The 'Independent Theosophical Association of Rome' was established in
1897 by two groups of Roman Theosophists which existed since 1895
over a lending library sponsored by Countess Constance Watchmeister,
and which had many ladies as members. It attracted straight away
famous intellectuals, artists and writers, of whom Giovanni
Armendola, who became later of one the main opponents to Mussolini.
In 1807, Decio Calvari, the then leader of the 'Independent
Theosophical Association of Rome', founded a review of spiritual
studies and research called 'Ultra', whose editorial line managed to
keep its distance from the controversies between two of the main
representatives of the spiritualist movement of that time, namely
Rudolph Steiner and Blavatsky's favourite disciple, Annie Besant.
Arturo Reghini was one of the collaborators of 'Ultra'. Evola
considered Calvari as a "person of a real value" and to whom he owed
his "first contact with Tantrism".
It's in a column of 'Ultra' that we learn that Julius Evola gave a
lecture about 'Idealism, Occultism and the Problem of Modern Spirit'
under the aegis of that review on the 13th of December 1923. That
lecture was based on an article published in it by Evola in August of
the same year as 'Idealism, Occultism and the Problem of contemporary
Spirit'. That essay followed the end of his dadaist experiences in
the field of poetry and of painting. It is in line with the long
philosophical thought which goes from Kant to German idealism,
Nietzsche and Stirner's individualism. If Theosophy and Anthroposophy
are considered as "esoteric and magical" means by which man
can "build immortality", "become God", in concrete reality, their
flaw is that, on the theoretica plane, they are far below the
speculative heights and the gnoseologic positions reached by the
idealist tradition.
In June 1924, 'Ultra' published the text of a lecture given by Evola
on the 10th of April at the 'Independent Theosophical Association of
Rome', namely 'Power as a metaphysical Value', in which the idea that
the ego consists only in will and that spirit and God are nothing
more than autarchic and solipsist possibilities for the infinite and
absolute power of the individual aiming at becoming an "absolute
individual" was reasserted. At the end of 1924, 'Ultra' published an
essay of Evola on the 'School of Wisdom' of H. Keyserling, in which
he acknowledged that the work of this German philosopher and
occultist has some merits, especially with respect to his views on
the spiritual journey of the ego.
It is at that time that he went deeper into his Tantric research. He
gave a lecture on it and worked out again his interpretation of that
tradition on the basis of his magical idealism. This led to the
publication of 'L'Uomo come potenza' at the end of 1926. The first
part was originally published in three successive issues of 'Ultra'
as 'The Problem of East and West, and the Theory of knowledge
according to the Tantra'. It was about trying to overcome the
barriers between East and West on the basis of Tantric practice. This
approach was criticised immediately by Guénon, and, later, by Evola
himself who rectified it in what was to become 'Lo Yoga della
potenza'.
The same year, the lectures on 'spiritual culture' organised by
the 'Independent Theosophical Association of Rome' aroused an
increasing interest. Besides Evola, Calvari, the famous psychoanalyst
Roberto Assagioli and the usual collaborators of 'Ultra', Colonna di
Cesaro, the eminent orientalist Giuseppe Tucci, the poet Arturo
Onofri were involved in them. Another essay by Evola was published in
the last 1925 issue of 'Ultra' : 'L'individuo e il divenire del
mondo'. It created so considerable a stir that it was translated in
German and published in 1931 in the prestigious review 'Logos', to
which Cassirer and Husserl collaborated. It was a presentation of the
solipsistic essence of 'Idealismo magico' and of 'Teoria
dell'individuo assoluto', which the author offered as a spiritual-
existentialist solution to the problems of the European soul in an
epoch of decadence.
The radically solipsistic line of his philosophy at that time was
looking for a practical and theoretical development in religion,
initiation and magic. His works on Tantrism and on Taoism are to be
seen in this perspective. In search of points of reference to support
his ontological and spiritual solipsism, he kind of wandered from
Tantrism to Graeco-Roman heathenism, from Taoism to the alchemy,
interpreting everything in the cold light of the absolute individual.
He ended up clashing with Calvari and the other collaborators
of 'Ultra'. In 'La via della realizzazione di sè secondo i misteri di
Mithra', he distinguished clearly his magical, initiatory, masculine,
spiritual path of self-realisation and of individual construction
from the one which was advocated by the schools based on the Vedanta,
which tended to reduce the individual to a non-individual.. Now, the
Vedanta was at the root of theosophist spirituality. Because of this,
Calvari differentiated himself immediately from him.
In 1926, the Indian poet and philosopher Tagore came to Italy and was
received by Mussolini and by Croce. During his stay, Tagore was
accompanied by Assagioli, vice-president of the 'Independent
Theosophical Association of Rome' and sub-editor of 'Ultra'. He
managed to obtain from Tagore a contribution to the review and
organised a meeting between him and the editorial staff of 'Ultra',
of whom Evola. This didn't ease the crisis between him and
the 'I.T.A.R.'. First, Evola started to contribute on a regular basis
to another paper, Botai's 'Critica fascista' and, in a way,
he 'competed' with 'Ultra' by publishing in January 1927 the first
issue of 'Ur', a monthly of "initiatory sciences".
The definitive break came as a result of the review by Vezzani, one
of the main collaborators of 'Ultra', of 'L'uomo come potenza',
published in 1926. After having praised the "young writer of genius"
whom Evola was according to him, he criticised his anti-Christianity
and his magical idealism as being "neither moral, nor religious, but
far below a morality and a religion which he does not understand. It
is amoral and irreligious and thus constitutes a infra-human line of
development which can be tragically dangerous for whoever could
follow him in particular and for humanity in general" (Evola,
however, never thought of applying it to "humanity in general").
Some of the criticisms made by Vezzani to 'L'uomo come potenza' were
resumed later by Evola himself who came to acknowledge that, if the
Western man had assumed "directly such doctrines, this would have
caused an unavoidable and destructive short-circuit, madness or self-
destruction", and, more generally, that he still hadn't fully
fathomed the deep essence of traditional spirituality. Vezzani's
article started a violent controversy between them which developed in
the following issues of 'Ultra' and which confirmed that their
respective positions were irreconcilable. Evola, faithful to his
concept of God as a mere possibility of the individual, affirmed that
the latter, while building immortality, must act "beyond good and
evil", within a magical process similar to "the chemical process of
the formation of dynamite, which is neither good nor bad, but simply
possible, since good and evil only concern the use which can be made
of dynamite". Vezzani, as for him, thought that morality is a
fundamental aspect, not only of the religious path, but also of the
esoteric and initiatory path, and contested any "autonomous
development opposed to the divinity and aiming at breaking its laws",
while standing up for the values of love and charity which, according
to him, were the cornerstones of all traditions, to start with
Mahâyâna Buddhism.
The "transcendent experimentation" uphold by Evola in 'Ur' and in his
other writings at that time opposed logically the theosophical
culture of 'Ultra' and of the society led by Calvari. In a long essay
published in 1927 in 'Bilychnis', Evola condemned Theosophy as the
opposite of true occultism ("which is only a system of practical and
transcendent experiences") and as visionary and sentimental ramblings
mixed with a misunderstood Gnosticism.
The break, however, was not total. Various collaborators of 'Ur' were
Anthroposophists, others referred to Kremmerz, to 'esoteric
Christianity' or to 'Masonic tradition'. Evola, as for him, aimed at
condemning severely the irrational, modern and democratic aspects of
the theosophist and anthropologist culture, but, at the same time, he
could not deny some of its positive intellectual aspects. As he was
still a member of the editorial staff of 'Ultra', in the June/July
issue of 'Ignis', he came down strongly against Anthroposophy,
created by Steiner in 1913, as most of his collaborators were about
to become Steinerians. A few years later, in 1930, while still
denouncing the intellectual pretensions of Theosophy, he acknowledged
the value of various personalities of the European theosophic scene,
of whom Calvari.
From the particular events which marked the collaboration of Julius
Evola to 'Ultra' and the 'Independent Theosophical Association of
Rome' in the 1920's, it seems that a major element emerges : the
experience of theosophical culture played a certain part in Evola's
discovery of the "faces and masks of contemporary spirituality", and
not - as assumed by Marco Rossi, the author of the article which we
have summarised here - "in the development of Evola's personal ideal
and spiritual panorama".
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