Heroes, there is a need for heroes, this is the emergency
centuries spent moulding souls on anti-heroes, anti-heroes forged on the Byronic model, a Byronic model that conceals Milton’s Satan
centuries spent moulding souls on the Satan archetype
And so we are convinced that the system is always bad and that the hero is the one who fights the system – but the system is us
Continuous self-destruction, that is what the Satanic archetype leads to when it is incarnated
Heroes scattered in solitary battles, without a sky above their heads, unable to see things from above, blind to the dimension of the spirit,
Then let there arise heroes capable of building bridges between human and human, and between human and creation, relationship, in Latin it sounds even better, ‘necessitudo’, so necessary, the relationship, that it is written in its etymological history
Let there arise heroes capable of raising their eyes to the sky and discovering therein the infinitude of existence, capable of inserting every battle into the eternal war between good and evil, capable in a word of making the word “sacred” pulsate
And once they have found the sky, let heroes arise and leap above the clouds and from there, from the heights of the endless sky, see everything from afar, knowing how to give the right weight to everything and frame everything in a vast and true vision, seeing the unity of the whole
Let heroes arise who know and make known the difference between the material and spiritual dimensions and understand that without spirit everything dies in nothingness
Achilles, born to win but destined to die, understands too late that glory does not save, and in his wrath that is broken for love of his friend, in his very human return to mourning, he caresses the mystery of compassion that redeems, even the invincible needs heaven
Ulysses, eternal traveller, does not seek riches but truth, his nostos is not only geographical but metaphysical, a return to himself and to the centre of the world, like every pilgrim he needs to lose himself in order to find himself again, to discover that he who loses himself for the sake of truth, finds himself again and only by passing under the stars can he understand what really counts
Aeneas, the bearer of destiny, does not fight for himself but for a mission, his heroism is not born from strength but from obedience to a voice from above, he is the hero who carries his father on his shoulders and the future in his heart, and bends to the celestial will like Mary to the angel, the figure of one who sacrifices the self for something eternal
Orlando, maddened by love and then redeemed, teaches us that even the most valiant heart can lose its sense, but only those who fall can rise again, his sword is only useful when guided by a greater light, true strength comes from humility
Maximus Decimus Meridius, slave turned legend, is a figure of justice and sacrifice, he kills to defend, fights to liberate, dies forgiving, with his eyes turned to the Elysian fields, where his wife and child await him, he is a man with an otherworldly vision, more alive after death
Joan of Arc, maiden armed with faith, leads armies without thirst for power, obeys voices that the world does not understand, condemned by men, absolved by heaven, she burns at the stake as a living host, the armour only served her to fulfil a mission that was all internal
William Wallace, shouter of freedom, he fights for a people that betrays him and for an ideal that never betrays, his death, shouting ‘freedom’, is not an end but a beginning, his sword remains planted in the earth like a cross in the Scottish Golgotha
Ken Shiro, lone warrior with a broken heart, walks in a post-apocalyptic world bringing justice, compassion and pain, his every wound is an offering, his every blow is a defence of the innocent, in his every silence there is prayer
Nausicaä, princess without a golden crown but with a heart of peace, she does not destroy, she heals, she does not dominate, she listens, she walks in the midst of poison without breathing it, as one who crosses the valley of death but fears no evil, and when she sacrifices herself nature bows
Harry Potter, the reluctant chosen one, does not shine by power but by the capacity to love, he enters the woods knowing that he must die, and he does so, voluntarily, only thus does evil lose its power, he rises again to complete what only a pure heart can accomplish
Frodo, bearer of a burden too great for his littleness, crosses and rings, he walks without glory and without recognition, his mission is the rejection of power, the closer he gets to his goal the more evil dwells beside him, but it is precisely in weakness that strength manifests itself
Neo, the enlightened one, dies to save, he understands that the visible world is only illusion, that freedom is not rebellion and only through sacrifice can humanity be freed, he accepts his role but transcends it, his baptism of light in the world of machines is an ascension
Aslan, the lion who becomes a lamb, the lion who allows himself to be killed, King who descends into darkness to break the spell, he is the heart of the story, powerful and meek, fierce and tender, he is reborn at dawn walking over the broken stone, in him every creature recognises the face of God
The contemporary continues to forge the soul of the West in the anti-Christic hero
he who destroys, who dominates, who exalts himself
The postcontemporary rediscovers the value of the Christic hero
the hero who serves,
who gives,
who saves
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