fredag 26 januari 2024

How to embrace MMM = the Memento Mori Mindset

Towards an understanding of death... that's the subject of this post. It's NOT about becoming a necrophile. No. It's about being a living, exuberant person having an integral respect for death.




My philosophy of life is partly about acknowledging death.

I discussed it in this post.

It is the "Memento Mori Mindset" = MMM.

The philosophical basis of MMM is the gist of that post.

Even more so: MMM is one of the key factors of my philosophy of life, Actionism.

Actionism is about having willpower-and-vision in your life. But before you go on to create wonders in that way you must meet "the Dweller on the Threshold"... equal to "death, the fear of death". You must come to terms with death.

It is all very simple. But the simple is difficult. As Clausewitz said.



Related Actionism (2017)
Astral War (2023)
Evola and Leone

måndag 22 januari 2024

Good Reads, January 2024

Howdy.




Hereby some reading tips.

The common denominator is "Absolute Svensson"... books that are symbolising the world of me.

And here they are:

. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy. -- Elegantly readable survey over alchemy and its spiritual meanings. A little reductionist but not overly so.

. Guénon, The King of the World. -- The swastika is a polar symbol, and Hyperborea is the fatherland for us all. Melchizedek, the Gral, Agartha and Shambhala. All this, and Three Wise Men, in a succinct study, under 100 pages.

. Brandes, Friedrich Nietzsche. -- Also a succinct survey, this time over FN by the Dane Georg Brandes. Brandes was a little superficial and unspiritual, but you must give him that he was the first to see the grandeur of Nietzsche. Contains heartbreaking correspondence between GB and FN, FN both seeing some recognition of his opus and also, at the end, going mad.

. The Mahabharata, translated by John D. Smith. First published in 2009 it comprises all of the epic, in about 800 pages. This means that half the text is summary text. But to get all of this epic into one volume you have to make sacrifices. This is a decent compromise.



Related
Rigorism -- The Influence of Willpower Upon History
Commanders
Historical eras

söndag 14 januari 2024

Pronunciation of Sanskrit: some remarks

Sanskrit was spoken in Agartha and Hyperborea. And this whole legacy is coming back. Therefore everyone should know Sanskrit.




Sanskrit is the way of the future. Many greats have had some knowledge of it: Guénon, Evola, Simone Weil...

And as for the pronunciation of Sanskrit, hereby some remarks.

For instance, in the Sanskrit grammar I had as a student, it was stated that the stress should never be on the last syllable of a word. And a Western person speaking Sanskrit should remember this. But the Indians themselves speak with a rather monotonous accent, all syllables having approximately the same stress (this may remind you of the pronunciation of Chinese and Japanese).

Indian pronunciation of Sanskrit differs somewhat from Western school pronunciation. Of course by birthright the Indian way is of some importance, but to imitate it to the letter is not something that a European Indologist needs to do. School pronunciation, and with a Latin accent, is considered alright. However, to additionally listen to Sanskrit texts like the Bhagavad-Gītā chanted on Youtube, by a Hindu, gets a fair image of how it should sound.

Sanskrit has no difficult sounds as I see it. No “ach-laut,” no phonetic absurdities. Sure, “vocalic r” (ṛ) may be a bit difficult, but it sounds something like “ri”. Then we have the retroflexes, like ṭ, ḍ, ṇ. They are, to me, “typically Indian”. See for instance the Peter Sellers sketch “birdie-nam-nam” in the film The Party from 1968. Retroflex pronunciation: this means that the tongue should be bent back (= retro-flex) towards the palate.

As for the pronounciation of consonants in general, they are rather similar to English tongue. K, g, t, and d – no problems there. And the Sanskrit “j” sound is for instance pronounced like the “j” in English judge. And ñ sounds like “ny” in “canyon”. Further, I find the following advice by John D. Smith in his Mahābhārata translation are spot on, giving us some useful guidance:
[N]ote that c is always pronounced like the ch of English chip. The letter h is used in combination with many consonants to indicate aspiration; this [along with retroflex pronounciation, LS] is another feature that few Westerners can master (the Sanskrit consonant gh is not like the sequence found in English hog-house), and they should probably ignore the h in kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph and bh. Thus th and ph are not pronounced as in English thin and phone, but are similar to t and p.

[Smith p. ix-x]
Regarding sibilants we have this: “[Ṣ] should be pronounced like the sh of ship, not the s of sip. An acute accent on an s (ś) represents a second, slightly different (non-retroflex) sh-sound.” [ibid p. ix]

As for the three wovels coming in a long and short variety, they are a, ā, i, ī, u, and ū. According to Whitney they are, respectively, to be pronounced as in the English words far, farther, pin, pique, pull, and rule. The long vowels e and o are pronounced as in they and go. The diphthongs ai and au are pronounced as in aisle and how.

The anusvāra (ṃ) is a nasal, sounding like the “n” in French bon.

Finally, the visarga (ḥ), is an aspirate sound, a “breathing” sound. Given as “aḥ” it should be pronounced “aha”. Given as “iḥ” it should sound like “ihi”. Paramahamsa, for his part, says that this attention given to visarga pronunciation is important. For in it lies God. The thing of it is, a visarga in a metric verse does formally destroy the meter, it kind of interposes an extra syllable. But, those who know how to chant can cram in that little extra “pseudo-syllable”. It has to be there. For it is divine.

There you have it. Now you have the fundamentals of Sanskrit pronunciation. Now you're on your way to archeofuturist excellence.



Sources
Smith, John D. The Mahābhārata. An Abridged Translation. London: Penguin Classics, 2009
Whitney, William Dwight. Sanskrit Grammar (orig. 1879). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1989



Related
Vortex master
Gāyatrī mantra
A Look at the Kalki Purâna
Kali Yuga is over -- what does it mean?
The corrected chronology of Kali Yuga
Rigorism -- historical essays (2022)
The epic hero Arjuna showing off his archery skills.

torsdag 11 januari 2024

Evola and Leone

Howdy.




Julius Evola was the Sergio Leone of 20th century thought.

Like his compatriot in the film industry Evola brought gravitas, dignitas, and contemptus to a public who knew very little about this.

I'd say: in the post-1945 order of things you were regaled with chattering heroes, babbling clowns, incessant music and laughter in all genres of art and thought.

But the Italians in question, Evola and Leone, by their very nature, by their very presence, brought a different mood to bear. The mood of empty plazas, funeral music, “long-lasting gazes, and long-lasting silence”.

The quote is from Evola’s Pagan Imperialism. And it is the perfect band between him and Leone.

Evola wanted an alternative to the modern world of chaotic cacophony and flickering impressions. And Leone lets the silence speak in many of his scenes. His films have a special focus on silent faces, on long-lasting gazes.



Related
Maddening twirl
Go south and preach
Evola: Pagan Imperialism (1928)
Lee van Cleef in Leone's For a Few Dollars More (1965)