Julius Evola is one of the most debated figures of twentieth-century Italian esotericism. For some he was a sharp interpreter of Hermetic and Eastern doctrines; for many historians he was above all an ideologue who used the language of "Tradition" to support a hierarchical, anti-democratic and racist worldview. Here we approach him as a chapter in the history of ideas: reconstructing what he wrote and did, and keeping his scholarly work clearly distinct from its political consequences.
From the front to the avant-garde
Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola was born in Rome in 1898 and took part in the First World War as an artillery officer. In the early post-war years he was a painter and poet of the avant-garde: he joined Dadaism, corresponded with Tristan Tzara and exhibited abstract paintings. Some of his canvases are now held in museums of modern art.
In the early 1920s he abandoned painting for philosophy. In the Essays on Magical Idealism (1925) and the Theory of the Absolute Individual (1927) he tried to carry German and Italian idealism to an extreme conclusion: an ego that does not merely think the world but aspires to master it through the will.
The Ur Group
Between 1927 and 1929 Evola led the Ur Group together with Arturo Reghini, Giulio Parise and other contributors; it published a monthly review (first Ur, then Krur). The articles, often signed with pseudonyms, dealt with Hermeticism, ceremonial magic, yoga, the Pythagorean tradition and practices of concentration. Later collected in the volumes of Introduction to Magic, they are still read as a document of Italian esotericism between the wars.
The collaboration with Reghini ended in a rupture: Reghini accused Evola of appropriating his ideas in Pagan Imperialism (1928), a pamphlet urging Fascism to adopt a pre-Christian, anti-papal spirituality.
The works on Tradition
From the 1930s Evola, influenced by René Guénon, adopted the concept of Tradition: a superhuman, primordial knowledge of which ancient civilisations were supposedly an expression and from which the modern world had drifted away. The main works of this period are:
| Work | Year | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| The Hermetic Tradition | 1931 | Alchemy as a path of inner transformation |
| Revolt Against the Modern World | 1934 | Philosophy of history as decline from Tradition |
| The Mystery of the Grail | 1937 | The Grail cycle as a royal and initiatory myth |
| The Doctrine of Awakening | 1943 | A reading of early Buddhism as asceticism |
The Hermetic Tradition is perhaps his book closest to the themes of this site: it interprets alchemical symbols (black, white, red, the secret fire) as descriptions of states of consciousness. Here too, however, the reading is highly personal and bends the sources to a thesis decided in advance.
Race, regime and the post-war years
The point no honest presentation can avoid concerns his writings on race. Between 1937 and 1942 Evola published The Myth of Blood and Synthesis of the Doctrine of Race, proposing a "spiritual racism" that claimed to be superior to Nazi biologism but remained a racist doctrine, in the context of Italy's anti-Jewish laws of 1938. He contributed to regime publications and had contacts with German circles, while remaining an outsider to the official hierarchies.
In 1945, in Vienna, he was injured during a bombing raid and left paralysed in the lower limbs. After the war he wrote Men Among the Ruins (1953), Eros and the Mysteries of Love (1958) and Ride the Tiger (1961). In 1951 he was tried on charges of inspiring neo-fascist groups and was acquitted. He died in Rome in 1974.
His ideas were taken up by Italian and European far-right circles, including violent ones, and this is one of the reasons his figure continues to arouse deep mistrust. Scholars of Western esotericism now analyse him as a case of the entanglement between Traditionalism and radical politics.
How to read him today
For those who study tradition, Evola can be read as a historical source: he documents how Hermeticism and yoga were received in Italy in the early twentieth century. But he must be read with critical tools, remembering that:
- his historical reconstructions are often arbitrary and do not stand up to academic research;
- the concept of a single, primordial Tradition is a metaphysical hypothesis, not a documented fact;
- his hierarchical and racial vision is incompatible with an idea of inner work founded on the dignity of every person.
In short
- Julius Evola (1898-1974) moved from the Dadaist avant-garde to philosophy and then to esotericism.
- With Reghini he led the Ur Group (1927-1929), an important document of Italian esotericism.
- His works on Tradition, such as The Hermetic Tradition, offer personal and often arbitrary readings of the sources.
- His racist writings and the political use of his ideas call for a rigorously critical reading.
