Magdalena Marsovzky's article for the ¡°Antifaschistische Infoblatt¡± about Theosophical Esotericism and the current Hungarian government has been available online for a while now.
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Here is a DeepL-translation of the article.
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DeepL:
"Hungary: The dream of Eurasia
Magdalena Marsovszky (guest article)?
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In 2014, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb¨¢n declared that he was turning away from Western values and towards the East: ¡°The new state we are building is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not deny the basic values of liberalism, such as freedom, and I could add a few more, but it does not make this ideology the central element of statehood, but instead contains a specific, national approach that deviates from it.¡°1
At the same time, he named eastern states such as Singapore, China, India, Russia and Turkey as examples for Hungary to follow with regard to its new state organization principle. The media reported that the prime minister had heralded the illiberal turn, was imitating Putin and had declared a cultural war on liberal democracy.
However, an analytical approach would have to go further and ask where the signs of Orb¨¢n's illiberalism declared in 2014 and the turn to the East were already perceptible earlier. And here we have to look back to 1994, because this was roughly the time when Orb¨¢n's Fidesz party turned its back on the liberal democracy it had previously represented and turned to 'Christian-national' conservatism.
The historian and companion of Orb¨¢n, Mikl¨®s Szab¨®, explained Orb¨¢n's about-turn with regard to his world view with psychological and socio-psychological moments in which the origins of the founding members of Fidesz from the village milieu and the associated feelings of inferiority towards big city intellectuals were able to play a role. However, the 'Christian-national' conservatism favored from then on had always been the decided opposite of liberal democracy in Hungary. In reference to the interwar period and further back to the 19th century, it was rather determined by the revival of the specifically Hungarian 'mythology of three thousand years'.
So it is not a question of Orb¨¢n imitating Putin, but rather of reflexes from the earlier past that have remained unreflected in authoritarian real socialism coming to life again in the last thirty years. As the democratic conflict is read as chaos, esotericism with its fantasies of redemption is a spiritual orientation for many.
Eurasian myth of descent - part of the current basic law
Among the ideological role models of Hungarian conservatism, Szab¨® referred to the views of the fascist cultural philosopher and Mussolini advisor Giulio Evola as well as those of the German philosopher Carl Schmitt. He could also have mentioned the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, who was born in the Austrian Empire (now Croatia) and whose traces are clearly visible in cultural policy.?
In addition, there is the myth of the 'Holy Hungarian Crown', which supposedly establishes a connection between the religious community of 'Magyarism' and the cosmic 'astral realm' (an expression from theosophy/anthroposophy) and provides the national believers (as conservatives call themselves) with superhuman powers. The most important message of this 'crown myth', today known as the
'historical constitution' in the preamble to the Basic Law (2012), contains the Far Eastern-Eurasian, primordial (Turanian, Scythian) ancestry myth of the 'Magyar people' and the 'sacred world order', called 'astrality'.
Although the above-mentioned moments continue to be propagated as 'Christian-national' in the communication of the Hungarian government, they also signify the decided opposite of Christian universalism, as they also interpret Christ - in the sense of the anthroposophical interpretation - as a prophet of (cosmic) light and as an 'Aryan'.
All of the individual elements listed above, which the Orb¨¢n government is drawing on today, can be summarized under the heading of esotericism. What is now called Eurasianism or New Eurasianism has its roots in 19th century esotericism.?
Hungary was both part of the Habsburg Empire, or monarchy, and later, in the interwar period, an active member of the Europe-wide esoteric movement. This movement was also active under real socialism, only underground, and was therefore able to live out its missionary fantasies of salvation unhindered after the fall of communism in 1989. The young democracy was incapable of democratically countering the popular pressure, so that esotericism was able to infiltrate society and even became a state principle with the second Orb¨¢n government in 2010.
Fundamentals of the hermetic world view of esotericism
The basis of folk esotericism in Hungary is the anti-individualistic idea of the post-Enlightenment period about the existence of homogeneous ethnic communities, or even species or racial communities, which exist side by side and can act in the sense of a transcendental 'sacred geography', which also legitimizes revisionism and hegemonistic, imperial ideas.?
The view that the 'racial Magyars' were entitled to hegemony in the Carpathian Basin was held in Hungary from around the end of the 19th century and today forms the basis of the Orb¨¢n government's 'revisionism'.?
Spiritist movements such as occult-mystical theosophy, anthroposophy and ariosophy found more and more followers in Hungary from the end of the 19th century. A closed (hermetic) world view developed from them. Its foundations are anti-theses: it is anti-individualistic, anti-liberal, anti-democratic, anti-enlightenment, anti- and counter-modern, anti-emancipatory, anti-human, anti-Western, male-hierarchical, misogynistic. It is also anti-Christian, as it does not recognize universal Christian grace and charity. Source-oriented science, such as the theory of evolution and rational thinking, are also suspect to this world view.?
It is oriented towards myths, metaphysics and idealism, because supposedly only these can awaken empathy. It criticizes 'materialistic pragmatism', which is equated with a lack of empathy.
This hermetic world view is also apocalyptic: in it, the (paranoid) fear of the 'downfall of civilization' is so great that people prefer to long for destruction (e.g. through war) in order to finally be 'redeemed'. But redemption means 'redemption from enemies unworthy of life', i.e. from the supposed evil that stands in the way of the hermetic tradition. Depending on how these enemies are defined, this redemption conceived in the hermetic sense can therefore lead to genocide.
On the other hand, the supposedly good person who belongs to the religious community and thus contributes to the preservation of the national community is promoted.
The spread of esotericism
The Treaty of Trianon/ Versailles (1920), which was experienced as a national trauma and after which Hungary - on the losing side in the First World War - had to cede two thirds of its territories to neighboring countries, led to the rapid spread of spiritualist schools of thought in Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s. Even then, there were efforts to 'enlighten' the nation and the world and to create a 'new world order'. In the intellectually hopeless 1960s, during real socialism, esotericism was even integrated - albeit as an underground movement - into the resistance against the Soviet occupying power.
The most important esoteric was the philosophically oriented librarian B¨¦la Hamvas, who dreamed of a 'Golden Age' (meaning the astral realm). After the fall of communism, the 'Magyar Artistic Academy' (MMA) was founded in 1992, whose director, the anthroposophical architect Imre Makovecz, saw Viktor Orb¨¢n as the politician who could prevent the return of evil, namely that of 'the communists' (understood as 'Judeo-Bolsheviks'), as early as the second half of the 1980s. Orb¨¢n also saw him as one of his 'masters'. It is no coincidence that today it is said that Makovecz ¡°had the ability to call forth the Golden Age described by Hamvas ¡±2
Fidesz's path to esotericism
During Orb¨¢n's first term of office in 2000, the 'Holy Hungarian Crown' was ceremoniously transferred from the National Museum to Parliament and placed in the central position under the dome. The sacralization of the nation thus also symbolically became the guiding principle of statehood. Also in 2000, with the opening of B¨¦la Hamvas' ¡°Institute for Cultural Research¡±, the cultivation of Hamvas' intellectual heritage was institutionalized. And in the fall of 2002, after Fidesz lost the elections, 11,300 (folk-esoteric) so-called citizens' circles were founded in response to Orb¨¢n's call, in which strategies for 'national resistance' against the 'returned communists' were worked out.?
That was the time when Fidesz consciously applied the cultural hegemonization of society (from the right). This topic is Orb¨¢n's specialty, as he had written his thesis in 1988 on the theories of Antonio Gramsci. In the years that followed, a sophisticated strategy led to the gradual establishment of media close to Fidesz, which broadcast both the guidelines from the party headquarters and the discussions of the nationalist 'grassroots movement'.
As early as 2006, there was talk of Orb¨¢n being the ¡°spiritual leader¡± of the Hungarian right, who could not be voted out of office as he had fought for this role for himself.3
From 2008, it was also clear that in the event of an election victory, the new Orb¨¢n government wanted to replace the existing constitution with a new one centered on the 'Holy Hungarian Crown'. As the government at the time did nothing to counter the massive ethno-esoteric pressure from the opposition conservatives, the conservatives led by Viktor Orb¨¢n were able to achieve a phenomenal election victory in 2010.
Policies of the Orb¨¢n government
Today, the Orb¨¢n government argues that Magyarism is a people of the 'pagan East of Eurasia' that has strayed from the sacred path, but should once again be imbued with cosmic, Eastern spirituality. The 'astral religion of cosmic Christianity' can be seen everywhere in cultural and educational policy.
It should first be mentioned that the basic law passed by the Orb¨¢n government, entitled 'National Creed' (poem by a Hungarian theosophist, 1920) and subtitled 'God Bless the Magyars' (from the national anthem, 1823), refers to the 'historical constitution' in its preamble.
The symbolism is not an empty shell, because Art. R para. 3 states: ¡°The provisions of the Basic Law shall be interpreted in accordance with its objectives, with the national commitment it contains and with the achievements of the historical constitution¡±.4
The mention of the 'Holy Crown' in the preamble legitimizes revisionism, because it refers to areas of the neighbouring countries that used to belong to the crown land of Hungary. And the mention of the 'Carpathian Basin' not only points to the 'mythology of three thousand years' with the Eurasian descent thesis, but also to the transcendental 'sacred geography' that legitimizes the cultural hegemonization of these parts of the country from the 'motherland' Hungary.
The esoteric tendency can also be seen in the work of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (MMA), which is constitutionally anchored in the Basic Law and is today the most important promoter of the nationalist, even esoteric art scene. Its aim is to push back the democratic-emancipatory tendencies defamed as ¡°communist¡±, ¡°internationalist¡± and ¡°cosmopolitan¡± (using anti-Semitic codes) with the help of nationalist-patriotic ideology.
The primordial (Eurasian) origin is also the most important topic of the genealogy institute founded by the Orb¨¢n government in 2019, which welcomes the 'birth of light at the solstice celebration' and the astral-religious heritage of the ancestors of the Magyars on its official Facebook page.
As a manifestation of cultural hegemonization, countless streets and squares have been renamed over the past thirteen years, new days of celebration and commemoration have been introduced, monuments have been removed, new ones have been created, and public space has been redesigned in line with the irredentism of the interwar period. The mythical animal sculptures that can be seen in public spaces, such as the 'Turul Griffin' or the 'Wonder Deer', are also mentioned in the 'historical constitution'.
In monumental historical films, in the media, in exhibitions and in public spaces, the heroic past and the primordial origin of the Magyar people are suggested. State institutions communicate ideas about direct ethnogenetic Eurasian descent, e.g. from the Huns who migrated from Scythia.
Following the cultural, media and education policy guidelines laid down back in 2011, new, ¡°patriotic¡± (esoteric) cultural policy guidelines were laid down for cultural and media policy as well as school and education policy. The respective workforces were gradually adjusted in terms of personnel, liberal attitudes were replaced by 'patriotic' ones. People with a new right-wing attitude, and in some cases former right-wing radicals, were appointed to management positions.?
In 2011, for example, the journalist and founding member of the far-right party Jobbik (2003), D¨¢niel Papp, was appointed as the director responsible for news content at public television and as the general director of MTVA (state organization for media and communication). The National Cultural Council for the fields of theater, performing and visual arts, public collections and commemoration policy, traditional folk art and public education policy was established with pro-government department heads in leading positions.
School education is gradually being reorganized: The right-wing literary historian Mih¨¢ly Takar¨®, for example, was appointed as the person in charge of the ¡°patriotic transformation¡± of school content and the reshaping of teaching staff.?
Academic freedom was severely curtailed. On the grounds that gender theories negate biological descent, the subject of gender studies was banned at universities across the country. Behind this is the government's deeply rooted rejection of the social and cultural gender category of gender. This rejection led to the passing of a law in 2020 that stipulates the gender assigned at birth. The renowned Central European University, which is firmly committed to the values of an open society, was forced to leave the country and relocate to Vienna.
Cultural remembrance inspires the national victim myth and goes hand in hand with historical revisionism and Holocaust relativization. The commemoration policy was adapted to the 'patriotic' ideology. On the centenary of Trianon/Versailles, the government opened a Trianon memorial that clearly falsifies history. The topoi 'Trianon/Versailles' and 'Holocaust' are also placed in parallel, so that the 'Magyars' appear as innocent victims in a perpetrator-victim reversal.
The director of the government-funded VERITAS Institute for Historical Research, which opened in 2014, denies Hungarian responsibility in the Holocaust and the disenfranchisement of Jews in Hungary between the two world wars under the Reichsverweser5 and Hitler ally Nikolaus von Horthy.?
The internationally renowned critical institute for research into the 1956 revolution, on the other hand, was closed, as was the internationally famous Luk¨¢cs Archive.
It is probably no coincidence that a standing sculpture of the Archangel Michael was placed on the outer front of the recently renovated Carmelite monastery in Buda Castle, which today houses the office of the Prime Minister - after all, in Rudolph Steiner's anthroposophy, the Archangel Michael is the administrator of cosmic intelligence.
In 2023, the ¡°Day of Magyar Building Culture¡± was proclaimed and the transformation of the building landscape in the spirit of the anthroposophical Imre Makovecz was defined as a cultural policy guideline.?
Cultural and educational policies are identity politics (symbol politics), and the declared intention of the government is to spiritualize society and restore the 'arioheroic-sacral world order'. The swastika, a symbol of the primordial ethnogenetic, apocalyptic vision of redemption and the eugenic cult of ancestors, is also appearing more and more frequently. Since 2018, it has adorned a bench on the side of the Makovecz Foundation's public building.
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The vision declared by the Orb¨¢n government in 2014 thus goes back to a tradition dating back to the 19th century. Today's turn to the East is a turn to the Eurasian cultural and economic system. The aim is to transform its own society, to reorganize Europe and the entire world.?
The Orb¨¢n government is a counter-enlightenment, counter-emancipatory, masculine-hierarchical, misanthropic and racializing position that advocates a transnational 'species community'. The repeatedly and obsessively invoked reference to Christianity does not mean the religion of charity, but is to be understood in the sense of an Ario-Christian, Eurasian ancestor cult, in which even Christ becomes the prophet of light. The Eurasian ancestor cult with the Scythian ancestry thesis is invoked, for example, in the book published in 2019 by MCC-Verlag and in 2021 in German translation by Springer Verlag entitled ¡°Der ungarische Staat¡±, in which, among other things, Carl Schmitt's political theology is also approvingly received.
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