{"id":3529,"date":"2011-12-12T23:27:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T04:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=3529"},"modified":"2018-12-12T08:30:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T13:30:35","slug":"guenon-the-trajectory-of-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=3529","title":{"rendered":"Guenon: The Trajectory of his Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone looking for clues of an initiatic tradition in the West, it is helpful to follow the path trod by Rene Guenon<\/strong>. We can leave out of consideration any rumours or allegations, such as a mysterious Hindu or Sufi initiation. His own course speaks for itself and it is absurd to consider it as some sort of charade. The paths he actually followed are what counts, not the paths he may have studied. Of the former, there are three.<\/p>\n

Hermetism<\/h2>\n

At the end of the 19th<\/sup> century, Paris was undergoing a sort of Hermetic revival, which attracted the young Guenon. He was secretary to Papus, one of the primary figures of that revival. He later abandoned that movement of some doctrinal issues and the lack of a regular initiation. However, keep in mind that this is the first place Guenon went to look for it.
\n<\/p>\n

Catholicism<\/h2>\n

He next got involved with Catholic circles, even marrying a devout woman. He wrote for the journal Regnabit (“he [Christ] will reign”) and traveled in a circle that included the Thomist metaphysician Jacques Maritain<\/strong>. He supported the organization Action Fran\u00e7aise, led by Charles Maurras, which included Positivists and Catholics among its members. Interestingly, he supported the condemnation of Action Fran\u00e7aise by Pope Pius XI<\/strong> on the grounds he was the legitimate spiritual authority.<\/p>\n

Sufism<\/h2>\n

Unsatisfied with his first two paths, Guenon took advantage of a trip to Egypt following the death of his first wife to become fully engaged with Sufism. As we have pointed out, this was not a conversion in the conventional sense of the term<\/a>. It involved an intellectual conversion and the personal judgment that Sufism provided a more certain initiatic for his needs. From an esoteric perspective, the abyss from Europe to Egypt may not be as wide as some think. Houston Smith<\/strong> describes Islam as a Semitic Religion built on Platonic metaphysics; he may as well have been describing Medieval Christendom. Furthermore, Sufism also has a Hermetic element of its own.<\/p>\n

The Next Step<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s follow this logic, at least those of us who claim to be following the path created by Guenon. If the obvious places to look — Hermetism and Medieval Catholicism — are lacking a contemporary initiatic organization, then how can we expect to recognize such a thing? These obvious places are close to us in time, language, and history and are well documented. Presumably, they should be easier to understand than more alien texts such as the Yoga Sutras<\/cite> of Patanjali<\/strong>. Guenon mentions that the Romance of the Rose<\/cite> is an initiatic text, something he should be able to recognize.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t all so-called Traditionalists rush out to obtain and interpret this work? I doubt it, as many will prefer to learn the alleged esoteric secrets of the Runes. I say alleged not because the Runes had no such significance, but only because no one today has any means to know those secrets.<\/p>\n

What are the clues we can look for? First of all, when Reason speaks, this is understood as the higher intellect, or gnosis, something few contemporary minds can even conceive of. The book is ostensibly about profane love, but that clearly represents a description of a spiritual path, from Dante<\/strong> and the Fedeli d\u2019Amore<\/strong> to the Sufi poets. A forgettable neo-pagan web site I came across suggested that the Medievals \u201cinvented\u201d Mary because they had no proper goddesses of their own. That is merely a confession that they invented their neo-pagan goddeses.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Medievals knew about Sophia<\/strong> and the Anima Mundi<\/em>, unlike those neo-pagans. The Romance even discusses the gods, a page they probably missed. They then make the tired claim that only some neo-pagan witches or Druids can understand it, while simultaneously misunderstanding it. To the contrary, Guenon writes about:<\/p>\n

\nChristian Hermetists of the Middle Ages, whose intentions were always fully orthodox.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further East, and this is getting to the point, Guenon recognizes that<\/p>\n

\nHesychasm [whose] truly initiatic character seems indisputable. \u2026 In hesychasm, initiation in the strict sense consists essentially in the regular transmission of certain formulas , exactly comparable to the transmission of mantras in the Hindu tradition and of the wird in the Islamic turuq. It also contains a complete technique of invocations as a true method of interior work\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Guenon mentions that this tradition probably was able to continue by hiding itself. Shouldn\u2019t we recognize, however, in the writings of Vladimir Solovyov<\/strong>, Valentin Tomberg<\/strong>, and Boris Mouravieff<\/strong>, all coming from the East, an unveiling of that tradition. The elements are there: invocations, interior work, gnosis, Sophia and so on. I know there are those driven by sentimentalism and an overactive subjective imagination who would choke on such a thought. However, like the Aghoris who eat the repulsive, I say Chow down. A man on the path will stop at nothing in search of enlightenment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For anyone looking for clues of an initiatic tradition in the West, it is helpful to follow the path trod by Rene Guenon. We can leave out of consideration any rumours or allegations, such as a mysterious Hindu or Sufi initiation. His own course speaks for itself and it is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,16],"tags":[608],"class_list":["post-3529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hermetism","category-guenon","tag-romance-of-the-rose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}