Once the Cantabrian wars were over, the conquest of the Empire in Iberia came to an end. Some 200 years of colonization and Romanization, a process of assimilation of the Roman way of life and its culture, in which the barbarian pre-Roman peoples fought and heroically resisted.

The adhesion and seduction of the barbarian peoples —Celtic Hispania— to Rome was a natural process. The society of leaderships - of merit, of lineage, of heroic ethics - of the Indo-European world - aristocratic, hierarchical and warrior -, that backbones the Iberian barbarians, find in Rome and its metaphysical ideal of Imperium - with the cult, oath and loyalty to the emperor, who along with heroes and kings are pontifex, bridges between heaven and earth — a continuation of his spiritual and warlike worldview, but on a much higher political scale.

Roman Hispania would comprise from the Roman landing in Ampurias between 218 BC. and the beginning of the V century with the Visigothic entry. It was fundamental for the Empire and the cradle of great rulers.

The Romans called the Iberian Peninsula Hispania. Etymologically there are many theories, from meaning it as the land of rabbits, or I-span-ya to the northern land (of Africa), where the Phoenicians lived. Or land where metals are forged, or even called Hispalis, a word of Iberian origin that would mean the western city. Although for the Greeks it would initially be the Ophioússa Peninsula, land of snakes.

Ispania the Romans listened to the Carthaginians and Iber what the Greeks heard. These finally named it Iberia. The Romans stayed with Hispania.

February 27, 380, the emperor Theodosius abolished the religion and festival of the Sun Invictus by the famous edict of Thessalonica. Until then the Romans worshiped the Sun god during the Republic, and with greater prominence in the Imperial era, since the gradual entry of different religions of salvation of monotheistic tendency, such as Christianity and Mithrism, was giving greater weight to the power of the star king, the one who conquered the darkness ...

Emperor Aurelian made it official on December 25 as the day of the birth of the Undefeated Sun (the main divinity of the Roman pantheon at that time) back in the year 274 and later Juliano the Apostate would declare Helios (Greek equivalent) as the only divinity, and would try to prevent the spread of growing Christianity.

Finally, during a long process of syncretism, both the Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" held after the Winter Solstice, when daylight increased, as well as many other acts and celebrations were gradually reconverted. Paganism would come to an end, a new stage would begin with a victorious sun reborn in the arms of a Galilean.

October 12, Hispanic Day. They have asked us to launch something commemorative for the date and we have been thinking about how to approach the Conquest without being dragged by the Black Legend or by chauvinism or irrational nationalism, an exclusive jingoism in many cases. Nor did we want to go into details and nuances about the differences between civilizing empires versus predatory empires, or disquisitions about rights, cruelties and benefits.

This memory is perhaps more metaphysical and spiritual, an approach oriented to the epic, the deed, the courage, the patriotism and the identity of the peoples. Influence the epic of some brave men whose gods were born in Extremadura and who, dressed in swords, breastplate and morion, jumped into the sea seeking glory and fortune for their Empire, and who faced other mythical and honorable giants, strong and powerful warriors protected by their gods of War and the Sun, who worshiped the rain and the stars in their imposing temples and who fought fiercely while beating their drums carved in ahuehuete wood - Huehuetl is thought to have a mystical and ancestral sense , because its sound is related to the heart of the earth.

Thinking about the dimensions of that historic journey and that encounter, remembering those men on both sides of the pond is what we have intended with this design, a look at that world in which life hung by a thread, and in that being, courage, honor and spirit had a value that today we can hardly imagine.

In 409 the first Germanic invasion took place in the peninsula, Swabians, Vandals and Alans entered Hispania. The Arian Visigoths, with Alaric in command, sacked Rome (410) and headed, led by Ataulfo, towards France and Iberia. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) and the great defeat of Vouillé (507), the Regnum Gothorum of Tolosa fell, which definitively displaced the Visigoths towards Hispania. There is a rapprochement between the barbarian Goths and the civilized Roman aristocracy. Confrontations, friendship and alliances that favor the birth and formation of Regnum Gothorum and the strengthening of the Hispano-pagoda monarchy of Toledo. Leovigildo will be the true organizer of the political unity that seeks the fusion between the Hispano-Roman and Gothic populations. His son Recaredo will achieve the desired legislative and religious unity in the III Council of Toledo (589), and his descendants will settle the Regnum Hispaniae with the territorial unity...

The son of the wolf, the Goth Wulfilias, converted the Visigoths of Germania to the Arian religion. Upon their arrival in Iberia, they came into contact with the pagan pre-Roman and Spanish-Roman peoples, with the newcomers Vandals, Swabians and Alans - who also practiced Arianism - and with the Jews who had settled since the 6th century. A heterogeneous society is configured where different pre-Christian beliefs coexist alongside primitive Christianity - Manichaeism, Arianism and Gnosticism. The Council of Nicea in 325 will condemn the Arian heresies, the subsequent syncretism process, the conversion of Recaredo and the final unification of the Third Council of Toledo (589) will displace all religious tendencies in favor of Catholicism.

However, in that Visigoth Hispania sacred and perhaps heretical elements will appear, such as those that appeared in the mysterious hermitage of Santa María de Quintanillas de las Viñas in Burgos. We speak of “pagan” reliefs such as the undefeated sun, the spirit of life, and the crescent Moon, the mother life, of oriental Manichean reminiscences, capable of separating light from darkness, good from evil ... perhaps Gnostic inscriptions perhaps last outbreaks of Arian heresy ... In any case, despite the assimilation of Christian orthodoxy, we find in the ruins secrets of a pagan spirituality so latent in the stones, in the art and in the soul of this people ...

In 409 the first Germanic invasion took place in the peninsula, Swabians, Vandals and Alans entered Hispania. The Arian Visigoths, with Alaric in command, sacked Rome (410) and headed, led by Ataulfo, towards France and Iberia. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) and the great defeat of Vouillé (507), the Regnum Gothorum of Tolosa fell, which definitively displaced the Visigoths towards Hispania. There is a rapprochement between the barbarian Goths and the civilized Roman aristocracy. Confrontations, friendship and alliances that favor the birth and formation of Regnum Gothorum and the strengthening of the Hispano-pagoda monarchy of Toledo. Leovigildo will be the true organizer of the political unity that seeks the fusion between the Hispano-Roman and Gothic populations. His son Recaredo will achieve the desired legislative and religious unity in the III Council of Toledo (589), and his descendants will settle the Regnum Hispaniae with the territorial unity...

If you have seen women running through the streets from one place to another being chased by some half naked guys in wolf skins who whipped and whipped them with bloody strips of ram, do not be alarmed! they are just remembering an old pagan festival, something lewd that yes, but it was a sacred rite of purification and fecundity celebrated in Ancient Rome every February 15 called the lupercales or Lupercalia.

The word comes from lupus, that is, wolf and its Roman god of fertility and male sexuality Fauno Luperco (Greek mythological deity Pan, the one who protected the wolf), a strange, hairy being, with legs and horns of a goat and large, pointed ears with a voracious and infinite sexual appetite.

One of the legends tells that in the ancient city of Alba Longa, the evil Amulio after deposing his brother Numitor from the throne, ordered to kill all his first-born, turning his daughter Rea Silvia into a virgin so that she would not have successors, but The god of war Mars was enraptured by the girl and they procreated the brothers Romulus and Remus, who managed to escape from the clutches of their uncle Amulio, managing to survive in the forests thanks to the woodpecker and the she-wolf Luperca who nursed and raised them. Years later they would return to their homeland to take revenge and kill him.

Due to the shortage of fertility and women in Rome, the oracle of the goddess Juno announced that the mothers of Lazio would be fertilized by a male goat. For this purpose, a ritual was held every February 15 in the Lupercal cave - there where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf - where the most virile young men were selected - those ephebos who, on their initiation path, had lived in the forests as human wolves—, called loberos or luperci (friends of the wolf), and their faces were marked with the blood of a dog and a sacrificed male goat.

To make the rite more fun and interesting, virile members were created in the form of strips with the skin of the goat ... The libido to the surface, the lustful participants launched themselves in the carnal search for women eager to be impregnated, who agreed in a Shameless sexual play, whipping and spanking included, in a depurifying act that increased fertility.

Christianity erased with a stroke of the pen this fun bacchanal, so beneficial to health and to the women of Ancient Rome, moving it to February 14, Valentine's Day.

If you have seen women running through the streets from one place to another being chased by some half naked guys in wolf skins who whipped and whipped them with bloody strips of ram, do not be alarmed! they are just remembering an old pagan festival, something lewd that yes, but it was a sacred rite of purification and fecundity celebrated in Ancient Rome every February 15 called the lupercales or Lupercalia.

The word comes from lupus, that is, wolf and its Roman god of fertility and male sexuality Fauno Luperco (Greek mythological deity Pan, the one who protected the wolf), a strange, hairy being, with legs and horns of a goat and large, pointed ears with a voracious and infinite sexual appetite.

One of the legends tells that in the ancient city of Alba Longa, the evil Amulio after deposing his brother Numitor from the throne, ordered to kill all his first-born, turning his daughter Rea Silvia into a virgin so that she would not have successors, but The god of war Mars was enraptured by the girl and they procreated the brothers Romulus and Remus, who managed to escape from the clutches of their uncle Amulio, managing to survive in the forests thanks to the woodpecker and the she-wolf Luperca who nursed and raised them. Years later they would return to their homeland to take revenge and kill him.

Due to the shortage of fertility and women in Rome, the oracle of the goddess Juno announced that the mothers of Lazio would be fertilized by a male goat. For this purpose, a ritual was held every February 15 in the Lupercal cave - there where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf - where the most virile young men were selected - those ephebos who, on their initiation path, had lived in the forests as human wolves—, called loberos or luperci (friends of the wolf), and their faces were marked with the blood of a dog and a sacrificed male goat.

To make the rite more fun and interesting, virile members were created in the form of strips with the skin of the goat ... The libido to the surface, the lustful participants launched themselves in the carnal search for women eager to be impregnated, who agreed in a Shameless sexual play, whipping and spanking included, in a depurifying act that increased fertility.

Christianity erased with a stroke of the pen this fun bacchanal, so beneficial to health and to the women of Ancient Rome, moving it to February 14, Valentine's Day.

February 27, 380, the emperor Theodosius abolished the religion and festival of the Sun Invictus by the famous edict of Thessalonica. Until then the Romans worshiped the Sun god during the Republic, and with greater prominence in the Imperial era, since the gradual entry of different religions of salvation of monotheistic tendency, such as Christianity and Mithrism, was giving greater weight to the power of the star king, the one who conquered the darkness ...

Emperor Aurelian made it official on December 25 as the day of the birth of the Undefeated Sun (the main divinity of the Roman pantheon at that time) back in the year 274 and later Juliano the Apostate would declare Helios (Greek equivalent) as the only divinity, and would try to prevent the spread of growing Christianity.

Finally, during a long process of syncretism, both the Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" held after the Winter Solstice, when daylight increased, as well as many other acts and celebrations were gradually reconverted. Paganism would come to an end, a new stage would begin with a victorious sun reborn in the arms of a Galilean.

An ancient Persian myth told us of the coming of an envoy from the Sun, Mithras, who, dressed with Phrygian, torch and dagger, will be worshiped by shepherds, and in a primordial cave he will redeem men through the sacrifice of a primeval bull. According to legend after being captured, he will carry it on his shoulders and kill him. The new world will be reborn after its ascension to heaven together with its resurrected dead beyond the stars ...

As often happens, the myth was lost in time until Rome rescued it back in the 1st century BC. assimilating him to the God Invictus, where after the Saturnalia every December 25, Mitra would be reborn victorious "natalis solis invicti" (death, resurrection and growth of the crops).

The light is reborn and returns, the end of the darkness of days is approaching. With the sowing and the field work completed, it is time to celebrate the coming of light. Let's light candles, decorate our homes with plants, get together with family and friends, exchange gifts, drink and eat, these are days of fun.

Rome dresses up with sacrifices in honor of Saturn and agrarian cults, there are no slaves or masters, no wars or executions, no sickles or hoes, just public banquets, joy, laughter, happiness, country delight and carnival, let's rejoice for a year more of this ancient pagan celebration !! The winter solstice is soon over, our undefeated Sun is returning soon. Happy Saturnalia!!

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

Under the reign of Carlos V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and his son Felipe II, Spain became the first world power, the champion during the Golden Age of that vast empire in which "the sun did not set." He assumed the old idea of ​​establishing a universal Empire of supranational and spiritual unity, an ideal of an Empire successor to the European Tradition (the medieval Christianites, the Romanites of the Roman Empire) against the Protestant currents, the Europe of Nations and against the thriving Ottoman Empire.

While the “Civilizing Empire” spread across America and the world (Hispanity), the emperor managed to face the threat of the Turks (Vienna and Lepanto —Felipe—). But the expansion of the Protestant Lutheran Reformation and the hostility of France and other countries such as Belgium, Holland or England frustrated (Westphalia) the realization of the ideal of Empire - that continuation project of the wisdom tradition, the East / West Indo-European tradition and Pagan tradition through which we can transcend through the initiatory and warrior path, through grace, the fruit of our works. As a consequence, the predatory Empires and the Europe of the sovereign Nations of the modern world appear.

The Kingdom of Castile was a prosperous, frontier and politically advanced society, organized on the basis of its peculiar institutions (Cortes, Councils, Communities, Behetrías) that erupted in a deep malaise of the Castilians before Carlos de Gante's self-proclamation as King of Castile. The postponement of the economic and political interests of Castile together with Flemish greed caused the first modern revolution - the so-called War of the Communities of Castile that lasted from 1520 to 1522. An armed uprising led by the Castilian cities with attorneys in the Cortes, supported by the peasantry and the lower nobility. The community members in Villalar were disarmed with the execution of Padilla, Maldonado and Bravo, the constitutional reform project of the Communities of Castile to reorganize the country was frustrated, now forming part of the Imperial project of the emperor.

Ostentatious, fearless, brave and courageous warriors, so fearful that even the very devil closed the gates of hell because he was afraid of them... These knights of steel or servants of the land were the warrior elites of the Renaissance, recognizable by their striking features, colorful and extravagant clothing (until then reserved for the clergy and nobility, as they were exempted from the rules of the state and the sanctuary laws) their actions were recorded in legendary battles such as Pavia, San Quintín, the siege of Vienna, or the sack of Rome.

In a period, at the end of the 15th century, in which feudalism was dying —with it the caste system that determined by birth the roles in life— and the art of war was changing, the peasants, craftsmen or servants had the possibility to become by their own merits pikemen, arquebusiers or swordsmen within the new mercenary armies of the emperor. Without a noble title, lineage and ancestry, the Lansquenets were able to become highly paid land soldiers thanks to their impeccable combat technique, their high risk in the battlefield that made their lives "so short and brutal" (Maximilian I).

Ostentatious, fearless, brave and courageous warriors, so fearful that even the very devil closed the gates of hell because he was afraid of them... These knights of steel or servants of the land were the warrior elites of the Renaissance, recognizable by their striking features, colorful and extravagant clothing (until then reserved for the clergy and nobility, as they were exempted from the rules of the state and the sanctuary laws) their actions were recorded in legendary battles such as Pavia, San Quintín, the siege of Vienna, or the sack of Rome.

In a period, at the end of the 15th century, in which feudalism was dying —with it the caste system that determined by birth the roles in life— and the art of war was changing, the peasants, craftsmen or servants had the possibility to become by their own merits pikemen, arquebusiers or swordsmen within the new mercenary armies of the emperor. Without a noble title, lineage and ancestry, the Lansquenets were able to become highly paid land soldiers thanks to their impeccable combat technique, their high risk in the battlefield that made their lives "so short and brutal" (Maximilian I).

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.