Before translating Evola’s review of a book by Maurras, we plan to provide a chapter from Guido de Giorgio’s La Tradizione Romana (The Roman Tradition) called “Dante and the Holy Culmination of the Roman Tradition.”
De Giorgio is most certainly the only man to have collaborated with both Rene Guenon and Julius Evola. In his early life, he lived in Tunisia for a time where he was initiated into Islamic esoterism. He then relocated to Paris where he worked with Guenon on two Traditional periodicals. Back in Rome, he participated in the Ur magic group, along with Evola, Duke Colonna de Cesaro, and several others. He also worked with Evola on the political journal La Torre. Suddenly, he abandoned public life, retiring to the Italian Alps where he lived an ascetic and contemplative life. His books were never published in his lifetime.
What is of interest here is his understanding of the European Middle Ages, since it is the traditional society that is closest to us in time and culture. However, a precise understanding is a matter of contention among the main writers of Tradition. If Guenon is the thesis, then Evola is the antithesis and de Giorgio the synthesis.
Rene Guenon
Guenon was not interested in the ancient Western Tradition, since for him it is defunct. He does, however, recognize a traditional metaphysics in both neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism. He did consider the religious and social systems of the Middle Ages to be Traditional. He points to the metaphysical teachings of the time and he infers the existence of legitimate initiatic orders based on certain writings, especially in Dante. On this basis, we can assuredly assume there was an intellectual elite behind that system, since Tradition does not come about by chance, nor from below. In particular, it was not the creation of slaves and an underclass.
Julius Evola
For Evola, the Christian Middle Ages arose out of the wreckage of ancient Rome, already in decline in what he called Semitic Rome. It was a lower class movement, although it was at some point taken over and redirected by a new elite, which was composed of the intellectual meeting of Roman and Nordic elements. This elite managed to restore traditional elements to a large extent, though not completely. Unfortunately, this project was made difficult due to recurrent conflicts between the religious and social spheres, or more specifically, between the Church and Empire.
In the dozen or so years between the publication of Pagan Imperialism and On the Subterranean History of Rome, Evola softened his attitude toward the Medieval church to some extent. For him, it served as a bulwark against contemporary neo-pagan and neo-spiritualist movements, with their pseudo-traditional influence. Against Cesaro, he wrote:
we see Christianity becoming Roman with Catholicism: purifying itself of its original anarchic, universalistic, and humanitarian aspects, and giving rise, in the Middle Ages, to a civilization that is characteristic of the type we articulated: hierarchical, tied to traditions of caste and blood, interspersed with initiatic elements
Specifically, he opposed the evolutionistic thrust behind neo-spiritual movements, which saw history as the progression from a primitive state to ever higher states culminating in the age of love. This he regarded as a heresy, both in its narrow religious sense, but also in the wider sense as a falsification and denial of traditional elements. So when Alain de Benoist, for example, considers modern liberalism to be the secularization of theology, he can only be referring to the heretical Christianized neo-spiritualism like that of Cesaro. It is absolute nonsense in terms of the traditional elements still alive in the Middle Ages.
Guido de Giorgio
Whereas Guenon is uninterested in any historical relations between various traditions, de Giorgio instead sees a direct relationship between the Ancient Rome of the pagans and the New Rome of the Middle Ages. Taking Guenon quite seriously, he relies on Dante as an inspired poet and the Divine Comedy as a sacred poem. Vergil takes him from the spirituality of Ancient Rome and Beatrice to the New Rome.
As Evola pointed out, the legend of Aeneas, as told in Vergil’s poem, represents the end of one world and the beginning of the new with the founding of Rome. We should understand Beatrice in a similar way: she shows Dante the New Rome after the destruction of the previous era. Furthermore, we want to understand this as the way to the Supreme Identity via the alchemical marriage.
De Giorgio’s perspective almost regards pagan Rome as the true Old Testament, or at least a second Old Testament, to the New Testament of the New Rome. His insights come from a deep spiritual understanding of Rome. I hope this unusual piece will bring as much interest and commentary as our lighter pieces.
The Septuaginta, also known as the “Septuagint”, also falsely known as the “Hebrew Bible” and the “Tanakh” is a collection of edited Mithraic, Celtic and Mesopotamian texts first formed in Ancient Greek and Latin as the canonical scriptures of the official Roman cult of Iudaeism (Judaism) by 71 CE.
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The Macedonian and Spartan Symbol of the Sun that was emblazoned on the Royal Shield signifies Sol Invictus or the “unconquerable Sun” – hence the choice of the Macedonian and Spartan symbolism on account of the legendary courage, strength and victories; and
The claim that I.H.S. is a common ancient Christogrambased on the first three letters of “Jesus” in Greek being ?????? then“Latinized” to IHSOVSis one of the clumsiest frauds in history, given the deliberately corrupted bi-cameralalphabetic set of modern Greek did not appear until the Jesuits were formed andtherefore after their sign was presented.
I.H.S. stands for the Latin phrase Invictus Hoc Signo meaning “By this sign (we are) unconquerable” in reference to the symbol of the sun as well as the three letters themselves.
The Third Covenant is upon us. The War in Heaven has ended.
Whilst the present heads of the Catholic Church have demonstrated hundreds of years of contempt towards the Divine Creator, under the Covenant of One-Heaven the entire officials including Cardinals, Bishops, Deacons and Ordinaries are granted Divine Redemption including the Sainthood of all Popes, including the Church having the power to ratify the Divine Treaty of Lucifer and the end of Hell and Damnation forever if all evil behaviour is ceased, all sins admitted and all property surrendered by the Day of Divine Judgment
In hoc signo vinces…
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“Chi-Rho: Considered the first christian cross, but pre-dating christianity, the Chi-Rho was used as a symbol of good luck. It was also first used as the symbol to represent the god of time “Chronos” in Greek and Roman mythology. In Hermetic Alchemy, the figure is used to denote the passing of time and it’s relativity.”
I pity the fool… (no actually I don’t)
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“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”
— Strider, J.R.R Tolkien
De Giorgio’s pseudonym was “Havismat”; I don’t think any of his writings were included in the English version of Introduction to Magic. I’ll check the Italian version to see if there is anything of interest.
By the way, I’m trying to locate a copy of his “Dio e il Poeta”, if any readers can help me out.
De Giorgio seems to be very interesting as an author and in person. I’d really like to get my hands on his books some time, right now I have nothing but the english translations of the book ‘Introduction to Magic’ in which he probably contributed in some way.
I think Guénon is un-surpassed in the field of esotericism and traditional metaphysical knowledge, but his personal disregard concerning the western esoteric tradition has recently caused him to fall below other more closer to myself personally. Just the other day we talked about the Mithraic mysteries, initiation and esotericism with a friend of mine, and it bumped to my mind that it was probably one of the only issues Guénon did not directly deal in his writings (correct me if I’m wrong); maybe because of this very same reason.
“De Giorgio’s perspective almost regards pagan Rome as the true Old Testament, or at least a second Old Testament, to the New Testament of the New Rome.”
If perceived “aionically”, I think all traditions before the coming of Christ can be seen as part of “The Old Testament” & being under the impulse of Justice more than Love, with all their correspondences in culture, law and spiritual methodology. “The Old Covenant” as an esoteric concept is far wider than the 2000-3000 years of the Hebraic / Judaic Tradition, and the Old Testament as a book is a conglemarate of writings from several different traditions (Sumerian, Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian etc.), and in the hebraic versions some ancient myths curiously transform and turn upside down, maybe because of the guilt complex so prevalent in the judaic religious psyche, for example, when ‘the heroic act’ transforms into ‘an unforgivable sin’ (as described by Evola in the beginning of ‘The Hermetic Tradition’ and elsewhere also).
I think the last mentioned fact is also the very key to the two thousand years of persecutions of alchemists and other torch-bearers of the Regal Tradition in the underground veins of the Christendom.