Aristasia, Bridgehead and the “Culveria” Question Aristasia, Bridgehead and the “Culveria” Question With the re-vitalisation of Aristasia by Operation Bridgehead, we have been instructed by the High Command to clear up certain points with relation to Aristasia-in-Telluria.
Arstsasia-in-Telluria is now formally defined as a protectorate of Aristasia Pura. Aristasia-in-Virtualia is the midway point between the Aethyr and Telluria itself, thus forming a vital "bridge" between Aristasia Pura and Aristasia-in-Telluria.
The doctrine of Concentric Circles means that one may give one's loyalty to Aristasia to whatever degree one chooses. While in Aristasia one should behave as an Aristasian to the fullest possible extent, and it is important to understand precisely what Aristasia is.
Aristasia Pura is another world. One in which blondes and brunettes are the two sexes and are capable of reproduction. Purans are not "human" in the earth sense, just as earth people are not "human" in the Aristasian sense. Purans are not women (women are members of one of two sexes of which the members of the other are men), they are feminine beings; members of an all-feminine race. We call an all-feminine race intemorphic and a race which includes opposite (male/female) sexes schizomorphic.
Since Operation Bridgehead, Aristasia-in-Telluria — a group of schizomorphic femins on a planet known as Earth — has been adopted by Aristasia Pura as a protectorate, and its members as honorary intemorphs and daughters of the Empress. We are also authorised to use the Aristasian Solar Standard (shown above), and to deputise honorary officers into the ranks of the Royal Novarian Aethyr Command. This is an extraordinarily privileged position. The degree of trust shown to a group of poor Children of the Void is almost beyond belief. The grace of the Empress to schizomorph outlanders truly resembles the Divine Grace Itself. And those of us who accept that grace are no longer outlanders.
In the light of this understanding of Aristasia, we need to look at an old misunderstanding. At times the existence has been postulated of a Western colony of Aristasia called Culveria. This has been variously — and quite contradictorily — described. Some have said it was a full colony, owing allegiance to the Westrenne Monarchies and celebrating Dependence Day on July the 4th: others have even pictured it as a republic like Tellurian America.
In fact, the term Culveria was coined as a poetic term for America — that is, Real America as opposed to Pit-america — just as early Aristasians sometimes used Albia as a term for Real England as opposed to Pit-england, or the Yeek.
The fallacy that there is an "America" in Aristasia, called Culveria, is founded on another fallacy — often propagated by non-Aristasians — that Aristasia is actually an idealised and feminised version of England. If this were the case it may well have been necessary for Americans to have "their own version" of Aristasia. But while, necessarily and legitimately, Aristasians have drawn on elements of Tellurian culture to aid them in the construction of their world, Aristasia has always been a very different world, in some respects parallel to, but fundamentally distinct from, Telluria.
Aristasia is no more England than it is America or Japan. The use of the Queen's English by Aristasians in the Yeek is natural because it is the nearest thing in English to a Raihiralan, or aristocratic, style of speech. American Aristasians may or may not adopt a version of this style (which is akin to the speech of Miss Bette Davis) as there are not the same objections to recent American pronunciation (vocabulary is another matter) that there are to Pit-British, or Rivermouth ("Estuary"), speech.
It must be understood that one of the fundamental differences between Aristasia and Telluria — even when regarded as parallel worlds — is that the rationalist revolution of the 17th Century (miscalled the "Enlightenment"), which has shaped modern Tellurian thought and culture, did not take place in Aristasia. Aristasian science fiction, such as The Princess and the Captain explores a world in which technics have developed to a high degree, but are seen as an extension of the traditional metaphysical outlook, and are not the result of a revolutionary rationalism.
Even the Classical Aberration of Greece and Rome, with its republicanism, individualism and proto-rationalism, has no equivalent in Aristasia. In Telluria, this aberration was consciously revived at the time of the Renaissance (literally a "rebirth" of the Classical spirit). In Aristasia the traditional view of the world (as upheld by Plato in Telluria against the spirit of his time) continued unbroken.
In Westrenne Aristasia, a spirit of individualism and a weakening of tradition has certainly manifested itself in recent centuries. However the Westrennes have never regarded this as a "progress" or "advance", and have never adopted an attitude of superiority and condescension toward the ancient world or the East. On the contrary, they regard their own "modernism" as a decline from the highest standard and as somewhat regrettable, while at the same time acknowledging that it has made their particular culture possible.
The fact that the most advanced technics in the West have come out of Novaria — the Western nation most closely adhering to the traditional thought of the East — seems like a paradox only to non-Aristasians. To the Aristasian mind, the strong connexion of Novaria with the wellsprings of traditional intellectuality is precisely the reason for its successful adaptation of that intellectuality to the forms and possibilities of the Iron Age.
Again and again one must remind oneself that in Aristasia technics are not associated with a revolutionary ideology as they are in Telluria, but on the contrary, are seen as the latest application of traditional Intelligence.
Once we have fully grasped this, it becomes clearer why Aristasians-in-Telluria adhere to the cultural forms they do. If many Aristasians prefer traditional English spelling (as preserved in Britain but not America) and all Aristasians prefer traditional weights and measurements (as preserved in America but not Britain), this has nothing to do with being "pro-British" or "pro-American". Aristasians avoid as a matter of principle those forms most associated with the "rationalist" revolution. The metric system in particular was designed as a purely-human, purely rational system of mensuration as opposed to the old proportions, which have their roots in traditional cosmology and numerology. It was forced on Europe by the revolutionary armies of Napoleon and has stood since as a symbol of the rationalistic, anti-traditional spirit.
The "reformed spelling", advocated by fabians like George Bernard Shaw in Britain, and partially introduced into America by the spelling reformist Noah Webster, is associated with the same ideology but is a much less important symbol. Thus, while traditional spelling is a matter of personal choice, it really would be rather a gaffe to use metric measures or centigrade temperatures in Aristasian company.
In matters of polity, the concepts of republicanism and democracy are unknown in Aristasia, as they have never existed either in its ancient or its modern worlds. The concept of the Golden Chain of Thamë running from Heaven through the Empress, down to the humblest of her subjects is fundamental to Aristasian thought, life and culture. Republican ideas are a revolt against tradition of a kind that simply could not exist in Aristasia without its becoming an entirely different sort of place. Indeed, since this revolt against tradition is of a wholly unbalanced-Vikhelic and discordant nature, it is probable that it could only take place in a patriarchal society, and that no aberration that arose from an intemorphic people could ever take this particular form.
Again, this should not be seen as having anything to do with a British as opposed to an American outlook. From an Aristasian point of view the idea of a Queen as a mere decorative figurehead, with authority deriving (in theory) not from the highest level but from the lowest — the mass of the people — would be almost as absurd as republicanism itself. Either system is a pure inversion from the Aristasian point of view.
We should also add at this point that Aristasia does not espouse any particular Tellurian "political ideology". That democracy is an absurdity in an Aristasian context does not say anything either for or against it in the context of current Telluria, where conditions are entirely different and the Golden Chain — certainly in the West — is probably irreparably broken; and where the masculine lust for power will inevitably corrupt traditional forms of government. What form of government is suitable for late-patriarchal Telluria is absolutely no affair of Aristasia's.
We wish to state here the policy of the Bridgehead High Command that Aristasia neither favours nor opposes any Tellurian party, government or system of government. It supports no Tellurian race, nation religion or people against any other. Aristasia is formally neutral on the subject of all foreign politics.
It is true that in order to help Tellurian girls "place" current Tellurian ideas from an Aristasian standpoint, some commentary has to be made at times, but this should be regarded as "academic" and not as advocating any course of action in relation to Telluria. Tellurians with their tendency to see all ideas in terms of "political ideology" applicable to their own "current affairs" may find this alien. Let them understand that Aristasia is alien to them.
Aristasia is not England. Aristasia is not America. Aristasia is not Germany or France or China or Japan or India. Aristasia-in-Telluria holds itself free to take high and noble, good and beautiful things from Tellurian cultures in order to strengthen its manifestation in an alien world. But Aristasia in Telluria is always, first and foremost, the child of Aristasia Pura: the Holy Motherland that is not of this earth.
May Dea bless the Motherland
Q. This is a ripping piece. It really helps me to understand Aristasia I think better than anything else I've read.
Some questions cone to my mind. Don't feel they are hostile questions. They are just things I need to understand better.
You say the "rationalist revolution" did not take place in Aristasia and Aristasians in Telluria are opposed to rationalism. Does this mean Aristasia is irrational or anti-rational?
You also say the idea of a queen as a "mere decorative figurehead" for an elected government is absurd to Aristasians. Does this mean that in Aristasia a hereditary queen makes all the executive decisions and "is the government"?
A. Thank you for your interesting and important questions. Never be afraid to ask searching questions - it is the only way to learn the answers!
Let us take your questions in order.
1) You say the "rationalist revolution" did not take place in Aristasia and Aristasians in Telluria are opposed to rationalism. Does this mean Aristasia is irrational or anti-rational?
It is important to distinguish between rationality and rationalism. They are two very different things: and ultimately they are opposed to each other.
Rationality means the use of reason. Reason is the God-given power of organising facts and ideas. The main use of reason is to organise, and draw conclusions from, the information provided by the five senses (sense-data).
Reason, according to traditional thought, is the lunar faculty. It is the reflection of the Solar Intellect. Through the Solar Intellect are perceived the Eternal Verities, the Truths of metaphysics and spiritual Reality. All traditional Tellurian teachers — Plato, the Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Sri Sankara and countless others — have taught the importance of this Solar Intellect, though they have called it by different names.
Rationalism is a dogma that first arose in the 17th century. It declares that the sense-data plus the lunar reason are the only sources of knowledge available to maid. In so doing, it repudiates the intellectuality of all past ages and claims a monopoly of truth for its own narrow, materialistic outlook.
It is important to understand that rationalism is not itself rational. Rationalism cannot be derived from the reason. It is an arbitrary dogma. And yet it is upon this dogma that the outlook of the post 17th-century Western world has based itself.
The most concise statement of rationalism is that made by the Logical Positivists who say that "A statement that is not either synthetic (derived from the sense-data) or analytic (derived from the action of the reason upon the sense-data) is literally meaningless."
It should be noted that the statement "A statement that is neither synthetic nor analytic is literally meaningless" is itself neither synthetic nor analytic. This exposes the inherent self-contradiction of rationalism
2) You also say the idea of a queen as a "mere decorative figurehead" for an elected government is absurd to Aristasians. Does this mean that in Aristasia a hereditary queen makes all the executive decisions and "is the government"?
First we should understand that the idea of Government is very different in Aristasia from Telluria. In Telluria, following the rationalist revolution, government has been seen as "dynamic": as a means of enacting "rational plans"; as a process of constant change. C.S. Lewis notes the change from referring to the heads of state as "rulers" (implying people who "regulate" a stable order) to "leaders" (implying people who are constantly "leading" their subjects from one state to another).
The Aristasian idea of government — like all traditional government — is of maintaining the Golden Order. The Queen is not there to implement "her own ideas", but to maintain the Divine Order laid down from the beginning. Certain adaptations may need to be made from time to time to accommodate changing conditions, but Government is not seen as a vast revolutionary undertaking, but as the simple maintenance of good order.
Thus it would not be nearly so difficult as a modern Tellurian might suppose for a single hereditary ruler, trained from birth in the arts of rulership, to "be the government".
Nonetheless, this is not usually the case. There are Royal Councils, Ministers and even Parliaments (though these, where they exist, convene relatively infrequently as compared to their modern Tellurian counterparts) to execute the Royal and Divine will and to help determine policy. But at no point should policy be the arbitrary will of a person or a group of people. It is always an attempt faithfully to translate the Golden Order into current practice.
Arbitrary rule — the rule of human ideas rather than Divine Principles — is the simple definition of tyranny. The Tellurian phenomenon of arbitrary absolute monarchy is as much an aberration as democracy itself: and indeed the two aberrations spring from the same fundamental error - the belief that the human will can replace the Divine Order.
Councils, ministers and parliaments are all servants of the Queen. The Queen is the servant of the Empress and the Empress is the servant of Dea.
A ruler who ceases to serve the Golden Order and rules in her own private right is a tyrant and may lawfully be deposed. Fortunately such a thing has been extremely rare in Aristasia.
