Ride the Tiger - Julius Evola | Part 1, Reading & Discussion

Hi to all,

I've been flirting with scheduling a reading of this for a while and now, having established a decent amount of interest in this spiritual series, I figured it was time to dive into the controversial self-proclaimed superfascista Julius Evola and his esoteric far-right philosophical survival manual for modernity, Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul. How better to lose my readership than this?

Heavily inspired by the Traditionalist philosophy of René Guénon - our first reading in this adventure - and Friedrich Nietzsche, Evola's final text is written against the backdrop of the Second World War, the failure of Fascism, the rise of materialism, secularism, and moral decline - all of which Evola swiftly describes as an age of dissolution. Somewhat similar to Simone Weil's self-emptying attention recently discussed in our reading of On the Abolition of All Political Parties, Evola advances in his twilight years a notion of apoliteia, an inner distance unassailable by society and its (as he perceives it) increasingly amoralistic and barbaric attitudes and values, a stance unaccepting of anything binding one to the present, etc. As with all of our thinkers, Evola is pursuing transcendence, via a defense of the world of being and dignity of those aristocrats who feel they belong to a different modality of humanity, wherein one might exist in full recognition of the desert that surrounds us, enabling us to "ride the tiger" so that we might supra-navigate the chaos and degeneration of the modern, technologically-saturated world that we're so unfortunate to inhabit. Or something like that, I don't know.

We will be reading through Part 4 (Dissolution of the Individual) for this meet-up so 18) The "Animal Ideal" - The Sentiment of Nature should be the last section read.

I will be reading Godwin and Fontana's translation published by Inner Traditions. It is available through this guy's website who recently lost like 12% of his net-worth as a result of tariffs (lol).
Also available for free here but please help Jeff get his money back up if you can.

As always, if you're unable to complete the book prior to our meeting, no worries - it's lengthy so we're just happy to have you and welcome whatever insights, critiques, questions, etc. you may have based on what you were able to read.

We will be meeting in the Ace Hotel lobby on W 29th. It's cozy, there are couches, there is lunch, there is wine (thank god) and there is a Stumptown Coffee in the front. It's great. Message me the day of if you can't find us. I usually sit toward the back next to the bar.

It bears repeating, this group is open to newcomers to Evola (preferred in this case), novices of philosophy, ragamuffins, ne'er-do-wells, urchins of all sorts, etc. Purely biographically, Evola is fascinating and his recent resurgence and resonance with fringe fellas online is worth considering. Just be respectful and kind - it'll be great.

Alright, looking forward to it and reach out to me with any questions in the meantime.

See y'all then!