Philosophy Archives - Page 10 of 10 - Maier Files Series Tidbits and Articles-

Julius Evola’s Doctrine of Awakening

In the midst of a world engulfed in the flames of World War II and a tragic civil war in Italy, Julius Evola published his Doctrine of Awakening in 1943. This book, which delves into the depths of Buddhist thought and explores the nature of spirituality and tradition, is a testament to Evola’s ability to transcend the limitations of his time and challenge the modern world’s rejection of traditional values. Evola’s Doctrine of Awakening is...

The Element That Cannot Be Imprisoned

There is a cosmological assumption buried so deeply in Western thought that almost no one examines it anymore. It goes like this: material reality consists of four elements — earth, water, fire, air. These four are the substance of everything that can be weighed, measured, bought, sold, taxed, and destroyed. They are the jurisdiction of the world’s administrators. The question the alchemists were really asking was never how do we turn lead into gold? The...

Unveiling the Enigmatic Wisdom

Goethe the Alchemist

The secret teachings of Goethe. That Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Germany’s greatest poet, had an interest in the occult and alchemy is clear from Faust. Based on an historical character, the original Faust legend goes back to medieval times and prior to Goethe‘s there were earlier dramatic renditions of the tale, notably Christopher Marlowe’s. Yet it is to Goethe’s Faust (Part I 1808; Part II 1833) that most of us turn when we think...

The Glass Bead Game

Gelegentlich ergreifen wir die Feder and schreiben Zeichen auf ein weisses Blatt, Die sagen dies and das, es kennt sie jeder, Es ist ein Spiel, das seine Regeln hat. —Hermann Hesse. Das Glasperlenspiel From time to time we take our pen in hand and scribble symbols on a blank white sheet. Their meaning is at everyone’s command; It is a game whose rules are nice and neat. —Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, When Hermann...

We all walk in Mysteries

The Two-Faced God: On Entering 2026 With Clear Eyes

To pass from one year into another is now seen as an act of personal reinvention. The ritual is familiar: resolutions are made, promises are declared, and a collective shroud of amnesia is drawn over the failures of the prior cycle. This modern custom, however, misses the mark entirely. It mistakes novelty for renewal, sentiment for substance, and forgetfulness for progress. It is a celebration of rupture—a spiritual severance from all that came before. Yet...

Here Lies Common Sense

There’s a gravestone on a T-shirt. The inscription reads: Here lies Common Sense. Beloved husband of Reason. People laugh. Then they go quiet. Because it’s dated. And everyone, somewhere underneath the noise, agrees on the year. ⬥ ⬥ ⬥ The joke assumes Common Sense and Reason are the same thing — or close enough that one can’t survive without the other. That assumption is worth examining. Because it’s not obviously true. And the man who...

The Two Powers: When Eros and Eris Shaped the World

The decline of the West

The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes), or The Downfall of the Occident, is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler, the first volume of which was published in the summer of 1918. Spengler revised this volume in 1922 and published the second volume, subtitled Perspectives of World History, in 1923. Spengler urges a new understanding of the world. In this work of historical philosophy, which was written mostly before World War I,...

Crescent Moon and Star

It was Rodin who stated that “Man never invented anything new, only discovered things.” Although it’s correct to say that certain symbols have been man-made for a particular purpose, it’s just as correct to argue that everything is somehow inspired by the natural world around us, by the forms of nature, plants, animals, the elements. Even a reaction against the fluid forms of nature is usually inspired by a desire to offer an alternative. Occasionally...