
difficult
> to answer : but if, in the positive sciences, some truth is
conceded
> to those working hypotheses which best facilitate explanation and
> unitary systematisation, then accordingly a certain right to exist
> should not be denied to Wirth's imposing hypotheses. One may choose
> to dismiss certain principles a priori, such as the hypothesis of
the
> 'sacred series', with the variations which appear in it in over the
> course of time because of the precession of the equinoxes. But if
one
> does not do so, one finds oneself in front of an enchanted castle,
> which one can refuse to enter, but from which it is difficult to
> escape once one has crossed the threshold : from signs to words,
from
> words to symbols, from symbols to words and signs again, through
> idols, spells, calendar notations, names of gods and demons,
> ornaments, rites and ritual objects, inscriptions, masks,
prehistoric
> drawings found on rocks or in caves, funerary ornaments, and
findings
> of every sort, enriched with elements collected on the ground by
> Wirth himself over years of research - the author does not give us
> any rest. And even if one reduces the whole thing to a 'myth', one
> must still recognise the power and vast scale of a living
synthesis,
> which, in these fields, otherwise monopolised by dry and
> particularistic erudition, is second to none.