In 'Centri iniziatici e la storia', Julius Evola examined the
relations between initiatory centres and the course of modern
history. Initiatory centres are supposed to be the bearers of
supernatural influences, and one of their main function is to
transmit them to qualified individuals within the context of
initiation, that is, within a purely spiritual context ; yet, they
can have an 'external use' : they can be used as 'powers', which are
supposed to exercise a determinant influence on historical events. If
initiatory centres and their representatives still have supernatural
influences, how come they have not used them, as 'powers', for
instance, in moments of historical danger such as those which Tibet
experienced during its invasion by the Chinese troops? It is not the
place here to mention the various hypotheses brought forward by Evola
to explain why, according to him, they were not used, and to which,
anyway, we alluded in previous posts.
According to 'The Shadow of the Dalai Lama', however, they were used.
A few examples are given, which we quote here for those who haven't
had time to read this book through yet:
"Towards the end of the forties the Gelugpa lamas sent Kschetrapala
into battle against the Chinese. He was cast into a roughly three-
yard high sacrificial cake (or torma). This was then set alight
outside Lhasa, and whilst the priests lowered their victory banner
the demon freed himself and flew in the direction of the threatened
border with his army. A real battle of the spirits took place here,
as a "nine-headed Chinese demon", who was assumed to have assisted
the Communists in all matters concerning Tibet, appeared on the
battlefield. Both spirit princes (the Tibetan and the Chinese) have
been mortal enemies for centuries. Obviously the nine-headed emerged
from this final battle of the demons as the victor.
The Chinese claim that 21 individuals were killed in this enemy
ritual so that their organs could be used to construct the huge
torma. Relatives of the victims are supposed to have testified to
this (Grunfeld, 1996, p. 29). Now, one could with good reason doubt
the Chinese accusations because of the political situation between
the "Middle Kingdom" and the "Roof of the World", but not because
they contradict the logic of Tibetan rites of war - these have been
recorded in numerous tantric texts.
Likewise in the middle of last century, the Yellow Hats from the
Samye monastery were commissioned by the Tibetan government with the
task of capturing the army of the red tsan demons in four huge "cross-
hairs" in order to then send them off against the enemies of the Land
of Snows. This magic instrument, a right-angled net of many-colored
threads, stood upon a multistage base, each of which was filled with
such tantric substances as soil form charnel fields, human skulls,
murder weapons, the tips of the noses, hearts, and lips of men who
died an unnatural death, poisonous plants, and similar things. The
repulsive mixture was supposed to attract the tsan like a moth to a
candle, so that they would become inescapably caught in the spells
said over the spirit trap (Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1955, p. 258).
Following the seven-day deep meditation of a high lama it was ready
and the demons could be given the command to set out against the
enemy.
Such a ritual is also said to have summoned up a terrible earthquake
and great panic in Nepal in earlier times, when Tibet was at war with
the Nepalese. Experience had shown, however, that it sometimes takes
a long time before the effects of such harmful rites are felt. It
took two decades after the successful occupation of Tibet by the
English (in 1904) before there was an earthquake in the Indian
province of Bihar in which a number of British soldiers lost their
lives. The Tibetans also traced this natural disaster back to magical
activities which they had conducted prior to the invasion."
Various sources confirm that "since time immemorial ritual magic
and politics have been one in Tibet. A large proportion of these
magic practices are devoted to the annihilation of enemies, and
especially to the neutralizing of political opponents. The help of
demons was necessary for such ends. And they could be found
everywhere — the Land of Snows all but overflowed with terror gods,
fateful spirits, vampires, ghouls, vengeful goddesses, devils,
messengers of death and similar entities (...)." Here, it is clear
that those 'powers' are not an end in themselves ; of course, their
use is supposed to bring advantages, but these advantages are not of
the same order as those which the so-called 'occultists' whom Guénon
had in view when he wrote 'So-called psychic 'Powers'', the twenty-
first chapter of 'Perspectives on initiation', try to get, by using
those 'powers', whether they do have them or they are led to think
they have them. Now, he disagrees with Evola to a certain extent in
emphasising that those 'powers' have absolutely nothing to do with
spirituality and initiation ; to the extent that, if they are not
part of the same plane as spiritual influences, they can be
considered as applications of the latter on a lower plane.
Incidentally, as often in Guénon's work, the actual content of a
chapter doesn't correspond completely to its title, its guiding idea.
Here, the word 'Powers' put in quotation marks and preceded by the
epithet 'so-called' suggests that the existence of psychic powers is,
to say the least, doubtful, when, in the chapter in question, their
existence is acknowledged. Certainly, Guénon's aim here was to warn
people against the danger which consists in mistaking 'spiritual
powers' for 'psychic powers', a confusion which was made by most
occultists at that time. However, both exists, each on their own
plane.
As for the claim, made by Guénon in this chapter of 'Perspectives on
Initiation', that modern Europeans are characterised by a "passion
for phenomena", any Westerner who travelled through Asia in the
1920's or in the 1930's was aware that this claim was wishful
thinking, and that Asians share this passion with modern Europeans.
--- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "evola_as_he_is"
<evola_as_he_is@y...> wrote:
>
> In the years 1960, Julius Evola exchanged some letters with Titus
> Burckhardt, an author known especially for his works on Islamic art
> and architecture. This correspondance was centred on a question
> tackled by René Guénon in works such as 'Le Règne de la quantité et
> les signes des temps', 'Aperçus sur l'initiation' and 'Le Roi du
> monde', that of initiation and initiatory centres. On this point as
> on many others, Burckhardt agreed with the French metaphysician.
This
> position, however, is theoretical. While sharing it to a large
> extent, Julius Evola, faithful to his habit of considering all
> spiritual questions from a practical point of view, put it to the
> test of reality and history. He asked all the questions which it
> should raise in the mind of any reader heedful of the link between
> theory and practice.
>
> 'Centri iniziatici e la storia" was published in the magazine 'Vie
> della tradizione' in 1971 and was included by Evola in the second
> edition of "L'arco e la clava" (Vanni Scheiwiller - all'insegna del
> Pesce d'Oro, Milan, 1971), his last work, constituted of texts of
his
> lectures and of essays, already published, for some, in papers and,
> for others, completely new. A new French translation of this essay
> can be found at
http://thompkins_cariou.tripod.com/id63.html
>
> Incidentally, let's point out that this question is closely linked
to
> that of the élite, whose formation both Guénon and Evola called for.
>
> Thompkins&Cariou
>