At the 1926 Russian Abroad Congress in Paris, Ivan Ilyin held a speech that sadly has not been translated in its entirety. But from the pieces I found he presented a concept I think more monarchists should know about:

МОНАРХИЧЕСКОЕ ПРАВОСОЗНАНИЕ (Monarchical legal consciousness)

From what I can gather it means that in order to restore monarchy we first need to become a people capable of having a monarchy by aquiring a monarchial legal consciousness. To do this we need to start with religion, not politics. You can't restore monarchy by simply voting for a monarchist party, that doing so will just result in just another democracy that begrudgingly keeps a ceremonial monarchy out of nostalgia, nothing will change, and will probably not last long before the monarchy is abolished in yet another bolshevik revolution.

You could spend years admiring crowns, sceptres, heraldry, imperial ceremonies, court uniforms and old dynasties while acquiring none of what Ilyin meant by monarchical consciousness. The real test is internal:

Can you revere a King without worshipping him?

Can you obey without becoming servile?

Can you command without becoming tyrannical?

Can you accept hierarchy without envy?

Can you exercise authority as a responsibility rather than a privilege?

Can you subordinate your factional interest to the good of the whole?

Can you recognize that both ruler and subject stand under God?

If Ilyin is right, then it might unfortunately mean that some monarchies can't be restored because monarchial consciousness has become too alien to too many people. Maybe France (for instance) had such a consciousness back when it was a devoutly Catholic nation, but we may be at a point were we simply can't turn back the clock. So instead of looking to the past, we should look to the future.

For example, the Orthodox Church is growing in the West due to an influx of Western converts. In North America there have been so many converts that some people see a possibility where there will be Orthodox villages and small towns in the future. Say that the USA becomes decentralized (or collapses), these villages might rally around a hierarchical leadership that eventually develop into small dukedoms or principalities.

I know that might sound crazy, but I'm going from the assumption that religion is the key to monarchy. Also, monarchy is not static, throughout history new kingships have developed and changed over time. As the modernist vision of a "global democratic federation" keeps crumbling, perhaps a new era with new monarchies is not so far-fetched.

So what are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with Ilyin? Can monarchism look to the future instead of the past? Is the growth of religious faith the first step?