Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (Paperback)

Rene Guenon

ISBN 10: 0900588160 / ISBN 13: 9780900588167

Editore: Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 2003

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Paperback. Rene Guenon (1886-1951) is undoubtedly one of the luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of recent philosophies. His oeuvre of 26 volumes is providential for the modern seeker: 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, at the same time it directs the reader 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. Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles is a wide-ranging collection of articles that could just as well have been called Fragments of an Unknown History. Although they must remain fragments, as Guenon did not return to many of these themes again, it would have been regrettable to leave such fascinating articles buried in old journals, and so this posthumous collection is now offered to Anglophone readers for the first time.The book opens with the key article 'The Doctrine of Cosmic Cycles', followed by two pieces on Atlantis and Hyperborea. Two sections follow, concerned respectively with the Hebrew Tradition and the Egyptian Tradition. The former comprises five articles concerned primarily with the Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers, and the latter includes three articles on Hermes and the Hermetic Tradition. Book reviews are inserted at relevant points. To lend the collection coherence, no other spiritual Traditions are here represented. A list of the Collected Writings of Rene Guenon has been provided for those who wish to investigate Guenon's metaphysical expositions on such topics as Christianity, Islam, the Greco-Latin Traditions, Celtism, etc. The book opens with the key article 'The Doctrine of Cosmic Cycles', followed by two pieces on Atlantis and Hyperborea. Two sections follow, concerned respectively with the Hebrew Tradition and the Egyptian Tradition. The former comprises five articles concerned primarily with the Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers, and the latter includes three articles on Hermes and the Hermetic Tradition. Book reviews are inserted at relevant points. To lend the collection coherence, no other spiritual Traditions are here represented. A list of the Collected Writings of Rene Guenon has been provided for those who wish to investigate Guenon's metaphysical expositions on such topics as Christianity, Islam, the Greco-Latin Traditions, Celtism, etc. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Codice articolo 9780900588167

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (Paperback)
• Editore: Sophia Perennis et Universalis
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0900588160
• ISBN 13: 9780900588167
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: new

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Riassunto

René Guénon (1886–1951) 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.

Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles is a wide-ranging collection of articles that delve into traces of ancient, indeed protohistoric, traditions. They could be described as fragments of an unknown history—a history reaching back through prehistory to protohistory—for they begin with the Primordial Tradition contemporaneous with the beginnings of present humanity. The book opens with a study on cosmic cycles, taking as its point of departure the Hindu doctrine of the Manvantara, although similar doctrines appear in Greco-Roman antiquity among Jewish Kabbalists, Islamic Sufis and Ismailis, and in the Hopi, Lakota, and Maya nations of the New World. Essential to this doctrine is that earlier ages differed qualitatively from ours, which may explain why our historicism and archaeology have yet to come to grips with “Hyperborea” and “Atlantis,” despite the many clues embedded throughout mythology, folklore, sacred architecture, etc. That is, our own time’s quality cannot simply be projected backwards into past ages. In presenting Hyperborean and Atlantean lore—the cyclical mysteries of the North and the West—as well as material on the Hebrew Kabbalah and Egyptian Hermeticism, Guénon successfully transmits the requisite sense of such “other” times, which for some may awaken the intuition of higher levels of Being.

“Guénon established the language of sacred metaphysics with a rigor, breadth, and intrinsic certainty that compel recognition as a standard of comparison for the twentieth century.” —Jean Borella

“Guénon gave proof of a universality of understanding that for centuries had had no parallel in the Western world.” —Frithjof Schuon

“It was Guénon who taught me to seek and love the truth above all else, and to be unsatisfied with anything else.” —Fr Seraphim Rose

“Encountering Guénon’s work is akin to being struck by lightning: a dazzling initiation into a hitherto unknown way of seeing reality that reclaims the original integrity of the human condition.” —Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

“Guénon’s mixture of arcane learning, metaphysics, and scathing cultural commentary is a continent in itself, untouched by the polluted tides of modernity.” —Jocelyn Godwin

“Guénon was an unsurpassed master of the science of symbolism.” —Martin Lings

“Guénon reaffirmed the values that constitute the only sound basis for living a life with dignity and purpose, or forming of a civilization worthy of the name.” —Philip Sherrard

“Guénon was one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive.” —Huston Smith

“No modern European writer was more significant than René Guénon, who expounded the universal metaphysical tradition that is the indispensable basis for any civilization deserving to be so called.” —A. K. Coomaraswamy

“Guénon’s works are such potent metaphysical attacks on the downward drift of Western civilization as to make all other contemporary critiques seem half-hearted by comparison.” —Jacob Needleman

Informazioni sull?autore

René Guénon (1886–1951) 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. René Guénon, of whom Jacob Needleman wrote in The Sword of Gnosis that ‘no other modern writer has so effectively communicated the absoluteness of truth,’ is gradually being recognized by deeper thinkers as one of the few who have truly penetrated the seductive veil of the modern age. As an expositor of pure metaphysics and its application to the science of symbols, Guénon is without peer; and his extraordinarily prescient critique of the modern world is attracting more and more attention among cultural commentators. Little known in the English-speaking world till the recent appearance of his Collected Works in translation, Guénon has nevertheless long been recognized as a veritable criterion of truth by a vanguard of remarkable writers who evince that rare combination: intellectuality and spirituality. After a lonely childhood, often interrupted by ill health, Guénon navigated the seductive half-truths of occultism toward a deeper, unified vision offering a way out from the confusion and fragmentation of our time. Regarded by leading scholars as the first truly authentic interpreter of many Eastern doctrines in the West, Guénon never tired, in face of the seemingly inexorable process of dissolution in the twentieth century, of pointing to the transcendent unity of all religious faiths and the abiding Truth that contains them all.