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Revolt Against the Modern World
By Julius Evola
Original Italian Edition 1934
Revised 1951, 1970
Inner Traditions International 1995
(Translation by Guido Stucco)
375 Pages, $29.95
ISBN 0-89281-506-X

Summary & Notes on the Author

Traditional Spirituality

State, Kingship, Empire

Castes and Traditional Economics

Traditional Time and Space

Historical Decay

A Mythological World History

Degenerate Religions

The Decline of Antiquity

Church versus Empire

The Post-Medieval Collapse

The End of this World

A Critique and Anathema

Traditional Time and Space

Time was not uniform in traditional societies, but infused with meaning from above, particularly through a sacred calendar. Time was arranged in cycles, each point of which differed from every other. Comparable ages within a cycle might correspond to arbitrarily different lengths of natural time. Traditional time interacted with history like this:

“If traditionally, empirical time was measured by a transcendent time that did not contain events but meanings; and if the essentially metahistorical time must be considered as the context in which myths, heroes, and traditional gods lived and 'acted' – then an opposite shift acting 'from below' must also be conceived. In other words, it is possible that some historically real events or people may have repeated and dramatized a myth, incarnating metahistorical structures and symbols whether in part or entirely, whether consciously or unconsciously. Thereupon, by virtue of this, these events or beings shift from one time to another, becoming new expressions of preexisting realities…[W]e must look for the true meaning of characters who become 'invisible,' who 'never died,' and who are destined to 'reawaken' or to manifest themselves at the end of a given time, such as Alexander the Great, King Arthur, 'Frederick,' and King Sebastian. The latter are all different incarnations of the same one theme transposed from reality to superreality.”

Tradition also infused space with meaning. Landscapes have aspects that affect the character of those who live on them. The chthonic people have cults that bind them more closely to the collective, infernal powers of the land. In order to suppress these powers, only the patricians, who exercised priestly privileges, could own land. When ownership is possible for all, property tends toward Marxist promiscuity, and the people are again subject to collective possession by the dark powers.

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The sections of this review may be read
sequentially. Please note that the sections do not correspond to the divisions of the book.

cover


Copyright © 2002 by John J. Reilly


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