FOREWORD

The “Magical” Gruppo di UR in Its Historical and Esoteric Context¹

By Hans Thomas Hakl

At last the second volume of writings by the Gruppo di UR—or UR Group, as we shall henceforth refer to it—has been completely translated. The first volume² immediately met with great interest, because of the high quality of its contents, but at the same time it raised a whole series of questions: From what tradition did the UR Group derive its extraordinary knowledge? What was its goal? Who were the leading figures, and what is known about them? Why did the group only last for three years? Are (or were) there organizations that descended from it, perhaps still working to this day?

Professor Renato del Ponte, in his preface to the first volume, has already described the essentials of the group, and provided many answers that we will take for granted here. His work was the very first to shed a brighter light on the background of the UR Group.³ Even in Italy there had been only a few writings, aside from Julius Evola’s own memoir,⁴ that discussed the subject up to a point, and they did so much less thoroughly. Del Ponte’s expanded essay appeared in Italian in 1989,⁵ and assumed its final form in a book published in 1994.⁶

His investigation, however, focused only on the UR Group itself, not on the traditional strands preceding it or on the post-1929 groups that claimed a connection to it. Therefore, we will specifically address such matters here. Since these strands and groups span several centuries, we can only provide an overview of them, like a series of snapshots. But there is quite a comprehensive literature for readers of Italian, if not always easily accessible, which treats the various aspects of this history in detail. The only exception concerns the post-1929 groups, about which little has been published up to now.

PREHISTORY

Here we will concentrate on the “Italian” component, leaving aside the thread that goes back to Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. Much has been written on the history of Anthroposophy and Theosophy, which has nothing directly to do with UR.⁷ Nor will we treat the era before the eighteenth century, since specific derivations from Pythagoras, for example via Neoplatonism and the Renaissance, are practically impossible to pin down historically. This does not mean, however, that we deny the esoteric and/or intellectual connections that reach back to these earlier times—quite the contrary.

Instead we will begin with a central figure, who, together with the dubiously renowned Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo, 1743/49–1795), was presumably the modern starting point of magical-alchemical efforts in Italy. This is Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of San Severo and Duke of Torremaggiore (1710–1771), a multifaceted personality around whom countless legends swirled, and continue to do so. He was the first regular Grand Master of Neapolitan Freemasonry, and united all the local lodges under his leadership. He was intensively occupied with magical and alchemical experiments, which finally led to his excommunication by the pope.

The enigmatic nature of Raimondo di Sangro’s life continued right up to his death, because he died under mysterious circumstances, probably from poisoning, reputedly caused by his own alchemical experiments.⁸ Massimo Introvigne assumes that Cagliostro, who was living in Naples at the time and certainly associated with the prince, bestowed on him not only the more or less public “Egyptian” degrees of initiation, but also secret ones, the so-called Arcana Arcanorum (Secret of Secrets).⁹ These presumably contained a sort of “inner alchemy” for the construction of a “glorious body” or “resurrection body,” hence for the achievement of immortality.¹⁰

The so-called Egyptian Rites later enjoyed wide distribution, right up to the most well-known modern magical order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; this leads one to suspect a common descent from the Gold and Rose Cross. There are even visible influences in the “Egyptian” lodge of Anthroposophical leanings in Hamburg, called Zu den drei Rosen an der Elbe (At the three roses on the river Elbe). Theosophy, too, had an “Egyptian Rite” founded by Charles Leadbeater; see Introvigne, La sfida magica, 110–15, and also Carlo Gentile, Il mistero di Cagliostro e il sistema “egiziano” (Foggia: Bastogi, 1980), and Serge Caillet, Arcanes & Rituels de la Maçonnerie Egyptienne (Paris: Trédaniel, 1994).

In 1983, after a long search, Professor Clara Miccinelli discovered in a house in Naples a locked chest containing Raimondo di Sangro’s “Testament,” along with a medallion of him; it also contained several writings, including prophecies, and objects that he had owned.¹¹ A magnificent temple with rich symbolism is located near the di Sangros’ house: it had once been the site of Raimondo di Sangro’s devotions, and also of his laboratory.¹² It can still be visited and is today one of the most important museums of Naples, containing many artistic treasures.

From Naples, a line of tradition leads to France, settling in the purely Masonic “Egyptian Rite of Misraim and Memphis.”¹³ A second line, more interesting to us,¹⁴ leads to Baron Nicola Giuseppe Spedalieri, who had a copious correspondence with the famous French occultist Éliphas Lévi;¹⁵ also to the advocate Giustiniano Lebano and to Pasquale de Servis. Giustiniano Lebano (1832–1909) was an officer in regular Masonry (the “Grand Orient”), a member of the Egyptian Rites united under the Italian revolutionary hero Garibaldi, and was also active in the Theosophical Society. He received occultists from all over Europe, and collected a comprehensive library.

A cholera epidemic tragically took the lives of Lebano’s four sons, which sent his wife into a state of mental instability. During a depressive crisis, and presumably to atone for her husband’s magical activity, she set fire to herself and died, deliberately destroying a large quantity of magical manuscripts and documents in the process.

In any event, Lebano must have been an important figure in the occult milieu, otherwise the extremely elitist “Ottaviano” would not have referred to him as such in a famous letter to the Kremmerzian periodical Commentarium, even taking issue with the famous magus Giuliano Kremmerz in this context.¹⁶ This Ottaviano was a personality who had a decisive influence over the magical orders of his time. The pseudonym most likely concealed Leone Caetani, Prince of Teano and later Duke of Sermoneta (1869–1935),¹⁷ whose forbears included Pope Boniface VIII. Important Italian esotericists think that he was the famous “Ekatlos,” who authored a widely discussed article titled “The ‘Great Track’—the Stage and the Wings” in volume III of the UR papers.¹⁸ Other equally important esotericists identify Ekatlos with a female follower of Giuliano Kremmerz.¹⁹

Renato del Ponte has already explained the importance of this “Ekatlos” in his historical-critical preface to the first volume of the UR papers: the intention was nothing less than to bring about a resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire, with all its sacrality, in the twentieth century. Rites were performed day after day in the attempt to influence incipient Fascism in this direction, and especially Mussolini, who was far from averse to such ideas. But it soon became clear that this attempt must fail in the face of Fascist realpolitik. Instead of putting himself under the protection of the ancient Roman gods, Mussolini signed the Lateran Accords with the mighty Catholic Church.

A woman who had participated in these magical rites had already prophesied to Mussolini in 1919, when the first Fascist combat groups had just been formed, that he would become (Roman) “Consul.” In 1923, when Mussolini was in fact head of the government, the same person approached him again and handed him a lictor’s bundle of rods with an antique bronze Etruscan ax, which had been obtained in a mysterious way. In ancient Rome, the lictors’ bundles were the symbol of the high magistracy. Mussolini was thoroughly familiar with this symbolism, and had “passionately” supported the performance of a mystery play on the sacred origins of Rome.²⁰ This is even known from a surviving letter of his.

Leone Caetani was a famous orientalist and Islamicist, whose writings included the ten-volume Annals of Islam. In 1894 he had visited the notorious Yezidis, which would later cause him to be suspected of Satanism.²¹ At the same time he was a representative of the Socialist Party in Rome, and thus had easy access to Mussolini, who had originally also been member of this party. With the aforementioned Giustiniano Lebano and Pasquale de Servis, Caetani was a member of the “Egyptian Order,” which represented the innermost circle of the traditional line supposedly going back to the Prince of San Severo and Cagliostro. Caetani’s central position is clear from this. He had a decisive influence on the Egyptian Order, and also on Giuliano Kremmerz, to whom we will return, and likewise on the latter’s initiatic group of Myriam (or Miriam).²²

GIULIANO KREMMERZ, ARTURO REGHINI, AND THEIR GROUPS

Around the turn of the century, Pasquale de Servis lived in Portici, near Naples, in the house of Giuliano Kremmerz’s mother. The birth name of Kremmerz (also written Kremm-Erz) was Ciro Formisano (1861–1930). From his earliest childhood he had thus been acquainted with a man who possessed ancient secret knowledge. Kremmerz also came into contact with Lebano and Caetani. After a few years spent abroad—having become rich through stock-market speculations, as Daffi confirms—he rapidly published a series of important esoteric periodicals, including the abovementioned Commentarium.

In 1896 or slightly earlier, he founded the Fr+ Tm+ di Miriam (or Myriam), the Therapeutic Magical Fraternity of Miriam, referring to the Egyptian Isis priestesses of antiquity. Its exclusive purpose was the healing or alleviation of illnesses. This was attempted through magnetic processes, accompanied by ritual prayers and calls to angels, ancient gods, and various daimons (in the positive sense). It is hardly surprising that Myriam arose under the explicit protection of the “Great Egyptian Orient,” which in turn traced back to the Egyptian Order, mentioned above in connection with Caetani, Lebano, and de Servis.

It is not entirely clear why Kremmerz moved to the Côte d’Azur, while most of his students were in Bari and Rome. Perhaps it was because of his son’s sickness, or possibly due to legal difficulties caused by his irregular paramedical activity. He died in 1930 in Beausoleil, France. Before his death, his secretary had several forebodings and monitory dreams.

There immediately ensued the first split of the fraternity, through the director of the Myriam academy in Naples. Despite difficulties during the Fascist period—for Mussolini had prohibited all Masonic and quasi-Masonic associations—several academies continued. The Roman one, after a series of quarrels and “astral” instructions from the “Superiors,” came under the direction of Vinci Verginelli (died 1987).²³ Verginelli was also an important collector of alchemical treatises. His collection has been assimilated with that of the famous composer Nino Rota, who also belonged to this esoteric circle: among other things, Rota wrote the music for all the familiar Fellini films, and also for the Mafia film The Godfather and for Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. Nino Rota owned about 450 of the most beautiful and the rarest alchemical manuscripts, and with this acquisition his collection became one of the most important in the world of such material.²⁴ In 1985 he donated it to the Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome. The group in Rome formerly led by Verginelli seems to have had a close relationship with the late Florentine publisher Bruno Nardini. Meetings following certain principles of the Myriam fraternity were also held in Florence.²⁵

Marco Daffi (pseudonym of Count Libero Ricciardelli) led another somewhat heterodox Kremmerz group and published several texts based on the Myriam material. Before his death he handed on the most important ritual to Giammaria Gonella, a lawyer from Genoa. The latter published supplementary material with Kemi-Hathor, based in Lainate, near Milan, where an alchemical periodical appeared, likewise named Kemi Hathor.

Giammaria Gonella, for his part, founded the Corpo dei Pari (Body of Peers), another rather heterodox group based on Myriam’s principles but, as the name indicates, one without a hierarchical structure. At the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, it posted its proclamations on the house walls of Genoa, in the style of the Rosicrucian manifestos over three centuries earlier. In 1978 the internal teachings and more detailed documentation about this group, which never numbered more than twelve, were published by the members themselves.²⁶ It is interesting that some of the principles thus published concerned “operations with two vessels,” that is, instructions for sexual magic.

The Order of Mantos, which had an even more secret and aristocratic structure, should certainly be listed as a later Kremmerzian association, though it was not a direct descendant of the original lineage. In addition to the Order of Mantos, there is a host of larger or smaller groups, especially in southern Italy, of which some continue ritual and magical work to this day. One of them, the Schola Philosophica Hermetica Classica Italica, Fratellanza Terapeutico-Magica di Miriam (S.P.H.C.I. Fr+ Tm+ di Miriam), under its president Anna Maria Piscitelli, claims to be the only true successor of the Kremmerzian heritage.²⁷ This claim is rejected by other Kremmerzian associations.

There is also a Christian variation of these initiations, founded by Count Alberti di Catenaia (pseudonym Erim) whose student was Paolo Virio. Virio’s teachings are easily accessible, since many of his books are still available and are continually being reissued.²⁸

A branch in France is also worth mentioning: the Souverain et Hermétique Ordre d’Atoum (Sovereign and Hermetic order of Atoum), whose teachings are mostly represented in the work of Jean-Pierre Giudicelli, Count of Cressac-Bachelerie.²⁹ Their center of gravity lies in “inner” alchemy, which Giudicelli connects closely with Chinese alchemy. He repeatedly refers to the Arcana Arcanorum. It is remarkable that in all these Kremmerzian lodges, orders, and so forth there are multiple personal intersections and connections with the Masonry of Misraim and Memphis. Some of their high degrees are even supposed to possess the Arcana Arcanorum.³⁰ There are similar intersections with certain Martinist currents.³¹

In 1987 there suddenly appeared a tiny numbered edition of internal writings of Myriam and the Osiridian Egyptian Order, which brought to light mostly sexual magical rituals and practices of these groups that had hitherto been entirely unknown.³² These were published by the Milan group Prometeo-Agape, led by Paolo Fogagnolo, who was a member of the communist Red Brigade.³³ An explosion followed: there were rumors of betrayal, theft, and so forth, and it must have led to the dissolution of some Kremmerzian groups. Why were there such dramatic consequences? It was because these writings disclosed that, besides the “Isis” teachings, which were purely concerned with healing the sick, there was an “Osiris” magic that consisted of certain sexual magical practices, although these were only conducted in a few, very restricted gatherings. They also told of techniques for separating the “solar” part from the physical body, the construction of a “glorious body,” and even the appropriation of another person’s body by the “soul” of an initiate or by a purely spiritual being. In other words, here was everything that allowed the group’s opponents to accuse it of the blackest magic. The documents published by Prometeo-Agape are mostly concerned with the organization associated with the C.E.U.R. (Casa Editrice Universale di Roma),³⁴ which, for its part, developed out of the A.N.K.H. Lodge (Accademia Neo-Kremmerziana Hermetica); they do not seem to apply to all Kremmerzian associations.³⁵

It is not known how far back such practices go. Introvigne writes, however, that they must be closely connected with the Arcana Arcanorum already mentioned by Cagliostro.³⁶ The persons responsible for publishing the strictly internal documents (Prometeo-Agape and “Alexandre de Dánaan”), give as their reason for doing so a desire to warn against the anti-Christian aims contained in them. It is impossible to know whether this was, in fact, the real motivation, or whether it had more to do with internal quarrels between competing groups of the order.

Nor can one tell how far “Abraxa” (Ercole Quadrelli), a member of both the UR Group and the Kremmerzian movement, was initiated into these practices. In any case, Quadrelli’s approach to sexual magic seems different, as his essay in this volume shows. He was apparently not concerned with a “physical” immortality, which is the aim of the practices mentioned, but rather with access to transcendence. On the other hand, access to transcendence is also the basis for immortality.

A further traditionalist current in the UR Group was centered around Dr. Arturo Reghini (1878–1946), though his collaboration ended after only two years. Along with Kremmerz, Reghini was one of the most outstanding figures of Italian esotericism in the twentieth century. It was he who introduced Julius Evola, the leader of the UR Group, to the founder of the “integral tradition,” René Guénon, and he also helped to shape Evola’s early political views.

Reghini saw himself in the line of Pythagoras, Dante, and Machiavelli, as well as Napoleon (who, as a Corsican, Reghini considered to be Italian), and the Masonic founders of Italian unification, Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi.³⁷ Reghini belongs, with Decio Calvari, to the founders of the Italian Theosophical Society; he was a high-degree Mason, and apparently admitted Aleister Crowley in 1913 as an honorary member of the Rito Filosofico Italiano, with which Reghini was affiliated.³⁸ His most important master and friend was Amedeo Armentano (1886–1966), who among other things was the owner of the famous stone tower in Scalea, where Reghini performed so many magical rituals, and which he also mentions in this volume.³⁹

Reghini’s periodicals Atanòr (1924) and Ignis (1925) could qualify as actual precursors to the UR publications translated here, with the difference, however, that in the framework of UR so-called “chains” were established that worked with ritual magic, even if not all the members did participate. Reghini wrote very important essays for UR under the pseudonym of Pietro Negri. Furthermore, he was active in the revival of Pythagorean number mysticism, and in continuing Gabriele Rossetti’s researches on the esoteric teachings of the Cathars and the Fedeli d’Amore, as one of his essays in this volume demonstrates.

Like Evola and Caetani, Reghini wanted to influence Fascism toward a reconstruction of the sacral imperial tradition of Rome, and he also expressed this in his publications. However, he was extremely vehement, even offensive, in his choice of words, which once even prompted Mussolini to respond (under a pseudonym). The very fact that Mussolini, as head of state, felt moved to answer an attack in a journal that carried no political weight whatsoever and was only aimed at a tiny, specialized readership, is evidence enough of his basically positive attitude toward ancient Rome. On the other hand, as we now know, Mussolini obstructed such pagan sacral-imperial plans not only by allying himself with the Catholic Church through a concordat, but also through a law targeting secret societies of one sort or another, and Freemasonry especially. Yet it was with the latter’s help that Reghini thought he could further his plans, which shows the ambiguity of the relationship between Fascism and Freemasonry.

These Masonic views, together with a certain incompatibility between two extremely self-willed characters, were the cause of the schism between Evola and Reghini in the UR Group.⁴⁰ Evola accused Reghini of misusing UR for his own Masonic ends, and Reghini countered with the charge that Evola wanted to censor all his contributions in an intolerable fashion. This came to a head with Reghini’s claim that Evola’s book Imperialismo Pagano, published in 1928, had stolen both title and contents from him, which Evola naturally denied with equal vehemence. The quarrel escalated and even led to legal proceedings, although these did not amount to anything.

Finally, in 1929, Reghini failed in his attempt to revive his former journal Ignis as a polemical vehicle against UR, following the first issue (nearly the entire contents of which was aimed at attacking Evola). His most important student, the magically very gifted Giulio Parise (pseudonym “Luce”), quit UR together with Reghini.⁴¹ In his autobiography, Evola himself writes that people connected with Masonry tried to wrest the leadership of UR from him.⁴² The historian Giovanni Vannoni, in his work on Masonry, Fascism and the Catholic Church,⁴³ seems to confirm Evola’s position. Reghini, however, was badly hurt after all these blows, and finally retreated to the province of Emilia as a mathematics teacher. His work first found successors in Giulio Parise, already mentioned, and later in the periodical Il Ghibellino (Messina, 1979–1982). Reghini’s influence is also evident in the periodical Hygieia in Reggio di Calabria, connected with the Associazione Pitagorica, which in 1984 arose under the leadership of Gennaro d’Uva, assisted by Sebastiano Recupero, who sadly died of cancer at a young age. In 1990, after a sixty-year “interval,” there came an astonishing revival and continuation of Ignis under the direction of Roberto Sestito (who had previously been the editor responsible for the contents of Hygieia) and the granddaughter of Amedeo Armentano, Emirene. Unfortunately, this initiative ended in 1992 after only six issues. Unpleasant rumors ensued. The last attempt in this direction was the Roman periodical Politica Romana, which published ten issues from 1998–2018.

The salient characteristic of this Pythagorean “Italic school” is its polemical stance toward the purely “Roman” line, to which we will return. This is especially evident in its emphasis on the Greek and Etruscan elements, as well as its rejection of the excessive Germanic influence, blamed chiefly on Evola. This polemic already began in Il Ghibellino (nos. 4, 5, and 6) and reached an intellectual high point in Piero Fenili’s article about “Evola’s Errors.”⁴⁴ There, with rich documentation and some justification, Evola is accused of having viewed the Germanic and German element in too exclusively positive a fashion.⁴⁵

RECENT RESEARCH ON THE UR GROUP

Since Renato del Ponte’s 1985 introduction to the first volume of the UR writings, research into the individual members has naturally progressed, and some of it is worth mentioning here.⁴⁶

I would start with the writing of Guido de Giorgio (pseudonym “Havismat,” 1890–1957).⁴⁷ Not only did Evola admit to the great influence that de Giorgio had on him, but Guénon also writes in a letter (see footnote) that no one but de Giorgio could treat Evola as he did, and expect him to take the criticism seriously.

After his philosophy studies, de Giorgio went to Tunisia as a teacher, and there became acquainted with Sufism. He encountered Guénon right after the First World War, and the two men developed a close friendship. He returned to Italy, married a second time, and worked as professor at a liceo⁴⁸ in Piedmont. Later he retired to the Piedmontese Alps and lived in an abandoned presbytery as a hermit and, in Evola’s words, a “wild initiate.” De Giorgio tried to combine the Roman tradition with Christianity and Vedanta, and included some Islamic influences as well. His teachings, only published after his death, address not the intellect but much deeper spiritual centers. There are examples of this in the present volume.

Since the publication of the first volume, it has been discovered that the anonymous article “Le message de l’étoile polaire” (The Message of the Pole Star), originally published in French,⁴⁹ was, astonishingly enough, written by the Russian-Polish-French author and occultist Maria de Naglowska, who led an occult group in Paris during the 1930s and became known for her teachings on sexual magic. However, much of her occult “fame” rests on her translation of the notorious Magia Sexualis of P. B. Randolph (though whether at least part of it is written by her is unstated). Naglowska had to move from country to country; in the 1920s she lived in Rome, where she got to know Evola and very likely had an affair with him.⁵⁰

An even greater surprise was that the “father” of Italian psychoanalysis, Professor Emilio Servadio, who was a cousin of the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Emilio Segré, also worked with both UR and KRUR. He used the pseudonyms “ES” and probably “APRO.” By his own account, he helped Evola with translations from English, among other things, but did not take part in the magical rituals. He was able, however, to report that the inner working circle of the UR Group did not number more than twelve to fifteen persons.⁵¹

In June 1994, at a commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of Evola’s death, Servadio spoke movingly of his long friendship with Evola, and this was even reported in the Italian national newspapers. Servadio had suffered badly in the later Fascist period from the racial laws (his sister had died in Auschwitz). Unfortunately, he himself died shortly after this appearance in Rome. A very interesting testimony was published by Emilio Servadio in the newspaper Il popolo di Lombardia (28 April 1928), describing his first encounter with Evola and how the latter’s magical reputation had literally terrified him beforehand.⁵²

Domenico Rudatis (pseudonym “RUD”; born 1898) died in New York in 1994; he was a friend of the mountaineer Reinhold Messner and coauthor of accounts of the formidable “Sixth Grade” of Alpine climbing.

Corallo Reginelli (pseudonym “Taurulus”; born 1905) was another member of the original UR Group. We know a little more about him, for example, that he wrote several articles (under the pseudonyms of “C. R. Alone” and “C. E. Zero”), especially in Vie della Tradizione and Cittadella, which bear witness to his continued esoteric involvement. During the 2017 Naples conference (see note 46, page xxv) a hitherto unknown recorded interview with Reginelli was played to the public, showing his dissent with Evola. There is also an article about Reginelli on the Internet, published by the Zen practitioner Leonardo Alfolsi.⁵³

“Otokar Březina,” who contributed one essay to this volume without actually being a member of UR, is the pseudonym of the Czech poet Václav Jebavý, born in 1868 in southern Bohemia. He lived as a teacher in a small Moravian town. In addition to a collection of philosophical essays, he mainly published small volumes of his lyric poetry. In his poems he unites the style of Symbolism with a deeply mystical inclination.⁵⁴

A detail that seems to have been overlooked until now is that Gustav Meyrink, whom Evola greatly valued and whose work he cited extensively in vol. I, mentions UR in his 1921 novel The White Dominican: “He who has become the treetop and consciously carries the root ‘Ur’ in himself, enters consciously into this society (of those—as he says—who have crossed the boundary) through experience of the Mystery known as ‘liberation with corpse and sword.’” This is a clear allusion to the Taoist practice of fully conscious transition from life to immortality, in which the physical body disappears and a sword remains in its place. It represents the culminating sign of the Taoist initiate and is also the aim of the UR initiations. It is especially interesting that Evola himself translated this novel by Meyrink into Italian in 1944, and wrote an expert introduction to it. Curiously enough, the Italian version leaves out the word “Ur.”⁵⁵

We cannot pass judgment on the report by Jean Parvulesco, the Rumanian-French author well known in occult circles, that he had in his hands an extraordinary unsigned manuscript from the innermost circles of UR. Parvulesco hints in enigmatic words that the UR Group and Evola worked under higher “approval,” by which he seems to mean a spiritual leader. He even speaks of Evola’s “occult mission.”⁵⁶

UR-INSPIRED GROUPS AFTER 1930

After the UR Group had ceased its activity in 1929, and Evola was turning more and more to the political field, there was no direct continuation of magical-initiatic activity. Evola himself has confirmed this. However, in a very informative article in La loggia, the official bulletin of the Italian Federation of Freemasons, a person writing as “Tergestum” affirms that a friend of his, “F. C.,” joined UR in 1935 in Rome.⁵⁷ The group was led by Arturo Reghini. “F. C.” had obtained the address from a man to whom Evola had personally referred him.

After the dissolution of the UR Group, Evola did receive repeated requests, especially from younger persons, to found a new order that would work traditionally and ritually. While he declined to do so, he did prepare guidelines for it.⁵⁸ Interestingly, he suggested it be called the “Order of the Iron Crown,” thus connecting it to the order of the same name which had been first founded by Napoleon in 1805, and later reestablished by the Habsburg Emperor Franz I on January 1, 1816. The iron crown is supposed to go back to Constantine the Great, and is preserved in the cathedral of Monza.

The goal of the Order of the Iron Crown is initiatic in nature and therefore possesses both an outer and an inner aspect. The inner circle is divided into three degrees. The order as a whole is led by a seven-person council of Masters, with a Grand Master. It is unknown whether there was ever an attempt to put these principles into practice, though rumors have circulated to that effect.

Within the predominantly political association Ordine Nuovo (New Order), which also looked to Evola for inspiration, at the end of the 1960s a small subgroup formed that again intended to undertake ceremonial magical work in “chains,” based on the prescriptions of UR. It called itself the Gruppo dei Dioscuri (Group of the Dioscuri, “Zeus’s sons”), devoted itself to magical practices and rituals, and soon spread from Rome to independent filiations in Naples and Messina. Among others, Evola’s personal physician, Dr. Placido Procesi, is said to have been behind the Roman foundation. Four brochures were published, but these are fairly uninformative. In the periodical Europae Imperium, which was closely associated with other Evolian circles, there were soon polemics both for and against the value of this initiative, in which Renato del Ponte expressed a negative judgment.⁵⁹ It is noteworthy in this context that the cover of Europae Imperium features the Ur-rune.

In any case, not all the members of the Dioscuri Group seem to have withstood the energies aroused by the rituals. This led to severe internal quarrels, and even to members committing suicide by jumping out of windows and inhaling automobile exhaust. The Roman group, at least, was finished by 1975. In Messina, however, where the late director of the Roman traditionalist monthly Cittadella, Professor Salvatore Ruta, is said to have been a member, they apparently continued working ritually until the mid-1980s. In 1984 there grew out of this the Centro Studi Tradizionali Arx, whose outward activity was the aforementioned periodical Cittadella. A very small group within Arx must have been again active in magical ritual practices, which basically stemmed from the UR writings and from Kremmerzian instructions. In 1975, also in Messina, there appeared the purely internal text La Via Romana degli Dei (The Roman Way to the Gods), which contains magical exercises and meditation techniques, and is connected to the Dioscuri. It was published by a so-called Institute for Higher Operative Psychology.⁶⁰

In the traditionalist periodical Convivium, a former member of the Dioscuri Group, L. Moretti, reports about the breathing practices that he followed there, and warns individuals and groups against emulating them.⁶¹ In the third volume of the UR writings, not yet translated, “Taurulus” also writes about some negative effects and even an accident in the context of his magical experiments. It is here that natural growth is necessary and excessive zeal harmful. We cannot tell how long the Delta Lodge, connected with the publishing house Arktos in Carmagnola, was magically active. In any case, it too belonged to circles influenced by UR and Evola.

The groups that have been mentioned here also show a repeated intersection with the Masonry of Misraim and Memphis, as also with the Martinists, whose best-known leaders were Gastone Ventura and Francesco Brunelli. Gaspare Canizzo, who in 1971 was already publishing the extremely interesting magical-traditionalist periodical Vie della Tradizione in Palermo, also belonged to this group of ritually working Martinists, which possesses an impressive temple in that city.

The axis of UR–Dioscuri–Arx has already provided a path to follow for many traditionalists today who feel allegiance to the ideals of UR: it is the so-called “Roman” way, in contrast to the “Pythagorean” or “Italic” school described above. Those who feel called to it have mostly oriented themselves around three periodicals: Arthos, directed by Renato del Ponte; the Roman Mos Maiorum (unfortunately now defunct); and Cittadella, originally headed by Salvatore Ruta and later continued by Sandro Consolato (but also now defunct); as well as in three study groups dispersed around Italy. However, these groups are less concerned with “magical” teachings and are mainly focused on the ceremonial and ritual restoration of a sacred unity with the Roman tradition.⁶²

Most prominent among the groups active today is the Movimento Tradizionale Romano (formerly Movimento Tradizionalista Romano), the Roman Traditional Movement, which is divided into separate “families” (gentes, presently five in all of Italy) and led by a princeps and a promagister. Members try to live according to the ancient Roman calendar and the sacred prescriptions that it contains for days and festivals. Contrary to what one might assume, the orientation of the MTR is principally monotheistic: Janus is regarded as the deus deorum (God of Gods) and the other gods are simply further expressions of the highest unity. The MTR celebrates the great milestones of life such as birth, marriage, and death, following the ancient rites. For instance, it even performs the ancient Roman marriage through the rite of confarreatio, which implies absolute indissolubility. This movement regards as its forerunners the poet Ugo Foscolo, the archaeologist Giacomo Boni, and the eminent historian of religion Angelo Brelich. It even acknowledges non-Italians, such as the German classical historian Franz Altheim.⁶³

The Associazione Romània Quirites, led by Loris Viola in Forlì, which issues an internal newsletter Saturnia Regna, goes a step further. The members have banded together and live in a common household that strictly observes ancient Roman regulations regarding eating, clothing, and relations between the sexes, so that they stand in complete opposition to the modern world.

The international reader may be surprised at the nature of these multiple magical and ceremonial “scenes” active in Italy today, since practically nothing of the kind is known outside Italy. Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that these groups chiefly involve the intellectual and social upper class. One of the reasons for this must lie in the strong position of the Catholic Church in Italy, which with its time-honored rituals replete with mysteries (at least until the recent liturgical reform) has created the foundation for a deep appreciation of ceremony and symbolism.

HANS THOMAS HAKL received a Doctor of Law degree in 1970 and, together with partners, created a large international trading company as well as the publishing house Ansata in Switzerland, which speacializes in the esoteric. After having sold his shares in both companies in 1996, he founded and is still editor of Gnostika, the most widely acknowledged German publication dealing with esotericism in an academic way. Hakl has collaborated in several international journals and dictionaries on the occult and religion and is the author of Unknown Sources: National Socialism and the Occult and Eranos: An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. His writings have been translated into English, French, Italian, Czech, and Russian.