\nWe recently mentioned Guenon\u2019s role in bring awareness of Tradition to the West, but there are two other very important figures: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (AKC) and Julius Evola. Operating on three different continents, they kept in contact with Guenon via post, exchanging letters and even books. That was the precursor of the Internet, in bring together the scattered remnant of Tradition, spiritually and intellectually, if not physically. Both men were accomplished thinkers in their own right, but their respective encounters with Guenon were transformative and heavily influenced their own writings.\n<\/p>\n
\nThere are some who would exclude Evola as a Traditional writer, but the other two did not see it that way. AKC wrote a favourable review of Julius Evola’s Revolt Against the Modern World<\/em>, which was published in the Feb-Apr 1940 edition of The Visva-Bharati Quarterly<\/em> and included an English translation of the chapter “Man and Woman”. Guenon himself reviewed several of Evola\u2019s works.\n<\/p>\n \nThere are clearly differences in interests and interpretations among the three authors, which Evola would attribute to differences in the \u201cpersonal equation\u201d. However, these differences could never be over metaphysical principles, but rather differences in the interpretation of contingent historical events. For example, there were disagreements over the Traditional characteristics of Hermeticism or Buddhism, but in the latter case, Guenon was later to alter his opinion.\n<\/p>\n \nAKC was an enormously erudite man and his contributions not just in metaphysics, but also in traditional art, crafts, folklore and mythology are important to anyone not just seeking to understand Tradition abstractly, but also in its potential applications. Similarly, Evola\u2019s interests were in the forgotten Traditions of the West, whose characteristics he sought to reconstruct from the analysis of myths, sagas, and legends. He also applied his understanding of Tradition to current political and cultural events.\n<\/p>\n \nAnother important difference is that whereas Guenon eventually opted to live within a specific tradition (Sufism), AKC and Evola were those rare men who could live outside tradition and caste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We recently mentioned Guenon\u2019s role in bring awareness of Tradition to the West, but there are two other very important figures: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (AKC) and Julius Evola. Operating on three different continents, they kept in contact with Guenon via post, exchanging letters and even books. That was the precursor … Continue reading