548 words
Gwendolyn Taunton
Tantric Traditions: Gods, Rituals, & Esoteric Teachings in the Kali Yuga
Manticore Press, 2018
Mention “tantra” and almost any Westerner, no matter how sophisticated, thinks of weekend seminars on how to improve your sex life, with endorsements from the likes of Sting. (more…)
Antinous as Dionysus-Osiris, 2nd century, Vatican Museum
2,146 words
Translated by G. A. Malvicini
As outlined in one of Friedrich Nietzsche’s first works, the very suggestive Birth of Tragedy, the concepts of Dionysus and Apollo correspond very little to the meaning these entities had in antiquity, especially their esoteric meaning. Nevertheless, we will use their Nietzschean interpretation as a starting point in this text, in order to define certain fundamental existential orientations.
7,465 words
Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky
Rochester Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2008
1. Introduction
Alejandro Jodorowsky is known to English-speaking audiences as the director and star of the cult film El Topo (1970). His other films (of which there are only a few) are lesser known, and his work outside of film is hardly known at all in America. (more…)
7,862 words
Part 1 of 2
Point of Terror
Sacred phalluses, Delos, Greece
4,361 words
Sex and Religion
D. H. Lawrence argues that through the sex act, individuals participate in some kind of mysterious power running through nature. But does this momentary experience have any kind of long-term effect on them? Lawrence directly addresses this question. When the sex act is over, he writes, “The two individuals are separate again. But are they as they were before? Is the air the same after a thunderstorm as before? No. The air is as it were new, fresh, tingling with newness. (more…)
Georgia O’Keeffe, “D. H. Lawrence Pine Tree,” 1929
4,925 words
D. H. Lawrence is best known to the general public as a writer of sexy books. In his own time, his treatment of sex made him notorious and caused him to run afoul of the authorities on a number of occasions. I have no desire to rehearse in detail the well-known history of Lawrence’s troubles with censorship, (more…)
The relationships of microcosm and macrocosm as illustrated in Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 1619
2,914 words
Part 2 of 2
An inquiry into the doctrine of the “center” in the West would indeed be of much interest for the purposes of a further comparison, but it presents special difficulties because esoteric knowledge in the West has taken the form of cryptograms, and has been clothed in abstruse symbols and myths of many meanings to which a uniform interpretation, such as modern critical thought desires, cannot always be given. We shall therefore only make a few references.
4,045 words
Part 1 of 2
On first receiving Karlfried Graf Dürckheim’s book, Hara: Man’s Terrestrial Center,[1] we had thought of writing one of the usual reviews, calling attention to it as an interesting contribution to our knowledge of the psychology, the behavior, and the “existential morphology” of the Far Eastern, or rather of the Japanese, man; (more…)
3,188 words
The theme of an original duality or polarity related to that of the sexes occurs in the traditions of almost all cultures. This duality is sometimes expressed in purely metaphysical terms, sometimes in that of divine or mythological figures, cosmic elements, principles, gods, and goddesses.
It seemed evident to the early historians of religion of recent times that this was due to anthropomorphism. In their opinion, as man had created his gods in his own image, (more…)
2,963 words
Part 1 of 2
Translation anonymous, edited by Greg Johnson
Editor’s Note:
The following essay was originally published in English in East and West, vol. 9, no. 4 (1958): 349–55. This is chapter 15 of Julius Evola, East and West: Comparative Studies in Pursuit of Tradition, ed. Greg Johnson, (more…)
4,488 words
Translation anonymous, edited by Greg Johnson
Editor’s Note:
The following essay was originally published in English in East and West, vol. 6, no. 3 (1955): 224–30. This is chapter 9 of Julius Evola, East and West: Comparative Studies in Pursuit of Tradition, ed. Greg Johnson, forthcoming from Counter-Currents in the summer of 2013.
Yoga, may well he said to be that portion of the heritage of Indian wisdom—nay, of the wisdom of the East as a whole—that is most familiar to Western Europeans and to Americans. (more…)
1,235 words
English original here
Jedinců, kteří nám pomáhají poukázat na znepokojivou cestu, po níž se ubírá existence velké většiny lidí, je za těchto zhoršených podmínek málo a hrozí, že budou zaměňováni se šarlatány.Do této kategorie patří bez nejmenší pochybnosti „tajemný pan Gurdžijev“, tedy Georgij Ivanovič Gurdžijev (1866 – 1949). (more…)
Norns by J. L. Lund (1777-1867)
4,683 words
English original here
1. O Problema
Nós temos “livre-arbítrio”? Certamente isso me parece que eu livremente escolho o que eu faço em vida, com respeito a coisas tanto maiores quanto menores. Minha decisão de graduar no colégio, por exemplo, certamente parece ter sido feito livremente, sem nenhuma coerção de outros. (more…)
Norns by J. L. Lund (1777-1867)
4,748 words
Portuguese translation here
1. The Problem
Do we have “free will”? It certainly seems to me that I freely choose what I do in life, with respect to things both major and minor. My decision to go to graduate school, for example, certainly seems to have been one that I made freely, without anyone or anything coercing me. (more…)
1,525 words
Translated by Greg Johnson
Czech translation here
Individuals who help us put a finger on the disturbing way in which the existence of the great majority of people has been, metaphysically speaking, degraded, are rare in our times and run the risk of being confused with charlatans.
4,959 words
Part 1 of 2
1. Introduction: “A Lofty Humanity and Eternal Blondeness”
The Holy Mountain
Franz von Stuck, "Orpheus"
2,654 words
French translation here
Collin Cleary—the enigmatic sage of Sandpoint, Idaho—burst onto the intellectual scene almost ten years ago, with the publication of the first volume of the journal TYR: Myth—Culture—Tradition. Along with Joshua Buckley and Michael Moynihan, Cleary was one of the founding editors of TYR, having a hand in all aspects of the first volume and contributing three substantial articles and several reviews. (more…)
Franz von Stuck, “Wild Hunt,” 1899
4,143 words
1. Introduction
In The Poetic Edda
I wot that I hung on the wind-tossed tree
All of nights nine,
Wounded by the spear, bespoken to Odin,
Bespoken myself to myself,
Upon that tree of which none telleth
From what roots it doth rise. (more…)
3,022 words
Translation anonymous, edited by Greg Johnson
Editor’s Note:
The following essay was originally published in English in East and West, vol. 1, no. 1 (April 1950): 28–32.
One
One of the characteristics of the Hindu doctrine that may be described in a general way as Tantrism is its claim to offer a formulation of the traditional doctrine that is only suitable to the last epoch of the present cycle, i.e., for the Kali Yuga. (more…)