Introduction: Mystic Philosophy of a Modern Gnostic
The Numinous Way was the name given, by Myatt himself, to his own
particular, pre-conversion to Islam, Weltanschauung, his own
perspective about life,
which he developed, and continually refined, over a period of some ten
or more years. This completed Weltanschauung has now been
expounded in a recent (December, 2008 AD) collection of
essays, issued by The Numinous Way Foundation, and entitled Empathy,
Compassion, and Honour: The
Numinous Way of Life. According to Myatt, the essays in this
collection "supersede, revise, and correct
all other essays of mine about, or concerning, The
Numinous Way, and what I, previously, called The Numinous Way of Folk
Culture." Thus, the majority of my references are to the chapters, and
appendices, of this work (1).
Significantly, Myatt has stated that:
“As for The Numinous Way, I do now incline toward
the view that
this ethical Way of Life, which I have developed, is now independent of
me, a complete philosophy of life, and can and should be judged as all
such Ways, all such philosophies are judged, on their merits or their
lack of them, independent of the life, and wanderings and mistakes, of
those individuals who may have brought such Ways into being, or rather,
who have presenced something of the numinous in the causal, just as the
life of an artist, while it may or may not be interesting, does not or
should not detract from or colour an artistic, aesthetic, judgement of
his, or her, works of art.”
This particular perspective, or philosophy of life - or
apprehension,
as Myatt himself calls it - is, in my view, fundamentally a mystical
one. That
is, it is based on a personal intuitive insight about, a personal
awareness of, the nature of Reality. This personal insight is that
"individual human beings, are a connexion to all other life, on this
planet which is currently our home, and a connexion to the Cosmos
itself." (2)
According to Myatt, this awareness is that arising from empathy; more,
precisely, from the faculty of empathy, which he explains is an
awareness of, and a sympathy with, other living beings (3), and which
he defines, in a somewhat technical way, as "a manifestation, an
awareness, of
our relation to acausality, and in particular as an awareness of the
related and dependant nature of those beings which express or manifest
or which presence acausal energy and which are thus described, in a
causal way, as possessing life" (4). His other, more
simple explanation, is of empathy, in relation to human beings, as "our
ability to know, to be aware of, the
feelings, the suffering, of others." (5)
This mystical insight of Myatt's led him, over a period of a decade, to
develop and increasingly refine The Numinous Way, and this development
and process of refinement was, according to him, inspired and aided by
his own personal experiences and by his quest among, and experience of,
the religions of the world. As he states (6), his conclusions are:
"The result of a four-decade long pathei
mathos: the result of my many and diverse and practical (and, to
many others, weird and strange) involvements (political, and
otherwise), and my many and diverse and practical quests among the
philosophies, Ways of Life, and religions, of the world. The Numinous
Way is, in particular, the result of the often difficult process of
acknowledging my many personal
mistakes - many of which caused or contributed to suffering - and
(hopefully) learning from these mistakes."
These conclusions have led him to reject all the political and
religious beliefs and views he
formerly adhered to, and which he is publicly known for. Among the
beliefs and views he has come to reject, as a result of what it is, I
believe, accurate to describe as a life long gnostic search for
knowledge, and wisdom (7), are National Socialism and its racialist
policies and politics, of which he had
practical experience of, and a personal involvement with, lasting many
decades.
As Myatt himself claims, his philosophy of The Numinous Way is
emphatically apolitical, rejects the dogma prevalent in established
religions; rejects nationalism, racialism and racial
prejudice; emphasizes and embraces tolerance, and is fundamentally an
ethical,
individual, way
of life centered on the virtues of empathy, compassion and personal
honor (8).
As Myatt states:
"There has been, for me, a profound change of emphasis, a
following of the cosmic ethic of empathy to its logical and honourable
conclusion, and thus a rejection of all unethical abstractions." (9)
A Complete Philosophy of Life
In order to qualify as a complete, and distinct, philosophy - in order
to be a Weltanschauung - a particular philosophical viewpoint
should possess the following:
1) A particular ontology, which describes and explains the concept of
Being, and beings, and our relation to them;
2) A particular theory of ethics, defining and explaining what is good,
and what is bad;
3) A particular theory of knowledge (an epistemology); of how truth and
falsehood can be determined;
It should also be able to give particular answers to questions such as
"the meaning and purpose of our lives", and explain how the particular
posited purpose may or could be attained.
What follows is a brief, and introductory, analysis of how Myatt's The
Numinous Way deals with each of the above topics.
Ontology
Myatt, in the essay Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way, states
that, according to The Numinous Way, "there are two types of being,
differentiated by whether or not they possess, or manifest, what is
termed acausal
energy". That is, he introduces the concept of a causal Universe, and
an acausal Universe, which together form "the Cosmos", or Reality
itself.
This causal Universe is the phenomenal world known to use via our five
senses, and knowledge of this causal Universe is obtained through
conventional sciences based upon practical observation (10). The
acausal Universe is known to us via our faculty of empathy, since the
acausal is the genesis of that particular type of energy which makes
physical matter "alive" (11). That is, according to Myatt, all living
beings are nexions, which are places - regions (or, one might say,
"bodies") - in the causal Universe where acausal energy is present, or
manifests, or, to use Myatt's term, is presenced. Hence, according to
Myatt, "The Numinous Way adds empathy to the faculties by which we can
perceive, know, and understand the Cosmos... Empathy is an essential
means to knowing
and understanding Life, which Life includes human beings..." (12)
In his earlier essay, Acausal Science: Life and The Nature of the
Acausal, Myatt gives a little more detail as to the nature
of acausal being, that is, the nature the acausal itself and of acausal
energy.
Ethics
The ethics of Myatt's Numinous Way derive from empathy, and in the
section Ethics and the Dependant Nature of Beingof the
chapter Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way
it is stated that:
"The faculty of empathy - and the conscious understanding
of the nature
of Reality - leads to a knowing, an understanding, of suffering. Part
of suffering is that covering-up which occurs when a causal denoting is
applied to living beings, and especially to human beings, which
denoting implies a judgement (a pre-judgement) of such life according
to
some abstract construct or abstract value, so that the "worth" or
"value" of a living-being is often incorrectly judged by such abstract
constructs or abstract values."
From a knowing and understanding of suffering, compassion arises, and:
"Empathy is thus, for The Numinous Way, the source of
ethics, for what
is good is considered to be that which manifests empathy and compassion
and honour, and thus what alleviates, or what ceases to cause,
suffering: for ourselves, for other human beings, and for the other
life with which we share this planet. Hence, what is unethical, or
wrong, is what causes or what contributes to or which continues such
suffering."
Furthermore, Myatt defines honor (or, more precisely, personal honor)
as an ethical means to aid the cessation of suffering (13) and thus as
"a practical manifestation of empathy: of
how we can relate to other people, and other life, in an empathic and
compassionate way".
In addition, it is worth noting that Myatt views what he calls
'abstractions' as immoral, since abstraction obscures, or
cover-ups, the essence, the being - the reality - of beings themselves.
That is, such abstractions undermine, or replace, or distort, empathy,
and thus distance us from life, from our true human nature, and lead us
to identify with such abstractions instead of identifying with,
sympathizing with, living beings. (14)
Epistemology
In Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way, Myatt writes:
"For The Numinous Way, truth begins with a knowing of the
reality of
being and Being - part of which is a knowing of the dependant nature of
living beings."
Furthermore,
"There is... a fundamental and important distinction made,
by The
Numinous Way, between how we can, and should, perceive and understand
the causal, phenomenal, physical, universe, and how we can, and should,
perceive and understand living beings. The physical world can be
perceived and understood as: (1) existing external to ourselves, with
(2) our
limited understanding of this 'external world' depending for the most
part upon
what we can see, hear or touch: on what we
can observe or come to know via our senses; with (3) logical argument,
or reason, being a most important means to knowledge and understanding
of and about this 'external
world', and a means whereby we can make reasonable assumptions about
it, which assumptions can be refuted or affirmed via observation and
experiment; and (4) with the physical Cosmos being, of itself, a
reasoned order subject to
laws which are themselves understandable by reason. In this
perception and understanding of the causal, phenomenal, inanimate
universe, concepts, denoting, ideas, forms, abstractions, and such
like, are useful and often necessary." (15)
Hence, Myatt conceives of there being two distinct types of knowing.
That of the causal Universe, which derives from our senses and from
practical science, and that of living beings, which derives from our
empathy with such living beings, from a knowing that we are not
separate from those living beings, but only one manifestation of that
acausal, living, energy which connects all living beings, sentient and
otherwise. (16) This second type of knowing derives from empathy, and
is one means whereby we can apprehend the acausal, which is the matrix,
The Unity, of connexions which is all life, presenced as living-beings
in the causal. (17)
According to Myatt:
"The error of conventional philosophies -
the fundamental philosophical error behind abstractionism - is to apply
causal perception and a causal denoting to living being(s)." (18)
Praxeology
The primary goal is seen as living in such a way that we, as
individuals, cease to cause suffering to other life. This means us
using, and developing empathy, and thus changing - reforming -
ourselves.
"How can we develope this faculty [of empathy]? How can we
reform ourselves and so
evolve? The answer of The Numinous Way is that this is possible through
compassion, empathy, gentleness, reason, and honour: through that
gentle letting-be which is the real beginning of wisdom and a
manifestation of our humanity. To
presence, to be, what is good in the world - we need to change
ourselves,
through developing empathy and compassion, through letting-be, that is,
ceasing to interfere, ceasing to view others (and "the world") through
the immorality of abstractions, and ceasing to strive to change or get
involved with
what goes beyond the limits determined by personal honour." (19)
Why should we pursue such a goal? Myatt answers, in a rather mystical
and gnostic way, that:
"Empathy, compassion, and a living by
honour, are a means whereby we increase, or access for ourselves,
acausal energy - where we presence such energy in the causal - and
whereby we thus strengthen the matrix of Life, and, indeed, increase
Life itself. Thus, when we live in such an ethical way we are not only
aiding life here, now, in our world, in our lifetime, we are also
aiding all future life, in the Cosmos, for the more acausal energy we
presence, by our deeds, our living, the more will be available not only
to other life, here - in our own small causal Time and causal Space -
but also, on our mortal death, available to the Cosmos to
bring-into-being more life. Thus will we aid - and indeed become part
of - the very change, the very evolution of the life of the Cosmos
itself."
The Acausal and The Cosmic Being
Myatt's concept of what he terms the acausal is central to
understanding his philosophy of The Numinous Way. He conceives of this
acausal as a natural part of the Cosmos, which Cosmos he defines as the
unity
of the physical, causal, Universe, and of the acausal Universe. This
acausal Universe has an a-causal geometry and an a-causal time, and
there
exists, in this acausal Universe, a-causal energy of a type quite
different from the physical energy of causal Space-Time, which causal
energy is known to us and described by causal sciences such as Physics.
(20)
This acausal energy is, according to Myatt, what animates physical
matter and makes it alive, and thus he conceives as life in the causal,
physical, Universe as a place - a nexion - where acausal energy is
"presenced" (manifested) in causal Space-Time. Hence, all living beings
are, for Myatt, a connection, a nexion, to the acausal itself, and thus
all living beings are connected to each other. This connectively is
felt, revealed to us, as human beings, through empathy (21). Compassion
is knowing, and acting upon, this connectivity of life, since
"our very individuality is a type of abstraction in itself, and thus
something of an illusion, for it often obscures our relation to other
life..." (22)
The acausal is thus the matrix of connectivity, where all life exists
in the immediacy of the moment, and where causal abstractions, based on
finite causal thinking, have no meaning and no value.
Myatt conceives of what he terms a Cosmic Being, which is
regarded as the Cosmos in
evolution, becoming sentient through the evolution of living beings.
That is, the Cosmic Being is itself a type of living entity, manifest
(or "incarnated") in all living beings, including ourselves, and
Nature. (23)
"The Cosmic Being..... is not perfect,
nor omniscient, not
God, not any human-manufactured abstraction. That is, it is instead a
new kind of apprehension of Being: a Cosmic one, based upon empathy,
and an apprehension which takes us far beyond conventional theology and
ontology." (24)
Thus, this Cosmic Being is not to be viewed in a religious,
theological, way, as some kind of deity, for we are part of this Being,
as this Being is us and all other life, changing, evolving,
coming-into-consciousness (25).
Pathei Mathos
One phrase which frequently occurs in Myatt's writings about his
Numinous Way - and which he often uses in his private correspondence
and his autobiographical essays - is the Greek term πάθει μάθος.
Myatt, in his own translation of The Agamemnon by Aeschylus,
translates this as learning from
adversity. Pathei Mathos is how Myatt describes his own strange
personal journey, his gnostic search for knowledge, wisdom and meaning,
and his ultimate rejection of the various beliefs, ideologies, and
religions, he studied and embraced in the course of this four decade
long journey.
A large part of this learning from adversity is, for him, firstly an
acknowledgment of his personal errors in adhering to and identifying
with various "abstractions" - which he admits caused or contributed to
suffering - and, secondly, the sometimes painful and difficult personal
process of learning from these mistakes and thus changing one's outlook
and beliefs in an ethical way.
As Myatt stated:
"In essence, there was, for me, pathei
mathos. Due to this pathei
mathos,
I have gone far beyond any and all politics, and beyond conventional
religion and theology toward
what I believe and feel is the essence of our humanity, manifest in
empathy,
compassion, personal love and personal honour. Hence, I cannot in truth
be described by any political or by any religious label, or be fitted
into
any convenient category, just as no -ism or no -ology can correctly describe The
Numinous Way itself, or even the essence of that Way. Therefore, I
believe it is incorrect to judge me by my past associations, by my past
involvements, by some of my former effusions, for all such things - all
the many diverse such things - were peregrinations, part of sometimes
painful often difficult decades-long process of learning and change, of
personal development, of interior struggle and knowing, which has
enabled me to understand my many
errors, my multitude of mistakes, and - hopefully - learn from them."
(26)
In addition, he does not make any claims for his Numinous Way, other
than it represents his own personal conclusions about life.
"The Numinous Way is but one
answer to the questions about existence; it does not have some monopoly
on truth, nor does it claim any prominence, accepting that all the
diverse manifestations of the Numen, all the diverse answers, of the
various numinous Ways and religions, have or may have their place, and
all perhaps may serve the same ultimate purpose - that of bringing us
closer to the ineffable beauty, the ineffable goodness, of life; that
of transforming us, reminding us; that of giving us as individuals the
chance to cease to cause suffering, to presence the good, to be part of
the Numen itself." (27)
Conclusion
This short overview of Myatt's Numinous Way reveals it as a
comprehensive and, in my view, rather original, moral philosophy with
an ethics and a praxeology which, while having some resemblance to
those of Buddhism, are quite distinct by reason of (a) how Myatt
relates, and defines, empathy and honor, and how such honor allows
for the employment, in certain situations, of reasonable ("honorable")
force (28), and (b) how Myatt views human life in terms of the acausal,
and
as a means for us to "reform and evolve" ourselves.
The goal of The Numinous Way is seen as us, as individuals, becoming
aware of and having empathy with all life, and this involves us using
and developing our faculty of empathy, being compassionate, and thus
increasing the amount of life, of acausal energy, in the Cosmos,
leading to not only the evolution of life, but also to a cosmic
sentience, which we, when we are empathic, compassionate and honorable,
are part of and which we can become aware of.
In addition, as his many autobiographical essays and his
published letters reveal (29), The Numinous Way - as outlined in the
recent compilation The Numinous Way of Life: Empathy,
Compassion, and Honour - has
no
relation whatsoever to any of Myatt's previously held political views
and
beliefs. Indeed, Myatt is quite clear that he
regards both race, and "the folk", as abstractions which, like all
abstractions, obscure and undermine the numinous and which are
detrimental to empathy and compassion and, ultimately, unethical and
therefore dishonorable. (30) Thus, and rather confusingly given the
terminology, this new apolitical Numinous Way - with its emphasis on
personal, ethical, change and the cessation of suffering - is
completely distinct from his much earlier, now rejected, philosophy
which he
first called "Folk Culture" and then called The Numinous Way of Folk Culture.
Thus, The Numinous Way, as expounded recently, and as developed by
Myatt over a period of many years, is not only a
rejection of all of those previously held political beliefs and views
of his, but
possibly also, as he
himself claimed, a new moral way founded on his own learning from
his
experiences and errors.
JR Wright
Oxford
December 30, 2008 AD
(Updated March 25, 2009)
Notes:
1) This work (currently an e-text
in both html and pdf formats, issued under the imprint of
The Numinous Way Foundation) appears
in some editions
under the alternative title The Numinous Way of Life: Empathy,
Compassion, and Honour. This work is due to be
published in book format late in 2009. In addition to citing this work,
I have, on occasion, referred to
recent private correspondence between Myatt and myself (both written,
and e-mail) where he elucidates certain matters in response to a
particular question, or questions, of mine.
In the interests of clarity, it should be pointed out that Myatt, in
the years following his conversion to Islam, has publicly distanced
himself from this Numinous Way, writing that: "As a Muslim, I regard my
earlier philosophy, which I first called 'Folk Culture' and then The
Numinous Way, as kufr - a concealment of the reality, the truth, of
Tawheed, and thus as a manifestation of Jahiliyyah." Questions for
David Myatt, dated 13 Jumaada al-Thaani 1428
However, Myatt admits that, for around a year or two immediately
after his conversion to Islam, he did continue to develop and refine
this Numinous Way, spurred on by his experiences in the Muslim world,
and it was these experiences - and his study of Islam - which
significantly contributed to him expunging what he called the
"unethical and dishonourable abstractions of both race and the folk
from this philosophy." Private e-mail from
Myatt
to JRW, January 7, 2009
In my view, part of the reason for him continuing this development
concerned his attempt, between 1998 and circa 2003, to aid and
encourage co-operation between radical Muslims and National Socialists
in what he called "the war against the Zionist-Crusader alliance".
Refer, for instance, to Myatt's articles Islam, National-Socialism,
and Honour (dated 1430 AH) and
Islam, The Numinous Way, and Zionist Rumours (dated 26 Zhul
al-Hijjah 1428), and also to Professor Michael's book, The Enemy of
My Enemy:The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the
Extreme Right. University Press of Kansas (2006). Myatt,
apparently, abandoned this strategy sometime in 2003. 2) An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life
3) In Compassion, Empathy
and Honour: The Ethics of the
Numinous Way
4) Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way
6) Introduction, Empathy, Compassion, and Honour: The
Numinous Way of Life
7) A
Gnostic is someone who seeks gnosis - wisdom and
knowledge; someone
involved in a life-long search,a quest, for understanding, and who more
often
than not
views the world, or more especially ordinary routine life, as often
mundane and
often as a hindrance. In my view, this is a rather apt description of
Myatt.
8) Refer to Frequently Asked Questions About The Numinous Way
and An
Overview of The Numinous Way of Life
9) Introduction, Empathy, Compassion, and Honour: The
Numinous Way of Life 10) Refer to the section Ontology and The Numinous Way in
the chapter A Brief Analysis of The Immorality of Abstraction,
and also to Myatt's earlier essay Acausal
Science: Life and The Nature of the
Acausal which is referenced in that
chapter. 11)A Brief Analysis of The Immorality of Abstraction 12) A Brief Analysis of The Immorality of Abstraction 13) An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life 14)Refer to Myatt's recent essay, A Change of
Perspective,
dated December 21, 2008 15)A Brief Analysis of The Immorality of Abstraction 16) Refer to An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life and Ontology,
Ethics and The Numinous Way and also Presencing The Numen In
The Moment 17) A Change of Perspective. Also, private e-mail from
Myatt
to JRW, December 22, 2008
18) A Brief Analysis of The Immorality of Abstraction
19) An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life
20) Acausal
Science: Life and The Nature of the
Acausal
21) Private e-mail from Myatt
to JRW, December 21, 2008
22) An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life. See also
The Numinous Way and Life Beyond Death
23) Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way. Also, private e-mail
from Myatt
to JRW, December 22, 2008
24) Ontology, Ethics and The Numinous Way
25) Private e-mail from Myatt
to JRW, December 22, 2008 and private letter from Myatt to JRW, which
he dated 9.xii.08 (CE)
26) Presencing The Numen In The Moment
27) The Empathic Essence
28) Refer to An Overview of The Numinous Way of Life and also The
Principles of Numinous Law
29) Among his dozens of autobiographical essays are the
following:
So
Many Tears Love, Deities and God:
Redemption and The Numinous Way An Allegory of Pride and Presumption One
Simple Numinous Answer The Empathic Essence
I have collected some of
his personal letters in The
Private Letters of DW Myatt, Part 1.
30) Refer to Frequently Asked Questions About The Numinous Way,
where Myatt writes that "such a concept as
"the folk" now has no place in The Numinous Way..." See also
The
Development of The Numinous Way and Other Questions