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Trials and Initiations


'L'etnologia e i 'pericoli dell'anima"' is a critical review of 'Il
mondo magico' by E. De Martino.

De Martino is trained as an ethnologist and, besides, he supports
historicism. This indicates the limits of his conception : "First, he
speaks of 'magic world' when it should be spoken essentially
of 'sorcery world' ; then, he assumes, as many of his colleagues do,
that savage peoples are 'primitive' peoples, that is to say, the
remains of what humanity was at the origins (...). Despite this
narrow-mindedness, De Martino has some points, at least in part. His
fundamental thesis is as follows : "Today we have a given concept of
the I, of the non-I, of nature, of space, of reality, which we tend
to consider as absolute ; we suspect that it is historically
conditioned, that it was born and it manifested only within modern
Western civilisation, so that we apply it to any possible
civilisation, including to the one which De Martino calls 'magic
civilisation'. Instead, what corresponds to the latter is an I, a non-
I, a type of relations between both, an environment and a spiritual
condition which are very different.

Thus, we set the problem of the reality of certain abnormal phenomena
in an erroneous manner : they are real, but according to a reality
which is not the one which is meant today by this word. The common,
modern, concept of reality is an historical formation ; outside
current civilisation and humanity, it is meaningless".

Evola goes on to explain how De Martino sees the difference between
the experience of today and the one which is called 'magic'. "In the
former, the sense of the I appears as something given, guaranteed and
definite, as opposed to which a non-I, a nature with the attributes
of a given and definite reality, completely independent from us, is
experienced", whereas, in the latter, the duality I-non-I is not so
definite yet, there is no objective independent world, the frontier
between soul and nature are unstable, so that each can be subject to
irruptions from the other".

"At this point, however, it is necessary to have reservations about
De Martino's views. According to him, magic experience starts with
the fear of an I which still does not manage to face nature
experienced as a world of psychic forces, and, as a result, the soul
is exposed to an "extreme and definitive risk, with respect to which
all the risks which are connected with life lose their meaning and
their importance". Frazer, referring also to the world of savages,
had already spoken of the "perils of the soul" [in English in the
text], as a permanent possibility for the soul to lose its way, to be
dissolved, possessed, invaded, and he had interpreted a series of
magic primitive rites as techniques of defence against such perils,
substantial perils which the man of today purportedly no longer
knows".

The corrections made by Evola to those views is particularly
important with respect to Godwin's speculations about the former's
youth initiatory experiences : "(...) the stage of the unstable, non
individuated soul exposed to a fundamental risk does not correspond
in any way to the 'magic world', and to what must be really
considered as the world of the origins, at any rate ; it corresponds
instead to the sorcery world, to a degraded and debased human type
whose state is such that it makes possible a disintegration of the
spiritual unity and the irruption of 'psychic' influences of any
kind. This is true, as we have said, of most savages populations,
whose rites, so to speak, are meant to save what can be saved. But
this is not true of most ancient civilisations, which were fully
aware of the 'paranormal'.

Regarding the 'phenomenological' aspect of those 'terrors', it may be
useful useful to read, precisely, 'The Perils of the Soul' (
http://www.bartleby.com/196 ) and, on a very different level, the
Tibetan Book of the Dead.


--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "fitzknob" <fitzknob@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "evola_as_he_is"
> <evola_as_he_is@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > The first Italian translation of Milarepa's 'The Demon of the
> Snow -
> > The Song of Joy - the Song of the Essence of Things', based on B.
> > Laufer's ('Milarepa', 1922), is found in 'Introduzione alla
> magia' -
> > it was published again later in 'Meditation on the Peaks' as 'A
> > Mystic of the Tibetan Mountains'. In that passage of his work,
> > Milarepa tells his disciples the story of his long stay in the
> > mountains, how he resisted the fury of the elements, the wind and
> the
> > frost, defeating the demons hidden under the mask of snow.
> >
> > 'By the tempest and the frost, Evola notes in his commentary, a
> demon
> > tried to defeat the ascete. "The world is full of demons", the
> Greeks
> > said, and, here, it could also be said : "There is an infinite
> number
> > of demons of perception" [the term 'demon' is to be undesrtood in
> its
> > original meaning here, as explained in message 32]. Spirits fight
> > spirits, even when, knowing ourselves only as a body, we think we
> > fight bodies, and among bodies, in material vicissitudes".
> >
> > Those terrors are thus most likely to be the manifestations of
the
> > reactions to various borderline experiences along any initiatory
> > path. In the writings of Ur and Krur, according to the various
> > commentaries and to the various essays, the reader is repeatedly
> > warned in a precise manner against the dangers involved in most
of
> > the spiritual exercises proposed and described by the various
> members
> > of that group. One essay deals more particularly with
> > them : 'L'etnologia e i "pericoli dell'anima"'.
> >
>
> This 'L'etnologia e i "pericoli dell'anima", (The ethnology and
> the "dangers of the spirit"?) is it published anywhere in English
or
> could you by any chance briefly explain the contents?
>
> I like the take on the etymology of the term "demon". As meyrink
> alludes to the "world of ghosts" as that opened to the awakened
> initiate could be that similar to the "demons of perception" as you
> put it?
>
> I have both 'Meditation on the Peaks' and `Introduction to magic'
as
> published by inner traditions. In the latter there is not much to
> recognise in terms of warning besides the turmoil of "crossing the
> waters" or the "shuddering waters" without guidance. Although I
must
> say my copy of the book repeats chapter XI while omitting XII
> (including Negri's Adventures and misadventures in magic and
various
> commentaries), and unfortunately is too late to return it. Again it
> would have been decent to get details on the specific terrors
> involved although this is unlikely to ever have been disclosed.
>











Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:08 pm

evola_as_he_is
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As Godwin wrote in his foreword to "Men among the ruins" : "...Soon after this, Evola plunged into a particularly esoteric form of occultism, again not of the...
fitzknob Offline Send Email Feb 14, 2006
3:11 pm

The first Italian translation of Milarepa's 'The Demon of the Snow - The Song of Joy - the Song of the Essence of Things', based on B. Laufer's ('Milarepa',...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Feb 15, 2006
10:31 am

... Snow - ... magia' - ... the ... demon ... Greeks ... number ... its ... members ... This 'L'etnologia e i "pericoli dell'anima", (The ethnology and the...
fitzknob Offline Send Email Feb 20, 2006
9:26 am

'L'etnologia e i 'pericoli dell'anima"' is a critical review of 'Il mondo magico' by E. De Martino. De Martino is trained as an ethnologist and, besides, he...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Feb 22, 2006
5:12 pm

Thanks for your take on that, it does clear up a few things. As for the Golden Bough (great that its been fully published online) I can see how Evola was...
fitzknob Offline Send Email Feb 27, 2006
4:00 pm

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