Big changes are afoot in Eurasia. Over the past several months, the region has undergone a series of tectonic shifts, as countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have recalibrated their respective foreign policies and expanded ties with the West.
To make sense of how Gamsakhurdia engaged with Georgian Christian mysticism, I organize his sources into two analytical categories—what I term the “Gelati current” and the “prophetic current.” These are, crucially, not divisions that Gamsakhurdia himself articulated, but rather, groupings that help illuminate the different functions these sources served in his thinking.
This piece is the second in a three-part series on the esoteric sources of Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s worldview. The first piece introduces the series and provides theoretical and historical context for its material and claims. This piece focuses on anthroposophy. The third piece will focus on Georgian Christian mysticism.
In these pieces, I begin (but certainly do not finish) the process of undertaking that engagement by tracing and examining the esoteric sources that shaped Gamsakhurdia’s worldview. To Gamsakhurdia, Georgia was not just a newly independent state among many newly independent states, but the bearer of an ancient history and a future mission of great significance. It was a chosen mediator between—and synthesizer of—worlds: Western and Eastern, earthly and divine.
Shortly after space week in October, investment firm JP Morgan announced a $10 billion investment plan targeting industries critical for United States national security. In addition to things like nanomaterials, autonomous robotics and solar power, the announcement also focused on funding spacecraft and space launches.