THE DARK AGE
321. The meaning of modernity, in which man becomes more and more subject to negative forces, can only be properly measured by those who know that becoming a subject to positive forces is also a negative thing.
322. Modernity is itself antitraditionality.
323. Modernitiy is an offensive form of antitraditionality.
324. Kali-yuga means that what is below my personal self starts to determine my personal self more and more, in the sense that it hinders the reduction of my personal self to my hyperpersonal Self.
325. Modernity is that which is hostile to realisation.
326. Modern man is modern, that is antitraditional, antispiritual and antimethaphysical because with his outlook and tendencies he does not turn towards the Source but towards the end of the currents, a kind of ocean in a negative sense.
[An ocean is simultaneously a symbol of the two, positive and negative, extremes of possibilities: as a positive symbol it symbolises the totality of being of God which is the ultimate goal of the follower of a spiritual path; as a negative symbol it represents the melting into the unqualified root-nature of the existent world, into the pure passive potentiality. Naturally the latter means the annihilation of the individual identification, that is the individual involved in the process.]
327. Modernity is anti-centre, but this does not »disturb« the centre at all. Being anticentre disturbs the effort which aims at reaching the centre.
328. Modernity is the way to conformity - the way to conformity forever in the direction of the lowest.
329. Kali-yuga is characterised mainly by the passionate clinging to the continuous deterioration and disintegration of consciousness.
330. The last phase of Kali-yuga is the period when the poisons having been held back so far are being emitted.
331. »Being devoured«: this is the fundamental word for what the rule of darkness realises; being devoured, which is followed by annihilation.
332. Kali-yuga is not merely a state but a threatening and devouring throat.
333. The disintegrating forces of darkness are living forces, living forces that bring death.
334. As a human life subjugated to illness is not only ill but is also spreading illness, just the same way a »dark« man is not only »dark« but is also spreading darkness.
335. The forces of darkness can gain power in the world only because they have already gained power in the soul.
336. That which surrounds man is the reflection of his inner world.
337. With a pinch of salt one could say that everything maintained in the world at present is false or utterly valueless or explicitly represents some kind of dark counter-value.
338. The present time as a temporal interval can have positive manifestations but just as much as these do not represent the present time as modern present time.
339. What prevails at present is so bad that what is slightly better than this still cannot be considered good at all.
340. In order to be an ārya, that is twice-born, one has to be thrice-born: he has to be born as an anārya, he has to be born in a way that potential āryaness should come alive in him, and in the end he has to be born as a full member of an ārya caste.
[Originally, in India only those could be a full member of the three upper - ārya - castes (sanskrit brāhmaņa varņa, ksatriya varņa, vaiśya varņa) who went through a caste-initiation. The members of these three castes were called twice-born (sanskrit dvija). The members of the fourth - anārya, that is non-ārya - caste did not have to go through a caste-initiation to actualise their caste-membership.]
341. Kali-yuga is present in the consciousness, in the strict sense of the word, in the human psyche, in the spiritual manifestations and deeds of man, just as it is present in the surrounding world, in buildings, in music, in the different manifestations of artistic trends and in the very processes of nature. Wherever man directs his attention, be it inward or outward, he is everywhere surrounded and ruled by a world which is under the aegis of antitraditionality - that is being cut off from God, heaven, transcendence, superiority and the essence.
342. The present time as a modern time, that is, an antitraditional time in the extreme, is the time of negative dominances. And it holds true even on the level of the most base profanities: for example, a young and healthy man feels bad much more often than good, he is much rather depressive, sad and gloomy than luminous, happy and joyous.
343. The present age - as René Guénon put it - »is the crisis of the modern world«. Yet, the modern world without any inner crises is ab ovo the crisis of the world itself. When the crisis itself gets into crisis, it will not come about in the sense as if a traditional world were to take the place of the modern world but in the sense that the modern world as one built on materialism - that is on a view representing lifelessness, destruction and even active forces of death - reached a phase when the destructive and necrotising forces let loose by materialism are starting to disintegrate modern world itself.
344. Modernity is not a stiffened, static reality, but a dynamic process, which is continuously working to make itself darker and darker.
345. Descent is not merely a monotonous descent. Phases of sudden halts, sharp falls and slow descents are changing - but these take place in the process of a monotonous descent.
346. Exactly as in the demential phase of paralysis progressiva there are lucida intervalla, but they come about more and more raerly and are less and less luminous, in just the same way in the last phase of the Kali-yuga there can be lucida intervalla, but those who examine processes in their total coherence cannot be deceived by these.
347. Modernity is maximal just now.
348. Once darkening could be perceived in fifty or a hundred years. Now it is perceivable every five years.
349. An age, in which wisdom means cautiousness, and cleverness sly cunning, in an age where honesty is paired with foolishness and mental disorders, and - here comes the saddest! - in which honesty is quite often in connection with a sallow mind and pathological mental states, cannot be other than an age with a downward ending.
350. An age, which gives much more chance for darkness than for light, is quite justly considered damned.
351. Nothing illustrates better the nature of an age than that which succeeds in it: the higher or the lower, the good or the bad, the angelic or the demonic. And today - looking at it from a »bookmaker’s« point of view - the victory of the worse is incomparably more probable than that of the better.
352. He whose aim is decline, failure and fall can be sure of his success.
353. All that is directed toward fall starts with infinitely great advantages.
354. The truly spiritual axiom, according to which omnia vincit veritas holds true today, broadly speaking, only in escatological perspectives.
355. At present darkness does not live in reservations, but is flourishing everywhere - whereas spirituality does not even live in reservations.
356. In the past five hundred years a new type of man has appeared, who rejoices if something or someone turns out to be valueless, base or non-existent. Since only a degenerated type is capable of rejoicing if the world gets poorer.
357. Most of the modern theories are false to such an extent that those views which are directly contradictory to them are false as well.
358. Most of the modern conceptions are false to such an extent that it is not enough to change a modern concept for one which is opposed to it by 180 degrees, but it has to be replaced with one that is opposed to it by 540 degrees.
359. Kali-yuga cannot leave any disciplines unturned: it is massively present in each.
360. Into the general obscuration special, intensifying and darkening forces join on the level of the different processes of consciousness: every process of consciousness is attacked separately by these forces; every process of consciousness has its own »devil«.
361. Today’s man has gradually built a denatured world for himself: he has already been cut off from the supernatural, and now he is about to take leave of the natural.
362. It is not so much that the number of miracles is getting very few and far between which is characteristic of the modern world, but rather the almost absolute exhaustion of the spiritually orientating power of miracles. If let’s say someone appeared who surpassed all the previous magicians, and wandering about the world resurrected all the dead in the cemeteries, what would happen then? Would everyone convert »crying peccavi«? Probably not. They would say: »There seem to be things like this.«
363. Behind today’s most complicated theories there lies immeasurable poverty of thought.
364. The specific blindnesses of the dark age as a rule cloak themselves in rationalism.
365. The forces of darkness work with some kind of subconscious consciousness and clock-like regularity so as to make the manifestation of positive things possible only when they can no longer have a real effect.
366. A machine is demonic for it contributes to the emergence of a considerable alienation between producer, production and product - and this is always accompanied by an inner alienation.
367. Though technology does not a priori contradict spirituality, it generally stands in the way of spiritual efforts, for it is generated from a mentality which is based on self-loss and negative self-denial.
368. It is never possible to leave earth in an earthly manner.
369. Wherever man goes with his earthly tools, he always takes his earthly conditions within himself.
370. The degeneration of the power of money is now beyond the realm of money as a concrete means of payment.
371. There is only one more demonic form of payment than timewage and that is piecewage. While in the case of the former the mere quantity of time spent on working is taken into consideration, in the case of the latter it is the number of the producer’s products.
372. Although journalism is incapable even of creating dark counter-ideas, the satanic forces which operate behind journalism are already capable of it.
373. There can be peoples who will not partake in the new golden age, but there are no peoples who would not partake in the dark age.
374. The aim is not to turn the process of Kali-yuga back, but on the contrary; it should progress to its end as soon as possible. Nonetheless, the absolute values should be maintained during this process of disintegration.
375. The forces of darkness and the forces of light in a way want the same in the present age: to make the kali-yuga progress to its end. But whereas the forces of darkness tend to annihilate the true values as well, the forces of light tend to maintain the true values in the course of kali-yuga so as to serve in the building up of a future golden age.
376. One has to accommodate himself to the modern world so that his powers will not wear him out - but not in the sense of bending and assimilating to it, but as a kind of acclimatisation; for he who gets acclimatised will not »serve« the climate but resists the climate.
377. Despite all its losing track, deterioration and dissipation, today’s world and the tendencies operating in it show one direction: the direction of nothingness.
378. Being in se is not poisoned; in alio, however, it is poisoned, lethally poisoned.