Sacred Kingship

 

The Sun, being the illuminating faculty of the limitless Sky, has been a symbol of divine-sanctioned rulership in Europe and Asia since time immemorial.

We have spoken much about the ancient pan-Eurasian aspects of culture, mythology and religion, but little on politics itself. As the reader will discover, the ancient political orders of various civilizations across Eurasia, as well as their descendants, were intimately related, indeed inseparable, from their religion and spiritual worldview. Unsurprisingly, the concept of "separation of church and state" did not exist to them. But, as might be a little harder for a modern person to conceive, neither can their political order be described as a sort of "alliance" or "partnership" of political and religious institutions, as was the case in medieval and early modern Europe up to the French Revolution. Instead, ancients from Rome to China, Persia to Japan all had a political order in which religious institutions were not distinct from political institutions. In other words, the church was the state, and the state the church. The King or Emperor was simultaneously a political office and religious office; at once he was both a ruler and a priest. To even begin discussing the vast diversity of Eurasian political systems and governmental types and their usefulness, this is the first thing we must keep in mind.

Next, it is necessary to go over a few of the basics of the Eurasian religion and spiritual worldview. From there we can get into how they translate into society as a whole, including government. The fundamentals can be boiled down more or less to two: one, the worship of a supreme sky father deity; and two, a nature-oriented spirituality which had shamanism as its motive force.

Anyone who has conducted even a cursory comparative glance at the religions of (pre-Christian) Europe and Asia, including Central Asia, notices almost immediately that they held the sky, Heaven, to be the supreme deity. In most cases, this sky divinity took the form of a paternalistic deity associated with brightness, force and the masculine yang principle. Among the Proto-Indo-Europeans, this deity was known as Dyeus Phter, which later became the Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, Germanic Tyr and Indo-Aryan Dyaus Pitar. The Altaic people, including Mongols, Turks and Tungusics, worshiped an almost identical god called Tengri, whose name is likely cognate with Dyeus (and possibly the Sumerian god Dingir). Sinitic people also had such a god, which they probably picked up from contact with the Altaics, known as Tian, another likely cognate with Dyeus and Tengri. As we will see later, that the ancients believed the sky, which embodied the supreme metaphysical principle, was ruled over by a patriarchal father figure, had what can only be described as a profound impact on how they thought earthly social and political affairs ought to be handled.

Second, the character of many ancient Eurasian religions can most accurately be described as nature-oriented and shamanistic. Let us look at these two facets individually. Nature-oriented means that Nature, including natural phenomena, geographic features and all life itself, occupies a position of deep reverence. The might of Nature, its ability to create both prosperity and disaster, to heal and to kill, meant that it was a divine force worthy of fear and respect. The ancient tribes that adhered to this worldview thus took Nature itself, along with its myriads of manifestations, to be objects of worship and artifacts of a superphysical reality. Today this idea is known as animism, and its basic principle was that there are millions of manifold spirits which occupy various awe-inspiring manifestations of nature. These spirits are said to dwell in anything from lightning to old trees, from mountains even down to tiny plants. Anything, the circumstances of the existence of which are profound and inexplicable, may be a vessel for one or more of these spirits. Further, these spirits have the ability to influence human affairs through supernatural means. Because of this, it was necessary for humans to have a channel of communication with them, and this is where the idea of shamanism comes into play. The shaman is an office whose purpose is to commune with the Nature spirits, in order to learn the minds of them, and to let them know the minds of humans. These two important concepts of animism and shamanism are found all throughout Eurasia, and although they have been continuously diluted over the years due to the introduction of foreign religions and eventually atheism, we are able to see traces of them fossilized here and there. We are also able to learn about them by checking the history books which detail the belief systems of ancient nations. There are a few cases where this worldview has been faithfully preserved even to the present day. Japanese Shintoism is by far the best example of this. While I would love to go into more detail of the ancient Eurasian religions, this cursory glance will suffice for now.

Shintoism is easily the best-preserved form of the ancient Eurasian animist-shamanist religion.

Keeping these fundamentals of Eurasian religion close in mind, let us continue with our discussion. It is easy to see that the religious worldviews of a people influence to no insignificant extent the workings of their society and its governance. Not so obvious, but no less important, is how. Ancient Eurasian groups held the belief that there were two worlds: the physical world, which we inhabit; and the superphysical world, which exists prior to and superior to the physical world. Evola in Revolt Against the Modern World summarizes it almost perfectly:

In order to understand both the spirit of Tradition and its antithesis, modern civilization, it is necessary to begin with the fundamental doctrine of the two natures. According to this doctrine there is a physical order of things and a metaphysical one; there is a mortal nature and an immortal one; there is the superior realm of "being" and the inferior realm of "becoming". Generally speaking, there is a visible and tangible dimension and, prior to and beyond it, an invisible and intangible dimension that is the support, the source, and true life of the former.¹

What is important, beyond the fact that there exists something outside of what we conventionally perceive as reality, is that what belongs to that realm is superior to reality, and exists prior to reality. We can think of this in the same way we think of a shadow. Consider a shadow and the object which is projecting it. Both are real, but only one exists as the true object; the other merely belongs to the category of an image. The real object exists prior to its shadow; it is the essence of the shadow and determines its shape. The shadow does not exist on its own, but rather its existence is dependent upon the actual object. In the same way, the superphysical world is all that truly exists; the material realm is merely the projection of that superior world, which determines its characteristics and transformations. As Evola put it, the physical world "becomes", i.e. changes, whereas the superphysical world remains constant, it "is", just as a shadow changes conformation when the object is rotated with no change of its own. In this way the physical world is dependent upon the superphysical world. It does not exist meaningfully on its own, because all of its meaning and animation originates within the superphysical world. This is why we say that the superphysical world is superior to and prior to the material world.

While these statements are highly objectionable to those minds which are of materialist or atheist persuasion, in ancient times in civilizations across Europe and Asia, they were considered to be fundamental fact. To them, the superphysical world is more real than the material world, because the bodies that inhabited it are pure and immortal, unlike the evanescent forms of our world which are susceptible to decay and erosion. The ancients accorded to this fact in all ways possible, including within the sphere of social and political formulations. In general there arose the notion that there is a kind of symmetry that exists between these two worlds, and in this way Earthly institutions were based off of Heavenly prototypes. The cosmic order was seen as a more authentic and original version of the societal order, and thus the latter was designed in the image of the former.

The Big Dipper revolves around Polaris according to the seasons. This image, which is the origin of the Swastika symbol, served as a metaphor for an omnipotent and invulnerable leader who, like the axle of a wagon wheel, remained stationary while the world moved about him.

The ancient Eurasian notion that Heavenly prototypes were the point of origin for Earthly systems and phenomena is not limited to the sphere of governance at all, however, to keep within the scope of this article, I will limit my discussion there. If you recall from above, there was the view that Heaven was ruled by a supreme father deity, a cosmic paterfamilias. This view was extrapolated, leading to the idea that human polities ought to be run in a similar fashion, with a supreme sage King at the top, surrounded by various subordinate ministers. The Heavenly analogue of this system becomes clear when we consider the star Polaris, around which all other stars and constellations revolve. Confucius, who advocated vehemently for the ancient order, said of governance:

子曰：「為政以德，譬如北辰，居其所而眾星共之。」
Confucius said: "The one who conducts government with virtue is like Polaris. While it stays in one place, the sundry stars revolve around it."²

What, then, is this so-called "virtue"? The word virtue is derived from the Latin vir, "man", hence virtus, "manliness, virility". The Chinese 德 de has a more or less identical meaning. In essence, virtue refers to possession of the transcendent masculine energy which is exemplified by the sky and the sky deity. Thus, the one who is virtuous is like Polaris, moving others without himself moving, omnipotent and invincible. On Earth men corresponded to this celestial prototype in order to tap into the supreme cosmic principle and utilize it in transcending conventional animalistic existence. Man is a being with two natures mixed inside of him: the animal nature and the god nature. Like all other animals, man is a creature of flesh; he must intake food and drink to sustain himself, and decays with age until death. However, unlike all other animals, man is gifted with intelligence, which is intangible and immortal. Like gods, which are beings of pure intellect, men can originate concepts and notions, and act according to will instead of instinct. The purpose of imitating the Heavens was for man to depart the meaningless world of flesh, shedding his animal nature, and become initiated into the meaningful world of pure being, embracing the divine half of his nature. When we inspect history, we find that this path, in almost all cases, lead straight to the institution of the Holy Monarchy.

As mentioned at the start of the article, what we mean by Holy Monarchy is that ancient form of government found throughout Eurasia in which there was no differentiation between religious institutions and political institutions. Generally, the state itself was the vehicle of religion, and rituals and sacrifices were functions of the government. In addition to employing standard civil and military officials, shamans and priests were employed to convene with the spirits on behalf of the entire nation. And at the top of the hierarchy of civil and military officials, there was the King, the chief official, who was simultaneously at the top of the hierarchy of shamans and priests, the chief shaman. In this way the King was the shepherd both of the nation's bodies and of its souls, a ruler who by his sheer virtue and sagacity was answerable only to the ancestors, the other various gods, and the supreme God of the Sky himself. In addition to being the image of the supreme Sky Father God projected onto the Earth, a microcosmic shadow of the macrocosmic ruler, the King was also the link between the world of mortals and the world of gods. To borrow a Roman epithet, he was the pontifex, "builder of bridges". Finally, the King was viewed as man who was equivalent to a god who had come to the Earth. In other words, the King was seen as a god in a human's body, owing to his initiation in an art which had its origins in Heaven. This Art of Kingship granted the King the ability to rule without violence, like Polaris, to move without movement, 為無為 wei wu wei, with an authority comparable to that which might be enjoyed by a literal god who had hypothetically transferred to the Earth. This is the true meaning of virtue and 德 de, and was believed to be passed on from father to son. That is to say, it was "genetic" (although it could eventually become lost due to the degeneration of the lineage). This is the origin of the theme, likewise found all across Eurasia, of Kings and Emperors who are said to be possessors of divine blood, descendants of the gods themselves.

This abstract formulation presents itself more or less constantly throughout Eurasia, among the Indo-Europeans, the Altaics and the races which either are their descendants or came into close interaction with them. Though there naturally emerged new strands of independent development over the years. Let us look at a few local examples, to further explain and illustrate the Eurasian Priest-King.

Greece

Zeus, the god of lightning and the ruler of Heaven.

Zeus is the Greek descendant of the Indo-European god Dyeus Phter. When the IE people moved into the area in and around Greece, they found it inhabited by another people, likely related to those who were responsible for the Minoan civilization at its height in 2nd and 3rd millennia BC. This not-so-well defined group and its constituents were later referred to as Pelasgians, and they were a stock completely different than their IE conquerors. A common reoccurring theme in the history of European and Asian peoples is the conquest of a lethargic, sedentary agricultural race by an energetic, nomadic pastoralist race, which seems to have been the case in Greece. But along with a different lifestyle and language, the conquerors also brought a new religion. The maternalistic, Earth-centric religion of the Pelasgians, which later cropped up again in the form of Pythagoreanism, was largely displaced by the paternalistic, Heaven-centric religion of the Indo-Europeans.

Ancient Greek kingship had its basis in the conception of Zeus as the "King of the Gods". As we will see with the Chinese, there existed a "Heavenly Court" on Mount Olympus which mirrored the royal courts of the Earth. Considering this, it is not surprising that human Kings were said to receive their legitimacy and right to kingship from Zeus himself. What was called θέμις themis was generally understood as a judgement originating from Heaven. The plural of themis, θέμῐστες themistes were the "divine judgements" which were dispatched by Heaven to Kings, granting them the right to rule. In this way, themis is strikingly similar to the Chinese concept of 天命 tianming, the "Mandate of Heaven" which legitimized dynasties. Unlike what the Marxist historians will have us believe, political legitimacy in ancient times was not based on material circumstances--the accumulation of wealth, military prowess, etc.--rather it was contingent on the approval of Heavenly authorities. Such propitious material conditions were secondary; they were a result of Heavenly approval. In Greece, that Heavenly judge was Zeus himself.

Inseparable from the concept of Zeus-ordained rule was the notion, as in other Eurasian societies, that Kings, especially the legendary founders of certain cities, tribes and dynasties, were directly descended from the gods themselves. This is in line with the doctrine I expounded above, that rulers held a secret and immaterial power which could be passed on from one generation to the next, and which ultimately has its origins in Heaven. This is derived from the mythohistoric legends of heroes, such as Achilles and Perseus, who were the demigod offspring of gods. For generations rulers would claim descent from such heroes and thus from the gods themselves, in order to legitimize their rule. These claims, regardless of whether they had grounds in truth, had value as metaphors for the Kingly virtue that was hereditary and originated in Heaven.

China

 The Temple of Heaven (天壇), where the Son of Heaven used to perform grand sacrifices and ceremonies.

The Middle Kingdom, a name which itself conjures up an image of a Regnum situated between Heaven and Earth, is the first example I would recommend to anyone looking for concrete manifestations of the pan-Eurasian formulation of sacred Kingship. This is because it was delicately preserved for thousands of years with little modification, in addition its massive corpus of detailed written material from ancient times. The theoretical framework of Chinese Kingship had been laid down thousands of years before the first Imperial dynasty was even founded. However, it can be said that it fully matured into the form we are most familiar with at the beginning of the Zhou (周) dynasty. The very foundation of the Zhou political order rested in the Mandate of Heaven (天命, tianming). This can most accurately be summarized as a Heavenly judgement or decree which states that a certain dynasty has the right to rule the Empire. As we have said early, Tian is most likely the same Sky Father God as that worshiped by the Altaics and Indo-Europeans. His resemblance to, for instance, Zeus is quite pronounced considered how his approval and his decrees served to legitimize the right of the King to rule. The founders of the Zhou dynasty, the legendary Kings Wen (文王) and Wu (武王) were believed to have gained the Mandate after it was apparently lost by the corrupt last King of the Shang (商) dynasty, King Zhou (紂王). Thereafter, they defeated the Shang forces in battle and established the new dynasty. Tian was enshrined as the supreme God of the Zhou people, and the King served as his representative on the Earth.

In addition to being the possessor of Heaven's Mandate, the King also possessed the immaterial masculine Kingly power known to the Chinese as 德 de. The Zhou royal family traced their ancestry back the the legendary founder of Chinese civilization, Huangdi, who by that time was revered as a god in his own right. Thus the new Zhou dynasty had inherited that de from the ancient sage Kings, which further served to legitimize their rule, and this Royal Art was likely seen as the instrument the Zhou founders used to rise up and overthrow the tyranny of the Shang dynasty. Their descent from ancient sage Kings and, through them, ultimately the gods of Heaven themselves is perhaps why the Zhou Kings were known as 天子 Tianzi, literally, "Sons of Heaven", an epithet which accurately captures their role as living vessels of Heaven's will. This title would became standard for the Emperors of China for the next two thousand years, in part due to the fact that subsequent dynasties (except the Qin) sought to imitate the Zhou dynasty and carry on its legacy.

Throughout Chinese history, the religious duties of the Son of Heaven were just as numerous as his temporal duties. As the chief steward of the nation in all spiritual affairs, he was responsible for the grand sacrifices to Heaven and other gods. There were massive temples dedicated to ceremonies the Emperor was required to carry out, such as the famous Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Such faith and gravity was placed in the Emperor's person and his carrying out the ceremonies properly, that even a minor mistake or irregularity in the procedure was seen as foretelling great disaster. The Emperor prayed to Heaven to bring about propitious conditions for the nation and its people--rain for crops, bountiful harvests, etc.--and to avert natural disasters. These were all said to be the work of the Nature spirits and, ultimately, of Heaven itself. The Son of Heaven was also responsible for showing due reverence to the ancestral spirits of his dynasty, who, as in many other Eurasian societies, were seen as gods capable of increasing or decreasing the fortunes of the Empire. In this way, the Chinese Son of Heaven perfectly fits an epithet such as pontifex.

Japan

The Meiji (明治) Emperor, reigned 1868-1912.

Finally, let us take a look at Japan. Now Japan is notable for having the world's longest reigning royal family, which is traditionally dated back to 660 BC. Further, it is believed that the first Emperor, Jimmu (神武), was descended from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu-Oomikami (天照大御神). Another item of note for Japan is its relative deviance from the standard pan-Eurasian paradigm, possibly owing to the influence of numerous ethnic substrates which combined in that country in ancient times. Rather than having a paternal Sky Deity, the Japanese worshiped the Sun Goddess, whose name can be roughly translated as the "Illuminator of Heaven". Though she can still be understood as a bright, Heavenly force, and the source of the cosmic order just as in other Eurasian societies. According to mythology, Amaterasu sent her grandson, Ninigi-no-Mikoto (瓊瓊杵尊) to the Earth to set up rule. He was sent with the Imperial Regalia: the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi (草薙劍), the mirror Yata no Kagami (八咫鏡), and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama (八尺瓊勾玉). These artifacts, which have been preserved even to the present day, are said to have played various roles in Japanese mythology. They were eventually passed on to Jimmu, who during his reign moved the capital and in the process subjugated various other tribes. The Imperial Regalia are thus physical embodiments of the Emperor's divine ancestry and the de or virtue inherited since prehistoric times.

As the physical representative of the Heavenly order on Earth, the Japanese Emperor (天皇, tennо̄, lit. "Heavenly Emperor") had perhaps even more religious duties than the Chinese Emperor. He performed worship and prayer to the numerous kami, which can be understood as gods or Nature spirits, for such things as propitious weather and good harvests. In addition to this, the Emperor was also responsible for reporting major national events and worldly happenings to the high gods at their shrines. In historical times, there were thousands of gods which were officially venerated by the Imperial household, and this was all a matter of public legal policy. For instance, the Engi-shiki (927) contains a list of 3,132 kami for which official Imperial ceremonies and worship were prescribed. In the cases of the largest and most important shrines, members of the Imperial household often served as priests and priestesses. For example, the Ise Grand Shrine, the holiest site in Japan, where the Sun Goddess is enshrined, for centuries had an Imperial princess serving as high priestess. After the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, when what is commonly known as "State Shinto" emerged, these high priest positions at the Ise Grand Shrine and numerous other shrines were often filled by the Emperor himself. Thus it is clear that the Emperor was the nation's primary mediator between the physical world and the superphysical world; his person was the living link between the people and the spirits. In this way, the Emperor can be described as the chief shaman.

Being, as the Chinese sovereign, the representative of the Heavenly order on Earth, it only made sense that he was the steward of these and many other important religious duties. However, unlike his Chinese counterpart, who theoretically could lose Heaven's Mandate, the Japanese Emperor's position as such a representative was made iron-clad by virtue of his divine ancestry. That is why, even throughout thousands of years of history, Japan has continually been ruled by the same Imperial family. Although there are periods of history, such as the famous times of Shogun and Samurai (and, indeed, our own postwar era), when the Emperor's true power was limited, he was always revered without question as the spiritual head of the Empire and the symbol of the Nation. He was and still is above politics and above mundane life itself. The Emperor was seen and even worshiped as a divinity in his own right, because his very person could only be considered the will of Heaven congealed in flesh and bones. The Japanese people held this attitude with great conviction until the end of World War II, when the Americans forced them to give up their Traditional, Heaven-oriented worldview and accept one of materialism, secularism and democracy. Even so, the Emperor remains the only Monarch in the world who can claim the heritage, dignity and glory of the supremely ancient pan-Eurasian worldview and its reverence of Heaven, the Sun, the Ancestors and Nature.

Conclusion

The most ancient and most authentic Eurasian political order can best be described as one headed by a Holy Monarch. According to uncountable ancient traditions from across Europe and Asia, this Monarch possessed a power or an art which was transmitted to him by the gods of Heaven themselves, by which those gods granted him the right to rule a state. This all has its foundations in the Eurasian spiritual worldview, which is one of deep reverence of Nature and worship of Heaven as the primary energetic force in the Universe. According to this doctrine, the Sacred King was at once a King and a Priest; he was both the chief minster and chief shaman. He not only guided the people but also served as their link between this world and the world of the gods. In this article I described this system as implemented in three different ancient civilizations from different parts of Eurasia: Greece, China and Japan. These three nations I selected because of their great renown and their clear, unmistakable practice of these principles. However, they are far from being the only ones. I encourage the reader to do his or her own research further into subjects as these. In doing so he or she will, I guarantee, find that virtually every civilization which carried on the true ways of the ancient Eurasian seed-race implemented this worldview, even if it has been diluted over thousands of years.

Those who today make it their mission to carry on the ancient ways cannot do without the study of these systems and formulations, and how their implementation varied from country to country. For those of us who embrace the common heritage of all Eurasia, this is indispensable.

Footnotes

1. Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World (Rochester, 1995), page 3.
2. 論語 2.1 (The Analects 2.1)