John Michell, Radical Traditionalism, And the Emerging Politics of the Pagan New Right. | Amy Hale -...

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[The Pomegranate 13.1 (2011) 77-97] ISSN 1528-0268 (Print)doi: 10.1558/pome.v13i1.77 ISSN 1743-1735 (Online)

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John Michell, Radical Traditionalism, and the Emerging Politicsof the Pagan New Right

Amy Hale

[email protected]

Abstract

Although the legacy and work of John Michell is frequently associatedwith a culturally liberal neo-tribalism, certain aspects of Michell’s thoughtcan be, and have been, interpreted as an esoteric extension of more explic-itly right-wing political positions, ones which are currently convergentwith the political subcultures surrounding the European New Right bothin Europe and also among newly emerging right-wing groups in the US.This essay examines the ways in which the work of John Michell is reso-nant with many of the philosophies of the European New Right, and howin his nal years and after his death new markets for his work are emerg-ing in the various subcultures associated with right-wing Paganism.

The current Earth Mysteries movement in the United Kingdom has beenpopularly associated with neo-tribalism, New Age travelers, environ-mentalists, hippies, Pagans, and eccentrics. Many people would con-sider these groups to be broadly leftist in political orientation, and infact, John Michell, the man responsible for popularizing British EarthMysteries in the 1960s and 1970s has long been portrayed as the cham-pion of the free -loving, free-thinking hippies.1 However, upon closerlook, many aspects of Michell’s thought can be and have been inter-preted as an esoteric extension of more explicitly right-wing politicalpositions, ones which are currently convergent with the political sub-cultures surrounding the European New Right both in Europe and alsoamong newly emerging right-wing groups in the United States. Thatthis convergence should occur should not be a complete surprise, assome features of the British Earth Mysteries movement have a foun-

1. Paul Screeton, John Michell: from Atlantis to Avalon (England: Alternative AlbionPress, 2010), 16, 68.

78 The Pomegranate 13.1 (2011)

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Hale John Michell, Radical Traditionalism 79

of the East, in Hinduism or Islam or in Orthodox Christianity. Tradition-alists critique modern society as deeply degraded, chaotic, and corrupt,and argue that only through a return to traditional social structures,values, and belief systems can the world be redeemed and returned tothe state of divine order.

Traditionalism, however, has a number of different iterations; it ishardly monolithic. The philosophies of Guénon and Evola, for instance,diverge in terms of their political applications. Guénon, for example hasbeen much more inuential in the development of modern Islam, whileEvola has provided many of the intellectual seeds for the European NewRight and other more overtly fascist subcultures, probably as a result of


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John Michell, Radical Traditionalism, And the Emerging Politics of the Pagan New Right. | Amy Hale -...

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