Re-enchantment of The Priests
The lore of sacred civilization was once the propriety of our cultural custodians: the priestly class. Holy men and women who inherited arcane knowledge (often kept as a secret) which safeguarded civilization in a science of acculturation, which preserved ancient secrets in a functional social practicality and ritual. Their preserved wisdom was revered, even feared, and both the populace and the kings were dependent upon it. These priests were the gatekeepers of the Mysteries, the class which was adjacent to, yet apart from, the upper nobility. The guiding moral soul of the people and the land, educated in the sacred disciplines such as astronomy, music, medicine, theology, divination, war, agriculture, languages, geometry, architecture, and so on. They directed the people towards the enchantment of the heavens, with the surety of necessary purpose and the absolute respect for inherited genealogical telos, granting improvement over generations, beyond individual life. They safeguarded reverence for the unseen world and the power-currents which move all, as represented in gods.
In such a role they have found themselves, at times, as easy prey to materialists and foreign armies, who all-too-easily view them as expendable, and only superficially connected to a land. Any civilization which loses this class is cast adrift. This is why they are the first and foremost target during mindless mob-revolt and communist revolution and corporate-materialist exploitation. So easy is it to disrespect their ancient numinous lore and so precious and fragile is their near-unexplainable (yet vital) purpose. All precious things are fragile.
But once they are gone, and we no longer have a wise and fatherly adjunct to the warrior and artisan and noble class, when the people do not have their spiritual shepherds to look up to, or the kings to consult with, knowledge and progress falls into the hands of the worst type. The mercantile, the politician, the nihilist, the psychopath, the unworthy, the jealous and the incapable, all who think they can answer impossible questions materially. Arrogant individuals, who turn fertile lands to desert.
Our present civilization is no longer guarded by the priestly class, it is co-opted by impious technocrats and ideologues. Despite our technological progress, we have become less wise in comparison to the sacred civilizations of antiquity. We are less self-sufficient, less well read, and use technology (with potential heroic capability) wastefully, to satisfy base and childish impulses.
Until this class returns to us, with the wisdom of superstition and augury and hero-worship and profane monumentalism, and the power-guidance of belief and self-belief, we will degenerate into bouncing atomized animals.
“Rulers do not prosper without priests and priests do not thrive without rulers… the priest is the root of the law, and the ruler is the peak.” – Manudharmaśastra
