What are the Features of Indo-European culture?

Cyrus the Strong

Source:
http://realrunemagick.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-makes-up-indo-european-culture-in.html

What makes up Indo-European culture? In the last post, we had a long list of books and authors
for anyone who wants to learn the basic history and nature of Indo-European culture across its
many manifestations, which is very useful for understanding the correct spirit in which to
practice the Runes for maximum resonance.

But given that we're dealing with fallible human beings here, not every author is going to be
totally on-point with their analysis. And inevitably those books and authors will contain some
amount of personal interpretation and hypothesis, and disagree with each other on some points.
And while Indo-European cultures have never been based on doctrines or commandments, and
there is no 100% universal set of "rules", there are nevertheless some consistent threads and
themes throughout all of it. So lets distill it to the basics; just what are the essential elements
and features of Indo-European culture?

First, there is the overarching worldview of Indo-European cultures. This worldview is

remarkably consistent across all of them - Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Iranian, Tocharian, north
Indian, Hittite, and many others. It can generally be broken down into nine elements, which
follow in no particular order:

1. We do not know everything there is to know,​ nor do we presume to have all the answers,
though we do have many helpful ones; the answers to everything are not all contained in a book
or a scroll; the Lore is a general guide, not a dogma; exploration is encouraged and valued. This
is the Odinic ethic of curiosity. Alain de Benoist calls it the “Faustian spark” or “Promethean
spark”.

2. Time has cycles, rather than an absolute beginning and end.​ Much of what happens,
now, has happened in recurring cycles before; people merely forget, or grow detached from
theor blood-memory. There is no damnation for beliefs; deeds are far more important.
Indo-European culture has always accepted time cycles and reincarnation as realities. That
said, reincarnation is not a universal destiny. And it is definitely not a punishment.

3. The concept of “fate” is malleable.​ While a person cannot completely undo their spiritual
nature and tendencies (Orlog), they can master it to influence their Karma or Wyrd by learning
how to use the strengths and mitigate the blind spots in their Orlog to make better decisions.

4. Nature is integral to Indo-European culture​ as we are part of nature, not something

artificial. There is no treating nature as a mere resource to be exploited, no devaluing of the
non-human life. Indo-European culture only consumes as much as is necessary, and makes
every effort to replace what it consumes. It is frugal, not merely sustainable.

5. Freedom is essential to Indo-European culture. ​Slavery is an aberration borrowed from

hunter or herder cultures, or imposed by them; in the history of most Indo-European
civilizations, it is a relatively late development connected with their decline (as in the Viking
age), though usually as consequence, not cause; primordial Ur-Aryan culture had no need for it.
However, care must be taken to distinguish true freedom from “liberty”. True freedom is not in
deceptive carrots of “liberties” but rather in the active and uncoerced fulfillment of duties toward
folk and land.

6. The bonds of oath and gift are sacred; ​Freedom does not mean disregarding duties and
oaths, but rather, picking them carefully and honoring them once taken. Oaths are not taken
lightly. Northern Indo-Europeans said “my word is my bond” and Southern Indo-Europeans said
“nothing is so foul as to tell a lie, or owe a debt, for debtors lie”. In both cases, the message is
the same. If you are more accountable to debts than to oaths, you are a vile worm and fallen
foul of the ethics. The reciprocal principle also stems from this; a gift requires a gift in return,
whether we are talking about gifting physical presents, healing, offerings, advice, or knowledge.
That which is asked for, must be repaid. That which is showered freely upon all, is valued truly
by none.

7. The bonds of blood are also sacred.​ Betraying one's family is one of the worst treasons.
That said, if one's family members are engaged in ignoble or abusive activities, you should not
join in, but unless they are forcing you, cutting off ties with family is highly despised. The
destruction of the family, the atomization of folk, is anathema to everything that Indo-European
culture stands for.

8. The Solar-Agricultural Principle is active in all Indo-European cultures:​ we encourage

what can only be called Sun-like behavior – that is, to aim for excellence in all things, strength
and speech included, so that your very essence is the radiant Sun in microcosm. Solar people
do not rely on others for strength or validation; they produce their own. Solar people have
absolute conviction in the honor of their actions, and despise dishonorable ones; to shine like
the Sun, you must first burn like it – and give light and warmth to those around you, as the Sun
gives life to the Land and the plants. We do not own land so much as we own title to its
stewardship; hence good land is cultivated and not despoiled. Likewise, we do not own people,
but rather guide them. The ancient Indo-Europeans were not plunderers or herders, nor "fishers
of men" but rather builders of noble civilizations – both frugal and advanced at the same time.
Consider the Abgallu who took Sumer from barren fishing villages to lush garden cities and the
heights of the sciences – or the Yamnaya, who did much the same for Europe. Think of Atlantis,
of Thule, of Agartha. People who plant crops think one or two seasons ahead; people who plant
people think centuries ahead. Be farmers, not herders.
9. Thinking is Lateral, not Critical; ​For all ideas and axioms in Indo-European culture, there is
a nuance to the understanding. Things are almost never “black and white”. To reach the truth,
what is needed is often the ability to think laterally, in terms of many alternate possibilities for
any given problem or data set. This enables you to avoid being sucked into the herder trap of
critical “thinking” taught in most state schools today, which reduces all thought processes to a
crude (and often) false dichotomy of two misleading choices (critical dialectic), rather than
allowing as many choices as the situation/data itself reasonably indicates exist (true lateral
thinking). Only in the expanded realm of Lateral Thinking, can you hit the noble truth with the
sharpness of Odin's spear.

If this wasn't enough, lets distill it down a bit more. The worldview of ancient Indo-Europeans
may strike people in this “modern world” as strange, so we must often peel back the commonly
used labels of today to reveal the original meanings of apparently simple words.

First we have the Nine Noble Virtues (Die Neun Ehrenheilkraften or Noh Arya-Kara). These are
often seen as only being unique to Asatru or Germanic Heathenry, but they are just as
applicable to other Indo-European cultures, as the values in the Lore are the same. Again, these
are general guidelines, not commandments. It is possible that not every Indo-European society
valued all of them, or valued them all equally, or even named them all; nonetheless you will not
find any that neglected them wholesale.

These Nine Virtues are closely related to Yggdrasil's first metaphysical root; that of Arising.
These are generally lessons learned from the Past that are vital to the formation of a noble
Indo-European society from its beginnings, so that the beginning is not perverted or stunted by
coercive nifling herd-dogmas. And Yggdrasil itself is also not limited to Germanic spirituality; all
Indo-European cultures recognize it in some form as a living universal structure. In Greater Iran
it was known as Harvisptokhm (the seed-tree of the Highest, eternal tree, or the tree of all
seeds), in India as Akshaya Vata (tree of the Eternal Wind) or Ashvattha (the ever-remaining),
and Baltic cultures knew it as Austras koks (tree of eternal dawn).

THE NINE NOBLE VIRTUES

Courage:​ We must be courageous in our endeavor! We must have inner strength that to face
any task at hand- the courage to stand by our folk and to keep holy Rita and principles. These
are the foundations for the furtherance of our ideals; be unflinching in your courage to evolution,
the material evolution serving the spiritual, not hindering it: the very sustenance of our Being.

Truth: ​Courage fosters truth, and truth furthers courage- we must be incessant in striving for
what we know to be true. Truth is the underlying principle of holy improvement, and ultimately
that which steels us in our courage! Without truth, we have no grouding, no consciousness on
any level, nor courage to achieve and evolve, relegating our Being to a farcical play.
Honor: ​Our honor is our worth, without worth, we are nothing. Without honor, we are doomed to
the darkest corner of Helheim; without worth, we do not further our Folk, kin, or ourselves, but
instead hold back that evolution for which Indo-European culture strives. Our deeds, both foul
and fair outlive us, and carry the burden or glory of our Beings- we cannot allow ourselves to
accrue the baggage of failure or disgrace that our children and their children would
subsequently bear!

Fidelity: ​In this 'modern era', loyalty is the first thing to falter - loyalty is what holds our kin and
friends to us, what holds them true and keeps those bonds strong. Our oaths serve as the
conduit where the power of our folk-essence travels, the very web that weaves together the
tapestry of our spiritual paths. We must be unfailing in our loyalties- to our Gods, Ancestors, Rita
(cosmic law), and our fellow traveler. Any breach of loyalty is a tear upon the fabric of the
weave, and so threatens the unmaking of the Whole overall. We as a folk cannot suffer to
permit a betrayal on any level!

Discipline:​ We grasp and shape our own Orlog (luck) and Wyrd (result/consequence). This
carries forth from our own personal sphere to that of the Indo-European megafolk overall. We
must have the discipline that keeps us true to our principles and virtues, and allows us to master
our resolve and focus. We must remain free of dependencies and self-destructive habits that
are the nemesis of evolution: which sow the seeds of our own demise.

Hospitality: ​We rely on the strengths of loyalty and love that are forged by our mutual
Oath...what good are such things when we think only of self and can't be bothered otherwise?
We must be ready and willing to lend help and assistance where we can, to folk of noble heart,
when it is needed - what good are we to those to whom we are bound if we cannot depend on
one another?

Industriousness: ​We are worthless if we cannot work to advance our families, to provide better
for them in providing the best we can for our Folk...in reaching high goals, in striving for
perfection in all areas of life, we lay that example for our children, as they will for their own.
Laziness is unacceptable and a true disservice to them. We must build our community and work
to further our standing in society, which also strengthens it! We cannot simply 'settle' for the
mediocre, nor be satisfied in simply surviving - this does nothing to inspire our children to to
achieve or evolve!

Self-reliance: ​Freedom is the essence of all joyous life! To need reliance on others, or to be
bound in thralldom to servitude, is worse than death! We cannot be satisfied to let others think
for us, nor can we be satisfied to let others do our work. Freedom is duty and self-reliance, not
laziness or profligacy, for those only lead to need and slavery. Only freedom can strengthen our
love for life, and we cannot allow ourselves to be enthralled by need or want, which in turn
enthralls our children and descendants, and thus the future of our ancestors... Only freedom
furthers freedom!
Perseverance: ​Perseverance is inherently dynamic in nature, and is essential to Natural Order.
We must actively persevere and preserve our Immanence, our wisdom and our folk. We must
persevere to achieve, and must remain stalwart in our works and commitments. Only through
our dynamic achievement can we truly foster the developments and evolutionary gains of the
Indo-European Ancestors - furthering the gains of our Fathers and those of our own generation,
while laying firm foundations upon which our children (and the countless generations of our lines
who will follow) can build and grow.

Although these are already plenty, it can be said that there are two further sets of nine values
relating to Indo-European culture, having some overlap with the Virtues in wording, though with
different operation, based on looking to the present or future. The second set, the Nine Noble
Charges, deals with the present case; Yggdrasils's root of Being. These principles deal with
evaluating current situations and mastering the “here and now” conditions for improvement, and
were found in some shape or form in all Indo-European cultures at their root. Again, not all of
these were universal across all Indo-European groups. But like it or not, all Indo-European
societies practiced or recognized at least some of these principles in their halcyon days to some
degree:

THE NINE NOBLE CHARGES

1. Asha:​ Becoming like the Aesir – walking in their Tru – is achieved by upward evolution
(Asha) through nobility

2. Arya: ​Nobility (Arya) is the defiance of all shackles and slave creeds, the rejection of both
material and spiritual slavery

3. Heritage: ​Nobility has a biologically heritable influence, though not dependent on arbitrary
modern “identity” labels.

4. Effort: ​Nobility also has a spiritually autonomous influence, not dependent on heritage.

5. Sigr: Victory. ​Any individual has the theoretical ability and the ethical duty to pursue nobility
by compensating for the shortcomings of heritage using effort, and thus overcome them.

6. Statistics:​ In a large population, for every overachiever there is an underachiever. For every
new genius born, there are a hundred new fools. Therefore Sigr based on effort alone is not
scaleable in the long run, and relying on effort alone to ennoble mankind is, in the long-term,
completely useless.

7. Aryanism:​ The most reliable way to ennoble mankind is to form a noble-spirited (Aryan) Folk
through which to consciously and repeatably ennoble and revive heritage, with compensatory
effort to follow where necessary.

8. Supernatural Selection: ​Though respect for Nature is essential, we do not view our place in
it complacently. Heritage cannot be ennobled so long as Nature is permitted to eliminate the
noblest in favor of the fittest, and quality in favor of quantity (the fittest are NEVER the noblest,
as avoiding death by accepting slavery is the essence of survival at any cost, and hence
'fitness'). Thus we must not be dependent on Nature alone to “sort us out”. It is our home and
trust, not our herder.

9. Folk-Evolution:​ An environment must be established by the Folk, such that survival of the
'fittest' and greatest number is replaced by survival of the noblest and rarest number, so that
such number may be increased and the prevalance of nobility encouraged. Guidance of family
formation and reproduction by guardians of the culture must be the central feature of such an
environment.

Finally we have the Nine Noble Journeys, pertaining to Yggdrasil's Root of Passing On towards
New Arising – that is, creating the conditions and mindsets for a better generation to follow. This
is where Indo-European cultures often manifested some of their most starkly transformative
ideas, which were often communicated in Runes or other angular symbols. These were usually
taught to initiates in the form of contrasts between the Noble and the Ignoble culture. Though
not absolute dichotomies, for that would violate Lateral Thinking, these are general axioms that
guide towards an upward path of improvement and away from the downward spiral of passivity
and addiction that destroys peoples.

These principles were more on the esoteric end of things, and may not have been well-known
as labels to people in the warrior and farmer classes, indeed they were almost subconscious or
unconscious parts of the culture that mainly people like the Armanen contemplated consciously.

THE NINE NOBLE JOURNEY

1. Immanence, not Tradition

Indo-European culture is constructed around an immanent ideal (Arya or higher nobility) that
supersedes a specific identity or tradition. Unlike identitarian herder philosophies,
Indo-European culture is never self-referential and does not use circular logic or arbitrary values
to justify its existence. It exists to improve people, not just circumstances. The archetypes and
rituals of Indo-European “tradition” in any given era and land gradually evolved into what they
are because they have proven effective for this end – improvement of folk – over millennia, NOT
because of blind devotion to Tradition for its own sake. Likewise with its choice of Gods – the
Aesir or Asuras – who themselves represent constant improvement.
2. Rationalism, not Empiricism
Indo-European culture is based on understanding the universe (or multiverse) through the clarity
of rationalism, with axioms of Natural Law (Orlog) that are demonstrably true across deep time,
and cannot be twisted or spun – as opposed to herder culture's fanatical reliance on either
dogmas, or on fallible empiricism which only builds data sets based on Boolean dichotomies –
data sets that are now ever more prone to bias, manipulation, and non-repeatability based on
who controls the funding. While experimentation has its place, both in material science and
spiritual science, it can never nullify rationalism, any more than rocket engines nullify gravity.

3. Nobility, not Slavery

Indo-European culture is based on striving towards strength nobility (Ehrenschaft or Arya),
which consists of spiritual invincibility and a refusal to tolerate any form of slavery or thralldom,
whether temporal or spiritual. Thus, the emergence of thralldom among Vikings and other early
Medieval societies was actually due to the decline of Indo-European values, not its true
manifestation. For the Indo-European culture, slavery and humiliation is a fate worse than
death, as there is honor in a dead man's deeds, but never in the deeds of the slave, master, or
bystander.

4. Freedom, not Liberty

Nobility always strives for Freedom – a price many have paid in blood. Freedom however is not
the same as liberty. A truly free person can never be enslaved with any offer of liberty or
conditional “carrots”. Liberties are carrots on a slavemaster's terms, in exchange for servile
behavior, including debt-slavery, whereas Freedom is self-reliance, even on a folk level, and the
active and proud fulfillment of one's karmic duties towards the future of oneself and one's folk.
Liberty is trading in one's freedom and duties to a herder system for a few temporary perks and
far more restrictions. Freedom is rejection of the entire system of slavery - it is not "Liberty" but
defiance.

5. Folkism, not Tribalism

Indo-European culture is an authentically Folkish and Universalist culture at once, though this is
not what most people imagine these terms to be; this means it prioritizes the interests of Folk
over non-Folk, but does not use superficial labels of tribe or modern ethnicity as excuses to
exclude one from the Folk. A tribe, you are born into. A Folk, you join and build. Our Folk is all
those who claim (and uphold) an Indo-European legacy and blood-memory, whether from one
ancestor or a hundred, and manifest that noble spark in their actions as well as values, not
merely appearances; who come from a place of craving wisdom and improvement, not
arrogance, and who desire nobility, not merely survival or nepotism. This was the same in the
ancient model. In ancient times the Folk was about improvement of its stock, not "identitarian"
stagnation. The aim is a consciously formed Folk, not a static tribe of mediocre averages. Only
then can the God-men be resurrected.

6. Childcare, not child-rearing

Indo-European culture strives for care of children with respect to their real-time interests as
children, and support in all their best aspirations and self-willed endeavors. We reject ignoble
and coercive “child-rearing” whether it's in the form of manipulative “safe space” coddling or
openly coercive “tiger parenting”, both of which only consider breaking and manipulating
children's behavior to the interests of the sheepish adults that herder society expects them to
become. The children of Indo-European culture should be allowed to grow into Arhats, not
beaten into sheep.

7. Martialism, not Survivalism

Indo-European culture is always directed by a martial level of loyalty to achieving the misson at
hand. Indo-European culture is not survivalism, as its purpose it not its own mere
self-perpetuation, or the mere self-perpetuation of any group or individual. Indo-European
culture looks far beyond that, to the improvement of people (not just their circumstances) as well
as the resurgence of noble Asa-nature in Midgard. Survival and replication is only valuable as a
baseline means to this end. For both Sigurd and Rustam, victory over the forces of Nidh and
Druj was infinitely more important than survival.

8. Compassion, not Altruism

Indo-European culture is based on universal compassion, though this is not what most people
imagine it to be; it is not blind tolerance of all people and things as 'equally' good, as absolute
equality simply does not exist in any conceivable category. True compassion what is best for the
planet as whole, even when it is unpopular or “politically incorrect”. Indeed, compassion also
includes putting a swift end to ignoble behaviors and, if need be, their chronic perpetrators. This
is in opposition to both egoism and altruism, as altruism is merely reciprocal egoism, a means of
endebting others, or aiding them for the purpose of extracting either an ego boost or favors from
them, regardless of the net effect on Midgard. In addition, altruism may often not be truly
compassionate when it makes people perpetually dependent, and robs them of the opportunity
to fight their own battles and refine their karma. Compassion includes aiding the noble who have
truly been struck with disaster, but it also recognizes a noble man's need to self-actualize, which
altruism never does.

9. Radicalism, not Conservatism or Liberalism

Indo-European culture and spirituality was all-encompassing, and therefore also encompasses
social aspects; as a social paradigm, Indo-European culture contained many aspects which
would seem fairly radical today. It is neither conservative nor liberal but radical, in the sense that
it only ever aims for the root (radix) of a problem rather than wasting time denying the problem
or attacking the messenger (conservatism), or covering it up with relativistic band-aids and
half-measures (liberalism). That said, there are thousands of “radical” ideas that have nothing to
do with Indo-European culture, and are in fact antithetical to it, so obviously “radicalism” on its
own is neither here nor there. Whereas radical herder ideologies/social engineering (of which
there are many in the modern world; we need not mention them all here) are radical slavery and
reactivity, Indo-European culture is radical freedom and evolution.