Lo Yoga della Potenza di Evola/en

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The Yoga of Power. Essay on the Tantras is the book published by Julius Evola in 1949 by Bocca (Milan) — a complete rewrite of the youthful L'uomo come potenza (1925), published while the author was convalescing after the Vienna accident of 1945. The subsequent canonical edition (Mediterranee, 1968 with the expanded title Lo Yoga della Potenza. Saggio sui Tantra) was translated into English by Guido Stucco for Inner Traditions in 1992 under the title The Yoga of Power. Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way (this is the version on the ISI-CNV Drive).

I. Position in the Evolian trilogy

The Yoga of Power completes a metaphysical-traditional quadrilogy by Evola:

The Hermetic Tradition (1931) — alchemical-Western side
Revolt Against the Modern World (1934) — general cosmological-historiographical framework
The Mystery of the Grail (1937) — chivalric-medieval side
The Yoga of Power (1949) — Tantric-Eastern side

All four converge on a single object: the operative doctrine of the initiatic tradition, declined in its various historical languages. The Yoga of Power opens the gaze to the East, where the same European operative path (alchemy + chivalry + Hermeticism) finds its Indian correspondences — Shaktic Tantrism, Kundalini Yoga, the doctrine of the chakras.

II. Tantra as the "path of the dark age"

[VERIFIED] Evola, drawing on authentic Tantric texts, argues that the Tantric tradition presents itself as the path specifically suited to our era — the Kali Yuga (dark age) of Hindu tradition.

«In our era, the Vedas and other strictly traditional texts are insufficient. Practices based on shakti (shakti-sadhana) are suitable and effective in our time». And again: «The work of other schools [shastras] is valid for other eras; but the work of the Tantra is specific to the Kali Yuga».

The logic: in the Satya Yuga (golden age), man had spiritual energy spontaneously available and could realize himself through pure contemplation. In the Kali Yuga, man is precipitated into matter, his energies are blocked in the body, and the only open path is to work through matter itself — using the body, sexuality, passions, concrete ritual, as levers to ascend again. Tantra is the path that assumes matter and transforms it, not rejects it.

This position of Evola converges with that of Kremmerz (cfr. Kremmerz e Ordine Osirideo Egizio) and with the alchemical-Italian tradition of the wet path — both are operative paths that use material elements (bodies, fluids, substances, concrete symbols) as working tools, in contrast to Gnostic-renunciatory paths that reject them.

III. Shakti: the cosmic feminine principle

[VERIFIED] The central point of Evolian Tantric cosmology is the doctrine of Shakti — the feminine-energetic-creative cosmic principle, dynamic spouse of the masculine-static-formal principle Shiva. Evola expounds the 36 tattvas (cosmological categories) of Kashmir Shaivism:

«Beyond parasamvid (primordial pure consciousness) the first two tattvas are shiva and shakti. After being fecundated by the shiva principle, Shakti unfolds the universe».

The cosmological logic:

Parasamvid = primordial unitary consciousness, indistinguishable
Shiva–Shakti (first duality) = static-dynamic cosmic polarization
Sadvidya = level where the subject-object duality appears
Maya-shakti = power that produces differentiation, through which «what was the transparency of pure universal knowledge, as well as the bindu (the transcendental point containing all possibilities of manifestation), is decomposed into the three relatively distinct aspects of knower, known, and knowledge»

For practice: Tantra reconnects the practitioner to the shakti within himself — the energetic-cosmic principle that manifests in the body as kundalini (the dormant power at the base of the spine).

IV. The tripartite structure of man

[VERIFIED] Evola expounds the Hindu doctrine of the three bodies, which is convergent with the doctrine of the four bodies of the School (cfr. Il Lavoro sui Quattro Corpi dellUomo):

"Causal" body (karana-sharira) — follows the higher tattvas, is the body of the spiritual root
"Subtle" body (sukshma-sharira) — has two aspects (one energetic-vital, one mental)
"Material" or "dense" body (sthula-sharira) — the empirical body, the soma, which consists «in the coming together» of the five gross elements (mahabhutani)

Tantric work operates through the dense body to awaken the energy (shakti) of the subtle body and reconnect it to the causal matrix. Concrete practice — visualization, mantra, breathing, ritual — activates the subtle levels using the dense level as an operative base.

V. Pashu, Vira, Divya: the three levels of the practitioner

[VERIFIED] Fundamental distinction of Tantra that Evola expounds with clarity:

Pashu (literally «animal», «slave») = common man dominated by passions, non Tantric practitioner — lives according to ordinary social rules
Vira («hero») = practitioner who has the energy to face the direct path, the left hand (vama-marga), which uses passions as a working tool
Divya («divine») = realized practitioner, who has completed the work and operates from the divine-cosmic plane

The "left-hand path" (vama-marga) is specific to the vira level: it is not a path for everyone, and it is dangerous if faced without preparation (the pashu man who attempts the vama-marga destroys himself). Concrete practices of the left hand include:

Maithuna — ritual sexual union, with the woman as living Shakti
The five "M"s (panchamakara): madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (grain), maithuna (sexuality) — all the prohibitions of Brahmanic morality used ritually as working tools
Visualization (dhyana) of divine figures, mantras, yantras

The logic: everything that is forbidden in conventional morality is energetic at the subtle level. The vira practitioner appropriates these energies ritually, transforming them within instead of rejecting them or succumbing to them.

VI. Kundalini and the seven chakras

[VERIFIED] The classical Tantric doctrine of the seven chakras (energy centers along the spine) and kundalini (the feminine energy dormant at the base) constitutes the operative heart of the book. Evola expounds with precision:

Muladhara (spinal base) — Earth chakra, seat of dormant kundalini
Svadhisthana (lower abdomen) — Water chakra, sexuality and emotion
Manipura (solar plexus) — Fire chakra, personal power
Anahata (heart) — Air chakra, universal love
Vishuddha (throat) — Ether chakra, creative speech
Ajna (forehead) — Mind chakra, inner vision
Sahasrara (crown) — Spirit chakra, union with the divine

The awakening of kundalini is the rising of energy through all seven chakras, with the consequent activation of each. The process is long (years of practice) and dangerous (kundalini awakened incorrectly produces serious psychophysical imbalances). Evola insists on the necessity of a qualified guru and initiation (diksha) — one does not work on kundalini alone nor through book learning.

VII. Mantra, yantra, mudra: the bija mantras

[VERIFIED] The Yoga of Power dedicates chapters to the triple instrument of Tantric practice:

Mantra — the sacred syllable, the effective sound. Each chakra has its bija mantra (seed-mantra): Lam for muladhara, Vam for svadhisthana, Ram for manipura, Yam for anahata, Ham for vishuddha, Om (or Aum) for ajna, Visarga or silence for sahasrara
Yantra — the geometric-symbolic diagram that is the god in its visual form. The most famous is the Shri Yantra, supreme cosmogram representing the entire tattvic structure
Mudra — the ritual hand gesture that seals energy in a precise configuration

The mantra-yantra-mudra triad is convergent with the triad of the School — sound / breath / gestural chain — three distinct but synergistic channels that activate the operator's energy centers.

VIII. The "Diamond-Thunderbolt" Body

[VERIFIED] Chapter XII of the book, The Diamond-Thunderbolt Body, expounds the final accomplishment of Tantric work: the generation of a glorious body that does not die — called in Tibetan vajrakaya (body of vajra, of thunderbolt-diamond), in Sanskrit divya-deha (divine body).

It is the same doctrine that — on the European side — Giudicelli calls Corps Immortel and that the Fedeli d'Amore codified in the etymology of amore = a-mors = without-death. The accomplishment is unique — only the names and methods differ: Diamond body for the Tantrics, glorious body for Cagliostro and Raimondo di Sangro, Corps Immortel for Giudicelli, Hermetic Rebis for the Fedeli d'Amore, multiplied fluid for Kremmerz.

IX. Convergences and tensions with the wiki cluster

Convergence with Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica

The structure of the work is the same as the alchemical path:

Muladhara-base = first matter / Saturn / nigredo
Ascent through the chakras = solve / work on the planets
Sahasrara-crown = philosopher's stone / divya-deha

The correspondences are not an Eastern import into the Western tradition, but a recognition that human work on the subtle plane has a universal structure that East and West have articulated in different lexicons.

Convergence with the Kremmerzian wet path

The pashu-vira-divya distinction corresponds, in the Kremmerzian tradition, to the distinction between profane (one without initiation), initiate (one who has entered the work), adept (one who has completed it). The wet path is — like the Tantric left hand — a path that uses fluid materials (humors, substances, emanations) as working tools, against the dry paths that reject them.

Tension: the risks of the ritual sexual path

Critical point of attention of the School: the Tantric left hand includes ritual sexual practices (maithuna) that presuppose a level of realization (vira) that the vast majority of practitioners do not reach. History documents numerous cases of abuse, deviation, self-destruction and destruction of others by so-called "Tantrics" who have confused the vira path with pure sexual license. The School does not teach ritual sexual practice as part of current didactics, and considers its direct reintroduction in Western schools as almost always a misunderstanding or abuse.

The School instead works on the underlying principles (energetic, symbolic, fluidic, magnetic) that Tantra has expounded with great clarity, applying them in the form proper to the Kremmerzian-Isiac tradition, which does not require ritual sexual practices but works the fluid through breathing, chanting, the chain, and study.

X. Living practice in the School

Declared section: living practice of the Paret School (ISI-CNV).

The study of The Yoga of Power is recommended to intermediate-advanced students as an Eastern complement to Western Hermetic training. It is studied after the Kremmerzian propaedeutic and after reading The Hermetic Tradition — not before, because without the proper Western framework one risks the confused Orientalism that Evola himself criticized
The system of the seven chakras is recognized as a valid operative model — the School has developed its own exercises for the progressive activation of the energy centers, some of which correspond to Tantric bija mantras, others are of its own formulation in the Western Cabalistic-Hermetic tradition
The pashu-vira-divya distinction is pedagogical: beginners are taught that they are at the pashu level and that they need regular training before they can face the practices of the vira level. It is diagnostic for the master to recognize the student's level and propose appropriate work — not to anticipate practices that would destroy them
The principle of "the path that assumes matter" is foundational to the School: practice is done in the body, not against the body. The body is not an obstacle to be denied but an instrument through which the work is realized. This is the Tantric heritage integrated into the Western tradition
The distinction between the Tantric path and "Tantric" abuse is very sharp in training: the School teaches how to recognize pseudo-Tantras (self-styled New Age masters who sell sexuality with an Eastern label) and to stay rigorously away from them

Documentation status

Statement	Status	Source
The Yoga of Power Bocca 1949, expanded Mediterranee 1968 by Julius Evola (rewrite of L'uomo come potenza 1925)	✅ VERIFIED	canonical editions
Tantra as "specific path of the Kali Yuga" — authentic Tantric texts (cited in the book)	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power ch. I-II — Drive
Cosmology 36 tattvas Kashmir Shaivism: parasamvid → shiva-shakti → sadvidya → maya-shakti → bindu (three aspects)	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power ch. III — Drive
Three bodies: karana-sharira (causal), sukshma-sharira (subtle), sthula-sharira (dense)	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power ch. IV — Drive
Three levels pashu-vira-divya and left-hand path (vama-marga)	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power ch. V — Drive
Five "M"s (panchamakara) of the ritual practice of the vira level	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power — Drive
Seven chakras and kundalini with bija mantras (Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Om)	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power chs. VII-VIII — Drive
Diamond-Thunderbolt Body (vajrakaya, divya-deha) as final accomplishment	✅ VERIFIED	Evola Yoga of Power ch. XII — Drive
Convergence Yoga-Hermetic Tradition-Doctrine Corps Immortel-Arcana Arcanorum on the "unique accomplishment" of the body of glory	⚠️ SCHOOL INTERPRETATION	convergence of cluster sources

Sources

Julius Evola, The Yoga of Power. Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way, Inner Traditions Rochester VT 1992 (trans. Guido Stucco) — ISI-CNV Drive — [VERIFIED] — main source of this page
Julius Evola, Lo Yoga della Potenza. Saggio sui Tantra, Mediterranee, Rome, 1968 and subsequent editions — [primary source, canonical Italian edition]
Julius Evola, L'uomo come potenza, Atanòr, Todi-Rome, 1925 — [youthful work, first version]
John Woodroffe (Sir John Avalon), The Serpent Power (1919) — [contemporary primary source on Tantric esotericism] — Evola draws on and critiques
Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (1954) — [academic historical-religious context]
Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946) — [iconographic context]
Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala (1969) — [context on yantric practice]