The Tragedy of Historical Pseudomorphosis
Naif Al Bidh explores the case of IslamicMagian culture in Oswald Spengler’s philosophy of history describing its tragic birth, miraculous growth, and predestined future.
Oswald Spengler’s analysis of Islamic civilization in The Decline of the West introduces the concept in mineralogy of pseudomorphosis, a phenomenon where a mineral experiences total replacement by an alien mineral which eventually leads to a false formation. From this Spengler coins the term “historical pseudomorphosis” to describe cases where a mature culture overwhelms a younger culture in a hegemonic manner such that the emergent culture struggles to grow and realize its potential, purpose, destiny and soul. The theme of tragedy plays a crucial role within Spengler’s overarching narrative, and there is probably no other concept that best reflects this tragic element within Spengler’s writings than the notion of pseudomorphosis. It is also crucial to add that through his conception of pseudomorphosis, Spengler reaffirms his stance as a historian who denies a Eurocentric approach to world-history by adopting a position of cultural relativism. Finally, the beauty of historical pseudomorphosis is that it is an embodiment of the empathy Spengler possessed for many non-European cultures once suppressed by the hegemonic chains of an older alien culture clinging to its life through desperation.
Spengler mentions two cases of pseudomorphosis in The Decline of the West, first is the Magian culture which has perhaps experienced the most severe form of pseudomorphosis, the second is the Russian or Slavic culture which has been, and still is, going through a state of pseudomorphic shock. Spengler argued that the growth of the Magian culture (consisting approximately of the lands between the Sinai Peninsula, the Caucasus mountains, Zagros range, Horn of Africa, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia) was hampered by the older, and then dying, Classical-Apollonian culture. The birth of the Magian culture occurs around the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, which signifies the beginning of a new world-feeling, a unique religion, myth and style. With the Magian-Arabian culture this came in the form of early Christianity, Gnosticism, Mandeanism, Manichaeism, Mithraism and Marcionism. Beyond the Mediterranean, the Classical culture was approaching the stage of fulfilment and death, the creative forces were dying and Caesarism, as a political form, was manifesting itself as illustrated with the rise of the Roman Empire. The pseudomorphic effect was triggered by the Battle of Actium, according to Spengler, as Mark Antony should have been the victor. The consequence of this loss was the tragic entrapment of the Magian soul, the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra paved the way for the spread of the Roman Empire across Magian lands. Conventional historians would question Spengler’s claim, to them there is no link between Actium, Cleopatra and Antony with the still-young Arabian culture. Yet, to Spengler, that is precisely the problem with the Eurocentric historical outlook, that it fails to locate these crucial boundary acts that determine the trajectory and destiny of whole cultures. As the cultural critic John David Ebert argued, cultures, like organisms, possess immune systems that affect their respective development. When cultural immune systems are compromised, foreign elements can easily penetrate the culture and dismantle it from within. This gap within Western historical thought misleads the historian when trying to understand the essence or image of a specific culture, such is the case when viewing the relationship of traditional Western historians and Arabian culture, as well as many other cultures. Spengler equated the Battle of Actium with the Battle of Tours, and wrote:
Had the Arabs won it and made “Frankistan” (France) into a caliphate of the North-east, Arabic speech, religion, and customs would have become familiar to the ruling classes, giant cities like Granada and Kairawan would have arisen on the Loire and the Rhine, the Gothic feeling would have been forced to find expression in the long-stiffened forms of Mosque and Arabesque, and instead of the German mysticism we should have had a sort of Sufism. That the equivalent of these things actually happened to the Arabian world was due to the fact that the Syro-Persian peoples produced no Charles Martel to battle along with the Mithradates or Brutus and Cassius or Antony (or for that matter without them) against Rome.
The successful Frankish resistance against the Umayyads is a prime example of an effective boundary act and a perfect reflection of a powerful cultural immune system. The Judeo-Christian-Islamic culture, on the other hand, perhaps due to being overwhelmed by Classical cultural hegemony in its infancy, failed to develop a resilient cultural immune system and produce a successful boundary act. The initial stages of the Arabian pseudomorphosis could be seen as early as Alexander the Great’s adventures within Babylon, since then the Classical culture had extended its hegemony over regions as far as Central Asia and India. With the death of Alexander and the rise of the Diadochi states, the Seleucid Empire presided within the motherland of the Magian culture and exhibited elements of pre-Arabian spirit, according to Spengler. But with the political center gradually shifting away from the Aramaic motherland and towards the West (the Seleucid capital gradually shifted away from the Levant and moved towards Anatolia) the Seleucid empire paved the way for pseudomorphosis. In order to comprehend Spengler’s argument regarding the concept of pseudomorphosis and its relation to the Arabian culture, it is crucial to acknowledge what makes this culture geographically and historically distinct from others. When taking into consideration its pre-cultural, cultural and civilization stages (1000 BC to 1000 AD), the Magian culture, due to its location as a crossroads between all the diverse sub-cultures, acted as a quasi-nervous system connecting East and West. This geographic location was a double-edged sword, on one hand the result was the rise of syncretism between the various cults and religions of the Eastern and Western cultures –– with the Magian motherland functioning as a platform accommodating these new syncretic religions such as Mithraism, Manichaeism, Yezidism, Marcionism, Mandeanism and the Druze faith to name a few. It has also allowed the culture to infuse, preserve, and transfer knowledge across different civilizations, as seen with the exchange of knowledge across the Islamic golden age. On the other hand, the exposed geographic location and terrain of the Magian motherland has virtually made the culture vulnerable to political, economic and cultural hegemony.
Every culture is born through a new metaphysical outlook, a new religion and a new death cult. The Classical religion is represented by the diverse cults spread across its respective motherland that reflect the static essence of Greco-Roman culture, as well as the appreciation for the body, present and nearby space. These cults were bound to specific areas and put an emphasis on ritual performance rather than doctrine, dogma or principles as apparent within Magian forms of religions for example. These cults in turn spread only through large migratory shifts, which was an element that was antithetical to the Magian religions. Moreover, in consistency with the Apollonian Classical world feeling, there was no component of interconnectivity between these separate cults. Aside from being born within the same respective culture and mythogenic region, the Greco-Roman cults were in essence separate from one another with no unified doctrine connecting them. Hence, Spengler said “within the Classical religion multiplication was the only form of growth, and missionary effort of any sort was excluded, for men could practice these cults without belonging to them.” The notion of a collective community of “believers” was alien to Classical culture, if this was manifested at one point it was philosophy and not religion that brought forth this idea. Furthermore, it only appealed to a few thinkers and did not affect the whole nation. Thus, it could be argued that Greco-Roman philosophy was analogous to the religions of Magian culture, in the sense that they both performed the same function within their respective cultures but were completely different organs. Contrasting the Greco-Roman conception of religion is the Magian idea of religion, church, doctrine and creed.
The Magian religions, as opposed to the Classical, was not bound to any land or home. Its main principle is the belief of one omnipresent true God and the negation of other gods and demigods. The Classical pseudomorphosis was fueled by its spiritual strength, and the resistance to this cultural hegemony was likewise dependent on the spiritual force of the Arabian culture. This battle between the spiritual forces of the Classical and Magian cultures Spengler divides into two phases. The first occurred with the initial birth of the Magian soul, whereby syncretism between the two cultures led to the rise of Churches in the East which mimicked the Western cults. In Persia we see this with the emergence of Mithraism, in Mesopotamia and the Levant with the rise of the star-god worshiping cults. Spengler went as far as claiming that the early forms of Christianity morphed into a Jesus-cult. To Spengler all these exhibit severe symptoms of pseudomorphosis, the spiritual union between them was almost non-existent, an element which was the norm within Greco-Roman cults. Yet, they all possessed Magian elements in their devotion to their respective church. Within pure Classical cults an individual could follow a number of the cults, yet within these new syncretic churches or cults, that was virtually impossible. The second phase begins around the turn of the second century, where the spiritual forces of the Classical were being depleted and the blooming of the Magian soul began. Here Spengler says, the roles were reversed as the cults of the West become new Churches in the East. At this specific phase, we can observe the emergence of what Spengler terms “Magian Greek nationality.” This point marks the shift from worshipping gods of localities to the rise of belief in an omnipresent Magian God. Spengler dives deep into the history of the spiritual tension between the Classical and Magian religions, where he explores the connections, similarities and differences between Neoplatonism, Mandeanism, Islam, early denominations of Christianity, Judaism, Neopythagoreans, Zoroastrianism and dozens of other religious and philosophical groups.
Yet, the most intriguing element of Spengler’s notion of pseudomorphosis is not when these Magian forms finally reveal themselves through Islam. These pure forms have been the subject of historical research for centuries, though not all studies conform to Spengler’s idea of a collective Magian culture. Still, when a thorough analysis of Greco-Roman history allows us to reveal the Magian soul and expression permeating through the Roman empire forming religious forms that emanated an inverted spirituality. An example of this would be the construction of the Elagabalium during the reign of Roman Emperor Elagabalus. Being of Syrian origin, the new emperor imports the beliefs of his own homeland to Rome, the result is the construction of a temple dedicated to the mountain goddess of Edessa symbolized by a black stone called a Baetylus. The rituals performed around the Baetylus within the Elagabalium, as well as the collection of all items holy to Greco-Roman cults, could be viewed as a deformed and spiritually inverted precursor of what would become the holiest building in Islam, namely, the Kaaba, with the pagan rituals attached to it before the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). One could easily notice how trying to enforce a Magian ritual and belief structure, the worshipping or adoration of black stones and elevation of a Magian goddess above the local gods and goddesses, reflected the Magian soul attempting to assert itself as it attempts to break free from the pseudomorphosis. The rituals practiced within the Elagabalium, were the very same rituals practiced along the Levant and Arabia, as evident by the early history of pre-Islamic Arabia where the city of Mecca housed the black stone and other idolized local and foreign deities. The polytheistic elements were alien to the Magian soul, and were essentially nothing more than a symptom of the pseudomorphosis, hence why the Paulician Gnostic Christian movement and Islam practiced iconoclasm against this alien form of worship. These iconoclastic tendencies rising from Magian Christian and Islamic movements were acting as cultural immune systems to what they perceived as a spiritual virus permeating their respective culture. Whilst the traditional historian tries to establish causal reasons as to why Emperor Leo the third of the Byzantine Empire ordered the destruction of icons, Spengler views this as an affirmation of the Magian soul following centuries of being chained and tormented by Greco-Roman hegemony.
Another interesting example worth noting, is Spengler’s controversial argument regarding the first mosque, namely, the Pantheon in Rome. According to the author, the domed building reflected an architectural expression alien to the Greco-Roman world, an expression that embodied the Magian prime symbol, that of an enclosed dome. As opposed to the Doric temple which was the actual architectural expression of the Classical world view and soul. The Pantheon is thus seen as an architectural expression of this inverted Magian spirituality manifesting itself in the Greco-Roman world. The Jesus-cults that emerged during the phase of pseudomorphosis, a subject that is a topic of debate amongst many revisionists of Christian history today, are also manifestations of this inverted spirituality. Hence why recent discoveries reveal similarities between these early Christian cults and their Greco-Roman Dionysian counterparts such as the Eleusinian mysteries. It is thus not a surprise that Dushara, the Arab equivalent of Dionysius, had a large following in pre-Islamic Arabia, as seen in Petra and Mecca. Spengler believed that Christianity should have initially developed as a religion with a crusading spirit – a military order. The Levant’s proximity to Greece meant that Mazdean Zoroastrianism became the spiritual foundation which fueled the crusades against Rome.
As this culture began to slowly shed off the pseudomorphic effect its true religious form became more apparent. A new powerful piety emerges which Spengler described as a “will-less resignation, to which the spiritual ‘I’ is unknown, and which feels the spiritual ‘We’ that has entered into the quickened body as simply a reflection of the divine light.” This piety is synonymous with the Arabic word for Islam, that is, submission in its fullest essence, which was also the tendency which dominated the spirit of Jesus. This is in stark contrast to the Classical form of piety, and antithetical to Western Faustian culture where the freedom of the will – ego – plays a role in spiritual transcendence, which is impossible in Islam since the ego – the personal – is in essence a manifestation of darkness and evil. This is embodied perfectly in the story of the Prophet Job (AS), reflecting the ultimate meaning of suffering in his tragedy that only the metaphysically deep can comprehend, whereby it is sinful to even question why man suffers. Hence, why Spengler places only one other hero beside the Faustian Western hero as the most powerful expressions of tragedy, the hero who fights towards pure Islam. This unique spirituality gave birth to a unique philosophical form that Spinoza called the “intellectual love of god,” or in Sufi traditions “annihilation of the self through God” or what is called “Fanaa,” where contemplation ultimately leads to understanding. Another philosophical form that has emerged is where the approach is reversed and inward understanding leads to contemplation, what is called “Ilm al Kalam.” This is in stark contrast to the philosophical forms of Western and Classical culture, and the exploration of Classical philosophy was the result of the pursuit of knowledge – translation, preservation, and evaluation – on part of golden age philosophers of the Islamic world. To Spengler the Magian spirituality dissolves the individual ego and replaces it with a single “pneuma,” or spirit, existent in each and all members simultaneously. Hence the concept of ijma’ which Spengler described as a “lived experience” and “overwhelming force” was not purely a notion or idea, which Max Horten described when he said:
The mystic community of Islam extends from the here into the beyond; it reaches beyond the grave, in that it comprises the dead Muslims of earlier generations, nay, even the righteous of the times before Islam. The Muslim feels himself bound up in one unity with them all.
Spengler argued that every culture could be understood by identifying its respective prime symbol, a symbol that emerges from a specific ecological origin and reflects an idea which shapes the forms of a culture. The Magian cultures prime symbol is that of the “enclosed dome” inspired by desert caves, reflecting the concept of the One omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, God harmonizing and unifying all of existence on earth and the universe – Oneness or Tawhid – as embodied by the Quranic verse “And We have made the sky a well-protected canopy.” Hence the relevance of caves in Magian traditions: the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) receiving his first revelation in a cave in Mount Hira, the significance of the Seven Sleepers of the cave in Biblical and Islamic texts, Lot taking refuge in a cave during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Cave of Elijah where he met Khidr according to Islamic and Druze tradition, also a site of pilgrimage in Jewish and Christian traditions as well.
To conclude, it is vital to mention Spengler’s description of the Arabian culture’s sentiments upon unveiling itself to the world through the rise and expansion of Islamic culture. Of this Spengler said, “the Arabian soul was cheated of its maturity – like a young tree that is hindered and stunted in its growth by a fallen old giant of the forest.” This sentiment, according to Spengler, explains the forcefulness manifested in Islam upon its emergence. He compares this to a soul that is rushing to fulfill itself, as it realizes the first symptoms of old age and death following its arrest throughout its youth:
Syria is conquered, or rather delivered, in 634. Damascus falls in 637, Ctesiphon in 637. In 641 Egypt and India are reached, in 647 Carthage, in 676 Samarkand, in 710 Spain. And in 731 the Arabs stood before Paris. Into these few years was compressed the whole sum of saved-up passions, postponed hopes, reserved deeds, that in the slow maturing of other Cultures suffice to fill the history of centuries.
With the rise of Islam, the Magian culture is finally free to express its original form manifested in the architecture of the Mosque and the formation of the dome – an architectural expression that reflects the purely Magian feeling of the world as an enclosed dome, harmonizing and unifying the whole structure–Tawhid. With the pseudomorphosis broken the Islamic civilization actualizes the true form of Magian political systems of governance, namely, the caliphate. As well as the Magian form of mathematics (algebra), arts (arabesque), sciences (alchemy as the purest form of Magian science equivalent to Newtonian physics in the West) and most importantly, religion–Islam.
Thus, from a Spenglerian perspective, Islam as a spiritual force allowed the Magian soul to break free from the shackles of Greco-Roman pseudomorphosis, allowing for this respective high culture to produce its distinct artistic forms, scientific and philosophical fruits. This is historically embodied by the Islamic golden age that had taken place during the apex of the Abbasid caliphate and Andalusian Western Islamic world, consequently fulfilling its destiny and purpose within world-history. The Islamic civilizational body, however, also suffered as a result of the Levant’s geographic curse as the “crossroads of world-history,” paving the way for the devastation brought about by Mongol hordes that traumatized the culture into a state of amnesic slumber compromising its immune system and body beyond repair. Has Islamic civilization fulfilled its destiny in world history? I argue that it has not, as a result of the Magian soul’s conception of time and space, which is in steep contrast to the Apollonian obsession with the present which our prophet’s detested, and the Faustian drive towards the future and “progress” which has blinded our culture today. The Magian sense of time is perfectly embodied by the Arabic proverb “everything has a time.” Our culture is one of eschatological and apocalyptic tension, transcending humanity’s obsession with controlling temporality, affirming God’s predetermined and righteous plan – kismet. The Magian culture emerged miraculously, as a miracle child amongst civilizations in world history, and our revival in a multipolar world today will also require a miracle. Islamic eschatology describes the current crisis facing the Islamic world, and when projected onto the future, it describes an imminent Messianic revival. Alexander Dugin argued that a clash of civilizations in a multipolar world necessitates a clash or alliance of eschatologies, and as world eschatologies converge during the 21st century the Islamic world should focus on searching and mobilizing its primordial feelings, and fulfill its final destiny and purpose within world-history through an eschatologically affirming Islam.
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ ١٥٥ ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَـٰبَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۭ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ ١٥٦ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَٰتٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌۭ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُهْتَدُونَ ١٥٧
Naif al-Bidh posts on X @Naifalbidh, and writes on Substack @naifalbidh as well.