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Asatru and Hinduism

Often there is spoken about the fact that Asatru and Hinduism are family religions in the ‘Indo-European branch’. The prechristian religion of Northern Europe that is now often called “Asatru” (“true to the Aesir”) has a broken link with the past and limited information about the religion, worldview, practises, mythology, etc. is available. The fact that Hinduism is the oldest still living Indo-European religion and also the best documented has lead people to conclude that the study of Hinduism can shed light on -for example- the prechristian religion of Northern Europe. I share this opinion. More even, I wouldn’t limit myself to the Indo-European family, since I agree on many points with so-called “Traditionalists” who think that there is one source. I find it strange that (as far as I know) there is no “Traditionalist” writing about Asatru, no work that compares the prechristian Northern European myths and religion with… Read More »Asatru and Hinduism

Christian mysticism

A while ago I noticed a book in Dutch called Laat Heb Ik Je Lief Gehad – Christelijke Mystiek van Jezus tot nu by Boris Todoroff (2002 Davidsfonds – isbn 9058261832). The title means “late have i loved you – Christian mysticism from Jesus to the present day”. The first is a quote from Augustine (see later), but the Dutch version is more beautiful. “Liefhebben” is in a way the same as “houden van”, but not exactly. In English I don’t know of another expression than “to love”. “Je”/”you” refers to “God”. Another note about my native language though. “Je” is for people ‘on the same plane’, “U” you say against ‘higher’ people or strangers. It is notable that Augustine chose “je”. In Latin you can see this by the way the words in a sentence ends, English -again- makes no difference. Todoroff wrote a 480 pages history of Christian… Read More »Christian mysticism

Some information about Mithraism

There is plenty information about the cult of Mithras on the internet, but I was writing this short article in Dutch anyway, so why not translate it to English and put it here as well? My aim was a very general and short article, so I do not go into things too deeply. There is no longer scientific agreement on the origin of religion of Mithras. Actually I find the term “religion” not too suitable. The cult of Mithras was more like the mysteries of Eleusis, Isis, Bachus or Cybele than a religion such as Christianity. On the other hand, Mithraism may be more of a religion than the mysteries that I named. Mithraism was an initiation cult that had its peak in the Roman empire under soldiers and tradesmen. It didn’t originate in the Roman empire though. About 100 years ago, the Belgian scholar Franz Cumont (1868-1947) was the… Read More »Some information about Mithraism

Where did archeologists find Mithraeums?

In his Mysteries Of Mithra Cumont has a map from Roman times and notes where Mithraic findings have been done by archeologists and where Mithras-temples (“Mithraeums”) have been found. For years I have wanted to visit one of these temples and some of the marks on the map are even not that far away from where I live. The closest Mitraeum is marked at “Vetera”. It took some investigation to find out that nowadays this is Xanten in Germany not too far from the Dutch border. My girlfriend knew about an archeological park in Xanten where a Roman city is being excavated. Still, nowwhere could I find information about a Mithraeum in this park. Digging up old folders of the time that my girlfriend visited the park as a girl proved that the park is called “Colonia Ulpia Traiana” after the city, but that “Vetera” was an army-camp a few… Read More »Where did archeologists find Mithraeums?

the mithraeum of Saarbrücken – report of a visit

During my summer 2005 holidays in Germany, I paid a visit to the Mithraeum of Saarbrücken, or to be more correct: what is left of it. As I wrote in my article about Mithraeums, most have been smashed to bits. I didn’t have a whole lot of information about any of the Mithraums and the same was the case with Saarbrücken. This site has a few nice photos and a description of how to get there which was very helpfull. A few remarks about the route. The site that I refer to says (in my interpretation): – From Saarbrücken downtown follow the A 620 in the direction of Mannheim; – Pass the Bismarck-bridge; – Go left on the roundabout; – Then take the second street on the right (Mainzerstrasse). This is the hardest part. A map of the city is more than helpfull, because however we came from the centre… Read More »the mithraeum of Saarbrücken – report of a visit

Julius Evola – a biography

Evola is a name of which more and more people have heard, but not too many people know something about. When you try to find books of the man, you will have a hard time on the European continent, but in the USA or UK you may succeed. The internet is the best solution when you want to learn something about Evola. When you try one of the bigger search engines, you will have found some good pages pretty quickly, many are in Italian, but in German or English is enough to be found. That the attention and familiarity of Evola starts to increase lately, is mainly caused by the fact that the American publisher Inner Traditions started to release English translations of different books for the first time. Until now 13 books and several articles are available in english. This is only a small part of Evola’s bibliography which… Read More »Julius Evola – a biography

The death of fortune

This article is mostly for foreign visitors. Dutch visitors who watch the news will probably not read much new. Politics in the Netherlands used to be easy. The people from the Catholic south voted for the CDA (Christian democrats), making it the biggest party in many elections. In the (Protestant) north and of course the non-Catholic or critical south, there were only a few other options. There was the PVDA (labour party), D’66 (democratic party founded in 1966) for the more leftish-oriented voters and the VVD (the liberal and conservative party) that was mostly regarded as the party for the rich people. A small but uncoming party as Groen Links (green left), as the name suggests an environmentally oriented leftisch party. Further there were no parties with any influence, just one for the old people, another small Christian party and a very small reformed party and some hardly worth mentioning.… Read More »The death of fortune

Against the modern world?

The non-Traditionalist Muslim Haji Muhammad Legenhausen has written a very nice essay called Why I am not a Traditionalist which is online on a few places on the internet. Legenhausen gives a lengthy and critical comment on the Traditionalist School and some leading Traditionalists. On a few occasions, Legenhausen surely has a point, but his overall critique is fairly easy to shoot holes through. That is not the purpose of my article though. “Traditionalism [and] its rejection of modernity” Legenhausen writes: “The basic point is that nothing should be accepted or rejected merely because it is modern and likewise, nothing should be accepted or rejected merely because it is traditional. There is much that is good in modernity, and much that is good in traditional societies. There is much that is bad in modernity, and much that is bad in traditional societies.” Personally I didn’t get the idea that Traditionalism… Read More »Against the modern world?

Lola Rennt

This article was written quite a while back. After publishing my article “The Matrix and the Eastern doctrine of Maya” in the Dutch magazine “Religie & Mystiek” the readers asked for a similar article based on a film. I knew that Lola Rennt (“Lola runs”) is a good film to explain Karma, so I wrote the article below. It was supposed to be published in the last issue, but due to miscommunication, it will be in the upcoming issue. Here you have the English version: The film is not as well-known as with The Matrix. Lola Rennt is a German film from 1998 made by Tom Tykwer and with Franka Potente as Lola. Potente made it to Hollywood for a few films and Tykwer also made some new movies. Together they recently made the film Der Kaiser Und Der Kaiserin. After this film Lola Rennt got new attention and most… Read More »Lola Rennt

Karma and free will

Many lengthy articles have been written about this subject. If you believe in Karma, can you believe in free will? Isn’t Karma just another word for Fate? Isn’t everything predestined? Most people will say “no”. We don’t like the idea of having no free will and many articles about this paradox are mostly to defend the idea of the free will within the ‘law of karma’. Personally I think I don’t need such a lengthy article to explain my view on the subject. As you probably know Karma is the law of cause and consequence. Often it is explained as “if you do something bad, something bad will happen to you”. This is mostly caused by the bad understanding of Karma by us people from the west. Slowly the idea/explanation of “what you sow, you will reap” gets acclimatized, so also being good will have its benefit in the future.… Read More »Karma and free will