Aspects of Racial Doctrine – Julius Evola

Aspects of Racial Doctrine

[GD: Excerpt from parts two and three of Synthesis of a Doctrine of Race (1941). Article was written at Mussolini’s request and this was the official racial doctrine of Fascist Italy. Translator unknown. Published by the Counter Currents website – the rest of the article is online there]

Editor’s Note:

In this text, Evola distinguishes the race of the body (biological race–race as such, in my opinion), the race of the soul (which I would call non-hereditary character types, shaped by culture, ideas, and education), and race of the spirit, which has to do with “vertical,” “superhistorical” heredity, i.e., man’s alleged descent from superhuman or divine beings. It is unfortunate that Evola speaks disparagingly of evolution as a “myth” — only to replace it with genuine myths of a process of “devolution” from divine beings which do not deign to leave a trace in the fossil record. It bears an uncomfortable likeness to Biblical creationism.

There is, however, a form of the Traditional, cyclical view of history as decline from a Golden Age to a Dark Age which is consistent with what we know of human biological and cultural evolution, namely the philosophy of history of the Neapolitan sage Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) who argued, against the Traditionalists, that the superior wisdom of the Golden Age did not consist of the intuitive knowledge of highly spiritual beings but rather the passions and instincts of primitives which were, nevertheless, superior in their barbaric vitality–in their underlying harmony with nature–to the later products of more reflective civilizations.

[GD: Article follows here]

The Different Meanings of Race

The racialist consideration of man cannot stop at a mere biological level, otherwise it would be worthy of the accusation by the Jew Trotsky of it being just “zoological materialism.”

It is also not enough to say, like Walter Gross, that “in the concept of race we intend that completeness of human life, in which body and spirit, matter and soul, are fused in a superior unity,” and that deciding whether one of the two things is determined by the other. Whether bodily form is determined by the soul or vice-versa is an extrascientific, metaphysical problem which is not a consideration of racialism.

Even less satisfactory is the following statement by Alfred Rosenberg: “We do not agree with the proposition that the spirit creates the body, nor with the inverse, that the body creates the spirit. There is no clear boundary between the spiritual world and the physical world: both constitute an indivisible whole.”

If race is no longer to be considered a myth, but as the object of a doctrine, then one cannot stop at these levels.

The concept of race assumes different meanings not only as applied man and to animal species, but also regarding different human types. We therefore must lay a primary distinction: that which lies between the “races of nature” and those of a higher, more human and spiritual, sense.

(GD: In all of the feacitious nonsense about ‘Occult Nazi’s’ – the only real connections are via Karl Willigut & Julius Evola – both of whom really were heavily involved in the occult – other spurious nonsense involving the ‘Spear of Destiny’ is just churlish gibbering from New age authors. Here follows a good article on Willigut from an internet user known only as ‘Adam’.)

Karl Maria Wiligut: Occultism and the Nazis

Introduction

The SS occultist, draped in mysterious runes, conducting bloodcurdling rituals to pagan deities in the name of the Fuhrer, the cruel Gestapo colonel in charge of securing ancient Germanic artifacts for the Reich, Heinrich Himmler taking up the Spear of Destiny to wield esoteric power against the Allies- images such as these reverberate through modern popular culture, lurid representations of the Nazi regime animated by sinister magic. Occultism during the National Socialist period of Germany has become a center of considerable speculation and fascination, where the wild theories collide with the wilder, and where “secret knowledge”, conspiracies, and sensationalism hold sway. This half-baked myth of Nazi occultism, much like the nonsensical accusations of Nazism and fascist tendencies which are common to media pundits, has arisen out of a lack of knowledge and understanding of the National Socialists, making of them a historical blank space into which ahistorical frustrations, fears, and obsessions can be inserted.

However, the idea of a National Socialist occult is not total fabrication. There is a meager core of truth upon which the edifice of sensationalist fantasy has been erected. National Socialism arose out of the same intellectual climate, the same Zeitgeist, in which mystics and occultists such as Guido von List and the Ariosophists were active. Many of the same currents of thought which become cornerstones of Nazi ideology are echoed in the worldviews of these occultists, and so it is no surprise that some occultists would be attracted to the National Socialist regime.

One such occultist was Karl Maria Wiligut, perhaps the best known occultist to have an official rank in the SS, and thus the best candidate for an occultist with some amount of influence within the National Socialist regime.

(Rest of article here: http://redarmada.tumblr.com/post/2138686654/karl-maria-wiligut-occultism-and-the-nazis)

OVERTHROW