The Manifesto of the Atheling

This third draft of a Manifesto I'm writing, describing a code of living for the “Interior Elite” or the Athelings – is, in a sense, my attempt to rebirth a code of Master Morality for modern people. This work blends elements of the Perennial Tradition, primordial Pagan models of spiritual and symbolic worldview, and Classical virtue all mixed with a generous dash of Ancestral Traditionalism and Spiritual Ruralism- just perfect for (and quite expected from) a mind like mine. But I have a feeling that I'm not alone. This is for the true nobles.

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The Manifesto of the Atheling
Copyright © 2010

The "Interior Elite" or the "Aristocrats of the Soul"- those for whom we follow the lead of history and tradition and re-anoint with the princely title “Atheling"- are herein described. The term “Atheling” has, for this study and meditation on morality, been stripped of its old political associations (once it referred to the scion of any noble family) and is now given a more profound, internal, and universal meaning which speaks to moral and spiritual nobility.


1. The Athelings of our world have three things in common: they all evidence a natural thoughtful introspection, a desire for the calm beauty and quiet simplicity of the rural landscape, and a natural disdain for degraded modernism.

2. Spiritual "Ruralism" is not a re-statement of the older notion that a life based on farming or agrarianism is morally superior to a life spent in the giant maws of our cities; it is, instead, a call to appreciate, preserve, and seek out whenever possible the only peace and serenity in the exterior world that can match and sooth the thirst for peace and serenity within- the peace found in the untamed, unspoiled, or prudently and respectfully modified countryside.

3. Far from the crowds, the madness, the damnable noise, and the hosts of predatory minds warped violently by the poverty of aggregation, is found the only true refuge for the Atheling.

4. The Atheling will always cultivate a mental and spiritual detachment from modernity, though they are forced by Fateful circumstances to dwell among its artifacts, and among the anonymous masses of its unthinking disciples.

5. This detachment nourishes a dignified spirit; it partially soothes a soul forced to drink the bitter waters of the dull, uninspired aesthetics, the crimes of unrestrained capitalism, unrestrained collectivism, industrialism, and the stultifying social and religious choreography that all join together to define the spirit of the modern age.

6. In the special detachment of the Atheling, the entire sublime field of experience, anciently interwoven with reason, creativity, and a taste for the mystical (that sacred reality beyond our rational understanding) is safely preserved from the shallow absurdity of materialism and the arrogance of the materialistic sciences.

7. That divine creativity which alone can spare the soul from a painful famine and final death in the barren modern wasteland, is sheltered and flourishes in detachment from the clumsy grasping of the rude masses.

8. For the true Athelings of our world, Nature is never judged to be mere “material” and “resource”; it is symbol and spirit, never separate from the living and enduring being of each person.

9. The Atheling sits, unseen by the world, on a throne of highest dignity at the center of a kingdom of conscience. The noble man or woman always experiences two lives, a life of necessity in the outer world, and a life of eminence within.

10. In the detachment of the Atheling, the stains of modernity cannot cling to his or her spotless garments; the sovereign will of the Atheling is not moved, though a billion voices together call for that will to bend.

11. That sovereign will is instead freely given over to the dictates of the quiet and faultless conscience which moves and perceives with nature's all-encompassing fluidity, and that will is given freely to itself, draped in a cloak of creativity, crowned with the diadem of inspiration, and co-existing in serene trust with the ancestral and primordial wisdom that first established the foundations of the world, the foundations of excellence and heroism, and the foundations of a just social communion, so long ago.

12. Coeval with the perennial patterning of human experience is the primordial wisdom that was the provenance of sacred mythology- those precious and timeless stories of Gods and Heroes that are keys to insight and truth for the discerning and aristocratic soul. In these things trust can be reliably placed.

13. The Atheling is beholden to no modern judge, nor human spiritual authority; like all beings, he or she will only be finally and truly judged by the ancient voices and the enduring primordial spirit by which all things are rightly measured.

14. The true Atheling does not stand out of any crowd, nor do they blend in; they are immune to the tyranny of the group-mind, the hysteria of mass unconsciousness, immune to the inducements or threats of the powerful few, and unmoved by the manipulations and power-games of the disempowered many.

15. Passing trends do not obsess the Athelings; nationalism does not impress or impassion them, and wasteful, thoughtless living arouses only a just contempt which at any rate does not distract them from the path of sovereign will and the quest for truth.

16. For the demonstrable good of society, the Athelings make sacrifices; the for the good of husband, wife, children, and dearest companions, they sacrifice even more.

17. The saga in which the noble one will be remembered, their true fame, is in the flesh of offspring, in the memories of those dearest and closest, and the in the unfailing memory of the Godly world that remains invisible yet evergreen, even in this age wherein wisdom lies abandoned and is seldom found.

18. The fear of pain and lust for pleasure alike are secondary concerns in any decision the Atheling makes; a noble bearing born of interiorized truth and the balanced, reasoned dictates of conscience accompany the Atheling’s will in any action.

19. No action is well-taken without reference to the divine; the traditional origin of true human culture is the union of the human and godly worlds, and therefore the Atheling, as a bearer of the spirit of the true culture which shines behind the long descent of history, raises (through spontaneous and organic ritual) every intentional action of substance or potential gravity to the level of a sacred act.

20. The fantasies of the noble man or woman contain more truth than the "facts" tossed about and cherished by the peasants of modernity.

21. The interior spaces of the self- that unseen country free of the anguish of time’s decay, which forever borders the profound depths that are source to all persons and things- are the fields in which the Atheling plants the seeds of life, loyalty, affection, and highest aspiration to truth.

22. That interior self, and the Godly spirit that dwells forever there, is the only justification Athelings need for any act of will; they never apologize for arising in might, or for seeking or seizing what they or their own need for life or for their flourishing.

23. The Athelings are not strangers to acts of compassion; real nobility is also marked by fairness and compassion. Their occasions of compassion never come about under compulsion, nor are they condescending acts of pity, but freely chosen displays of solidarity with another soul that struggles.

24. Athelings never apologize for strength or virtue. They never apologize for the outcomes of their own willed actions working in clear-sighted tandem with their conscience.

25. Athelings never complain about powers and forces operating outside of their control in the body of nature, nor superior forces that no courage or ingenuity of man can tame or defeat; they simply and wisely endure the unavoidable outcomes of these things.

26. Noble human beings never debase their humanity, their bodies, their souls, or their spirits by consenting to accept a degraded, guilt-ridden vision or understanding of those vessels of truth and virtue.

27. What is most precious to the true noble is given to the deepest interior of the self, never to be lost again. That great interior realm is an impregnable fortress, safe from the assaults of the degenerate age, from the shallowness that masquerades as morality and righteousness in the outer regions, and from the greatest temptation of all- that seduction that would unseat from the throne of will and conscience he or she who rightly occupies it.

28. The Atheling never feels guilt; they only feel shame for the times when they allowed their own sovereign will to be subverted and led away to the outcome of their own pain, displeasure, or harm, or the harm of others. In that shame, they re-master themselves, and wax mightier, to the accomplishment of the highest ideals.

29. The Atheling dies- alone if need be- for this morality of strength and virtue which cannot, by its very nature, submit to the wills of lesser men or demons.

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