Even in the New Dark Ages, we still have possibilities. 

There exists within all of us, I think, a certain knowledge of and yearning for the heroic, for the upright, and for the fragrant essence of valiance remembered from the golden tales of our youth.

This world in which we live does its very best at every turn to remove these qualities from the individual, to remove his individuality in the first place, making him a faceless member of a mass society in which everyone is called unique, but “all are one.”

These are the modern equivalents of the peasant class, living under the boot of the feudal elite, who vye for control of the people beneath them like a simple numbered resource.

The King is dead, and his place, a viper’s nest of merchants and whores, methodically capturing the minds and souls of the dead-eyed crowds in the marketplace with their new wares.

The blood has largely grown weak, like water in the veins of the people, and the fire that was once hot in the heart of men is cold.

But not for all.

The King himself cannot slumber forever, and we know that what once was shall be again. 

Rex quondam, rexque futurus.

The King that was, will be King in the future.

While we know that the throne will be reclaimed, it is not for us to live lives of waiting and silent contemplation- to exist in an unmanly state of receptiveness.

Rather, we prepare the Kingdom for the ultimate return, and in so doing, we immanentize the eschaton - to bring about the world in which we would live. 

What must we do to accomplish this? 

The answer is simplicity itself:

We aspire to and embrace ascetic warrior ethics grounded in honour and heroic values.

We do this in a direct and clear fashion. 

In this time, our possibilities are all the more exciting due to the nature of things as they stand - color stands out the brightest against a drab background, and our banners are unfurling. 

They are the banners of eternal Tradition, and we know we fight the same battle on the same front lines as many other brave men and women around this world, who exist here with us in the same time, with the same fire in their hearts that burns in ours. 

We fight for a shining and noble vision of the future, firmly rooted here in the present. 

The work that must be done is immediate and begins internally - preparing the throne of our hearts for the King to return. 

Who is this King? 

He is Arthur - an idea, an unkillable concept, and an Eternal Truth:

Nobility is attainable, and perfection, and victory remains possible for us in this lifetime, if our very existence is an expression of Honor and Loyalty. 

In the New Dark Ages, the myths must be written anew.

In Celtic myth and legend, there is a recurring theme of places referred to that are at once “of the earth,” and yet not of this world.

The famed Arthurian Isle or Vale of Avalon, the Welsh Annwn, the hidden domain of the Lady of the Lake - they are islands, they are part of physical kingdoms in the mainland, they are located in the underworld, or the unseen “otherworld,” existing alongside this reality, yet hidden from normal mortal view. 

To some degree, even Lancelot’s Joyous Gard has this changing aspect - when he first lays siege to it, it is named Dolorous Gard, or “Castle Grief.” 

This changes first to “Joyous,” after the knight claims it for his own, and then, tragically, back to “Dolorous” again in tales where Lancelot betrays his king.

These places are defined, not by place or geography, but by the spirit that permeates them.

Avalon’s actual location has been argued and sought after for centuries on centuries, but it will never be found - because Avalon is a real place, but not in the physical sense.

It is somewhere eternal, like Junger’s “Forest Passage,” a refuge and a wellspring of youth and immortality for the warrior besieged by the banality and colorless assault of this era of concrete and control, as well as a place from whence hidden knowledge comes…

And the possibility of resistance becomes reality.

No matter how far the Dragon’s many eyes can see, or where his agents go - the enchanted forest, the underworld, the hidden realms still exist and can shelter the noble outlaw knight from that hideous gaze. 

There are cracks in their world, through which the intrepid can still peer and see these clandestine places. Like looking through the fabled hole in the stone, if one knows where to turn it. 

Somewhere deep among the towers of steel and glass of the great cities, a band of men are training their bodies and martial skill, exchanging dangerous books and ideas, and hardening their resolve to resist the forces of darkness. 

Even through the halls of illusion, the flickering screens and endless corridors of the internet, signals of hope and resistance are being broadcast by those who have learned its secrets and turned some of its power to their own use. 

Sometimes, the forest is literal. 

The Crowned King and Queen of Spring stand with Grail and Bread, and feed the very might of the land and the blood of heroes to a new Round Table, as fire dances across upheld sword, and knife, and rifle. 

We live in the New Dark Ages. 

But the dawn is coming…

And Avalon is a state of mind - immortality, eternal youth, and the endless Grand Campaign.

In the New Dark Ages, even the concept of knighthood has been degraded to a title given to actors, professional game players, court jesters and musicians.

Like all things in this era of downgoing, something that was once noble is now only a commodity, an empty honorific that lacks the very thing that the word is based upon.

Honorific. “To confer or convey honor.”

We know that honor is only gained through acts of loyalty to the ideal, not through being a fashion model, or a race car driver.

The origins of European knighthood go back to the 9th century, when the feared cavalryman was a necessary protection to a village or city, but they had their roots in the Greek hoplite and the Roman eques.

The most popularized institutions were those holy orders established in the Middle Ages, when members of an order were sworn to specific rules, regulations and obligations depending on their particular brotherhood.

To become a knight in the medieval era meant a rigorous and sometimes brutal, multi-stage process, beginning usually in childhood, as a page.

The page would serve in the household of wherever he was assigned to go, and lived essentially like a peasant or servant, regardless of his family’s station. This meant working on the most menial seeming of tasks - in the kitchen, running errands and messages, cleaning the estate and so on.

It taught the important lesson of a life of service that the future knight would never leave behind.

In his early teens, the page would be promoted to the position of squire, from the French word “ecuyer” or “shield-bearer.”

Here his education on knighthood would truly begin as he apprenticed under a proper knight, often with several others of his station.

He would learn to hunt, be schooled in reading and writing, and of course, fighting.

The squire would serve the knight in actual battle, as well, although he was not yet considered “fight ready,” and would see first-hand the lifestyle he was aspiring to.

An individual could remain a squire for a long time, only attaining knighthood when he was considered to have “earned his spurs,” often by a specific act of bravery or value - in some cases men remained squires for long after they became fighting men themselves.

In these New Dark Ages, a man of worth should always be looking to win his spurs - to engage in acts of valor, bravery, courage, and value to his order, family, brotherhood, friends. 

Our war is not always literal, and nor was it for those men we look to for our own guidance. 

It is often a war against apathy and the malaise of the times in which we find ourselves. 

A war against meaninglessness and the false gods of these days - the idols set up to rank materialism, greed, pleasure for its own sake as the highest attainment. 

It is a war against ourselves, the eternal crusade, the Grand Campaign…the war against our own weaknesses, our own failings and shortcomings. 

We win our spurs through a constant and unrelenting battle waged against what we know to be heartless and false, and through a dedication to the quest for the Holy Grail. 

That quest is the one for a righteous life, and a righteous death, the days between which are filled with noble action, and the embodiment of our higher calling. 

Fix your eyes on this task, and wake with prayer that on this day, you will be given a new chance to win your spurs. 

Brothers, we will win this war.