The Individual and the Becoming of the World
by Julius Evola
Translated by Cologero Salvo
“The Individual and the Becoming of the World”, originally published
as “L’Individuo e il divenire del mondo” in 1925, was based on two
lectures presented to the Independent Theosophical League of Rome, and
subsequently updated by the author in 1973. Evola considered this work
to be a synthesis of his system which is fully developed in these
works: “Essays on Magical Idealism”, “The Theory of the Absolute
Individual”, and “The Yoga of Power”. Now, the first work is an
introduction, the second is a rigorous and exhaustive exposition, and
the third is its development as praxis. Evola thus connects his
critical and theoretical philosophy with doctrines and techniques
belonging to “traditional” wisdom, particularly in this case, Tantra.
It
is important to note that, as Evola wrote in his autobiography, it was
not philosophy that led him to seek out Traditional wisdom, but rather
the opposite. It was his spiritual practice that led him to elaborate a
suitable philosophical system. So, he asserts, metanoia – or “change in
polarity” – does not come from thought, but rather from the deed, which
then becomes a philosophic principle and not its conclusion.
The
first lecture describes the growth of consciousness through three
stages: from naive realism, to the quest for certainty in science and
religion, finally to self-realisation through magical idealism. The
world, then, is my Will. The second lecture makes a clear distinction
between knowledge which leads to the surpassing of philosophy through
the path of the absolute Individual – that is the knowledge of the
“mystery” schools, in particular, the Dionysian initiation – and the
knowledge of religions, as exemplified in Christianity. The former is
the way of the warrior, the latter of mystical asceticism.
