The Barrow

I've been reading Julius Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World, and while I am a perennialist and maybe even something of a traditionalist myself, I find myself taking issues with some of his hypotheses. Much of this work makes a lot of sense, especially his criticisms of modernity. However, I disagree with one of his core ideas: that Indo-European spirituality natively consists entirely of “solar” and transcendent Sky-Father cults, and that the “lunar,” cthonic Earth-Mother cults are impositions from without, mostly from the pre-Indo-European substrate, be it in Europe or India.

Firstly, his solar/lunar dichotomy falls apart simply by examining it through a Germanic lens, where the Moon is regarded as the masculine of the pair, while the Sun is the feminine. However, I digress.

Indo-European spirituality (and indeed many spiritualities Evola would describe as “traditional”) often emphasizes the importance of balance, and this applies to these two poles as well. Even the aristocrats of Viking Age Scandinavia worshipped primarily the gods Odin, Thor and Freyr. Freyr is in fact one of the Vanir, these cthonic, earthly deities Evola insists came from without.

Personally, I think balance is the key here, as with so many things. This is central to our native Indo-European spiritualities, from India to Iceland. Frankly I think Evola's over-emphasis on the transcendant heavenly force is latent Christianity.