PH2T3R is a partially coded spelling of the Proto-Indo-European root of the word “Father” and the name of the proposed sky father god of the Proto-Indo-Europeans — academically spelled “*Dyḗus ph₂tḗr.” The h2 sound is roughly a “schwa,” theoretically pronounced roughly like the “a” in “about.” The long, accented “e” was switched to a “3” to modernize it into a code or password form — as the object of this project is not to reenact or recreate the past, but to bring ancient ideas into the present. As such, PH2T3R, pronounced “puh-TEHR,” with the accent on the second syllable and a slightly rolled “r” sound at the end.
The logo for PH2T3R is an elaboration on the “solar vision” symbol I use to represent The Father. It was designed by Benjamin Howes, who designed some of the first “Stay Solar” t-shirts, and who posts as Oaks and Oaths on Instagram. It represents the sun as a creative engine.
I created PH2T3R to showcase and promote the growing solar masculine culture that has been developing online among men who are interested in masculinity, mythology, and masculine spirituality. While I have certainly (and thankfully) not been the only influence in this realm, I do believe I helped set something in motion with my slogan and hashtag “#staysolar” and the philosophy of manly or solar idealism— a concept I started promoting in early 2019. I gave a keynote speech on “manly idealism,” using the phrase “stay solar” at the 21 Convention in Orlando in 2019, which can be watched here . I explained what I meant by “stay solar” in February 2020 in an essay of the same name, first published here, and developed the concept of Solar Idealism further developed in my 2021 book, Fire in the Dark.
I started saying and promoting #staysolar and developed the philosophy of #solaridealism because I believe that Solar Idealism a mindset that is sorely needed by men today.
Solar Idealism represents a response to the dry, corporate ideology of “scientism” — which should never be confused with honest scientific investigation which is actually extremely “solar.”
Men today are hungry for myth and they still need ideals and heroes as north stars — eagles in the sky — to model and direct their individual paths toward strength and excellence. The prevailing ideology of institutional tyrants worldwide is a chthonic, low-looking ethos that is meant to produce only subservience and mediocrity and unify its would-be slave class with the void. I believe that men are meant to look upward, to work toward what is better and envision (but never truly reach) what is best. In fact, Solar Idealism represents the elevation of hierarchy (holy order) and the unreachable ideal — contrasted with the mentality of the all-too-willing herd that is pacified by reassuring bromides which congratulate the lazy, inept, and unimaginative.
I believe that there are men of every race and ethnic background who can benefit from this ideology, and all kinds of men want to improve themselves. I can not imagine a more foul or deceitful racism than one which suggests — as the media so often does —that only white or western men aspire to high achievement, meaningful freedom, and self-determination.
The three god ideals and archetypes which I introduced in Fire in the Dark — The Father, The Striker, and The Lord of the Earth — are universal, and they speak to the male experience, unified by the symbol of the campfire, itself a representation of the sun.
We are engaged in a cultural war against what I have called The Empire of Nothing, a war against nothingness and the void and a leveling of all values, and what we sorely need to combat this war is a reinvigoration of myth and masculine, solar ideals in culture. It is to serve this end that I decided to create this site to help encourage the development of a creative solar counterculture.
I have long been inspired by a quote from a play by Yukio Mishima, in which a character says that he “fights dreams with dreams.” The mission of PH2T3R is to become an engine for the creation of new and reinvigorated dreams that inspire our unconscious minds and bring them into harmony with our conscious desire to become better and reach higher.
Taking action on my Afterword in Fire in the Dark, I will fund as much creative art as I can through contests and grants, but PH2T3R also aims to catalog the solar artistic efforts of many which are already underway. Social media is no longer a reliable platform for the advancement of true counterculture — has the mainstream ever been amenable to counterculture? — so I have chosen to collect and recognize this important work on a web site, and hope to later produce physical books with the same aim.
Stay Solar —
PH2T3R Creator and Primary Editor.
Author of The Way of Men, Becoming a Barbarian, A More Complete Beast, and Fire in the Dark.
