![]() The principle of their “GREAT WORK”, since the Magistery of Creation and the Magistery with which man realizes himself according to the Royal Arts are one and the same. They called it: Universal and Living Fire, ύλη (matter), Green Dragon, Quintessence, First Substance, Great Magical Agent. ‘The Wise spoke of it as a wonder and as a terror. This force can be described using a quote which may be familiar if you read our book review of Introduction to Magic: Volume 1: We can also refer to this animating force by other names. One could even say it is about finding God – God in this case is the One, the animating force of all life. When reading the book and approaching the Royal Art from Evola’s perspective, which, in my humble opinion, is the correct way to approach it, it becomes clear that the whole art is one of ascending and transforming oneself in metaphysical matter. Alchemical Work – the Great Work – the Royal Art Wim Hof encourages the practitioner to focus both on the breath and the blood in the breathing-exercise mentioned above. Interestingly, in a chapter titled The Path of the Breath and the Path of the Blood it is noted that focusing on the breath (the first key) and focusing on the blood (the second key) is an alchemical technique. Wim Hof, the Dutch Iceman, has a good guided breathing-exercise. In my own meditations, I have found that entering a meditation by first doing a breathing exercise is greatly helpful. Narayana Swami Aiyar of Chingleput – who emphasised the importance of breath-work to achieve alchemical results. The author of the foreword notes that Evola was influenced by an Indian alchemist – C.S. ‘Much better then to speak of Mercury and Sulfur, of metals and puzzling things and impossible operations, better to attract the greedy attention and curiosity of of the “puffers” and “charcoal burners”, of those who then gave birth to modern chemistry and best of all, in order to keep others from suspecting that the rare and enigmatic allusions were actually metallurgical symbolism referring to things of the spirit.’ Julius Evola – The Hermetic Tradition. in the sense that they were out for physical transformations as opposed to spiritual ones). This led mystics and esoteric masters to approach the Great Work, the Royal Art, in a spiritual fashion – whereas the materialistically oriented early scientists approached it in a profane fashion (i.e. ![]() As illustrated by the quote below, he identified the true spiritual teachings as being hidden from the unworthy (and the Inquisition). It can also be noted that astrology is one of the lost sciences (like physiognomy) that the modern world has cast aside.Įvola, in this book, shows that alchemy was not just the humble beginnings of the science of chemistry but a profound mystery-science in its own right. ![]() Astrology is a topic we will return to – suffice to say that the planets feature quite prominently in the book. Magic, as we have discussed elsewhere, can be seen as mental techniques. Evola, as a seeker of Tradition and spiritual ascent, seeks to present the teachings of hermetic mystics throughout the centuries from this perspective.Īlchemy, in this view, is placed together with other hermetic disciplines – magic and astrology, for example. the classic ‘turn lead into gold’ type of alchemy that may be familiar to some). Evola’s View of Hermeticism and AlchemyĮvola approaches hermeticism and alchemy (he sees them as one) in a spiritual fashion – which means that he is not interested in the material aspects of alchemy (i.e. ![]() The book is still Evolian in its nature, so the style will be familiar if you have read Evola before. ![]() Whereas Introduction to Magic contains more of Evola’s (and his companions’) thoughts on matters of magic and metaphysics, The Hermetic Tradition draws more heavily upon the teachings of older mystics and alchemists (who will be presented further down). After reading the three volumes of Introduction to Magic (reviews here and here) by Evola and the UR Group, I decided to continue on the same esoteric path by reading The Hermetic Tradition. ![]()
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