It had been a while since I read something of Guénon and then I found a title in the Kindle store that I had not read yet.
The original title is Les États Multiplus de l’Être and was first published in 1932. It has been published by Sophia Perennis in English in 2001 (translation by Henry Fohr). The edition that I got was published in 2022 by Antiqua Sapientia and was translated by Daniel Bernardo. I was somewhat unimpressed by this book…
The book is too ‘philosophical’ to me. Of course Guénon would abhor such a description and say that he writes from a metaphysical perspective, but the book reads like a philosophical work for me. It is about subjects such as ‘being and non-being’, consciousness, hierarchies, but also ‘the realization of being through knowledge’ which sounds interesting enough, especially when it comes from Guénon, but the book remained only mildly interesting to me.
Can it be the translation or simply the fact that the subject is not much within the scope of my interests? I am not sure. Perhaps I should reread some works of Guénon that I already know and see if I enjoy them as much as I did before. Or should I get the Sophia Perennis version as well?
2004 Sophia Perennis, isbn 0900588594 2022 Antiqua Sapientia
In the Amazon Kindle store I found two Reghini (1878-1946) titles in English. I first read Life Of Arturo Reghini by Giulio Parise. This text proved to be an appendix to the present title as well.
Parise has worked with Reghini for many years and after Reghini’s passing, he wrote his ‘memoirs’ which are some sort of Reghini biography in 1946. The text was originally in Italian and has now been translated to English.
The main body of the publication is a translation of a text of Reghini. After Giudice‘s translation of Pagan Imperialism, this is the second text of Reghini that you can read in English. Both are short and that when Reghini wrote works up to seven volumes. Some of these works apparently were never even published in Italian yet!
Knowledge Of The Symbol is a nice text which show Reghini’s ‘esoteric/academic’ approach which reminds of Traditionalists such as René Guénon.
In his biography Parise gives a peek into the life of Reghini who was involved in Theosophy, was later initiated into Freemasonry in the rite of Memphis-Misraim and later (also) went to a lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy. Both were “irregular” in these days (and still are), but contrary to Giudice, Parise makes no mention of that. Reghini wanted to reform Freemasonry, also during the fascist period, help different organisations to merge and ended up starting his own organisation the ‘Philosophical Rite’.
The publication is only 69 pages (if you can speak of pages on a Kindle), but it is good to see that after many publications in the original language, the attention for Reghini seems to be growing, so people make an effort to bring him to the attention of people who cannot read Italian. Let us hope some publisher will pick up the trail and start to translate and publish Reghini’s work.
Unfortunately this title is only available for owners of Amazon Kindle ereaders. It is fairly easy to make the book available as a paperback as well, so I hope the publishers will realise that too.
For some reason I always have the idea that I read more about Schuon that of him. Yet I previously reviewed two of his books and I have referred to his writings for decades. Be that as it may, I got “The Essential”. At the same time I bought the recently reviewed “Ye Shall Know The Truth” which also contains texts of Schuon. Both books combined was a bit ‘Schuon overkill’.
Some authors, including the editor of the present title, are of the opinion that Schuon coming after René Guénon, not only follows the latter, but even completes him. Guénon was more of a rationalist, Schuon more of a ‘mystic’ which is the more ‘logical’ approach to Traditionalism.
Actually I find Schuon harder to read than Guénon. I suppose I am more ‘rationalist’ then. “The Essential” is -after a lengthy introduction’ divided in nine parts each contains a few texts. Some have been made available in English for the first time, others can be found at other places. You can read Schuon on subjects such as religion, certain religions, mysticism, metaphysics, spirituality and of course the modern world. I often find him hard to follow. Personally I do not find this compendium an invitation to dive deeper into things with Schuon.
Some of the texts are interesting, but overall, I think I prefer the writings of other Traditionalists.
A Traditionalist book about Christianity is not too common. I am also reading a book with texts of Frithjof Schuon and Schuon is also featured quite a bit in this book, so that was perhaps a bit Schuon overkill. An amusing text in both books -though- is a text about how some forms of Protestantism -in the eyes of Schuon- are still a valid Tradition.
There are texts of authors that I know, such as James Cutsinger, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings Ananda Coomarasway, Rama Coomaraswamy and René Guénon, but also authors unknown to me.
The book is divided in the sections “foundations”, “spirituality”, “sacred art”, “comparative religion”, “the universality of Christian mystics” and “the modern deviation”.
With such a big variety of authors and subjects it is not that strange that not all essays equally appealed to me. A nice surprise was the text of the Hesychast “Bisschop Kallistos Ware” which brings a lot of nuance to the relatively Jesus Prayer (mantra) of the Hesychasm. I also enjoyed “The Christians in Moorish Spain” by Duncan Townson.
A compendium with a wide approach. An enjoyable read.
Finding this book in the “Perennial Philosophy” series of World Wisdom, I think I expected something different. Perhaps I got exactly what was to be expected.
The author has been to several Western universities and the book reads quite academically and philosophically, a bit annoyingly so actually. The author has picked a few subjects and dissects them minutiously. This leads to interesting thoughts and explanations, but Sharma sounds perhaps a bit too much like a Guénon or Schuon.
The “Hindu spirituality” also proves not to be used in a general way, but (mostly) refers to Advaita Vedanta.
The book is an alright read, but I think I expected something ‘less Western’.
Of course there have been (and are) more Traditionalists than the handful I have reviewed before. I ran into a reference to Schaya who was a Traditionalist who wrote from a Jewish perspective. This is interesting, because Islamic and Vedantic approaches are much more common.
Schaya (1916-1986) was a Swiss from Polish parents who spent much of his life in France. His parents were non-practising Jews, but as a boy, Schaya was captivated by the mystical aspects of that religion. On encountering Frithjof Schuon, he moved to a Traditionalist perspective.
Schaya wrote mainly in French, also in German, but not many of his writings have been made available in English. The current title contains a collection of essays and talks, some of which had been translated before, some had not.
Schaya indeed proves to have a ‘very Traditionalist’ perspective. Fond themes appear to be the appearance of God to Moses and his people on the mount Sinai and the earlier encounter of Moses with the burning bush. Schaya brilliantly explains these famous Biblical events in quite a ‘Guénonian’ way with constant references to Jewish terminology. He dives into the depths of Jewish theology coupled with Kabbalah. Along his way, he frequently refers to Vedanta, but a lot more to Islam and Sufism, making comparisons and explaining aspects of either system with references to the other and both he exoteric and esoteric sides. Creation, the name of God, large subjects are dealt with with interesting perspectives.
The introduction of Patrick Laude says that many people find Schaya’s writing style difficult. I personally find him more easily to read than some of the books I read recently and even easier than Schuon.
All in all I find Schaya a very interesting author, so I am going to see what other works of his are available in English.
“Before René Guénon, there was Joseph de Maistre”.
I have known the name of De Maistre (1753-1821), probably because of the few references to him by the mentioned Guénon. I ran into this biography and decided to learn a bit more about the country-mate of Guénon.
The author makes many comparisons between the two men who were similar in several regards, but also different. Both were Catholics, went around in the ‘occult scenes’ of their time, joined Freemasonry and both revolted against the modern world of their ages.
De Maistre lived before, during and after the French Revolution (1789) and his Catholic orthodoxy did not like the direction France headed. He took a fierce stance with sharp polemics giving him the name of a gloomy thinker. Isham shows that De Maistre was nothing of that sort.
In spite of being a Catholic in difficult times, De Maistre -as mentioned- also explored other directions of thinking and knowing. Ironically, he was an active Freemason and Freemasonry was accused of being one of the major causes of the anticlerical sides of the French Revolution. In De Maistre’s life we see that things are not that black and white. Like he disapproved of a large part of society’s new worldview, he did of a part of Freemasonry.
Isham mostly focuses on De Maistre’s life. He compares ideas often to those of Guénon, but after finishing the little book (154 pages) I really cannot say much about De Maistre’s thinking. He appears to have been more philosophical (and perhaps theological) than the more esoteric Guénon, but that is about it.
According to Isham De Maistre is hardly known outside France. Some of his works are available in English by now. Isham thinks he remains a relevant political and religious thinker and a precursor to Traditionalism, so this biography may introduce him to more potential readers.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a contemporary Traditionalist and born Muslim. He was born in 1933 and is still around, 87 years of age.
As the title suggests, this is a collection of his writings. The book was compiled by fellow Traditionalist William Chittick and has a foreword by Huston Smith.
Chittick made three divisions in the book. The first part is about religion, the opening texts is called “Living In A Multi-Religious World”. Then we have a larger part specifically about Islam and the last part is about Tradition.
Of course there are similarities between Nasr and other Traditionalists, but this book reads nothing like a book of Guénon or Coomaraswamy. Nasr is more academic on one side, and more traditional religious on the other. Of course he was born a Muslim in a conservative Muslim country (Iraq), so Islam is the basis of his thinking. And an interesting thinker he is! Nasr’s academic career obviously made him very well acquainted with different religions. Also he does not shun authors who were not Muslims from birth, such as Frithjof Shuon. Moreover, the different branches of Sufism are dealt with alongside the various kinds of ‘mainstream’ Islam.
As said, Nasr’s writing is quite academic. He can be somewhat extensive and his style is not really light reading. I liked the texts in which we see a modern Muslim looking at the world better than the Traditionalist texts at the end, but Nasr is good in the comparative approach and that is something I enjoy reading.
The book is undoubtedly meant as an introduction to the author and I guess you indeed will get a good idea of Nasr reading this book.
It is good to see that more and more serious books about Freemasonry and esotericism see the light of day. Here we even have a book with partly a Traditionalistic approach. Very much so in the first essays even. Angel Millar opens with a text about René Guénon and Traditionalism. The most interesting article is Richard Smoley’s text about the Traditionalistic view on initiation. This text may raise a few eyebrows I think. As we go along, the essays become ‘lighter’ in one way, but ‘darker’ in another. From the personal story of Joscelyn Godwin to the ceremonial magic of Donald Tyson. Other authors are Mark Booth, Herbi Brennan, Richard Kaczynski, Chuck Dunning, Greg Kaminsky, Jeffey Kupperman, Adam Kendall, Timothy Scott and my biggest surprise, Susanna Åkerman whom I know for her work on Rosicrucian history, but who here presents an interesting text about women in early Scandinavian Freemasonry.
Not every text is as interesting as the next (to me), but this not too expensive book touches upon a few subjects that deserve more notoriety in Freemasonry, so it is good that this book was actually published by the famed Masonic publishing house Lewis Masonic from the UK, so it will probably be mostly Freemasons buying the book. The book is available from the publisher or Amazon UK (click cover). It would be nice if the other Amazon stores would list it too.
A thesis delivered at the department of humanitarian studies at the university of Göteborg. That bound to be one of these preposterously expensive academic publications, right? Well, not this time. The book is available for free as a PDF from the university’s website. Click on the cover.
The book caught my attention because of the subtitle: “Arturo Reghini and the Antimodern Reaction in Early Twentieth-Century Italy”. Reghini (1878-1946) was a Freemason, Traditionalist and is probably best known in the English speaking world for having been acquainted with Julius Evola. In spite of the relative popularity of Evola and the tremendous influence that Reghini supposedly had on the man, it is strange that close to nothing of or about Reghini has been translated to English. Giudice made a firm first step to change that.
Being a thesis, the book has a lot fairly annoying academic style-forms. Pages filled with text for people who probably will not read the entire work. The first quarter of the book is filled with introductions to the subject, about the methodology, etc. Then every chapter is again summarized before it starts and ends with a conclusion (usually another summery). Of course there is a load of notes, references and a lengthy bibliography.
In his book the author makes a lot of effort to portray Reghini in his day and age. He describes social sentiments and esoteric currents in the period leading up to Mussolini’s fascism. Giudice gives a history of Italian Freemasonry and how Reghini fitted into that history. The same with political developments.
All this lays partly outside my interests, but context is usually interesting or at least useful and it, of course, explains how Reghini came to be himself. From early Theosophical involvements to “fringe” Freemasonry, as Reghini clearly saw the weak side of ‘regular’ Italian Freemasonry which he found too political. What is a bit weird is that the author uses the word “fringe” to refer to ‘irregular’ Freemasonry, while usually the word “fringe” means that an organisation is akin to Freemasonry, but not Freemasonry in itself.
Of course Giudice says a lot about the Traditionalist milieu that Reghini moved in, a Traditionalism that Giudice calls “Roman Traditionalism” and sets against the “Guénonian Traditionalism” of René Guénon et al. Also Evola enters and leaves the picture. With his writings Reghini predated Guénon’s anti-Theosophical writings and Evola’s “Imperialismo Pagano”, so you can say that Reghini influenced both better known Traditionalists.
The book shows an interesting investigation of an interesting man in an interesting period in time. Like I said, this is almost the first information about Reghini available in English, so hopefully this very good introduction will lead to attention to the Italian author and the translation of his works. It would be nice of Giudice’s book would be made available in an affordable printed edition too.
A nice bonus. The author translated “Imperialismo Pagano” at the end of the book, so there we have the first of Reghini’s writings in English.
2016 Göteborg University, isbn 9789188348753 You can find a few quotes here.
