To the 1st Battaglione Carabinieri Paracadutisti "Tuscania": Caesarem Vehis! Contents Cover Image Title Page Dedication Translator's Preface Foreword A Short Introduction to Julius Evola Part One: The World of Tradition Chapter 1. The Beginning Chapter 2. Regality Chapter 3. Polar Symbolism; the Lord of Peace and Justice Chapter 4. The Law, the State, the Empire Chapter 5. The Mystery of the Rite Chapter 6. On the Primordial Nature of the Patriciate Chapter 7. Spiritual Virility Chapter 8. The Two Paths in the Afterlife Chapter 9. Life and Death of Civilizations Chapter 10. Initiation and Consecration Chapter 11. On the Hierarchical Relationship Between Royalty and Priesthood Chapter 12. Universality and Centralism Chapter 13. The Soul of Chivalry Chapter 14. The Doctrine of the Castes Chapter 15. Professional Associations and the Arts; Slavery Chapter 16. Bipartition of the Traditional Spirit; Asceticism Chapter 17. The Greater and the Lesser Holy War Chapter 18. Games and Victory Chapter 19. Space, Time, the Earth Chapter 20. Man and Woman Chapter 21. The Decline of Superior Races Part Two: Genesis and Face of the Modern World Introduction Chapter 22. The Doctrine of the Four Ages Chapter 23. The Golden Age Chapter 24. The Pole and the Hyperborean Region Chapter 25. The Northern-Atlantic Cycle Chapter 26. North and South Chapter 27. The Civilization of the Mother Chapter 28: The Cycles of Decadence and the Heroic Cycle Chapter 29. Tradition and Antitradition Chapter 30. The Heroic-Uranian Western Cycle Chapter 31. Syncope of the Western Tradition Chapter 32. The Revival of the Empire and the Ghibelline Middle Ages Chapter 33. Decline of the Medieval World and the Birth of Nations Chapter 34. Unrealism and Individualism Chapter 35. The Regression of the Castes Chapter 36. Nationalism and Collectivism Chapter 37. The End of the Cycle Conclusion Appendix: On the Dark Age Footnotes Other Books by Julius Evola About the Author About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company Books of Related Interest Copyright & Permissions Index A Short Introduction to Julius Evola 1 H. T. Hansen J ulius Evola (1898–1974) is still relatively unknown to the English-speaking world, even in the traditional circles surrounding René Guénon, of whom he was his leading Italian representative. The major reason for this is that until recently little of Evola's work had been translated into English. This situation is being remedied by Ehud Sperling, president of Inner Traditions International. In addition to Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex published in 1983, Inner Traditions has also brought out two of Evola's most important books, The Yoga of Power, on Tantrism, and The Hermetic Tradition, on alchemy. Following Revolt Against the Modern World, Inner Traditions will also republish Evola's masterful work on Buddhist asceticism, The Doctrine of Awakening.2 Evola received some recent attention in Gnosis magazine, where Robin Waterfield attempted to present a well-balanced view of him, which drew immediate protest.3 Evola's known sympathies for Italian Fascism and National Socialism, to which we will return in this article, were recalled. There is also Richard H. Drake's essay "Julius Evola and the Ideological Origins of the Radical Right in Contemporary Italy," which contributed a great deal to Evola's negative image in the English-speaking world, and Thomas Sheehan's "Myth and Violence: The Fascism of Julius Evola and Alain de Benoist."4 That Evola, on the other hand, had been from his youth in constant personal contact and correspondence with Mircea Eliade and the famous Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci, is less well known. But who actually was Julius Evola? His career was many-sided: As a philosopher he belongs among the leading representatives of Italian Idealism; as a painter and poet he is counted as one of the founders of Italian Dadaism; as a cultural historian and critic of our times, in addition to his Revolt Against the Modern World, he also translated Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West, as well as Bachofen, Weininger, and Gabriel Marcel; as a patron of literature he was the publisher and translator of Ernst Jünger and Gustav Meyrink, whom he introduced into Italy; to some he might appear as an éminence grise in politics, for Mussolini apparently wanted to implement some of Evola's ideas to create more freedom from the restrictions of National Socialism, and today, as then, right-and even some left-wing groups adopt him against his intentions; his important activities in the UR Group and many of his books testify to his understanding of alchemy and magic, and it is reported that Mussolini stood in considerable awe of Evola's "magical powers." Ultimately, no definite answer to the question of who he was can readily be given, for Evola was apparently (to others) all of these things and yet (to himself) none of them. He saw himself as a member of the kṣatriya or "warrior" class, who goes his way heedless of the praise or blame of others while simply wanting to do "what must be done, without thinking of success or failure." Only one thing was of primary importance: the "Above." For him transcendence was the be-all and end-all. From above derived all reasons for what happens below, and everything below must in turn be aligned to the above. Every thought and thing had to be judged as to whether it led upward. Only this resolute striving for the true foundation of all things can explain Evola's many nearly incomprehensible judgments and outlooks. His first aim was to turn toward transcendence and be liberated from Earth. Hence his constant attacks on "chthonic" religions, because they are terrestrial cults and not celestial religions. In these terrestrial cults, the Earth is the "Great Mother" and she alone has priority since she gives protection and help. Heaven, which in practically all cultures is regarded as male because it makes the womb of the earth fertile through the sun and rain, is therefore in those cults nearly insignificant beside her. And if one worships the earth, striving upward for heavenly transcendence is of no avail. Evola's path, however, is neither a search for consolation nor an abandonment of the self to the mother goddess with its consequent loss of the self. For Evola the earthly is not the path that leads to active liberation, to "awakening." On the contrary, it strengthens the "sleep" in which one gropes to return to the mother's womb. Evola values only the continuum of consciousness, the enduring presence, and the awakening of the thousand eyes as the essentials for achieving liberation. What Joscelyn Godwin wrote about René Guénon is also true of Evola's esoteric work: