Metaphysics of War is a collection of essays by Julius Evola that philosophically analyze the meaning of war, concluding that it is spiritually fulfilling. I was very impressed by his depiction of the warrior mindset and how it relates to a super-individual and supra-material existence. The warrior lives a life where all of his actions are cohesively integrated into a higher goal, he acts entirely with purpose.
War is viewed by the rationalist as a mere political struggle more often than not, but evola views it as the best means for warriors to participate in their higher purpose and achieve spiritual fulfillment. It becomes evident that people inherently have a need for struggle, the phenomenological experience of conquering a struggle is spiritually fulfilling. This "Principle of Struggle" is very important in this entire segment of philosophy and is best exemplified by the motto "Eternal struggle is eternal growth".
Under certain circumstances War is, of course, the ultimate form of life or death struggle. War not only requires physical struggle as in training and fighting, but has metaphysical properties that are sensed by the warrior as well, enhancing the spiritual effects. For one, a good war is a struggle against another group of people. These people are your enemy, they want you and everyone you love dead, this fact alone turns what we call a war into a very personal endeavor. Wars in their purest form are "holy wars" fought for the sake of a divine and perfect higher good. Aligning oneself with a divine higher purpose, to fight and sacrifice for a morally superior cause is heroism. Committing a heroic act is one way to achieve an eternal metaphysical good, as a heroic act, once done, can never be undone, you will always have been a hero. Pursuing heroism to ensure that you are metaphysically meaningful is a transcendence of the material world, a superior meaning of life that can't be achieved within the limitations of materialism. This is evola's super-individual, one who can achieve transcendence through struggle and heroism, the super-individual has achieved the ultimate self-realisation.
I particularly loved the dichotomy he builds between the warrior mind and the bourgeois mind, saying that the warrior mind is oriented towards conquering, surpassing, sacrifice, struggle and improving the spirit through it all. While the bourgeois mind is petty, safety oriented and materialistic. This dichotomy is useful even outside of philosophy entirely.
It is very useful in the theory of victimary thinking. Where the warrior sees an opposing force as an opportunity for growth, a force to be acted upon, the bourgeois sees it as a threat, as a violation of their safety, it's a force that acts upon them, therefore it places the bourgeois into a position of victimhood. This mindset then can explain much of the victimary political discourse of our age. It's interesting how the bourgeois mind sees "fighting for the sake of fighting" in much of war but the warrior sees a method of transcendence and spiritual fulfillment. The deeper meaning of the warriors actions are lost to the bourgeois, who thinks in materialistic limitations. This book does a great job of presenting the bourgeois mindset as depressing and unfulfilling.
Overall, this book makes a lot of useful points and is very motivational, putting your life into evola's terms can be insightful. You could view going to the gym as your struggle, applying the principle of struggle then would motivate you to work out and conquer your weakness, as just one example. I definitely recommend this book, but it is challenging. It demands that you already have the capacity to think outside of all of the dogmas of modernity, rationalism, egalitarianism, victimary politics, hedonism, the whole works. If you're up to it however, it will be an elightening read.