Hessiandom

Hessiandom was what we called militant metalheadism back before "the darkening", which seemed to occur ~5 years ago.

Around that time, a lot of the outlets that were dedicated to Hessian ideas and ideals seemed to go dead, for various reasons (most of which I'm unaware of).

Back then, I was running a couple of sites about this stuff, but - again, for various reasons - had to drop them, since my attentions were needed elsewhere.

Dying laptops, lack of backups, and a dearth of time to devote to these subjects meant that, at least as far as my side is concerned, this whole arena of life was left devoid of any contribution for the aforementioned five year period.

Now that I've got more time on my hands, I think it's about time I started doing justice to this subject.

This initial post will set down some of my thoughts about the Hessian phenomenon: what it is, why it's important, who counts as a "true Hessian" and so on.

1. To Be a Hessian

Hessiandom is the natural result of heavy metal becoming the force that it did over the '70s and early '80s.

Basically, when you get a lot of intelligent, (self-) ostracised individuals engaging in raw, ripping music, casual drug consumption, "nihilistic" philosophy and ancient wisdom, the result is the rebirth of "warrior ethos" in this dilapidated modern world.

Hessians are a bunch of booze-soaked übermenschen in a world that doesn't really need them.

Well, the world probably does need them, but would rather not admit it.  That would spoil the party.

We grew up in a world that was obviously detrimental to itself, where hedonism and rapacious "individualism" had seemingly triumphed over the wisdom of ages.  I say seemingly, because of course, to usher in your own death is hardly a triumph.

As we grew up, we became more and more acutely aware of how disastrous this state of affairs was: international situations worsened over time, intra-national situations worsened over time, resources were depleted throughout the world, landscapes were denuded, cultures were undermined and destroyed, all without any thought for future survival.

Clearly we were born in the end times, in the prophesied Ragnarök, where the forces of good and the forces of evil thwart each other, before a glorious rebirth...

These Einherjar that re-emerged from their inter-incarnational slumber found themselves in what appeared, on the surface, to be the height of the dreaded Iron Age - the Kali Yuga of Vedic fame, that threatened to plunge existence into the abyssal void at the nadir of each and every cycle.

Of course, many of us were to discover that this was not necessarily so - that we had been responding to a vision of the world that was hugely one-sided, in favour of the disaster-workings of a few established groups, who were, in truth, clinging on to the very last moments of the Kali Yuga with such atrocity that they seemed by their own madness to have spawned the entire epoch anew.

But this realisation, that we are in fact coming out of the old age - that we are coming into a new age, which will bring with it new challenges, new discoveries, new ways for humanity to grow and exceed itself - did not really lessen the obvious blows which were being delivered on every side, as nations and world powers vied hungrily for an ever diminishing resource base at the expense of "life itself".

In the midst of all of this, we had discovered two things: firstly, the wisdom of ages, the ancient traditions that, never hidden (but rarely trumpeted), had lingered through humanity's dark period for thousands of years - here and there, in one culture or another, some scion of the truth had emerged, some great culture of power and significance that showed through their actions and their legacies that the reality was never far, even in this dwindling dream-time.

The second major influence, for those of us who call ourselves Hessians - for indeed, many have touched on the wisdom of old, from other cultures besides ours, and taken it in similar or different directions - was heavy metal music, outsider impetus, the rumblings of the feral as it stalked the boundaries of society through the fading night...  The dawn brought wolves.  We were wolves.

An old word springs to mind - "Ulfheðnar" - for that is somewhat similar to what we are.  We don't conform to what is considered "normal" or "appropriate", not because we are wantonly destructive, but because we recognise that it is stupid.  There's a difference.  There are those "berserkers" who, more by instinct than by intelligence, recognise how much of a failure this world is - we are akin to them in some ways, but for many of us, it was intelligence and rational introspection that led us to recognising that the status quo was untenable.  We are just too smart to fall in line.

This isn't some supremacist thinking, but a rather cold realisation - where the rest of the world is quite happy to trundle along with what everyone else is doing, we are quite powerfully motivated to seek alternatives that will actually last into the future, rather than simply spending our coin on self-satisfying satiation.

Something about outsider culture is that it has room to be objective about the culture to which it is an outsider.  So we have the room, even in the midst of urban living, to recognise the faults and follies of the modern world, which has tended to cause more harm to itself and its most fervent supporters, than it has to those who have decided to disabuse themselves of its self-destructive tendencies.  Of course, many traditional cultures have been bulldozed by this malignant monstrosity - and we stand with them, in all ways that count - but from the ashes of those fires, several phoenixes have arisen.

Surely it is the ash of the warrior culture from which we spring - the European warrior culture, of six thousand years (or more) of age, that has carved most of this world despite the dealings of dodgy merchants and manipulators - and only in the last three hundred years, say, has failed to uphold its duty, in the face of increasing pressure from within.

To be a Hessian is not simply to like heavy metal music; it's not simply to engage in old philosophies and wonder at ancient wisdom; it's not simply to look a certain way, to talk a certain way, probably not even to think a certain way - for many have similar ideas, without ever putting them into practice.  The Hessians of today are probably those who are capable not only of seeing the world as above, but of doing something about it - for them and theirs, if not for everyone else.  Of all the various groups that exist on the fringes of society - society itself being the first casualty in the event of an inevitable collapse of Western civilisation - the Hessians are amongst the foremost when it comes to likelihood of survival.  Simply because we are oriented this way, in body, mind, and spirit.

2.  The Importance of Warrior Culture

We live in a rather sick world, where the sneaky prey on the gullible.  This is worse than the strong preying on the weak.  That is a natural state of affairs, which can be addressed openly: in the advanced human society (unlike the devolved modern society), the weak can be championed by the strong, in the name of higher ideals.  They can then be helped to become stronger - then we are continuously raising ourselves up, and becoming ever better at "what it is to be human".

In our current situation, this is impossible, because power has fallen into the hands of those who would abuse it from the get go: these are not kind, conscientious, wise or intelligent individuals, but cheapskates.  They are simply crooks.  The weasels have taken the gold and run with it, and now that everything is run on gold (or, "money", which isn't even gold any more), they have all the power.  The bears and wolves are poor, since they do not cheat people.  The sheep have enough to get by, because the weasels need people to steal from.

In the ancient time, it was customary for those who had power to have wealth.  There were two reasons for this: firstly, it was natural that those who could gain what they could, would gain what they could.  So out of nature, those with strength, intelligence, and capacity for understanding of humanity, would gain the most out of the world - in a sense, it was their birthright.  However, there was another reason for this: in those groups, especially in those families, which championed the virtue of "transcendence" - the virtue of becoming better - there was a tendency towards improvement on all levels, such that strength, intelligence, and spiritual fitness rose hand-in-hand, leading to the classic understanding of the "übermensch", the over-man - the one who has transcended his "mere humanity" to become "more than human" (note: there are no racist overtones here, don't look for them).

These übermenschen would naturally come into positions of power over others, and positions of wealth as a result, not only for the reason of their greater strength and mental ability, but also for their greater moral ability - these were "Kings in principle", not just murderers and butchers who could overcome others by force.  Through an understanding of "natural order", these people were able to moderate between others: they were able to see right from wrong, and judge accordingly.  Thus they were given wealth, not to keep for themselves, but to use for the benefit of others - and so we have the ancient traditions of gift-giving, here in Europe, whereby Kings and nobility, given gifts by their subjects (originally, the people who voted them into power), would give those gifts back out to the deserving.

This was a meritocracy: those who showed greatness, specifically in moral/ethical/spiritual avenues, were given the better share, while those who were depraved, who "let the culture down", were given nothing.  Thus society was inspired by these philosopher-kings to advance in its humanity: not only in strength, fitness, agility and endurance, but also in intelligence, wit, creative ability and artistry, and especially in moral understanding, strength of spirit, willpower, perseverance - the qualities of "nobility".  The ancient world, which all Indo-Europeans shared (and which all cultures in the world, broadly speaking, had a term for), was "Arya" - literally, "nobility".  This was not something inherited simply through genetics, but was a personal character trait that had to be cultivated by individuals, irrespective of birth.

Those who came to be called "Aryans" (in the original, pre-Nazi meaning of the term), were those who expressed nobility amongst their people: they were fair, just, wise, self-willed, and spiritually advanced.  They did not rely on others, nor on their birth (which would be "resting on their laurels"), but pushed themselves to grow by their own means - they were on the path of the übermenschen, that is, the pass of self-transcendence.  They were driven to overcome themselves, to become better at all costs.

In the millennia that followed the initial outpouring of Aryan peoples from all cultures unto all corners of the world (for indeed, there were Aryans in China, in Africa, in the Americas - everywhere), it was common for these individuals, who carried this culture of excellence with them wherever they went, to become not only the leaders of people, but also the protectors of people.  Thus, the warrior culture was born: a culture of excellence, which pushed its members to continuously strive to out-do themselves in all ways: to become stronger and fitter, smarter and more creative, and more attuned with the spirit of what is, which is the reality to which we all must conform.  These were the original übermenschen.

However - and this is where the story gets dark - as is proscribed by the passage of ages (or, so the sages of old tell us), it was inevitable that there should be dark seeds amongst this world-wide nobility: and indeed, as time went on, the power of the warrior-kind fell ever more into the hands of those who were lesser than those they conquered.  We see through the histories of all peoples, that their once wise rulership was progressively undermined by a number of incoming and internal factors, such that evil despots overtook principalities from noble lineages, that crooked priests overtook religious culture from wise prophets, that cut-throat merchants overtook trade routes from travelling wealth-spreaders - you see the picture that I am presenting.  In short: the world took a turn for the worse, and over thousands of years, the effect was almost total.

We are now living in an age that is dominated by despots, foul "priests" who use their religions to dominate others, and despicable "merchants" who are more prone to cheating than trading.  This is simply a sign of the times: it is not something that could be avoided, nor a state of affairs that can last forever.

This is where the warriors come in.

As it was first amongst the warriors that the problems emerged - for it was the true warrior-kings, the übermenschen, that were overtaken by their adversaries, the crooked and criminal aspects of society that sought to undermine the natural order (and the natural human impulse towards excellence) - it must be with the warriors that the tide is turned.  It is with those with warrior-mentality that the salvation of humanity lies, as we come from the dark Kali Yuga into the upward cycle of our world, which will take us back through the Bronze and Silver ages to the Golden Age that prevails for the bulk of human existence.

This is how it is written, at least, and if we believe these records, and the ancient oral histories that underpin them, then we have no reason to believe that the current era will be anything unlike the past, where the Kali Yuga, the Age of Iron, was undone by the warriors - warriors who remembered their place and their purpose in this earth.

Thus, if we are to see humanity and the world at large recover from the dark age in which it has found itself for so long - the age of avarice and spite, of murder and trickery - then we must champion those who have this warrior-morality within them, who recognise by nature that which is wrong, who understand the need for excellence in human life, and who are driven by an inner urge to overcome the inequities that have plagued the human world for so many thousands of years.

Perhaps it is not right to say that this is something that must be done by humanity at large; rather, perhaps it is more fitting to point out that this is the way it goes - if we pay any attention at all to the cycles that have already transpired, then we will recognise that it is nature that is holding sway here.  There is always a dark age before an incoming golden age: there is always a downswing for an upswing.  There is never a trough without a peak, never a mountain without a valley.  We are climbing out of the valley as I write this: and it is partially through the efforts of these warriors, inspired by nature and by natural order, that humanity will make this ascent.

3.  Hessians as Modern Day Warriors

Now to bring these two threads together.  The Hessian, properly speaking, is the warrior reborn in the modern era.  There may be others, who conform to these principles, who find themselves outside of the heavy metal culture, who don't have the same tendency towards internal overcoming of darkness such that the Hessians embody.  Nevertheless, amongst the warriors of the world stand the Hessians, for the clear reason that this quality of self-overcoming is potent in them.

Where most metalheads, who like the sound of the music without necessarily understanding the deeper motifs hinted at in it, are prone to the same kind of hedonism and excess that the rest of the world is liable to, Hessians are - for whatever reason - inspired to go beyond this simplistic and self-destructive attitude, to champion better values and more noble goals.  There is a sense of long-term involvement, an understanding of the returning place of the human in the eternal cycles, such that we seem incapable of leaving this world "as it is" - if that were even possible.  Perhaps some of us believe in death... But I know that many of us do not, in that we - few out of many - have tackled the reality of death, and found death only to be the basis of life.  Where, then, can we go - what can we do - that will not lead us back into this world, again and again, to face those things that arise with it, and strive ever further to become more what we are?

While the majority of heavy metal fans like themes of death and destruction, obliteration, annihilation, and so on, many of them are uncomfortable with the realities that these themes point out - Hessians are not.  While the majority of philosophers sit comfortably in their academic circles discussing the language of thinkers past, Hessians grapple directly with that wisdom that has been put forward by the greatest minds of our times.  While many in the spiritual world are content to depart from "the mundane", to sit in some cave in a mountain somewhere and while away their time fruitlessly for no benefit other than the personal, Hessians are not.

We have an impulse to impart something of goodness in this world, no matter the means.  For many of us, this is couched in terms of destruction of the things that are evil - and indeed, that is one of the greatest goods that can be brought about in this era, when so much has been touched by the hand of depravity.  To destroy that which has failed, and to wield anger and righteousness in that pursuit, is surely the hallmark of warriors.

Where once we destroyed the evils that had plagued others, wherever we went - and it can be seen in the historical record, that the noblest warriors went far afield to seek beleaguered and enslaved peoples, to liberate them from ignoble states of life - now we are faced with a world-wide slavery, and one which is largely self-manifested, in that the majority of denizens of this earth wilfully cling to their chains as if iron gave them blood.

What better way can we go about delivering people from their servitude, then, but to destroy the foundations upon which this anti-tradition stands?  And to do that - that is a cultural war, not a war of arms.  To disestablish those threads that have led to the deplorable state of modern man, is something that is achieved through intelligence and activity - to point out with power the failings of the status quo, allowing those with the intelligence and courage to understand to free themselves through their own efforts.

Hessians thus find themselves in a prime position to offer real war against the overarching enemy - which is not any one group or body, so much as it is a natural force, and one which must be challenged in order for growth to be realised.  There are those who are able to hear this call, to whatever degree - many of them are amongst the metalheads, some amongst the punks, others dispersed through the world in various ways - but it is chiefly the pursuit of Hessians to channel into artistic creations the inspiration that resides within them, which is antithetical to the stream in which this world has found itself for so long.  It is not good enough merely to state one's case without showing anything of oneself to back it up - one must live the life of the "anti-hero" (at least, such as it appears in this backwards age) and extol the virtues of virtue in a world where decadence is seen as the norm.

To counter deleterious currents in this way has forever been the pursuit of the warrior: and that we should have the chance to be born in such a world, where those currents are so strong, that we might vie with renewed vigour for the establishment of divine/natural order, is a blessing more than it is the curse we might have seen it as as youths.

Afterword

Only the bare minimum of things that are to be spoken of on this blog has been mentioned so far... I have made this rather ridiculous post, predominantly for my own purposes, so that I might have a basis from which to start exploring all the various aspects of Hessiandom.  This post will surely be added to, diminished, chopped and changed around in time, that it might better reflect the spirit to which it points - but for now, it is a first footprint in a world long untrod for me.  Hessiandom is not a past-time, nor is it merely an aspiration or a fad; it is a way of being, I might even say, a particular aspect of the world-spirit, that expresses itself through human actors in this form - in the past, it was different, and in the future, it will be different.

But as it is now, I will write of it, and will refer to all those things that inform this spirit from the past, and prophesy all those things that may come of it in the future.  But if you should take anything away from this post at all, it should simply be, that the Hessian is not "merely" anything, and that any who have laid claim to the title without expressing for themselves the weight of worth that it requires of one, are either half-baked, or deluded.

And again, this is not supremacist thinking: for no-one is considered a supremacist to consider one ox superior to another in strength and fertility, nor to consider one gun superior to another in range, velocity, accuracy and ease of handling; but it is obvious to those who remove from themselves veils of supposition and desire, that some things are such, and others otherwise, and that excellence as a mode of being is, for whatever reason, restricted to the few nowadays.

The Hessians find themselves amongst those who hold this quality of excelling in themselves.  Perhaps we are the "nobility" of counter-culture.  And, in this world, where culture at large has become as bad as it has, and all things are turned on their heads - perhaps that means that we are "the nobility" in general, born into lives of hardship and struggle in order to show through our own efforts the way of human self-improvement.