Ernst Jünger, Die Schere #34
Text
#34
Geologisch gesehen gibt es Boeden, in denen sich eine
seismische Unruhe erhalten hat. Spalten zwischen
Kontinenten, die sich in der Vorzeit getrennt haben, sind
als Erdbebenherde bekannt.
Aehnlich verhalten sich, geomantisch gesehen, Regionen, in
denen der Mythos noch nicht erkaltet, noch nicht historisch
geworden ist. Wuerden wir dort mit einem dem Geigerzaehler
aehnlichen Geraet auf Suche gehen, so gaebe es besonders
kraeftige Ausschlaege. Guenstig sind Gruende, so Voelker
herrschten, die, wie die Kelten, Etrusker und Azteken, zwar
politisch verschwunden, doch heimatlich noch gegenwaertig
sind.
Und dann Kleinasien - vor Alexander, selbst vor Herodot.
Halikarnassos, der Libanon mit dem Blut des Adonis, das alte
Persien.
Thomas Friese's translation
#34
Seen from a geological perspective, there are soils in which
a seismic inquietude has been conserved. Continental
fissures, which opened in prehistoric times, are known as
epicentres.
From a geomantic perspective, similar behaviour is seen in
regions in which the myth has not yet cooled off, in which
it has not yet become historicized. Were we to search there
with a Geiger counter-like device, we would get
exceptionally strong deflections. The favourable soils are
those upon which dominated populaces, such as the Celts, the
Etruscans and the Aztecs, that have disappeared politically,
yet are still at home in the land.
And then Asia Minor - before Alexander, even before
Herodotus. Halicarnassos, Lebanon with the blood of Adonis,
ancient Persia.
DIE SCHERE #34: Notes
This aphorism starts with a wide encompassing view typical for EJ's late
writings. A geological fact, the continuation of seismic unrest from the early
magmatic ages of the planet in certain areas of the now solidified globe, is
linked by way of comparison or analogy ("Ähnlich verhalten sich
") to the
survival of mythical thinking and influences in "pockets" within a modern world
governed by History (i.e. the counterpart of myth). Another bold analogy of
early and modern is introduced with the idea of a myth-detecting device, similar
to a Geiger counter. Such a device would register intense activity in those
"pockets". This will happen, as EJ knows, preferably on ground where the memory
of politicially extinct peoples is still active in the culture and the souls of
those who today live on their ancient territory. EJ names examples: Celts,
Ertruscans, Aztecs; these are peoples in whose minds myth was once all-powerful,
and whose modern descendants living still on their soil are closer to myth (and
thus often to second sight) as their contemporaries elsewhere.
This aphorism introduces the topic of myth into the discussion of second sight
because EJ regards second sight as a reverberation of myth in historical,
non-mythic times. But now, in the last paragraph, this new topic suddenly gains
a strange life of ist own. Now, as if in a rapt incantation, EJ strings up some
keywords which for him have particularly intense connotations and significance
(Gottfried Benn introduced the graphic term "Wallungswert" for this phenomenon).
Asia Minor in times prior to Alexander and even before Herodot, Halicarnassos,
Lebanon (where, according to Greek myth, Adonis was killed), ancient Persia:
such names carry a wealth of extremely significant associations for EJ and the
initiated among his readers. (1)
In this aphorism second sight turns out to be essential in EJ's philosophy not
only because it might be a key to the riddle of death, as we have witnessed in
earlier aphorisms of DIE SCHERE, but also because it a late manifestation of
myth, another of EJ's major interests and key topics.
(1) The path of initiation would have to go through AN DER ZEITMAUER. In this
book (at the Heiligkreuztal symposion characterized as THE central statement of
EJ's philosophy) EJ discusses in depth the role of myth in the history of
mankind. He emphasizes there the key role of Herodot, who, standing on the
threshold between the Age of Myth and the Age of History, is a witness of both
ages. So Herodot can serve to elucidate what profound change took place on that
threshold.
Günter Rebing
