Reform of the Modern Mentality

One hopes to achieve some degree of salvation by observing the rites of one’s religion (whatever that may be). Even if we think we will achieve salvation (fulfilment?) through television, football teams or golden calves there is a hope of salvation, whether that salvation is real or imagined. For meagre man, it is his aspiration. What does a man do if he feels called to more than this? Is it possible to achieve more than this? Some have written that it is possible, even in the modern world.[1] Why then would someone want more than salvation? I do not wish for more than salvation, as if it is not enough in of itself. I desire salvation as much as the next man or woman (though I am unsure if contemporary man has lost some sense of his deep-down desire for salvation in its truest sense). I find it very interesting that while I know I am a wretched creature who needs the purifying Blood of Our Lord and absolution from His shepherds here on Earth, I feel called to something more. How can one qualify that??

What if the ‘more’ desired beyond salvation is not a matter of better or worse, but a gradation between the exoteric to the esoteric? Levels of access within the hierarchy of salvation itself that ranges between worms and gods? Between the Son of Man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints, angels, man himself and plants, we glean a sense that everything is hierarchical. Within a hierarchy everything has its place. One can at once attain unto salvation, achieve a spiritual awakening, and prepare for bodily death. It is a feat, which though not all can partake, it is higher and encompasses the lower.

Many people cry out that the world is rotten, but few recognise that within themselves. That is what St. James is telling us in his letter to the church when he writes, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”[2] This speaks to us on two levels. First, we must do good works to attain unto salvation. Second, we must practice our meditations and exercises to attain unto spiritual awakening and vitality. St. James continues by saying if a man does not do this then he will quickly forget himself “… and what manner of man he was.”[3] It would be prudent to pray the prayer, “May God and all the Holy Angels help me to remember myself everywhere and always, Amen.”[4] However it is a long road. St. Bernard, for instance, shows us a sevenfold path to God. It is clear that no amount of book knowledge will lead you there.

Another example is the exposition of the sceptre of the Empress by Valentin Tomberg in Meditations on the Tarot which he likens to the Holy Grail. He wished to remain anonymous so that he was able to more clearly write what he did with sincerity not usually seen in writers. It was not his intellect, or the books and treatises he was reading on the Holy Grail and the mystical theology of the Eucharist that brought him to the realisation but the prayer and time he spent in the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges, a place he returned to many times.[5]

This would seem an opportune moment to speak a little on the Holy Grail. In a previous article, I touched on the opening word of St. John’s Gospel. These ‘Golden Letters’ should be our guiding light in the darkness. I wish now to speak a little about the Word in relation to the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is at once a vessel (Old French grasale) and a book (gradale or graduale).[6] It is perhaps most well-known that the Holy Grail contains the Most Precious Blood of Christ. It was used at the Last Supper and then by Joseph of Arimathea to collect the blood and water that flowed from Christ’s side when pierced by the lance of the centurion Longinus. It has thus been likened to the Heart of Christ, the receptacle of His Blood.[7] If it is in the Sacred Heart, we see the first aspect of the Holy Grail then it is when the book becomes an inscription traced by Christ or by an angel on the cup itself that we see the second aspect.[8] Hence the phrase ‘Heart of the Incarnate Word’ has a deeper meaning that resonates from the exoteric rites to a place where the Divine and Human wills unite.

What is lacking within society – within us – is spiritual vitality. What better remedy is there for this spiritual deficiency than the Blood of Our Saviour? The fundamental connection between blood and vitality is undeniable; the supernatural connection that occurs in the sacramental sharing of Christ’s Blood is the key to our restoration. We need an infusion – the salvific remedy that is Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross that points upward. Indeed, He has saved us, but it is so much more to one who climbs the spiritual ladder, from the exoteric to the esoteric – to the surface from the depths, from the here and now to the eternal. Christ not only saves but IS. He is the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus – His Blood – revivifies.

…

I find it amazing to think that I have been on a spiritual journey for more than five years now and how much has changed! I have never really put into words what I am aiming at beyond dislocated scribblings. I have tried to follow the exoteric rites as best as I can over the last four years since becoming a Catholic (with full communion with the See of Peter coming a little over three years ago). It has taken me considerably longer than that to understand some of what I read before I became a Catholic. So, before we continue, it is only right to outline some of what has been in my mind that the reader is assured of my aims (and that so I myself have it written down in case I lose my way). As a way of introducing the matter at hand, Rene Guenon writes:

“The reform of the modern mentality, namely the restoration of true intellectuality and of traditional doctrine, is certainly a considerable task; but is that a reason for not undertaking it? It seems to us that such a task constitutes one of the loftiest and most important goals that can be proposed for the activity of a society …

All efforts in this direction will necessarily be oriented toward the Heart of the Incarnate Word, the spiritual Sun and Center of the World, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and science; not of that vain, profane science, but the true sacred science which, for those who study it in the proper way, opens unsuspected horizons that are truly unlimited [emphasis added].”[9]

This sets out the necessary project for anyone who follows in the footsteps of Guenon et al. We acknowledge with Julius Evola that Guenon is the master of the 20th century. Others have set out on this project too, and we are indebted to them, and by no means wish to merely copy what they are doing. I think that they would be happy to know others are following the same path.

Colegero Savlo has written about the “Notion of an Elite” so I won’t go into that in detail here. We just need to acknowledge that the only way for the West to recover from its spiritual torpor is for a small group who possess the wisdom for initiation to galvanise the rest. It becomes a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario when we think about if it is us or Divine revelation that will form this group. I believe it will be like the Apostles at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit will descend upon us and we will be enlightened. By forming oneself into an antenna, we will be ready to transmit the lightning from above.

I myself wish not to cease from mental fight. Indeed, the hymn, ‘Jerusalem’, read as an esoteric text, can be quite vivifying.

[1] Rene Guenon, ‘Christianity and initiation’ in Insights into Christian Esotericism, p. 19.

[2] Epistle of St. James 1:22.

[3] Ibid, 1:24.

[4] Gurdjieff, The Struggle of the Magicians.

[5] Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, p. 60.

[6] See Rene Guenon, ‘The Symbolism of the Grail’ in Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 15, nos. 3 & 4.

[7] Rene Guenon, Insights into Christian Esoterism, Ch. 9.

[8] See Rene Guenon, ‘The Symbolism of the Grail’ in Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 15, nos. 3 & 4, No. 10.

[9] Rene Guenon, ‘Reform of the Modern Mentality’ in Symbols of the Sacred Science, p. 5-6.