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Traditionalism

A Western Tradition?

“…We think that if a Western tradition could be rebuilt it would be bound to take on a religious form in the strictest sense of this word, and that this form could only be Christian; for on the one hand the other possible forms have been too long foreign to the Western mentality, and on the other it is only in Christianity – and we an say still more definately in Catholicism – that such remnants of a traditional spirit as still exist in the West are to be found. Every ‘traditionalist’ venture that ignores this fact is without foundation and therefore inevitably doomed to failure; it is self-evident that one can build only upon something that has a real existence, and that where there is lack of continuity, any reconstruction must be artificial and cannot endure.” Thus says the primal “Traditionalist” René Guénon on pages 26 and 27 of… Read More »A Western Tradition?

Traditionalism

Modern civilization appears in history as a veritable anomaly: of all known civilizations, it is the only one to have developed in a purely material direction, and the only one not based on any principle of a higher order. This is how the English translation of René Guénon’s book Symbols Of Sacred Science opens. This is why the famous Traditionalist book titles are The Crisis Of The Modern World (Guénon), Revolt Against The Modern World (Evola) and Against The Modern World (Sedgwick). Modern society develops towards an a-religious world, purely material and without Tradition. “Traditionalism” is a current that nowadays seems to enjoy a growing attention, ‘even’ from the scholarly world. I read ‘Traditionalist’ books in the past without really understanding the background. Now Traditionalism is smacked around my ears so frequently that it was impossible to no longer pay attention. “Did any of you read the works of the… Read More »Traditionalism

Julius Evola – a biography

Evola is a name of which more and more people have heard, but not too many people know something about. When you try to find books of the man, you will have a hard time on the European continent, but in the USA or UK you may succeed. The internet is the best solution when you want to learn something about Evola. When you try one of the bigger search engines, you will have found some good pages pretty quickly, many are in Italian, but in German or English is enough to be found. That the attention and familiarity of Evola starts to increase lately, is mainly caused by the fact that the American publisher Inner Traditions started to release English translations of different books for the first time. Until now 13 books and several articles are available in english. This is only a small part of Evola’s bibliography which… Read More »Julius Evola – a biography

Against the modern world?

The non-Traditionalist Muslim Haji Muhammad Legenhausen has written a very nice essay called Why I am not a Traditionalist which is online on a few places on the internet. Legenhausen gives a lengthy and critical comment on the Traditionalist School and some leading Traditionalists. On a few occasions, Legenhausen surely has a point, but his overall critique is fairly easy to shoot holes through. That is not the purpose of my article though. “Traditionalism [and] its rejection of modernity” Legenhausen writes: “The basic point is that nothing should be accepted or rejected merely because it is modern and likewise, nothing should be accepted or rejected merely because it is traditional. There is much that is good in modernity, and much that is good in traditional societies. There is much that is bad in modernity, and much that is bad in traditional societies.” Personally I didn’t get the idea that Traditionalism… Read More »Against the modern world?