Evola - Meditations on the Peaks

Translation dedicated to my friend Alessio Trerotola, a true comrade and gentleman.

Guido Stucco

Foreword

I n the second half of 1973, with Evolas permission, I gathered a number of articles he had published in various periodicals between 1930 and 1942 on the subject of mountain climbing and gave it the title Meditations on the Peaks. This collection of essays was first published in the first quarter of 1974, a few months before the eminent philosopher died, June 11th of the same year. The first edition quickly ran out of print, and later on, following a lavishly illustrated Spanish translation in 1978 These passages appeared in the first two Italian editions (1934 and 1951) but were eliminated in the third edition in 1969.

EVOLA AND THE PRACTICAL METAPHYSICS OF THE MOUNTAINS

During World War I, Evola served in the Italian Army as an artillery officer stationed on the Asiago plateau; however, his first metaphysical practice of mountain climbing dates to the 1920s. This can be also proven by the fact that a certain type of mountain climbing was given a new emphasis in 1929, on the pages of the periodical Krur (published by Evola himself). This periodical was usually devoted to the study and practices of esotericism. In that year an interesting article was published by Rud (the pseudonym of Domenico Rudatis), entitled First Ascent.

It is not exaggerating to say that in all of Julius Evolas literary works, the writings on mountain climbing have had a very particular qualitative importance. To Evola, the experience of the mountain represented (beyond the physical challenge itself) the possibility of an inner realization that nowadays is rarely offered to Western people. The Western world oppresses and commits violence against the deep reality of nature. We are meticulously preparing our suicide in the search for alternative sources (alternative to its deepest levels, maybe). A different West, in different times, knew and experienced nature in a different manner, being in harmony with it and finding in it the threshold that allows access to other worlds, both inner and outer, which seem remote and inaccessible but actually dwell within us.

The mountain, as Evola describes it in these essays, is portrayed as the guardian of the initiatory threshold over which anyone who wants to be initiated must cross at least once in a lifetime; otherwise its better never to have been born, because the meaning of life is found only through realizing oneself. But we realize ourselves only by putting ourselves to the test.

The mountain also represents the power of vision and of enlightenment. It presents the struggle against inner ghosts; the victory over fear of solitude, silence, and the void; the capability of the awakening of the divine element within man; the power of transcendence that allows us to ascend to the top of the self.

Evola reveals the mountain to us through symbols and enigmas. The mountain of high icy peaks, with its clear cut forms carved in the ice, shapes the contours of that hyper-Uranian world to which we yearn to return.

He who has conquered the mountain, Evola himself observes, namely,

he who has learned to adapt himself to its fundamental meaning, already possesses a key to comprehending the original spirit and the spirit of the Aryan-Roman world in its most severe, pure, and monumental aspects. Such a key is not to be found in ordinary culture and fields of study in the academic world.

Finally, the mountain is a school of inner toughening, with its known victims and obscure conquerors; its highest value consists in not being able to approach it without adequate preparation, but in needing a long apprenticeship. Like any good teacher, the mountain does not love compromises and is not forgiving toward cowards or those who are inept. Thus, the ascent becomes asceticism.

At this point it is clear that I am referring to an elitist form of mountain climbing, very far from the exhibitions or techniques that are very popular today (with a few very remarkable exceptions). I am referring to that peculiar form of practical metaphysics that Ren Daumal called art, in the traditional meaning of the term, namely the realization of a special knowledge through action.

However, in order to achieve this, aside from physical preparation, a particular inner attitude is required. It is necessary to achieve an inner awakening as a premise, in order to give to the sport a higher dimension and content,

However, it is not possible to always remain on the peaks, since it is necessary to descend.... But then, what is the point? The point is that the high knows the low, but the low does not know the high. In these simple words by Ren Daumal we find the whole meaning of the experience and the spirituality of the mountain. This is what the present anthology of Evolas writings on the mountain and their metaphysical implications are trying to convey, as will be evident to those who appreciate these writings.

There is a painting by the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich, who is mentioned in the following pages and who lived for many years in Tibet, in contact with mysterious and realized Tibetan lamas. In the painting we see the figure of a knight who is about to leave a village where some women are standing by a well. The knight briefly turns to look behind: over the scene hover the immense and bright peaks of the Himalayas. It is a moment of tension and of uncertainty. The way is indicated: will the man renounce the comfortable mediocrity of everyday affections and successfully head toward his true and only path?

This is the path that Evolas essays on the mountain attempt to point out: it is a difficult one and thus will be a great achievement just to realize his premise.

THE LEGEND OF MOUNT ROSA

Julius Evolas peculiar destiny led him, after a life of exceptional activity, to a particular postmortem condition: that of a silent and ever-active presence in the will and actions of those nonconformist people, young and old, who continue to defend in his name the ideals that Evola always put before any academic prebend, namely the values of honor, faithfulness, and inner dignity. As Evola wrote in chapter 2 of this book,

In the oldest Hellenic traditions we find that the heroes achievement of immortality was often portrayed through the symbolism of their ascending or disappearing into the mountains. Thus, we find again the mystery of the heights, since in this disappearing we must see the material symbol of a spiritual transfiguration. The terms, to disappear, and to become invisible, and to be taken up into the peaks, should not be taken literally, but essentially mean to be virtually introduced to the world beyond, in which there is no death, and removed from the visible world of physical bodies, which is that of common human experience.

Evola (that is, his ashes) disappeared into the icy bosom of Mother Mountain, of the Mount Rosa he loved so much and to which he yearned to return. The last wishes of Evola were to have his mortal remains spread over a particular glacier located on Mount Rosas massif, about which there is an old legend.

According to the legend, a long time ago, at the feet of Mount Rosa, where today lies Lyskamms Glacier, there was a wonderful town named Felik. The mountain behind it, which rose 4061 meters above the town, provided a pathway for communication; it was almost entirely paved, enabling people living on either side to visit the other side. One fall evening, a cold and ragged passerby was denied hospitality by Feliks inhabitants. That person was none other than a demon of the rocks. He called a curse upon the wealthy but selfish town, and snow began to fall and continued ceaselessly until both the town and its inhabitants disappeared forever, creating what is now called Feliks Glacier. Tradition adds that some shepherds who were endowed with incredible eyesight were able to detect, during an extremely dry summer, a steeple from the mythical town rising from underneath a crack in the ice. It is also reported that some centuries ago a shepherd fell into a deep crevice and found himself in the town; he was able to return to the surface of the mountain without incurring any injuries.