Julius Evola THE METAPHYSICS OF SEX INNER TRADITIONS INTERNATIONAL, New YorkInnes Traditions 377 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10016 First U.S. edition 1983 The Metaphysics of Sex was fest published in Italian under the tite Metafsica del Sess, by Wdirioni Mediterrance Roma SRL. Copyright © 1969 Rdizioni Mediterrance English translation copyright © 1983 by Inner Traditions International Lid. Alrights reserved No par ofthis book may be reproduced or ulilzed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information slorage or retrieval sytem, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Inquiries should be ‘addressed to Inner Traditions Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Eola, Julius, 1898-1974. The metaphysics of ex. ‘Translation of: Metafisica del sesso, Includes bibliographical references. 1. Sex. 2. Sexualethics. 3. Love. 1. Tite TiQ21.F9613 1983, ISBN 0-89281-025-4 306.7 8211909, Eaited by Deborah Forman and Claudine Fischer Printed in the United States of America (Cover illustration: Lede and the Swan (Flemish artist c. 1540, The John G. Jobnson Collection, Philadelphia Muse of Ar Reprinted by permision.) - INTRODUCTION LEROS AND SEXUAL LOVE The Evolutionary Prejudice - Love and Sex — Eros and the Instinct for Reproduction - The Myth and Genius of the Species - Eros and the Tendency toward Pleasure ~ Sensual Pleasure ~ The Magnetic Theory of Love = The Degrees of Sexual Development — Physical Sex and Inner Sex ~ Conditional Nature and Forms of Exotic Attraction ITHE METAPHYSICS OF SEX The Myth of the Hermaphrodite ~ Eros and the Various Degrees of Intoxication with Ie The Biological Treatment and the Fall of Eros ~ Aphrodite Urania; Eros and Beauty ~ Lust and the Myth of Poros and Penia ~ Appendix ~ Homosexuality IL PHENOMENA OF TRANSCENDENCY IN PROFANE LOVE Sex end Human Values ~ “Evetlasting Lave,” Jealousy, and Sexual Pride ~ Phenomena of Transcendency in Puberty — Love, the Meare, Dreams, and Death ~ The Love-Pain-Deeth Complex — Sensuel Pleasure and Suffering: The Masochist- Sadist Complex ~ Erotic Eestasy and Mystic Ecstasy ~ The Experience of Coitus - The Metaphysics of Modesty ~The ‘Meaning of the Orgy ~ Appendix, Marquis de Sade ad the “Way of the Left Hand” ~ Rasputin and the Sect ofthe Khlysti IV GODS AND GODDESSES, MEN AND WOMEN Mythology, Ontology, and Psychology ~ The Metaphysical Dyad ~ Demeter Archetypes and Aphrodite Archetypes, the Vinsio, and Ultimate Nakedness ~ Typical Diferentations of Mattoo ia Myth ~ Man and Female in Manifestation = On the Dacmonie in the Feminine and the Symbelisn ofthe Taverted Goitos The Phallus sind Menstruation ~ Male and Female ‘yeholagy - Woman as Mother and Womsa a Lover ~ Pity Sexualtys anal Crctiyin Women The Fascination Woonae 2 oa usand Acti Sexes ity and Passivity in Sexual Love - The Ethies ofthe VY SACRED CEREMONIES AND EVOCATIONS, ‘Wedlock as “Mysteryin the World of Tradition ~ Christianity and Sexuality ~ Sacred Prostitution and Holy Marriages — Incubus and Succubus: Fetishism and Evocatory Processes — vocation Processes inthe Chivalrous Lave ofthe Middle Ages ~The Initistory Experiences of the Worshippers of Love Appendix; The Meaning of the Sabbat and the Black Mass — ‘The Doctrine ofthe Fermaphroditein the Christin Mysticism \VISEX IN THE REALM OF INITIATONS AND MAGIC. ‘Transmutations and the Commandment of Chastity ~ The ‘Techniques of Endogenous Transmutation in Kundalini-Voga and Taoism ~ Sex in the Kabbsala and Eleusinian Mysteries — ‘Tantric Sexual Practices ~ Tantric Sexual Practices and Their Dangers ~ Secret Sexual Practices in Chineses Taoism ~ Arab Sexual Practices and Hermetic Symbology ~ The Myriam and the “Fire Magic” ~ The “Light of Sex” and the “Law of TTelema’”~ The Presupposiions of Operative Sexual Magic CONCLUSION NOTES INDEX im 216 273 a7 338 Introduction ‘The term “metaphysics” inthe ttleof this book needs tobe defined, for it will be sed bere with two distinct meanings. The first i= commonly employed in philosophy, where metaphysics is tinderstood ar the search for fist principles and fundemental meanings, The metaphysics of sex wil therefore be the study of what From an absolute point of view is signified by the sexes and their imoraction. There has been litle precedence for thi kind of research. After mentioning Plato and leaving aside certain hints Found in mystical writings ofthe Renaissance—and also ignoring the theories of Bochme and some heterodox mystics influenced by kta, lupo and including Franz von Baader only with Schopenhauer do Wwe find a precursor. After him, we can only cite Weininger and, 10 ‘cectain extent, Berdvaev and Klages. In the modern era and above ill in our own day, studies of the problem of the sexes from rnthropological, biological sociological, eugenic, and peycho- tnalytic points of view have multiplied endemieally; in fact, & rologism, “sexology,” has been created to label research of this Kind, But none ofthis has sn relation tothe metaphysics of sex. In this eld, as in every other, our contemporaries have show no atest i the search for ultimate meanings. oF af they have, the scareh has appented inconclusive and uninterestngs rather, they hhive thought to attain more important and serious knowledge by keeping t0 an empirical and more sticely human level, whenever the attention has not been focused on the pathological by-products ote The same is mainly tue of the writers, past and present, whohave ddslt with love eather than specifically with ex itself, For the most nr, they have Kept tothe field of paychology and, within tht, to ‘enor analysis of feelings. Even the writings of such authors as Stendhal, Bourget, Balzac, Solovieff,and D-H. Lawrence havelittle tw do with the deepest meanings of sex. Mozeover, reierences {0 love-in view of the general meaning of that word nowadays, and zivon the sentitettal and rorsantie disintegration in the experiences Sr the majority of people--were hotind to create ambiguities and to iereseacl 1 tarzow and rather commonplace field. Only here tt hor aa one aight say, aint by chance have sc wets2 The Metaphysics of Sex approached the rue depth or the metaphysical dimension of love in its relationship with sex. ‘But in this study, metaphysics wil also have a second meaning. one that i not unrelated fo the word's origin since “metaphysics” lierlly means the science ofthat which goes beyond the physica. Ia ‘our research, this “beyond the physical” will not cover absiract Concepts oF philosophical ideas, but rather that which may evolve from. an experience that is not merely physical, but transpsyehological and transphysiological. We shall schieve this through the doctrine ofthe manifold states of being and uhrough an anthropology that is not restricted to the simple soul-body ichotomy, but is aware of “subtle” and even transcendental modalities of Inman consciousness. Although foreign to contemporary thought, knowledge of this kind formes! an integral part of ancient learning and ofthe traditions of varied peoples. From this contest we shall take our reference points for & mecaphysics of sex, and we shall verify the possibilty of erotic ‘experience leading toadisplacement of the boundaries of theegoand to the emergence of profound modes of consefousness. It has been ‘observed! that a different chythm is established in every intense experience of eros, which invests and transports or suspends the rormal ficulties of an individual and may open vistas onto dilferent ‘world, But those who are the subjects of such an experience almost always lack the discernment and sensibtyto comprehend anything bbeyond the emozions and felings that affect them; they have no basis forselF-orientation ‘Sclentsts who try to investigate sexuality by studying oters rather than themselves are ip error, for they cannot approach the dept of the metaphysis of sex. Only the lost sacred science isable to provide the necessary references for investigating the potential {dimensions ofthe experience of eros, Thus we ack the indispensable Iknoarledge needed to identity in terms of realy the possible content fof that which is generally assumed to be unreal. Without this Knowledge, man can only take eres tO the exalted borders of the human, of his passion and his feeling. Only poetry, Iyries, and idealized romanticism are created, while everything elie is sraicated, ‘With these observations, we have in view the profane eotie field ‘which is roughly the only sexual experience knoven to men and twomen of the West today and which alone i taken into account by peychologists and sexolesists. [1 may be that the majority of people tei nor recoymize the deepest meanings tha ve sal jv yenceal ial even to the eraale act that expr Harbaswe fas lowe the Gack ane Introduction 3 ‘onstrous being is formed” and man and woman “seek to humiliate sud sacrifice everything that is beautiful within them,” Temay be that ‘he majority will think us capricious end arbitrary, and consider ou werpretations abstruse and hermetic, This wil only se so to one ‘who assumes his own limited experience as absolute. But the world ‘ol eros did not begin today, and a glance at history, ethnology, the history of religions, mysticism, folklore, and mythology will reveal the existence of erotie forms and sexual experiences in which deeper sibilities were recognized References of this kind, well documented in the traditions of stverse civilizations, will’ sufice to. refute the idea that the Inctaphysies of sex is merely a concept. The conclusion must be quite uiferent. We would say rather that, a8 i through atrophy, certain sects of eros have become inactive almost to the point where they re uo longer discernible and only thie traces and symptoms remain In the sexual love of the present time. ‘Thus, in order to make them ‘vient, an integration is needed, a procedute lke the passage from the lferential tothe integral in mathematis, Indeed iis not likely ‘tin theancient forms of eros, which often belonged sacred rites ‘initiation ceremonies, something was invented and added that did ‘correspond to human experience; nor ist ikely that a use was tnsde of such experience for which it was completely unfit either ccsemially or in principle. 1 is much more likely that with the Issing of time this experience deteriorated, being impoverished, bseured, oF hidden in the vast majority of men and women Ielonging to a phase ofevilizaton oriented toward materialism. Tt Ts rightly been said that “the fact chat humanity makes love Inlishly and unconsciously, as € does almost everything, does not event love's mysterious nature from upholding the dignity that helungs to it"! Moreover, it is useless to object that certain posites and meanings of eros can only be witnessed, if a all ia ‘ewveptional cases. Tis precisely these exceptions of today which give the key to understanding the deep, potential, unconscious content, fv the unexceptional and the profane. Although Mauclair only ‘sidered the profane and natural character af pasion, yet he said itl reason: love, ets are carried out without ibinking, and its mystery is evident only to a tiny minority of human beings. «Tn the tmimberless crowd of beings having a human countenance there sve very few neni and in this select company there are very few who ‘oars she meaning oflove.” In this, a in all other spheres, Nouisties are worthless. Such a criterion cam be lft to the trivial Ietheals of a Kinsey. In our research, itis the exceptional that Povo rhe mortar an ies evel. We-ean now mark ott the Fld hat war investigation wllener.Fhetirst will that of eraesexua zx4 ‘The Metaphysics of Sex ‘experience in general: namely, the profane love chat any ordinary Sam or wonnan may know. We sall ook in this field for “imervening ‘Signs that will ake us beyond the simple physica, sentimental fact, We can sart with a number of constane expressions, the universil language of lovers and recurring behavioral patterns. “The Stereotypical and trivial, considered in anes Heht, will provide some interesting elves. ‘As for the phenomenology of profane love, further material ean be _skaned from novelists and play'wrishts. Their works nowadays deal flmost exclusively with Tove and sex. We do not deny that such productions may have a certain worth as evidence and as “human ocumentation,” for usually a personal experience thet has actualy been lived constitutes the raw material of artistic creation. And what Such artstic creation presents in the feeling, dialogues, andl actions Of its characters. should not be dismissed os mere fiction or imagination, It may highlight through integration, amplification, fad intensification the personal experience ofthe author, however incomplete, By this standaed, at and the novel can provide further material that in itself may be considered objective and that often ‘Concerns already diffeentiazed forms of eres. ‘Our research meets with special difficulties in a sphere important for our investigation: the states that develop a the height of erotic sexual experience, Literature offers lite help here. Until recently there were the taboos of puritanism, and now in the most daring tnodern novel the banal and vulgar predominate over any useful ‘material, Pornogetphicliteratureisalso ascanty souree. Produced to tite the reader, its dreadfully squalid not only i the facts and ‘Scenes described, but in its essence Tn the direct collection of material, we encounter a twofold problem, both subjective und objective. The problem is subjective because people are reactant to speak evento ther partners, let alone tostrangers, about their experience inthe mst thrilling moments of ‘Sexual intimacy. [tis objective because these moments oftencsincide ‘with such reduced states of consciousness that people sometimes forget what they felt, sid, or did. We have indeed been able fscertain that the ecstatic or maonadic moments of the heights of fenuality often provoke interruptions of consciousness and are ‘Phases from which lovers rerurn to themselves as if stunned oF ‘onfased by paroxssmal feeling and emotion, “in principle, neurologists and gynecologists would be very well placed to gatker useful material, if only they were trained oF Faterested. But unfortunately this i not the case. ‘The postivist chal of the list ventiry wet 0 ea publish phitogphs of Teun gonitatirn ore to tabi Geese fevwcen dling Inteoduetion 5 women, prints, tnd women belonging to savage rcs. Bur “nya no onc hash any nterestit feentig trosocte lence abou he insennon experience of vex Funbermore, paper on ctslopal romuch mith scene proemion ne Femratcramiyinomptcnstarhercttand cadena {Re