Summary of Julius Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The fundamental doctrine of the two natures is that there is a physical order of things and a metaphysical one. There is a mortal nature and an immortal one. There is a superior realm of being and an inferior realm of becoming.

#2 The world of being and the world of becoming affect things, demons, and men. Every hypostatic representation of these two regions, whether expressed in astral, mythological, theological, or religious terms, reminded traditional man of the existence of the two states.

#3 The traditional world believed that spirituality was something beyond life and death. It believed that mere physical existence is meaningless unless it approximates the higher world or that which is more than life.

#4 Every traditional civilization has a class of people who, by virtue of their innate or acquired superiority over the human condition, embody within the temporal order the living and efficacious presence of a power that comes from above.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669398493

IRB Media

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Insights on Julius Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The fundamental doctrine of the two natures is that there is a physical order of things and a metaphysical one. There is a mortal nature and an immortal one. There is a superior realm of being and an inferior realm of becoming.

#2

The world of being and the world of becoming affect things, demons, and men. Every hypostatic representation of these two regions, whether expressed in astral, mythological, theological, or religious terms, reminded traditional man of the existence of the two states.

#3

The traditional world believed that spirituality was something beyond life and death. It believed that mere physical existence is meaningless unless it approximates the higher world or that which is more than life.

#4

Every traditional civilization has a class of people who, by virtue of their innate or acquired superiority over the human condition, embody within the temporal order the living and efficacious presence of a power that comes from above.

#5

The most important foundation of the authority and right of kings and chiefs in the world of Tradition was their transcendent and nonhuman quality. The more people acknowledged the ontological rank of what was prior and superior to the visible and temporal dimension, the more such beings were invested with a natural and absolute sovereign power.

#6

In Tradition, kingship was often associated with the solar symbol. In the king, people saw the same glory and victory proper to the sun and to the light, which every morning overcomes darkness.

#7

The solar principle was present in the Egyptian king, who was believed to descend from the gods. The Egyptian pharaoh was reconfirmed in his role through rituals that reproduced the victory of the solar god Horus over Typhon-Set, a demon from the netherworld.

#8

The king, as a son of heaven, is believed to have nonhuman origins. He enjoys the mandate of heaven, which implies the idea of a real and supernatural force. This force acts without acting through an immaterial presence.

#9

The king’s or chief’s primary and essential function was to perform those ritual and sacrificial actions that constituted the center of gravity of life. The king, as one who could eminently actualize the power of the rites, appeared as one who could open the way leading to the superior world.

#10

The king was required to retain the symbolic and solar dignity of invictus, as well as the state of inner equilibrium that corresponds to the Chinese notion of immutability in the middle. Otherwise, the force and its prerogatives would be transferred to another person who could prove worthy of it.

#11

The ancient tradition about a female source of royal power is also connected with the idea that a king is able to manifest signs of his supernatural nature. This is why, according to Maistre, people have always venerated kings.

#12

God makes kings in the literal sense. He prepares royal races, and when they are mature, he reveals their origin under a cloud that conceals it. They appear at last crowned with glory and honor.

#13

The regal function is connected to a cycle of symbols and myths that point back in the same one direction through their various representations and analogical transpositions. The cakravartin, or universal king, is the archetype of the regal function.

#14

The Indo-Aryan formula for consecrating the king states that he should remain steady and unwavering, like a mountain. The Egyptian tradition states that stability is an essential attribute that complements the attribute of power-life.

#15

The cakravartin is also known as the Lord of Peace, and he is also the Lord of the Law and Lord of Justice. These three attributes are central to his role as a king.

#16

The king of justice is the universal king, and he is the one who established the castes, assigned the offices, and established the rites. He determined the ethical and sacred system that was called dharmanga in Aryan India, and that in other traditions was the local ritual system that determined the norms for regulating individual and collective life.

#17

The traditional society's view of the law and the state is closely related to the order of ideas that I have been discussing so far. In the Vedas, the term ṛta has the same meaning as dharma, and it not only refers to the order in the world but also truth, law, and reality.

#18

The idea that laws can be broken and people should