Two books by Julius Evola have recently been published that contain material concerned with Crowley:
a) The Fall of Spirituality (Inner Traditions, 2021) contains a number of essays dealing with spirituality and its corruption in today's world. Of interest to us is essay IX Satanism, in which Evola discusses Crowley on pages 161-167. His treatment of AC is fair; he considers him to be a true practitioner. Evola is however critical of Crowley's flamboyancy as well as of the purely religious aspects of Thelema.
b) Introduction to Magic, vol. III (Inner Traditions, 2021), has of course been long awaited. Again, this volume contains a plethora of essays discussing various aspects of magic. Essay XII.4 Magical Perspectives According to Aleister Crowley (pp. 421-433) contains a generous collection of citations from Liber Aleph. Seemingly Evola thought quite highly of the thoughts contained within this liber.
Considering the scarcity of Crowley's writings during Evola's time (Rome, ca. 1925-74) the latter proves himself to be a perspicacious, insightful and fair writer. It is pleasing to finally have these books translated and available in English!
Markus
Two books by Julius Evola have recently been published that contain material concerned with Crowley:
a) The Fall of Spirituality (Inner Traditions, 2021) r. Evola is however critical of Crowley's flamboyancy as well as of the purely religious aspects of Thelema.
Considering the scarcity of Crowley's writings during Evola's time (Rome, ca. 1925-74) the latter proves himself to be a perspicacious, insightful and fair writer. It is pleasing to finally have these books translated and available in English!
While I'm certainly not a fan of Evola's politics, I find his esoteric writings very interesting, especially Eros and the Mysteries of Love, The Yoga of Power, and the Introduction to Magic books. It's always fascinating to see Crowley's contemporaries comment on him too, seeing what was thought of him before his works became much more easily accessible. I'm looking forward to reading these.
I have never heard of him and had to do a Google/wiki search;
Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola (/ɛˈvoʊlə/; Italian: [ˈɛːvola];[1] 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974), better known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher, poet, and painter whose esoteric worldview featured antisemitic conspiracy theories[2][3] and the occult. He has been described as a "fascist intellectual",[4] a "radical traditionalist",[5] "antiegalitarian, antiliberal, antidemocratic, and antipopular",[6] and as "the leading philosopher of Europe's neofascist movement".[6]
Evola is popular in fringe circles, largely because of his metaphysical, magical, and supernatural beliefs – including belief in ghosts, telepathy, and alchemy[7] – and his traditionalism. He termed his philosophy "magical idealism". Many of Evola's theories and writings were centered on his hostility toward Christianity and his idiosyncratic mysticism, occultism, and esoteric religious studies,[8][9][10][page needed] and this aspect of his work has influenced occultists and esotericists. Evola also justified male domination over women as part of a purely patriarchal society, an outlook stemming from his traditionalist views on gender, which demanded women stay in or revert to what he saw as their traditional gender roles, where they were completely subordinate to male authority
Sounds ass-backwards to me.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
I have never heard of him and had to do a Google/wiki search;
Sounds ass-backwards to me.
Sociopolitically, indeed. He was extremely reactionary. I tried to read Revolt Against the Modern World and it left me wanting to find his grave to dig him up and hit him in the head with the book. His Hermetic and alchemical writings, though, show an interesting stream of Western esoteric thought that was influential in its own way, even if he was a terrible human being in other ways.
But on the other hand, this is a guy who ended up losing the use of his legs because he decided to take a walk during an air raid.
Thanks for the update Markus. It has been at least an hour or so since i have purchased a book so I will get right on this. Regarding Evola's milieu and the anti-modernist tradition in Italian occultism Christian Giudice has written an excellent book - though it has yet to be released from OUP's subterranean grotto….
Sociopolitically, indeed. He was extremely reactionary. I tried to read Revolt Against the Modern World and it left me wanting to find his grave to dig him up and hit him in the head with the book. His Hermetic and alchemical writings, though, show an interesting stream of Western esoteric thought that was influential in its own way, even if he was a terrible human being in other ways.
Alchemical writings? I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
From Jung's Civilization in Transition
Collected Works Volume 10
Paragraphs 455-456
Like the rest of the world, they did not understand wherein Hitler’s significance lay, that he symbolized something in every individual. He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.
But what could they have done? In Hitler, every German should have seen his own shadow, his own worst danger. It is everybody’s allotted fate to become conscious of and learn to deal with this shadow. But how could the Germans be expected to understand this, when nobody in the world can understand such a simple truth? ................. Our order would be perfect if only everybody could direct his aggressiveness inwards, into his own psyche. Unfortunately, our religious education prevents us from doing this, with its false promises of an immediate peace within
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
It's almost like different folks might have different ideas about an incredibly ambiguous phenomenon!
Whodda thunk it, huh, will the age of miracles never cease, etc.
I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
It's almost like different folks might have different ideas about an incredibly ambiguous phenomenon!
Whodda thunk it, huh, will the age of miracles never cease, etc.
Oh I see, Carl Jung doesn't interest you? I can't help that.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Carl Jung doesn't interest you?
I am a great fan of Jung. His system fits nicely into the A.'.A.'. curriculum, perhaps even enhacing the understanding of various parts of The Tree. But I suppose those LHP folks, for example, might have a different view.
Carl Jung doesn't interest you?
I am a great fan of Jung. His system fits nicely into the A.'.A.'. curriculum, perhaps even enhacing the understanding of various parts of The Tree. But I suppose those LHP folks, for example, might have a different view.
The LHP folks don't matter.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Alchemical writings? I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
Great synopsis!
@david-dom-lemieux
Alchemical writings? I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
Great synopsis!
@david-dom-lemieux
Alchemical writings? I thought alchemy was about the Self integrating the shadow whereas Fascism is about the shadow ruling the Self.
There are multiple approaches to alchemy, as Ignant mentioned and as you certainly know, and not all of them revolve around Jung. Evola's derives a lot from Giuliano Kremmerz, but takes an approach more in line with yoga, similar to Kundalini and Taoist practices, including sexual practices as well, though he writes about those more obliquely. He covers this primarily in The Hermetic Tradition, which focuses entirely on alchemy, and in the Introduction to Magic books, which focus on the practices of the Ur group.
The LHP folks don't matter.
Love you too, Dommy! Kiss kiss!
I am a great fan of Jung. His system fits nicely into the A.'.A.'. curriculum, perhaps even enhacing the understanding of various parts of The Tree. But I suppose those LHP folks, for example, might have a different view.
Agreed. And the more mature, balanced, LHP people do address the Shadow, and work with accepting and integrating it, rather than allowing it to become the dominant force within the Self, which, sadly, does seem to be the focus of the less mature and balanced.
All that said, I've met at least 4 Thelemite fascists. Not just people who expressed fascist views, each of them used the term "fascist" to describe themselves.
I've met at least 4 Thelemite fascists.
Yeah, there are all kinds of people in every area of life. One's adopted external paradigm is no indicator of what's going on inside.
There are multiple approaches to alchemy, as Ignant mentioned and as you certainly know, and not all of them revolve around Jung. Evola's derives a lot from Giuliano Kremmerz, but takes an approach more in line with yoga, similar to Kundalini and Taoist practices, including sexual practices as well, though he writes about those more obliquely. He covers this primarily in The Hermetic Tradition, which focuses entirely on alchemy, and in the Introduction to Magic books, which focus on the practices of the Ur group.
The LHP folks don't matter.
Love you too, Dommy! Kiss kiss!
When Shiva and I used the term LHP I think we meant the crazies who don't recognize a HGA which presides over things like Satan and the Demons evoked in the Goetia etc. They are therefore, imo everything that AC warned about.
What do Evola's writings do for you? It looks like he used yoga and 'raised energy' like Manson........ badly and with a brain that was wired wrong.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
When Shiva and I used the term LHP I think we meant the crazies who don't recognize a HGA ...
That's about right. We even see "Thelemites" who forget the higher goal, investing their energy in embracing a paradigm of the shadowland, consorting with dark cellars, demons, sigils, and perhaps sacrificial victims.
Yes, this stuff is all part of the curriculum (although sacrifices are touchy and subject to diverse viewpoints of authenticity), but they are things to be controlled ... not adopted as a permanent paradigm.
When Shiva and I used the term LHP I think we meant the crazies who don't recognize a HGA which presides over things like Satan and the Demons evoked in the Goetia etc. They are therefore, imo everything that AC warned about.
Oh, I'm sorry! I've been so used to you trolling I just made the assumption. Thank you, that makes much more sense, and fits perfectly.
What do Evola's writings do for you? It looks like he used yoga and 'raised energy' like Manson........ badly and with a brain that was wired wrong.
Yoga and raised energy, yes, withing a mostly Hermetic framework, with influences from Tantra and Zen. He presents a synthesis of Western esotericism distinct from the Golden Dawn in that it focuses on the Hermetic, without the Qabalistic, Rosicrucian, and Masonic elements, kind of like a Hermetic Yoga, though also drawing from other related sources. Introduction to Magic, for example, included a chapter than analyzes the Mithraic Liturgy, for example. Distinct from his fellow Traditionalist, Rene Geunon, his focus is on magick and initiatory work, rather than religion. He did have a concept akin to the HGA, the Nucleus, which initiatory work was to bring in to further manifestation and integration, too.
His words on his contemporaries also interest me, like seeing his comments on Crowley and on Maria de Naglowska in Eros and the Mysteries of Love.
His sociopolitical views have at least some basis in his esoteric ideas. He was in favor of a caste system derived from Hinduism, for example, where one was born in to a particular race, culture, sex, and social position for a divinely-ordained reason and one's life's work was based on that, and one should not stray from it. He also favored a monarchy where the king was the connection between the divine and the world, and he was a fan of the Manusmṛiti. I'm not justifying his views here, I certainly do not agree with them at all, I'm just explaining a little more of where they came from.
That's about right. We even see "Thelemites" who forget the higher goal, investing their energy in embracing a paradigm of the shadowland, consorting with dark cellars, demons, sigils, and perhaps sacrificial victims.
Yes, this stuff is all part of the curriculum (although sacrifices are touchy and subject to diverse viewpoints of authenticity), but they are things to be controlled ... not adopted as a permanent paradigm
Agreed. A lot of the immature elements in the LHP tend to come from the Immanent branch of the path, which focuses more on the material world. That's not to say that it's an inherent part of that branch, or that that branch is entirely without merit, just that there tend to be more of those people there, as opposed to the Transcendent branch, though they turn up there too, just not as much.
I've been so used to you trolling
Actually, and in my own personal opinion based on years of battling trolls, he is not a troll. He may become sarcastic, but sarcasm is in my bag as well. He may expound strange ideas ... but so have I. Sometimes he is sometimes called out for his logic, or variations thereupon, and he is quick to label weirdo nut-jobs as "idiots."
But sometimes it is hard to catch his specific drift, and sometimes he seems to be poking a barb, but he is not a troll as we have come to know them here. They are really problematic.
I have never heard of him and had to do a Google/wiki search;
Sounds ass-backwards to me.
Sociopolitically, indeed. He was extremely reactionary. I tried to read Revolt Against the Modern World and it left me wanting to find his grave to dig him up and hit him in the head with the book... even if he was a terrible human being in other ways.
It doesn't seem like he has the problem here. It seems like he bothered you with a Truth you are so intent on denying you would use violence to stop him from speaking it. I know which side I respect more already.
In Prophetes Veritas Venit. Quod ambulas cum Thelema et Agape est semper fidelis pietas.
I was going to Google search "Revolt Against the Modern World" but I'd probably get put on the terrorist watch list if I did.
Lol.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
It doesn't seem like he has the problem here. It seems like he bothered you with a Truth you are so intent on denying you would use violence to stop him from speaking it. I know which side I respect more already.
I'm sorry, you might have to explain this to me. My inferior female mind doesn't understand how smacking a decades-old corpse with a book would stop the words contained in thousands of copies of books from being conveyed.
Or even why I would want those words to not be conveyed to begin with. The ideas I do not agree with have a right to exist as much as I have a right to not agree with them.
I also do not understand how you got those ideas from my words at all.
Which 'Truth' is this?
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Which 'Truth' is this?
I second that notional question. What/which Truth has been revealed and recoiled from?
i suppose it could be any of a few things. I'm really not in favor of fascism, absolute monarchies complete with divine right of kings, a caste system that also extend to race and forbid people of lower castes from pursing initiatory work under pain of death, or any caste system for that matter, the Manusmriti being applied in modern society,or a mythological figure being admired for hating women.
I guess I'm just a snowflake that way.
But I do see these things as definite revolts against the modern world, even if I do view them as regressions instead of progressions. I found it an interesting read, even if it was a book that I found to agree with in.
@katrice Maybe as a thought experiment, or through research, you could "discover" what the "subject" is "proposing."
Since he was a critic of fascism, monarchies, caste, and race, and acknowledged their existence as important and real and dynamic qualities, making your "lack of favor" or "favor" (just as my favor or non favor), completely irrelevant.
Evola's MT word (logos) is "Tradition" as he makes abundantly clear in RATMW.
In Prophetes Veritas Venit. Quod ambulas cum Thelema et Agape est semper fidelis pietas.
Since he was a critic of fascism, monarchies, caste, and race, and acknowledged their existence as important and real and dynamic qualities,
I can see where a viewpoint comes from and still not agree with it.
making your "lack of favor" or "favor" (just as my favor or non favor), completely irrelevant.
I never said that my favoring or not favoring anything is relevant to anyone but myself.
Evola's MT word (logos) is "Tradition" as he makes abundantly clear in RATMW.
I am fully aware of that and realized it myself while reading a number of his books.
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola (May 19, 1898 – June 11, 1974) also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher, esotericist, author, artist, poet, political activist, soldier and Perennial Traditionalist. Although a polymath who participated in numerous fields over the course of his lifetime, it is for his literary career which Evola is best known and has solidified his legacy as an influential intellectual. Evola's stances and spiritual values, which he regarded as aristocratic, masculine, traditionalist, heroic and defiantly reactionary, were often at odds with amongst others, liberal democratic popular consensus and moreover surpassed the radicalness of historic doctrines.
Evola believed that mankind is living in the Kali Yuga, a Dark Age of unleashed materialistic appetites, spiritual oblivion and organised deviancy. To counter this and call in a primordial rebirth, Evola presented his world of Tradition. The core trilogy of Evola's works are generally regarded as Revolt Against the Modern World, Men Among the Ruins and Ride the Tiger. According to one scholar, "Evola’s thought can be considered one of the most radically and consistently antiegalitarian, antiliberal, antidemocratic, and antipopular systems in the twentieth century."[1] Much of Evola's theories and writings are centred on spiritualism and mysticism; the inner life. He authored books covering themes such as Hermeticism, the metaphysics of sex, Tantra, Buddhism, Taoism, mountaineering, the Holy Grail, the essence and history of civilisations, decadence and various philosophic and religious Traditions dealing with both the Classics and the Orient.
Though never a member of the National Fascist Party itself, or advocate of the term to describe his stances — Evola regarded his position as that of a sympathetic right-wing intellectual, who saw potential in the movement and wished to guide or reform its errors through criticism, to a position inline with his own views. One of his successes was in regards to the racial laws; his advocation of a spiritual consideration of race won out in the debate in Italy, rather than a solely materialist reductionism concept popular in Germany. Since World War II many Radical Traditionalist, New Right, Conservative Revolutionary, Fascist and Third Positionist groups have taken inspiration from him.
This restriction must be kept in mind. What I am about to say does not concern the ordinary man of our day. On the contrary, I have in mind the man who finds himself involved in today's world, even at its most problematic and paroxysmal points; yet he does not belong inwardly to such a world, nor will he give in to it. He feels himself, in essence, as belonging to a different race from that of the overwhelming majority of his contemporaries. -Evola, Ride the Tiger, 1961
Tradition
The Italian philosopher of history Giambattista Vico provided Evola with the concepts of primordial heroic law, "natural heroic rights" and the meaning of the Indo-European Latin term vir as indicative of "wisdom, priesthood and kingship." Crucial to Evola's formulation of the idea of "solar masculinity" versus "chthonic masculinity" and matriarchal regression was the maverick 19th century Swiss scholar Johann Jakob Bachofen. Other prominent, philosophically foundational influences for Evola include the ancient Aryo-Hindu scripture that teaches the concept of "detached violence", the Bhagavad Gita, and the Aryan kshatriya sage Siddartha Gotama, the historical Buddha (Evola, "Il Camino del Cinabro" 1963).
Like Guénon, he believed that mankind is living in the Kali Yuga of the Hindu tradition, the Dark Age of unleashed, materialistic appetites. The Kali Yuga is the last of four ages, which form a cycle from the Satya Yuga or Golden Age through the Kali Yuga or the Hesiodic Iron Age. Evola argued that both Italian fascism and National Socialism held hope for a reconstitution of the primordial "celestial race."[6]
For Evola, the word Tradition had a meaning very similar to that of Truth. The doctrine of the four ages, a broad characterization of the attributes of Tradition and their manifestations in traditional societies makes up the first half of Evola's major work Revolt Against the Modern World. In Revolt Against the Modern World, he expounds according to the ancient texts that there is not one Tradition, but two: An older and degenerate tradition that is feminine, matriarchal, unheroic, associated with the telluric negroid racial remnants of Lemuria (continent); and a higher one that is masculine, heroic, "Uranian" and purely Aryo-Hyperborean in its origin. The latter one later gave rise to an ambiguous Western-Atlantic tradition, which combined aspects of both through the historical Hyperborean migrations and their degenerating assimilation of exotic spiritual influences from the South.
According to Evola, in the Golden Age there existed in the dominating elites, the "Divine Kings", a convergence of the two powers, namely the spiritual principle and the royal principle. From the Aryo-Hindu tradition, he sees the human type of the Rajarshi as an embodiment of the Golden Age ideal and quotes the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.4.11): "This is why nothing is greater than the warrior nobility; the priests themselves venerate the warrior when the consecration of the king occurs." Evola argues that in the Hindu tradition there are plenty of instances of kings who already possess or eventually achieve a spiritual knowledge greater than that possessed by the later-times degenerated brahmana. This is the case, for instance, of King Jaivala, whose knowledge was not imparted by any priest, but rather reserved to the warrior caste; also, in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.1) King Janaka teaches the brahmana Yajnavalkya the doctrine of the transcendent Self. Evola explains that, according to tradition, the primordial gnosis was handed down, starting from Ikshvaku, in regal succession (cf. Bhagavadgita, 4. 1-2); the same Sun Dynasty (surya-vamsa) was connected with blue-eyed, fair-skinned [7] Gautama Buddha's aristocratic Aryan family (Sutta Nipata, 3). In the laws of the second or Silver Age, the Laws of Manu, the text states "rulers do not prosper without priests and priests do not thrive without rulers" and that "the priest is said to be the root of the law, and the ruler is the peak" (11.321-2;11.83-4).
In reference to Christianity, Evola distinguished between 1) the mystical character of primitive Christianity and its later social history on the one hand, and 2) the primordial-Hyperborean elements and the decadent Judaic elements on the other. In Revolt Against the Modern World, he asserts "in the symbolism of Christ there are traces of a mysteric pattern" (p. 281) and "Jesus' saying in Matthew (11:12) concerning the violence suffered by the kingdom of Heaven and the revival of the Davidic saying: 'You are gods' (John 10:34), belong to elements that exercised virtually no influence on the main pathos of early Christianity" (Revolt, p. 284). Evola states "the Christian legend of the three magi is an attempt to claim for Christianity a traditional character in the superior sense I give to the term" (The Mystery of the Grail, p. 45). In the same work, Evola argues "the Jewish notion of a Messiah and the Christian notion of God's Kingdom, which many people believe to have greatly influenced the medieval imperial myth, are nothing but an echo of the ancient and pre-Christian Aryo-Iranian concept" of the Saoshyant as "lord of a future, triumphal kingdom of the God of Light" and "slayer of the Ahrimanic dark forces" (ibid., p. 39)
Evola recalls the mysterious figure of the priest-king Melchizedek as a primary point of juncture with the primordial sacral-royal Tradition of the origins. Abraham receives an almost feudal spiritual investiture from Melchizedek in the biblical episode of Genesis 14, giving the mysterious priest-king tithes, thus symbolizing the Abrahamic tradition's implicit dependency (cf. St. Paul: "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior", Heb. 7:1-3). Evola often notes the role of the "regal religion according to Melchizedek" in the Ghibelline ideology. Evola finds the testimony of Eginhard significant, who states that after Charlemagne was consecrated and hailed with the formula, "Long life and victory to Charles the Great, crowned by God, great and peaceful emperor of the Romans!" the pope "prostrated himself (adoravit) before Charles, according to the ritual established at the time of the ancient emperors." Evola emphasizes how the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (1368–1437), founder of the militant-Catholic chivalric Order of the Dragon, continuing a long tradition of Christian-Roman and Byzantine imperial dominance in religious matters, summoned the Council of Constance (A.D. 1413) on the eve of the Reformation[clarification needed] in order to purify the clergy from schisms and anarchy.
The classical Traditional polity is structured according to a strict hierarchy of sociopolitical functions, where the lower functions are concerned with mere matter and organic vitality and the ascending functions progressively ruled by spirit. This order, in which powers of spirit correlate to societal status, Evola finds crystallized in the Indian caste system, the Republic of Plato, ancient Iranian society and the medieval hierarchical class divisions between peasants, burghers, nobility and the clergy and military religious orders (see estates of the realm). The involution through the cycle of the ages was mirrored in the law of the regression of the castes, from the primal "heaven-born" kings to the deconsecrated slavish usurpers and raceless pariahs of the present. Evola saw the Ghibelline dynasty of Hohenstauffen emperors (1152–1271) as the Germanic champion of the primordial "sacred regality" in a renewed Holy Roman Empire. Once the solar, golden, sacred regality of the mythical first age fell, power devolved upon a lunar, silver, feminized priestly caste before an unconsecrated warrior nobility struggled against it, announcing the Bronze Age. Then power shifts to the mercantile caste, represented by the Italian comune, Freemasonry, the Jewish financial oligarchy of the Renaissance, and New World American Judeo-Protestant plutocracy. By the beginning of the twentieth century, organized labor and Marxist-Trotskyite subverters sought to transfer power to the last caste of slaves or sudras, or the consumer-pariah, reducing all values to matter, machines, dysgenic egalitarianism and the reign of abstract quantity.
Involvement with Fascism
In the late 1920s, Evola expressed his support for a radical Fascist revolution to sweep modern Judeo-Christianity out of Italy and replace it with a "Pagan Imperialism" (à la Ancient Rome).[4] He was one of a number of fascist ideologues who opposed Benito Mussolini's Lateran Accords with the Roman Catholic Church and rejected the Fascist party's nationalism and its focus on mass movement mob politics; he hoped to influence the regime toward his own variation on fascist racial theories and his "Tradionalist" philosophy. Early in 1930, Evola launched Torre, a bi-weekly review, to voice his conservative-revolutionarism and denounce the demagogic tendencies of official fascism; government censors suppressed the journal and engaged in character assassination against its staff (for a time, Evola retained a bodyguard of like-minded radical fascists) until it died out in June of that year. From 1934 to 1943, he edited the cultural page of Roberto Farinacci's journal Regime Fascista.
Mussolini read Evola's Sintesi di Dottrina della Razza in August 1941, and was impressed enough to personally meet with Evola and offer him his praise. Evola later recounted that Mussolini had found in his work a uniquely Roman form of fascist racism distinct from that found in Nazi Germany. With Mussolini's backing, Evola launched the journal Sangue e Spirito. While not always in agreement with German racial theorists, Evola traveled to Germany in February 1942 and obtained support for German collaboration on Sangue e Spirito from leading Nazi race theorists.[5]
Evola supported Fascism for his own ends, but was rebuked by the regime because his ends were not always theirs. When World War II broke out, he volunteered for military service in order to fight the Communists on the Russian front; he was rejected because he had too many detractors in the bureaucracy (Hansen 2002). Italian Fascism went into decline when, during the midst of the War, Mussolini was deposed and imprisoned. Evola, although not a member of the Fascist Party, and despite his apparent problems with the Fascist regime, was one of the first people to greet Mussolini when the latter was broken out of prison by Nazi commandos in 1943.
After the Italian surrender to the Allied forces in September 8, 1943, Evola moved to Germany, where he spent the remainder of World War II, also working as a researcher on Freemasonry for the SS Ahnenerbe in Vienna.
It was Evola's custom to walk around the city during bombing raids in order to better 'ponder his destiny'. During one such Soviet raid, in March or April 1945, a shell fragment damaged his spinal cord and he became paralyzed from the waist down, remaining so throughout his life (Stucco 1992, xiii).
Evola and the SS
"But in spite of all these negative aspects, there was something in National Socialism that attracted Evola: the concept of a state ruled by an Order, which he felt was embodied by the SS. 'We are inclined to the opinion that we can see the nucleus of an Order in the higher sense of tradition in the 'Black Corps,' he wrote in Vita Italiana (August 15, 1938). Again in Vita Italiana (August 1941, 'Per una profonda alleanza italo-germanica' [For a Deep Italian-Germanic Alliance]) he writes: 'Beyond the confines of the party and of any political-administrative structure, an elite in the form of a new 'Order'—that is, a kind of ascetic-military organization that is held together by the principles of 'loyalty' and 'honor,' must form the basis of the new state.' As mentioned, Evola held the SS, which Himmler strove to design according to the model of the Teutonic Order, to be this elite.
The castles of the SS Order, with their 'initiations,' the emphasis on transcending the purely human element, the prerequisite of physical valor, as well as the ethical requirements (loyalty, discipline, defiance of death, willingness to sacrifice, unselfishness), strengthened Evola in his conviction. He also was of the opinion that the ethics of the SS were borrowed from the Jesuits" (Dr. H. T. Hansen in "Julius Evola's Political Endeavors" introduction to "Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist").
Paths to Enlightenment
The path to enlightenment is the chief subject of a number of Evola's works. First and foremost is the Buddhist ascesis as he rediscovered it following over two thousand years of obstruction of the Buddha's teachings (The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts). He tries to show the ways that allow a man to survive spiritually intact in the modern age of obscuration and to achieve supra-human liberation or transcendence.
Even in his book Meditations on the Peaks: Mountain Climbing as Metaphor for the Spiritual Quest Evola discussed mountaineering as a possible approach or support on the way of initiatic ascesis in which heroic action is combined with specialized knowledge and training culminating in an initiation — the climbing of the mountain. In this way, and not as a sport or a recreation, mountaineering can be a "spiritual quest," as the subtitle of the book suggests.
Ascesis and Initiation
According to Julius Evola, tradition in its purest form encompassed asceticism, which he described in The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts as a discipline. He describes two basic and complementary types of asceticism — that of action and that of contemplation. The asceticism of action is personified by the warrior while that of contemplation by the pure ascetic; he described Buddhism as the highest form of the asceticism of contemplation, a form very suitable for the warrior in his preparation for inner and outer warfare.
Metaphysics of Sex
In The Yoga of Power: Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way and also Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex, Evola described the practice of sexual magic as an asceticism of action that allows one to achieve transcendent states through physical action, primarily sex.
To explain the metaphysics of sex, Evola cites the original meaning of the word "orgy" as "the state of inspired exaltation that began the initiatory process in the ancient Greek mysteries. But when this exaltation of eros, itself akin to other experiences of a supersensual nature, becomes individualized as a longing that is only carnal, then it deteriorates and ends finally in the form constituted by mere "pleasure, or venereal lust" (The Metaphysics of Sex, p. 48).
In his sexual philosophy, Evola followed the esoteric Hindu and Buddhist schools in the teaching of retention of semen as a means of ontological energization and ultimate self-mastery. "Virya, or spiritual manhood, if lost or wasted results in death and if withheld and conserved leads to life" (ibid., p. 219). Evola considered Traditional chastity as signifying "control, limit, anti-titanic purity, overcoming of pride, and immaterial unshakability, rather than a moralistic and sexuophobic concept" (The Mystery of the Grail, p. 80).
Evola considered sex as being "the greatest magical force in nature", and he fiercely opposed homosexuality, viewing it as a dysfunctional undermining of the magnetic polarity and complementary nature of the two sexes, and thus of the possibility of erotic transcendence. "In a civilization where equality is the standard, where differences are not linked, where promiscuity is in favor, where the ancient idea of 'being true to oneself' means nothing anymore—in such a splintered and materialistic society, it is clear that this phenomenon of regression and homosexuality should be particularly welcome, and therefore it is no way a surprise to see the alarming increase in homosexuality and the 'third sex' in the latest 'democratic' period, or an increase in sex changes to an extent unparalleled in other eras" (The Metaphysics of Sex, p. 64). Evola refers to Plotinus, who deemed homosexual loves to be shameful and abnormal, like diseases of degenerate persons "which do not arise from the essence of being and are not the outcome of the development thereof" (Enneads, III). The draconian harshness of the ancient Aryo-Zoroastrian view on homosexuality, as exemplified in the Vendidad, elicits Evola's full approval: sodomites were classed among the ranks of those criminals to be destroyed on the spot: "Four men can be put to death by any one without an order from the Dastur (high priest): the Nasu-burner (cannibal), the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the criminal taken in the deed" (Vendidad, 8:73-74[8]). With equal vehemence, Evola scorned modern pornography, denouncing it as "dreadfully squalid not only in the facts and scenes described, but in its essence" (The Metaphysics of Sex, p. 4).
Politics
Evola held that politics, like everything else in life, should look upward and beyond the self. His political philosophy was more or less close to Joseph de Maistre, Hermann Wirth, Otto Weininger, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, Ernst Jünger, Gottfried Benn, René Guénon, Oswald Spengler, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Evola's main argument against modern "demagogic" politics is its inverted materialistic focus and mentality, stemming from an inverted order of castes. According to Evola, in modernity, due to what he calls the regression of the castes, the once-preeminent warrior caste (crystallized in the medieval military religious orders and ethical chivalry and its warrior code) has been downgraded into the figures of the mere democratic soldier and mercenary, who are servants of the artificial, soulless needs of the now-dominant mercantile and industrial interests. As Evola states, "Opposite to the 'soldier' was the type of the warrior and the member of the feudal aristocracy; the caste to which this type belonged was the central nucleus in a corresponding social organization. This caste was not at the service of the bourgeois class but rather ruled over it, since the class that was protected depended on those who had the right to bear arms"[9]
On the meaning of his anti-middle-class stance, Evola stated:
We are "anti-bourgeois" not in the descending sense of subversive collectivists but in the sense of opposing the dominance of the lower manifestations of the modern bourgeois spirit (effeminate materialism, commercialism, gangsterism, etc.). The bourgeois tendency has its inevitable role in society, but must not be absolutized; rather, the bourgeoisie must be purified, contained, its values given their space but subordinated to superior values. We are anti-bourgeois because the bourgeois type, while ranking above the proletarian, yet stands inferior to the soldierly-heroic and spiritual-priestly orders. The bourgeois type, compared to the sacral-warrior, only represents a lesser degree of progressive manhood (unedited Italian edition of Men Among the Ruins).
Evola's earliest endeavors in politics occurred in the late 1920s, when he supported some European anti-democratic and anti-Jewish political currents. He participated in the promotion of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party dictatorship in Italy, albeit as a wary supporter of the regime. He saw in Fascism the barest trace of what he believed to be the true path that the country (and civilization) should follow. He therefore attempted to influence the party in the conservative-revolutionary direction he believed it should go — the direction of radical Traditionalism; i.e. away from the exoteric modern Christian Church, the bourgeoisie, and the masses. His efforts to influence the regime were a failure, and he believed that by not following his advice, Mussolini's party failed to fulfill its function. He would maintain the view that a revolutionary movement, similar to Fascism but in harmony with "Tradition", was necessary for the return to a higher form of civilization. Many of his essays on this topic have been published in the anthology, Metaphysics of War.
When Evola met with esoteric Hitlerist Miguel Serrano, he denied that he was a fascist or Hitlerist, but rather saw Metternich as a conservative ideal. (Goodrick-Clarke 2001, 337)
In the decade immediately following the war, Evola wrote two books which fall loosely into the categories "asceticism of action" and "asceticism of contemplation" in their prescriptions for political action.
In Men Among the Ruins, Evola described a Traditionalist attitude — possibly leading to a reactionary revolution — like what he had hoped Fascism could have been with the right leaders. This attitude is a sort of asceticism of action calling for political action to reform current society in a conservative-revolutionary / radical Traditional direction. But he also felt that the acceleration of modernity following World War II's outcome and thus, the elimination of any truly opposing forces, made any such revolution rather impossible, unless the 'unforeseeable' imposes a radical change of circumstances.
In Ride the Tiger, he prescribed a so-to-speak apolitical asceticism of contemplation in which a man is advised to act in the modern world, while remaining intellectually and spiritually detached from and above it. Evola argued that in order to survive in the modern world an enlightened or "differentiated man" should "ride the tiger". As a man, by holding onto the tiger's back, may survive the confrontation once the animal ends exhausted, so too might a man, by letting the world take him on its inexorable path, be able to turn the destructive forces around him into a kind of inner liberation.
Race
A number of Evola's articles and books deal explicitly with the subject of race.
A.J. Gregor comments: "In the [German translation of Imperialismo pagano], Evola considered principled anti-Semitism one of the essentials of a salvific 'racial rebirth' in the modern world. Not only did Evola make a point of identifying Karl Marx, one of the architects of the modern world of materialism, inferiority, pretended equality, and cultural decay, as a Jew--but he spoke of a Jewish capitalistic yoke that obstructed every effort at racial regeneration" (Mussolini's Intellectuals, pps. 200-201).
In Revolt Against the Modern World, he said that he considered himself to be a critic of the "racist worldview" by which he meant the demagogically-minded, simplistic, antisemitic theories of mainstream Nazis and others of his contemporaries. However, he wrote an introduction to an Italian language version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antisemitic document, long proven to be a Tsarist fabrication,[10] that alleges a Jewish conspiracy to run the world through control of the media and finance, and replace the traditional social order with one based on mass manipulation.
For Evola this text represented a manipulation by occult powers trying to hide behind the Jewish and Freemasonic historical drive toward a merchant society soon to be replaced by the chaos of "mass society" which could eventually turn against both.[13]
Evola accused Jews, as well as what he termed the "semitic spirit,"[14] of having a corrosive effect on the "Nordic" race (a race that was, in Evola's mythology, analogous to the Nazi's "Aryans"). Evola argued that not only Jews, but even non-Jews "Judaicized in their souls" must be combated by a "coherent, complete, impartial" anti-Semitism given the means to "identify and combat the Jewish mentality."[15] Evola supported the Nazi anti-Semitic view that there was a hidden form of Jewish power and influence in the modern world; he thought this Jewish power was a symptom of the "modern" world's lack of true aristocratic leadership.[13] Evola further held that Jewish people denigrated lofty "Aryan" ideals (of faith, loyalty, courage, devotion, and constancy) through a "corrosive irony" that ascribed every human activity to economic or sexual motives (à la Marx and Freud) (Kevin Coogan, Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International, p. 309). In a 1938 article Evola accused Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Cesare Lombroso of being "proponents of Jewish materialistic culture in the nineteenth century;[16] two years later, in an essay entitled "Jews and Mathematics," Evola characterized Judaism as the antithesis of "Aryan civilation," and broadly attacked a range of what he considered examples of Jewish influences, from Pythagoreanism to mathematics.[16] The article was illustrated with pictures of notable Jews interspersed with classic anti-Semitic representations.[16]
Dr. Victor A. Shnirelman, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, has noted that cosmological racial ideas also appear in the Neo-Theosophical writings of H. P. Blavatsky's one-time disciple Alice Bailey. Shnirelman wrote that in Bailey's teachings, "Jews were depicted as the 'human product of the former Solar system,' linked with 'World Evil'"; he identified "similar ideas" in the works of Bailey and Evola.[19]
Evola and the Grail
To Evola the Grail was based on the Ghibelline tradition, being the apex of Western Civilisation. The Ghibelline tradition during the medieval period was represented by the German Hohenstaufen imperial line in opposition to the papacy.[20]
Influence
Evola's writings have continued to have an influence both within occult intellectual circles and in European far-right politics. He is widely translated in French, Spanish and partly in German. Amongst those he has influenced are Miguel Serrano, Savitri Devi, GRECE, the Movimento sociale italiano (MSI), Falange Espanola, Gaston Armand Amaudruz's Nouvel Ordre Européen, Guillaume Faye, Pino Rauti's Ordine Nuovo, Alain de Benoist, Michael Moynihan, Giorgio Freda, the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) and Forza Nuova. Giorgio Almirante referred to him as "our Marcuse—only better."[21] According to one leader of the neofascist and terrorist Ordine Nuovo, "Our work since 1953 has been to transpose Evola’s teachings into direct political action."[22] The now defunct French fascist group Troisième Voie was also inspired by Evola.[23]
Evola's work is available in the United States through publisher Inner Traditions. He has also gained some attention in Russia, where some of his work has been analyzed by Alexander Dugin and others from a nationalistic Russian view, with but few translations of some of his shorter texts. His work is also available in translation in the U.K., Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Mexico, Argentina, and Turkey where his Revolt Against the Modern World was published in 2006.
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
Unfortunately, some Wikipedia articles are written very one sided, which is not appropriate for an encyclopedia. The article on Julius Evola there only tells us about Julius Evola's critics.Considering his influence on our current age, i thought it would be best to have a more rational summary of his ideas and career in this thread than the Wikipedia abomination.
Thank you for sharing the article. It was great to see all of that laid out in one place. I can't comment on The Metaphysics of War or Synthesis of the Doctrine of Race because I haven't read those but I've read all of the other books of his mentioned, as well as the pamphlets The Path of Enlightenment in the Mithraic Mysteries, Zen: The Religion of the Samurai, and Rene Guenon : A Teacher for Modern Times. And Introduction to Magic and The Hermetic Tradition of course.
Plenty of reason to criticize Evola, but many of those same criticisms could be applied to Crowley, so i am surprised to see that he would be politicized a bit here.
I do agree that many of the same criticisms would apply to Crowley, and I do disagree with Crowley on those similar matters you allude to as well.. The two had a lot in common, good and bad.
and he fiercely opposed homosexuality, viewing it as a dysfunctional undermining of the magnetic polarity and complementary nature of the two sexes, and thus of the possibility of erotic transcendence
I certainly disagree with Evola on this, based on personal experience. I suspect Crowley would disagree with him there too.
My biggest problem with Evola is that he seemed to lack a sense of humor and his adoption of anti-semetic "elders of zion" and Jesuit like hatred of Freemasonry are a bit too cartoon for me, and because of this he has a corrupted view of history, which sort of collapses his core thesis, at least for me.
In all fairness, while most of his work does lack humor, I do recall reading his making small a joke about why he stopped climbing mountains after his injury, ending a list of reasons with words to the effect of "and there is the small matter of my legs".
Steve Bannon, where we find worldviews of Ayn Rand combined with occult thinkers like Evola
If you are suggesting that Steve Bannon, the media personality, shares the same worldview as Ayn Rand and Evola, you are certifiably ignorant or insane. You don't have to like Steve Bannon. I don't. But one thing I can say about Steve is that he makes a lot more money than you. And a whole lot more people give his opinions the time of day, compared to you, so he must be better at this than you are and that is something Thelemites do not argue about.
In Prophetes Veritas Venit. Quod ambulas cum Thelema et Agape est semper fidelis pietas.
If you are suggesting that Steve Bannon, the media personality, shares the same worldview as Ayn Rand and Evola
Bannon already cites Evola as an influence, so not my original suggestion by any means. Rand's Libertarian influence is all over the RNC, so not sure how you could say that view would be vacant? Point is, the materialist atheism of Rand combined with the spirit law tradition of Evola is a strange mixture for influence of a major political party, no?
Steve Bannon is since 2016 the leading digital influence for one side of the national political divide. I am quite impressed with his wizardry, I think he is the real deal. Only problem I have with him is his practice of deception and division, and he is delusional. Other than that, one of the more talented mages out there.
And a whole lot more people give his opinions the time of day, compared to you, so he must be better at this than you are and that is something Thelemites do not argue about.
I'm sure you are a fine judge of character and not likely to make judgements out of haste or lack of knowledge.
Cheers!
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
Bannon already cites Evola as an influence, so not my original suggestion by any means. Rand's Libertarian influence is all over the RNC, so not sure how you could say that view would be vacant?
There you go, using facts in a discussion on the internet again! You know that hardly ever works with people who disagree with you.
Point is, the materialist atheism of Rand combined with the spirit law tradition of Evola is a strange mixture for influence of a major political party, no?
Has consistency ever been a thing in politics? And that goes for Bannon too, he really doesn't need to adopt the worldview of Evola or Rand to still count them as an influence. Part of this discussion came from my saying that I an a fan of Evola's esoteric ideas as they apply to magickal practice, but not his sociopolitical ideas, even though they were influenced by his magickal ideas. To use another example, Anton Lavey was influenced by Rand, but certainly was not a complete materialist.
Steve Bannon is since 2016 the leading digital influence for one side of the national political divide. I am quite impressed with his wizardry, I think he is the real deal.
Possible, given his Traditionalist influence, but also remember he's Catholic.
But one thing I can say about Steve is that he makes a lot more money than you And a whole lot more people give his opinions the time of day, compared to you, so he must be better at this than you are and that is something Thelemites do not argue about.
Do we take money and influence as automatic conveyors of merit?
But one thing I can say about Steve is that he makes a lot more money than youAnd a whole lot more people give his opinions the time of day, compared to you, so he must be better at this than you are and that is something Thelemites do not argue about.
Do we take money and influence as automatic conveyors of merit?
First, ad hominem attacks usually signal the end of a good discussion, used when we run out of logic to attack a person's position, and I know that's not the intention here. Since we don't know how successful Katrice is in her chosen field, we have no basis to make the assertion that she isn't as successful as Bannon, right? It would be hard to compare the world's best political operative to the world's best artist to the world's best surgeon... but they are ALL efficient magi. We are all magi to the extent that we are able to effect change according to our will. Unfortunately, too many of us get mixed up in what "will" is... and then we seek external approval and validation to 'help us' figure it out. This signals our descent into slavery.
Bannon is a hugely successful mage, despite how we feel about his personal politics. So is Hillary!
Second, "Do we take money and influence as automatic conveyors of merit?"
No, but they _do_ convery power, if their possessor know's how to weild it! We could hand a loaded gun to a kid, and in that moment they have a lot of "power" in their hands, but they may not know how to weild it. So I believe the real question is related to flow. Let me try to flesh out my position:
For years, I felt like "balance" meant a static thing... get to the top of the mountain... and rest. Libra style 'static balance'. (This is where I got that expression 'arresting the flux'.) But handing that gun to a kid is like dropping them off at the top of the mountain. They won't survive. Another anology, if a Kennedy (JFK/RFK family) becomes a lawyer, gets a job through a family connection at a medium law firm, are they successful? Not really. If a Kennedy becomes a congress-person, then maybe they're putting a little magick into their success. If they become the next president, then they're a real mage... so isn't success more about "increase"? (This "increase" can be internal or external, of course). Back to balance, here's what I realized: balance isn't a libra style - balance beam in life. Life is more like a bike.... and that's what we're trying to balance. What has everyone learned about balancing on a bike??? that you need 'to go' to balance this "bike" we're all riding on in life!!! Isn't this the fifth power???
If we judge him (Evola) on this scale, he was a successful mage. (We can still 'judge' his politics as morally wrong if we want to, but isn't moral judgement an attempt to "arrest the flux"?)
If we judge him (Evola) on this scale, he was a successful mage. (We can still 'judge' his politics as morally wrong if we want to, but isn't moral judgement an attempt to "arrest the flux"?
This is an interesting point: most discussions of Evola seems to be concerned with his political output. I have read all political works of the man available in English and German, and to be honest, I think they're pretty boring and inconsequential.
His esoteric / occult writings on the other hand are of a truly exceptional quality. It seems to me that these writings of his are comparable - in quality! - only to Crowley. The question of interest to my mind is therefore: how far do Thelema and Traditionalism overlap and harmonise?
Markus
Possible, given his Traditionalist influence, but also remember he's Catholic.
I am going to make a highly speculative statement, based on observation coupled with keen interest following the national "conversation" as it sways to and fro.
Evola's "tradition" has a silent anxiety attached to it. What happens when one generation fails to pass off "the tradition" of their ancestors and lineage to the new generation?
Enter Bannon, broadcasting that anxiety. It really is Bannon's core idea. The anxiety is pure Evola. It is a way to view history and his historical view is rather faulty in my estimation, the anxiety always requires a "strong arm" to come clean up, control.
This "tradition" as interpreted by Bannon contains the (magical) formula of "sacrifice" (Judeo-Christian).
The baby boomers, trained by the "left", failed to adopt "the sacrifice" and became the selfish generation, doing what they wilting to do instead of their forefathers during WW2.
And in some ways, he ain't wrong. Interesting how the baby boomers emerged from an occult inspired underground in the 60's with the freaky hippies, became the me generation hating Nixon, then became the yuppies welcoming Reagan, adopting Clinton, to being fearful of WMD in Iraq like some call back to cold war fears of nuclear destruction, and the generation has now reached peak selfishness with Trump.
One generation going through one complete dialectical swing from one end of the occult underground to the other, but really doing the same thing in every decade, just under different contexts.
Historically speaking, Crowley and Evola are opposites, similar seeds yet for different kinds of minds at different stages, perhaps.
Open question:
Why would Evola go on to seed (appeal) to the far right of the human psychological political mind and not Crowley?
Why would Crowley seed (appeal) to the far left of the human psychological mind culturally and not Evola?
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
Do we take money and influence as automatic conveyors of merit?
..said the mother to her 10 year old son.
It's about right that various wayward posters here would admire an anti-abortionist political- pirate demagogue like Bannon. Demagoguery is the antithesis of Thelema. This thread has noting to do with Crowley, I would've locked it a while ago.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
First, ad hominem attacks usually signal the end of a good discussion, used when we run out of logic to attack a person's position, and I know that's not the intention here. Since we don't know how successful Katrice is in her chosen field, we have no basis to make the assertion that she isn't as successful as Bannon, right?
Thank you.
That comment was addressed to Chuck, but, for the record, in those terms I am definitely not as successful as Bannon. To me, money and influence are merely tools for further advancement towards my goals, not ends.
Unfortunately, too many of us get mixed up in what "will" is... and then we seek external approval and validation to 'help us' figure it out. This signals our descent into slavery.
Agreed, Will unto itself is not other-dependent.
No, but they _do_ convery power, if their possessor know's how to weild it! We could hand a loaded gun to a kid, and in that moment they have a lot of "power" in their hands, but they may not know how to weild it
True. If we use money and influence as indicators of merit unto themselves, people who are "famous for being famous" would be revered as being on the level of figures like Marcus Aurelius.
For years, I felt like "balance" meant a static thing... get to the top of the mountain... and rest. Libra style 'static balance'. (This is where I got that expression 'arresting the flux'.).
The ideal balance is dynamic, static balance is just...stasis. Not getting anywhere.
so isn't success more about "increase"? (This "increase" can be internal or external, of course).
increase, growth, becoming.
If we judge him (Evola) on this scale, he was a successful mage. (We can still 'judge' his politics as morally wrong if we want to, but isn't moral judgement an attempt to "arrest the flux"?)
I make one little comment about not liking his politics, after expressing my admiration for his magickal writings , and the thread gets derailed in to politics. 😐
This is an interesting point: most discussions of Evola seems to be concerned with his political output. I have read all political works of the man available in English and German, and to be honest, I think they're pretty boring and inconsequential.
His esoteric / occult writings on the other hand are of a truly exceptional quality. It seems to me that these writings of his are comparable - in quality! - only to Crowley. The question of interest to my mind is therefore: how far do Thelema and Traditionalism overlap and harmonise?
Thank you for helping to get this thread back on track.
In terms of esoteric works, I'd recommend Evola's writings any anyone interested in Initiatory Work. I do agree that his writings in that area are comparable in quality to Crowley's. Evola doesn't have the focus on Kabbalah, Masonry, or Rosicrucianism from the Golden-Dawn influences but his focus on Hermeticism and Yoga make his ideas compatible and I think that they make a valuable complement to any Western based system.
In my own opinion.
It's about right that various wayward posters here would admire an anti-abortionist political- pirate demagogue like Bannon. Demagoguery is the antithesis of Thelema.
For the record, I am not one of those admirers.
This thread has noting to do with Crowley, I would've locked it a while ago.
It started out as related to Crowley, and is hopefully now getting redirected to intersections between Evola and Crowley, but it got derailed because of a careless comment of mine, for which I am sorry.
Evola's "tradition" has a silent anxiety attached to it. What happens when one generation fails to pass off "the tradition" of their ancestors and lineage to the new generation?
A lot of that anxiety comes from fear of change, with accompanying longing for a past golden age and never really existed in the objective world. Ultimately, a desire for a perfectly ordered and structured unchanging society where everything is ordered by an idealized higher power.
Crowley, while he had similar views to Evola's in some areas, but he focused on change, and the future, a whole new aeon rather than a return to a previous aeon. Crowley rebelled against the old Aeon and welcomed the new, on both the inner and outer levels.
his historical view is rather faulty in my estimation
I'd classify a lot of Evola's ideas on history as "mythic",rather than based in objective, documented history.
For the record, I am not one of those admirers.
Yes I know.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
It started out as related to Crowley, and is hopefully now getting redirected to intersections between Evola and Crowley, but it got derailed because of a careless comment of mine, for which I am sorry.
But this convo, "derailed" into politics and Evola, is related to Crowley, no? Politics is, in my opinion, our true psychological natures as they play out in society through history. Politics is dualism. Crowley made a prediction how this would play out (Horus into Maat). Evola is influential at this moment in history along with Bannon. Strange occult themes overlay mainstream news. Chaos magick is practiced by political movements (KEK) on the right wing of politics.
Where else does the occult play out other than in our politics?
For me, I know I would love to understand better the thinking behind those that endorse that particular "stream", within Thelema or any occult society. And by that particular stream I of course mean right wing to extreme right wing movements.
So thank you for stimulating the conversation 🙂
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
@david-dom-lemieux Crowley was on the record against abortion. I am unsure about Evola but I am sure he was too. After a complete review of the process, industry, and motivations of the people in support of it I am as well. Not sorry about that in the least.
In Prophetes Veritas Venit. Quod ambulas cum Thelema et Agape est semper fidelis pietas.
@david-dom-lemieux Crowley was on the record against abortion. I am unsure about Evola but I am sure he was too. After a complete review of the process, industry, and motivations of the people in support of it I am as well. Not sorry about that in the least.
Yes I know that he was and I disagree as I disagree with him on a few other dumb opinions he had. I'm open to debate but I tend to think that anti-abortionism is a dogma-driven Old Aeon insidious form of control which puts women (individual Stars) in their place. To be rigidly against it is to be a case. Now i have my right-wing moments here and there and I have my 'leftist' moments and I think abortion should be an option. If you and Crowley were/are worried that the reincarnating souls (waiting in the astral realm to align with a zygot) are going to be delayed a little longer then fear not there'll be plenty more opportunities for them to return to Malkuth.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Crowley was on the record against abortion.
My understanding was the time, abortion was illegal already–and it was something that was forced upon women, and that was what Crowley was responding to. Since it is the "true will" of a woman to have a child, forcing her to have an abortion was what was protested.
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
After a complete review of the process, industry, and motivations of the people in support of it I am as well. Not sorry about that in the least.
Sorry for the double post.
@runelogix - would you mind if I ask if your work within Thelema or the occult led you to that conclusion, or is it just a response to the environment? Sincere question.
I mean, it is a fascinating discussion, how does work within the occult, perennial tradition form our political views?
Not that anyone asked, but I do not like to view myself as having a political identity. I tend to vote for whomever scares me the least. Honestly I don't think the terms liberal, conservative, left wing or right wing have any meaning in today's age.
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
After a complete review of the process, industry, and motivations of the people in support of it I am as well. Not sorry about that in the least.
Sorry for the double post.
@runelogix - would you mind if I ask if your work within Thelema or the occult led you to that conclusion, or is it just a response to the environment? Sincere question.
No I have seen videos and pictures of abortions, I have reviewed the economics of the industry that promotes it, I have seen firsthand the sad and terrible impact it has had on women who had abortions, and I examine the motivations of the doctors, lawmakers, and the political groups that promote it. There are plenty of ways to prevent an unwanted pregnancy that do not involve decapitating a baby and sucking its brains and organs into a platter and selling the parts to third parties. Anyone that can view piles of baby remains harvested in this fashion without becoming sick is a monster and I will forever be opposed to anti-life agendas. I am not going to discuss the matter further no matter how many times you ask.
I mean, it is a fascinating discussion, how does work within the occult, perennial tradition form our political views?
None of those things interest me on the Aleister Crowley Society forum.
In Prophetes Veritas Venit. Quod ambulas cum Thelema et Agape est semper fidelis pietas.
Oh of course, but it is still a view of history. Most views of history are mythic. I believe Evola called this "magical idealism". Mythic or objective, history is a story, with arcs, tension, and resolution. Not all history myths have a resolution, for some the resolution happened in the past, and the present is just a struggle to get the future back to the past.
I mean, it is a fascinating discussion, how does work within the occult, perennial tradition form our political views?
None of those things interest me on the Aleister Crowley Society forum.
Okay, fair enough, however I do see you pepper your posts with little drips and drops of your worldview, so I thought you may enjoy a thoughtful exchange on the matter.
Politics is just psychology, specifically dualistic psychology. Abortion has nothing to do with politics, unless a clever mage out there has tricked you otherwise.
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
Oh of course, but it is still a view of history. Most views of history are mythic. I believe Evola called this "magical idealism". Mythic or objective, history is a story, with arcs, tension, and resolution.
It is true that all history is mythic to some extent or another, it's all a story, subject to revisions of varying degrees of truthfulness.
But some histories are more mythic than others, some less rooted in verified fact. This doesn't make it any less valuable, though. If the story inspires you, then it has value, just like how a vision of the future can inspire you.
Not all history myths have a resolution, for some the resolution happened in the past, and the present is just a struggle to get the future back to the past.
Which is Traditionalism's view,trying to get back to a past which may not have really existed, wanting to make the old story real, though many Traditionalists seem pessimistic about the chances of that happening. By its own admission, Traditionalism does not see progress as beneficial, and actually opposes the idea.
By its own admission, Traditionalism does not see progress as beneficial, and actually opposes the idea.
I tend to enjoy the lady's view 🙂
Which lends some weight to the idea that politics is just psychology, and perhaps why we find a Crowley on one side of a culture and Evola on the other, why most societies develop a political structure with a progressive wing and a conservative wing. Some minds are just wired to preserve the past, while other psychologies are wired to tear down the past, and build something new. These two opposing psychological forces are the "whole system" of politics as well as a whole system of psychology.
"If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson
By its own admission, Traditionalism does not see progress as beneficial, and actually opposes the idea.
I tend to enjoy the lady's view 🙂
Which lends some weight to the idea that politics is just psychology, and perhaps why we find a Crowley on one side of a culture and Evola on the other, why most societies develop a political structure with a progressive wing and a conservative wing. Some minds are just wired to preserve the past, while other psychologies are wired to tear down the past, and build something new. These two opposing psychological forces are the "whole system" of politics as well as a whole system of psychology.
Though ideally those who want to tear down the past and build something new don't just want to tear down all of the past for its own sake. I think a perfect situation would still take the best parts of the past and bring them in to the future in a new, updated form relevant to the new world. Even Crowley brought the Golden Dawn's system and Yoga with him as part of the initiatory system of the new aeon.