ruminations on seventeenth to twentieth century visionaries
#1
Is it possible that the visionaries of Europe from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries were all astrological recurrences of other visionaries of earlier origin? Should we consider the possibility of such a thing?

Henry the eighth holds a strange similarity with the mythic knight from the Homeric story the Iliad known as Achilles. Likewise Napoléon is similar to Odysseus... going on the same journey as Henry the eighth but taking a more perverse route to get there. Garibaldi is like Socrates, D'Annunzio like Plato, Gentile Aristotle, Hitler Augustine & Lenin is like Aquinas. The mysticism of Nietzsche is awfully similar to that of the Talmud, that of Freud the Koran, Wagner the teachings of JesusMarx' mysticism is similar to that of the Tanakh. Likewise Schopenhauer is like the pharaoh Tutankhamen & Hegel Akhenaten.

Is this all a load of nonsense?
albert speer
#2
In general I think you are correct. As it is often said, history repeats itself. This repetition is best observed exactly in the reappearance of particular phenotypes - the philosopher king, the young lion, the scheming mystic, etc. These phenotypes are universal and deeply ingrained in the collective unconscious, which is why they easily speak to people of all cultures and and why you can see an Achilles in Henry the Eighth and an Odysseus in Napoleon. More so than a mirror-image of a particular individual, you are observing the set of characteristics associated with a particular phenotype.

Having said that, I don't agree with some of your examples. I do not see how Garibaldi is like Socrates. I would place Garibaldi in the young lion phenotype. More particularly, in a variation of this phenotypes which covers those figures who prove their bravery on the battlefield and are mostly driven by their desire to liberate the masses. A more modern example of this phenotype would be T.E. Lawrence, a classical - Spartacus, a mythological - Zeus with the war he led against the titans. I think Socrates, on the other hand, would be best associated with a phenotype which has the characteristics of the wise revolutionary - the man who breaks up and reshapes society from within, not through violence but through reason. He also rallies the masses behind him but this is achieved not through feats of courage and battlefield prowess but through rhetoric and manipulation of language. He would in my eyes fit better in a group with Gandhi and Martin Luther. I cannot think of a mythological figure to include in this group.
#3
The reason I think Garibaldi is like Socrates is because I'm certain Gentile was Aristotle & Mussolini Alexander. Aristotle famously advised Alexander on matters political in the same way Gentile did. If Gentile is Aristotle then D'Annunzio must be Plato since he influenced Gentile and Garibaldi must be Socrates since he influenced D'Annunzio. Also if this theory is correct then Bavaria is the new Egypt & Israel... Britain, France & Italy are the new Greece... Prussia & Russia are the new Rome
albert speer
#4
I see the connection you are making. It looks like you are basing it more on relationships between individuals rather than specific character traits. I always thought of Napoleon as an Alexandrian figure but after you said it I can also see some parallels with Mussolini.

I think the theory also holds true for nations but I have a bit of a different view of that. Rome carried the Greek spirit so it feels wrong to consider them separately when talking about one people or nation resembling another. I would say the best modern equivalent to Greece, Rome, Byzantium is Britain. From its conquest of the world, through its civilizing mission all the way to its hubris and downfall - conquered by those it had tried to civilize. Egypt on the other hand is such a strange one that I don't really know what to compare it with. In a way, I would prefer to separate the national from the individual and look at the path of a nation as a whole, rather than focusing on the individuals born within.
#5
If you see Nietzsche, Freud, Wagner, Marx, Schopenhauer & Hegel as magi or old testament/rabbinick Jews from Israel and Egypt then to see Bavaria as the new Israel and Egypt is not a difficult thing to do.
albert speer
#6
I challenge you to make one worthwhile post without using a single proper noun. Stupid mick monkey, I will make you my slave once more.



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