Author: Vladimir Karpets

Translator: Yulian Orlov

Zavtra 36 (929), 7 September 2011

In the Orthodox Tradition, Jesus Christ (‘The King of the World and Saviour of our souls’) is called a ‘priest in the order of Melchizedek’. As the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He also becomes a universal symbol (an archetype, to be more precise) of the Line of Kings. “The figure of the king symbolically depicts the figure of Christ, and thus acquires a kind of duality in its semantic content”, Aleksandr Ivanov writes in his work From Paganism to Christianity: On the Paths of the Last Austrasia: “On the one hand, the king is a part of the people. On the other hand, however, through the universality of his general imperial role, he ascends his own people and in a certain sense becomes a representative of the single proto-people that had not yet lost its link with the Creator in the entropic flow of being.”

The British Isles are located directly on the interstice northern polar world (although it has sunk and disappeared under the ice) and the Western oceanic world (even if it has disappeared under the waves). Two traditions: a continental, kingly one, and an Atlantic, priestly, judiciary one. From the very beginning, they have collided in that far-off land together with the surrounding islands, which together form, as it were, the Ocean’s bulwark against the Continent. On the basis of excavations, archaeology has come to the conclusion that the territory of Britain was settled by humans roughly between 10000 and 8000 b. C. The separation of the islands and the mainland (if we do not pay special attention to the myth of Atlantis) was (or coincided with) the beginning of the segregation of the “Atlantic tradition”. The ‘newcomers’ transition from a nomadic way of life to a settled one while the ‘Hyperboreans’ (who were initially settled) are forced to change their place of life (or ‘topogenesis’ [1]) only because of circumstances.

Beginning roughly from the fifth millennium B.C.  in a wide area ranging from modern Spain and Portugal to Bretagne, Ireland, England, Scotland, and Scandinavia, stone constructs (Newgrange in Ireland, Maeshowe in the Orkney Islands, and Brin-Kelly-Dee near Anglesey) that remain mysterious to us moderns begin to appear. Their distinguishing trait is an underground corridor, the ceiling, walls, and floors of which are covered with stone plates. This corridor leads into an underground cave upon which a burial mound has been built. Many megalithic stones (especially in Ireland) are decorated with drawings of an unknown meaning. In Martin Brennan’s book The Stars and the Stones, it is proven that several of these symbols are depicted with extreme precision in order for a ray of sunlight or moonlight to fall upon it at a certain moment of the year. Brennan also claims that the corridor leading into the subterranean chambers was partially oriented in such a way so that a ray of light could enter it at a certain day of the year. What happened in these structures?

Some years ago, it was thought to have been proven that the builders of the megaliths had moved to the North from a kind of Mediterranean “cradle of European civilisations”. However, recent studies have shown that the monuments on the European Atlantic coastline are significantly older than their apparent Mediterranean prototypes. Before our very eyes, theories that were earlier considered ‘exotic’ come to life, such as the hypothesis of J. Foster Forbes [2], an author who wrote several books on British history, among which is the book called The Unchronicled Past (1938), in which it said that “these stones were erected from the eight millennium B.C. onward; their builders were men from the West, or, to be more precise, the priests that had survived the catastrophe that struck Atlantis. They erected their grand constructs in order to establish and support social order.” The sacred construction works of the ‘aliens’ (newcomers) [3] took place on the sites of the Neolithic temples of the ‘autochthonous inhabitants’… In turn, the ‘aliens’ acquired the status of ‘deities’ and became the founders of the ruling dynasties as well as priests. For example, according to a legend found in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth [4], the honour of the construction of Stonehenge belongs to the sorcerer Merlin. Despite common opinion, the site has nothing to do with the Celtic druids that appeared in Britain one and a half thousand years after its construction. The mythologems related to Arthur and Merlin have no direct relation to ‘Celticism’, as has been shown in particular by Laurence Gardner.

The Celts arrived in Britain about 600 B.C. According to all recent data, this group originated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. It is most likely that the invasion of the Celtic tribes was not a single moment at all, but rather had an extended character. Together with their language, the Celts brought their religion of druidism to Britain while still preserving many elements of the pre-Celtic mytho-religious constitution of the country. The druids (the Celtic priestly caste) served as a form of ‘connecting link’ between the various tribes. Their power was higher than that of any chieftain or king. The druidic calendar (like the calendar of the megalithic period) was founded on a combination of the lunar and solar cycles. The social structure of Celtic society was fundamentally theocratic and anti-monarchical, strongly reminiscent of the structure that is described in the Biblical Book of Judges.

The conquerors of Britain (the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) had continental origins. The king had sacred functions that were accorded to the clergy in the ‘Celtic-Atlantic’ worldview. The eldest continental tradition places ‘monarchy’ above the ‘clergy’ and accords the ‘king-konung’ sacred functions. The continental pantheon was headed by Odin (Wotan, Wodan), the guardian of warbands, the god of wisdom, the ‘supreme shaman’, and the patron of initiation: later tradition associates Odin with the origins of the various Germanic royal houses.

In a certain sense, we can say that according to the primordial, Hyperborean tradition, Monarchy stood higher than the ‘clergy’ (or, to be more precise, that it encompasses the ‘clergy’). ‘Atlantism’, on the other hand, places the ‘Clergy’ (or ‘priests’) higher than ‘Monarchy’. A special role in the ‘Atlantic tradition’ is accorded to judicial power.  As far as the concrete question that we are examining is concerned, two mutually exclusive traditions lie at the foundation of ‘British identity’: the Atlantic (the initial tradition in Britain, but secondary in the larger picture) and the Continental (‘Hyperborean’), which is the general primordial tradition, but secondary for Britain.

The presence of these mutually exclusive traditions is the root of the fundamental duality of the British monarchy: on the one hand, it is indeed a monarchy comparable to its continental brethren; on the other, it is something totally different.

Departing from all that has been said, we must make mention of one important piece of information: René Guénon points out a most important circumstance: the ‘Jewish tradition’ (and, consequently, the ‘Abrahamic religions’) are the most important component of ‘Atlantism’:

“Since this last [the Atlantic tradition – transl.], on the other hand, is located in a region that corresponds to the evening in the diurnal cycle, it must be regarded as belonging to one of the last divisions of the cycle of present terrestrial humanity and therefore as relatively recent… Besides, just as the autumn of the year corresponds to evening in the day, one can see a direct allusion to the Atlantean world in the fact that the Hebraic tradition (whose name moreover betrays its Western origin) indicates that the world was created at the autumn equinox… And it seems also that the biblical deluge corresponds directly to the cataclysm in which Atlantis disappeared…  But what we wish to say is that, although the Atlantean cycle was taken as a foundation in the Hebrew tradition, it seems that the transition was either made by the mediation of the Egyptians – which at least has nothing improbable about it – or by altogether different means. If we make this last reservation, it is because it seems particularly difficult to determine how, after the disappearance of Atlantis, the current coming from the West was joined with another current coming from the North proceeding directly from the Primordial Tradition…” [5].

Actually, even the Bible itself indicates the ‘secondary nature’ of the ‘Abrahamic tradition’ several times, most importantly when the text speaks about the blessing Abraham receives from Melchizedek (Gen. 14: 18-20). The apostle Saint Paul indicates this in an entirely unambiguous fashion:

“1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. 5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: 6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. 7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better” (Hebr., 7: 1–7) [6].

At the foundation of the ‘second tradition’ (the Atlanto-Abrahamic, the beneficiary of the ‘blessing of Melchizedek’ for a certain historical cycle) lies not the cyclical, calendarian  holism of death and Rebirth, but rather a “radically innovative mission” as Dugin calls it, in light of which the “theme of monarchy is combined with the subject of sin” [7].We are speaking of the relations of the “covenant” i.e., “agreement” (brith), a “contract” in a purely judicial (even ‘notarial’) sense. Therefore, we are dealing with a special judicial sacrality in which the relations between cause and effect are regulated not by unity, but by an ‘agreement’. This is not purely characteristic of ancient Israel, but through it also for the entirety of Western civilisation, for which the category of law as such is a form of religion.

The interaction between the Atlantic tradition and its most important component (the Mediterranean (Semitic) traditions) according to various hypotheses manifested through one of the most important of the ‘tribes of Israel’: the tribe of Dan. According to Jacob, “Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward” (Gen. 49:16–17).

The very word dan means ‘judge’ in Biblical Hebrew, and all the main historical events related to the tribe of Dan take place in the Book of Judges, the very book that is juxtaposed with the Books of Kings (which to Israel are secondary and in a sense incidental, in contrast to Hyperborea and the East). In this sense, the Hebrew (‘hierarchic’, i.e. ‘priestly’) tradition and druidism essentially coincide up to such a point, that today as well precisely this union, or, to be more precise, amalgamation, forms the foundation of the entire ‘national idea’ of both England and the US. As far back as 1840, J. Wilson published the book Our Israelitish Origin, and many of his ideas would go on to (envisioned in an, of course, Protestant light, ‘liberated’ from the ‘pagan’, ‘pantheistic’ sides of druidism) form the foundations of so-called ‘dispensationalism’, which, in turn, would form the foundation for the ideology of the modern American ‘neoconservatives’ [8].

“As has happened with the other lost tribes, a not insignificant number of speculations about the fate of the descendants of Dan has appeared” — an entirely official source reads — There is a multitude of versions (cursive ours. — V. K.) that frequently seek evidence in linguistic similarities that connect the Danites with the Danes (cursive ours. — V. K.), Koreans, Japanese, or even American Indian tribes… (Information drawn from “Drevo: The Open Orthodox Encyclopaedia” – author).

Theories purporting to hold information about the “Koreans, Japanese, or even American Indian tribes” have, of course, a purely exotic character. However, the spread of the Danites through northern Europe is a fact that is openly acknowledged by almost all European and American historiography. In addition, the Old Testament places the tribe of Dan in the north (Numbers 2:25) [9]. In places, the Bible ‘lets slip’ that the Danites possessed maritime lands (Judges 5:17) [10] and had no inheritance among the tribes of Israel (Judges 18:1) [11]. Researchers connect this ancient race to the Atlanteans that spread over the entire globe.

 

Translator’s notes:

[1]: The Russian term used here (месторазвитие) denotes a fundamental Eurasianist concept that encompasses the relation between a people and the space it inhabits and includes not only the physical characteristics of a space, but also its cultural and historic traits. The term is usually translated as “place-development” or “topogenesis.” 

[2]: John Foster Forbes (1889 – 1958) was a British historian and esotericist who wrote four books on the ancient and paranormal history of the British Isles. He was a member of the Order of the Cross, a mystical fellowship. The influence of several members of the order drove Forbes to reach his eclectic range of subject matter that combines research on psychic phenomena, Atlantis, and pre-Roman antiquities, with UFOs becoming an additional subject of his work in the 1950s.  

[3]: Karpets puns on the terms алиен (derived from the English ‘alien’ with the meaning of ‘extra-terrestrial visitor’) and пришелец (which means ‘alien’ in the broader sense of ‘person from a foreign land’, as well as carrying the meaning of ‘newcomer’). A case could be made for translating the sentence as ‘the construction works of the ‘aliens’ (aliens)’, but, as the pun does not carry over into English well, a choice has been made in favour of translating пришельцы as ‘newcomers’.  

[4]: Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095 – c. 1155) was an English cleric and chronicler. His History of the Kings of Britain attempted to forge a connection between the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas, King Arthur, and the then ruling British monarchs. Although the book was extremely influential in the Middle Ages and early modern period, modern historians see Monmouth’s work as a folk history with no basis in historical fact.

[5]: The translation of these quotes by Guénon has been drawn from pp. 24 to 26 of Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (Sophia Perennis: Hillsdale NY 2004).

[6]: All quotations from the bible are drawn from the King James Version.

[7]: A. G. Dugin. Filosofiia politiki (Arktogeya: Moscow 2004), p. 207.

[8]: John Wilson (1799 – 1870) was a historian and one of the founders of the theory of British Israelism. His main work, Our Israelitish Origin: Lectures on Ancient Israel, and the Israelitish Origin of the Modern Nations of Europe (1840) is available here.  

[9]: “The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies: and the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.”

[10]: “Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.”

[11]: “In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.”