Julius Evola and Flamma non urens

JULIUS Evola (1898-1974), by way of his 1931 work, The Hermetic Tradition: Symbols and Teachings of the Royal Art, notes that

“Fire is the proper virtue of the solar principle, not the fire of desire, generative ardor, or lust, but the flamma non urens, the nonmaterial principle of all animation. Light, per se, is more closely related to the feminine, lunar principle as Wisdom which, with respect to [the sun] has the same nature as the light that the Moon reflects from the solar principle.” (p.35)

Let's examine this concept in everyday terms. When we are reading by the light of a small bedside lamp that is set to one side of us, be it to the left or to the right, the page furthest away from the lamp receives more light than the page that is located nearer to the source. This, naturally, is because of the position of the light and the effect of shadow. There is nothing particularly surprising about this observation, but the page which is brightest can be used to illuminate the page which is less discernible to the human eye. In other words, the light on the surface of the clearer page can be directed towards that which is less clear.

In astronomy, this process is known as 'earthshine' and occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of the Earth and illuminates the unlit section of the Moon. This means that sunlight is reflected twice: first off the Earth, and then off the Moon. If we imagine the Sun to be the bulb in our bedside lamp and the Earth to be the page of the book that is furthest away we can see that the dimmer page is illuminated in the same way as the unlit portion of the Moon.

Evola's point, to continue with my own analogy, is that the text on the darker page is essentially made readable by the light that is reflected from the surface of that which is comparatively brighter. The feminine perspective, in Evola's worldview, is thus based on material considerations and its 'light' of human desire must not be compared to the more transcendent purity of the solar principle.

By relying upon the artificial creation of light, on the other hand, the incandescent bulb in my example is itself the result of generative factors and - in order to remain consistent - may itself be described as flamma non urens, or flame without fire