Compliments John ... not only well written but, more importantly, a
revealing light on the more interesting and ultimately more essential
strata of Ernst Juenger's greatness. Puts the political and social
aspects in their rightfully subordinate position.
Thomas Friese
-----Original Message-----
From: John Fitzgerald [SMTP:jfitzy2002@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 7:14 PM
To: juenger-list@juenger.org
Subject: [Juenger-list] THE THIRD TESTAMENT: "STRAHLUNGEN" AND THE WAR
ON TERROR.
The parameters are different now. Al-Quaida have
punctured a hole right through our seemingly solid and
stable post cold-war edifice. In the West confidence
and a relative certainty have yielded to unease and a
contagious anxiety. We are not sure if the worst is
behind us or if "9/11" was just a herald for more
potent attacks. Our knowledge of the threat we face is
limited and hazy. We quarrel among ourselves as to the
best form of response: how exactly does one wage a
"war on terror"? Many of us fret over war against
Iraq, and all of us, to a degree, are nervous
regarding the present and pensive about the future. We
feel trapped and isolated in a harsh new landscape
where the old signposts have vanished or are rapidly
fading from sight.
Ernst Juenger became familiar with this mindset
throughout the early 1940's. His war-time journal is
both an "...initiatic quest and a spiritual guide. It
reminds us how to live and how to retain our lucidity
and equilibrium in the midst of catastrophe."
(SERVICES DOCUMENTAIRES MULTIMEDIA- AMAZON.FR)
He recognises our fears: "I often feel that
everything taking place today is the future preparing
itself by a kind of negative selection: people,
buildings and sentiments alike are all chopped down
like overgrown trees. We are heading towards a world
robbed of its finer elements." (25/12/43) (1)
He acknowledges our apprehension: "...we are now
approaching the very centre of the maelstrom, towards
almost certain oblivion,...this descent into ever
gloomier depths; this meteoric flight, far from the
sphere of salvation." (1/1/45)
"Strahlungen" is Juenger's record of his struggle
to maintain civilised values in a world apparently
hurtling towards destruction. It illustrates how we
can respond to chaos and disintegration, and how we
can keep a sense of perspective even in a morass of
formless dissolution. For Juenger, even abject defeat
can be viewed as a new beginning: "What is the
difference between the pains of birth and the agonies
of death? Perhaps they are identical. In that case;
when the sun sets here, it rises at the same time in
another world." (11/4/45)
Juenger was no naive optimist. He was all too aware
of his contemporaries' dark side: "Today,...read
chapter 22 of St.Luke's Gospel. Christ berates his
enemies for coming to arrest him by night when he had
been teaching openly every day in the temple....'but
this is your hour and the power of darkness'...These
words apply equally well to our time and those acts of
violence concealed in a dreadful darkness." (25/12/43)
Almost a year earlier, on New Years' Eve 1942: "In
the evening we marked the New Year at Headquarters.
The level of conversation provoked a great unease in
me. General Muller gave an account of the monstrous
behaviour of our security services after the taking of
Kiev, and once again they talked of tunnels of gas and
trains loaded with Jews."
Juenger is appalled: "I was seized with disgust at
the sight of those uniforms, medals and decorations:
baubles, which I have been too much under the sway of.
The old knighthood is dead. Today's wars are conducted
by technocrats."
Then a moment of epiphany where Juenger is able to
set this dismal situation in a broader context: "I
went outside. The stars shone brightly in a sky
illuminated by the glow of artillery fire. Eternal and
faithful signs,...what are we men and our years on
this earth in the face of such splendour?"
In his introduction to the 1975 English edition of
"Auf den Marmorklippen", George Steiner writes: "In
his diaries Juenger watches Hitler's thugs scheming
their last acts of murder or getting ready to scurry
for cover. Yet no cry, no leap of rage escapes him. He
notes, 'I lack the capacity for hatred.' There have
been too many moments in our savage time when the
absence of hatred is the same as the absence of love."
(2)
The impression that Juenger remained aloof from
suffering and did not relish "getting his hands dirty"
is very common and has been widely articulated, but
hurling oneself into action to forge a better
environment has never been the Juenger way. His angles
of vision are structured on different lines. He
believes that History carries a momentum of its own
and should be allowed to come to its natural
conclusion. He is not, however, a complete fatalist.
In "Aladins Problem" in 1983, he writes: "...after
all, sooner or later, you have to take sides and you
become vulnerable, as the gods themseves do in Homer."
(3) Generally speaking though, he remains sceptical
as to the human ability to affect positive change.
After the failed attempt on Hitler's life in July
1944, he comments: "The consequences of such events
are utterly incalculable. They spark off a whole
series of reactions, far from the original aim of the
perpetrators." (26/7/44). Elsewhere he remarks, : "The
results of most assasinations are the direct opposite
of what the conspirators intended: thus, they harm
themselves, independently of the personal risk they
run." (4)
Reading "Strahlungen" however, one senses that this
scepticism has more to do with our limited mental
horizons than any inherent hopelessness. Perhaps we
often take a worms-eye view of things rather than a
birds-eye, and this is where Juenger offers us
assistance. His constant awareness of the eternal
dimension helps us to sift the real from the illusory
and to sharpen and refine our understanding: "I do not
want to forget that there always exists a higher path;
that of the spirit, which presses on towards new
worlds and soars above destruction." (31/12/43)
This theme of different levels of consciousness
runs right through Juenger's oeuvre like a golden
thread; from Benoit in "Afrikanische Spiele",through
Moltner and Ejnar in "Besuch auf Godenholm", to
Etienne in "Eine gefarliche Begegnung". A
soul-shattering revelation is not essential: just the
slightest heightening in perception can make the world
come alive for us,: "In the train, on the way to
Thiancourt, I read by the light of the sun a few pages
of Gide's "Les Faux-Monnayeurs". Whenever the sun
disappeared behind a mountain the letters burned and
throbbed from within, glowing green in a profound,
phosphorescent lustre." (9/9/42) And,: "The small
room...was at this point filled with beams of light
and charged with a radiance of which I grasped the
secret as one reads and understands the text of a
book." (23/4/41)
This state of mind is similar to what Colin Wilson
refers to as "Faculty X",..."...the key to all poetic
and mystical experience; when it awakens, life
suddenly takes on a new poignant quality. Faust is
about to commit suicide in weariness and despair when
he hears the Easter Bells; they bring back his
childhood, and suddenly Faculty X is awake, and he
knows that suicide is the ultimate laughable
absurdity." (5)
The poet David Gascoyne puts it neatly in his own
"Paris Diaries": "It seemed that at any moment one was
going to be able to walk right through the screen of
surface appearances, as through a mirror, into a
strangely violent but exalted world of poetry and
revolution. It seemed to be only some inexplicable,
too human, weakness of the will and the imagination
that prevented this other world from instantly, but
permanently, taking its sombre revenge against the
wretched mediocrity of the world that human beings
have built up to defend themselves against it." (6)
Or as Berger says in "Afrikanische Spiele" :
"Benoit was a simple man, but he had seen strange
things; he had gazed into the crystal of the world. If
he had been a master of philosophical language he
could have described from experience what philosophers
strive to attain by speculation." (7)
This is why Ernst Juenger matters. Under his spell
the world vibrates with meaning and significance. And
why not? After all: "The world of myths is always with
us, like an abundance of riches the gods hide from us.
We, however, choose to wander around aimlessly like
beggars in the midst of inexhaustible treasures."
(27/7/42)
Juenger's world-view is essentially spiritual. His
is a multiverse, where individuals move from one level
to another, through new forms and degrees of
experience; each more intense, more meaningful and
more real than the last: where death itself is just
another mode of being. The goal of life, he says, is
to "achieve an understanding of the actual essence of
life: that kernel which never changes, but helps us
cross to the other side and remains the same in
Eternity." (8/3/42)
On New Years' Day 1945 he writes: "I must arm
myself spiritually and hold myself ready to pass over
to the other shore: the luminous shore. I am neither
under constraint nor without liberty; on the contrary,
I am filled with a calm acquiescence and a quiet
expectation,..."
So; we ought to be confident. There is little to be
afraid of: "We spoke of death, and on this subject
Madame Gould made several excellent points; amongst
others, that the experience of death is one which
no-one can deprive us of, and that many times we are
most enriched by that which we had imagined would harm
us most gravely. Destiny, she said, can frustrate us
and deny us of many memorable encounters, but never
that of the encounter with death." (28/3/42)
The journey itself is important in its own right:
"This is why the great way of the spirit goes further
than that of art;...we can describe it as a path
running through a series of gardens. In each garden
the colours and forms grow in richness and luminosity
until the point where neither light nor colour can
increase any further. Then come qualitative changes:
simplification and spiritualisation. We travel as far
as the fountain source of all riches and pass through
chambers of glass where treasures sleep,..."
(8/4/43)
This change; this development of insight, ought to
be our sole raison d'etre: "We live to realise
ourselves and it is through this realisation alone
that death becomes a phantom." (10/10/43)
This is the level of transformation we need if we
are to truly comprehend the current world situation.
We have to reorientate ourselves mentally because
"9/11", the "war on terror" and everything that flows
from there are driven from above: by ideas and images:
"Wars, revolutions and the mechanics of destruction
are merely a kind of stage set; they serve only as a
temporal backdrop." (11/9/43) The real battlefield in
this war lies on the imaginative, intellectual and
spiritual planes.
We live in a complex and often bewildering world
where it can become all too easy to seek refuge in the
simple certainties of fundamentalism: political or
religious. When men go mad, pretty much any belief
system will do. There are amongst us, Christian,
Muslim and Jewish fundamentalists looking to usher us
into a cataclysmic war of civilisations. We can rest
assured that after such a conflagration the hard men
of the totalitarian traditions will be there to pick
up the pieces and fill the gaps.
Our situation is tense but not yet irretrievable.
We must, however, create an authentic imaginative
response to the complexities of modern life before we
are vapourised by nihilists yearning for apoocalyptic
catharsis.
In our increasingly one-dimensional, de-sacralised
world this will require nothing less than an
imaginative tour-de-force. The stakes are high and all
transformation carries within it an element of death:
"...those who accompanied me across the underground
labyrinth were a tiny community of candidates for
death, consisting of those who aspired to the ultimate
perfection and wished to rid themselves of their
bodies like an outworn garment."(28/8/43)
In the central core of our being, however, we are
able to recognise our destiny: "How I had longed for
this grand purification! My theological studies, my
metaphysical realisations,...my mystical tendencies,
the innate desire for the supreme risk,...the
teachings of Nigromontanus, the memory of Dorothea and
those noble fighters who have preceded me: all this
came together in my mind to affirm my decision."
(28/8/43)
Juenger sees this kind of imaginative warfare as
holding religious significance: "The Old Testament and
the New complement eachother admirably. In the one we
are creatures of God and in the other sons of God. I
often reflect on the Bible's open, unfinished and at
the same time unlimited character; and the question of
a third Testament arises,...We can say that the
supreme aim of western art has been to create this
Testament; that is clear when we contemplate the great
masterpieces of our culture. One could also claim,
however, that each of us is the author of this Third
Testament,..."
It is always easier to make a diagnosis than find a
cure. We know that contemplating the stars or gazing
at flowers will not solve our problems, but it is the
way we use our imagination which is of importance
here. In "Strahlungen" and his other works, Juenger
shows us how to point our creative faculties in the
right direction.
"9/11" was so singular that one feels we need a
deeper understanding than that offered by the "comment
and analysis" sections of our newspapers. In the
audacity of its conception and the drama of its
execution "9/11" is what Juenger would have termed an
"a-historical" event: a mythical occurence, loaded
with symbolism, like the sinking of the "Titanic" in
1912. The great concern is that we have lost the
ability to see things from this mythical perspective.
If we interpret an event of this order as a purely
geo-political or social problem then we will react in
the wrong way and the situation will deteriorate.
In the grim days of the Second World War, Ernst
Juenger; through his writings, observations, actions,
study and prayer, sought the higher perspective of the
"eternal verities". In "Heliopolis" (8), Lucius de
Geer achieves a higher level of consciousness when he
is transferred by Phares to the realm of the Regent.
In neither case is Juenger fleeing from harsh reality
into some hazy Platonic idyll. He knows that we cannot
act rightly until we can see clearly and learn to
place events in their correct context.
Time is of the essence; we need this insight now.
It may require a spiritual revolution: a new religious
understanding. We appear to be at that kind of turning
point.
In Harley Granville-Barker's play, "The Secret
Life" (9), Oliver says to Susan, "I dont want to be
resurrected", and she replies, "You'll have to be
somehow."
It is an opportunity. The Third Testament waits to
be written.
JOHN FITZGERALD
19/11/02.
NOTES
(1) All quotations from "Strahlungen" are taken from
the French translation by Henri Plard and Frederic de
Towarnicki in "Premier journal parisien" and "second
journal parisien" 1980, 1995- published by Christian
Bourgois. Though better than my German, my French is
a bit short of top-notch. I'm still learning the
language. My translations are a bit "loose" and "free"
,but I hope and believe that there is nothing there
that EJ did not intend to be there in the original
German. All extracts from the diaries are marked in
brackets with the date they were written on.
(2) "On the Marble Cliffs". Translated by Stuart Hood.
Introduction written by George Steiner in 1970.
(3)"Aladdin's Problem". Published by Marsilio in 1992
and translated by Joachim Neugroschel.
(4) "Conversations with Ernst Junger". Marsilio 1995.
Translated by Joachim Neugroschel.
(5) "The Occult" by Colin Wilson . Hodder and
Stoughton. 1971.
(6)"Collected Journals 1936-1942" by David Gascoyne.
Published by Skoob Books Publishing Ltd 1991
(7) "African Adventures"
Translated by Stuart Hood. 1954. Published by
John Lehmann- London
(8) "Heliopolis" 1949. Klett-Cottra
(9) "The Secret Life" by Harley Granville-Barker.
Published by Secker and Warburg in 1921.
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