Hyperborea

An arctic continent on
the Gerardus Mercator map of 1595

Hyperborea |
Monday – February 2, 2026

According to Greek mythology Hyperborea was a land "beyond" the God (Boreas) of the north wind, and this land of "Hyperborea" was inhabited by a people (Hyperboreans) who lived according to the principles of a pacific outlook and in harmony with the creation, without disease, strife, and devastation; in a lot of ways Hyperborea can be considered a paradise on Earth. The exact location of this "mythic" place is unknown, but scholars would generally point to the far north, potentially the north pole, which would be in keeping with the Greek notion that Hyperborea was situated beyond the north wind. The ancient world's relationship to Hyperborea however, was much more established than merely a mythological figment in the collective imagination, and it's also clear that in the very deep past some kind of original or prototypical civilization was, at some point, established in the Hyperborean lands, but any traces of this ancient civilization are either gone or considered "gone" or fantastic in the profane sciences; the fact is that there is much evidence to suggest that in fact a civilization did exist at this longitude in the deep past, but modern and profane science—built on negation and exclusion of methodology beyond the immediate, that which can be described with the laws of matter and asserted only in the positive—has ruled out any such possibility; again because moderns fail to appreciate the value in contemplation and real knowledge above action they fail to accept the necessary prerequisites of true intellectualism, and without this they fail to grasp anything that isn't immediately obvious, anything that cannot be asserted in the temporal realm. Hyperborea, apart from being the prototypical civilization, is likely the Earthly origin of the primordial tradition in its highest form, without having been revealed and expressed outwardly, and from this location in the far north, all revealed metaphysical traditions can be derived, and this should be fitting since the East-West divide makes no sense in the far-north, a divide that has become more and more expressed and problematic following the destruction of this first and prototypical civilization. Indeed, it is true then to assert that all ancient traditions in their inward form, at their esoteric core, can be said to be derivations from the same source, and the differentiation in an outward, exoteric, sense is the consequence of the peculiar and particular—and always material—adaptations made in a place that has necessarily shaped human relations; this outward (exoteric) and inward (esoteric) dynamic can, in simple terms, be thought of as the difference between (t)raditionalism and (T)raditionalism: that is to say traditionalism in a general and parochial sense, the kind of traditionalism so salient in conservative politics; and traditionalism in the metaphysical sense, that is to say the universality of the Heavenly Jerusalem at the summit of metaphysical realization.

    Verily, the most exoteric description of Hyperborea is therefore best put as "the prototypical civilization", or yet more qualified as a society and civilization in a normal state; therefore in the connection to the modern world Hyperborea must be understood as the ontological opposite of Western civilization. I choose here to describe Hyperborea as the "ontological opposite" of Western civilization because both of these civilizations still exist on the same metaphysical plane, they are not completely apart, and this means that it would be quite erroneous to describe the stark difference between Modern civilization and Hyperborean civilization as merely the difference in matter between an apple and an orange or a human and a fish; Hyperborean civilization and Modern civilization are still carriers of the same ontological matter, in this context "matter" in the fullest sense of the word, and therefore it is possible and meaningful to characterize them as "opposites", something that would make little sense between two completely distinct entities; essentially the divergence away from the same source is what still brings what little may be left of the original and primordial traditions in the modern world to life. I also need to clarify that "Hyperboreans" as in the people of Hyperborea should not be allowed to carry any materialistic and profane understanding, especially in regards to modern biology; it is simply mot meaningful to attempt to trace modern humans to Hyperborean civilization without also understanding the metaphysical connection, yet far too many people who fail to possess any skillful means attempt this which has lead to much confusion and even further misunderstanding, often in "profane" attempts to restore some kind of primordial vigor to Western civilization. Verily, the reactive element so expressed in the Western attitude has more often than not made any attempts to "conserve" aspects of Western civilization impossible, especially when these conservative and "conserving" elements so often allow themselves to misunderstand the intentions and character of foreign tradition.

    Let it also be stated here that my focus on Hyperborea is exclusively metaphysical and I have no intentions of engaging in a materialistic "pursuit of ideas"; I also believe that Hyperborea is helpful in the understanding of why the modern world is in decline and what the true character of a "normal" civilization should look like. This is why the "ancient" world very much understood and took the example of Hyperborea seriously, but I do fear that modern men are only interested in Hyperborea in the selfish pursuit of their own political goals, again something quite different from my engagement with this topic. I also believe that modern man's failure to accept or understand Hyperborea, or indeed any other truly "ancient" civilization, goes to show how the materialist order enables the kind of hubris that is so salient today.

    Lastly, I also want to mention how the example of Hyperborea can be used to understand why this Western insistence on universality and multiculturalism is an effective misunderstanding and inversion of the metaphysical order. What modern men always emphasize is large numbers, the reign of quantity, and this modern confusion inherent in the liberal character does the very opposite of understanding the metaphysical order; where universality exists is at the highest order of understanding, the highest longitude (Hyperborea) if you will, and this universality can therefore only be appreciated by an elite, the clergy, not by the vast majority of people, the populist masses, who possess only the exoteric appreciation of the doctrine. Of course, these liberal and democratic developments should be expected as they are in keeping with the cosmological order of the universe – and our era is the Kali Yuga. One way of thinking about this problem is to consider how even material knowledge tends to converge towards specialization as you progressively ascend above the rudimentary: at the lowest level of knowledge, peculiarity and differentiation is more expressed than unification and universality, but as you keep ascending towards the summit of knowledge unification and universality become more expressed than material and circumstantial differentiation; indeed knowledge diverges away and towards the bottom from the source, this is the materialist outlook, but the metaphysical outlook enables you to understand knowledge as something that converges towards the source, and in Earthly form this source can be thought of as Hyperborea.

Reginald Drax – February 2, 2026.