René Guénon
René Jean-Marie Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951) was a French traditionalist, metaphysician, and scholar of religions. His work was influential in the development of the Traditionalist School and would go on to influence many metaphysicians of the 20th century.
Contents
Life
As a boy, Guénon, born in Blois in 1886, was so weak that he was taught at home for years. He didn't attend public school until he was twelve. After graduating in 1903, Guénon began studying mathematics in Paris, but ultimately switched to philosophy. René Guénon was first a Freemason; He was admitted into Lodge Thebah of the Grand Lodge of France, but he ultimately saw Freemasonry as a degenerate offshoot of an original, true line of initiation that contained deeper metaphysical truths but had been distorted by time, describing it as a "corpse of the original tradition" that still had symbolic values.
- René Guénon was one of the great luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of intellectual fashion. His extensive writings, now finally available in English, are a providential treasure-trove for the modern seeker: while pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, they direct the reader also to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization. Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage is both an attempt to rediscover the lost roots of Masonry and a fascinating look into the many controversies swirling around the subject of Masonry in serious intellectual circles during the first half of the twentieth century. It must also be classed, along with Symbols of Sacred Science, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power, Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles, The Esoterism of Dante, Insights into Christian Esoterism and Insights into Islamic Esoterism and Taoism-not to mention related sections in many of his other books-as one of René Guénon's masterful excursions into esoteric myth, symbolism, and secret history. Freemasonry may indeed be, as Guénon ultimately concluded, a largely degenerated and thus no longer strictly 'operative' offshoot of a true initiatory lineage; yet its symbolism, like that of the original Rosicrucians, remains profound, traditional, and therefore ultimately legitimate. And given that the 'Spirit bloweth where it listeth', it is always possible that symbolism of this order may awaken in a receptive soul intimations of the Truth and the Way, which can be of inestimable of value in 'the path to the Path', the quest for a living initiatory spirituality.[1]
René Guénon was initiated into the Tariqa Schadhiliyya, a traditional Sufi order, in 1912 by Ivan Aguéli alias Abdul Hâdi, a Swedish-born itinerant Sufi and painter, and took the Sufi name Abdel Wahid Yahia. Guénon was 26 years old at the time and had moved in various occult and Masonic circles; He also received initiations into Indian and Taoist teachings through a mysterious Hadji Sharif and his acquaintance Matgioi (actually: Albert de Pouvourville). In the same year he married (Catholic) Berthe Loury. Shortly afterwards he began publishing in an anti-Masonic magazine and conducting studies on Christian symbolism, iconography and Dante. His (rejected) dissertation on the Hindu teachings and his first book (against theosophy) were completed in 1921.
After moving in occult circles in Paris at a young age, Guénon sharply criticized all forms of occultism, especially those of the Theosophical Society of Madame Blavatsky, about which he wrote a very critical work, in which he also dealt with the O.T.O. and the Golden Dawn. Guénon claimed that the Theosophical Society played an anti-traditional role and was used, among other things, by English secret services in India; but in the service of counter-initiation.
Writings
René Guénon's writings are based on the idea of a 'primordial Tradition' in which an original metaphysics was revealed in pre-historical antiquity, and was preserved within the various religions of our day. This is discussed within his first book an Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines, where Hinduism is used as an example of a religious tradition in which Traditional metaphysics has survived. Part of Tradition, and central to much of Guénon's work, is the idea of initiation.
Guénon believes the initiatory process involves a spiritual transmission, and cannot therefore occur without a master who's own initiation is itself valid and can be traced back to the initial primordial Tradition. For this reason, it is impossible for one to initiate alone, and it is similarly impossible for a religion which has lost it's initiatory path to regain it without drawing from another religious tradition which retains it. Guénon's strict emphasis on valid initiation is one of elements of tradition on which he and Julius Evola disagree.
In his writings, he proposes either "to expose directly some aspects of Eastern metaphysical doctrines", these doctrines being defined by him as of "universal character" or "to adapt these same doctrines [for western readers] while keeping strictly faithful to their spirit"; he only endorsed the function of "handing down" those Eastern doctrines, while stating their "non-individual character". His works, written and first published in French, have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Egypt
Guénon's Sufism flourished in secret and few may have known about it before he traveled to Egypt in 1930, after the tragic death of his French wife, to search for Sufi writings in Cairo. Soon Guénon had adopted the Arabic dress and had a complete command of the language. In 1934, Guénon, who converted to Islam and became Sheikh Abdel Wahid Yahia, married Fatma Hanem, who was much younger and unable to read or write, and who gave birth to two daughters and a son during his life (a second son was only born after his death). Guénon moved frequently in Egypt, but lived mostly in the center of Cairo, then in Dokki, and from 1946 permanently in Cairo. In 1949, he was granted Egyptian citizenship.
See also
Further reading
- Alexander Dugin: Counter-Initiation – Critical Remarks on Some Aspects of the Doctrine of René Guénon, 1998
External links
Encyclopedias
References
- ↑ René Guénon: Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage
