JuliusEvola.NET

Main views in his own words

excerpts (4)
on Transcendence

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JuliusEvola.NET

Absolute Life & Absolute Actions:
the Path of the Other
& the Path of the Absolute Individual

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Absolute Life & Absolute Actions: the Path of the Other
& the Path of the Absolute Individual(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] 'Just as fire can affirm the will of fuel to live and blaze, so the "I" which wishes to be sovereign unto itself has the power to absorb its own non-being as the matter from which, alone, the splendor of an absolute life and of absolute actions might spring forth.' In philosophical terms, such an approach left two paths open: the 'path of the other' and 'the path of the Absolute Individual'. [...] In Buddhism, the 'path of the other' (which I also termed 'the path of the object’) corresponds to samsāra, the inferior world of becoming, which arises from thirst and greed; in the ancient Mysteries, this path corresponds to the 'cycle of generation' or necessity. The opposite path is described as the path of the Awakened or Liberated in Buddhism, and as the path of the consecrated in the ancient Mysteries.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Action & Spiritual ‘Experimentation’
- Black, White & Red -
the Regal, Active & Virile Path of Tradition

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Action & Spiritual ‘Experimentation’:
- Black, White & Red -
the Regal, Active & Virile Path of Tradition(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] The full title of my book was The Doctrine, Symbols and Regal Art of the Hermetic Tradition (La tradizione ermetica nella sua dottrina, nei suoi simboli e nella sua Arte Regia). What I chiefly focused on was alchemical Hermetica. These texts consist of those works of mythical origin which are first recorded in the Hellenistic period in Greek and Syriac form. This tradition was later continued by the Arabs, from whose hands it reached the European West, where it flourished in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, up to the dawn of modern scientific chemistry.From an external point of view, all the texts of this ancient doctrine discuss chemical and metallurgic operations - particularly the production of gold, of the philosophers' stone and of the elixir of wisdom. The practical and operative side of this discipline was termed the hieratic or regal art; it was expressed by means of both a coded and symbolic language that sounded obscure to profane ears, and of the myths of Classical Antiquity. Naturally enough, modern culture interpreted alchemy as an infantile, superstitious and myth-loving sort of chemistry - something of interest to the historian of science, but which had certainly been rendered obsolete by the advent of scientific chemistry. A similar analysis, however, ignores what Hermetic authors have always made clear: that their writings are not to be taken literally, for they are written in a secret language. Hermetic authors claimed to be writing only for themselves and for those who already know, as their secret doctrine can exclusively be learned from a Master or by means of sudden enlightenment. Moreover, it is also evident that the basic worldview shared by Hermetic authors - their understanding of nature and of man - radically differs from that of modern science; and that it rather coincides with the worldview of Gnosticism, theurgy, magic, and of all ancient hieratic doctrines. In other words, it is clear that alchemy pertains to an altogether different spiritual realm from that of ordinary chemistry.I sought to pursue a systematic study of the Hermetic and alchemical tradition in order to emphasize its true essence as an initiatory science concealed by the use of chemical and metallurgic language. In my work, I pointed out that the substances mentioned in alchemical texts are actually symbols embodying the energies and forces present in man and nature (nature which is here approached sub specie interioritatis, in its hyper-physical aspects). The various alchemical operations are essentially concerned with the initiatory transformation of the human being. Alchemical 'gold' is a metaphor for the immortal and invulnerable being, here conceived in terms of the aforementioned theory of conditioned immortality, which is to say: not as a given, but rather as something which is to be obtained by means of a secret procedure. On the whole, alchemy is founded on a specific cosmology and a symbolic operative system.What I have just said applies to the most genuine and essential side of the alchemical tradition, stripped of its dross and of secondary or accessory components. The 'dross' of alchemy consists of the speculations and endeavors of those individuals who have mistakenly taken alchemical symbolism literally, and have performed all sorts of material tasks and disorderly experiments - which can indeed be described as infantile and pre-scientific attempts at chemistry. The true 'sons of Hermes', however, dubbed such people 'coal-burners', to signify that they were nothing but profane practitioners who might lead the true science of alchemy to its ruin.As for the secondary or accessory components of alchemy, these consist in the possibility of actually changing matter: for instance, by transforming metals, but by very different means from those of modern science - by means, that is, of altering matter 'from within', thanks to supra-normal abilities closely related to the internal self-transformation of the initiate (this being the chief purpose of the alchemical art).In the light of these aims of the regal art, any 'psychological' and psychoanalytic interpretation of alchemy, of the kind which has recently been suggested, clearly appears inadequate. Alchemy has nothing to do with the products of the subconscious, with images of libido or with the involuntary and compulsive manifestation of Jungian 'archetypes' on the unreal and subjective level of the human psyche. Rather, alchemical processes are concrete operations possessing genuine power and deriving from specific forms of knowledge. An emphasis on these features of alchemy is what informed my own treatment of the subject.The purpose of my book, however, was not only to provide an interpretation of alchemical Hermeticism from an initiatory perspective, but also to focus on alchemy as the embodiment of one of the two chief paths of Tradition: the regal, active and virile path - the other being the priestly, or ascetic and contemplative, path. Alchemical Hermeticism certainly placed an emphasis on the practical and operative side of the Art, and hence on action and spiritual 'experimentation'. The very name most frequently given to alchemy is revealing in this sense: alchemy is the ars regia, the regal art. But more revealing still are the stages of alchemical self-realization. According to all texts, the alchemical Great Work consists of three main phases, symbolized by three different colors: black, white and red, which correspond to the phases of nigredo, albedo and rubedo respectively. Nigredo, also known as the 'blackening', roughly corresponds to the death of the physical 'I', and to the transcendence of the limits of ordinary individuality. Albedo, or the 'whitening', represents the ecstatic opening experienced by the initiate, his experience of light, but merely in a passive manner - which is why this phase is also known as the rule of the Woman or of the Moon. Albedo is then transcended when one reaches the final and most perfect stage in the alchemical process: rubedo or the 'reddening', which consists of the reaffirmation of the virile, sovereign nature - so that the Woman is overcome by the rule of Fire and of the Sun. Some Hermetic authors explicitly link the color red to regal or imperial purple.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Ariyan Ascesis & Zen
share Similar Preparation to
“Reflect in Yourself & Recognize your own Face
as it was Before the World”

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Ariyan Ascesis & Zen
share Similar Preparation to
“Reflect in Yourself & Recognize your own Face
as it was Before the World”(from "The Doctrine of Awakening")[…] A Zen formula, which in some ways sums up its doctrine, is: "Reflect in yourself and recognize your own face as it was before the world" (Huei-neng).
Together with the message of the inanimate, there is a manner in which signs, gestures, and symbols take the place of words. We have already mentioned the master of Zen who, before the assembly of monks collected to hear his discourse, confined himself to stretching his arms. Another simply raises his finger. Another presents a stick. It is said that Mahākassapa was chosen by the Buddha for the transmission of the esoteric doctrine in similar circumstances: the Buddha, in the midst of his disciples, had raised a bunch of flowers into the air; only Mahākassapa among those present had smiled and inclined his head in assent. Words limit. A sign can, however, at a suitable time, cause moments of illumination.From these antecedents, it is not difficult to understand that Zen insists above all on a spiritual awakening, or change of inner state, that is sudden and discontinuous. The opening of the third eye, satori, illumination, is a condition that happens suddenly, destroying all that has gone before, appearing to be without origin, without "becoming." The theme of the Vajracchedikā is echoed in Zen: the Tathāgata is so called because he does not come from anywhere and does not go anywhere. "When he appears, he comes from nowhere, and when he disappears, he goes nowhere - and this is Zen." And again: "Where there really is a coming in or a going out, there great contemplation is not. Zen, [the contemplative state, the state of illumination-awakening] in its essence, is without birth.”At one period, nevertheless, Zen became divided into two different schools: that of the south (yuga-pad) which lays greater emphasis on the discontinuity of the awakening: and that of the north (krama-vrittya) which, instead, allows of a certain gradualness. But both agree that it is essential, at a particular moment, to know how to "jump out of the 'I'," how to "vomit forth the 'I." This may be brought about also by violent sensations, even by a physical pain, by something, according to a Chinese saying, that "twists the bowels nine times and more." We have already told of the episode of the broken arm; and there are many like it. It seems that, in some places at the present time, an operation not unlike strangulation is carried out, by means of which the disciple, who is suitably prepared, is forced forward toward a void into which he cannot but jump.As for preparation, the methods of Zen do not differ essentially from what we have already described as Ariyan ascesis.First, make oneself master of external objects by substituting a condition of activity for the usual one of passivity. Realize that wherever a desire pushes a man toward a thing, it is not he who has the thing, but the thing that has him. "He who takes a liquor believes that he drinks it; whereas it is the liquor that drinks him." Detach oneself. Discover and love the active principle in oneself.Second is mastery of the body. Establish one's own authority over the entire organism. "Imagine that your body is separate from you: if it shouts, make it be silent, as a severe father does his child. If it shows temper, hold it in, as one does a curbed horse. If it is ill, administer to it what is necessary, as a doctor to his patient. If it disobeys, chastise it, as the master chastises the turbulent pupil." Temper oneself physically. Establish with oneself a "trial of endurance" by accustoming oneself, for example, to undergoing freezing cold in winter and in summer a torrid heat. And so on.Third is the control of mental and emotive life in order to promote and consolidate a state of equilibrium. There is the appeal to one's inner nobility: "It is ridiculous” - it is said in Zen - “that a being endowed with the nature of a Buddha, born to be master of every material reality, should be enslaved by little cares or frightened by phantasms that he himself has created, should let his mind he swayed by passions or dissipate his vital energy in irrelevant things.” Anxieties, recriminations, or nostalgias for the past, imaginings or anticipations for the future, enmity, shame, and disturbance, all these must be put aside. One may help oneself, eventually, by means of the "idealistic" theory (cf. p.223) - which may help one to realize the irrationality of so many of the mind's impulses, and to regaining power over one's heart. Furthermore, one must simplify oneself, one must resolutely cut down the parasitical overgrowth of vain and muddled thoughts. To the question: "How shall I learn the law?" a Zen master, Poh Chang, replied: "Eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired." Calm and equilibrium - the samatha that we have frequently mentioned - must become a habit. Here is an anecdote: When commanding an army in battle, even in his headquarters, O-yo-mei would discuss Zen doctrines. He was informed, on one occasion, that his advanced troops had been defeated; he calmly continued his discourse. Shortly after, he was told that, in the later developments of the battle he had become the victor. The commander remained as calm as before, and did not, even then, change his discourse. This is how one gradually apprehends the existence of a principle that cannot be altered by doubt or fear any more than the light of the sun can be destroyed by fog or clouds.Fourth: When we come to the aforesaid "throwing out of the mind" or "of the 'I';" we find that we are here faced with some sort of discontinuity, for which there is no means of preparing, because it is an actual change of state. To one who was astonished at the saying, that the world enters into the mind, a Zen master replied saying that the difficulty consists, rather, in making the mind enter into the world. It is a matter of the breaking of the shell constituted by the mind, of which a Mahāyāna text we have already quoted, speaks; only then does one have the intuition that nirvāna, when understood as one term of an opposition, is itself an illusion, a bond, the object of an imperfect knowledge.Zen uses a twofold symbolism for the structure of its discipline: that of the "five degrees of merit" and that of the vicissitudes of the man and the bull.The "first degree of merit" corresponds to the “conversion" - similar to pabbajjā,
the "departure" of the ancient Buddhist teaching: a man turns from the outer world toward the inner world. The illuminated, extrasamsāric "I" is here portrayed as a king to whom one declares allegiance. The second degree of merit is “service" - that is to say, faithfulness and loyalty to this inner sovereign. The third degree is "valor," what one must show when confronting and combating all opposition to the king. Then there is the "merit of him who cooperates," due to one who is not simply good at defense and fighting, but who is admitted to the positive government of the state. The final degree of merit: "beyond merit" or "merit that is not merit" (an expression to be understood in the same sense as "acting without acting") is the degree of the king himself, whose nature one assumes. Here action ceases or, if you prefer, action is manifested in the form of nonaction, of spontaneity. The being and the law are here identical.And now the second Zen symbolism, made up of ten well-known illustrations corresponding to ten episodes in the adventures of a drover and a bull. The mind - represented in the preceding allegory, by the king - or rather, "illumination," the bodhi element, is conceived as a precious stone, always fresh and pure, even when buried in dust. It has to be found as the drover seeks a bull. The first figure is, in fact, uncertain search. The second is hope: the animal has not yet been seen, but its tracks have been sighted. Third: the bull is seen in the distance, and a cautious advance toward it is made. Fourth: the animal is suddenly seized, and it tries in vain to escape. Fifth: the animal is tamed, mastered, and fed, so that finally it follows the drover as if it were his shadow. Sixth: the drover is carried home by this animal that serves him as a mount. Seventh: "the forgetting of the animal and the remembering of the man." Eighth: "the forgetting both of the bull and of the man” - the corresponding figure gives only a large empty circle: we are at the point of overcoming all dualism in the "void," in liberated consciousness. Ninth: return to the origins and to the source - we remember the Zen saying: "rediscover your own face as it was before the world." Last figure: going into the town with the hands open; this phase should be compared with that in which, once again, "mountains are mountains and waters, waters." It is the point at which transcendency becomes the clarity of an immanence that is free from the stain of the "I"; it is the state in which there is nothing that comes or goes, that enters or leaves. As a corollary of this, some Zen masters have declared that self-application and self- concentration and the seeking of solitary and silent places belong to the heterodox teachings. "Do not be attached to anything whatsoever: if you understand this, walking or standing, sitting or lying, you will never cease to be in the state of Zen, in the state of contemplation and of illumination.”The Zen masters teach that the blessed order of the ancient Ariya, seated round Prince Siddhattha, is even now gathered at the Vulture's Peak, that is to say, at the symbolical place where, in the Mahāyana texts, the Awakened One is supposed most frequently to have spoken and that expresses the traditional idea of the "center," the "center of the world."JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Army Membership as First Step
towards Higher Order of
True Traditional Spirituality

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Army Membership as First Step
towards Higher Order of
True Traditional Spirituality(from “Metaphysics of War”)[...]
Thus the vision of one's life as membership within an army gives shape to an ethic of its own and to a precise inner attitude which arouses deep forces. On this basis, to seek membership in an actual army, with its disciplines and its readiness for absolute action on the plane of material struggle, is the right direction and the path which must be followed. It is necessary first to feel oneself to be a soldier in spirit and to render one's sensibility in accordance with that in order to be able subsequently to do this also in a material sense, and to avoid the dangers which, in the sense of a materialistic hardening and overemphasis on the purely physical, can otherwise come from militarization on the external plane alone: whereas, given this preparation, any external form can easily become the symbol and instrument of properly spiritual meanings.A Fascist system of ethics, if thought through thoroughly, cannot but be directed along those lines. 'Scorn for the easy life' is the starting point. The further points of reference must still be placed as high as possible, beyond everything which can speak only to feeling and beyond all mere myth.If the two most recent phases of the involutionary process which has led to the modern decline are first, the rise of the bourgeoise, and second, the collectivization not only of the idea of the State, but also of all values and of the conception of ethics itself, then to go beyond all this and to reassert a 'warlike' vision of life in the aforementioned full sense must constitute the precondition for any reconstruction: when the world of the masses and of the materialistic and sentimental middle-classes gives way to a world of 'warriors', the main thing will have been achieved, which makes possible the coming of an even higher order, that of true traditional spirituality.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Aryan Tantrism or
Shakti-Tantras' Olympian Transformation
& the Necessity of a Shiva Nature
to fully go the Left-Hand Path

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Aryan Tantrism or
Shakti-Tantras' Olympian Transformation
& the Necessity of a Shiva Nature
to fully go the Left-Hand Path(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...]A completely revised second edition of Man as Potency was published by Bocca in 1949 under the title of The Yoga of Power (Lo Yoga della potenza). The subtitle of the book was also simplified to 'Essays on the Tantras'.Only in this second edition of the book did I explore the place of the Tantras within Hinduism. The basic themes of these texts are revealing of a substrate of aboriginal traditions and cults which predate the Aryan conquest. The Tantras provide the glimpse of a predominantly 'gynecocratic' civilization, which is to say: a civilization where the essence and sovereign power of the universe is identified with a feminine principle or goddess. On a cultural and mythological level, the goddess possesses both terrible, destructive traits and luminous, beneficent and maternal ones. Clear analogies exist between this figure and the great goddesses which are described in similar myths from the archaic Mediterranean world. Yet, in the symbiosis that followed the Aryan conquest of India, these original myths were transposed on a metaphysical level. With the goddess possessing the essential nature of Shakti - a term that might be translated as 'power' - the doctrine emerged according to which power is the ultimate principle of the universe. This notion provided the foundation for those treatments of Tantrism which captured my attention: those found in the Shakti-Tantras.[...] the Tantras appear far removed from those Vedantist doctrines that interpret the world as an illusion. The Tantras conceive of Shakti as a kind of 'active Brahman' rather than as the pure infinity of conscience. Māyā is here replaced with Māyā-Shakti, i.e., that 'power' which manifests and affirms itself in the form of cosmogonic magic. Besides, according to what might be termed Tantric historiography, the Tantric system conveys those truths and those spiritual paths most adequate in the so-called kali-yuga (or 'dark age'). Because of the profound changes which characterize the kali-yuga, general existential conditions in this age differ from the original conditions on the basis of which the doctrines of the Védas had first been formulated. It is elementary forces which now prevail: man finds himself connected to such forces and unable to retreat; hence, man must face these forces, control them and transform them, if he wishes to find liberation and freedom. The path to this goal can no longer be the purely intellectual path, nor the ascetic-contemplative path, nor the ritual one. Pure knowledge in our day must lead to action: for this reason, Tantrism describes itself as sadhana-shastra: a system based on techniques, and on a concrete effort towards self-realization. According to the Tantric perspective, knowledge must serve as a means towards self-realization and radical self-transformation. One Tantric text explains that: 'Each (doctrinal) system is purely the means to an end: it is useless, if one does not yet know the Goddess (that is to say: if one has yet to unite with Shakti, or power); and it is useless, if one already knows Her.' In another text it is said that: 'It is like a woman to strive to establish superiority by means of discursive arguments; it is like a man to conquer the world with one's own power.' A common analogy is that between Tantrism and medicine: the truth of each doctrine is proven by its fruits, and not by reasoning alone. Clearly, the 'East' in question here is of a very different sort from the stereotypical East that many Westerners have in mind. I was the first writer in Italy to appreciate and make this particular East known: what Sir John Woodroffe did in the English language, I did in Italian.Overall, the Tantras reflect the development of one central component of Eastern metaphysics: an experimentalism that is not confined to empirical experience and sense perception. [...]Tantric literature is both vast and diverse. As I already mentioned, my main interest lay in the Shakti-Tantras, the Tantras of Power (or Shaktt). The so-called 'Left-Hand Path' - that of Kaulas, Siddhas and Viras - combines the aforementioned Tantric worldview with a doctrine of the Übermensch which would put Nietzsche to shame. The East as a whole has generally avoided the fetish of morality: at a higher level, every moral, for Eastern thought, simply represents the means to an end. A classic illustration of this point is the Buddhist portrayal of law as a raft that is built to cross a stream and later discarded. The Vira - which is to say: the 'heroic' man of Tantrism - seeks to sever all bonds, to overcome all duality between good and evil, honor and shame, virtue and guilt. Tantrism is the supreme path of the absolute absence of law - of shvecchacarī, a word meaning 'he whose law is his own will'. [...]Both editions of my book on Tantrism contained two main sections. The first section was entitled 'The Doctrine of Power'. This represented the metaphysical section of the book, where I described the various phases, levels and changes which lead from the highest point - the unconditioned - first to the world of the elements and of nature (here not exclusively considered in its physical aspects), and ultimately to the human condition itself. One of the names given to this process is pravrtti-marga, which is to say: the binding path, the path leading to identification with forms and determinations. This path is then followed by nivrtti-marga: the path of detachment, revulsion, and transcendence, which has man as its starting point. This led me from metaphysics to the issue of practice and yoga.[...]The kind of yoga I specifically discussed was hatha yoga (i.e., 'violent yoga') or kundalini-yoga, which is regarded as being closely connected to Tantrism. Unlike dhyana-yoga or jñana-yoga, kundalinī-yoga is not of a purely contemplative and intellectual character. Although it presupposes an adequate psychical and mental training, kundalinī-yoga takes the body as its starting point and tool - the body not in the form known by Western anatomy and physiology, but in the form which also includes the kind of deep, trans-biological energies which are not usually perceived by ordinary consciousness (particularly in the case of modern man). These forces correspond to those elements and powers of the universe which the thousand-year-old hyperphysical physiology of the East has studied just as systematically as the West has studied human organs. As for the term 'kundalinī-yoga’, it is indicative of a method that employs kundalinī as a means towards de-conditioning and liberation - kundalinī being the 'power', or Shakti, which is present, albeit latently, at the very root of the psycho-physical organism.One of the most significant features of Tantrism is its notion of the unity of bhoga and yoga, which is to say: of enjoyment (i.e., enjoyment of the various experiences and possibilities open to man), and liberation or ascesis. Tantric texts explain that other schools conceive of bhoga and yoga as two mutually exclusive paths (so that he who enjoys material things is not regarded as a liberated soul or ascetic, while he who is a liberated soul or ascetic is thought not to enjoy material things); but the texts add that in Tantrism, this is not the case, for 'according to the path of the Kaulas, enjoyment becomes perfect yoga, and the world itself becomes the place for liberation': for 'without power, liberation is a farce'. Tantrism advocates a paradoxical embracing of the world of life and experience - including its most intense and dangerous sides - but in a detached way. Ultimately, Tantrism is based on the 'transformation of poison into remedy'; i.e., on the use of all powers and experiences ordinarily leading to greater attachment, ruin and perdition, as a means to liberation and enlightenment. It is in this context that Tantrism expresses the ideal of liberation, not as a form of 'escapism', but as concrete and immanent freedom: the very ideal which the West has pursued and promoted in all possible ways, yet only in an intellectual, degraded, materialist and trite way.In the second edition of the book I added much new material. For instance, I explored Vajrayana (Buddhist Tantrism) - a subject which I had overlooked out of ignorance when writing the first edition of the book. In the second edition, I also corrected or elucidated a number of points I had raised: I removed various 'critical' appendages, and further developed certain sections. This was the case with the chapter dealing with Tantric sexual practices, a subject that had been a matter of scandal among Western 'spiritualists', including Madame Blavatsky, who had described Tantrism as 'black magic of the worst kind' (this is, of course, revealing of how little Theosophists - but also Anthroposophists - actually knew about Eastern doctrines). This chapter of the book also contains some of the fundamental ideas that I developed in one of my latest books: The Metaphysics of Sex (Metafisica del sesso).One of the characteristics which distinguishes the first edition of my book on Tantrism from the second is a shift of emphasis away from the notion of 'power'. After all, the use of the term Shakti to describe the highest principle is somewhat misleading. No doubt, Tantric texts frequently refer to Mahã Shakti: the Great or Supreme Power which is the ground of all things. Yet, this highest principle is best described as that which - like Plotinus' One - embraces all possibilities. In accordance with all esoteric doctrine, Hindu metaphysics and mythology generally describe Shakti (power) as the eternal feminine principle which has its counterpart in the eternal masculine principle - symbolized, in Tantrism, by the figure of Shiva. Just as Shakti is dynamic, productive and changing, so Shiva is immobile, luminous, and detached. Just as, in Hindu cosmology, the union of Shiva and Shakti engenders the universe, so the mystery of the inner transformation of the human being and the highest principle of freedom are described as the union, within man, of the two principles - rather than as a self-abandonment to the pure, unrestrained power of Shakti.The practical consequence of this conceptualization of Shakti in Tantrism is the Tantric promotion of an 'Olympian transformation' of the individual, who is to banish all forms of 'titanic', pandemic and chaotically ecstatic deviation. In such a way, Tantrism prevented the adoption of potentially catastrophic approaches: for only in the case of those individuals possessing a Shiva nature does the Left-Hand Path, or Path of the Kaulas, not lead to perdition and regression. Tantric doctrine thus appeared to embody values I had already encountered in the works of Lao Tzu and, even earlier, in my own approach to Dadaism.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

As He's a Man
who is a Man & Not an Animal
the Aristocratic "Olympian" Master of Motion
Has Ascetic Values
- Is Ready for Active Sacrifice

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As He’s a Man
who is a Man & Not an Animal
the Aristocratic “Olympian” Master of Motion
Has Ascetic Values
- Is Ready for Active Sacrifice(from "The Doctrine of Awakening")[…] One who is the cause and effective master of motion does not himself move. He inspires motion and directs action, but he himself does not act, in the sense that he is not transported, he is not involved in action, he is not action, but is, on the other hand, an impassive, utterly calm and imperative superiority, from whom action proceeds and on whom it depends. As opposed to this idea of true and mastered action, which is only thinkable, however, on the basis of purification from the samsāric element, one who acts while identifying himself with his action, impulsively, urged by passion, by desire, by the irrational, by restless need or vulgar interest, such a one does not really act, but is acted upon. However paradoxical it may sound, his is a passive action - he stands under the sign, not of virility, but of femininity. And under the sign of femininity, the whole modem "telluric" and activist world also stands.(3) It is only a lower, anti-aristocratic form of action that predominates here. Otherwise, it actually betrays that half-conscious desire to deafen and distract, that agitation and clamor that reveal dread of the silence, the internal isolation, the absolute being of higher nature, or it becomes a weapon employed in the revolution of man against the eternal that indeed marks the limit of the samsāric "ignorance" and intoxication of fallen beings.3. In reality, all the ancient forms of "telluric" civilizations developed in close connection with feminine and promiscuous cults and with the naturalistic-vital substratum of existence. Cf. J. J. Bachofen. Das Mutterrecht 2nd edn. (Basel, 1897).All this is generally true of asceticism as a whole. More particularly, it is even possible to demonstrate historically that the ancient Oriental Aryan forms of ascesis are also capable of this application. We should not forget that, if the East, whether Indo- European or Asian, has not until now given to a modern man the impression, from certain aspects, of a civilization that is activistically practical, this is due not to a lack of strength, but to the fact of having absorbed its principal energies in the vertical direction that is beyond becoming and history; few of the well-born in these civilizations had, or have even now, much interest in other forms of achievement. But where these achievements, through external circumstance or through the development of special vocations, have acquired a certain power of attraction over the spirit, the East has shown, on the same plane of action, what energy and will can do when they are shaped essentially by the ascetic view of life. Anyone who objects and points out, for example, the more recent political state of India, forgets that this country, quite apart from its original epics, had its own imperial cycle under Candragupta and under Asoka, a sovereign who was profoundly Buddhist. Besides, we know of no Western text in which heroism and warlike action have received a transcendental justification so precise and a transfiguration so high, as in the Bhagavadgītā; while on another level it is well known that of all the troops England gathered in her empire, those provided by India were the best qualified, composed as they were, not of "soldiers," but of warriors by race and vocation. And it was from warrior stock - as we have seen - that Prince Siddhattha himself came.But a better example is offered us by Japan. It has been justly stated that “the Russo-Japanese War, to the great surprise of most of the European world, showed us how the supposed ‘emasculated Oriental immobility’ could purposively and heroically fight, on land and sea, the so-called virile Western mobility. The heroism of the Japanese, educated for a millennium and a half by Buddhist doctrine, has shown unmistakably that Buddhism is not the opiate that everyone previously imagined.” Anyone with the interests of the West at heart should indeed hope that the future will not create a change of mind in the Oriental peoples whereby they are led to apply against the West their enormous spiritual potential; that the power that has been created by a millennial ascetic vision of life, should be directed onto the temporal plane on which most of Europe, having cut itself off from its best traditions, has chosen to concentrate.It was not entirely unintentional that, at the end of this book, we spoke of Zen Buddhism. This particularly esoteric form of the Buddhist doctrine has been the most congenial to the Japanese warrior nobility, and Zen has even been called “the religion of the Samurai.” According to the Japanese point of view, if a man is a man, and not an animal, he can only be a Samurai: courageous, upright, trustworthy, virile, faithful and full of controlled dignity and ready for any active sacrifice. But the precepts of virility, loyalty, courage, control of the mind, instincts, action, and disdain for a soft life and empty luxury - all these are elements of Bushido, the ethics of the Samurai warrior nobility, found in the Zen ascesis, which derived from the Buddhist Doctrine of Awakening their confirmation, integration, and likewise their transcendent basis. It was thus that the Japanese nobleman was capable of a quite special and unconditioned form of heroism: not "tragic" but "Olympian," the heroism of one who can give away his complete life without regrets, with a clear vision of the goal in view and with an entire disregard for his own person, because he is not life and is not person, but already partakes of the superindividual and supertemporal.These are only examples; and we do not wish to give the idea that we are making a defense of the East or of the Far East. Let us repeat: we are dealing here with general views of life, a distinction between East and West does not enter the discussion since the opposition is one of supernational and supercontinental nature. Our own Middle Ages also knew a sacred heroism, and its history likewise shows, in majestic strokes, how a heroic cycle - whenever the corresponding vocation is present - can develop under the influence of an ascetic view of life, even when this view presents deviations, shortcomings, and limitations of considerable importance as happens in the case of Christianism. Either as detachment beyond action, or as detachment in action and for action, there exists a common tradition. We have purposely made considerable use of the term "Olympian" in order to remind those who might forget. From the ancient Mediterranean "Olympian" world, where the opposition between region of being and region of becoming, between the cycle of generation and the superworld corresponds exactly to the Indo-Aryan opposition between samsāra and nirvāna, we derive our highest heritage, that which the modem world has forgotten but which still persisted in some measure among the Germanic and Roman elements of the best of the Middle Ages. The Olympian view of life, to which every true ascetic value is intimately bound, is the highest, most original, and most Aryan of the West. It holds the symbol of all that, in a higher sense, can be called classical and aristocratic.A return to ascetic values can, then, be conceived in two forms and in two degrees. A formation of life newly oriented toward the extrasamsāric and "sidereal" element can, in the first place, teach what real action and mastery are to all those who know only their most obscure and irrational forms. In the second place, ascesis as affirmation of pure transcendency, as detachment, not only in action, but beyond action, toward awakening, can ensure that the immobile is not overturned by the changeable, that forces of centrality, forces of the world of being are set up against forces of becoming. Nor should we think of this second process as though we had to do with the presence of guests of stone at a banquet of the agitated and fanatical. To inspire and establish, even in scattered and unknown beings, extrasamsāric forces, may be an action whose invisible effects, even on the plane of visible and historical reality, are considerably more important than many might imagine. It is Buddhist teaching that the Ariya are able to work from a distance, for the good of many, in the human sphere as well as in the "divine," and these spheres would be harmed by differences among the Ariya. It is Buddhist doctrine that when the Ariya, in their disindividualized consciousness, suffuse the world with the irradiant contemplations, they can liberate forces that go out into it and act invisibly upon distant lands and destinies. We think it possible that should the course of history, in spite of appearances, not deteriorate further, this may perhaps be due, less to the efforts and direct action of groups of men and leaders of men, than to the influences proceeding, through the paths of the spirit, from the secret realizations of a few nameless and remote ascetics, in Tibet or on Mount Athos, among the Zen, or in some Trappist or Carthusian cloister of Europe. To an awakened eye, to an eye capable of seeing with the sight of one on the Further Shore, these same realizations would appear as the only steady lights in the darkness, as the only peaks emerging, calm and sovereign, above the seas of mist down in the valleys.(9) Every true ascetic realization becomes inevitably transformed into a support - an invisible one, but for all that nonetheless real and efficacious - for those who, on the visible plane, resist and struggle against the forces of an obscure age.[…]JULIUS EVOLA9. We may here call to mind the words of the Atharva Veda (12.1.1): "The great truth, the powerful order (rta), the initiation, the ascesis, the rite and the sacrifice sustain the earth.”
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JuliusEvola.NET

Beyond Speculative Thought
and the Need to "Discuss":
Self-Realization, Action & Magic

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Beyond Speculative Thought
and the Need to "Discuss":
Self-Realization, Action & Magic(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] I can confidently claim never to have been ‘fooled' by ‘thought', as happens to those who trust thought, but are unaware of the irrational, existential ground of rationality: who are 'being thought' rather than thinking. [...]In my preface to Theory, I wrote: 'No doubt, mine will seem like a bold claim: what I am suggesting here is that the peak of philosophy is transcendental Idealism, which itself inevitably culminates in Magical Idealism. Beyond Magical Idealism, nothing remains for philosophy - unless, of course, philosophy is to go bankrupt and become the mere expression of personal opinions subject to present contingencies. If a further development beyond Magical Idealism is to be imagined, this will be not a philosophical development, but a kind of action... My duty has been that of leading Western speculative thought towards this further step. I am not suggesting that my work contains all that might be done... But this really is not the point. I believe that my work is enough to allow those who wish to understand to understand. As for all those people who do not wish to understand, were I even to devote the ample time ahead of me to better consolidate and further develop my system, I am sure they would still manage to find things to criticize and refute in my work. The only thing which truly matters is for the need I have pointed out to be addressed; what matters is for individuals to understand the meaning of and the need for the final philosophical step which I have outlined, and to move ahead... I will have the chance, I am sure, to meet again with those people who are truly moving in this direction...’Just as I had previously ended my brief artistic experience, I now brought my strictly philosophical phase to an end. As I had previously abandoned painting, abstract art and the 'alchemy of words', I now set genuinely speculative work aside once and for all. By then, I had fulfilled the impersonal task that I had felt the need to carry out in the field of philosophy.How was my doctrine of the Absolute Individual received at the time? It was largely ignored, as was to be expected in the case of any analysis decisively removed from the beaten track. My work was mostly noted by writers who were not specialists in the field. [...] On the other hand, the mainstream press and official culture was always to turn a deaf ear to my work. But this was to be expected. Aside from amateurish attempts at philosophical essay-writing occasionally appearing in newspapers, philosophy in Italy was a profession: the profession of university professors, with their cliques and factions. In order to make oneself known, it was necessary to belong to that milieu, where works are published only as a means for career advancement, and thought is subordinate to teaching. I, of course, did not belong to such a milieu at all.But would it really have been possible to conceive of a theory of the Absolute Individual entirely removed from the university milieu? In other words, how could I suppose that the mere rigor of some of my deductions might have led some of those petit-bourgeois, those professional men of speculative thought, to abandon their world of ideas and head for unfamiliar adventures? All the extra-philosophical references which abounded in my philosophical system served as a convenient excuse for its ostracism. It was easy to dismiss a system which featured initiation, 'magic' and relics of superstition. The fact that I had presented all these elements in rigorous philosophical terms hardly mattered. On the other hand, I myself was probably mistaken with regard to those individuals whom I thought my speculative endeavors might benefit in practical terms. Mine was a philosophical introduction to a non-philosophical world: as such, it might prove of genuine use only in those rare cases where philosophy had ultimately led to a profound existential crisis. Yet, I should also have considered a fact of which I only later became aware: that philosophical precedents to my work - i.e., the field of discursive, abstract thought - represented the worst means to positively overcome an existential crisis such as this in the way I suggested - which is to say: by embracing disciplines of self-realization. Besides, my philosophical exposition would have proven equally superfluous to those who had already taken such a step. It is for this reason that I actually advised those individuals who continued to follow my work in the period which followed not to read those three philosophical books of mine at all. In the field that I subsequently approached, there was no need to 'prove' or 'deduce' anything, nor even to 'discuss' anything. Rather, it was a matter of either recognizing or not recognizing certain principles and truths on the basis of one's inclinations, one's inborn sensitivity and inner awakening.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Caste of the Few
Illuminated Ascetics
& Lay Followers who took Refuge
in the Doctrine & the Order
United by Strict
yet Free Style of Life

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Caste of the Few
Illuminated Ascetics
& Lay Followers who took Refuge
in the Doctrine & the Order
United by Strict
yet Free Style of Life(from "The Doctrine of Awakening")Since our aim has been to give the original Doctrine of Awakening as it appears from a study of the Pali texts, we have no need to deal in detail with the changes and transformations of Buddhism in later epochs: besides, this would be more in the province of history than in that of doctrine. We shall confine ourselves, then, to a few short notes.We have already said that Buddhism, in its true essence, is of an eminently aristocratic nature. At the beginning, Buddhism was the truth understood by those few, who alone had really achieved illumination and who appeared as bhikkhu or wandering ascetics. Then, around these, the upāsaka, lay followers, collected and increased and who, according to the canonical formula, had taken refuge in the Buddha, the doctrine, and the order. The order, however, did not resemble a church and the doctrine still less a religion. Women were originally excluded. The unity of the order was essentially due to a strict style of life. It was only later, and with a decadence fully recognized as such by the ancient texts, that precepts and rules multiplied.The decadence of Buddhism was inevitable once it began to spread: for the Ariya Doctrine of Awakening is closer than any other to a path of initiation that may be understood and trodden only by the few in whom, together with exceptional strength, there is present a lively aspiration for the unconditioned. And even racial and caste influences played their part: not for nothing have we insisted on the "Aryan" quality of the doctrine under discussion. Frontiers to comprehension exist in the normal way, and they are conditioned by the race of spirit and, in part, by the body itself. As soon as Buddhism was adopted by the masses and not only passed to levels where foreign influences survived or were rearoused, but spread even to peoples of notably different stock, changes and alterations became inevitable.
[…]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Drugs / Alcohol

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Drugs / Alcohol(from “Ride the Tiger”)[...] the "personal equation" and the specific zone on which drugs, here including alcohol, act, lead the individual toward alienation and a passive opening to states that give him the illusion of a higher freedom, an intoxication and an unfamiliar intensity of sensation, but that in reality have a character of dissolution that by no means "takes him beyond." In order to expect a different result from these experiences, he would have to have at his command an exceptional degree of spiritual activity, and his attitude would be the opposite of those who seek and need drugs to escape from tensions, traumatic events, neuroses, and feelings of emptiness and absurdity.I have already pointed out the African polyrhythmic technique: one energy is locked into continuous stasis in order to unleash an energy of a different order. In the inferior ecstaticism of primitive peoples this opens the way for possession by dark powers. I have said that in our case, this different energy should be produced by the response of the "being" (the Self) to the stimulus. The situation created by the reaction to drugs and even alcohol is no different. But this kind of reaction almost never occurs; the reaction to the substance is too strong, rapid, unexpected, and external to be simply experienced, and thus the process cannot involve the "being." It is as if a powerful current penetrated the consciousness without requiring assent, leaving the person to merely notice the change of state: he is submerged in this new state, and "acted on" by it. Thus the true effect, even if not noticed, is a collapse, a lesion of the Self, for all his sense of an exalted life or of a transcendent beatitude or sensuality.For the process to proceed differently, it would go schematically as follows: at the point in which the drug frees energy x in an exterior way, an act of the Self, of "being," brings its own double energy, x + x, into the current and maintains it up to the end. Similarly, a wave, even if unexpected, serves a skilled swimmer with whom it collides by propelling him beyond it. Thus, there would be no collapse, the negative would be transformed into positive, no condition of passivity would be formed with respect to the drug, the experience in a certain way would be de-conditioned, and, as a result, one would not undergo an ecstatic dissolution, devoid of any true opening beyond the individual and only substantiated by sensations. Instead, in certain cases there would be the possibility of coming into contact with a superior dimension of reality, which was the intention of ancient, non-profane drug use. To a certain degree, the harmful effect of drugs would be eliminated.[...]An effective use of these drugs would presuppose a preliminary "catharsis," that is, the proper neutralization of the individual unconscious substratum that is activated; then the images and senses could refer to a spiritual reality of a higher order, rather than being reduced to a subjective, visionary orgy. One should emphasize that the instances of this higher use of drugs were preceded not only by periods of preparation and purification of the subject, but also that the process was properly guided through the contemplation of certain symbols. [...]In general, one must keep in mind that drug use even for a spiritual end, that is, to catch glimpses of transcendence, has its price. How drugs produce certain psychic effects has not yet been determined by modern science. It is said that some, like LSD, destroy certain brain cells. One point is certain: Habitual use of drugs brings a certain psychic disorganization; one should substitute for them the power of attaining analogous states through one's own means. Therefore, when one has chosen a path based on the maximum unification of all one's psychic faculties, these drawbacks must be kept firmly in mind.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Fundamental Difference
Between the “Lunar”
and the Magic, “Solar” Path

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Fundamental Difference
Between the “Lunar”
and the Magic, “Solar” Path(from “The Path of Enlightenment in the Mithraic Mysteries”)[…] In the "lunar" path, or the path of Isis, what matters is to turn oneself into an obedient instrument of higher entities. In the magic, "solar" path, or path of Ammon, the most important action is to retain one's being vis à vis these entities; this, however, is not possible other than by overcoming them. One must wrestle away from them the "quantity" of fate which they carry, in order to take upon oneself their weight and responsibility. […]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Grail Embodies Mystery
of Warrior Initiation

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Grail Embodies Mystery
of Warrior Initiation(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...]The ordinary reader today knows about the Grail thanks only to Richard Wagner's Parsifal, which, in its Romantic approach, really deforms and twists the whole myth. Equally misleading is the attempt to interpret the mystery of the Grail in Christian terms: for Christian elements only play an accessory, secondary and concealing role in the saga. In order to grasp the true significance of the myth, it is necessary instead to consider the more immediate points of reference represented by the themes and echoes pertaining to the cycle of King Arthur, which survives in the Celtic and Nordic traditions. The Grail essentially embodies the source of a transcendent and immortalizing power of primordial origin that has been preserved after the 'Fall', degeneration and decadence of humanity. Significantly, all sources agree that the guardians of the Grail are not priests, but are knights and warriors - besides, the very place where the Grail is kept is described not as a temple or church, but as a royal palace or castle.In the book, I argued that the Grail can be seen to possess an initiatory (rather than vaguely mystical) character: that it embodies the mystery of warrior initiation. Most commonly, the sagas emphasize one additional element: the duties deriving from such initiation. The predestined Knight - he who has received the calling and has enjoyed a vision of the Grail, or received its boons - or he who has 'fought his way' to the Grail (as described in certain texts) must accomplish his duty of restoring legitimate power, lest he forever be damned. The Knight must either allow a prostrate, deceased, wounded or only apparently living King to regain his strength, or personally assume the regal role, thus restoring a fallen kingdom. The sagas usually attribute this function to the power of the Grail. A significant means to assess the dignity or intentions of the Knight is to 'ask the question': the question concerning the purpose of the Grail. In many cases, the posing of this crucial question coincides with the miracle of awakening, of healing or of restoration.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Initiation:
Only Three Possible Cases
Beyond Realm of Phenomena
& René Guénon's Two Misunderstandings

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Initiation:
Only Three Possible Cases
Beyond Realm of Phenomena
& René Guénon's Two Misunderstandings(from “Ride the Tiger”)[...]We can set aside the most spurious, "occultist" varieties of neospiritualism, dominated by the interest in "clairvoyance," in this or that supposed "power," and any kind of contact with the invisible. The differentiated man can only be indifferent to all of that; the problem of the meaning of existence is not going to be resolved in that way, because there one is still always within the realm of phenomena. Instead of a profound existential change, it may even cause an evasion and a greater dispersion, like that caused on another plane by the stupefying proliferation of scientific knowledge and technology. However, neospiritualism does occasionally envisage something more and different, even if confusedly, when it refers to "initiation" and when this is postulated as the goal of various practices, "exercises," rites, yogic techniques, and so on.I cannot simply condemn this out of hand, but it is necessary to dispel some illusions. Initiation, taken in its strict and legitimate sense, means a real ontological and existential change of man's state, an opening to the fact of the transcendent dimension. It would be the undeniable realization, the integral and de-conditioning appropriation, of the quality that I have considered as the basis of the human type who concerns us, the man still spiritually rooted in the world of Tradition. Thus the problem arises of what one should think when some neospiritualist current exhumes and presents "initiatic" paths and methods.This problem has to be circumscribed by the limits of this book, which is not concerned with those who leave their environment and concentrate all their energies on transcendence, as the ascetic or the saint can do in the religious realm. I am concerned rather with the human type who accepts living in the world and the age, despite having a different inner form from that of his contemporaries. This man knows that it is impossible, in a civilization like the present one, to revive the structures that in the world of Tradition gave a meaning to the whole of existence. But in that same world of Tradition, what might correspond to the idea of initiation belonged to the summit, to a separate domain with precise limits, to a path having an exceptional and exclusive character. It was not a question of the realm in which the general law, handed down from the heights of Tradition, shaped common existence within a given civilization, but of a higher plane, virtually released from that very law by the fact of being at its origin. I cannot go here into the distinctions to be made within the domain of initiation itself; we must just keep firmly in mind the higher and more essential significance that initiation has when one is placed on the metaphysical plane: a significance already mentioned as consisting of the spiritual de-conditioning of the being. Those lesser forms that correspond to caste and tribal initiations, and also to the minor initiations linked to one or another cosmic power, as in certain cults of antiquity - forms quite different, therefore, from the "great liberation" - must be left aside here, not least because no basis for them exists any longer in the modern world.Well then, if initiation is taken in its highest, metaphysical sense, one must assume a priori that it is not even a hypothetical possibility in an epoch like the present, in an environment like the one we live in, and also given the general inner formation of individuals (now feeling the fatal effect of a collective ancestry that for centuries has been absolutely unfavorable). Anyone who sees things differently either does not understand the matter, or else is deceiving himself and others. What has to be negated most decisively is the transposition to this field of the individualistic and democratic view of the "self-made man," that is, the idea that anyone who wants can become an "initiate," and that he can also become one on his own, through his own strength alone, by resorting to various kinds of "exercises" and practices. This is an illusion, the truth being that through his own strength alone, the human individual cannot go beyond human individuality, and that any positive result in this field is conditioned by the presence and action of a genuine power of a different, non-individual order. And I can say categorically that in this respect, the possible cases are reduced to only three.The first case is where one already naturally possesses this other power. This is the exceptional case of what was called "natural dignity," not derived from simple human birth; it is comparable to what in the religious domain is called election. The differentiated man posited here does possess a structure akin to the type to whom this first possibility refers. But for "natural dignity" in this specific, technical sense to be validated in him, a host of problems arise that can only be overcome if the trial of the self, spoken of in chapter 1, happens to be oriented in this direction.The other cases concern an "acquired dignity." The second case is the possibility of the power in question appearing in cases of profound crises, spiritual traumas, or desperate actions, with the consequence of a violent breakthrough of the existential and ontological plane. Here it is possible that if the person is not wrecked, he may be led to participate in that force, even without his having held it consciously as a goal. I should clarify the situation by adding that in such cases a quantity of energy must already have been accumulated, which the circumstances cause to suddenly appear, with a consequent change of state. Therefore the circumstances appear as an occasional cause but not a determining cause, being necessary but not sufficient. It is like the last drop of water that makes the vase overflow, but only when it is already full, or the breaking of a dike that does not cause an inundation unless the water is already pressing on it.The third and last case concerns the grafting of the power in question onto the individual by virtue of the action of a representative of a preexistent initiatic organization who is duly qualified to do so. It is the equivalent of priestly ordination in the religious field, which in theory imprints on the person an "indelible character," qualifying him for the efficacious performance of the rites. The author already cited here, René Guénon - who in modern times has been almost alone in treating such arguments with authority and seriousness, not without denouncing, too, the deviations, errors, and mystifications of neospiritualism considers this third case almost to the exclusion of the others. For my part, I think that in our time this case is virtually excluded in practical terms, because of the almost complete nonexistence of the organizations in question. If organizations of the kind have always had a more or less underground character in the West, because of the nature of the religion that has come to predominate there, with its repressions and persecutions, in recent times they have virtually disappeared. As for other areas, especially the East, such organizations have become ever more rare and inaccessible, even when the forces that they control have not been withdrawn, in parallel with the general process of degeneration and modernization that has now invaded those areas, too. Most of all, today the East itself is no longer in a position to furnish most people with anything but by-products, in a "regime of residues." That much is obvious if one examines the spiritual stature of those from the East who have set to exporting and publicizing "Eastern wisdom" among us.Guénon did not see the situation in such pessimistic terms because of two misunderstandings. The first derived from his not only considering initiation in the integral and actual sense, as described here, but introducing the concept of a "virtual initiation" that can take place without any effect being perceptible by the consciousness; thus it remains as inoperative in concrete terms as - to take another parallel from the Catholic religion - the supernatural quality of being a "son of God" is in the vast majority of cases, though this is dispensed at baptism, even to retarded infants. Guénon's second misunderstanding comes from supposing that the transmission of such a force is real even in the case of organizations that once had an initiatic character, but which time has brought to a state of extreme degenerescence. There is good reason to suppose that the spiritual power that originally constituted their center has withdrawn, leaving nothing behind the facade but a sort of psychic cadaver. In neither point can I agree with Guénon, and so I think that today the third case is even more improbable than the other two.Referring now to the man who concerns us, if the idea of an "initiation" is to figure on his mental horizon, he should clearly recognize the distance between that and the climate of neospiritualism, nor should he have any illusions about it. The most he can conceive of as a practical possibility is a basic orientation in terms of preparation, for which he will find a natural predisposition in himself. But realization has to be left undetermined, and it is well for him to recall the post-nihilistic vision of life, described above, which excludes any reference point that might cause a deviation or de-centering - even if the diversion, as in this case, were linked to the impatient awaiting of the moment in which he would finally achieve an opening. The Zen saying is again valid in this context: "He who seeks the Way, leaves the Way. “A realistic view of the situation and an honest self-evaluation indicate that the only serious and essential task today is to give ever more emphasis to the dimension of transcendence in oneself, more or less concealed as it may be. Study of traditional wisdom and knowledge of its doctrines may assist, but they will not be effective without a progressive change affecting the existential plane, and more particularly, the basic life force of oneself as a person: that force that for most people is bound to the world and is simply the will to live. One can compare this effect to the induction of magnetism into a piece of iron - an induction that also imprints on it a direction. Afterwards one can suspend the iron and move it about as one wishes, but after oscillating for a certain time and amplitude, it will always return to point toward the pole. When the orientation toward the transcendent no longer has a merely mental or emotional character, but has come to penetrate a person's being, the most essential work is done, the seed has penetrated the earth, and the rest is, in a way, secondary and consequential. All the experiences and actions that, when one lives in the world, especially in an epoch like ours, may have the character of a diversion and be tied to various contingencies, will then have the same irrelevant effect as the displacing of the magnetized needle, after which it resumes its direction. Anything more that may eventually be realized, as I have said, is left to circumstance and to an invisible wisdom. And here the horizons should not be restricted to those of the individual, finite existence that the differentiated man finds himself living here and now.Thus, setting aside the far-off and overly pretentious goals of an absolute and actual initiation understood in metaphysical terms, even the differentiated man should think himself fortunate if he can actually succeed in producing this modification, which integrates quite naturally the partial effects of the attitudes defined for him, in many different domains, in the preceding pages.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Mithras'
'Slaying of the Bull'
& Cherishing a Life of
Light, Freedom & Power

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Mithras’
‘Slaying of the Bull’
& Cherishing a Life of
Light, Freedom & Power(from “The Path of Enlightenment in the Mithraic Mysteries”)[...]
l have already mentioned that the "bull" symbolizes the elementary life-force. It is to be identified with the Green Dragon of Alchemy, with tantric kundalini or with the Taoist "Dragon." The disciplines which focus on breathing call this force prana - a breathing considered in its "luminous" and "subtle" dimension. Prana is related to material breathing as the soul is to the body. This life-force is naturally evasive and resists coercion; it is the restless "mercury," the "volatile," the "bird" (the hamsah bird of the Hindu tradition, ham and sah being respectively the sound of inhaling and exhaling), which the initiate has to "ride" and to "immobilize." The practice consists in focused breathing and in becoming lost in it; then, boldly, in letting go, in sinking. This is what the expression "the Dragon flies away" is supposed to mean.According to the initiatory disciplines found in Hinduism, breath has four dimensions: a material dimension (sthula), related to the state of wakefulness and to the cerebral-psychological faculties; a subtle, luminous dimension (sukshma), related to the dream state and to the nervous system; a causative, igneous dimension (karana), related to the state of deep sleep and to the blood system; and finally a dimension which the Hindu texts call turiya (the fourth), which is related to the special state observed in catalepsy: a state of apparent death, related to the skeleton and the reproductive function.Mithras, who after taking hold of the bull "lets himself be carried" in a wild ride without ever letting go, symbolizes the Self which, as it sinks, goes through these four stages and through the neutral areas separating them. By contrast, ordinary people simply lose consciousness and fall asleep at the very first stage. The bull gives up only when Mithras shows enough boldness and a subtle enduring strength, or until the process of "sinking" reaches the fourth stage. At this point, the basic mechanisms of the primitive life-force are seized and brought to a halt; the mercury is fixed and congealed; the "bull" is slain. The life-force, finally deprived of all support, is suspended, broken, burnt to the roots.Once this climactic point is reached a miraculous transformation occurs. A blazing, whirling, divine life arises from the deep, quick as lightning. This new life-force permeates the whole body with a gleaming which transfigures it. It recreates the body ab imo, as an entity of pure activity, as a glorious body of immortal splendor; this is the "radiating body," the augoeides, the Hvareno, the vajra, the Dorje. These are all different names recurring in various Eastern and Western traditions, describing the same force. This new life-force, which has the nature of diamond and of irresistible thunderbolt, transforms the mortal and deprived condition into one of immortality.What oozes from the bull's wound is not blood, but wheat, the Bread of Life, as a perennial source created by the surrounding desert and as the miracle of a new kind of vegetation. However one obstacle still needs to be overcome: swarms of impure animals crowd around the dying bull to drink its blood and to bite its genitals, thus poisoning the source of life. This is the last episode in this saga; the meaning of this is that the prodigious and superhuman power, called kundalini in Hindu tradition, is awakened once the bull is slain. This power immediately floods all the principles and the functions which support the physical being. If during this process all these elements have not been purified, organized and unified, they become unleashed, absorbing and transforming to their advantage the higher power which was supposed to transform them into a spiritual body. What ensues, therefore, is a terrible setback, an emanation, a gushing forward of those forces which belong to the animal and emotive nature, and which are now extraordinarily excited. This phenomenon has been variously called the "clouding of the sky," "the storm," or the "deluge." In the alchemical and Taoist traditions, this "storm" is said to occur after somebody has drunk the "Virgin's milk," which is the "Dragon's blood." In the myth of Mirhras this phenomenon corresponds to the swarming of the impure animals.It is unlikely that this experience could be entirely avoided, since it is the very last trial. But lo, after it has taken place, the sky opens up and the miracle continues. The last obscure obstacles are swept away by the rising flood of light and sound, illuminating what is latent, obscure, buried, contracted in the form of bodily organs, in gestures, in a powerful and cosmic enlightenment. This constitutes the ascent of the man-god to the heavenly spheres, to the hierarchy of the "seven planets." Here the external dimension of things fades away, becomes inwardly bright, and then bums up. Everything becomes alive, awakens and is reborn from within; everything becomes symbolic, meaningful, radiant - the spirit of an unlimited and eternal body.Beyond the seventh sphere lies the ULTIMATE, where there no longer is a "here" or a "there," but calmness, enlightenment and solitude as an infinite ocean. It is the dimension of the "Father," beyond which lies the dimension of the "Eagle," the apex, the substratum of the flaming, whirling world of powers.This is the path and the challenge open to man, according to Mithraic wisdom, which competed with Christianity to inherit the legacy of the Roman empire. Once it was pushed back and relegated to the external, exoteric plane, the efficiency of the mystery wisdom was preserved in the occult tradition, but it continued to operate on Western historical events, exercising a subtle, invisible influence. Today, once again, it surfaces again beyond that world which science bas "liberated" and which philosophy has "internalized." It re-emerges in attempts still very confused; in beings who have been broken under the weight of a truth too heavy for them, which however others will know how to take up and to affirm. It re-emerges in Nietzsche, in Weininger, in Braum, in the most radical trajectories of the most recent Idealism. It re-emerges in myself, in my yearning for the infinite, in the only value that I cherish: a regal and solar life, a life of light, freedom and power.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Nihilism, Nietzsche &
Ride the Tiger's Individual
Possessing Two Natures:
One 'Personal' and One Transcendent

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Nihilism, Nietzsche &
Ride the Tiger's Individual
Possessing Two Natures:
One 'Personal' and One Transcendent(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...]These preliminary remarks led to the more general section of Ride the Tiger, entitled 'In the World Where God Is Dead'. In this section, I described the various phases that modern nihilism has gone through following the severing of all true bonds between man and the transcendent. Here, morality can be seen to lose all superior legitimacy - the surrogate morality based on the 'autonomy' of reason soon leading to social or utilitarian morality, and the process progressing until the existence of any genuine principle has been denied. As a counterpart to this process, man experiences the spiritual 'trauma' of his growing awareness of the absurdness and irrationality of existence: a feeling that characterizes significant segments of the younger generations in their more anarchic, feverish and desperate manifestations. Likewise, I felt the need to denounce the nihilism implied by the economic myth prevalent both in the ‘West' (the idea of prosperity) and in the 'East' (Marxism): a myth merely serving as a degrading an-aesthetic to prevent the spread of existential crises in a world where God is dead.In the same chapter, and for the last time, I examined Nietzsche, whose thought remains as valid today as it ever was. The central question Nietzsche raised was: What shall come after European nihilism? Or more exactly: Where shall it be possible to find an adequate meaning for life after having experienced nihilism - an awareness destined to produce irrevocable and irreversible results?I do not wish to dwell on my analysis of the existential problem posed by Nietzsche in any detail. After all, if Nietzsche's definition of the problem is clear, the solutions he suggested are both hazy and dangerous - particularly in the case of his theory of the Übermensch and the will to power, and his naturalistic, almost physical praise of 'life'. To 'be oneself' and to follow one's own law as an absolute law can certainly be a positive and legitimate option - or, rather, the only remaining option: but this is true only in the case of the human type I addressed in Ride the Tiger: an individual possessing two natures, one 'personal' and one transcendent. The idea of 'being oneself', therefore - of achieving self-realization and of severing all bonds - will have a different meaning according to what nature it is that expresses it. Transcendence ('that which is more than life’), understood as a central and conscious element present within immanence ('life'), provides the foundation for the existential path I outlined - a path that includes elements such as: 'Apollonian Dionysism' (i.e., an opening towards the most intense and diverse aspects of life, here experienced through the lucid inebriation brought about by the presence of a superior principle), impersonal activism (pure action that transcends good and evil, prospects of success or failure, happiness and unhappiness) and the challenging of oneself without any fear that the 'I' might suffer (internal invulnerability). The origin of some of these ideas should be self-evident to those who have followed my discussion so far.In Ride the Tiger, I attributed Nietzsche's more ambiguous views, as well as various individual traits of his character and his fate, to the awakening of a form of transcendence that was never consciously and actively embraced by Nietzsche. Such a situation inevitably leads to tragedy and distortion, if not utter destruction. A similar case, after all, is that of existentialism, which I discussed in a different section of the book - existentialism, however, understood not as a philosophical system, but as a distinguishing trait of the times we live in. Again, the ground of existentialism is essentially a passive form of transcendence that is experienced 'unwillingly': here, the freedom achieved by the means of nihilism can be seen to turn against the 'I' - to the point that it was described by Sartre as something to which we are 'condemned'. This process engenders disgust and an increased feeling of existential absurdity and non-involvement: a negative feeling of non-involvement, which is not marked by the calm presence of a superior principle. It is only natural, therefore, that existentialism has proven incapable of maintaining its position. In Ride the Tiger, I spoke of both the 'dead end' and 'collapse' of existentialism: on the one hand, a 'dead end' that - as in the case of Heidegger - leads one to envisage 'living to die' as the sole meaning of life - death being regarded as the sole means towards 'de-conditioning' (as if any death might serve such a purpose!); on the other hand, a 'collapse' that leads individuals - such as Jaspers and Marcel (among many others) - to turn to religious worship.What I considered next in the book was the ambiguity of the whole process that began with Humanism and the Renaissance. Naturally, from the perspective of the philosophy of civilization, this process is entirely negative: I here confirmed the points I had raised in Revolt Against the Modern World, and which are accepted by all traditionalists. However, I also pointed out that this very process might be seen as putting to the test certain individuals whom it historically affects with its nihilism (the test of fire or emptiness, as it were): for nothingness and freedom can either be the cause of inner defeat, or provide the incentive for the manifestation of a hidden and superior dimension of being. In the latter case, new inner developments occur, such as the transcendence of both theism and atheism: for the individual comes to realize that the only god who 'is dead' is the humanized god of morality and devotion, and not the god of metaphysics and traditional inner doctrines.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

On the 'Spiritualist Threat' &
Super-Consciousness beyond Rational Thought
or Self-Transcendence by Ascent
vs. Self-Transcendence by Descent

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On the ‘Spiritualist Threat’ &
Super-Consciousness beyond Rational Thought
or Self-Transcendence by Ascent
vs. Self-Transcendence by Descent(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] My aim was to address a broader readership by directly addressing the need to defend human personality from the dangerous allure of the 'supernatural'. My main argument was that the modern world is facing not merely the threat of 'materialism', but also a 'spiritualist threat'. People in our day, I argued, are at the mercy of the materialism, rationalism, empiricism and activism of a dying civilization; but, at the same time, they derive no satisfaction from mainstream religion. Consequently, many of our contemporaries experience an uncontrollable attraction for 'Otherness' and supra-sensible phenomena, particularly when these are seen as being grounded within actual personal experiences. In almost all cases, this supra-sensible level of experience has been confused, simplistically, with that of the 'supernatural'.This momentous confusion, I argued, is due to a lack of genuine ideals. In my book, I outlined the doctrine according to which human personality, with its ordinary capabilities and its perception of the physical world and nature, is situated between two different realms. The first of these two realms is superior to the ordinary human condition, while the other is inferior to it. The first is the level of what is supernatural and super-personal, while the other is sub-natural and sub-personal. Nor are these different levels to be understood in merely theoretical and abstract terms, for they refer to concrete and possible levels of being: 'In all that transcends mere nature' - I argued - 'two separate, or, rather, two opposite levels exist.' Hence the possibility of self-transcendence either by descent (i.e., by plunging into what is pre- and sub-personal and unconscious) or by ascent (i.e., by rising above the closed - and in a sense defensive and protective - condition of ordinary human personality). In my work, I emphasized how it is self-transcendence by descent which is most commonly pursued in contemporary Spiritualism: Spiritualism, when not merely theoretical, fosters a regressive process which potentially leads to encounters with dark forces that can only further weaken the feeble spiritual framework of modern man.I described the opposite process in the following terms: as 'A path leading to experiences which, far from diminishing consciousness, turn it into a super-consciousness that not only does not abolish the distinction between material objects and rational thought - a distinction easily maintained by a healthy and wakeful mind - but has the power to elevate such a distinction to a higher level - not by altering the foundations of human personality, but by supplementing them.' I concluded that it is this path alone that can lead to the supernatural. Known by the 'inner doctrines' of the world of Tradition, such a path stands in contrast to all ecstatic regressions and openings to what is sub-intellectual and subconscious.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Pythagorean Doctrine
of Little Transcendent Value
but also Containing
some Hyperborean Features

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Pythagorean Doctrine
of Little Transcendent Value
but also Containing
some Hyperborean Features(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] The first is The Pythagorean Golden Verses (I Versi d'Oro pitagorei), published for Atanor in 1959. In all truth, I only worked on this short book because the editors had requested me to do so: for Pythagorean doctrine does not really meet my taste. I agree with Bachofen that Pythagorean doctrine chiefly reflects the pre-Indo-European and Pelasgian 'civilization of the Mother'; I also believe that to some extent it reflects the Etruscan substrate of pre-Roman Italy. Yet Pythagorean doctrine - which is to say: the collected evidence that constitutes our understanding of the subject - is more complex and more hybrid than that. As is generally known, the Golden Verses are a rather late collection of material - dated to the Second, or even Third or Fourth century AD; despite the degree of renown they enjoyed in certain milieus in Antiquity, the Verses merely espouse a series of moral principles of little doctrinal and transcendent value. My edition of the Verses offers one of the best available translations of the text (a translation that already featured in the pages of Introduction to Magic); in order to provide the reader with a general overview of the subject, the volume also includes a commentary and introduction that takes account of the most important surviving evidence on Pythagorean doctrine, including Hierocles' commentary on the Verses.The hybrid character of Pythagorean doctrine might also be discerned from the actual presence within such a doctrine, and particularly in relation to the myth of Pythagoras, of features of the Apollonian or even Hyperborean tradition - which, in themselves, are far removed from the ‘Woman Mysteries' that influenced Pythagorean doctrine in other respects. Among the Pythagorean elements that most clearly betray Indo-European and Hellenic origins, I mentioned the Pythagorean 'notion of the universe as cosmos: a composite and harmoniously ordered whole (Pythagoras, in fact, is regarded as the first ever to have used the term "cosmos''). To this I added the Pythagorean emphasis on limit, proportion and form; its doctrine of the harmonious unification of the various powers of the soul; its notion of eurhythmics; its appreciation of and care for the human body (an element which stands in contrast to the Pythagorean - and originally Orphic - view of the body as a prison); its experimental method of applying given principles - something that reflects the Pythagorean love of clarity and exactitude, and aversion to pseudo-metaphysical and mystical vagueness; its esteem for artistic beauty; its aristocratic and Doric conceptualization of political power (Pythagorean emphasis on the doctrinal, rather than the warrior and regal foundations of power not withstanding); its affirmation of the ideal of hierarchy, at least with regard to true knowledge. I here added 'at least' because in the social - as opposed to initiatory - field, Pythagoreans have generally been regarded as defending the doctrine of natural law - a view that would also agree with the Pythagorean valorization and divinization of the feminine, and with other dubious views ascribed to the followers of Pythagoras. In contrast, it is interesting to note - as Hierocles himself has recorded - that Pythagoreans understood apotheosis not as a vaguely mystical and pantheistic process, but as the divinization and immortalization of the individual - who, following apotheosis, would have been numbered among the gods. This view of apotheosis, if correctly ascribed to Pythagoreans, would bring Pythagorean doctrine into line with the Classical and Hellenic spirit - which contemplates 'heroic' forms of immortality; such a view also appears close to the initiatic doctrine concerning the so-called 'transformed' or 'perfect body' (i.e., the doctrine of 'resurrection’), a classic formulation of which was provided by Taoism (as I noted in my new edition of Lao Tzu's Tao-té-ching). Other sources, however, describe the Pythagorean conceptualization of apotheosis in a way that suggests the influence of a worldview opposite from that of the Classical.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Relationship with Super-Human Order
Source of Force & Indomitability
Not to be Underestimated

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Relationship with Super-Human Order
Source of Force & Indomitability
Not to be Underestimated(from “Metaphysics of War”)And naturally, the modern and, above all, Western atmosphere for thousands of reasons which have become, so to speak, constitutive of our being over the centuries makes it extremely difficult to feel and to move forces behind the scenes and to give every gesture, every sacrifice, every victory, transfiguring meanings, such as those discussed above. It is however certain that, even today, in this unleashed vicissitude one should not feel alone on the battlefields - one should sense, in spite of everything, relationships with a more than merely human order, and paths which cannot be assessed solely by the values of this visible reality can be the source of a force and an indomitability whose effects on any plane, in our view, should not be underestimated.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

The Men for Whom
the New Freedom
does Not Spell Ruin

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The Men for Whom
the New Freedom
does Not Spell Ruin(from “Ride the Tiger”)[...] To sum up, the man for whom the new freedom does not spell ruin, whether because, given his special structure, he already has a firm base in himself, or because he is in the process of conquering it through an existential rupture of levels that reestablishes contact with the higher dimension of "being" - this man will possess a vision of reality stripped of the human and moral element, free from the projections of subjectivity and from conceptual, finalistic, and theistic superstructures. This reduction to pure reality of the general view of the world and of existence will be described in what follows. Its counterpart is the return of the person himself to pure being: the freedom of pure existence in the outside world is confirmed in the naked assumption of his own nature, from which he draws his own rule. This rule is a law to him to the degree that he does not start from a state of unity, and to the degree that secondary, divergent tendencies coexist and external factors try to influence him.In the practical field of action, we have considered a regime of experiments with two degrees and two ends. First there is the proving knowledge of himself as a determined being, then of himself as a being in whom the transcendent dimension is positively present. The latter is the ultimate basis of his own law, and its supreme justification. After everything has collapsed and in a climate of dissolution, there is only one solution to the problem of an unconditioned and intangible meaning to life: the direct assumption of one's own naked being as a function of transcendence.As for the modes of behavior toward the world, once a clarification and confirmation of oneself has been achieved as described, the general formula is indicated by an intrepid openness, devoid of ties but united in detachment, in the face of any possible experience. Where this involves a high intensity of life and a regime of achievement that enliven and nourish the calm principle of transcendence within, the orientation has some features in common with Nietzsche's "Dionysian state"; but the way in which this state should be integrated suggests that a better term would be "Dionysian Apollonism." When one's relations with the world are not those of lived experience in general, but of the manifestation of oneself through works and active initiatives, the style suggested is that of involvement in every act, of pure and impersonal action, "without desire," without attachment.Attention was also drawn to a special state of lucid inebriation that is connected with this entire orientation and is absolutely essential for the type of man under consideration, because it takes the place of that animation that, given a different world, he would receive from an environment formed by Tradition, thus filled with meaning; or else from the sub-intellectual adhesion to emotion and impulses at the vital base of existence, in pure bios. Finally, I devoted some attention to the reality of actions and the regime of knowledge that should take the place of the mythology of inner moral sanctions and of "sin."Those who know my other works will be aware of the correspondence between these views and certain instructions of schools and movements in the world of Tradition, which almost always concerned only the esoteric doctrine. [...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

The Only Path Left:
Self-Realization through
Inner Drive towards Transcendence
& Allowing its Results in Everyday Life

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The Only Path Left:
Self-Realization through
Inner Drive towards Transcendence
& Allowing its Results in Everyday Life(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...]The final chapter of Ride the Tiger is entitled 'The Spiritual Problem'. In this chapter, I developed some of the ideas I had first discussed in the course of my critique of contemporary neo-spiritualism: I pointed out that the present is witnessing the spread of 'spiritualist' tendencies, which - generally speaking - reflect not a positive change of direction, but rather the decomposition of an age of twilight, and, in a way, embody the counterpart to the materialism of such an age. I sought to be as clear as possible regarding these matters, at the cost of potentially disillusioning those readers who had followed my work on esotericism, yoga and initiation so far. All 'neo-spiritualist' cases aside - neo-spiritualism usually serving merely as a poor surrogate for religion - when turning to consider genuine traditional sciences, one must always bear in mind that the present conditions of humanity, marked as they are by the rapid retreat and concealment of all true centers capable of exerting a transcendent influence upon man, makes the effective realization of any 'initiatory disclosure of consciousness' impossible, or only possible in exceptional circumstances. This is also true for the human type I sought to address in Ride the Tiger - although this type of person certainly appears more inclined to self-realization than others, and cannot fail to regard self-realization as the center and ultimate purpose of his own existence. What generally remains an available option for similar individuals today is, on the one hand, to foster an inner drive towards transcendence - a drive unmitigated by any external circumstance (in the same way as 'the hinge of a slammed door remains still', or the needle of a compass turns to point north after each oscillation); on the other, to allow such a drive to produce whatever results it may in everyday life, while awaiting the day in which all obstacles will have been removed - either in this life, or in one of the many other states of being - and the accumulated drive will prove unstoppable. One of the effects produced by the inner drive towards transcendence that I just mentioned is the change in one's attitude toward death: a positive contemplatio mortis that allows the individual to remain unaffected by the prospect of dying; in such a way, the individual, so to speak, puts death behind himself. Yet, this new approach to death does not paralyze the individual: on the contrary, it engenders a superior, elated and free mode of living that is accompanied by a magic, lucid inebriation.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

The Three Aspects of Divinity
& the Sole Remaining
Possibility of Transcendence
through the Risky
Left Hand Path of Destruction

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The Three Aspects of Divinity
& the Sole Remaining
Possibility of Transcendence
through the Risky
Left Hand Path of Destruction(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] I suggested that in the case of more qualified individuals - whether male or female - the doctrines and perspectives described in The Metaphysics of Sex might provide the means to solve various personal problems, and to find a way out of the baseness of ordinary human existence. On the other hand, I pointed out that, given the present condition of humanity, one should generally hold no illusions with regard to the possibilities of realizing the truly transcendent potentialities of sexuality - although sex certainly remains 'the greatest magical power in nature'. Even in those cases today where sex has not been trivialized or corrupted and turned into a consumer product, it is chiefly sought after as a means to experience cheap thrills: as a means to grant 'those who have taken the road to perdition an illusory, obscure, desperate relief from disgust and existential anguish'. What I had in mind here was the role that sex - not unlike drugs - plays for the new 'burnt out', heedless generation of beats and hippies, who are foolishly seeking the genuine meaning their life lacks in exasperated forms of sensuality.By discussing sadism and its more profound significance in the light of the metaphysics of sex, I again came to touch upon the subject of 'The Left-Hand Path'. The legitimacy of this path derives from the traditional doctrine of the three aspects of divinity: the creative, protective and destroying - destruction manifesting the transcendence of the ultimate principle beyond all limited and conditioned forms. The 'Right-Hand Path' is connected to the first two aspects of the divine; on the level of ethical and religious conduct, this path is characterized by the affirmation and consecration of existence, and by conformity to the laws and positive norms of a given traditional order operating on earth. By contrast, the 'Left-Hand Path' pertains to the third divine principle, that of pure transcendence; this path potentially implies not only a break with all existing order and norms (as in the case of pure ascesis), but also the destruction of such norms and order by means of a disregard for values and ethics, and a destructive release aimed at the attainment of the unconditioned. That of the 'Left-Hand Path' is the perspective I focused on the most in The Metaphysics of Sex. In discussing gender ethics in the book, I referred to what I had already written in Revolt Against the Modern World with regard to the traditional understanding of the institutional union of man and woman (in the context of the 'Right-Hand Path'). Nevertheless, The Metaphysics of Sex chiefly examines sex in itself, as a pure and potentially destructive experience (capable, that is, of bringing about a sudden, striking change): a perspective that rules out the possibility of any subordination of sex to merely human - or even social and biological - interests. Besides, I was later to favor the perspective of the 'Left-Hand Path' in my book Ride the Tiger, on account of both the character of the age we live in, and of the negative conclusions I had reached with regard to the possibilities for any rectifying, reconstructive or creative action (i.e., of any action in line with the 'Right-Hand Path') in a world and society, such as ours, which is approaching the end of a cycle. In this epoch of widespread decomposition, I argued, the only path one can attempt to follow is that of the Left Hand - with all the risks this entails.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

The Three Possibilities
Still Available in the Last Times

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The Three Possibilities
still available in the Last Times(from "Revolt Against The Modern World")
[...]
The possibilities still available in the last times concern only a minority and maybe distinguished as follows. Beside the great "currents" of the world there are still individuals who are rooted in terra firma. Generally speaking, they are unknown people who shun the spotlight of modem popularity and culture. They live on spiritual heights; they do not belong to this world. Though they are scattered over the earth and often ignorant of each other's existence, they are united by an invisible bond and form an unbreakable chain in the traditional spirit. This nucleus does not act: it only exercises the function to which the symbolism of the "perennial fire" corresponded. By virtue of these people, Tradition is present despite all; the flame bums invisibly and something still connects the world to the superworld. They are-those who are awake, whom in Greek are called the [...].There are an increasing number of individuals who experience a confused and yet real need for liberation, though they do not know in the name of what. To orient these people, and shield them from the spiritual dangers of the actual world, to lead them to see the truth and sharpen their will to join the ranks of the first type of people is what can still be done. And yet this too affects only a minority, and we should not delude ourselves that in this way there will be sizeable changes in the overall destinies of the multitudes. In any event, this is the only justification for tangible action that can be carried out by men of Tradition living in the modern world, in a milieu with which they have no connection. In order for the abovementioned guiding action to be successful it is necessary to have "watchers" at hand who will bear witness to the values of Tradition in ever more uncompromising and firm ways, as the antitraditional forces grow in strength. Even though these values today cannot be achieved, it does not mean that they amount to mere "ideas." They are measures. And when even the elemental capability to measure was totally lost, then the last night would surely fall. Let people of our time talk about these things with condescension as if they were anachronistic and antihistorical; we know that this is an alibi for their defeat. Let us leave modem men to their "truths" and let us only be concerned about one thing: to keep standing amid a world of ruins. Even though today an efficacious, general, and realizing action stands almost no chance at all, the ranks that I mentioned before can still set up inner defenses. In an ancient ascetical text it is said that while in the beginning the law from above could be implemented, those who came afterward were only capable of half of what had been previously done; in the last times very few works will be done, but for people living in these times the great temptation will arise again; those who will endure during this time will be greater than the people of old who were very rich in works. To make the values of truth, reality, and Tradition highly visible to those who do not want "this" but who confusedly seek something "else," means to offer some reference points so that the great temptation may not prevail in everybody in those situations in which matter seems to have become stronger than the spirit.Finally, we must consider a third possibility. To some the path of acceleration may be the most suitable approach to a solution, considering that given certain conditions, many reactions are the equivalent of those cramps that only prolong agony and by delaying the end also delay the advent of the new principle. Thus, it would be expedient to take on, together with a special inner attitude, the most destructive processes of the modem era in order to use them for liberation; this would be like turning a poison against oneself or like "riding a tiger." (1)(1) In my book Cavalcare la tigre I have attempted to outline the existential orientations that may serve this purpose during an age of dissolution.When regarding the process of decadence in Western society, I identified unrealism as its most typical feature. The individual at a given historical moment finds himself to be totally ignorant of spirituality as a reality. He even experiences the sense of self in terms of thought and reflection; this amounts to psychologism. Eventually his thought and reflection create a world of mirages, phantasms, and idols that replace spiritual reality; this is the humanistic myth of culture, which is nothing but a cave filled with shadows. Together with the abstract world of thought,there arises the romantic world of the "soul." What emerges are the various creatures of sentimentalism and faith, of individualistic and humanitarian pathos, of sensualism and superfluous heroism, of humility and revolt. And yet we have already seen that this unrealistic world is heading to its downfall and that deeper, elemental forces have almost swept away the myths of romantic and individualist man in a world where "realism" prevails over any idealism or sentimentalism and the "humanistic cult of the soul" is definitely overcome. I have indicated currents that seethe presuppositions for a new universal civilization in the destruction of the "I" and the liberation of man from the "spirit."Regarding the way that has been mentioned, it is necessary to establish up to what point it is possible to benefit from such destructive upheavals; up to what point,thanks to an inner determination and orientation toward transcendence, may the nonhuman element of the modern "realistic" and activist world, instead of being a path to the subhuman dimension (as is the case of the majority of the most recent forms), foster experiences of a higher life and a higher freedom?This is all we can say about a certain category of men in view of the fulfillment of the times, a category that by virtue of its own nature must be that of a minority. This dangerous path may be trodden. It is a real test. In order for it to be complete in its resolve it is necessary to meet the following conditions: all the bridges are to be cut, no support found, and no returns possible; also, the only way out must be forward.It is typical of a heroic vocation to face the greatest wave knowing that two destinies lie ahead: that of those who will die with the dissolution of the modern world, and that of those who will find themselves in the main and regal stream of the new current.Before the vision of the Iron Age, Hesiod exclaimed: "May I have not been born in it!" But Hesiod, after all, was a Pelasgic spirit unaware of a higher vocation. For other natures there is a different truth; to them applies the teaching that was also known in the East: although the Kali Yuga is an age of great destructions, those who live during it and manage to remain standing may achieve fruits that were not easily achieved by men living in other ages.JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

The Truly Infinite is Free Power:
Simple use of the Possible
& Limit & Form are a Kind of
Reflection of the Absolute

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The Truly Infinite is Free Power
- Simple use of the Possible
and Limit & Form are a Kind of
Reflection of the Absolute(from “Ride the Tiger”)[...]Making a short digression to the abstract, metaphysical plane, I find false and constricting the conception of an absolute and an infinite that are condemned to indetermination and to fluctuation in the merely possible. Rather, the truly infinite is free power: the power of a self-determination that is not at all its own negation, but its own affirmation. It is not the fall from a sort of substantialized "totality," but the simple use of the possible. Arising from this idea, one can see the absurdity of speaking of existence as a fault or sin, merely by virtue of being a determined existence. Nothing prevents us from adopting the contrary point of view, for example, that of classical Greece, which sees in limit and form the manifestation of a perfection, a completion, and a kind of reflection of the Absolute.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Tradition Discrediting
Modern ‘Occultist’, Anthroposophist
and Theosophist Speculations
- if anything -
can Provide No More
than an Initial Starting Point

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Tradition Discrediting
Modern ‘Occultist’, Anthroposophist
and Theosophist Speculations
- if anything -
can Provide No More
than an Initial Starting Point(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] On the whole, however, I always preserved my independence, frequently even voicing my lack of regard for modern 'occultism'. Modern occultist currents certainly played a useful, if limited, role in my case, the role they generally play in the contemporary world: that of providing an initial starting point. It is then up to each individual who feels drawn to certain forms of wisdom, as mediated by contemporary 'occultism', to act on the basis of his or her personal qualifications: either to stop at the usually promiscuous and dispersive surface of 'occultism', or to somehow get in touch with the original sources of traditional wisdom, in the awareness that 'occultist', Anthroposophist and Theosophist speculations mostly serve to discredit rather than valorize traditional doctrines.As for me, I chose the second option. [...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Tradition's
Prince of the Śākyas
& his Secret Aristocratic
Inner Disciplines
for Today's Aryan Man
vs. Foreign Devotional Ascesis

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Tradition's
Prince of the Śākyas
& his Secret Aristocratic
Inner Disciplines
for Today's Aryan Man
vs. Foreign Devotional Ascesis(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] On the other hand, I composed a systematic work on original Buddhism: The Doctrine of Awakening - A Study of Buddhist Ascesis (La dottrina del risveglio - Saggio sull'ascesi buddhista). This book, too, was only published at a later date, in 1943, by Laterza.In a way, by writing the latter book, I repaid my debt to Buddha's doctrine. I already mentioned how one of Buddha's teachings had crucially contributed to my overcoming of the personal crisis I had experienced in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. At a later date, I came to employ Buddhist texts daily, in a practical way, for purposes of self-realization, as a means to develop a detached awareness of 'being'. He who had been the prince of the Śākyas had described a series of inner disciplines that I perceived as being most congenial to myself - for I felt that devotional (and particularly Christian) ascesis was foreign to my own nature.In my study, I sought to emphasize the true nature of Buddhism, a doctrine which had undergone much distortion, both in most of its later forms - when, following its revelation and spread, Buddhism had turned into a religion - and in the perception of Buddhism prevalent in the West. In fact, I explained in the book, the essential nature of Buddhist doctrine was originally metaphysical and initiatory. The view of Buddhism as simply a kind of morality based on compassion, humanitarianism and a flight from life arising from the idea that 'life is pain' is most foreign, profane and superficial. Buddhism was rather born of a will to attain the unconditioned, a will that was radically affirmed by seeking to attain what transcends life and death. It is not so much 'pain' that Buddhism seeks to overcome, as the agitation and contingency implied by all conditioned existence, which has its origin, root and foundation in greed: a thirst which, by its very nature, cannot be extinguished by leading an ordinary life; an intoxication, or 'mania', a form of ignorance and attachment that leads towards the desperate, drunken and greedy identification of the ‘I’ with one or the other form of the perishable world in the eternal current of becoming (samsāra). The term 'nirvāna' merely describes the negative task of extinction (the extinction of thirst and of metaphysical 'ignorance’). The positive counterpart of nirvāna is enlightenment or awakening (bodhi), from which the word 'Buddha' derives ('Buddha' being a title meaning 'The Awakened One' and not a name, as most people believe). It is for this reason that I chose to entitle my book The Doctrine of Awakening.According to the historical Buddha, the doctrine of awakening was lost in the course of the centuries, having been obscured in India by ritual and by the presumptuous, fossilized speculation of the brāhmana caste. Buddha reaffirmed and renewed the doctrine, which he did not fail to inform with his own character: that of a member of the warrior rather than the brāhmana caste. The 'aristocratic' nature of Buddhism, which is permeated by a virile and warrior force - the roar of the Lion symbolizing Buddha's message - applied on an immaterial and atemporal level, is the one feature of Buddhism that I most emphasized in my work, in contrast to the aforementioned distorted, passive and humanitarian interpretations of the doctrine.A further feature of Buddhism (in its authentic and essential formulation) that I emphasized is the fact that Buddhism cannot be termed a religion in the common, theistic sense of the word. And this is not because Buddhism is a mere moral system inferior to religion; but, on the contrary, because Buddhist doctrine transcends religion. Buddhism cannot be termed a religion insofar as every initiatory and esoteric doctrine cannot be termed a religion. An aspiration towards the unconditioned leads the Buddhist ascetic beyond Being and beyond the god of Being; beyond the very bliss of celestial heavens, which the ascetic views as a binding force - for the hierarchies of the traditional, popular deities are seen as part of the finite, contingent world to be transcended. In Buddhist texts it is frequently written that: 'He (i.e., the ascetic) has transcended this world and the world beyond, the human bond and the divine bond: for both bonds he has broken.' The ultimate goal of Buddhism, therefore, the Great Liberation, perfectly coincides with that of the purest metaphysical tradition, and coincides with the super-substantial apex, both anterior and superior to being and non-being, and to any personal or 'creator' god.While my book made other, similar clarifications, adequately outlining the doctrinal framework of Buddhism (for instance, by explaining the theory of the 'chain of causes' that leads to the finite existence of the non-I, and by clarifying the obscure idea of reincarnation), the focus of my study was the practical side of Buddhism: its asceticism, which I explored on the basis of the evidence from primary texts. By referring here to other esoteric traditions, I sought to define Buddhist practice in a more adequate way than either Orientalists or contemporary representatives of Buddhism had done.In my introduction to The Doctrine of Awakening, I pointed out that my choice to focus on Buddhism was due to the fact that this discipline, more than any other, embodies 'a complete and objective method of ascesis, expressed in lucid and conscious terms which are both unmitigated, tested and well-articulated; a method that suits the spirit of the Aryan man, but also takes account of the conditions which have become prevalent in recent times.' The techniques of Buddhism are conscious techniques, free of any religious or moral mythology - morality being merely regarded as the means to an end in Buddhism, which ignores the fetishism of moral values (i.e., the intrinsic imperativeness of given norms). Buddhist techniques might be described as scientific, for they take account of each step in the path to self-realization, and of the organic links existing between each phase of the ascetic process. The ultimate aim of Buddhist asceticism is the quenching of thirst: de-conditioning, awakening, the Great Liberation. In my book, I emphasized how at least part of these disciplines for self-realization can be pursued while leading an ordinary life, as a way of strengthening one's inner character, of achieving detachment, and of establishing something invulnerable and indestructible within oneself. The 'aristocratic' ascesis of Buddhism, therefore, can also be of an immanent kind: in the closing pages of my work, I focused on the contemporary value of Buddhist practice for alienated individuals as an antidote to the psychic milieu of a world marked by senseless activity, and by the identification with 'vital', irrational and chaotic forces. As the reader might recall, I had emphasized this very point at the end of the second edition of The Yoga of Power, where I described the essential prerequisites to tread the Tantric path. After all, the 'Shiva' principle, which according to the Tantras must come to rule the 'Shakti', in the ultimate merging of the two, coincides with the 'extra-samsaric' principle that Buddhist ascesis seeks to incorporate and reinforce.My reference in the book to an ascesis 'that takes account of the conditions which have come to prevail in recent times' alluded to the general theory regarding the degeneration which has come to mark world history even from an existential perspective. For man, today, is far from finding himself in a condition where he might rely, for the purposes of spiritual self-realization, on the presence of genuine and effective contacts with the transcendent, or on external forms of traditional support. The Buddha himself is the image of an individual who has paved his own way: a 'warrior ascetic' destined to establish a chain of spiritual masters and of corresponding spiritual influences. The most important feature of original Buddhism, therefore, was its practical streak: an affirmation of the primacy of action that shuns all idle speculation, all wandering of the mind through problems, hypotheses, fantasies and myths; in other words: the primacy of personal, self-realizing experience. It is for this reason that the Buddha doctrinally favored 'negative theology', refusing to theorize or talk about the supreme goal to be achieved. The Buddha merely described such a goal in negative terms, as that which it is not and that which must be overcome.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

War Destroys Bourgeois Personality
but Equals Asceticism & Initiation
for Heroic Type
as Ancient Greeks, Romans,
Irano-Aryans, Frederick I,
Edda & Indo-Aryans Confirm

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War Destroys Bourgeois Personality
but Equals Asceticism & Initiation
for Heroic Type
as Ancient Greeks, Romans,
Irano-Aryans, Frederick I,
Edda & Indo-Aryans Confirm(from “Metaphysics of War”)[...] dealing with the capacity of war and heroic experience to bring about an awakening of deep forces connected to the substratum of the race, we have seen that, in the most general way, two distinct, and indeed opposite, types appear. In the first type the petty bourgeois personality - tamed, conformist, pseudo-intellectual or emptily idealistic - may undergo a disintegration, involving the emergence of elementary forces and instincts, in which the individual regresses to the pre-personal stage of the 'races of nature', which exhaust themselves in a welter of conservative and affirmative instincts. In the second type, by contrast, the most 'elemental' and non-human aspects of the heroic experience become a means of transfiguration, of elevation and integration of personality in - so to speak - a transcendent way of being. This constitutes an evocation of what we have called 'the race of the spirit', that is, of the spiritual element from 'above', which, in superior stocks, acts formatively on the purely biological part, and is at the root of their 'tradition' and of their prophetic greatness - simultaneously, from the point of view of the individual, these are experiences which antiquity, and specifically Aryan antiquity, considered no less rich in supernatural fruits than those of asceticism, holiness and even initiation. [...]Broadly speaking, we find that, especially among ancient Aryan humanity, wars were thought of as images of a perennial fight between metaphysical forces: on one hand there was the Olympian and luminous principle, uranic and solar truth; on the other hand, there was raw force, the 'titanic', telluric element, 'barbaric' in the' classical sense, the demonic-feminine principle of chaos. This view' continually recurs in Greek mythology in various symbolic forms; in still more precise and radical terms it appears in the general vision of the world of the Irano-Aryan races, which considered themselves literally as the armies of the God of Light in his struggle against the power of darkness; they persist throughout the Middle Ages, often retaining their classical features in spite of the new religion. Thus, Frederick the First of Swabia; in his fight against the rebellious Commune, recalled the symbol of Hercules and the arm with which this symbolic hero of Dorian-Aryan and Achaean-Aryan stocks fought as all of the 'Olympian' forces against the dark creatures of chaos.This general conception, intimately experienced, could not help but be reflected in more concrete forms of life and activity, raised to the symbolic and, we could almost say, 'ritual-like' level. For our purposes, it is worth noting particularly the transformation of war into the 'path of God' and 'greater holy war'.We omit deliberately here any documentation peculiar to Romanity because we will use this when dealing, in the next article, with the 'mysticism of victory'. We will begin instead with the testimonies, which are themselves very well-known, relating to the Nordic-Aryan tradition. Here, Valhalla is the place of an immortality reserved above all for heroes fallen on the battlefield. The Lord of this place, Odin or Wotan, is presented to us in the Ynglingasaga as having shown to the heroes, by his own symbolic self-sacrifice on the cosmic tree Yggdrasil, the path which leads to that divine sojourn, where they live eternally, as if on a dazzling luminous peak beyond the clouds.According to this tradition no sacrifice or cult is more appreciated by the supreme God than that which is performed by the hero who fights and falls on the battlefield. In addition to this there is a sort of metaphysical counterpart reinforcing this view: the forces of the heroes who, falling, have sacrificed to Odin have gone beyond the limits of human nature, and then increase the phalanx which this god needs to fight the Ragna-rökkr, that is, the 'darkening of the divine', which has threatened the world since ancient times. In the Edda, in fact, it is said that "no matter how great the number of the heroes gathered in Valhalla, they will never be too many for when the Wolf comes. The 'Wolf' here is the symbol of a dark and wild power which, previously, had managed to chain and subdue the stock of the 'divine heroes', or Aesir; the 'age of the Wolf' is more or less the counterpart of the 'age of iron' in the classical tradition, and of the 'dark age' - kali-yuga - in the Indo-Aryan one: it alludes symbolically to an age of the unleashing of purely terrestrial and desecrated forces.[...]JULIUS EVOLA
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JuliusEvola.NET

Wei-Wu-Wei
& Lao Tsu's Ultimately
Aristocratic Notion of Non-Action

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Wei-Wu-Wei
& Lao Tsu's Ultimately
Aristocratic Notion of Non-Action(from “The Path of Cinnabar”)[...] Lao Tzu's notion of 'non-action' was certainly contrary to any philosophically immanent identification of subject and act, or of act and fact - an identification which I came decidedly to oppose, both in itself and in its historicist application. The (ultimately aristocratic) principle of non-involvement and impassibility is what stood at the centre of Lao Tzu's doctrine. By imitating a divine model, the 'Perfect One' - the 'true man' or 'transcendental man' of Taoism - never identifies himself with external reality. By never acting directly, by not externalizing his own ego through self-affirmation, and by, instead, actively renouncing to 'be' and to 'act' in a direct and conditioned way, the Perfect One achieves what is truly essential. Thus, he enters the Way and makes himself intangible, inexhaustible, invulnerable and insusceptible to any external attempt to subdue him or render him impotent. By virtue of such a process, the Perfect One also becomes capable of acting in a subtle, invisible and magical way: this is the meaning of the expression wei-wu-wei ('to act without acting'), which is also defined as the virtue (té) of the Way (Tao).I was to discuss the principles of Taoism, as described by Lao Tzu, in a more faithful and precise manner about thirty-six years later, in 1959, when I was encouraged by a friend to write a second introduction to the Tao-té-ching. [...]It is only in my later commentary on the text that I clearly emphasized how Taoism is defined by a kind of 'immanent transcendence': by the direct presence of non-being (in its positive sense of supra-ontological essentiality) within being, of the infinitely remote (the 'Sky') in what is close, and of what is beyond nature within nature. Only then did I clearly point out that Taoism is equally remote from both pantheistic immanence and transcendence, as it is founded on the direct sort of experience which underlies the specific existential structure of primeval humanity. [...]JULIUS EVOLA
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