Monday, September 02, 2019

The glorification of Olavo de Carvalho at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington D.C.


The glorification of Olavo de Carvalho at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington D.C.

Brazilian Ambassador to Washington declares that “Carvalho has recovered spiritual immensities” for Brazil

By Julio Severo
“Olavo de Carvalho has developed since the 1980s the formation of a new intellectual class in Brazil… The professor has not stopped teaching for over 40 years, by all means available, in courses, seminars, books, handouts, newspaper articles, podcasts, hangouts, live streaming, online courses, etc.,” said Nestor Forster, Ambassador of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington D.C.
Nestor Forster and Olavo de Carvalho
The ambassador addressed these words at the ceremony in honor of Olavo de Carvalho, who received the Grand Cross degree of the Order of Rio Branco, which is the highest award of the Brazilian government. The ceremony took place on August 29, 2019. His speech also portrayed Carvalho as the man who has spiritual solutions for Brazil.
Confirming what Forster said, on May 17, 2016 Carvalho emphatically stated:
“All the cultural changes that have happened in Brazil in recent years, with the accompanying political consequences, were the direct and partly indirect result of a PLAN that I began to apply from the mid-1980s.”
Although the public knows Carvalho today for his anti-Marxist speech, 40 years ago, when Forster claims Carvalho was engaged in forming an intellectual class, he was actually actively involved in pure esotericism. In 1980, Carvalho was interviewed by Veja, the Brazilian counterpart of Time magazine, as one of the greatest astrologers in Brazil. Years later he was interviewed by former TV Manchete as an astrologer. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/-XDFh_eLgPI
Thus, it is publicly attested and confirmed that 40 and 30 years ago, Carvalho was engaged in the occult and actively forming people in the occult. But Forster quoted nothing from this famously astrological past. He also did not mention that this is not the first time Carvalho has received a government award. In the 1980s, Carvalho received from the Islamic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia an award for a biography of Muhammad that he wrote. Forster did not want to count this as one of the “spiritual immensities” that Carvalho recovered for Brazil.
The mystery Forster should explain is how Carvalho was involved in anti-Marxism and training of an alleged anti-Marxist elite since the 1980s if in the 1990s Carvalho warned his readers not to try to see him as an “anti-socialist hydrophobe.” He said:
“I voted for [socialist Luiz Inácio] Lula as president and would do it again, with pleasure, if he took [certain] measures.”
More than that, Carvalho said: “Lula is a decent man.”
Therefore, in view of this reality, to say that Carvalho began to raise an anti-Marxist awareness since the 1980s is at least opportunistic.
Since I first heard about Lula’s name decades ago, I knew he was indecent, immoral, socialist, communist, and so on. How did Carvalho, who boasts of seeing and predicting things perfectly, see him as a decent man? I never voted for Lula and his socialist Workers’ Party for feeling disgusted with their socialist ideas. My values were and remain the same: Christian values.
Carvalho had esoteric values and was a great propagandist of the Islamic occultist René Guénon for decades. What to expect from Guénon adherents? No one has defined better a Guénon adherent than did President Donald Trump, who expelled out Steve Bannon from the White House by calling him an opportunist and traitor.
Bannon is a Guénon adherent. Bannon openly praises Guénon and his most important disciple, Julius Evola. Carvalho and Bannon are friends today, under the spiritual fellowship of Guénon. Evola was a right-wing populist who inspired and influenced Nazism and Italian fascism with his books promoting the right and the occult.
So right and occultism is not a phenomenon that started in Carvalho. It is also in Bannon. And it was in Evola.
Right-wing populism that is succeeding today at the expense of Christian conservatism and often exploiting Christian conservatism existed almost 100 years ago in Germany and Italy. This populism is synonymous with opportunism.
In his speech, Forster noted that Carvalho is the author of more than 20 books, highlighting those of philosophical appearance, but completely omitting books written by Carvalho as:
* A Imagem do Homem na Astrologia [Male Image in Astrology]. São Paulo: Jupiter. (1980)
* O Crime da Madre Agnes ou A Confusão entre Espiritualidade e Psiquismo [Mother Agnes’s Crime or The Confusion between Spiritualism and Psychism]. São Paulo: Speculum. (1983)
* Questões de Simbolismo Astrológico [Issues of Astrologic Symbolism]. São Paulo: Speculum. (1983)
* Astros e Símbolos [Stars and Symbols]. São Paulo: Nova Stella. (1985)
* Astrologia e Religião [Astrology and Religion]. São Paulo: Nova Stella. (1986)
* A Nova Era e a Revolução Cultural: Fritjof Capra & Antonio Gramsci [New Age and Cultural Revolution: Fritjof Capra & Antonio Gramsci], Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Artes Liberais & Stella Caymmi. (1994)
No wonder Forster omitted that Carvalho is the author of occult books, as it is the custom of adherents to conceal the inconveniences of the cult and especially of its top leader. Forster is a hard-core Olavist [adherent of Olavo].
Forster made it clear that “the decision of President Jair Bolsonaro to grant Professor Olavo de Carvalho the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco is not routine, but, on the contrary, has a truly extraordinary character.”
The award was originally given on late April 2019, but because Carvalho did not want to travel to Brazil to receive it, the delivery was made at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington. Carvalho’s explanation for his departure from Brazil had two main causes. In an interview with the New American in 2010, on the first cause he said he left Brazil because he was tired of receiving weekly death threats from leftist maniacs. But since Brazil today has a president who is an Army captain who loves him, there would be plenty of protection for Carvalho to visit Brazil to at least receive the award.
Would his reluctance to return to Brazil actually be fear to face lawsuits from former students who felt cheated by his astrology and occult courses? Would it be the fear of facing lawsuits from ex-partners?
The second cause he used as an explanation was that he took a job at the Brazilian newspaper Diário do Comércio to be a correspondent in the U.S., although it is not clear how this newspaper, which is not large, could afford to give Carvalho a compatible high salary guaranteeing a correspondent’s visa in the U.S.
How the Diário do Comércio, a small-circulation newspaper (just 25,000 copies), could afford to support a correspondent’s visa for Carvalho for years in the U.S. is a mystery. The newspaper ceased its print edition in 2014.
In any case, there was no reason for Carvalho to avoid receiving his award in Brasilia, Brazil on April. His safety was and is guaranteed against such “weekly death threats from leftist maniacs.” But it is not known whether such a guarantee can protect him from possible lawsuits from former students and former partners.
Araújo was such a devoted student of Carvalho that he absorbed one of the literary references recommended by him: the Islamic occultist René Guénon, who founded the Traditionalist school. Guénon and his disciple Evola are positively cited by Araújo as the basis of his “conservatism.”
Passion for Carvalho is not restricted to Araújo. According to a senior PSL leader, Bolsonaro’s party, what drives Bolsonaro to propagandize and honor Carvalho is passion — the same passion that drove Forster’s entire speech, who said:
“Perhaps the most conspicuous aspect of the extraordinary character of this tribute to the professor is that it is not just a tribute from the Brazilian President, our Chancellor and the entire Brazilian diplomacy, his thousands of students in Brazil and abroad, but from all good Brazilians who, tired of seeing their homeland debased and assaulted by criminals, took to the streets in protest with signs that proclaimed ‘Olavo is right.’”
The slogan “Olavo is right,” widely used by Carvalho and his adherents, is not originally from Carvalho. Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was advised by Evola, had a propaganda whose slogan was that he was right.
Forster attributed to Carvalho the initiative of the people to protest in the streets against socialists, when everyone knows that some adherents of Carvalho, taking advantage of protests made by other movements, hitched a ride to propagandize him. What Forster did was transform isolated acts of Carvalho’s propaganda into essential acts of the manifestation. Like father, like son; opportunistic master, opportunistic adherent. For him, Carvalho was largely responsible for the transformation of Brazil. Such a flattering idea is also embraced by Eduardo Bolsonaro, who aspires to the post of Brazilian ambassador in Washington. Eduardo is the president’s son.
“Now comes his son, who is just an apprentice of politician, to say that Olavo de Carvalho is largely responsible for his father’s victory. JUST RIDICULOUS!”
Despite Malafaia’s effort, the government mindset persists, supported by Bolsonaro himself and Olavist ministers appointed by him, that “without Olavo, there would be no election of Jair Bolsonaro.”
Olavists’ view portraying Carvalho as a “savior” goes against reality. J.R. Guzzo, a journalist at Veja magazine (the Brazilian counterpart of Time magazine), said on a 13 January 2019 tweet:
“The plain, simple and unadorned fact is this: evangelicals are today the greatest anti-leftist force in Brazil. They are stronger, more numerous and more active than the Army, Air Force and Navy combined. There has never been such force in Brazil. The left has no idea how to defeat it.”
Carvalho sees differently. Realizing that evangelicals today are the only force competing with his ambition to take the place of leader of the anti-Marxist resistance in Brazil, Carvalho has bluntly accused the evangelical churches of having done more harm to Brazil than the entire left.
In his speech, Forster talked about how Carvalho fights Marxism by repeatedly saying “Olavo is right” and then adding: “Olavo is also right about the treatment he recommends to cure this spiritual illness.”
Forster has placed Olavo as a man who can solve Brazil’s spiritual problems even though he cannot solve his vast personal occult problems. Two of Carvalho’s sons are Muslims and another is an astrologer.
Who can cure Brazil’s spiritual disease? Only Jesus Christ. But senior members of the Bolsonaro administration think that Carvalho has the spiritual answer.
Forster mentions writers Carvalho has made known in Brazil, but he forgets to cite René Guénon, recommended for decades by Carvalho. So much recommended that the foreign minister is an open fan of Guénon and Evola.
Nevertheless, Forster unintentionally revealed a connection with Guénon by saying in his speech that Carvalho has made known in Brazil Wolfgang Smith, a notorious geocentric adherent of Guénon, but whom Forster was very careful to present as a “science critic,” without further details. The details would explain everything. “Science critic,” in the case of Guenonian Smith, is to criticize the stance of science arguing that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Smith simply does not believe this. Flat Earth adherents use Smith’s theories to defend the idea that the earth is flat, not a globe.
Bannon, Smith, and Carvalho consider themselves “Catholic,” but all of the three share one thing: They are Guenon adherents.
When Guenon’s name was not widely criticized, Carvalho recommended it at will. After I warned Brazilian conservatives that Guenon was an occultist, Carvalho was no longer comfortable praising his chief spiritual source. The same is true today with Carvalho recommending and praising Wolfgang Smith. Once the public learns that Smith is an occultist, Carvalho again will strategically stop praising his occult connection and reference.
Forster also cited prominent people in Brazil who praised Olavo. But is such a practice uncommon in Brazil?
Traditionally, even Brazilian Catholic presidents have consulted spiritualistic mediums and other occultists. There is the case of João Teixeira Faria, known as “John of God.” He was consulted by Brazilian presidents and lauded by international celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey.
How has a spiritualistic medium become a celebrity in Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world?
The reality is that religious syncretism is widespread among Brazilian Catholics. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, more than 60% of the urban population of Brazil claims a Catholic affiliation. Yet, there is an overlay of Afro-Brazilian religions (like Candomblé, Quimbanda and Umbanda) with Catholic beliefs and practices, which many Catholic Brazilians do not find inconsistent with their faith.
Astrologers, spiritualistic mediums and psychics are immensely popular in Brazil. Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian esoteric author who is seen as a “mystic Catholic,” has several books published around the world, including in the United States. Even Bill Clinton, when he was the U.S. president, had his books as favorite reading. Coelho’s Facebook fanpage has about 30,000,000 followers.
Paulo Coelho is, by far, the greatest esoteric writer in Brazil. A small Google search delivers 23 million hits to his name.
The late Brazilian medium Chico Xavier delivers almost 6 million.
In 2017, the name of Carvalho delivered almost 800,000 hits on Google, but with the intense propaganda that Bolsonaro has been doing for him, the number shot to over 3,000,000.
Today, the Facebook fanpage of Carvalho has slightly over 500,000 followers, virtually the same number of fans of Walter Mercado, a Puerto Rican astrologer who became famous on Brazilian TV in the 1990s. The Facebook fanpage of the Puerto Rican has slightly over 500,000 followers.
Astrologers, spiritualistic mediums and psychics in Brazil have a history of meetings with prominent politicians and artists, who consult them for spiritual solutions.
In his capacity as an astrologer in the 1970s and 1980s, it would not be surprising if Carvalho claimed that he met many important people in Brazil.
Forster then stressed: “Olavo has recovered intellectual and spiritual immensities for Brazil’s cultural life.”
How exactly is Carvalho right, according to Forster, in intellectual and spiritual matters?
Individuals intellectually affected by Carvalho become zombies defending the Inquisition, just as individuals affected by Marx become zombies defending communist atrocities.
How exactly did Carvalho “recover spiritual immensities” if the essence of the spiritual life is Jesus Christ, and all the individuals I knew who were affected by Carvalho’s “philosophy” suffered a substantial deterioration in their spiritual lives? Bible readers began reading it less so that they could read more of the books of Carvalho and books recommended by him, including books by Guenon. This is not spiritual improvement. This is spiritual deterioration.
Individuals, even evangelicals, affected by Carvalho confess that they have learned to value the occult more thanks to Carvalho. This is not spiritual improvement. This is spiritual deterioration.
Brazil then has a president in love with Carvalho. A foreign minister in love with Carvalho. A Brazilian ambassador to the U.S. in love with Carvalho. And if Eduardo Bolsonaro gets the post of ambassador, he will be another one in love.
Only blind passion sees everything spiritually good when nothing is good. Lovers always flatter, praise, and reward the man who is the target of their passion. This passion has produced in the Brazilian government a common feature in communist regimes: cult of personality.
Often Eduardo and his brothers complain that others hitchhiked in the Bolsonaro election to make themselves bigger. But isn't that exactly what Eduardo & Company are doing to the millions of evangelicals who elected Bolsonaro? They use evangelicals to exalt who they want, and one of the exalted at the expense of evangelicals is exactly Carvalho.
The most troubling thing is that if Carvalho was introduced as a man who has spiritual solutions for Brazil, it is because the men who have praised and awarded him believe he had spiritual solutions for them. It is not the Catholic Church, much less the Evangelical Church that has spiritual solutions for Brazil. In the minds of Carvalho’s adherents and rewarders, only he has these solutions.
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