Meditazioni delle Vette'; translated as Meditations on the Peaks: Mountain Climbing as Metaphor for the Spiritual Quest, a work by Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 esoteric writer Julius Evola

Julius Evola

Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...

. A collection of articles from between 1930 and 1955 as assembled by Renato del Ponte. Published in 1974 by La Spezia

La Spezia

La Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...

: Ed. del Tridente; English translation by Inner Traditions, 1998 (ISBN 0922915415).

Summary

Julius Evola considered mountaineering

Mountaineering

Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...

 to be an initiatic discipline consistent with his ideas on Traditionalism

Tradition

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

. In the first chapter of Meditations on the Peaks, Evola contrasts mountaineering with generic "sport" and the scholarly life. He claims that mountaineering, when performed correctly, combines the aspects of heroic action of sport with the discipline and specialized learning of the scholar. This combination of action and learning forms for Evola a sort of ideal ascesis or discipline "in the Roman sense" because it combines an asceticism of action with an asceticism of contemplation.

Evola also explores the significance of mountains to ancient mythologies. Mountains were the seats of the gods in Norse

Norse mythology

Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

, Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 and Iranian

Iranian peoples

The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...

 mythologies. Legendary heroes were often required to climb mountains as a symbolic and heroic act in order to achieve the goals of their quests. The mountain is so important because it has a special spiritual significance in that it is "higher" and closer to nature and to the gods. For his description of the importance of the mountain, Evola turns time and again to a quote from Nietzsche, "Many meters above sea level--but how many more above ordinary men!"

The second half of the book is concerned primarily with Evola's descriptions of his own experiences climbing a number of mountains. He describes the perilous circumstances of a number of climbs and both the camaraderie and the solitude he experienced on the peaks.

In the appendices, Evola discusses Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh , was a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings and about 30 literary works...

, an artist whose depictions of mountain scenes Evola finds to be of a spiritual significance. He also discusses religious traditions relating to the mountains in Tibet and Tyrol and their significance to broader tradition. The collection ends with a short essay, "Height", discussing the various ways that distinctions in height are used to connote "higher" spiritual states.

Table of contents

Foreword

Part One: Doctrine

1. The Mountain and Spirituality
2. Some Remarks Concerning the Divinity of the Mountains
3. Spirituality of the Mountain
4. A Mystic of the Tibetan Mountains
5. Race and the Mountain
6. The Mountain, Sport, and Contemplation
7. Ascending and Descending

Part Two: Experiences

8. The Northern Wall of Eastern Lyskamm

9. Notes Concerning Psychic Training in the Mountains

10. The Ascent of Mount Langkopfel

11. Ice and the Spirit

12. The Valley of the Wind

13. The Ascent of Mount Gross-Glockner

14. Meditations on the Peaks

15. A Storm on Mount Rosa

Part Three: Appendices""

Appendix A. An Artist of the Heights: Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh , was a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings and about 30 literary works...

Appendix B. Art and Symbol in the Seat of the Snows

Appendix C. Religiosity of Tyrol

Appendix D. The Kingdom of the Demon of the Peaks

Appendix E. Height

Index

External links

• Nicholas Roerich Museum Homepage