When people talk about modern esotericism they often think of the England of the Golden Dawn or the France of Papus. Yet between the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, Italy had an original and lively esoteric scene, with figures, groups and journals that claimed a tradition of their own, tied to Hermeticism, Pythagoreanism and Mediterranean culture. Knowing it helps explain many of the currents that have developed in the country down to the present.
Naples and the Hermetic tradition
Naples holds a special place in this story. Already in the eighteenth century Prince Raimondo di Sangro of San Severo, famous for his chapel and his experiments, had been the subject of legends about alchemy and Freemasonry. In the nineteenth century the idea spread in Neapolitan circles of an "Egyptian school" or an Italic Hermetic tradition, handed down secretly from master to disciple. These lineages are hard to verify historically, but their existence as a narrative matters: it gave Italian esotericism an identity distinct from the Anglo-Saxon and French ones.
Giuliano Kremmerz and the Brotherhood of Myriam
The most representative figure of this milieu is Giuliano Kremmerz, pseudonym of Ciro Formisano, born in 1861 in Portici, near Naples, and died in 1930 in Beausoleil, France. Formisano was shaped by Neapolitan cultural circles and combined work as a writer and publicist with leading study groups.
At the end of the nineteenth century he began publishing writings on the "science of the Magi", notably in the journal Il Mondo Secreto, and founded the Therapeutic-Magical Brotherhood of Myriam. The name expressed its stated purpose: to practise a form of spiritual help at a distance, through chains of people united in intention. The Brotherhood had a graded structure and an inner discipline including purification, concentration and the development of will.
Kremmerz insisted on certain points:
- magic is an experimental science of the soul, to be practised with caution and step by step;
- authentic teaching is passed on discreetly and cannot be reduced to books;
- the Italian Hermetic heritage has ancient roots and a character of its own.
His works, including La scienza dei Magi, a multi-volume collection of his writings, are still widely read in Italian esoteric circles.
Arturo Reghini and the Pythagorean path
A different course was taken by Arturo Reghini (1878-1946), a Florentine mathematician, Freemason and scholar of ancient traditions. Reghini was first drawn to Theosophy and moved in occultist circles, but later developed his own vision, centred on the Pythagorean tradition and ancient Rome, which he regarded as Italy's true spiritual heritage.
He founded and edited journals such as Atanòr, in 1924, and Ignis, in which he published remarkably learned essays on symbolism, sacred mathematics and Freemasonry. He was among the promoters of the idea of a pagan "Italic tradition", distinct from and partly opposed to Catholicism. He also published studies of Pythagorean numbers, combining mathematical and speculative interests.
The Ur Group
Between 1927 and 1929 a group of scholars and practitioners published in Rome a monthly journal called Ur, renamed Krur in its final year. Contributors mostly signed with pseudonyms. Among those who belonged to it or wrote for it were Reghini in the early phase, Julius Evola, later a much-debated figure because of his political positions, and several members of the Kremmerzian current.
The group's programme was original: not to build a new theoretical system, but to offer practical texts, experiences of meditation and concentration, commentaries on traditional texts, and translations of Hermetic, Tantric and Buddhist sources. The stated aim was inner realisation, the passage from theoretical knowledge to direct experience. The issues were later collected in volumes under the title Introduction to Magic.
The group was short-lived, partly because of internal disagreements, particularly between Reghini and Evola.
Theosophy and other currents
Alongside these figures, Italy saw a significant spread of the Theosophical Society, with an important presence in Rome in the early twentieth century, and later of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy. Many Italian artists and intellectuals of the time frequented these circles, showing how widely interest in the spiritual ran through the country's culture.
The climate changed under the Fascist regime, which in 1925 passed a law on associations that struck at Freemasonry, and with the political conditions of the following years, which made the activity of many groups more difficult.
A heritage worth studying
For Studio Esoterico Cornelio this season of Italian esotericism deserves attention because it shows a serious attempt to root the spiritual search in the history and cultural landscape of the Mediterranean, rather than simply importing foreign models. It should be studied critically, distinguishing spiritual teaching from the political choices of some of its protagonists.
In short
- Naples was an important centre of the Italian Hermetic tradition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- Giuliano Kremmerz (Ciro Formisano, 1861-1930) founded the Therapeutic-Magical Brotherhood of Myriam.
- Arturo Reghini (1878-1946) promoted a Pythagorean-inspired Italic tradition and edited journals such as Atanòr and Ignis.
- Between 1927 and 1929 the Ur Group published the journals Ur and Krur, later collected as Introduction to Magic.