When Julius Evola died on June 11th 1974, his books were read by a huge part of the right-wing political youth in Italy. The traditionalist thoughts of Evola, had been a central point of reference for people who didn’t accept the decadence and spiritual destruction of his country and of the whole world from the first years after World War II,. As is well known, and as Evola often wrote - not only the defeated countries lost parts of their national territory, prestige and international authority, but all the European coutries lost, in a few years, their colonial dominions and empires (England, France, Portugal, Spain) and lost their influence due to the advantages gained by the two most powerful political blocks, the western and the eastern one: the world of Las Vegas, Coca-cola and Hollywood and the communist empire.

So, when in 1948 Evola came back in Rome (after long stays in many hospitals in Austria and Italy), he met a group of young men "who didn’t let themselves get caught up in the general collapse of standards ". Amongst them were Clemente Graziani, Fausto Gianfranceschi, Roberto Melchionda, G.A. Spadaro, Enzo Erra, Paolo Andriani, Rutilio Sermonti and Pino Rauti, who remembers with these words his discovery of Evola: "we didn’t know him. During the fascist regime he did had a little official help, through the articles he wrote in ‘Diorama’ which were, in my opinion, ‘enormously [influential]’. But we ignored all the cultural life of Fascism […]. We discovered Evola during one of our many stays in prison. We read ‘Rivolta contro il mondo moderno’, which had decisive effect [on our thinking]".

Evola became an important influence on ll of these young men; who played a central role, in the following years, of many political and cultural activities. Evola wrote his main political essays in the first years after the war. They were the young, cultural Right, associated with the ‘Movimento Sociale Italiano’ and, above all, the ‘Ordine Nuovo’youth. Evola once wrote: "Ordine Nuovo has totally adopted my ideas". Evola gave Youth, in general, prefential treatment until his death...

In the following years, Mario Merlino, Gianfranco De Turris, Gaspare Cannizzo, Renato Del Ponte and above all Adriano Romualdi (who was without doubt the best cultural interpreter, and the author of the first biography of Evola), also frequently visited Evola at his home in Rome, in Via Vittorio Emanuele.

Many italian authors and right-wing scholars in Italy were inspired by Evola's thoughts. But he was a lonely thinker in a [cultural] desert: Adriano Romualdi wrote about that: "Evola became the main point of reference for the young men who, between ’48 and ’68, developed their ideas in the abandoned area of right-wing culture. A desert where life was now not so bad: ... In this lonely landscape Evola's intellect, logic and style towered over them".

After Evola’s death, his books went on circulating in the right-wing movements in Italy and, most of all, in the traditionalist centers. Often these were (and are) linked with political movements, but even: when it didn’t (or doesn’t) happen, it’s because the members take a free personal approach to politics. Although sometimes the reading of Evola could determine an escape from politics, it doesn’t always happen, contrarily to what Marco Tarchi wrote about it, describing the content of Evola’s books as ‘inhibiting myth’.

Today there are many cultural, political, traditionalist and editorial centers in Italy influenced by Evola’s thoughts. Obviously, I cannot mention them all, but I can remember some of them: firstly the ‘Fondazione Julius Evola’, which was founded after Evola’s death. It’s a cultural association, without any political links, and its only interest is printing books by, and about Evola, and organizing conferences about his ideology. It's president is Gianfranco De Turris. Since 1998 the Fondazione has printed a review every year - the title being Studi evoliani. The Fondazione is based in in the ‘Europa’ bookshop in Rome, which is also the name of a larger italian right-wing publishing house.

When Evola was alive, Renato Del Ponte founded a Centro Studi Evoliani, which had many links all over the world. Although the Italian Centro Studi doesn’t exist anymore, some of the linked associations in the world are still functioning (for instance the Argentinian one). Renato Del Ponte prints a periodical magazine titled ‘Arthos’ (which was also a nickname used by Evola), which adheres closely to ‘Evolian orthodoxy’.

Another strictly orthodox center, very active and with many members, is ‘Raido’, which is also based in Rome, and which prints a similar magazine. Linked to Raido (but some years older) is the sicilian center ‘Il cinabro’ (another nickname of Evola, used by him in the autobiography). The center owns a bookshop and prints a quarterly magazine titled Heliodromos. Another very important sicilian magazine is ‘Vie della Tradizione’. It’s a quarterly magazine edited by Gaspare Cannizzo from 1971, and it’s the symbol of the meeting of all the traditionalist currents born from Evola’s thought: pagan and catholic, islamic and gnostic, roman and nordic.

Another magazine worth mentioning is Algiza – which I have edited since 1995 – and is the journal of the Centro Studi La Runa, a traditionalist association near Genova, in northern Italy. Other publications of note are Avallon, published by ‘Il Cerchio’, another traditionalist bookshop (it’s the bigger traditionalist catholic inlunce in the evolian world).

There’s another very important right-wing publishing house - the ‘Edizioni di Ar’, founded more than 30 years ago by Franco Freda: their book catalogue includes Evola, Spann, Spengler, Günther, Guénon, Meyrink, Bonnard, Codreanu, Romualdi, Drieu La Rochelle, Mishima, Sombart and Hitler too. Finally, there are two other publishing houses: the ‘Edizioni all’insegna del Veltro’, directed in Parma by prof. Claudio Mutti (with interests in esoterism, folk tales and traditions, european fascisms) and the ‘Edizioni Barbarossa’, which have seat in the bookshop ‘La bottega del fantastico’ in Milano and print a monthly national-revolutionary magazine titled ‘Orion’.

In my opinion, all the tradiotionalists in Italy are now losing the crux of the traditionalist message of Evola: a sort of alexandrinism is covering the spirit of that message. Only if only we find that key again we could hope to give a reason to our battle, different by the simple ‘witness’. Maybe it could be hidden in the Indo-European roots of our civilization, history and spirituality.

Source:- http://www.centrostudilaruna.it/evolareception.html