Categoria: Guénon, René

On the other hand, there is nearly always a close connection made between Enoch (Idris) and Elijah (Ilyas), both of whom were taken up to heaven without passing through bodily death, (NA: It is said that they are to appear on earth again at the end of the cycle; they are the two “witnesses” mentioned…

Unfortunately one comes across people who claim to “judge” that which they do not know and who, because they apply the name “metaphysics” to a purely human and rational knowledge (which for us is only science or philosophy), imagine that Oriental metaphysics is no more and no other than that; from which they arrive logically…

THE hermetic tradition is, strictly speaking, concerned with knowledge that is not metaphysical but only cosmological, in the double sense of “macrocosmic” and “MICROCOSMIC.” This statement must not be taken in any sense as a depreciation of the traditional sciences that come under the heading of Herme-tism or of those that correspond to them in…

This brings us back directly to what was said at the outset about “the language of the birds,” which can also be called “angelic language” and which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic language, for the science of rhythm, which has many applications, is in fact ultimately the basis of all the means…

First, it is not a single isolated case in traditional doctrine, for it has something like a counterpart in Hebrew angelology. Generally speaking, Michael is the angel of the Sun and Raphael is the angel of Mercury, but sometimes the relationship is reversed. On the other hand, if Michael, as the representative of the solar…

Our understanding of it is made easier by the notion of what in Hindu doctrine is called “svadharma”, that is the performance by every being of an activity consistent with his own nature, and it is also by this notion, or rather by its absence, that the deficiency of the profane conception is most clearly…

This brings us back directly to what was said at the outset about “the language of the birds,” which can also be called “angelic language” and which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic language, for the science of rhythm, which has many applications, is in fact ultimately the basis of all the means…

This said, it should be made clear in what sense the word “metaPHYSICS” is used, all the more so since I have frequently had occasion to state that everyone does not understand it in the same way. I think the best course to take with words that can give rise to ambiguity is to reduce…

The ” Self ” is the transcendent and permanent principle of which the manifested being, the human being, for example, is only a transient and contingent modification, a modification which, moreover, can in no way affect the principle, as will be explained more fully in what follows. The ” Self,” as such, is never individualized…

Referring to the ORIGINal “yoga,” and while declaring that it has always meant essentially the same thing, one must not forget to put a question of which we have as yet made no mention. What is the ORIGIN of these traditional metaphysical doctrines from which we have borrowed all our fundamental ideas? The answer is…

This realization of the integral individuality is described by all traditions as the restoration of what is called the primordial state, which is regarded as man’s true estate and which moreover escapes some of the limitations characteristic of the ordinary state, notably that of the temporal condition. The person who attains this “primordial state” is…

This brings us back directly to what was said at the outset about “the language of the birds,” which can also be called “angelic language” and which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic language, for the science of rhythm, which has many applications, is in fact ultimately the basis of all the means…

To revert to metaphysical realization: Its second phase corresponds to supraindividual but still conditioned states, though their conditions are quite different from those of the human state. Here, the world of man, previously mentioned, is completely and definitely exceeded. It must also be said that that which is exceeded is the world of forms in…

Granted that nothing that is of a purely human order can for that very reason legitimately be called ” traditional “, there cannot possibly be, for instance, a ” philosophical tradition ” or a ” scientific tradition ” in the modern and profane sense of the words, any more, of course, than there can be…

It cannot be contested that it is from Hermes that Hermetism takes its name. The Greek Hermes has in fact characteristics that correspond exactly to the sciences in question and that are strikingly expressed, for example, by his chief attribute, the Caduceus. No doubt there will be a further opportunity to examine its symbolism more…

It cannot be contested that it is from Hermes that Hermetism takes its name. The Greek Hermes has in fact characteristics that correspond exactly to the sciences in question and that are strikingly expressed, for example, by his chief attribute, the Caduceus. No doubt there will be a further opportunity to examine its symbolism more…

If now we intend to define more rigorously the domain of what may be called the initiations through the crafts, we have to say that they belong to the “LESSER MYSTERIES”. referring as they do to the development of the possibilities which belong to the human state proper; this is riot the last aim of…

This brings us back directly to what was said at the outset about “the LANGUAGE of the birds,” which can also be called “angelic LANGUAGE” and which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic LANGUAGE, for the science of rhythm, which has many applications, is in fact ultimately the basis of all the means…

This, one sees, is very far from the so-called “INSPIRATION-, unconscious or subconscious in which modern people want to see the criterion of the real artist, who is nevertheless considered superior to the artisan or craftsman, according to -the more than contestable-distinction which they are in the habit of making. The artist or artisan, if…

It cannot be contested that it is from Hermes that Hermetism takes its name. The Greek Hermes has in fact characteristics that correspond exactly to the sciences in question and that are strikingly expressed, for example, by his chief attribute, the Caduceus. No doubt there will be a further opportunity to examine its symbolism more…