Customer Reviews

Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex

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We can summarize Evola's views through a simple metaphore: use it to go beyond; otherwise leave it. Evola was not only an "erudite", he was also a pragmatic (in opposition to Guenon). In this book, Evola proceed to an exhaustive analysis of the nature of sexuality, exploring its metaphysics, but also its embodyments. Sex can be a source of power, of knowledge, if conditions are there; but it can also be a source of submission, of destruction. A fascinating book, although Evola's views are sometimes striking, disturbing (specially for women).

I would say about half the book is fairly interesting. The book is more descriptive than argumentative, so I thought it lacked a provocative thesis.

Evola explores the concept of seeking transcendence through sex. As a man has sex with a woman in tantric sex, he is required to hold his seed at the climax and this technique will supposedly lead to transcendence. Other instructions are that the man should sleep for four months on the left side of the woman without touching her and then four months on the right side, then have sex with the transcendent purpose in mind. If you don't know what you are doing in tantric sex or in wakening the kundalini, you could end up mad, dead, or disturbed. Evola speculates that some women may have gone mad after having sex with the occultist Aleister Crowley. This book is not really an instruction book and the descriptions are in general on how people from traditional societies practiced sex magic.

Women and men represent differing aspects. Women represent the night, the moon, underhandedness, acting, masks, sophistry, the daemonic, nature, the negative, yin, formlessness, and the earth. Men represent the sky, the sun, transcendence, the positive, yang, and the truth. For men to reach transcendence, they should not descend into the profane sexuality of nature with its endless fecundity. A woman can chain a man into the cycle of birth and rebirth that he needs to get away from to reach transcendence. Hence, when practicing sex magic, he needs to withhold his seed at climax. Since women are considered so much a part of nature and not super-nature, some have wondered whether they have souls.

Men and women in the absolute are ideal types of being to strive toward. But in reality, there is a lot of woman in man and a lot of man in woman. It is generally a 60/40 split. The ideal archetypes for men are warriors or ascetics; the ideal archetypes for women are mothers and/or lovers.

Evola is male-oriented and has the traditional view that women are inferior to men.

I agree with the other reviewer. There are disturbing parts to this book. For example, Evola's take on the Marquis de Sade is that the Marquis was bad not for what he promoted but because he didn't actually live the type of life he describes. I guess I just don't buy into Evola's underlying metaphysical scheme. It is important to note that this book is not a "Tantric sex guide." It is closer to a scholarly investigation of different sexual issues from the perspective of Evola's esotericism. Like Evola's other works, it is well-written and interesting. However, I don't feel as positive about its conclusions as I did with Ride the Tiger.