David Myatt and The Numinous Way
Can you briefly explain the differences between The Numinous Way and National-Socialism?
It depends of course on whether we are talking about conventional National Socialism, as manifest in National Socialist Germany, or my evolution of National-Socialism. Conventional National Socialism depended on the concept of The State, and The Nation, and saught to create a large, modern, centralized State. It also involved the concept of colonialism and Empire – the desire to conquer and settle new lands – as well as seeking to create modern, technological, Armed Forces where the individual was subservient to some chain of command. There was also a belief in the concept of Prisons, and in the death penalty, as well as a certain amount of racial stereotyping.
In contrast, The Numinous Way seeks to establish small, rural, folkish communities, believing that the concepts of The State, and The Nation, are immoral – a denial of the liberty, the freedom, that honour and only honour creates. Only such small, rural, communities are authentic – that is, living-beings which allow for thee exercise of personal honour and allow us to do our noble duty to our folk in an honourable, rational, empathic way. As I have explained before, for a folkish homeland to be a living, healthy, being it should not be too large – that is, we, as individuals, should know or be related to in some way, most of the individuals of the homeland, and we certainly should be able to walk across our homeland within the space of several days, at most a week. This makes such a homeland about the size of some of the ancient Shires of England – anything else in too impersonal and thus begins to undermine that empathy which is essential to such a homeland. In addition, we can only be honourably loyal to those whom we know, personally – not to some abstract construct, such as a modern Nation, or a State, which are too vast for us to know all the folk within it.
Furthermore, the ethics of The Numinous Way mean that we regard Prison as barbaric, just as we do not support the idea of capital punishment. These ethics mean that we should be vegetarians, as I have explained in such essays as Some Practical Consequences of Cosmic Ethics. We most certainly do not support colonialism in any way, nor any form of racial stereotyping, believing that honour demands that we only ever judge people on an individual basis, and then only from personal knowledge. Also, our ethics regard modern technological warfare as dishonourable, just as we regard modern armies as wrong, dishonourable, because they take away our ability to exercise our own judgement, based upon honour, and involve the dishonourable concept of “the enemy” who are dehumanized and whom we are expected to kill or subjugate just because some impersonal authority has declared them “the enemy”. In contrast, the basis for honourable combat is personal knowledge of the enemy – we have a personal quarrel with them, because we know they have acted dishonourably toward us, and we have the opportunity to confront them, personally, as individuals, and engage in dialogue with them in the hope of reaching an honourable settlement, failing which we fight, in an honourable way, with individuals, with warriors.
To express the fundamental difference in a simple way, The Numinous Way is centred upon the individual and their awareness of, their understanding of, their empathy with, those living-beings of which they are a part, such as their folk, their small folk-homeland: with an inner development of character, deriving from honour, empathy and reason, while, in contrast, National-Socialism is centred upon the subservience of the individual to some leader, or to some abstract construct such as a large, modern, urbanized Nation.
Would you therefore describe yourself as a National-Socialist?
I would describe myself, now, as someone who has developed an alternative Way which is beyond both the abstract concept of the nation, and the abstract concept of socialism. Therefore, I certainly am not a “conventional” National Socialist, an adherent of the old National Socialism that depends, and depended, upon the State and the concept of a large, centralized Nation, for I have now gone beyond even my own evolutionary National-Socialism, which I outlined some years ago now, and which still depended on the concepts of The State and The Nation, and upon many other things, now rejected. That is, I have arrived at, or rather returned to, the essence, manifest in The Numinous Way. The Numinous Way is essentially spiritual – a Way of Life, and this Way of living is human; it expresses those things which make us human: honour, reason, compassion, empathy, and a rural way of life, in balance with Nature and The Cosmic Being. I have progressed to where I am because I have come to reject the concept of The State, and conventional government, on which conventional National-Socialism depends. I have even rejected the concept of a large Nation, in favour of small folkish homelands; and certainly rejected the notion of racial superiority – which is dishonourable – and the concept of modern warfare, which is also dishonourable.
My evolutionary National-Socialism was manifest in Reichsfolk – which name aptly describes it, for the aim of Reichsfolk is to create a folk community – that is, the new NS Reich will be such a folk community, rather than a large, centralized, Nation, or some kind of abstract, imperial New Order. Hence the name Reichs-folk. This new National-Socialism is outlined in The Reichsfolk Declaration.
Furthermore, two things need to be understood. First, the Numinous Way – as I have developed it in the past few years from its foundations in what I called “Folk Culture” – is a-political. It is not concerned with striving for or gaining some so-called “political power”, or with agitation, revolutionary or otherwise. It is concerned with ethics, with the relation of the individual to their family, their community, their folk, to Nature, to the Cosmos. That is, as I mentioned previously, it is a spiritual or philosophical Way of Life. Second, The Numinous Way has to lived; there is no need for preaching, for propaganda, for rhetoric, for meetings of any kind. Indeed, such things distract from the presencing of the Numen that the Numinous Way seeks to encourage.
Have your views about revolution and the destruction of what you have termed The System, changed at all?
There is a lot of bad things about the societies we in the West live in; a lot of bad – that is, dishonourable - people living in these societies. But there are also a great many people who strive to do what they believe is right, and good, and many of these people do make a difference, often in a personal way. In my view, it is those who strive for abstract goals, for abstract ideas – who propound abstract theories, as I once did – who often do the most harm, even if their intentions are good.
One of the many things I have learned, to be truthful – to shed the posturing of a theorist, to shed the rhetoric of propaganda – is that such change as is honourable, such change as does not cause more suffering, is mostly only ever a personal change; a direct change, resulting from the interaction between individuals, and that in such an honourable change it is honour, compassion, love and empathy which are important, not abstract theories, not abstract ideas, not some kind of force or conflict, not some political organization or an armed revolution.
Furthermore, such honourable change, to change other than individuals – to change societies, to create new, more honourable ways of life – only ever occurs slowly, over decades and centuries. It cannot be hurried; it cannot be imposed, by force, upon individuals. The only significant change is that within ourselves – the spiritual, inner change which announces our evolution, as human beings, which announces our evolution into human beings. We can do this by upholding the ethics of honour, the Cosmic Ethic – by developing reason, and empathy, and doing our duty, in an honourable way, to the living-being which is our folk, and to the living-beings which are Nature and The Cosmic Being.
Thus The Numinous Way seeks an inner revolution, seeking to change individuals first – and to create new communities through the natural coming-together of individuals who share the same Way of Life, and who seek to live together for their own mutual advantage and that of the other living-beings, such as Nature, of which they are aware. This of necessity does not mean a practical, armed, revolution, nor even a desire to overthrow the existing order. Rather, it means a letting-be; an honourable, empathic moving-away from what-is, to what-should-be; an understanding of what may be termed the morality of Time – that a real presencing of the Numen, and thus of honour, grows as it does in its own way in its own species of Time.
For the morality of Time is founded upon a knowing of the true meaning of our lives, which The Numinous Way explicates as a nexion – of us, as individuals, being one connexion between the past and the future of the living-being which is our folk which itself is part of the living-being which is Nature, which itself is part of the living, evolving being which is Cosmos, The Cosmic Being, with honour, empathy and reason being a presencing of The Cosmic Being, in us.
Don’t you think people find all your changes of views rather confusing?
Possibly – but I have been, and still am, upon a Promethean quest; upon a search for understanding, for wisdom. Over the decades – often as result of my experiences, and my own mistakes – I have come to understand many things, and my own understanding has grown, slowly over this period. In a way, this has been an organic, a natural, process. Thus, in the last seven or so years I have created, and been slowly refining, The Numinous Way. In truth, I have been following where my insights lead me – where honour, empathy, reason, and compassion lead me. It has led me to reject such things as The State; the National Socialism that depends upon the concept of The State, and conventional government, and many, many other things.
Thus, what I have arrived at now, as I have been attempting to describe here, follows logically from the foundations I have created. Others are free to disagree with me; or perchance agree. But I am not concerned how people view me, and my thinking; rather, I am concerned with expressing something of the noble truths I have discovered. On balance, though, I believe my views in respect of The Numinous Way have been, and are, consistent – it is the other things which have had to be revised, in the light of The Numinous Way, and particularly in respect of honour. Many things I once upheld have been shown to be dishonourable or to contribute to suffering – therefore, I have to reject them, for honour and empathy are the essence of The Numinous Way.
Finally, what about Space Exploration? Surely, a small rural folk community would not be able to undertake this, and isn’t Space Exploration one of your dreams?
I regard Space Exploration, as I have written and said many times over the decades, as our human Destiny – as a natural evolution, even a necessity. But one important question in this respect is – are we, as a species, ready for Space Exploration? I once wrote a short Science Fiction story, set in the not too distant future, when humans have ventured into Space only to make contact with aliens who regarded them as barbaric, an infestation, and who consequently quarantined Earth and the few planets humans had colonized. The reality is that we are not Homo Sapiens, but rather Homo Hubris – insolent, arrogant, mostly dishonourable people who behave like spoilt children, fighting among ourselves over trivial things. Also, our technology, advanced as we like to believe it is, is still primitive – wholly inadequate to even begin the manned exploration of our Galaxy.
Which leads on to the creation and development of a new type of technology, deriving from what I have termed acausal energy - and in the development of this technology small, rural, folk communities could have a significant role to play, since such advanced technologies would not require the industry, the raw materials, that modern technology requires. Hopefully, it will be the new, honourable, evolved human beings of such folk communities who, having developed such technologies, will begin the real exploration of Space and seek to find new homelands among the stars of our Galaxy.
David Myatt
