De Guaita came from a noble Italian family who had relocated to France. His title was ‘Marquis’, or Marquess. He was born in the castle of Alteville in the commune of Tarquimpol, Moselle, and went to school at the lyceum in Nancy, where he studied chemistry, metaphysics and Cabala. As a young man, he moved to Paris, and his luxurious apartment became a meeting place for poets, artists, and writers who were interested in discussing esotericism and mysticism. In the 1880s, Guaita published two collections of poetry ”The Dark Muse” (1883) and ”The Mystic Rose” (1885), which became popular.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Stanislas de Guaita, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

The term ”exoteric” is mostly used in conjunction with religions and spirituality (as “esoteric” is often associated with esoteric spirituality), in which the teachings shift the believer’s focus away from the exploration of the inner self and towards the adherence to rules, laws and an individual God.

The term ”exoteric” may also reflect the notion of a divine identity outside and different from the identity of a human, whereas the esoteric notion claims that the divine is to be discovered within the human identity. One step further, the pantheistic notion suggests that the divine and the material world is one and the same.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Exoteric, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

The Greek word φιλαλήθης (pronounced “fill-a-LAY-thayss”) was used by ancient writers such as Aristotle and Plutarch, and means “a lover of truth.” The word came into Masonic circles through alchemical mystic Robert Samber (1682–1745), who used the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes; Samber’s use, in turn, was an homage to Thomas Vaughan, an earlier alchemist who had used the same name. Finally, a Rite of Philaléthes was founded in Paris in 1772, devoted to the study of esotericism. Founding President Cyrus Willard wrote in 1936 that the Philalethes Society took its name from the Parisian Philaléthes.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Philalethes Society, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Illuminates of Thanateros is a magic society, founded in 1978, that pursues chaos magic. This fraternal magical society has been an important influence on some forms of modern esotericism.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Illuminates of Thanateros, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Ariosophy, ONT and Lumenclub

Lanz had coined the term ‘Ariosophy’, meaning occult wisdom concerning the Aryans, in 1915. In the 1920s he then used this label for his doctrine. Both List and Lanz greeted World War I as a millenarian struggle. Guido von List wrote his research reports on the “Ario-Germans” (Ario-Germanen) between 1908 and 1913, but in 1917 two later articles written by him appeared in ”Prana”. He died 1919 in Berlin. The List Society was continued after his death, but not much is known of its activities.

By contrast, an organisation founded around 1907 by Lanz von Liebenfels achieved more significance: the ‘new Templar lodge’, called Ordo Novi Templi (ONT) (German: Neutempler-Orden). On 11 November 1932, influenced by Ariosophy, an industrialist with the name Johann Walthari Wölfl also founded an association called the Lumenclub in Vienna, which overlapped in membership with the ONT. The ideological sympathy of the Lumenclub to Nazism is beyond question, as it acted as growth centre for the Nazi party that was illegal in Austria since 1934. Nevertheless, they were later suppressed like other esoteric groups. After the ‘Anschluss’ in 1938, Lanz von Liebenfels had his writings banned. The Lumenclub and the ONT were suppressed by the Gestapo in March 1942, following the party edict of December 1938 that applied to many sectarian groups.

”Werner von Bülow” and ”Herbert Reichstein” had applauded the advent of the third reich in their esoteric magazines.

Rune oc

cultism

Influenced by Guido von List und Lanz von Liebenfels (see: Ariosophy), a new “Aryan occultist movement” was started after 1918 in Germany by Rudolf John Gorsleben.

Since the esoteric importance of the runes (that first had been developed by Guido von List, see Armanen runes) was central to his world-view, Goodrick-Clarke speaks in this context of ”rune occultism”.

Here two authors stand out, as they engaged the runes in “a less explicitly Aryan racist context”. Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Kummer focused more on the practical side of rune occultism. In 1936 Friedrich Bernhard Marby was arrested and sent to a concentration camp (”Flossenbürg” and later Dachau). He survived and resumed his occult research after the war. Responsible for his incarceration might have been Karl Maria Wiligut, who was Himmler’s counsellor on the occult. (see: Nazi occultism) Willigut was of the opinion that Marby (and also Kummer) were bringing “the holy Aryan heritage into disrepute and ridicule.” Wiligut also had identified Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List’s ”Wotanism” and runic row was a schismatic false religion, but this does seem to be unconnected to the arrest of Marby.

Other measures against esoteric groups were most probably the result of the general Nazi policy of suppressing lodge organizations.

Other developments

In the years following the military defeat, there was a burgeoning occult movement in Germany and Austria. Significant figures in this milieu were Gustav Meyring, Franz Spunda and Peryt Shou.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Esotericism in Germany and Austria, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

The word in Renaissance magic came to refer to any astrological, cabbalistic or magical sign or symbol. Related is the Sacramental character of Catholic doctrine.

Famously, John Dee designed his ”Monas Hieroglyphica” in 1564.

In the 19th century, this sense of the word appears mainly in Romantic poetry, such as Sir Walter Scott’s ”Lay of the last minstrel” (1805), where “A hallow’d taper shed a glimmering light / On mystic implements of magic might; On cross, and character, and talisman,” (6.17).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Character (symbol), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

According to the 1982 controversial non-fiction book ”The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”, 15th century French king René of Anjou, who contributed to the formation of the Western esoteric tradition, used the theme of an “underground river” that was equated with the Alfeios River to represent a subculture of Arcadian esotericism, which was seen as an alternative to the mainstream spiritual and religious traditions of Christendom. The book claims that the myth of Arcadia and its underground river became a prominent cultural fashion and inspired various artistic works such as ”Jerusalem Delivered” (1581) by Torquato Tasso, ”Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia” (1590) by Philip Sidney, ”Les Bergers d’Arcadie” (1637 – 1638) by Nicolas Poussin and the ”Kubla Khan” (1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The book speculates that the “underground stream” might also have connoted an unacknowledged and thus “subterranean” bloodline of Jesus.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Alfeios, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

In classical thought, the four elements Earth, Water, Air, and Fire frequently occur; sometimes including a fifth element or ”quintessence” (after “quint” meaning “fifth”) called Aether in ancient Greece.

In Greek thought, the philosopher Aristotle added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.

The concept of essentially the same five elements was similarly found in ancient India, where they formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, particularly in an esoteric context, the four states-of-matter describe matter, and a fifth element describes that which was beyond the material world (non-matter). Similar lists existed in ancient China and Japan. In Buddhism the four great elements, to which two others are sometimes added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience.

Classical elements in Babylonia

The concept of the four classical elements in the Western tradition originates from Babylonian mythology. The ”Enûma Eliš”, a text written between the 18th and 16th centuries BC, describes four cosmic elements: the sea, earth, sky, and wind.

Classical elements in Greece

The Greek classical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether) date from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the M

Plato characterizes the elements as being pre-Socratic in origin from a list created by the Sicilian philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four “roots” (ῥιζὤματα, rhizōmata). Plato seems to have been the first to use the term “element (στοιχεῖον, ”stoicheion”)” in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for element, ”stoicheion” (from ”stoicheo”, “to line up”) meant “smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable”, as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.

According to Aristotle in his ”On Generation and Corruption”:

* Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.

* Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.

* Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.

* Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.

One classic diagram (above) has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. The opposite corner is the opposite of the these properties, “hot – cold” and “dry – wet”.

According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water).

Classical elements in Hinduism

The ”pancha mahabhuta,” or “five great elements”, of Hinduism are ”kshiti” or ”bhūmi” (earth), ”ap” or ”jala” (water), ”tejas” or ”agni” (fire), ”marut” or ”pavan” (air or wind), ”byom” or ”shunya (or akash?)” (aether or void). Hindus believe that the Creator used akasha, the most “subtle” element, to create the other four traditional elements; each element created is in turn used to create the next, each less subtle than the last. Hindus believe that all of creation, including the human body, is made up of these five essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, thereby balancing the cycle of nature set in motion by the Creator. Each of the five elements is associated with one of the five senses, and acts as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. According to Hindu thought, the basest element, Earth, was created using all the other elements and thus can be perceived by all five senses – hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sight. The next higher element, water, has no odor but can be seen, tasted, heard, and felt. Next comes fire, which can be seen, heard and felt. Air can be heard and felt. “Akasha” (ether)is the medium of sound but is inaccessible to all other senses.

Buddhist elements

In the Pali literature, the ”mahabhuta” (“great elements”) or ”catudhatu” (“four elements”) are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterization as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction—instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived.

The Buddha’s teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or calorific content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of “kalapas” of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are color, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.

The Buddha’s teaching of the four elements does predate Greek teaching of the same four elements. This is possibly explained by the fact that he sent out 60 arahants to the known world to spread his teaching; however it differs in the fact that the Buddha taught that the four elements are false and that form is in fact made up of much smaller particles which are constantly changing.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) renders an extract of Shakyamuni Buddha’s from Pali into English thus:

Seven chakras

In the philosophy of the seven chakras there are correspondences to the five elements as shared by both Hinduism and Buddhism as well as two other elements:

*Sahasrara (Crown): Thought/Space

*Ajña (Third Eye): Light/Dark

*Vishuddhi (Throat): Ether/Sound

*Anahata (Heart): Air

*Manipura (Navel): Fire

*Svadhisthana (Sacral): Water

*Muladhara (Root): Earth

Bön elements

In Bön or ancient Tibetan philosophy, the five elemental processes of earth, water, fire, air and space are the essential materials of all existent phenomena or aggregates. The elemental processes form the basis of the calendar, astrology, medicine, psychology and are the foundation of the spiritual traditions of shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche states that

The names of the elements are analogous to categorised experiential sensations of the natural world. The names are symbolic and key to their inherent qualities and/or modes of action by analogy. In Bön the elemental processes are fundamental metaphors for working with external, internal and secret energetic forces. All five elemental processes in their essential purity are inherent in the mindstream and link the trikaya and are aspects of primordial energy. As Herbert V. Günther states:

In the above block quote the trikaya is encoded as: dharmakaya “god”; sambhogakaya “temple” and nirmanakaya “house”.

Chinese elements

The Chinese had a somewhat different series of elements, namely Fire, Earth, Water, Metal and Wood, which were understood as different types of energy in a state of constant interaction and flux with one another, rather than the Western notion of different kinds of material.

Although it is usually translated as “element”, the Chinese word ”xing” literally means something like “changing states of being”, “permutations” or “metamorphoses of being”. In fact Sinologists cannot agree on one single translation. The Chinese conception of “element” is therefore quite different from the Western one. The Western elements were seen as the basic building blocks of matter. The Chinese, by contrast, were seen as ever changing and moving forces or energies—one translation of ”wu xing” is simply “the five changes”.

The Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device for systems with five stages; hence the preferred translation of “movements”, “phases” or “steps” over “elements”.

In Taoism there is a similar system of elements, which includes metal and wood, but excludes air, which is replaced with ”qi”, which is a force or energy rather than an element. In Chinese philosophy the universe consists of heaven and earth, heaven being made of ”qi” and earth being made of the five elements (in the Chinese view, the attributes and properties of the Western and Indian Air element are equivalent to that of Wood, where the element of Ether is often seen as a correspondent to Metal). The five major planets are associated with and named after the elements: Venus 金星 is Metal (金), Jupiter 木星 is Wood (木), Mercury 水星 is Water (水), Mars 火星 is Fire (火), and Saturn 土星 is Earth (土). Additionally, the Moon represents Yin (陰), and the Sun 太陽 represents Yang (陽). Yin, Yang, and the five elements are recurring themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy. The five elements also play an important part in Chinese astrology and the Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng shui

The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles of balance, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or destruction (克/剋, kè) cycle of interactions between the phases.

”Generating”

* Wood feeds fire;

* Fire creates earth (ash);

* Earth bears metal;

* Metal collects water;

* Water nourishes wood.

”Overcoming”

* Wood parts earth;

* Earth absorbs water;

* Water quenches fire;

* Fire melts metal;

* Metal chops wood.

There are also two cycles of imbalance, an overacting cycle (cheng) and an insulting cycle (wu).

Japanese elements

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the (”go dai”, literally “five great”). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Buddhist beliefs; the classical Chinese elements (, ”go gyô”) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the Edo period.

*Earth represented things that were solid.

*Water represented things that were liquid.

*Fire represented things that destroyed.

*Air represented things that moved.

*Void represented things not of our everyday life.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Classical element, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Early life and family

The poet’s paternal family had arrived in Wallachia during the early 19th century. Of South Slav (Serb or Bulgarian) or Aromanian origin, they claimed to have descended from Serb insurgents in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia. Alexandru’s grandfather Dimitrie and Dimitrie’s brother Pavel participated in the 1821 uprising against the Phanariote administration, and in alliance with the Filiki Eteria; Dimitrie made the object of controversy when, during the final stage of the revolt, he sided with the Eteria in its confrontation with Wallachian leader Tudor Vladimirescu, taking an active part in the latter’s killing. Both Macedonski brothers had careers in the Wallachian military forces, at a time when the country was governed by Imperial Russian envoys, when the ”Regulamentul Organic” regime recognized the family as belonging to Wallachia’s nobility. Dimitrie married Zoe, the daughter an ethnic Russian or Polish officer; their son, the Russian-educated Alexandru, climbed in the military and political hierarchy, joining the unified Land Forces after his political ally, Alexander John Cuza, was elected ”Domnitor” and the two Danubian Principalities became united Romania. Both the officer’s uncle Pavel and brother Mihail were amateur poets.

Macedonski’s mother, Maria Fisenţa (also ”Vicenţ” or ”Vicenţa”), was from an aristocratic environment, being the scion of Oltenian boyars. Through her father, she may have descended from Russian immigrants who had been absorbed i

Both the poet and his father were dissatisfied with accounts of their lineage, contradicting them with an account that researchers have come to consider spurious. Although adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Macedonskis traced their origin to Rogala-bearing Lithuanian nobility from the defunct Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While the writer perpetuated his father’s claim, it is possible that he also took pride in investigating his Balkan roots: according to literary historian Tudor Vianu, who, as a youth, was a member of his circle, this tendency is attested by two of Macedonski’s poems from the 1880s, where the South Slavs appear as icons of freedom. Vianu’s contemporary, literary historian George Călinescu, postulated that, although the family had been absorbed into the ethnic and cultural majority, the poet’s origin served to enrich local culture by linking it to a “Thracian” tradition and the spirit of “adventurers”.

The family moved often, following General Macedonski’s postings. Born in Bucharest, Macedonski-son was the third of four siblings, the oldest of whom was a daughter, Caterina. Before the age of six, he was a sickly and nervous child, who is reported to have had regular tantrums. In 1862, his father sent him to school in Oltenia, and he spent most time in the Amaradia region. The nostalgia he felt for the landscape later made him consider writing an ”Amărăzene” (“Amaradians”) cycle, of which only one poem was ever completed. He was attending the Carol I High School in Craiova and, according to his official record, graduated in 1867.

Macedonski’s father had by then become known as an authoritarian commander, and, during his time in Târgu Ocna, faced a mutiny which only his wife could stop by pleading with the soldiers (an episode which made an impression on the future poet). A stern parent, he took an active part in educating his children. Having briefly served as Defense Minister, the general was mysteriously dismissed by Cuza in 1863, and his pension became the topic of a political scandal. It ended only under the rule of Carol I, Cuza’s Hohenzollern successor, when Parliament voted against increasing the sum to the level demanded by its recipient. Having preserved a negative impression of the 1866 plebiscite, during which Cuza’s dethronement had been confirmed, Macedonski remained a committed opponent of the new ruler. As a youth and adult, he sought to revive his father’s cause, and included allusions to the perceived injustice in at least one poem. After spending the last months of his life protesting against the authorities, Macedonski-father fell ill and died in September 1869, leaving his family to speculate that he had been murdered by political rivals.

Debut years

Macedonski left Romania in 1870, traveling through Austria-Hungary and spending time in Vienna, before visiting Switzerland and possibly other countries. His visit was meant to be preparation for entering the University of Bucharest, but he spent much of his time in the bohemian environment, seeking entertainment and engaging in romantic escapades. He was however opposed to the lifestyle choices of people his age, claiming that they were engaged in “orgy after orgy”. At around that date, the young author had begun to perfect a style heavily influenced by Romanticism, and in particular by his Wallachian predecessors Dimitrie Bolintineanu and Ion Heliade Rădulescu. He was for a while in Styria, at Bad Gleichenberg, a stay which, George Călinescu believes, may have been the result of a medical recommendation to help him counter excessive nervousness. The landscape there inspired him to write an ode. Also in 1870, he published his first lyrics in George Bariţ’s Transylvanian-based journal ”Telegraful Român”.

The following year, he left for Italy, where he visited Pisa, Florence, Venice, and possibly other cities. His records of the journey indicate that he was faced with financial difficulties and plagued by disease. Macedonski also claimed to have attended college lectures in these cities, and to have spent significant time studying at Pisa University, but this remains uncertain. He eventually returned to Bucharest, where he entered the Faculty of Letters (which he never attended regularly). According to Călinescu, Macedonski “did not feel the need” to attend classes, because “such a young man will expect society to render upon him its homages.” He was again in Italy during spring 1872, soon after publishing his debut volume ”Prima verba” (Latin for “First Word”). Having also written an anti-Carol piece, published in ”Telegraful Român” during 1873, Macedonski reportedly feared political reprisals, and decided to make another visit to Styria and Italy while his case was being assessed. It was in Italy that he met French musicologist Jules Combarieu, with whom he corresponded sporadically over the following decades.

During that period, Macedonski became interested in the political scene and political journalism, first as a sympathizer of the liberal-radical current—which, in 1875, organized itself around the National Liberal Party. In 1874, back in Craiova, Macedonski founded a short-lived literary society known as ”Junimea”, a title which purposefully or unwittingly copied that of the influential conservative association with whom he would later quarrel. It was then that he met journalist and pedagogue Ştefan Velescu, a meeting witnessed by Velescu’s pupil, the future liberal journalist Constantin Bacalbaşa, who recorded it in his memoirs. ”Oltul” magazine, which he had helped establish and which displayed a liberal agenda, continued to be published until July 1875, and featured Macedonski’s translations from Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Hector de Charlieu and Alphonse de Lamartine, as well as his debut in travel writing and short story. At age 22, he worked on his first play, a comedy titled ”Gemenii” (“The Twins”). In 1874 that he came to the attention of young journalist future dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale, who satirized him in articles for the magazine ”Ghimpele”, ridiculing his claim to Lithuanian descent, and eventually turning him into the character ”Aamsky”, whose fictional career ends with his death from exhaustion caused by contributing to “for the country’s political development”. This was the first episode in a consuming polemic between the two figures. Reflecting back on this period in 1892, Macedonski described Caragiale as a “noisy young man” of “sophistic reasoning”, whose target audience was to be found in “beer gardens”.

1875 trial and office as prefect

In March 1875, Macedonski was arrested on charges of defamation or sedition. For almost a year before, he and ”Oltul” had taken an active part in the campaign against Conservative Party and its leader, Premier Lascăr Catargiu. In this context, he had demanded that the common man “rise up with weapons in their hands and break both the government agents and the government”, following up with similar messages aimed at the ”Domnitor”. He was taken to Bucharest’s Văcăreşti prison and confined there for almost three months. Supported by the liberal press and defended by the most prestigious pro-liberal attorneys, Macedonski faced a jury trial on June 7, being eventually cleared of the charges. Reportedly, the Bucharest populace organized a spontaneous celebration of the verdict.

In 1875, after the National Liberal Ion Emanuel Florescu was assigned the post of Premier by Carol, Macedonski embarked on an administrative career. The poet was upset by not being included on the National Liberal list for the 1875 suffrage. This disenchantment led him into a brief conflict with the young liberal figure Bonifaciu Florescu, only to join him soon afterward in editing ”Stindardul” journal, alongside Pantazi Ghica and George Fălcoianu. The publication followed the line of Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, made notorious for his radical and republican agenda. Ghica and Macedonski remained close friends until Ghica’s 1882 death.

The new cabinet eventually appointed him Prefect of the Bolgrad region in the Budjak (at the time part of Romania). In parallel, he published his first translation, a version of ”Parisina”, an 1816 epic poem by Lord Byron, and completed the original works ”Ithalo” and ”Calul arabului” (“The Arab’s Horse”). He also spoke at the Romanian Atheneum, presenting his views on the state of Romanian literature (1878). His time in office ended upon the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War. At the time, Russian volunteers were amassed on the Budjak border, requesting from the Romanian authorities the right of free passage into the Principality of Serbia. The National Liberal Premier Ion Brătianu, who was negotiating an anti-Ottoman alliance, sent Macedonski signals to let them pass, but the prefect, obeying the official recommendation of Internal Affairs Minister George D. Vernescu, decided against it, and was consequently stripped of his office.

Still determined to pursue a career in the press, Macedonski founded a string of unsuccessful magazines with patriotic content and titles such as ”Vestea” (“The Announcement”), ”Dunărea” (“The Danube”), ”Fulgerul” (“The Lightning”) and, after 1880, ”Tarara” (an onomatopoeia equivalent to “Toodoodoo”). Their history is connected with that of the Russo-Turkish War, at the end of which Romanian participation on the Russian side resulted in her independence. Macedonski remained committed to the anti-Ottoman cause, and, some thirty years later, stated: “We want no Turkey in Europe!”

By 1879, the poet, who continued to voice criticism of Carol, had several times switched sides between the National Liberals and the opposition Conservatives. That year, while the Budjak was ceded to Russia and Northern Dobruja was integrated into Romania, the Brătianu cabinet appointed him administrator of the Sulina ”plasă” and the Danube Delta. He had previously refused to be made comptroller in Putna County, believing such an appointment to be beneath his capacity, and had lost a National Liberal appointment in Silistra when Southern Dobruja was granted to the Principality of Bulgaria. During this short interval in office, he traveled to the Snake Island in the Black Sea—his appreciation for the place later motivated him to write the fantasy novel ”Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu” and the poem ”Lewki”.

Early ”Literatorul” years

With the 1880s came a turning point in Alexandru Macedonski’s career. Vianu notes that changes took place in the poet’s relationship with his public: “Society recognizes in him the nonconformist. [...] The man becomes singular; people start talking about his oddities.” Macedonski’s presumed frustration at being perceived in this way, Vianu notes, may have led him closer to the idea of ”poète maudit”, theorized earlier by Paul Verlaine. In this context, he had set his sight on promoting “social poetry”, the merger between lyricism and political militantism. Meanwhile, according to Călinescu, his attacks on the liberals and the “daft insults he aimed at [Romania's] throne” had effectively ruined his own chance of political advancement.

In January 1880, he launched his most influential and long-lived publication, ”Literatorul”, which was also the focal point of his eclectic cultural circle, and, in later years, of the local Symbolist school. In its first version, the magazine was co-edited by Macedonski, Bonifaciu Florescu and poet Th. M. Stoenescu. Florescu parted with the group soon after, due to a disagreement with Macedonski, and was later attacked by the latter for allegedly accumulating academic posts. ”Literatorul” aimed to irritate ”Junimist” sensibilities from its first issue, when it stated its dislike for “political prejudice in literature.” This was most likely an allusion to the views of ”Junimist” figure Titu Maiorescu, being later accompanied by explicit attacks on him and his followers. An early success for the new journal was the warm reception it received from Vasile Alecsandri, a Romantic poet and occasional ”Junimist” whom Macedonski idolized at the time, and the collaboration of popular memoirist Gheorghe Sion. Another such figure was the intellectual V. A. Urechia, whom Macedonski made president of the ”Literatorul” Society. In 1881, Education Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the ”Bene-Merenti” medal 1st class, although, Călinescu stresses, the poet had only totaled 18 months of public service. At around that time, Macedonski had allegedly begun courting actress Aristizza Romanescu, who rejected his advances, leaving him unenthusiastic about love matters and unwilling to seek female company.

In parallel, he used the magazine to publicize his disagreement with the main ”Junimist” voice, ”Convorbiri Literare”. Among the group of contributors, several had already been victims of Maiorescu’s irony: Sion, Urechia, Pantazi Ghica and Petru Grădişteanu. While welcoming the debut of its contributor, Parnassian-Neoclassicist novelist and poet Duiliu Zamfirescu, Macedonski repeatedly attacked its main exponent, the conservative poet Eminescu, claiming not to understand his poetry. However, ”Literatorul” was also open to contributions from some ”Convorbiri Literare” affiliates (Zamfirescu, Matilda Cugler-Poni and Veronica Micle).

In November 1880, Macedonski’s plays ”Iadeş!” (“Wishbone!”, a comedy first printed in 1882) and ”Unchiaşul Sărăcie” (“Old Man Poverty”) premiered at the National Theater Bucharest. A sign of government approval, this was followed by Macedonski’s appointment to a minor administrative office, as Historical Monuments Inspector. Nevertheless, both plays failed to impose themselves on public perception, and were withdrawn from the program by 1888. Călinescu asserts that, although Macedonski later claimed to have always been facing poverty, his job in the administration, coupled with other sources of revenue, ensured him a comfortable existence.

In 1881, Macedonski published a new collection of poetry. Titled ”Poezii”, it carries the year “1882″ on its original cover. Again moving away from liberalism, Macedonski sought to make himself accepted by ”Junimea” and Maiorescu. He consequently attended the ”Junimea” sessions, and gave a public reading of ”Noaptea de noiembrie” (“November Night”), the first publicized piece in his lifelong ”Nights” cycle. It reportedly earned him the praise of historian and poet Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who, although an anti-”Junimist”, happened to be in the audience. Despite rumors according to which he had applauded Macedonski, Maiorescu himself was not impressed, and left an unenthusiastic account of the event in his private diary.

Against Alecsandri and Eminescu

Macedonski’s open conflict with ”Junimea” began in 1882, when he engaged in a publicized polemic with Alecsandri. It was ignited when, through Macedonski’s articles, ”Literatorul” criticized Alecsandri for accepting Romanian Academy prizes despite being its member, and later involved Sion (whose replies on behalf of the Academy were derided by Macedonski). Macedonski also took distance from Alecsandri’s style, publishing a “critical analysis” of his poetry in one issue of ”Literatorul”. In turn, Alecsandri humiliated his young rival by portraying him as Zoilus, the prototype of slanderers, and himself as the model poet Horace in the 1883 play ”Fântâna Blanduziei”. The two were eventually reconciled, and Macedonski again spoke of Alecsandri as his ideological and stylistic predecessor.

In April 1882, Eminescu had also replied to Macedonski in ”Timpul” journal, referring to an unnamed poet who “barely finishes high-school, comes over to Bucharest selling nick-nacks and makeup [and goes into] literary dealership”. Reproaching Macedonski’s attacks on Alecsandri, Eminescu makes a nationalist comment about the young poet bearing “the bastard instincts of those foreigners who were Romanianized only yesterday”, and attributes him “the physiognomy of a hairdresser”. Through the articles of Petru Th. Missir, ”Convorbiri Literare” gave ”Poezii” a negative review, deemed “malevolent” by literary historian Mircea Anghelescu. At the other end of the political and cultural spectrum, Macedonski faced opposition from the intellectuals attracted to socialism, in particular ”Contemporanul” editors Constantin Mille and Ioan Nădejde, with whom he was engaged in an extended polemic.

In the meantime, Macedonski published his own play, which had Cuza for its main character and was eponymously titled ”Cuza-Vodă”, and completed translations for ”Literatorul”—from Maurice Rollinat, whom he helped impose as a main cultural reference in Romanian Symbolism, and from the Greek poet Akhillefs Paraskhos. In 1883, he also contributed his first sketch story, ”Casa cu nr. 10” (“The House at Number 10″). In early 1883, he married Ana Rallet-Slătineanu. Wealthy and supposedly related to Romanian aristocrats, she would bear him five children in all: the painter Alexis was the eldest, followed by Nikita; the three youngest were two sons (Panel and Constantin Macedonski) and a daughter, Anna (also known as Nina).

In July 1883, Macedonski undertook one of his most controversial anti-”Junimist” actions. That month, ”Literatorul” published an epigram signed with the pseudonym ”Duna”, deriding an unnamed author who had lost his mind. Mihai Eminescu—whom many had already come to see as Romania’s national poet—had by then developed a mental disorder which had become known to the general public. Ever since that moment, Macedonski has generally been believed to be ”Duna”, and as a result, was faced with much criticism from both readers and commentators. The intense anti-”Literatorul” press campaign was initiated in August, when writer Grigore Ventura issued an article condemning Macedonski’s attitude (published in the Bucharest-based newspaper ”L’Indépendance Roumaine”), with Macedonski responding in the National Liberal organ ”Românul”. During one evening, Macedonski is reported to have been assaulted by anonymous supporters of Eminescu. His previous conflict with Nădejde was also affected by this renewed controversy: while opposed to ”Junimist” policies, the socialists at ”Contemporanul” voiced their admiration for Eminescu’s art.

Late in 1883, Macedonski and his friends unveiled Ion Georgescu’s statue of their mentor Bolintineanu in the National Theater lobby. The circumstances in which this took place rose suspicion of foul play; on this grounds, Macedonski was ridiculed by his former friend Zamfirescu in the journal ”România Liberă”, which left him embittered. Călinescu proposes that, although such negative reactions were invoked by Macedonski’s supporters as a sign of their mentor having been marginalized, Macedonski had expressed his dissatisfaction with the cultural environment long before that moment, and was still a respected figure even after the incidents took place.

First Paris sojourn and ”Poezia viitorului”

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Alexandru Macedonski, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Practitioners of theurgy and western esotericism may practice a form of ritual which utilizes both pre-sanctioned prayers and names of God, and prayers “from the heart” that, when combined, allows the participant to ascend spiritually, and in some instances, induce a trance in which God or other spiritual beings may be realized. Very similar to hermetic qabala, and orthodox qabala, it is believed that prayer can influence both the physical and non-physical worlds. The use of ritualistic signs and names are believed to be archetypes in which the subconscious may take form as the Inner God, or another spiritual being, and the “prayer from the heart” to be that spiritual force speaking through the participant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Prayer, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.