'Imperialismo pagano' gives the impression of having been â€" and was
indeed - written hastily, and so does ‘Warning against 'Ignis'’: no
wonder : given the harshness of Reghini’s allegations and his attempts
to undermine Evola's seriousness and credibility, a ready answer was
necessary. It sounds just as harsh, even up to the point of not being
devoid of personal attacks, which, however, remain â€" understandingly -
allusive, alluding to facts and circumstances only known by the
addressee and, maybe, his close friends. The net-like structure of
long, endlessly long, convoluted sentences does not make things easier
for the reader either.
Nevertherless :
Warning against 'Ignis'
Ur-Krur editorship
Some kind of review, 'Ignis', run by a guy who is known to the public
only because of his long hair flowing to the shoulders and for being
the dubious protagonist of an erotico-senile novel by Sibilla Aleramo
(1), has just been published in Rome. Lacking any personality, this
brave young man is only an instrument in the hands of Dr. Arturo Reghini.
As a premise : 'Ignis' means to give people the utterly fanciful
impression that it originates from Ur. Ur has its principle in itself.
Nothing has preceded it. Its sole editor has always been the one who
now runs 'Krur', so that Ur continues without interruption. Our
friends have received 'Ignis' only because some of our addresses have
been taken. This is one of the reasons that has made this defence
necessary.
Due to some of his qualities as a scholar interested in esotericism,
we once thought we could accept Reghini in our work, closing not one,
but both eyes to the fact that, as later shown by experience itself,
there could not exist anything in common between us. After having been
thrown out from 'Ur', Reghini and his acolyte in 'Ignis' think of
attacking us by means of a sterile and personal controversy, without
realising that they only play in the adversaries' hands : few words
are enough to show the dishonesty and the inconsistency of these vague
impulses.
'Ur' is accused of nothing less than plagiarism, because of an article
by 'Zam' on the heathen conspiracy that was published in the issue
10-11. Since the conspiracy exists, to translate it is certainly not
plagiarism, nor can the short commentary of it, which is original, be
called so. It is a mere review of a few lines about the discovery of
the text, which 'Zam' did not deem necessary to render in a very
different form from the one which, it seems, was published in an old
issue of 'Civiltà cattolica'. As a result : "X- day Mr. Z found a
statue", and, to report this, he used almost the same expression,
instead of creating, in a surge of... genius, one such as : "A statue
was unearthed by Mr. Z on day X", which would make him a genuine
plagiarist! Reghini, to make this dreadful 'j'accuse', signs 'The
Vicar of Satan' - but there is every reason to say : Vicar, and how !
Satan, and how ! Satan would send him in limbo â€" to where one who does
not know what he does, and even less what he says!
And, as if this blow was not enough, Reghini launches a head-on attack
against J. Evola himself, mainly against the work 'Imperialismo
pagano' : and, here, the goal goes much further, for those who are
aware of the whole game. Having written some kind of article in which
the term 'imperialism pagano' is often used, Reghini, to whom
'plagiarism' must be some kind of idée fixe, almost accuses Evola of
having appropriated his doctrine, trying his best to hide where it
comes from. Reghini’s self-centred, narrow, envious mentality, bound,
as that of a sophist, a pedant and an elementary school teacher, to
matters of form, puts up a good show, for the reader's edification
(and he does not even have the loyalty to sign the article with his
own name). Does Reghini seriously believe that the fact that the
heathen conception of life is the most coherent premise of any
imperialism is a 'discovery' of which he has the privilege, and not a
simple obvious fact for all those who turn their attention to it? Does
Reghini seriously believe that Evola, whose doctrine on values of
power, of domineering personality, of spiritual superiority, was
already fully developed before he knew him, needed to borrow from him
ideas which had remained confined within Masonic lodges and circles of
blasphemers in third-rate Tuscan inns to reach what is only the direct
application of this doctrine on the political plane?
If Reghini, instead of using spectacles, which convince him that
errors in forms and in Latin is a mighty argument against the idea
(3), used eyes, it would not take him much to realise the whole
difference which, on the spiritual plane, exists between his pagan
imperialism and Evola's, which is heroic, strongly individualised,
foreign to any other hierarchy other than the one which free forces
create on their own, and which is based on a magical and warlike
spirituality, on caste traditions and aristocratic traditions, and not
on sects. Evola, with a Roman scorn for any compromise, did not
hesitate to expound without attenuation his thesis on Fascist papers,
which raised a true storm of attacks from the Guelph side. Reghini
then found it appropriate to declare his disagreement with Evola.
Besides a quality which is not precisely that of a Roman fighter, and
which we do not want to describe here, there must surely have been in
this disagreement the clear feeling of this difference between his
pagan imperialism and Evola's.
In any case, if it is true that the spirit of Evola's 'Imperialismo
pagano' is derived, not from Reghini, but from the 'magical idealism'
of Evola himself, the work in question appears nonetheless as the
emanation of a group, of a tradition, of a movement, and thus as a
synthesis in which there can indeed be elements that can be found
separately here and there : certainly, in Guénon, in Rougier, in
Nietzsche, but essentially in someone who is an 'outsider' and who
smiles to these most profane obsessions of 'precedence' of Reghini.
Besides, this is an argument only for glasses substituted for eyes :
it would be just as sensible to say that every Tom is not every Tom,
but bread, flesh, wine, since, eating, he has assimilated in his
organism bread, flesh and wine. Thus, it is not even spectacles, but
definitely deliberate blindness, when he does not read these words, on
p.16 : "The persons of the speaker and of those who join him in the
same spiritual reality are insignificant compared to this reality"
(4). Reghini thus seems to be unaware that, albeit individualist, one
can stand on a plane on which one could do whatever one wants, on
which the petty concern for the 'person', for the 'I', for the 'you',
for the fact of having said something before X or Y, does not exist,
and the only law is instead to use impersonally everything which
concerns the goal. Thinking he measures, he actually measures himself,
and he turns out to be as far from the 'style' of an 'initiate' as one
could possibly be.
Try to force Reghini to speak explicitly of the hierarchy which, with
a tone of town crier and mysterious and 'occultist' words, he supports
: he will shun at any cost. But, in our presence, and in the presence
of witnesses, he once could not do it and ended up stating that his
'hierarchy' followed the Grand Orient. Free-Masonry is thus the deus
ex machina of this smoky and pseudo-initiatory parry (5). Reghini
should rest assured that people who have nothing to do and have never
wanted anything to do with his sect and his not-disavowed personality
of Free-Mason leader, seeing in Free-Masonry a dead remain devoid of
any initiatory spirit, degraded in mean political and sectarian
intrigues - he should rest assured that these people, while declaring
themselves, in this respect, free from any tradition and from any
hierarchy, can still teach him as much as he wants and for free
everything he does not know in terms of pure esoteric science (6).
This it is our duty to say, as a defence against those who would have
naively given any weight to the resounding words of Reghini and to his
attitudes of 'Master'. Let us add that, no matter this Sir’s
expertise... in Latin and in grammar - let us even grant him a certain
erudition in hermetic literature â€" as far as a true being and power
are concerned, with specific facts in our hands, we can surely invite
him to blow out his candles and to go to sleep reconciled with God.
An 'initiate' does not get grossly mystified by a cocaine-addict Fakir
in search of lucre as Tahra Bey, so much so that he accompanied him on
stage and he deemed him to be sent to form in Rome the elite of... the
western tradition on the basis of an institute most latinly called
Chawk (7).
An 'initiate', especially if he claims to be linked to a 'tradition',
is the bearer of an
objective force which can be felt in so irresistible a way as the heat
of a hot object : now,
Reghini (let us not mention, out of generosity, his acolyte with a
shouldered haircut), each time he has taken part in our chain
meetings, has brought nothing which would show the presence of a new
force, contrary to, as we’ve already said, others who actually were
someone, but not by jabbering or not through exhibitionisms. An
'initiate' sees : Reghini, to mention just one case, has been unable
to acknowledge the one who was close to him and who, for two years,
sent him writings, which he examined with attention without even
suspecting in the slightest who the author of these was (8) ; and, as
for 'power', it is enough to know that, to try to impede our action,
the... wizard found nothing better than to resort to mean legal
expedients, which, however, were paralysed at once. In truth,
Reghini's whole 'occultism' was limited to accidental and
semi-mediumnistic flashes which he owed to his physical mayhem (9),
which were devoid of any faculty of criticism, of discrimination, of
direction, and were very far from that conscious method of science, of
signification, of technique which we defend, and to which he too would
have the velleity to relate. Once again, to realise this, all there is
to do is to have him at your mercy : the ‘initiate' who in his book on
the Masonic 'Secret passwords' (10) asked cockily those who would like
to undergo the experiences of ancient mysteries to come to him will
come off with expedients, such as the one which consists in not
recognising that you have a 'hierarchical dignity' because you ask him
proof : which, really, seems to us somewhat... not much.
This is the true face of someone who pretends to judge the esoteric
ability, 'tradition' and
Romanity, not to mention the rest. It is only in this last respect
that there may be an exit ;
insofar as there are many Romanities and, besides the Romanity of the
patriciate and of the stoic and neo-Platonic autarchy, which,
naturally, neither him, nor anyone of his race understands, there is
much room for a Romanity of the Subura. And if others are sad to hear
this, rest assured that we are the first to be sad to say it.
When we say that, while being aware of all this, we thought we could
associate with Reghini for our work, we get our friends thinking as to
how little we care about what is only 'person'. Then, we declare that
it is not our fault if, out of sheer warning, we have had to proceed
to this unmasking, which will be finished, if necessary, elsewhere, as
deserves this hoaxer who pretends that his sect is 'hierarchy' and
that unhealthy phenomena between mediumnity and fakirism are the
initiatory science of ... sacred Romanity.
In our review (which, let us repeat, has never had anything to do with
the former 'Ignis' or with 'Atanor'), there is no room for
controversies and, after these lines, we proceed with calm into our
positive work. What 'Ignis' may further want to waste time with and
write, we are not in the slightest interested in knowing. This warning
may be enough once and for all, not for our friends, but rather so
that those who would hear of us from the Free-Mason Reghini and by his
cheerful young acolyte, know whom they are dealing with.
The Editorship of Ur-Krur
(1) Giulio Parise (1902-1970), called 'Luciano' in the novel 'Amo
dunque sono' (1927), where, besides, Julius Evola, as 'Bruno
Tellegra', is portrayed. (Note of the Ed.)
(2) That is, Evola himself. (Note of the Ed.)
(3) Reghini, flitting about in the work of Evola, deceives himself in
thinking that his mosquito-like bites against it can undermine its
value and its spirit. We declare that, if we
deigned to devote our space to this, we could refute them all, with
the only result of bringing to light either the bad faith or the
incomprehension, or both, of 'Ignis'. Bad faith, in any case, when it
comes to all these points to which it goes back, ignoring that we once
condescended to explain verbally and clearly to Reghini's acolyte why
the criticisms in question turn without gripping.
(4) This sentence, re-written and expanded, is also found in 'Heathen
Imperialism', p.30. (Note of the Ed.)
(5) Evola refers in all likelihood to the 'Egyptian Grand Orient' of
which the Kremmerz Hermetic School was part. (Note of the Ed.)
(6) The Massonism of Reghini is the reason why, if we had had to quote
someone, it would have been precisely him whom it would have been the
least advisable to quote. In 'Ur', we would sometimes 'censor'
passages by Reghini that aimed tendentiously and artificially at
establishing a continuity between our tradition, in its hermetic
forms, and Free-Masonry.
(7) It is worth knowing that the primary intention of 'Ignis' was, in
1925, to be the organ of the association between the fakir Tahra Bey
and the Free-Mason Reghini.
(8) About the amusing exegesis which Reghini makes of the initials of
J. Evola (who has never signed as 'Jules'), an exegesis which,
according to his chicken brain, would be enough to reveal a
megalomania, an 'autarchitis', a race for political success (!!!)- it
is enough to know that the sources of the severe initiate Reghni are
taken here from the jabber delivered on the matter by...a woman.
(9) According to Evola, Reghini's intuitions were induced by
'physiological alteration', as happens in the case of mediums
ectoplasmically in trance. Thus, these intuitions were not reliable,
were the result of neurasthenia.
(10) 'Le parole sacre e di passo dei primi tre gradi e il massimo
mistero massonico', Atanor, Todi-Rome, 1922. (Note of the Ed.)
P.s. : 'autarchitis' is a neologism coined by Reghini on terms for
diseases such as bronchitis. 'Autarchitis' is thus a disease affecting
those who feel they live in autarchy.