Julius Evola Biography

Julius Evola was a 20th century Italian painter, poet, writer, philosopher, and occultist. A polymath and a polyglot, he initially began his career in arts and became one of the prominent Italian painters and poets during the Dadaist movement. His writing career spanned five and a half decades and his numerous books and essays reflect his esoteric views on traditionalism, orientalism, occultism, alchemy and mysticism. He courted controversy through his writings that criticized Christianity and instead upheld traditional Roman and ancient mystical values. His interpretation of Buddhism was equally bizarre wherein he praised its ‘anti-democratic’ concept and even hailed it as a true ‘Aryan’ tradition that was lost and corrupted in the West. Julius Evola believed in the traditional gender roles where women subjugated themselves to men wilfully. Similarly, his thoughts on race supremacy, Fascism, war favouring ideology, and anti-Semitism got him close to Mussolini and prominent Nazi officers during World War II. After the war, he wrote books outlining right wing perspectives at the same time critiquing the decadence brought on by Modernist approaches. Not surprisingly, his works are loathed by centrists and liberals today, but hold a lot of sway with various right-wing groups and organizations across the globe.