Operazioni Magiche a Due Vasi — Sdoppiamento/en

📖 Fonte primaria: corpus Ur (1927-1928) — Krur (1929)
Questa pagina deriva direttamente dal corpus della rivista Ur (1927-1928) e Krur (1929) curata dal Gruppo di UR sotto la direzione di Julius Evola con la partecipazione di Arturo Reghini, Giulio Parise, Ercole Quadrelli, Guido De Giorgio, Luigi Valli, Ercole Quadrelli (Abraxa) e altri collaboratori. Le tre annate sono state riedite a cura di Evola con il titolo Introduzione alla Magia quale scienza dell'Io. Documenti Drive ISI-CNV: 📖 UR-KRUR — Corpus integrale OCR rivisto — le tre annate complete della rivista (Ur 1927, Ur 1928, Krur 1929) in formato Google Doc consultabile. 📁 Folder EVOLA UR KRUR — cartella Drive ISI-CNV con tutti i materiali UR-KRUR e l'opera evoliana correlata. Edizione di riferimento: Julius Evola (a cura di), Introduzione alla Magia quale scienza dell'Io, 3 voll., Edizioni Mediterranee, Roma, ed. critica 1971. Trad. fr.: Introduction à la magie, trad. Gérard Boulanger, Milano, Archè, 1984.

Template:Fonte autoritativa

The "magical operations with two vases" or binary operations are — in the language of the Gruppo di UR — those practices in which the alchemical-magical work is accomplished not in a single operator (body, soul, mind of one person, according to the scheme of operations with a single vase of the normal exercises of the inner caduceus), but through the active cooperation of two people who distribute the two fundamental principles of alchemy: the solar principle (active, fixing, commanding, masculine-spiritual) and the lunar principle (receptive, fluid, contemplative, feminine-fluidic). The article by Abraxa published in the sixth issue of UR year I (1927) expounds its doctrinal reasons, operative technique, dangers, and traditional criteria of legitimacy.

The subject is of technically delicate nature and doctrinally serious for multiple reasons:

it involves two human beings in the same magical work — multiplying the phenomena of relationship and the risks of reciprocal fluidic contamination;
it implies the magical-sublimated use of heroic fire (the force of eros), rigorously distinguished from its vulgar use;
it can lead to states of splitting, vision, communication with entities that require expert direction;
it implies precise knowledge of fluidic hygiene, initiatory perfumery, postures, timings, astral conditions.

For the Paret-ISI-CNV School — which does not teach operations with two vases in the extreme forms described by Abraxa — the value of the page is documentary and doctrinal: to show how tradition has conceived the operator/pupil relationship, to give the serious reader the tools to recognize what is being discussed when encountering such texts, and to prevent confusion between authentic initiatory tradition and vulgar or pseudo-tantric applications that superficially mimic its language.

I. The principle: "one vase" and "two vases"

Abraxa opens the article by distinguishing the two fundamental classes of magical operations:

Operations with a single vase: the operator unites within himself both the solar principle and the lunar principle. This is the classic practice of the Caduceus exercise (cf. Caduceo ermetico and Caduceo (Caduceus) — Risveglio Energetico), in which the two currents of one's own body (iḍā and piṅgalā, the two serpents of the Caduceus) are harmonized internally until producing the state of androgynous mercury — the fluid that is both active and passive, solar and lunar, capable of magical projection
Operations with two vases: two people distribute the two principles. The operator holds the solar principle (firmness, control, direction), a second subject (called "pupil", from the double Greek meaning of κόρη: "eye" and "maiden") maintains the lunar principle (openness, receptivity, total surrender). The state of relationship between the two, constituted according to precise conditions, replicates externally the structure that in operations with a single vase is realized internally

The technical reason why operations with two vases can be used is clearly expounded by Abraxa:

«In magical development you must first give power and predominance to the solar principle and not open yourself to the humid, receptive, and volatile principle until you are perfectly firm and sure of yourself: otherwise magic turns into mediumship and passive ecstasy and obsession ensue. Now you can remain completely positive and closed if initially another being thinks to exalt the opposite quality, who by creating a state of relationship you will be able to guide and learn from and, finally, also absorb and resurrect within yourself, having already acquired sufficient experience as a magician.»

Operations with two vases are therefore propadeutic: they allow the operator to work with the lunar principle without having to open himself to it (with the risks of passivity, mediumship, obsession that this would entail). Having obtained experience of the lunar quality through the pupil, the operator transfers it within himself and becomes capable of working with a single vase.

II. The choice of the subject: the "pupil"

The choice of the second operator — whom Abraxa calls "the pupil" playing on the double Greek meaning of κόρη ("eye"/"maiden", cf. the title of the hermetic text Korē Kosmou in Stobaeus, Physica XLIV-XLV) — follows precise criteria that reflect the traditional doctrine on the fluidic qualities of human beings:

Virginity: Abraxa notes that «by remaining in the state of virginity, the group of subtle forces of growth that in woman should be resolved in maternity have not yet undergone the appropriate modification and polarization (connected to the physical fact by which a girl becomes a woman), and thus it is easier to concentrate them on the direction of magical practices, besides the state of purity they possess». Abraxa's footnote refers to the anthropological research of James Frazer (The Golden Bough, vol. III, ch. LX, § 35) on still intact pubescent girls considered "saturated with a dangerous and mysterious force" and "kept 'isolated' almost like electrical conductors", sometimes even in aerial huts so that no part of their body touched the ground until marriage
Age. Girls after puberty but before the first accesses of adult passion can be used, or boys between 7 and 14 years of age, an age in which «the same subtle formative and growth forces are in dominant action in a very energetic state, and not yet altered by the vulgar sulfur of the passionate and emotional life of adolescents». It should be noted that tradition demands the utmost absolute rectitude of the relationship between operator and pupil — the theme of the magical use of children was treated by classical texts (Apuleius in De Magia, some Greek magical papyri, certain late antique rituals) always in rigorous ritual contexts, and today is excluded from the discipline of the School for obvious ethical and protective reasons
Disposition. The pupil must have absolute trust in the operator, total remission and submission, sincere and pure aspiration towards the supersensible reality. She must not seek in any way the "sulfur" (active principle, control, conscious understanding of the process); she must only be pure openness. Her work is to make herself empty and receptive
Preparation. The pupil performs a preliminary preparation that typically lasts a full lunation, parallel to that of the operator (who instead exalts in himself firmness, detachment, ability to hold the pure solar principle)

III. The two forms of binary operation

Abraxa describes two distinct forms of operation with two vases, clearly distinguishing them:

A. Operation of vision and communication with entities

In this form, the pupil is placed in a state of extreme receptivity, while the operator maintains conscious direction. The pupil sees images, perceptions, presences of the supersensible world, and describes them verbally to the operator, who — remaining in the solar principle — can direct her in further vision and, in advanced cases, vibrate conjurations and commands to the powers through the opened channel.

Technical points:

The pupil must have renounced existing in herself — total faith and compenetration in the sense of the sustaining force of the operator, no reaction of fear or terror before manifestations
The direction of the vision must be neutral: if a specific desire is hidden beneath the request for revelation, the fallacious image of that desire will follow (fundamental rule also for mirror work)
Main danger: the projection of what Kremmerz called "similar natures" — residues of passion not purified in either the operator or the pupil, which manifest in the vision as autonomous images. These are not merely "phantoms of the ego" — projection gives them autonomous life, creatures of the operator that rebound onto him or feed on his life "up to obsessive and vampiric forms"
The virtue developed in the pupil can, at a later time, be aspirated and absorbed by the operator, bringing the binary operation back to unity

B. Operation of splitting through polarized love

In the second form, the operator uses the fire of Eros as "igniter of the fluidic force" — that is, as an energy that heats and potentiates the magical fluid so as to make it capable of projection outside the body:

«The fire of Eros, which is habitually polarized downwards, that is towards sense and animal nature, must be isolated in the fluidic body and nourished so as to produce in it the state of exaltation necessary for that androgynous and igneous mercury to be constituted, from which magical projection is actualized.»

This is the technique corresponding — in Western language — to the Indian "left-hand" tantrism (vāmācāra): eros isolated from the genital plane and sublimated into the fluidic-magnetic plane, until producing a state of internal exaltation that allows splitting (i.e., the exit of consciousness from the physical body) and magical projection.

Specific dangers expounded by Abraxa, of extreme technical and moral gravity:

Relapse into animal lust: at any moment «the direction of animal lust, which leads back to the physical body» can intervene. When this happens, the force previously exalted on the fluidic plane, redirected downwards, produces a state of lust that is not satisfied by normal sexual gratifications — fearful forms of sexual obsession can afflict the operator, the pupil, or both
Difficulty in finding a suitable pupil: «It is difficult, on the other hand, to find a woman who, on the basis of a preliminary feeling, knows how and accepts to be led to the plane of magical love; and who does not equivocate on the true nature of this same love due to habit or spontaneous inclination towards the vulgar form». The pupil must understand the non-vulgar nature of the work but also have sufficient sensitivity for the erotic fire — an extremely rare combination

The external technique is simple according to Abraxa: strong perfumes (musk, amber, red rose, with possible addition of pigeon blood), time near dawn, posture face to face immobile. But the operative difficulty is entirely in the internal quality of the magical couple, not in its accessories.

IV. Splitting

The term splitting in the subtitle of Abraxa's article precisely indicates the expected outcome of operations with two vases in their complete form: the separation of consciousness from the physical body, its presence in a second fluidic body or subtle body, and the possibility of operating from this subtle body on the material world and the world of entities.

In the European magnetic tradition documented by the wiki cluster, splitting is well known under various names:

"Splitting" in the terminology of Lefebure (cf. Sdoppiamento Lefebure (corpo fisico/spirituale → passato))
"Bilocation" in the Catholic tradition (cf. Sdoppiamento e Bilocazione — Tecniche di Caravelli-Di Pisa)
"Astral projection" in late 19th-century Theosophical terminology
"Sukshma-sharira" in the Vedic tradition (subtle body)
"Linga-sharira" (sign body) or "lunar body" in the terminology of occult morphology of KRUR
"Sortie astrale" in the 20th-century French tradition (Anatole, Yram, Robert Monroe)

The specific point of operations with two vases is that splitting is here obtained through the polarized relationship with a pupil, and not through the solitary discipline alone of the operator. For the Paret-ISI-CNV School, these are practices of the highest level that require expert initiatory direction, and are not taught outside the context of the direct transmissive lineage.

V. Tradition and the discipline of the School

Abraxa's article represents one of the most technically explicit points of 20th-century Italian hermetic literature on the subject of binary magical operations. It should be read in the context:

Of the Indian tantric tradition (vāmācāra), particularly the practices of the Kularṇava Tantra, the Mahānirvāṇa Tantra, and the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (cf. Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola); but with the important note that the Indian tradition presupposes a precise initiatory direction and a ritual framework (dīkṣā, abhiṣeka, presence of the guru) that Western practice often lacks, with almost always disastrous consequences
Of the Gnostic and Christian mystical tradition. The Fedeli d'Amore (Dante, Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia) practice a transposed form: the Woman-Initiator as ideal pupil, splitting obtained through the sublimated relationship of love (cf. Cecco d'Ascoli's commentary on the "identity Woman-Initiator", UR 1928 — see page I Fedeli dAmore)
Of the 19th-century European magnetic tradition. The magnetizer/somnambulist couples of Du Potet, Cahagnet, Donato have the same formal structure as Abraxa's operations with two vases, even if in the therapeutic-investigative framework and not in the explicitly initiatory one. The somnambulist is the pupil; the magnetizer is the operator; the state of magnetic relationship is the state of magical relationship
Of the Kremmerzian tradition. The rituals of the Confraternita dellAurea Rosacroce and the Egyptian Osiridean Order include — in forms carefully regulated by tradition — operations of a binary type, always within the framework of an initiatory direction and under the required conditions of purity

For the practice of the Paret-ISI-CNV School, operations with two vases in the extreme form of Abraxa are not taught: the discipline mainly follows the path of the single-vase operation, integrated by group magnetic chains (in which the binary action is dispersed in the collective chain, avoiding the specific dangers of the isolated dyadic couple). However, the doctrinal recognition and respect for the tradition that has practiced these forms belong to the heritage of the School.

VI. Bibliography

Abraxa, Operazioni Magiche a «Due Vasi» — Lo Sdoppiamento, in UR — Rivista di indirizzi per una Scienza dell'Io, year I (1927), pp. 218-223 — main primary source
Stobaeus, Anthologium, Physica XLIV-XLV — Korē Kosmou (Pupil of the Cosmos), classic hermetic text
James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. III, ch. LX, § 35 — on isolated pubescent girls as "fluidic charges"
Apuleius, De Magia (Apologia), 2nd century AD — on the magical-ritual use of boys and girls in late antique rites
Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, University of Chicago Press, 1986 — corpus of PGM with many operator/pupil rituals
Giuliano Kremmerz, Opera Omnia — on the doctrine of "similar natures" and the risks of practice
Julius Evola, L'Uomo come potenza (1926), later Lo Yoga della Potenza (1949) — on the Tantras and the Left-Hand Path
John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahānirvāṇa Tantra), 1913 — on the ritual use of masculine/feminine principles

Sources

Primary sources of the UR-KRUR corpus

The primary source of reference for this page is the corpus of the journal Ur (1927-1928) and Krur (1929), edited by the Gruppo di UR directed by Julius Evola with the participation of Arturo Reghini, Giulio Parise, Ercole Quadrelli, Guido De Giorgio, Luigi Valli and other collaborators. The three annual volumes were republished edited by Julius Evola under the title Introduzione alla Magia (3 vols., Milan, Bocca / Casa Editrice Atanòr / Edizioni Mediterranee, various editions from 1955; critical ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1971).

Gruppo di UR, Rivista Ur, years 1927-1928 (12 issues each).
Gruppo di KRUR, Rivista Krur, year 1929 (12 issues).
Julius Evola (ed.), Introduzione alla Magia quale scienza dell'Io, 3 vols., Edizioni Mediterranee, Rome, critical ed. 1971 (and subsequent reprints).
French edition: Groupe d'Ur, Introduction à la magie, trans. Gérard Boulanger, Milan, Archè, 1984.

Corpus OCR Drive ISI-CNV — the entire corpus of the three UR-KRUR annual volumes is available in revised OCR: Drive Document with the three complete annual volumes (folder EVOLA UR KRUR).

Historical-traditional framework

Julius Evola, La Tradizione Ermetica, Bari, Laterza, 1931 (and reprints Mediterranee).
Julius Evola, Il Cammino del Cinabro, Milan, Scheiwiller, 1963 (intellectual autobiography with first-hand account of the UR-KRUR experience).
Arturo Reghini, I Numeri Sacri nella Tradizione Pitagorica Massonica, Rome, Atanòr, 1947.
Arturo Reghini, Per la Restituzione della Geometria Pitagorica, Atanòr, 1935.
Renato Del Ponte, Evola e il magico Gruppo di UR, Borzano (RE), SeaR, 1994.
Gianfranco de Turris (ed.), Esoterismo e Fascismo, Edizioni Mediterranee, Rome, 2006.

Secondary reference bibliography

Hans Thomas Hakl, Eranos: An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Equinox, 2013 (chapters on the Italian traditionalist school).
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Joscelyn Godwin, The Theosophical Enlightenment, SUNY Press, 1994 (for the context of the European esoteric revival).
Marco Paret, ISI-CNV materials on the Italian hermetic tradition and the link between UR-KRUR, operative alchemy, and the magnetism of the School.