Chapter 6 - From sacred geography to geopolitics
6.1 Geopolitics "intermediate" science
Geopolitical concepts have long been the most important factors in modern politics. They are based on general principles that make it easy to analyze the situation of any particular country and any particular region.
Geopolitics in the form in which it exists today is definitely secular, "profane", secularized science. But, perhaps, it was she who, among all other modern sciences, retained the greatest connection with Tradition and with traditional sciences. Rene Guenon said that modern chemistry is the result of the desacralization of the traditional science of alchemy, and modern physics is magic. In the same way, we can say that modern geopolitics is a product of secularization, desacralization of another traditional science of sacred geography. But since geopolitics occupies a special place among modern sciences, and it is often ranked as a “pseudoscience,” its profanization is not as perfect and irreversible as in the case of chemistry or physics. Connections with sacred geography are visible here quite clearly. Therefore we can saythat geopolitics occupies an intermediate position between traditional science (sacred geography) and profane science.
6.2 Land and sea
Two initial concepts in the geopolitics of land and sea . It is these two elements, Earth and Water, that underlie the qualitative representation of man about the earth's space. In experiencing land and sea, land and water, a person comes into contact with the fundamental aspects of his existence. Land is stability, density, fixity, space as such. Water is mobility, softness, dynamics, time.
These two elements are the most obvious manifestations of the material nature of the world. They are outside of man: everything is dense and fluid. They are also inside it: body and blood. (Same thing at the cellular level.)
The universality of the experience of earth and water gives rise to the traditional concept of the firmament of Heaven, since the presence of the Upper Waters (source of rain) in the sky also implies the presence of a symmetrical and obligatory element of the earth, land, and heavenly stronghold. Be that as it may, the Earth, Sea, Ocean are the main categories of earthly existence, and mankind cannot but see in them some basic attributes of the universe. As the two main terms of geopolitics, they retain their significance both for civilizations of the traditional type, and for highly modern states, peoples, and ideological blocs. At the level of global geopolitical phenomena, the Susha and the Sea gave rise to the terms: thalassocracy and tellurocracy, i.e. "power by the sea" and "power by land."
Every state, every empire bases its strength on the preferred development of one of these categories. Empires are either "thalassocratic" or "tellurocratic." The first assumes the presence of a metropolis and colonies, the second capital and provinces on "common land". In the case of "thalassocracy", its territories are not united in one land space, which creates a discontinuity factor. The sea is both a strong and weak place of "thalassocratic power." Tellurocracy, in contrast, has the quality of territorial continuity.
But geographic and cosmological logic immediately complicates a seemingly simple scheme of this separation: a pair of "land-sea" when superimposed on each other of its elements gives the idea of "sea land" and "earth water". Sea land is an island, i.e. the foundation of the maritime empire, the pole of thalassocracy. Ground water or land water is a river that predetermines the development of a land empire. It is on the river that the cities are located, and therefore the capital, the pole of Tellurocracy. This symmetry is both symbolic and economic-economic and geographical at the same time. It is important to note that the status of the Island and Continent is determined not so much on the basis of their physical size, but on the basis of the specifics of a typical consciousness of the population. So, the geopolitics of the United States is insular, despite the size of North America,and island Japan geopolitically represents an example of a continental mentality, etc.
Another detail is important: historically, thalassocracy is connected with the West and the Atlantic Ocean, and tellurocracy with the East and the Eurasian continent. (The above example of Japan is thus explained by the stronger “pull”, the influence of Eurasia.)
Thalassocracy and Atlantism became synonymous long before the colonial expansion of Great Britain or the Portuguese-Spanish conquests. Even before the start of the wave of sea migrations, the peoples of the West and their cultures began to move to the East from centers located in the Atlantic. The Mediterranean also developed from Gibraltar to the Middle East, and not vice versa. On the contrary, excavations in Eastern Siberia and Mongolia show that it was here that the oldest centers of civilization existed, which means that it was the central lands of the continent that were the cradle of Eurasian humanity.
6.3 Symbolism of the landscape
In addition to the two global categories of Land and Sea, geopolitics also operates with more specific definitions. Among thalassocratic realities, marine and oceanic entities are divided. Thus, the civilization of the seas, for example, the Black or Mediterranean, is very different in quality from the civilization of the oceans, i.e. island powers and peoples inhabiting the shores of open oceans. River and lake civilizations associated with the continents are also more private.
Tellurocracy also has its own specific forms. Thus, one can distinguish between the civilization of the Steppes and the civilization of the Forests, the civilization of the Mountains and the civilization of the Dales, the civilization of the Desert and the civilization of Ice. Varieties of landscape in sacred geography are understood as symbolic complexes associated with the specifics of the state, religious and ethical ideology of various peoples. And even in the case when we are dealing with a universalistic ecumenical religion, anyway its concrete embodiment in a particular nation, race, state will be subject to adaptation in accordance with the local sacred-geographical context.
Deserts and steppes are a geopolitical microcosm of nomads. It is in the deserts and steppes that the tellurocratic tendencies reach their peak, since the “water” factor is minimized here. It is the empires of the Desert and the Barrens that logically should be the geopolitical bridgehead of Tellurocracy.
The empire of Genghis Khan can be considered an example of the steppe empire, and the Arabian caliphate, which arose under the direct influence of nomads, is a typical example of the empire of the Desert.
Mountains and mountain civilizations most often represent archaic, fragmented formations. Mountainous countries are not only not sources of expansion, but, on the contrary, victims of the geopolitical expansion of other tellurocratic forces are drawn to them. No empire has mountain centers as its center. Hence the so often repeated motive of sacred geography: "the mountains are inhabited by demons." On the other hand, the idea of preserving the remnants of ancient races and civilizations in the mountains is reflected in the fact that sacred centers of tradition are located in the mountains. You could even say that in Tellurocracy, mountains are related to some kind of spiritual authority.
The logical combination of both concepts of mountains as an image of a priestly and plain as an image of a regal became symbolism of a hill, i.e. small or medium elevation. The hill is a symbol of royal power, rising above the secular level of the steppe, but not beyond the limits of sovereign interests (as is the case in the case of mountains). The hill is the seat of the king, duke, emperor, but not priest. All capitals of large tellurocratic empires are located on a hill or on hills (often seven in the number of planets; five in the number of elements, including ether, etc.).
Forest in sacred geography, in a sense, is close to the mountains. The symbolism of the tree itself is related to the symbolism of the mountain (both mean the axis of the world). Therefore, the forest in tellurocracy also performs a peripheral function, it is also a “place of priests” (druids, wise men, hermits), but also a “place of demons”, i.e. archaic remnants of a disappeared past. The forest zone also cannot be the center of a land empire.
The tundra is a northern analogue of the steppe and desert, but the cold climate makes it much less significant from a geopolitical point of view. This "peripherality" reaches its climax in the ice, which, like mountains, are zones of deep archaic. It is significant that the Eskimo shamanic tradition presupposes a lonely removal to the ice, where the other world is revealed to the future shaman. Thus, the ice is a priestly zone, the threshold of another world.
Given these initial and most general characteristics of the geopolitical map, it is possible to determine the various regions of the planet in accordance with their sacred quality. This method is also applicable to local landscape features at the level of a particular country or even a particular locality. You can also trace the similarity of ideologies and traditions among the most seemingly different peoples in the event that the same underlying landscape of their habitat.
6.4 East and West in sacred geography
The cardinal points in the context of sacred geography have a special qualitative characteristic. In various traditions and at different periods of these traditions, the picture of sacred geography can change in accordance with the cyclic phases of the development of this tradition. Moreover, the symbolic function of the cardinal points often varies. Without going into details, one can formulate the most universal law of sacred geography as applied to the East and West.
East in sacred geography on the basis of "cosmic symbolism" is traditionally considered the "land of the Spirit", the land of paradise, the land of fullness, abundance, the "homeland" of the Sacred in the most complete and perfect form. In particular, this idea is reflected in the text of the Bible, which refers to the eastern location of "Eden." Exactly this understanding is also characteristic of other Abrahamic traditions (Islam and Judaism), as well as many non-Arabian traditions of Chinese, Hindu and Iranian. "East is the abode of the gods," the sacred formula of the ancient Egyptians says, and the word "east" (in Egyptian "neter") meant both "god". From the point of view of natural symbolism, the East is the place where the sun rises, "rises" the Light of the World, the material symbol of the Divine and the Spirit.
The West has exactly the opposite symbolic meaning. This is the "land of death", "world of the dead", "green country" (as the ancient Egyptians called it). The West is the "kingdom of exile," the "well of alienation," as Islamic mystics put it. The West is an "anti-East", a country of "sunset", decline, degradation, the transition from the manifest to the unmanifest, from life to death, from fullness to poverty, etc. West is the place where the sun sets, where it "sets".
In accordance with this logic of natural cosmic symbolism, ancient traditions organized their "sacred space", founded their cult centers, burials, temples and buildings, comprehended the natural and "civilizational" features of the geographical, cultural and state territories of the planet. Thus, the very structure of migrations, wars, campaigns, demographic waves, imperial construction, etc. determined by the original, paradigmatic logic of sacred geography. Peoples and civilizations lined up along the East-West axis, possessing hierarchical characteristics, the closer to the East, the closer to the Sacred, to Tradition, to spiritual abundance. The closer to the West, the greater the decline, degradation and mortification of the Spirit.
Of course, this logic was not absolute, but at the same time, it was not secondary and relative, as many “profane” scholars of ancient religions and traditions today mistakenly believe. In fact, sacred logic and adherence to cosmic symbolism were much more conscious, meaningful and effective among the ancient peoples than is commonly believed today. And even in our antisacral world, at the level of the “unconscious”, the archetypes of sacred geography are almost always preserved in integrity and awaken at the most important and critical moments of social cataclysms.
So, sacred geography unambiguously affirms the law of “quality space”, in which the East is a symbolic “ontological plus”, and the West is an “ontological minus”.
According to Chinese tradition, the East is the yang, masculine, light, solar principle, and the West is the yin, feminine, dark, lunar principle.
6.5 East and West in modern geopolitics
Now let us see how this sacred-geographical logic is reflected in geopolitics, which, being a purely modern science, fixes only the actual state of affairs, leaving behind the scenes the sacred principles themselves.
Geopolitics in its original formulation by Ratzel, Chellen, and Mackinder (and later by Haushofer and Russian Eurasians) was based on the particularities of various types of civilizations and states depending on their geographical location. Geopolitics have recorded the fact of a fundamental difference between the "island" and "continental" powers, between the "western", "progressive" civilization and the "eastern", "despotic" and "archaic" cultural forms. Since the question of the Spirit in its metaphysical and sacred understanding in modern science is never posed at all, geopolitics leave it aside, preferring to assess the situation in other, more modern terms than the concepts of “sacred” and “profane”, “traditional”and "dietary antitra", etc.
Geopolitics record a fundamental difference between the state, cultural and industrial development of the regions of the East and the regions of the West in recent centuries. The picture is as follows. The West is the center of "material" and "technological" development. At the cultural and ideological level, it is dominated by “liberal democratic” tendencies, an individualistic and humanistic worldview. At the economic level, priority is given to trade and technical modernization. It was in the West for the first time that theories of "progress", "evolution", "progressive development of history" appeared, completely alien to the traditional world of the East (and those periods of the history of the West, when there was also a full-fledged sacred tradition on it, as, in particular, this was the case in Middle Ages). Coercion at the social level in the West acquired a purely economic character, and the Law of Idea and Power was replaced by the Law of Money. Gradually, the specifics of the “ideology of the West” poured into the universal formula of the “ideology of human rights,” which became the dominant principle of the westernmost region of the planet of North America, and especially the United States. At the industrial level, this ideology corresponded to the idea of "developed countries", and at the economic level, the concept of "free market", "economic liberalism". The totality of these characteristics with the addition of a purely military, strategic combination of different sectors of Western civilization is defined today by the concept of "Atlantism." In the last century, geopolitics spoke of the "Anglo-Saxon type of civilization" or the "capitalist,bourgeois democracy. "In this" Atlantic "type, the formula of the" geopolitical West "found its purest embodiment.
The geopolitical East is the direct opposite of the geopolitical West. Instead of modernizing the economy, it is dominated by traditional, archaic forms of production of the corporate, shop type ("developing countries"). Instead of economic coercion, the state most often uses "moral" or simply physical coercion (the Law of Idea and the Law of Power). Instead of “democracy” and “human rights,” the East gravitates toward totalitarianism, socialism, and authoritarianism, i.e. to different types of social regimes, the only ones being that in the center of their systems is not an “individual”, “a man” with his “rights” and his purely “individual values”, but something non-individual, non-human, whether it’s a “society”, "nation", "people", "idea", "worldview", "religion", "leader cult", etc. The West opposed Western liberal democracy with the most diverse types of illiberal, non-individualistic societies, from authoritarian monarchies to theocracy or socialism. Moreover, from purely the typological, geopolitical point of view, the political specificity of a particular regime was secondary in comparison with the qualitative division into the "western" (= "individual-trade") system and the "eastern" (= "non-individualistic-power" system). Such an anti-Western civilization was the USSR, communist China, Japan until 1945, or Iran Khomeini.
It is curious to note that Rudolf Chöllen, the author who first used the term "geopolitics" for the first time, illustrated the difference between West and East . “A typical American sentence , Chellen wrote, is“ go ahead, ”which literally means“ forward. ”This reflects the internal and natural geopolitical optimism and“ progressivism ”of American civilization, which is the ultimate form of the Western model. Russians usually repeat the word “nothing" (in Russian in the text by AD Chellen). This shows the "pessimism", "contemplation", "fatalism" and "commitment to the tradition," characteristic of the East.
If we return now to the paradigm of sacred geography, we will see a direct contradiction between the priorities of modern geopolitics (concepts such as "progress", "liberalism", "human rights", "trade system", etc., have become positive for most today terms) and priorities of sacred geography, evaluating the types of civilization from a completely opposite point of view (such concepts as “spirit”, “contemplation”, “submission to superhuman strength or superhuman idea”, “ideocracy”, etc. in sacred civilization were purely positive and still remain so for the peoples of the East at the level of their "collective unconscious"). Thus, modern geopolitics (with the exception of Russian Eurasians, German followers of Haushofer,Islamic fundamentalists, etc.) assesses the picture of the world in exactly the opposite way than traditional sacred geography. But at the same time, both sciences agree in the description of the fundamental laws of the geographical picture of civilization.
6.6 Sacred North and Sacred South
In addition to sacred-geographical determinism along the East-West axis, the problem of another, vertical, axis of orientations of the North-South axis is extremely important. Here, as in all other cases, the principles of sacred geography, the symbolism of the cardinal points and their respective continents have a direct analogue in the geopolitical picture of the world, which either develops naturally during the historical process, or is consciously and artificially constructed as a result of deliberate actions of leaders of other geopolitical entities. From the point of view of “integral traditionalism,” the difference between “artificial” and “natural” is generally quite relative, since Tradition has never known anything like Cartesian or Kantian dualism, which strictly divides between “subjective” and “objective”(“phenomenal” and “noumenal”). Therefore, the sacred determinism of the North or South is not only a physical, natural, landscape-climatic factor (that is, something "objective") or only an "idea", "concept" generated by the minds of certain individuals (i.e. something " subjective "), but something third superior to both the objective and subjective pole. We can say that the sacred North, the archetype of the North, in history bifurcates into a northern natural landscape, on the one hand, and into the idea of the North, "Nordism", on the other.
The most ancient and original layer of the Tradition is unequivocally affirmed by the primacy of the North over the South. The symbolism of the North is related to the Source, to the original Nordic paradise, where all human civilization originates from. The ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian texts speak of the northern country “Aryan Vaedzha” and its capital “Vara”, from where the ancient Arians were driven out by the glaciation that Ahriman, the spirit of Evil and the enemy of the bright Ormuzd sent to them. The ancient Vedas also speak of the Northern country as the ancestral home of the Hindus, of the Light-Dvipa, the White Earth, which lies in the far north.
The ancient Greeks spoke of Hyperborea, a northern island with the capital Tula. This land was considered the birthplace of the luminiferous god Apollo. And in many other traditions, traces of the oldest, often forgotten and fragmented, Nordic symbolism can be found. The main idea, traditionally associated with the North, is the idea of the Center, the Fixed Pole, the point of Eternity, around which not only space revolves, but also time, the cycle. The north is the land where the sun does not set even at night, the space of eternal light. Every sacred tradition honors the Center, the Middle, the point where the opposites converge, a symbolic place that is not subject to the laws of cosmic entropy. This Center, symbolized by the Swastika (emphasizing the stillness and constancy of the Center and the mobility and variability of the periphery), was called differently in each tradition,but he always directly or indirectly associated with the symbolism of the North. Therefore, we can say that all sacred traditions are the projections of the Unified Northern Primordial Tradition, adapted to one or another historical conditions. The north side of the World, chosen by the original Logos in order to manifest itself in History, and any subsequent manifestation of it only restored the original polar paradise symbolism.
Sacred geography correlates the North with spirit, light, purity, fullness, unity, eternity.
The south symbolizes something directly opposite to materiality, darkness, confusion, deprivation, multiplicity, immersion in the stream of time and formation. Even from a natural point of view, in the polar regions there is one long semi-annual Day and one long semi-annual Night. This is the Day and Night of the gods and heroes, angels. Even degraded traditions remembered this sacred, spiritual, supernatural side of the North, considering the northern regions the abode of "spirits" and "otherworldly forces." In the South, Day and Night of the gods split into many human days, the initial symbolism of Hyperborea is lost, and memory of it becomes a factor of "culture", "tradition". In general, the south is often related to culture, i.e. with that sphere of human activity where the Invisible and Purely Spiritual acquires its materialcoarse, visible outlines. The South is the realm of matter, life, biology and instincts. The South decomposes the northern purity of the Tradition, but retains its traces in a materialized form.
The North-South pair in sacred geography does not boil down to the abstract contrast of Good and Evil. Rather, it is a confrontation between the Spiritual Idea and its coarsened, material embodiment. In the normal case, with the primacy of the North recognized by the South between these parts of the world, harmonious relations exist. The North "spiritualizes" the South, the Nordic envoys give the Southerners a Tradition, lay the foundations of sacred civilizations. If the South refuses to recognize the primacy of the North, a sacred confrontation, the “war of the continents” begins, and, from the point of view of tradition, it is the South that is responsible for this conflict with its crime of sacred norms. In Ramayana, for example, the southern island of Lanka is considered the abode of demons who have abducted the wife of Rama, Sita and declared war on the continental North with the capital Ayodhya.
It is important to note that the North-South axis in sacred geography is more important than the East-West axis. But being more important, it correlates with the most ancient stages of cyclical history. The great war of the North and the South, Hyperborea and Gondwana (the ancient paleocontinent of the South) refers to the "antediluvian" times. In the last phases of the cycle, it becomes more hidden, veiled. The ancient paleocontinents of the North and South also disappear. The relay race passes to the East and West.
The change of the vertical North – South axis to the horizontal East – West, characteristic of the last stages of the cycle, nevertheless, preserves a logical and symbolic connection between these two sacred – geographical pairs. The North-South pair (i.e. Spirit-Matter, Eternity-Time) is projected onto the East-West pair (i.e. Tradition and Profanism, Source and Sunset). East is the horizontal projection of the North down. West is a horizontal projection of the South up. From this transfer of sacred meanings, one can easily obtain the structure of continental vision inherent in the Tradition.
6.7 People of the North
The sacred North defines a special human type, which may have its biological, racial embodiment, but may not have it. The essence of "Nordism" is the ability of man to erect every object of the physical, material world to his archetype, to his Idea. This quality is not a simple development of a rational beginning. On the contrary, the Carthusian and Kantian "pure reason" is just not able to naturally overcome the fine line between the "phenomenon" and "noumenon," but it is this ability that lies at the basis of "Nordic" thinking. The man of the North is not just white, "Aryan" or Indo-European by blood, language and culture. Man of the North is a specific type of being endowed with the direct intuition of the Sacred. For him, space is a fabric of symbols,each of which points to the Spiritual Principle hidden from the eyes. The man of the North is a "solar man", Sonnenmensch, who does not absorb energy like black matter, but releases it, pouring out streams of creation, light, strength and wisdom from his soul.
Purely Nordic civilization disappeared along with ancient Hyperborea, but it was its ambassadors who laid the foundations of all existing traditions. It was this Nordic "race" of the Teachers that stood at the origins of religions and cultures of the peoples of all continents and skin colors. Traces of the Hyperborean cult can be found among the Indians of North America, the ancient Slavs, the founders of Chinese civilization, the Pacific Aborigines, the blond Germans, the black shamans of West Africa, the Red-skinned Aztecs, and the high-skinned Mongols. There is no such nation on the planet that does not have the myth of the "solar man," Sonnenmensch. True spiritual, suprarational Mind, divine Logos, ability to see through peace his secret Soul is the defining qualities of the North. Where there is Sacred Purity and Wisdom, the North is invisibly present, regardless of what time or spatial point we are in.
6.8 People of the South
Man of the South, gondvanic type is the exact opposite of the "Nordic" type. Man of the South lives surrounded by effects, secondary manifestations; he abides in the cosmos, which he reveres , but does not understand. He worships the external, but not the internal. He carefully preserves the traces of spirituality, its embodiment in the material environment, but is not able to move from the symbolizing symbolizing to symbolizing. The man of the South lives in passions and impulses, he puts the spiritual above the spiritual (which he simply does not know) and honors Life as the highest authority. The man of the South is characterized by the cult of the Great Mother, matter that generates a variety of forms. Civilization of the South is the civilization of the Moon, receiving its light from the Sun (North), preserving and transmitting it for some time, but periodically losing contact with it (new moon). Man of the South Mondmensch.
When the people of the South are in harmony with the people of the North, i.e. recognize their authority and their typological (rather than racial) superiority, civilizational harmony reigns. When they claim the primacy of their archetypal attitude towards reality, a distorted cultural type arises, which can be defined collectively as idolatry , fetishism or paganism (in a negative, derogatory sense of the term).
As in the case of the paleocontinents, pure northern and southern types existed only in ancient times. The people of the North and the people of the South opposed each other in the primordial era. Later, entire peoples of the North penetrated the southern lands, sometimes establishing the pronounced "Nordic" civilizations of ancient Iran, India. On the other hand, southerners sometimes went far to the North, carrying their cultural type of Finns, Eskimos, Chukchi, etc. Gradually, the original clarity of the sacred-geographical panorama became clouded. But in spite of everything, the typological dualism of the “people of the North” and “people of the South” persisted at all times and in all eras, not so much as an external conflict of two different civilizations, but as an internal conflict within the same civilization. The type of the North and the type of the South, starting at some point in sacred history, are opposed to each other everywhere, regardless of the specific place of the planet.
6.9 North and South in the East and in the West
The type of people of the North could be projected both to the South, and to the East, and to the West. In the South, the Light of the North generated great metaphysical civilizations , like the Indian, Iranian or Chinese, which in the situation of the "conservative" South for a long time kept the revelation entrusted to them. However, the simplicity and clarity of northern symbolism here turned into complex and diverse intricacies of sacred doctrines, rituals and rites. However, the farther to the South, the weaker the traces of the North. And among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands and southern Africa, “Nordic” motifs in mythology and rituals are preserved in extremely fragmentary, rudimentary, and even distorted form.
In the East, the North manifests itself as a classic traditional society based on the unequivocal superiority of the superindividual over the individual, where the “human” and “rational” are erased in the face of the superhuman and superrational Principle. If the South gives civilization the character of "sustainability", then the East determines its sacredness and authenticity, the main guarantor of which is the Light of the North.
In the West, the North manifested itself in heroic societies , where the West’s pervasive tendency toward fragmentation, individualization, and rationalization overcame itself, and the individual, becoming a Hero, went beyond the narrow framework of a “human-too-human” personality. The North in the West is personified by the symbolic figure of Hercules, who, on the one hand, liberates Prometheus (a purely Western, Godless, “humanistic” tendency), and on the other hand helps Zeus and the gods defeat the giants who rebelled against them (that is, serves the blessing of the sacred norms and spiritual Order).
The south, in contrast, is projected onto all three orientations in exactly the opposite way. In the North, it gives the effect of " archaism" and cultural stagnation . Even the northern, "Nordic" traditions themselves, under the influence of the southern, "Paleo-Asian", "Finnish" or "Eskimo" elements, acquire the character of "idolatry" and "fetishism". (This, in particular, is characteristic of the German-Scandinavian civilization of the "Skald era".)
In the East, the forces of the South are manifested in despotic societies , where normal and fair eastern indifference to the individual turns into a denial of the great Superhuman Subject. All forms of totalitarianism of the East are both typologically and racially related to the South.
And finally, in the West, the South manifests itself in extremely gross, materialistic forms of individualism , when atomic individuals reach the limit of antihero degeneration, worshiping only the "golden calf" of comfort and selfish hedonism. Obviously, it is precisely this combination of two sacred-geopolitical tendencies that gives the most negative type of civilization, since in it two orientations are superimposed on each other, which themselves are negative South vertically and West horizontally.
6.10 From continents to metacontinents
If, in the perspective of sacred geography, the symbolic North unambiguously corresponds to the positive aspects, and the South negatively, then in the purely modern geopolitical picture of the world, everything is much more complicated, and in some way, even vice versa. Modern geopolitics under the terms “North” and “South” refers to completely different categories than sacred geography.
Firstly, the paleocontinent of the North, Hyperborea, has not existed on the physical level for many millennia, remaining the spiritual reality, which the spiritual view of the initiates seeking the original Tradition is directed to.
Secondly, the ancient Nordic race, the race of "white teachers" who came from the pole in the primordial era, does not coincide with what is commonly called the "white race" today, based only on physical characteristics, skin color, etc. The north of the Tradition and its original population, the “Nordic autochthons” no longer represent a concrete historical and geographical reality. Apparently, even the last vestiges of this primordial culture disappeared from physical reality several millennia ago.
Thus, the North in Tradition is a meta-historical and metageographic reality. The same can be said of the "Hyperborean race", it is a "race" not in a biological, but in a purely spiritual, metaphysical sense. (The theme of "metaphysical races" was developed in detail in the writings of Julius Evola).
The Continent of the South and the South of Tradition as a whole have long ceased to exist in their pure form, as well as its most ancient population. In a certain sense, from the very moment almost the entire planet became the “South”, as the influence on the world of the original polar initiative center and its envoys narrowed. The modern races of the South are the product of many mixtures with the races of the North, and skin color has long ceased to be the main hallmark of belonging to one or another "metaphysical race."
In other words, the modern geopolitical picture of the world has very little in common with the fundamental vision of the world in its super-historical, over-time section. Continents and their population in our era are extremely far removed from those archetypes that corresponded to them in primordial times. Therefore, between real continents and real races (as the realities of modern geopolitics), on the one hand, and metakontinents and metarases (as realities of traditional sacred geography), on the other hand, today there is not just a difference, but an almost inverse correspondence.
6.11 The Illusion of the "Rich North"
Modern geopolitics uses the concept of "north" most often with the definition of "rich", "rich north", as well as "developed north". By this is meant the entire totality of Western civilization, which focuses on the development of the material and economic side of life. The “Rich North” is rich not because it is more intelligent, more intelligent or spiritual than “South”, but because it builds its social system on the principle of maximizing material benefits that can be derived from social and natural potential, from exploitation of human and natural resources. The "Rich North" is racially associated with those peoples that have white skin color, and this feature underlies various versions of overt or covert "Western racism" (especially Anglo-Saxon). The successes of the "rich North" in the material sphere were elevated to the political and even "racial" principle precisely in those countries that were at the forefront of industrial, technical and economic development i.e. England, Holland, and later Germany and the USA. In this case, material and quantitative well-being was equated with a qualitative criterion, and on this basis the most ridiculous prejudices of "barbarism", "primitiveness", "underdevelopment" and "subhumanity" of the southern (that is, not belonging to the "rich North", "developed") peoples. Such "economic racism" was particularly evident in the Anglo-Saxon colonial conquests,and later its embellished versions entered into the most gross and controversial aspects of the National Socialist ideology. Moreover, often Nazi ideologists simply confused vague speculations about purely "spiritual Nordism" and the "spiritual Aryan race" with the vulgar, mercantile, bio-commercial racism of the English sample. (By the way, it was precisely this substitution of sacred geography categories with the categories of material and technical development that was the most negative side of National Socialism, which led it, in the end, to political, theoretical, and even military collapse). But even after the defeat of the Third Reich, this type of racism of the “rich North” did not by any means disappear from political life. However, it was primarily the United States and its Atlanticist employees in Western Europe that became its carriers. Sure, in the latest mondialist doctrines of the “rich North” the issue of biological and racial purity is not emphasized, but, nevertheless, in practice in relation to the undeveloped and developing countries of the Third World, the “rich North” still displays purely “racist” arrogance, characteristic of colonialists-English, and for the German national-socialist orthodox Rosenberg line.
In fact, “rich North” geopolitically means those countries in which the forces that are directly opposed to Traditions, the forces of quantity, materialism, atheism, spiritual degradation and mental degeneration triumphed. “Rich North” means something radically different from “spiritual Nordism,” from “Hyperborean spirit.” The essence of the North in sacred geography is the primacy of spirit over matter, the final and total victory of Light, Justice and Purity over the darkness of animal life, the arbitrariness of individual addictions and the filth of low selfishness. The “rich North” of Mondialist geopolitics, on the contrary, means purely material well-being, hedonism, a consumer society, the trouble-free and artificial pseudoray of those whom Nietzsche called the “last people”. The material progress of technical civilization was accompanied by a monstrous spiritual regression of a truly sacred culture, and therefore, from the point of view of the Tradition, the "wealth" of the modern "developed" North cannot serve as a criterion for genuine superiority over material "poverty" and the technical backwardness of the modern "primitive South."
Moreover, the “poverty” of the South at the material level is very often inversely related to the preservation of truly sacred forms of civilization in the southern regions, which means that spiritual wealth is sometimes hidden behind this “poverty”. At least two sacred civilizations continue to exist in the spaces of the South to this day, despite all the attempts of the “rich (and aggressive) North” to impose their own measures and development paths on everyone. This is Hindu India and the Islamic world. With regard to the Far Eastern tradition, there are different points of view, as some even see, under the cover of "Marxist" and "Maoist" rhetoric, some traditional principles that have always been decisive for Chinese sacred civilization. Be that as it may, even those southern regions,which are populated by peoples who adhere to very ancient and half-forgotten sacred traditions, still in comparison with the atheized and extremely materialistic "rich North" seem to be "spiritual", "full" and "normal", while the "rich North" itself, from a spiritual point of view view, completely "abnormal" and "pathological."
6.12 The Paradox of the Third World
“Poor South” in mondialist projects is actually synonymous with “Third World”. This world was called the "third" during the Cold War, and this concept itself suggested that the first two "worlds" developed by the capitalist and less developed Soviet are more important and significant for global geopolitics than all other regions. In principle, the expression "Third World" has a derogatory meaning, since according to the logic of the utilitarian approach of the "rich North", such a definition actually equates the countries of the "Third World" with the "draw" bases of natural and human resources, which should only be subordinated, exploited and used for their own purposes. Moreover, the "rich North" skillfully played on the traditional political, ideological and religious features of the “poor South”, trying to put at the service of his purely materialistic and economic interests those forces and structures that in spiritual potential far exceeded the spiritual level of the “North” itself. He almost always succeeded, since the cyclical moment of the development of our civilization itself favors perverted, abnormal, and unnatural tendencies (according to the Tradition, we are now in the very last period of the "Dark Age", Kali-yuga). Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, the autochthonous traditions of the "non-white" peoples became for the material conquerors of the "rich North" only obstacles to the realization of their goals, but at the same time often they used certain aspects of the Tradition to achieve mercantile goals, playing on contradictions, religious particularities or national problems. Such a utilitarian use of aspects of the Tradition for purely anti-traditional purposes was even more evil than a direct denial of the whole Tradition, since the highest perversion is to make the great serve nothing.
In fact, the “poor South” is “poor” on the material level precisely because of its essentially spiritual orientation, which assigns the material aspects of existence always a secondary and unimportant place. The geopolitical South in our era has retained a broadly purely traditionalist attitude towards the objects of the outside world, a calm, detached and, in the end, indifferent in direct contrast to the material obsession with the “rich North”, contrary to its materialistic and hedonistic paranoia. The people of the "poor South" in the normal case, while living in the Tradition, still live fuller, deeper and even more luxurious, since active participation in the sacred Tradition endows everything aspects of their personal life by the meaning, intensity, and saturation that representatives of the “rich North” have long been deprived of, tormented by neurosis, material fear, inner emptiness, complete aimlessness of existence, which is just a languid kaleidoscope of vivid, but meaningless pictures.
It could be said that the ratio between the North and the South in primordial times is polar opposite to the ratio between them in our era, since it is the South that still retains ties with the Tradition, while the North has completely lost them. But nevertheless, this statement does not completely cover the fullness of the real picture, since the true Tradition cannot allow such a humiliating treatment with itself as is practiced by the aggressively atheistic “rich North” with the “Third World”. The fact is that the tradition is preserved in the South only inertia, fragmentary, partially. She takes a passive position and resists, only defending herself. Therefore, the spiritual North does not completely transfer to the South at the end of time, in the South only the spiritual impulses that once came from the sacred North are accumulated and preserved. In principle, active traditional initiative cannot come from the South. And vice versa, the mondialist “rich North” was able to strengthen its corrupting influence on the planet in this way thanks to the very specifics of the northern regions that are predisposed to activity. The North has been and remains a place of power for the most part, therefore geopolitical initiatives coming from the North have true effectiveness.
The “Poor South” today has all the spiritual advantages over the “rich North,” but it cannot serve as a serious alternative to the profane aggression of the “rich North,” nor can it offer a radical geopolitical project that can disrupt the pathological picture of modern planetary space.
6.13 Role of the Second World
In the bipolar geopolitical picture of “rich North” and “poor South”, there has always been an additional component, which was independent and very important. This is the second world. By “second world” it is customary to mean a socialist camp integrated into the Soviet system. This “second world” was neither truly “rich North”, since certain spiritual motives implicitly influenced the nominally materialistic ideology of Soviet socialism, nor really the “Third world”, as a whole orientation to material development, “progress" and other purely profane principles lay at the heart of the Soviet system. The geopolitically Eurasian USSR was also located both in the territories of "poor Asia" and in the lands of a rather "civilized" Europe. During the period of socialism, the planetary belt of the "rich North" was opened in the east of Eurasia, complicating the clarity of geopolitical relations along the North-South axis.
The end of the Second World as a special civilization suggests for the Eurasian territories of the former USSR two alternatives either to integrate into the "rich North" (represented by the West and the USA), or slide into the "poor South", i.e. turn into a "Third World". A compromise is also possible for some of the regions to leave for the North, and some for the South. As always in recent centuries, the initiative to redistribute geopolitical spaces in this process belongs to the “rich North”, which, cynically using the paradoxes of the Second World concept itself, draws new geopolitical boundaries and redistributes zones of influence. National, economic and religious factors serve the Mondialists only as tools in their cynical and deeply materialistically motivated activities.It is not surprising that, in addition to deceitful “humanistic” rhetoric, almost openly “racist” arguments are used more and more often, designed to instill in the Russians a complex of “white” arrogance in relation to Asian and Caucasian southerners. Correlated with this is the reverse process of the final rejection of the southern territories of the former “Second World” to the “poor South” accompanied by a game of fundamentalist tendencies, people’s craving for Tradition, for the revival of religion.towards the "poor South" is accompanied by a game of fundamentalist tendencies, on people's craving for Tradition, for the revival of religion.
The “Second World,” disintegrating, breaks down along the line of “traditionalism” (southern, inertial, conservative type), “anti-traditionalism” (actively northern, modernist and materialistic type). Such dualism, which is only planned today, but will soon become the dominant phenomenon of Eurasian geopolitics, is predetermined by the expansion of the Mondialist understanding of the world in terms of the “rich North” and “poor South”. An attempt to save the former Soviet Great Space, an attempt to simply preserve the Second World as something independent and balancing on the border between the North and the South (in a purely modern sense), cannot succeed until the very basic concept of modern geopolitics, understood and realized in its real form, on the other side of all deceptive statements of a humanitarian and economic nature.
The Second World is disappearing. In the modern geopolitical picture, he no longer has a place. At the same time, the pressure of the "rich North" on the "poor South" increases, which remains alone with the aggressive materiality of the technocratic civilization in the absence of the intermediate authority that has existed so far in the Second World. Some other fate than a total split according to the rules dictated by the “rich North” for the “Second World” is possible only through a radical rejection of the planetary logic of the North-South dichotomous axis, taken in a mondialistic manner.
6.14 The Resurrection of the North project
The "rich Mondialist North" globalizes its domination of the planet through the split and destruction of the "Second World". This is called modern world order in modern geopolitics. The active forces of anti-tradition consolidate their victory over the passive resistance of the southern regions, at the cost of economic backwardness preserving and protecting the Tradition in its residual forms. The internal geopolitical energies of the Second World are faced with the choice of either integrating into the system of the “civilized northern belt” and finally breaking off ties with sacred history (the project of left mondialism), or turning into occupied territory with the partial restoration of some aspects of the tradition (project of right mondialism). It is in this direction that events are unfolding today and will unfold in the near future.
As an alternative project, one can theoretically formulate a different path of geopolitical transformations, based on the rejection of Mondialist North-South logic and on the return to the spirit of genuine sacred geography as much as possible at the end of the dark age. This is a project of the "Great Return" or, in other terminology, the "Great War of Continents."
In the most general terms, the essence of this project is as follows.
1) The "rich North" is not opposed to the "poor South", but the "poor North". “Poor North” is the ideal, sacred ideal of returning to the Nordic origins of civilization. Such a North is “poor” because it is based on total asceticism, on radical devotion to the highest values of the Tradition, on complete sacrifice of the material for the spiritual. The “Poor North” geographically exists only in the territories of Russia, which, being essentially the “Second World,” socially and politically opposed to the last moment the final adoption of the Mondialist civilization in its most “progressive” forms. The Eurasian northern lands of Russia are the only planetary territories that have not been fully developed by the "rich North", inhabited by traditional peoples, and constituted the terra incognita of the modern world. Way of the Poor North for Russia, it means a refusal both to integrate into the mondialist belt and to archaize their own traditions and to bring them to the folklore level of the ethno-religious reservation. The "Poor North" must be spiritual, intelligent, active and aggressive. In other regions of the “rich North”, potential opposition of the “poor North” is also possible, which can manifest itself in radical sabotage by the intellectual western elite of the fundamental course of “mercantile civilization”, an uprising against the world of finance for the ancient and eternal values of the Spirit, justice, and self-sacrifice. “Poor North” begins a geopolitical and ideological battle with the “rich North”, abandoning its projects, exploding inside and out plans, undermining its impeccable effectiveness, disrupting his socio-political fraud.
2) The “Poor South”, unable to independently confront the “rich North”, enters into a radical alliance with the “poor (Eurasian) North” and begins the liberation struggle against the “northern” dictatorship . It is especially important to strike at representatives of the ideology of the "rich South", i.e. by the forces that, working for the "rich North", advocate for the "development", "progress" and "modernization" of traditional countries, which in practice will mean only an ever greater departure from the remnants of the sacred Tradition.
3) The "Poor North" of the Eurasian East, together with the "poor South", extending around the circumference of the entire planet, concentrate their forces in the struggle against the "rich North" of the Atlantic West. At the same time, the ideological forever puts an end to the vulgar versions of Anglo-Saxon racism, the chanting of the "technical civilization of the white peoples" and the accompanying mondialist propaganda. (Alain de Benoit expressed this idea in the title of his famous book “Third World and Europe: we are united in the struggle” “L'Europe, Tiersmonde meme combat”; it naturally refers to “spiritual Europe”, “Europe of peoples and traditions "and not about" Maatstricht Europe traders ".) The intellectuality, activity and spirituality of the genuine sacred North returns the traditions of the South to the Nordic Source and raises the" southerners "to a planetary rebellion against a single geopolitical enemy. The passive resistance of the "southerners" thereby acquires a fulcrum in planetary messianism "northerners," radically rejecting the vicious and antisacral branch of those white peoples who have embarked on the path of technological progress and material development. The planetary supra-racial and supranational Geopolitical Revolution, based on the fundamental solidarity of the Third World with that part of the Second World, which rejects rich north project.