Much has been
written on the deities of Hyboria. There is a certain symmetry in the
invocations to “Ishtar’s girdle!” and “Mitra!” One is an Akkadian war goddess
associated with fertility; the other a Persian sungod.
Essentially, the
symmetry is of day and night, since ancient deities reflect the reality of
Earth-moon-sun. Whereas our own era is “the reality of a reflection” – quoting La
Chinoise Pictorial 93– or sun alone, ancient deities harmonise with
the movements of all 3 orbs.
The cosmic
harmonic stands in the way of sorcerers, somewhat akin to the checks-and-balances
of the US constitution (against monarchs). In all the kingdoms – save that of
pre-Hyborian Stygia – the principle of proportionality is upheld, and that feuding
city-states worship different deities and thereby maintain the cosmic balance.
Exceptions prove
the rule.
Yes, I invented
Makkalet as an Hyrkanian seaport... more of a city-state, really, where Turan
was the capital of a growing nation/empire. Of course, REH often called
Turanians "Hyrkanians," but I thought that would be too confusing so
I kept them separate as entities. Makkalet was just a city-state that had
thus far resisted Turanian encroachment.
(reply to email
by RT)
The Turanian war
starts when Makkalet steals the holy Tarim from Aghrapur, the nominal capital
of Turan. It is a holy war between rival; city-states within the Turanian
Empire.
The living Tarim
is more totemic of a martial order, and could be likened to statues of the
Caesars, or later to the Cross and the Crescent.
Here’s where a
link to La Chinoise could come in! Marx is the figurehead or totem for
the advance of communism, as well as Lenin and Mao. A totemic order tends to
have expansionist ambitions to conquer others.
A big theme of La
Chinoise is actually education, and how the requirements of a particular
order – communism, capitalism – are delivered by teachers to students.
“The attitude
of the universities tis to consider the others we address as mere receivers” (of information)
The fact that
Francis Jeanson delivers this on a
may be
coincidence, but a train happens to be a parallel system of straight lines (Hyborian
Bridge 88 CL Moore). The parallel system dates from Newton’s
experiments with optics (light). Straight lines – meaning the sun – represent “the
reality of a reflection”; something that is very convincing to the ego – as recapitulated
ad nauseam.
In other words,
the industrial order – of communism and capitalism – is illusory or the reality
of a reflection (of reality). It is this which actually makes it convincing to
theorists and speech-makers. Darwin can be taken to be part-and-parcel of this
order since - TBS
– it is a masculine order of competition that occurs outside of the gentle
harmonic of the womb (moon).
In other words,
what we are told by “them” (acolytes) is a process of natural selection (in
nature) is actually unnatural selection in a straight line order (of the sun),
rather than a harmonic of sun and moon – day and night, bloodlust, hunting.
Darwin and Marx
both exist within this sorcerous system, which has its origins in The New
Atlantis of Francis Bacon (Hyborian
Bridge 61 idol of the den). One could almost look on those 17th
century Tudors as a cabal of sorcerers making plans for the rise of modernism in
The New World (The Armor of Light by Melissa Scott is vaguely connected,
incidentally).
Modernity can
therefore be likened to a flow of information from “them” to “us” that
facilitates the new order. This seems to be why ideas alone are never enough to
combat the sorcerous undercurrent, which is just the presence of straight lines
(or light), as in a railway junction. A parallel order to reality.
The flow of
information is really the flow of the parallel system of light that facilitates
industry and the egos of speech-makers. What is not egotistical (of the head) are
the sights and sounds, the smells and feel of action in a world of physical
proportionality that is not under the domain of fact or information.
Facts in the
modern order constitute a flow of information that is facilitated by the straight-line
order of light (electromagnetism). This in turn facilitates the ego of acolytes
and their speech-makers.
Take away the
parallel system and there is no longer the charade of competition; there is a
harmonic between day and night, between order and the hunt. Order (Apollo) is
no longer the master; instead, blood and the womb are the dark givers of life
and death. The hunt, Artemis.
This is the
world of decadence, which was perhaps most developed in Clair Noto’s “Red Lace”
(Pictorial
92). The underworld or the darkness present is necessary for a harmonic
universe that is not merely illusory information or products. The missing
ingredient is found not only in Howard, but in writers like Noto and Thomas,
and particularly that illustrated by BWS (and Thorne, natch.)
Red Sonja #9
The life-giving decadence
is simply the lack of an order that crushes and molds Man to a standard for the
reception of information by “them”, the sorcerers of the 17th century
cabal.