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The Relationship Between Crowley and Evola (Part I)   Topic List   < Prev Topic  |  Next Topic >
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The Relationship Between Crowley and Evola (Part II)


At this point, a question must however absolutely be asked : can it be
thought that Evola did not hear anything of these negative stories
about him in the RISS? If it can, then he must have already known the
name of Crowley by 1928-1929. Why does he not speak of him then? Only
because he feared for his reputation, as is much understandable, which
he did not want to link to Crowley's in any way? At that time, he was
already in trouble, as will be seen later. Or was he motivated by
other motives? Did he want, as some will say, to hide something? There
are no answers to these questions, at any rate. Yet, the fact that he
had been in direct touch with Guénon (5) from 1927 leads us to think
that he had heard of the articles of the RISS on him : Guénon watched
closely this review and even criticised it in his reviews. In any
case, Evola spoke French.

Until new documents appear, it will not be possible to get right to
the bottom of these mysteries. To create an argument from these
missing elements and to say that, in spite of all, Evola and Crowley
were in contact with each other seems to me completely unfounded ;
there is no element of proof.

But there is another report of the political department of the Italian
police which could point - albeit most tenuously - to the existence of
a direct relation between Crowley and Evola. It dates back the 3rd of
March 1930, speaking indeed of presumed contacts between Evola and
German 'Illuminated'. Here, theoretically, the relation between Reuss
and Crowley comes into play again. As a matter of fact, in Germany,
there was a group called 'World-Wide League of the Illuminated', whose
origins are not clear, but which may have been founded by Reuss
himself around 1895. This 'World-Wide League' had at best a virtual,
and not real, contact with the historical Order of the Illuminated led
by Adam Weishaupt, and which had ceased to exist with the death of
Johann Joachim Bode in 1793. The well-known German esotericist writer
Leopold Engel purportedly joined it in 1896. However, Reuss and Engel
soon came into conflict with each other ; they became reconciled,
until they broke up again in 1902.

From then on, it seems that Reuss was not involved at all in the
'World-Wide League'. In 1903, Engel promulgated new rules for an Order
of the Illuminated in Dresde. Among other things, this group had to be
closed in 1924 by lack of members. In 1926, however, a new
registration is made in Berlin-Tempelhof, which refers again to a
'World-Wide League of the Illuminated'. Engel dies in 1932 and the
Order is disbanded the year after. At any event, no clues have been
found yet which would connect Engel with Evola or his 'Order of the
Illuminated'. Crowley did not join this group either, since his
relationship with Reuss started only in 1910, when Reuss was no longer
involved in it, led as it was then by Leopold Engel. Likewise,
independent contacts between Crowley and Engel cannot be demonstrated.
Yet, in 1923, Crowley proclaimed himself 'Custos of the Illuminated',
a title which must have been more decorative than based on a regular
succession.

But, what about the police report, which was itself based on a
"confidential source"?

"It is necessary to note the attitude assumed by the literary review
'La Torre', led by Baron Evola, occultist and philosopher (ex-member
of the editorial staff of 'Il Mondo' and still in close contact with
many anti-Fascists). Evola had developed in his reviews, first 'Ur'
and then 'La Torre', a sort of propaganda for German imperialism. This
has occurred after Evola traveled to Austria and to Germany, a travel
he stated he did incognito (6), and during which he would have been
able to meet many members of the religious political sect 'The
Illuminated', an imperialist sect whose Council of the 7 the Kronprinz
(hereditary prince) and Mrs Krupp belong to. Now, this sect, which has
political and intellectual connections with the Swiss Steinerian sect
(...) wanted to have in Italy a general agent willing to write
propaganda articles and to do a propaganda and an 'informative' work
(...) in favour of German imperialism, to defend which the
'Illuminated' have created in Germany the 'Steel Helmet'. Through
Steiner Evola would have come in contact with the 'Helmet' and maybe
at the same time with the Council of the 7 of the 'Illuminated'".
Thus, Evola is described as an agent of the 'Illuminated' and of the
Steinerians, who are into spying and propaganda.

What is to be thought of this document? First of all, it should be
explained that Evola was then in a rather difficult political and
personal situation. Owing to his criticism against the 'populism' of
Mussolini in 'La Torre', fanatical and violent supporters of the
latter had come down on him, so that, for a while, he ventured out
only with a small body of guards (made only of Fascists who agreed
with Evola's criticism). 'La Torre' was then banned in a coherent
manner by Mussolini after its tenth issue. As for personal enemies,
Evola had plenty of them, always willing to harm him. In 'Il cammino
del cinabro' (7), we hear of other "perfidious slanders (...)
confrontations and personal aggressions" at that time.

The first thing I would like to examine in this police report is the
presumed secret travel of Evola to Germany. If we work on the
above-mentioned auto-biography, his first travel there happened only
in 1934 (8). Two of his main destinations at that time were Berlin,
where he delivered lectures at the Herrenklub, and Lessing University,
in Breme, where, at the invitation of Ludwig Roselius, the coffee
industrialist and the creator of the coffee Hag, he attended the
Zweites Nordisches Thing. Another document - still of the police -
from the 4th of June 1934, confirms that Evola traveled for the first
time to Germany at that time, which is not satisfactory at all. (...)
As a matter of fact, 1934 cannot be considered in any way as the year
Evola first traveled to Germany, since, on the 8th of January 1933,
'Il Corriere padano' (9) published an interview of Dr Friedrich
Everling by Evola which, according to this newspaper, took place in an
"ultramodern café on Kurfürstendamm" in Berlin and was written down in
Berlin itself. Friedrich Everling was deputy at the parliament in the
group of Dr Alfred Hugenberg, closely connected with the 'Steel
Helmet'. The statements of Everling were fully approved of by the
Italian interviewer. In his auto-biography, Evola must therefore have
forgotten his travel to Germany in 1933. (...). This mistake is
unlikely to have anything to do with the now famous 'secret' travel,
which must have been made before the police report was written, that
is, before February 1930.

The police report refers also to Mrs Krupp and to the German
hereditary prince as members of the Council of the 7 of the
Illuminated. It can be purely and simply excluded that these were at
the head of the Order of the Illuminated of Reuss and Engel. On the
other hand, it is not unlikely that contacts have been made between
this Order and the Steinerians. Rudolph Steiner knew personally
Theodor Reuss and was for a short time a member of his Order Memphis
Misraim, but not of his OTO, as stressed by Peter König.

The Order of the Illuminated of Reuss and Engel has nothing to do
either with the 'Steel Helmets'. These were defence units organised in
a para-military way, created in 1918 by the reserve officer Franz
Seldte, who, with this strike force, supported the Deutschnationale
Volkspartei (DNVP), in which there were many admirers of Mussolini.
His ideological position was a nationalist, and even anti-Semitic and
philomonarchic, one. There were very close contacts with the
Herrenklub - where Evola had spoken during his first travel and with
whose head, Baron Heinrich von Gleichen, he was in very good terms -
and with the so-called 'Junker'.

There is no doubt that Evola was in touch with the 'Steel Helmet'
(10), as is known from the interview with Friedrich Everling. It is
also certain that, in the political domain, he had sympathies for the
ideas developed in 1931 by the 'Harzburger Front' against the Republic
of Weimar. He sympathised especially with the initiatives taken by the
already mentioned 'press Tsar', Hugenberg. The 'Steel Helmet', the
Pan-German Union, the DNVP, and also the NSDAP, collaborated with each
other in this context. In this collaboration, the conservative forces
which gravitated around Hugenberg hoped to be able to influence Hitler
from behind-the-scenes. In vain. At the great ceremony of the
foundation of the 'Harzburger front', Hitler and Goebbels took their
distance publicly from the other organisations which participated to
it, by not taking part in the general lunch and by not attending the
parade of the 'Steel Helmet' ; they left the honour tribune before
this parade started.

Hugenberg from 1909 to 1918 was president of the management board of
the Friedrich Krupp AG and was in the best terms with the high
industry. This would explain the reference in the police secret report
to Mrs Krupp, since Hugenberg was undeniably in very good terms with
the Krupp family. As for the reference to the hereditary prince,
according to John A. Leopold, Hugenberg's biographer, Wilhelm, the
first son of Wilhelm II, attended the ceremony of foundation of the
'Harzburger Front' - with two other sons of Wilhelm II, namely, Prince
Eitel Friedrich and Prince Oskar. Another prince, August Wilhelm of
Prussia, was one of the prominent personalities of the 'Harzburger
front'. It was founded on the 11th of October 1931 and the Italian
document dates back the 3rd of March 1930, but it can be assumed that
this front referred to a long-time informal collaboration. Apart from
the hereditary prince, who was not allowed to have any political
activity by law, the other princes were members of the 'Steel Helmet'.
Prince Oskar of Prussia was also a member of the so-called 'League of
the Sincere', which worked for the restoration of monarchy and of
which Everling was a member.

When and how Evola came in touch with representatives of these
political currents, whether it occurred through a correspondence or
during a 'secret' travel, is still a total mystery today (11). As is
upheld in the document, it could have also occurred through
Steinerians. In the Evolian 'Ur' group, there were indeed many
convinced anthropologists, such as Arturo Onofri and in particular
Giovanni Colazza, with whom he was friend. The doctor Giovanni
Colazza, whose influence on 'Ur' and on Evola himself was quite
important, was a close confidant of Steiner and even his personal
student. Massimo Scaligero (pseudonym for Antonio Sgabelloni), a
life-long friend of Evola, and who became later an anthroposophist,
quotes in his auto-biography a statement by the co-founder of the
Italian Anthroposophical Society, Olga de Grünewald, according to whom
Rudolph Steiner traveled specially to Rome to meet with Colazza,
because the 'spiritual world' had suggested him to do so. Colazza was
purportedly the number 2 after Steiner in the Anthroposophist
hierarchy, belonged to the 'Circle of the Twelve' ('Council of the
Twelve'?) and took part in its rituals.

However, I have no indication which would lead me to note particular
contacts between Anthroposophy and the 'Steel Helmet'. But, to
introduce Evola in it, a mere personal contact with one of the main
members would have been necessary. Moreover, Rudolph Steiner had
certainly nationalist tendencies, as many other Austrians and Germans
after the First World War. He denied that Germany was the only one to
be guilty for the war and saw the Versailles Treaty as a peace
extorted by force which could even put in danger the existence of
'Mitteleuropa'. The police report could therefore contain a core of
truth to which mistakes and misunderstandings have then added. The
whole thing has nothing to do with the 'Illuminated' in the narrow
sense, but rather with political contacts for which Evola had already
sympathies by the end of the 1920's. If we take the first police
report and consider that its source may have been the RISS, once
again, a connection could be found with this review. As a matter of
fact, in the context of their conspiracy theories, those responsible
for the German political development and especially expansionist aims
were the 'Illuminated' and the 'Free-Masons'. Thus, in the police
report, the word 'Illuminated' would not refer to the World-Wide
league of the Illuminated of Reuss and Engel, but, as 'Free-Masons',
it would have been used as a mere label for all the groups which
fought for the strengthening of Germany and which embraced so-called
'Pan-Germanism'. Here, it is necessary to recall that Crowley is
called 'Successor of the Illuminated' in an anonymous article in the RISS.

The accusations of the police, of which we have spoken here, are not
the only ones against Evola, at any rate. In a police report of the
24th of February 1930 (12), he is referred as an "anarchistic
Hinduanist", as an anarchistic mystic, as a disciple and agent of
Krishna Murhti (sic), and even as a "Jewish and Communist agent" of
the IIIrd International and of the "International of Zion". He was
also suspected of being an American agent who had infiltrated a few
months earlier the Fascist party. In general, he is "a dangerous
person in all regards". He is called a pederast, and the final
judgment falls : "he is certainly a degenerated". It is more than
understandable that doubts arise from such accusations on the
seriousness of the police investigations.

Since it is not demonstrated historically, and it is most unlikely,
that Evola and Crowley knew each other personally or even were in
touch with each other through their respective activity in the same
esotericist group, let us now come to their possible spiritual
relationship. Evola was criticised, especially in the
Pythagorean-Italic circles linked to the review 'Politica Romana' for
having judged Crowley in too positive terms ; he calls him purely and
simply an 'Initiate', and they are afraid that these sympathies may be
responsible for Evolian philogerman and therefore anti-Italic
tendencies. Now, since Evola, as we have seen, has been attacked as a
Satanist and always remained marginalised, sympathies for another
'Satanist' and marginalised man can even be understandable. As is
known, however, this positive judgment was based on Crowley's
statements in which, rightly or wrongly, Evola discovered genuine
initiatory and magical elements.

Having said that, no effective influence by Crowley on Evola can be
seen. He took an interest in Crowley probably at a time too late and
studied him too superficially (at least, through indirect sources) to
be subjected to it. What took Evola away from Crowley was the latter's
theatricality and spectacular character, as well as - this is my
thesis - their points of view. It is not the place to go thoroughly
through their ideological and political differences, not to mention
their different approach of magic on a theoretical plane, but we would
like to deal with a few points.

(1) However, he must have received the manuscript in 1953, since, in
his introduction to the excerpts from 'Liber Aleph' 'prospettive
magiche (secondo Aleister Crowley)', in 'Gruppo di UR, Introduzione
alla Magia', vol. III, Fratelli Bocca, Rome, 1955, Evola writes that
"until then (1953) the book existed only as a manuscript".

(2) Fac-simile in Peter R. König, 'Noch mehr Materialen zum O.T.O.',
Munich, 2000, p. 178.

(3) Birven speaks of Evola only in his post-WW2 writings.

(4) At least, that is what he suggests in his article 'Fu Evola
affiliato all'ordine magico di Aleister Crowley?', in 'Politica
Romana', 4/1997, p. 294-295.

(5) Renato del Ponte, 'Introduzione', in 'René Guénon, lettere a
Julius Evola (1930-1950)', SeaR Edizioni, Borzano R.E., 1996, p. 4.

(6) In another police report, of the 11th of July 1931, that is 16
months later, it is stated instead : "He is known as a little serious
character, a cocaine addict, who once stated he had traveled abroad
without passport, to meet with political figures, and other unfounded
boasts" [Home Office, Directorate General for Public Security,
Department of General and Confidential Affairs, File 33 [Evola] :
1930-1943]

(7) 'Il cammino del cinabro', 2d edition, Vanni Scheiwiller, Rome,
1972, p. 100 and following.

(8) Let us bear in mind, among other things, that an exhibition of 60
paintings or so by Evola was held in 1960 in the Berlin gallery 'Der
Sturm'. I have not been able to find out whether he attended it or not.

(9) 'Fedeltà tedesca', now in 'I Testi del Corriere Padano', Edizioni
di Ar, Padova, 2002, pp. 53-55.

(10) Many indications can be found in the many articles written by
Evola for various newspapers and reviews at that time. In 'Fascismo e
Terzo Reich', Edizioni Mediterranee, Rome, 2001, p. 185, he refers to
the 'Steel Helmet' and of the DNVP as the most significant groups for him.

(11) It is necessary to recall that the first contact must have
occurred in 1928, since Evola's first political writing was published
that year in the German review 'Die Eiche'. Its title is 'Il fascismo
come anelito alla dominazione del mondo e il cristianesimo'. It was
published in 1929 in one of the main reviews of the Conservative
Revolution, 'Die Tat'.

(12) [Home Office, Directorate General for Public Security, Department
of Political Police, Personal File 467, File 64: 1930-1943]




Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:48 pm

evola_as_he_is
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The following study is the postface, slightly modified, of the German edition of the book by Marco Pasi, 'Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica',...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Nov 25, 2006
11:19 pm

At this point, a question must however absolutely be asked : can it be thought that Evola did not hear anything of these negative stories about him in the...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Dec 13, 2006
3:00 pm

We will not follow in the author's footsteps. As much he investigates with much rigour the possible relationship between Evola and Crowley on the historical...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Dec 13, 2006
3:00 pm

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