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evola_as_he_is · EVOLA AS HE IS

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The relationship between Codreanu and Evola   Topic List   < Prev Topic  |  Next Topic >
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Re: The relationship between Codreanu and Evola

Thank you for your post, some things are partially cleared up now.
I guess there are some misunderstandings here though: firstly, it is
me who's asking the question about the relationship between Codreanu
and Evola, and secondly, I see that I gave you a wrong impression of
how I viewed Evola's stand on Christianity and the essence of the
legionary movement.
I must confess I have only read the English excerpts of Imperialismo
Pagano which were available on the net, but still one can say it
pleaded for a heathen restoration and was critical of Christianity,
using some Nietzschean arguments and calling it a religion of pity.
That this work was about the direct overthrowal of Christianity and
the reintroduction of paganism I wrongly assumed from an Evola
biography from a Dutch website (www.monas.nl) (which seems to contain
more errors, by the way). Also note that I wrote 'anti-christian' and
not anti-christian, as I know Evola wasn't a person one can simply
lable as anti- or pro-christian; he has been quite positive about
orders/movements from the past who marched under a Christian banner.
When I said Evola admired the legionary movement for it�s spirit and
it's ethical code, I was hinting at their masculine spirit, their
fighting spirit - accepting victory and defeat -, and it's cult of the
blood/forefather cult (things which indeed have a non-christian, Aryan
origin). You even added some more interesting points, of which I
wasn't aware!
So what I wanted to say in my previous post was that Codreanu, had he
known Imperialismo pagano, he could have viewed it as anti-christian
and would not have wanted to meet Evola. As I recently read parts of
Codreanu's 'To my legionaries!' I would say he would, as a faithful
Christian, view some statements as blasphemous. As it now turns out,
he simply hasn't read it, which makes an exact answer to my question
impossible then, of course.




--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "evola_as_he_is"
<evola_as_he_is@...> wrote:
>
>
> This most interesting point has not been brought up before on this
> forum. Whoever you are quoting in this respect, the question the
> author asks shows that he or she has rather superficial views both on
> Evola's stand on Christianity and on the true essence of Codreanu's
> movement.
>
> First, if it is true that Evola had "distantiated himself from some
> views expressed in this writing ['Imperialismo pagano'](...) by the
> time he met Codreanu", it cannot be said that he "remained the writer
> of this 'anti-christian" work". By 1938, when Evola met Codreanu at
> his home by Bucarest, 'Imperialismo pagano', which was not
> republished in the 1930's, was almost forgotten ; it sank into
> oblivion almost as quickly as it was widely talked about in the
> aftermath of its publication in 1928, in part because of Evola
> himself. Besides, nothing indicates that Codreanu had read it before
> he met the Italian author.
>
> Then, it is a gross over-simplification to state that 'Imperialismo
> pagano' advocated purely and simply "the direct overthrowal of
> Christianity and the introduction (sic) of paganism". What it called
> for was a subordination of the Church as an "expression of the
> spirituality of those who can only 'believe'" to "the Empire,
> conceived of as incarnation of the royal spirituality of those
> who 'know' and 'are'. The Eagle beyond the Cross, the solar symbol of
> the right of the Fathers (Empire) beyond the lunar one of the right
> of the Mothers (the Mother Church)".
>
> The 'Iron Guard', banned in Romania for decades, was recently
> authorised to reform there by the political schemers who are
> currently 'managing' illegitimately, that is, democratically, this
> country, but not before they had pitchforked one of their henchmen,
> whose name we haven't bothered to note, into the job
> of 'leader'. "Codreanu, Horia Sima, successor of Codreanu at the head
> of the movement in exile, said in the French magazine 'Totalit�' in
> 1984, was a convinced Christian, and yet the sense of his
> Christianity does not refer to his person, but rather to the
> political work he achieved. (...) The base of the philosophy of the
> Movement is Christianity (...) The whole legionary education works on
> the idea of forming a 'new man'. Now, this 'new man' conceived of by
> Codreanu was nothing else but the Christian man projected into the
> political field" ; to Codreanu, however, it seems that it
> corresponded to a racial type, that is, the 'Dacio-Roman' one,
> without any religious reference.
>
> Others are of the opinion that Codreanu used the religious feeling as
> an instrument of propaganda in a deeply Christian country.
>
> The truth is likely to lie between both of these extremes : "What
> characterises the essence of Romanian legionarism, Claudio Mutti
> stresses, is a spirit transcending the religious dimension in general
> and that of Christianity in particular and for which the faith of
> Romanian Christian masses was the vehicle of a higher spirituality".
> Eric Nolte, whom he quotes in support of his evaluation, goes
> further : "The mysticism of the Iron Guard cannot be defined as
> Christian - even though expressions peculiar to Christianity are
> recurrent in it - since it is not centred on the eternal good, but
> rather on the concrete 'blood' of its people. If it is true that
> there is no break with Christian faith, the hiatus is still
> undeniable".
>
> Mutti proceeds to go through "the elements which lead [him] to see in
> the Iron Guard the presence of an heritage foreign to Catholicism".
>
> In the first place, there is the figure of the archangel Michael,
> since the propitiatory formula of a Mithriac ritual mentions
> explicitly this archangel as the medium by which the immortalising
> force of the god is transmitted to the initiate. Now, as is well-
> known, Mithraism developed all over the Romanian territory, far
> before Christianisation. Under these conditions, it is quite certain
> that the archangel Michael is a Christian (mis?) representation of an
> entity pre-existing to the Christianisation of Dacia.
>
> In the second place, Codreanu often refers to the distinction between
> the 'great war' and the 'small war', which, asis known, was first
> expressed in a famous hadith and which was dear to Evola who went so
> far as to dedicate an essay to it : 'La grande e la piccola guerra',
> in 'Metafisica della guerra', Ar, Padova, 2001.
>
> In the third place, to Mutti, another element assumes in the
> legionary practice a different meaning from the one it has in
> Christianity : prayer. For the legionary, it is not a mere request
> addressed to the divinity, a manifestation of religious
> sentimentalism, but rather a compelling ritual act meant to act on
> the mysterious forces of the invisible world. "Call them, Codreanu
> says about these forces, attract them with all the power of your
> spirit, and they will come". The legionary prayer is thus a ritual
> reciting by which an act of power, and not only an act of faith, is
> expressed. Singing seems to have had, beyond a sentimental
> outpouring, a mantric signification. If Codreanu ascribed to singing
> a fundamental importance - so much so that it was for him "one of the
> four essential dimensions which are at the root of our life" -, it is
> because he sensed this synthesis between rhythm and image by which
> experiences of the supra-human order are sometimes expressed.
>
> In the fourth place, the doctrine of sacrifice, which has a central
> part in legionarism, does not seem, to Mutti, to be reducible to the
> form it assumes in Christianity. Once again, it bears the mark of the
> transmission of teachings expressed far before Christianity connected
> sacrifice with the death of the 'Son of God' and with its
> commemoration by means of the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the
> legionary doctrine, sacrifice is justified by what Mircea Eliade
> calls the "archaic theory of the periodical regeneration of sacred
> forces". The 'archaic' man revives by his sacrifice the creative act
> of the origins to prevent the exhaustion of sacred force. Now, the
> legionary sacrifice is precisely an 'archaic' sacrifice, since the
> members of the Iron Guard stated that they sacrificed themselves to
> restore race and to prevent it from dying out.
>
> On the other hand, some of these elements irreducible to Christianity
> in the legionary movement were brought to light by Evola in the six
> articles he published on Codreanu, of which five appeared in the
> Italian press in 1938, while the last was written on the eve of his
> death. Mutti, without giving its refrences, refers to a seventh
> article, in which Evola points out that "the idea of the presence of
> the powers of the dead - and particularly that of the heroes - by the
> living, which is pregnant in the legionary movement, reflects
> unequivocally some well-known forms of a pre-Christian (relations
> between the gens, the ancestors and tutelary heroes) spirituality.
> With respect to the relations between the State and the
> Church, "Codreanu, Evola recalls in 1973, pointed out that the
> historical situation of a country like Romania was favourable, since
> Graeco-orthodox Christianity is foreign to the opposition between the
> universality of faith and the national idea ; as national church, the
> Orthodox Church could be the perfect counterpart of a renewing State
> committed to a national revolution" : assuming that the Orthodox
> Church was what Codreanu thought it was, Evola couldn't agree more
> with him. Least but not last, Codreanu's anti-Semitism was, as
> Evola's, of the racial type, and not of the religious type. In
> http://thompkins_cariou.tripod.com/id15.html/, it is on this aspect
> of Codreanu's thought and action that Evola tend to focus, without
> criticising any of points made by the former, and we know that he was
> particularly demanding on this issue.
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "lordofthespear"
> <hailtocryptogram@> wrote:
> >
> > This might have been brought up before, but how was it possible that
> > Codreanu and Evola were - if I'm correct - befriended* with each
> other?
> > The anti-Judeo-Masonic stance they shared and Evola admired the
> > legionary movement for it's spirit and it's ethical code, but would
> > Evola's controversial 'Imperialismo Pagano' not have been a reason
> > for serious collision between the two personalities?
> > Although Evola might have distantiated himself from some views
> > expressed in this writing (the direct overthrowal of christianity
> and
> > the introduction of paganism) by the time he met Codreanu, he still
> > remained the writer of this 'anti-christian' work. Would this not
> make
> > a relationship between Codreanu - a devoted Christian who saw the
> Jews
> > almost literally as demons - and Evola, impossible?
> >
> >
> >
> > * I'm not completely sure this is true as I'm not totally convinced
> of
> > the trustworhtiness of my source.
> > Beside this questionable information the only knowledge I have of
> the
> > 'relationship' between these two personalities is that Evola met
> > Codreanu after being introduced to him by Mircea Eliade, which
> wasn't
> > completely coincidental I suppose. But even then it would be strange
> > Codreanu shook hands with Evola, because of a possible colliding
> point
> > of view. Or did Codreanu, which doesn't seem likely to me,
> completely
> > lack any background information of the person he met?
> >
>










Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:53 am

lordofthespear
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This might have been brought up before, but how was it possible that Codreanu and Evola were - if I'm correct - befriended* with each other? The...
lordofthespear Offline Send Email Apr 3, 2006
8:25 pm

This most interesting point has not been brought up before on this forum. Whoever you are quoting in this respect, the question the author asks shows that he...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Apr 5, 2006
1:41 pm

Thank you for your post, some things are partially cleared up now. I guess there are some misunderstandings here though: firstly, it is me who's asking the...
lordofthespear Offline Send Email Apr 11, 2006
4:15 pm

It is you who asked some clarifications about the relations between Evola and Codreanu, but it is that Dutch site which assumes wrongly that the former called...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Apr 13, 2006
9:07 am

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