Gothic springtime:

the First Culture phase of Faustian Culture/civilization, 900 to 1400 AD and prior to the Faustian summer

 

act of grace:

Spengler here refers to the sacrament of Contrition, confession, which is idnaicted at the start of the paragraph & in the footnote.

 

proposition of causal character:

suggesting or promoting agents of change or cause.

 

Buddha’s Four Truths:

aka the Four Noble Truths or, "The four Arya satyas" are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones- namely:

• dukkha (suffering, incapable of satisfying, painful) is an innate characteristic of existence in the realm of samsara;

• samudaya (origin, arising) of this dukkha, which arises with taṇhā ("craving, desire or attachment");

• nirodha (cessation, ending) of this dukkha can be attained by the renouncement of craving, desire or attachment");

• magga (path, Noble Eightfold Path) path leading to renouncement of tanha & cessation of dukkha

 

Kant (Critique of Practical Reason):

2nd of 3 critiques, published 1788, follows Critique of Pure Reason & deals with his moral philosophy; it was influential in later development of the field of ethics & moral philosophy, beginning with Fichte's Doctrine of Science & in the 20th century, the principal reference point for deontological moral philosophy.  He claims that the first Critique argued God, freedom & immortality are unknowable, but this second Critique would mitigate this.. Freedom is knowable as it is revealed by God.  God and immortality are also knowable, but practical reason now requires belief in these postulates of reason.  Kant invites his critics to provide a proof of God's existence & proceeds to show that this is impossible (owing to various ontological, cosmological & teleological arguments).  God's existence depends on the idea that existence is a predicate inherent to the concepts to which it is applied.

 

ornament:

1 of 2 mystical terms Spengler employs, imitation being the polar opposite of ornament.  Imitation is a BECOMING, it is alive, employing time & direction & uses mediums such as tone, verses, pictures, stage scenes, dance, drama, which are being accomplished (a live performance), all have a beginning & end; we can imitate the specific destiny of an individual.  Imitation, always precedes ornamentation; it is unconscious resonance with another’s rhythm.  It is the attempt to bridge the Proper and the Alien, a connect between the inner, Individual Soul and the external Other World.  All religions start as imitation.  It looks to love, sexuality, the future.  In contrast, ornament is ego, conscious of itself & its unique character.  Ornament IS extension, settled and stable, BECOME, a finished product, as a Being it is independent of origin, it is duration, a symbol of the general destiny idea itself.  Ornamentation uses symbol & such symbols (or art) have strict form, a  grammar & syntax of -language, with rules & laws, inward logic & tradition (e.g. the Doric Order).  These symbols (art) reflect the sacrosanct causality of the macrocosm as seen & understood by a man of a given Culture. It looks to funerary art, the past.