ment provided by a benefactress. Following his last will and testament he
was cremated, and his ashes deposited in a glacier cleft on Monte Rosa.
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65
Postwar writings
In 1958 a further major work appeared: The Metaphysics of Sex ( Metafisica del
sesso).43 Evola saw sex as almost the only possibility for today’s man to get
some sense of a transcendent “higher world.” For thereby man most readily
lets his everyday “I” fall away and can open himself to transcendent spheres.
Evola’s political attitude finally altered— partly because a practical
application of his ideas seemed impossible given the lack of qualified
followers— to an apoliteia, an attitude exempt from mundane political
efforts. This concept, originating with the Stoics, is found in Evola’s most
controversial book, Ride the Tiger ( Cavalcare la tigre),44 which sold well. It
is the most pessimistic and misunderstood of Evola’s books. There are
two possible meanings to apoliteia. One sees it as a call to complete retreat
from all politics; the other holds that political activity is still possible, but
that one should not allow oneself to be inwardly affected by it. Many took
this as meaning that one must act absolutely uncompromisingly. In the
years of unrest among Roman youth, when leftist students also began to
read Evola, opinions— already exacerbated by the Cold War— became ever
more radical and street fighting more violent, with many killed.
A few young people saw the book as even justifying terrorist activities,
although Evola had expressly stated that this was a book intended “for a
particular human type,” and that it “does not concern the ordinary man
of today.”45 It was meant only for those who feel that they belong to the
“world of Tradition.” An excellent discussion of this issue is Gianfranco
de Turris’s Praise and Defence of Julius Evola: The Baron and the Terrorists.46
Evola also wrote in the journal of the New Order Study Center ( Centro
Studi Ordine Nuovo).47 A series of terrorist attacks was long blamed on cer-
tain members of this order, but many now attribute most of these attacks
to the “strategy of tension,” a controversial episode of the Cold War.48
Evola, then, was hardly the spiritual leader of the terrorists as some have
portrayed him, though individual actors did read him.
Later reception
Although Evola was never a member of the Fascist Party, his involve-
ment with Fascism, National Socialism, and anti- Semitism had the result
that after the Second World War he was at first little read, except by his
dedicated enemies or followers. Only after his death, and since the late
1980s, has he again been widely discussed. Translations into French were
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published first. Italians who had fled from Italy to France and England
also contributed to the dissemination. An ever- increasing number of
translations have now made Evola widely known outside Italy, including
all of Eastern Europe and some Near- Eastern and South American regions.
The success of these publications is in part connected to Evola’s al-
most “magical” writing style, which is on the one hand precise and log-
ical, and on the other hand able to evoke “eternal” myths. Evola’s use of
myth connects him to J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings, which
revived interest in archetypal forces, with their polarization between
good and evil. It thereby also opened a door to Evola’s world of Tradition.
Authors such as the mythologist Joseph Campbell, and the Star Wars
films, reaching millions of viewers, also contributed to the process. In
Italy there was a successful movement called “Campo Hobbit,” in which
students who wanted to get beyond the old rightist ideas came under the
influence of former Evola admirers, such as Marco Tarchi.49
Evola was first published by esoteric publishers. In Italy it was Edizioni
Mediterranee, the country’s largest esoteric publisher, who obtained Evola’s
copyrights. In the German- speaking world, Ansata Verlag published the
first German translations. In the Anglophone world, Inner Traditions, the
largest esoteric publisher in the US, marketed Evola in English. Then,
in 2010, Evola’s political works began to appear from Arktos in London.
Only in France was Evola’s promotion divided between publishers of es-
otericism and religious history on the one hand, and on the other, the
predominantly political house of Pardès in Puiseaux. The root of Evola’s
wide- ranging reception seems to lie primarily in the power of myth and
esotericism, then, and not in his political persuasiveness.
Today, however, works outlining Evola’s worldview and political ideas,
with their successful blend of myth with social questions, sell in greater
numbers than the esoteric writings. His linguistic radicalism and uncom-
promising statements have often touched the nerves of a youth culture
which, after the uprisings of 1968, wanted to combat capitalist finance
and the excesses of consumer culture. Youth of both rightist and leftist
tendencies shared this furious opposition. Hence a parallel has even been
suggested between the statements of Evola and Marcuse.50 Evola has also
entered into the alternative music scene with groups like Blood Axis, Von
Thronstahl, Allerseelen, or Ain Soph, though it is unclear whether they
really share Evola’s worldview, or just use his name.
Ironically, a further cause for Evola’s wider reception is the often fierce
reaction of his philosophical opponents to the increasing publication
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67
of Evola’s works. Most notably, Umberto Eco’s enraged commentaries
reached far and wide, thanks to his fame, and led to more curiosity and
higher sales for Evola.
Conclusion
Can one truly say that Evola is the most significant thinker of the Italian
Right? It is correct inasmuch as Evola was perhaps the only intellectual
to have offered a comprehensive rightist challenge to the dominant anti-
Fascist worldview. But it is also wrong, because only a few representatives
of the Right accept Evola’s equation of the Right with tradition. Many, like
the New Right in Italy, even speak of this as a “politically disabling myth.”
Evola’s worldwide reception by the radical Right came at a cost, since, as
the legal philosopher Anna Jellamo says, “it necessarily led to a partial or
even reductive view.”51 Taking single elements of Evola’s works as equiv-
alent to the whole has often resulted in a flawed criticism, due to such
limited or reductive views. Any political reading of Evola needs above all
to notice the primacy of the transcendent.
Notes
1. Although there are already around eighty books on Evola, most of which are po-
litical, there is still no comprehensive biography covering Evola’s multifarious
interests.
2. Further details in H. T. Hakl, “Julius Evola: War er nun Baron—
oder doch
nicht?” Gnostika 60 (May 2017): 75– 83.
3. Julius Evola, The Path of Cinnabar (London: Integral Tradition, 2009), 10.
4. Julius Evola, “Sorpassamento del Superuomo,” in Il nihilismo attivo di Federico
Nietzsche (Rome: Europa Libreria, 2000), 26– 40. First published 1934.
5. Otto Weininger, Sex and Character (New York: A. L. Burt Co., 1906), 159.
6. Evola, Path of Cinnabar, 6.
7. Majjhima- nikāya I, 1.
8. Evola, Path of Cinnabar, 15– 16.
9. Julius Evola (Iagla), “Experiences: The Law of Beings,” in Introduction to Magic
(Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2001), 167– 172.
10. Julius Evola, Meditations on the Peaks (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1998).
11. Julius Evola, Saggi sull’idealismo magico (Todi– Rome: Atanòr, 1925).
12. Hans Thomas Hakl, “Deification as a Core Theme in Julius Evola’s Esoteric
Works,” Correspondences (forthcoming).
13. Evola, Path of Cinnabar, 13.
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14. Ibid., 19– 20.
15. Assessorato alla Cultura, Regione Lombardia, Julius Evola e l’Arte delle
Avanguardie. Mostra Palazzo Bagatti- Valsecchi, October 15– November 29, 1998.
16. Ibid.
17. Julius Evola, Teoria dell’individuo assoluto (Turin: Bocca, 1927); Fenomenologia
dell’individuo assoluto (Turin: Bocca, 1930).
18. Ibid., 12.
19. Julius Evola, Saggi sull’idealismo magico (Todi– Rome: Atanòr, 1925), 100.
20. Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions,
1995), 116– 117.
21. No English translation. Only Evola’s second work on Tantra has been translated
as The Yoga of Power (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1992).
22. English translation: https:// de.scribd.com/ document/ 359983564/ Julius- Evola-
Pagan- Imperialism 36.
23. Renato Del Ponte, “Julius Evola and the Ur Group,” Introduction to Magic
(Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2001). This is the first of the three volumes of
Ur- Krur monographs. The second is forthcoming. For details, see Hans Thomas
Hakl, “Julius Evola and the Ur Group,” Aries 12, no. 1 (2012): 53– 90.
24. https:// youtu.be/ r6NdDMg8DTQ
25. Julius Evola, Rivolta contro il mondo moderno (Milano: Hoepli, 1934); Revolt
Against the Modern World (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1995).
26. Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, 7.
27. Evola translated and commented on extracts from Bachofen’s work in 1949 as Le
madri e la virilità olimpica (Milan: Bocca, 1949).
28. Evola’s aversion to Christianity is not complete but directed above all against
its modern currents. Significant former followers of his have found their way,
thanks to his teachings, to a traditionally aware Christianity.
29. Gottfried Benn, review of Erhebung wider die moderne Welt by Julius Evola, Die
Literatur 37 (1934/ 35): 283– 287.
30. Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2002). The
sole English academic work on Evola’s political writings, which also compe-
tently treats his philosophical but unfortunately not his esoteric writings, is Paul
Furlong, Social and Political Thought of Julius Evola (London: Routledge, 2011).
See also H. T. Hansen [Hakl], “Julius Evola’s Political Endeavors,” in Evola’s Men
Among the Ruins (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2002), 1– 106. A well- informed
but very critical position regarding Evola’s political views is Francesco Cassata, A
destra del fascismo (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2003).
31. Julius Evola, Orientamenti. English translation on https:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2015/ 01/ orientations.
32. Summary in H. T. Hansen [Hakl], Julius Evola et la révolution conservatrice alle-
mande (Montreuil- sous- Bois: Les Deux Étendards, 2002).
33. Lettere di Julius Evola a Carl Schmitt 1951– 1963 (Rome: Fondazione Julius Evola,
2000). Includes three essays on Schmitt by Evola.
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Julius Evola and Tradition
69
34. Julius Evola, L’ “Operaio” nel pensiero di Ernst Jünger (Rome: Armando, 1960).
35. Evola, Path of Cinnabar, 221<.IBT>.
36. Ibid., 206.
37. Julius Evola, Fascism Viewed from the Right (London: Arktos, 2013).
38. Julius Evola, “Stirpe e spiritualità,” in Vita Nova ( 1925– 1933) (Rome: Settimo
Sigillo, 1999).
39. Werner Sombart, Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (Leipzig: Duncker and
Humblot, 1911).
40. Weininger, Sex and Character.
41. Evola’s fundamental report is in “Con Mussolini al Quartier Generale di Hitler”
in Mito e realtà del fascismo, ed. Gianfranco de Turris (Rome: Fondazione Julius
Evola, 2014), 133– 151.
42. See Dana Lloyd Thomas, Julius Evola e la tentazione razzista (Mesagne: Giordano,
2006); Gianfranco de Turris, Julius Evola, un filosofo in guerra 1943–
1945
(Rome: Mursia, 2016).
43. Julius Evola, The Metaphysics of Sex (New York: Inner Traditions, 1983).
44. Julius Evola, Ride the Tiger (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2003).
45. Ibid., 2. Even Paul Furlong, a political scientist at the University of Cardiff, who
is certainly no friend of Evola but reads him in the original language, writes that
Evola “emphasizes that this is a specifically spiritual discussion.” Mark Sedgwick
also shows great discrimination in his very detailed chapter, “Terror in Italy,” in
Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the
Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 179– 189.
46. Gianfranco de Turris, Elogio e difesa di Julius Evola: Il Barone e i terroristi
(Rome: Edizioni Mediterranee, 1997). The book is admittedly written by the
president of the Evola Foundation in Rome but has a foreword by Giorgio Galli,
a leftist political scientist at Milan University. Galli writes (9) that he undertook
this foreword after long doubts, “because he was convinced that the documenta-
tion contained in it was complete and makes the point regarding a question of
indubitable historical value.”
47. Julius Evola, I Testi di Ordine Nuovo (Padua: Edizioni di Ar, 2001).
48. Daniele Ganser, NATO’S Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in
Western Europe (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005).
49. Apiù Mani, Hobbit / Hobbit (Rome: LEDE, 1982); Alessandro Portelli, “Tradizione
e meta- tradizione,” in Fascismo oggi (Cuneo: Istituto Storico della Resistenza,
1982), 287– 310.
50. Giano Accame, “Evola e Marcuse,” in Il fascismo immenso e rosso (Rome: Settimo
Sigillo, 1990), 137– 142.
51. Anna Jellamo, “J. Evola, il pensatore della tradizione,” in La destra radicale
(Milan: Feltrinelli, 1984), 215– 247.
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PART II
Modern Thinkers
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5
Alain de Benoist and
the New Right
Jean- Yves Camus
A L A I N D E B E N O I S T was born in 1943 in Saint- Symphorien, near Tours,
France. He is considered the main thinker of the so- called Fr
ench New
Right ( nouvelle droite), an intellectual movement established in France
in 1968 in order to rethink European identity and challenge both then-
dominant Marxism and the mainstream liberal Right. Since the early
1990s, the French New Right has been influential beyond France, espe-
cially in Italy, Germany, and Belgium, and has inspired Alexander Dugin
in Russia. Part of the American radical Right and “Alt Right” also claims
to have been inspired by de Benoist’s writings. Although this is question-
able, de Benoist and Dominique Venner are also seen as the forefathers
of the “identitarian” movement in Europe. De Benoist has published one
hundred and six books and more than two thousand articles, which have
been translated into fourteen languages.1 He is the editor of the annual
publication Nouvelle école ( New School) and the editorial writer for the
monthly magazine Eléments, the two flagship publications of the French
New Right. He is also the director of a quarterly publication, Krisis.
The goal of de Benoist and the French New Right is similar to that of the
1930s Non- Conformists (a French group that called for a nontotalitarian “new
order”)2 and is even closer to that of the German Conservative Revolution,
on which they draw heavily. De Benoist was introduced to the Conservative
Revolution by Ernst Jünger’s former secretary, Armin Mohler, while the
latter was a journalist in Paris.3 True to his Conservative Revolutionary
beliefs, de Benoist still sets himself the goal of having a critical approach
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toward the mainstream conservatism that is, in the French context, heir to
the Gaullist party and to the authoritarian Right of the nineteenth century.4
He agrees with mainstream conservatives on such matters as keeping tra-
ditional Western values and having a holistic vision of society,5 but strongly
rejects free- market economics, the primacy of human rights, and the
Christian heritage.
Career
De Benoist generally keeps quiet about his private life.6 He is married to a
German- born wife and has two children. His avowed passion is collecting
books (and reading them), his private library containing 250,000 volumes.
Key Thinkers of the Radical Right Page 14
