Wokism is a religious phenomenon of egalitarianism, androgyny, populism, democracy, and victimology. Victimology appears early in human cultures in the rituals of scapegoating and sacrifice, especially in human sacrifice. The Indo-European crusade against human sacrifice is mythologized in the struggle against the Minotaur, Python, Typhon, the Titans, Medusa. One of the most obvious examples is the slaying of the sea monster Cetus by Perseus to save the princess Andromeda. In each case, the “monster” represents the Woke spirit of the serpent or dragon1 which scapegoats the beautiful, the young, and the well-turned-out.
Wokism also includes drug use, including alcohol and psychedelics. These are used to blur social boundaries, including those around class and sexuality. Androgyny specifically is associated with population density and the "longhouse" phenomenon of settled agriculture, as shown in the Calhoun rodent experiments.2
Wokism far precedes any identifiable religious doctrine, including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Egyptian or Vedic religion. Wokism may have existed since the dawn of Homo Sapiens, but at the very least was present during Jean Gebser's stage of "Magical Consciousness." Wokeness may either be a product of agriculture, or could possibly precede it, as hunter gatherer tribes have been recorded with all the requisite elements.
Those four traditions — Zoroastrianism, Judaism, the Coptic and Vedic — all have elements of drug use (soma, ritual use of wine), androgyny or bisexuality (sometimes expressed as celibacy), frenzy or hysteria (the Holy Spirit, the tearing of clothes), and scapegoating (sacrifice). However, a tension exists within each of these traditions between Wokism and the Apollonian element, which expresses the opposite tendency: strict hierarchy based on competence, monarchy, strict sexual dimorphism or monogamy, and hero-worship.
Christianity began as a Woke religion, with eunuchry, "spiritual circumcision," asphyxiation through extended baptism to achieve hallucinations, the destruction of social classes, and its central worship focusing on Christ as the ultimate victim. Christianity's unique success among the Romans was precipitated by a social crisis of nihilism, consubstantial with the crisis of authority in the late Republic and early Empire. Rome's ethnic identity was under siege, with Caesar flooding the nobility of the senate with his Gallic allies. Rome, which was based on gens, or tribe, was dissolved in ethnic confusion and lost its identity. This gave rise to spiritual nihilism and chaos, which occurred simultaneously with the nihilism of early Christians, who were Hellenized Jews who fit neither in Greek nor Jewish society. Christianity was uniquely successful because it provided a fanatical faith-based foundation of identity for both Hellenized Jews as well as inter-mixed Romans.
By the time of the 4th century, Germanic tribes began to assimilate more and more into Roman culture, and were also threatened increasingly by Slavic, Iranian, and Hunnic invasions from the east. These pressures produced similar degeneration among the Germanic elite. In Rome and Judea, it was the ethnically mixed, slaves, and soldiers who had the greatest identity crisis. By contrast, in Germany, it was the elite who were in the greatest crisis, and who were the first to convert. The introduction of Roman law and the Latin script posed a huge threat to the traditional German identity, but this threat was not felt among the common people. The conversion of the Germans came from the top down, from the elites down to the masses.
Christianization was ultimately successful and provided the basis for a new pan-European identity. For centuries, the Bishopric of Rome was infiltrated and intertwined with old Roman aristocratic families. These families were the ethnic core of the Roman Empire and sought to reestablish the Roman Empire by covert means. This was not the first time. Emperors such as Vespasian and Constantine both used Christianity, knowingly or cynically, as a tool of population control. After the fall of the Roman armies and legal system, the Roman aristocracy sought to reestablish themselves through the Bishop of Rome. Toward this end, the papacy sent out legates, evangelists, and missionaries to far flung territories, such as the English Mission in 497. These attempts successfully reestablished Roman influence and control over the former empire through the more subtle influence of canon law and religious administration. Such an empire was not ruled by military force as Rome was, and was directed by a bureaucracy of priestly administration rather than Caesars. However, it remained ethnically and historically continuous. The 5th century, in this view, can be seen as Rome's transition from explicit military rule over Europe to implicit priestly authority.
In Byzantium, Rome became Hellenized, and this Hellenic Empire continued to have an independent military class for a thousand years. Under such circumstances, the Emperor and Church maintained a more balanced, integrated, and harmonious relationship, as reflected in the stability of the Imperial-Church throughout the Orthodox world, especially in Russia. In this sense, Byzantine or Orthodox Christianity was more stable, and less "woke" than in the west.
As the papacy sought to increase its influence over Europe, it found itself in repeated conflicts with the Germanic aristocracy. The most dramatic peak of this conflict prior to Protestantism was during the Investiture Contest. The conflict between papacy and emperor mostly centered on moral issues, such as the spiritual hierarchy of the aristocracy, corruption (simony), and clerical marriage. The Pope declared that the emperor was lower in the spiritual hierarchy than a common priest (on the same level as an "exorcist") and therefore could not appoint bishops. The attacks on simony and clerical marriage were attempts by the Pope to prevent church positions, especially the position of Bishop, from falling outside the purview of Rome. If the position of Bishop could be bought or sold, then Rome had no control. If priests had children who could inherit church property, then this property would fall outside the hands of Rome. As Rome tightened its hold over church property, it gained control of over 10% of Europe's most economically productive real estate. The papacy had a monopoly on education through the cathedral school, a monopoly on media and book production, a monopoly on art through the commission of icons and church architecture, controlled much of the wine trade through extensive vineyards, owned significant numbers of sheep and the production of vellum, and many other crucial industries.
The stranglehold and insatiable lust for power of the papacy was extremely concerning to the Emperors and Kings, especially of Germany, who appointed anti-Popes to counter the influence of Rome. Eventually, however, these anti-Popes were put aside in favor of Rome. The tenacity of centuries destroyed national resistance and centralized power in Rome. When early proto-protestants began to complain about church corruption and abuses (John Wycliffe and John Ball in 1381), local aristocrats essentially ignored them and crushed them. However, as time went on, aristocrats began to resent the overreach of Rome, and became increasingly sympathetic to anti-Roman attitudes, even if these attitudes were also anti-aristocratic or "Woke." Martin Luther's success was not due to the fact that he opposed Rome. Luther’s anti-Romanism was no innovation, since there were many Humanists who complained about corruption and dogmatism. Luther's innovation was not ideological or theological, but rather his ability to make common cause with the nobility and aristocracy. During the German Peasants Revolt, Luther, unlike his fellow anti-Roman reformers, did not side with the peasantry, but rather with the German aristocracy. Therefore, the aristocracy viewed him as a great ally against Rome, who would loyally defend their interests, but also mobilize the masses of the peasantry in their favor.
Thus, Protestantism was a "taming of the woke," which began earnestly by 1380, but was systematically suppressed by the nobility until the 16th century, when Luther began his grant syncretism of Germanic aristocracy and anti-Catholicism. Just as cynically, Henry VIII, who had previously been a defender of Catholic conservatism, found the church to have overstepped and to have conspired against him. He found many Bishops like Luther, who were willing to support the nobility while at the same time mobilizing fanatics and ideologues in his service. As in Germany, English Protestantism began as a nationalist, populist, but also as moralistic and woke. It is accurate to say that the Puritans and Levellers, who were unleashed on England by Henry VIII, represent the Woke left of that time.
The Foundations of Freemasonry
In summary, Wokism is a primordial religious phenomenon which precedes any particular religious tradition. However, within the Christian tradition, Wokism first arose as a tool of the Papacy to wrest authority from the Germanic princes. Later, these very same princes used Wokism cynically to wrest control back from Rome. Already in 1380, Wokism was already ripe, with crazed Bolshevik preachers demanding the genocide of the nobility and prophesying the establishment of a Kingdom of Heaven. Without the support of the warrior class, however, these Wokists were massacred. With the support of the English and German nobility, the genocidal tendencies of Wokism gained a military force with which to execute regicide. The result was a disaster for both sides, including the 30 Years War and the massacre of the Huguenots.
During this period, European monarchs such as Rudolf II became increasingly skeptical of both Roman Catholicism as well as Woke Protestantism. Rudolf saw both of them as politically unsavory and wished to construct a new universal European religion which would be freed of petty partisanship and also the evils of excessive moralism and fanaticism. While there is no direct line linking Rudolf with the establishment of Freemasonry, Rudolf's interest in Jewish Kabbalah, Platonism, alchemy, astrology, and magic, as well as his Enlightened and tolerant views on religion, were all the ingredients which would later coalesce into Freemasonry.
Freemasonry became the dominant political force in France and Britain by the 18th century, and precipitated both the American Revolution and the French Revolution. By the 19th century, Freemasons in Italy and Germany fought for nationalist revolutions, which were simultaneously opposed to the decrepit aristocracy, as well as the sclerotic church. Freemasons such as Giuseppe Mazzini and Bruno Bauer fought ideological conflicts to destroy the power of the monarchy and the church, to establish new Enlightened nations based on the ideals of Republicanism. These were the currents out of which Marxism and Anarchism emerged during the 1848 Revolutions.
While Freemasonry originally began as a Protestant-aligned movement against Catholicism, it was eventually so successful that it began to turn inward, against Protestantism itself. Whereas Catholicism was the dominant religious power in Europe in 1600 (with only England and Germany standing in opposition), the success of Republicanism and secularism resulted in the toppling of most Catholic monarchies by 1931. France, Spain, Italy all lost their Catholic leadership, being replaced by leftists or fascists. Austria-Hungary was divided into a number of petty rump states. Political Catholicism was fought in Germany by both the Marxists and National Socialists, the latter of which were a splinter-group of Freemasons who had fallen out of "communion" with other Freemasonry rites due to their antisemitism.
In this political environment, the crusade against Catholicism and monarchy which had animated the Freemasonry of the 19th century was replaced by a crusade against fascism and national socialism. In this sense, Freemasonry became so dominant that it began to turn in on itself, or speciate into competing factions: the Anglo-American faction, lead by FDR (initiated as a Freemason in 1911) and Churchill (initiated in 1901), and the German faction of the Thulegeschaft. Despite their extremely violent conflict over the role of Jewish power in the Freemasonic hierarchy, both factions were essentially anti-Catholic and had liberal and tolerant views on religious pluralism, evolution, and science.
After 1945, Freemasonry declined and became a fraternity of the elderly. It lost its revolutionary zeal, and victory in war became the defeat of its spirit. Instead, the Cold War became the dominant global conflict between two groups: the Marxists, represented by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev; and the liberals, represented by Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Both of these groups were dedicated to religious freedom, political secularism, economic utilitarianism, racial equality, and ideological anti-colonialism. Both sides of the Korean War and Vietnam War saw themselves as fighting colonialism; either capitalist colonialism or Marxist imperialism.