Opinion - Julius Evola and His Beliefs: A Very Short Introduction

Evola is perhaps one of the greatest, yet most misunderstood authors and thinkers of the 20th century, and for good reason. Without a good understanding of the Baron’s core beliefs, his writings can seem very self-contradictory. An example of this would be his opinion on what Evola calls “personality”. In some essays, Evola would write about how individualism and the ego is a major problem in modern society but then go on to say that collectivism is also a sign of decadence and social decay. In other essays, Evola on one hand would tell readers to abandon the ego but then at the same time say that society should return to those times where personality was dominant. In yet other essays, Evola would argue for what he calls “imperialism” but then criticize nationalism for its highly belligerent nature and desire to expand territory.

This article thus aims to provide a short and easy to read introduction so that newer readers can better understand the ideas the Baron is trying to communicate.

Traditionalist

Evola is first and foremost a Traditionalist. As a Traditionalist, he therefore accepts the existence of an ultimate reality, he also accepts the existence of man being a unity of 3 parts: body, mind and soul, where the body must ultimately be commanded by the mind. This is because Evola believes that body is analogous to matter and matter by itself is entirely formless and chaotic, therefore just like how the arrangement and direction of matter originates from higher forces, the direction of the body must also originate from something higher than the body, in this case the mind. Evola also believes that inside any individual there resides two natures, the higher, authentic, essential Self (you could even say a person’s true self) that represents something greater than mere day-to-day living and the existing self (what Evola may possibly call the ego). Therefore, Evola believes that for a man to be truly a man (“personality” as described by Evola), he must first know his essential Self, his “true ideal” of sorts and then work to actualize it into existence.

politics

Based on this, it becomes easier to understand Evola’s political opinions. Since a man is defined by his adherence to his ideal, the state must necessarily be defined by its ideal, its ultimate destination as well. This means the state’s actions is not just justified by a will-to-power, a state’s actions are also justified based on its ideal, which is absolute in nature. Also, just as how a man is a unity of various parts, the same applies to the state; just like a man, a state is also a unity of various parts. Hence Evola’s belief in the caste system, although there are two castes that correspond to the body portion of man. These castes are the politico-spiritual caste (Brahmin), the warrior caste (Kshatriya), the bourgeois caste (Vaishya) and finally the workers, the proletariat, the peasant class (Shudra). Since the parts of the body are in a union, the castes, the social classes in a state must therefore be in a union as well. Since just like how the mind must command the body, so the caste that best corresponds to the mind, the Brahmins, must command the other members of the social order and in turn those in command, just like how a man must conform to his ideal, must not act out of pure self-interest, but in service to something higher than themselves and absolute in nature. In other words, Evola transcends both individualism (in the libertarian sense) and collectivism (“will of the people”, usually referring to the raw mass of people) with the absolute ideal, which some might even call the Absolute Individual.

Modernity

Therefore, about modernity, Evola naturally concludes that in the “modern” era, what is normal and healthy has been entirely flipped on its head. The needs of the body now attempt to override that of the mind and soul, with members of modern society being so focused on material wealth and making as much money as possible, how everything is framed in terms of some kind of “material need”. The body now attempts to command the mind itself, with the prevalent idea being that democracy, the will of the mass of people, is the most preferable, most moral form of government.

This barely scratches the surface of what Evola thinks in my opinion, but I do hope that it provides some sort of foundation that newer initiates into Evola’s thinking can refer to whenever the Baron seems to contradict himself. I highly recommend that readers purchase for themselves a copy of Metaphysics of Power, a collection of essays written by Evola, compiled and published by Arktos Media, which can be bought from Amazon at the time of this article’s publication (15 October 2022). Keith Woods also has done some videos on Evola which provide some insight into the thought of the Baron.