One day, in the not too distant future when we begin to explore the star-systems beyond our planet Earth, we will have to deal with aliens - with other sentient life.

How should we react to them? With hatred and intolerance? With the belief that we are the superior race? How to interact with them? With a desire to conquer them and make them into "second-class citizens" ?

This possibility of meeting, communicating and interacting with other intelligent life should cause us to think seriously about how we who uphold The Numinous Way and the vision of Galactic exploration and settlement should interact with our fellow human beings now, particularly as there is a possibility that some alien life which we will encounter will be more developed, more advanced, and more intelligent and civilized than we are.

These possibilities provide us with the higher perspective we need to understand our own humanity. And it is this higher perspective - this placing of our human species in the context of the cosmos with its billions upon billions of star-systems and the possibility of encountering intelligent alien life - which shows us how we should think and behave now toward other races here on this planet.

Of course, there is also the possibility that before we can expand out into the stars and establish colonies on other planets, our own world will be visited by intelligent aliens. How would we react? With hatred and hostility? Or with reason, tolerance and understanding? Naturally, were such aliens intent on behaving badly or unjustly toward us, we would fight for our honour and our freedom. But how would we respond if these aliens just wanted a peaceful interaction? Would we respond with fear? With a belief that our own race is the superior race and has a duty to dominate these aliens (for their own good, of course)?

Such questions need posing, as they need answering, based upon our ideals of honour, reason, and fairness.
 

Honour, Empathy and Reason

Honour, empathy and reason demand that we, as individuals, respect other people, regardless of their race, their "ethnic origin" and their culture, as they demand that we should not use any kind of force, or coercion or violence in our dealings with those who may disagree with the principles of The Numinous Way. This arises from the respect and tolerance that is due to others: their choice, their way of life, must be respected and tolerated even if we ourselves consider, for whatever reasons, that their choice and their way of life wrong.

Our beliefs are simply that: our beliefs. Our way of life is simply our way of life. What is important here is that we hold, and uphold, our beliefs in a rational, tolerant, honourable way - for that is the human, the civilized, thing to do.

The crucial point here is tolerance. We have to be tolerant of others, if they do not harm us personally or seek to be unjust toward us, and our community, because we must strive to act with reason and fairness. And we have to be tolerant not just toward our fellow human beings but toward all life - on this planet, and in the cosmos itself.

All this does not mean to say that we should not act against injustice; that we should not try to change things; that we should not try to create a new, more noble, society and a better world, based on our beliefs. It only means that the methods we use to do such things must be ethical, honourable and rational.

Furthermore, this tolerance and respect does not mean a pacifist approach. On the contrary, for we have a right to use force (including lethal force) to defend ourselves and our kin if we or our kin are physically threatened and in immediate danger, for such defence is the honourable thing to do.
 

The Numinous Way and culture
 

The Numinous Way affirms that the different cultures which exist are expressions of our human condition, and that these differences, this human diversity, should be treasured in the same way we treasure the diversity of Nature.

But the Numinous Way means that we respect other cultures, and the individuals who may belong to a different culture from ours, because we uphold honour. Honour means being polite to other people, of way of life and whatever culture. It means treating them as we would wish to treated ourselves.

However, as mentioned above, other people are entitled to believe otherwise, about culture, and act accordingly. Thus, they may well wish to marry someone of another culture. That is their choice, and this must be respected, as they as individuals must be respected and treated with courtesy and fairness, and not discriminated against in any way. All we say is that their choice, their way, would not be our choice, our way. This is the honourable, the rational, the civilized thing to do. We uphold our way, our beliefs, because we believe them to be honourable and beneficial, but other people are entitled, by virtue of being human, to their own views and ways so long as they uphold their ways and views in an honourable and tolerant way and do not seek to impose their views on us through coercion or repression, and so long as they allow us to live in accord with our beliefs: in accord with the principles and ideals of The Numinous Way. That is, others must respect us, and allow us the freedom to live according to our own customs, traditions, beliefs and laws. If they do not allow us to do this, for whatever reason, then they are being unjust and repressive and accordingly are our enemies because they have forsaken those qualities, of honour, reason, and fairness, which express our humanity.
 

The Question of Racial Superiority

Someone who upholds Numinous Way of Folk Culture is a person who upholds the morality of personal honour, who is loyal to those given loyalty and who strives to cultivate empathy and compassion. Such a person lives by empathy, compassion and honour, and strives to do what is noble, just, and fair.

Honour means treating individuals with respect, with courtesy, regardless of supposed or assumed "race", and culture, of those individuals, as it says in our Code of Honour. Honour means being fair.  In the Numinous Way, there is only an awareness and acceptance of cultural diversity, and a respect for those who may be of another, different, culture. We believe that such cultures are a manifestation of Nature, and so would wish to keep these cultures alive and healthy, and evolve them still further in a natural way, in accord with the ways of Nature herself, just as we accept that the emergence of new cultures is another manifestation of the evolution, the changing, of Life and Nature, of the very Cosmos.

We do not and should not think of our own culture, or community, or place of local dwelling, as superior in any way. For that is arrogant, and dishonourable; a committing of the crime of hubris. For such a belief encourages a person to behave in a dishonourable and arrogant way, and leads them to treat those regarded as "inferior" with disrespect: that is, in an inhuman, uncivilized way.
 

Creating a New Community

In respect of creating a community, or many communities, where we can live in freedom, among our own kind, in accordance with our own laws and customs, we have to start thinking in terms of colonies, and not in terms of modern nations. A colony is a small community - or a collection of small communities - of pioneering individuals bound together by a common faith, a common vision, a common culture, a common way of life.

One important aspect of The Numinous Way - now and in the future - is maintaining our way of life, our culture, our people, our humanity, through new communities, new colonies, at first on this Earth, and then on other worlds. Our way is to slowly strive in a natural, tolerant way, to establish a new cultures, many new cultures, through these new colonies, with the people of these colonies being part of them because they want to: because they believe in our culture, our Way of Life.

What is important is that our Way of Life, our beliefs, our culture, and our community, survive and prosper and continue to expand in a healthy, natural way consistent with honour, empathy and compassion. For our way, our culture, to survive we do not need tens of millions of people; at the very least we need twenty or thirty thousand or less (the size of some of the ancient Greek city-States).

Furthermore, we need to consider that, one day, sometime in the future, it may well be that some of our people on some colony in some star-system, will fraternize with an alien race, an alien people, and some may even want to marry or live with one of these aliens, assuming there is some genetic and anatomical compatibility. What do we do? Make repressive, restrictive laws which forbid such fraternizing and which make such marriages illegal? Do we imprison those who express views contrary to ours - who seek to fraternize with these aliens? Do we expel the aliens from our land, our world, and seek to have no further contact with anyone? Of course we could do these unethical things. But how long would such a system last? A few decades, perhaps. For those of honour and reason among our people would see these laws for what they were - intolerant, unreasonable and repressive - and so would agitate for change.

So long as the majority of a colony, a community, a homeland, supported our views, our way of life, and upheld our culture, and did so in an honourable, civilized, tolerant way, then these views of ours, our way of life, our human-derived cultures, would continue and survive, and enable us to expand further, as opportunities allowed. It would not matter if some wished to live in another way, and uphold other views - indeed, it is reasonable and honourable to expect some of them to do this, and allow them to do this, elsewhere. That is, the honourable, the fair, the reasoned thing to do in such circumstances is to allow those who differ, who wish to live in a different way or with people from other (possibly alien) cultures, to freely leave our community, colony or homeland.

What this means in practical terms is that those in our communities, in our colonies, must be there because they want to be there: because they want to live according to the Way of Life of The Numinous Way. Those who do not wish to live in such a way must have the freedom to leave.

 

The Immediate Future
 

A crucial point to understand  is that we do not at present need a large homeland, a modern-type nation, of our own: only a new community, a new colony, or several new colonies.

Our way is not to try and take-over an existing nation-State on this planet, with its predominantly urban way of life, its industries, its commerce, its trade, its lack of real culture, and its total lack of respect for Nature. Rather, our way is to make real our own unique way of life through establishing new communities, for only by doing this can we establish that respect for Nature, for the soil, the land, the very Cosmos, that is necessary.

However, until all humans grow up and act with honour, reason and tolerance, there will be, on this planet, conflict, hate, suffering, squabbles, injustice, dishonour and repression.  Some people will seek to, and do seek to, undermine and destroy our Way of Life, our culture, from whatever reason or motive. Therefore, we need to create our own way of life, now, on this planet, and can only do this and only live in freedom as rational, honourable human beings by having our own space, our own communities or colony here, even if this colony - this homeland - is small.

We should strive in a natural, tolerant, way to establish such a home, such communities for ourselves, aiming to make it a practical example for others to learn from and follow. For in end that is the only way world-wide order, reason and justice will occur: through people being influenced by a practical example.

To be successful in this new colony - to be an example to others - we must live our ideals of honour and reason; that is, we must put them into practice in our own lives on a daily basis. And to do this, we must have the higher perspective of our ideal of a future Galactic Empire or Federation founded on honour, reason, excellence and tolerance.

What is of crucial importance is that we strive for such a community, such a colony, where we can live in freedom according to our unique morality, culture, laws and traditions, with no interference from any external authority, government, or nation.  Thus, our aim is and can only be a truely free and independent homeland, however small that homeland is.
 
 
 
 

The Question of God
 

A follower of our way of life accepts there is a Cosmic Being, who or which is the Cosmos, and all life, including ourselves, in evolution. But this does not mean a Being who or which consciously intervenes in or determines what occurs in the Cosmos and has already determined what will occur. Rather, we accept that the cosmos evolves according to natural laws which are also an unfolding, a development, of this Cosmic Being. That is, the Cosmic Being lives in, and is manifest in, this Cosmos - that Nature, and we ourselves, and our folk, are this Being made manifest, and that what we do or do not do affects the evolution of this Being. Thus, for us, this Being is not unchanging or Supreme or perfect.

For us, this Being is the natural order of the cosmos, and life is an expression of the being of this Being, with human reason, compassion, empathy and honour, a manifestation of the will (or rather, a manifestation of the consciousness) of this Being - of the desire for more life, more order, more evolution toward honour, empathy, compassion, and excellence (or "virtue"). There is thus no belief in divine revelation such as there is in Islam or Christianity, as there cannot be any "words of God" preserved in a book or any other way.

There should be no compulsion in religion or in a Way of Life. A person should be free to choose their way of life - their "religion" - with different ways respected. What is important is that there should be this freedom of choice and correct, truthful, knowledge about the choices, about the different ways.
 

We see The Numinous Way as a way for us to live in harmony with Nature and with all the other life on this planet, including other human beings. We see this way as a means of creating a natural order - the order of culture and reason - where we can continue our evolution as human beings. For us, this further evolution can be made real by our human species physically moving out into the Cosmos: discovering and exploring the unknown vistas of Outer Space.

In essence, The Numinous Way seeks to do what most religions seek to do - make us into moral people with a higher perspective. But it seeks to do this in a natural way, using reason as our guide - using the lessons of life, of Nature, of our own history, cultures and arts. In contrast, religions often use moral blackmail - saying be good, follow our way, or else you will rot in Hell or be re-born in some horrid way. Furthermore, the emphasis of these religions is on the salvation of the individual: the achievement of some afterlife for that individual. Our emphasis is that we are but a nexus, a means to aid the evolution of Nature, of humanity, believing our purpose is to change, to contribute to or aid our evolution, as a species, with this change being also a positive change in the Cosmos itself.

We do this duty when we are honourable, rational, empathic, cultured, compassionate, human beings; when we seek to know, to understand, on the basis of reason; when we are fair, just, tolerant; when we seek to change others in a gentle way for the better through education, culture, art, and personal example.
 

This gives us a higher, a noble, and supra-personal, perspective: we do something, or not do something, because what we do or do not do has consequences, for good or bad, for individuals, for other life, for Nature, and for the very Cosmos itself. This is a going beyond the ego and the self: an evolution of our consciousness because it is an acting on the understanding we have achieved because of the civilizations of the past five thousand years.
 

David Myatt

2003 CE
(Revised 2454576.173)