Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (Collected Works of Rene Guenon) [Hardcover]

René Guénon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0900588179 | ISBN-13: 978-0900588174

Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles is a wide-ranging collection of articles that delve into traces of ancient, indeed protohistoric, traditions. Although they must remain fragments, as Guénon did not return to many of these themes, 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.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Sophia Perennis (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0900588179
• ISBN-13: 978-0900588174
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,420,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good premise and lost direction, April 7, 2004

By 

Craig Smith (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (Collected Works of Rene Guenon) (Paperback)

Instead of taking sides in the ongoing debate over the future of our society, this author points out some behavioral methods which have a commonality to all viewpoints in that they are beneficial approaches to any discipline. This is a very mature approach which is unfortunately diluted by his addiction to certain assumptions common to post-Renaissance liberalism in the industrial West, and thus to avoid contradictions he runs his logical ship aground in confusion. However, for the premise and deconstruction of social pretense toward polarized action alone this book is a magnificent introduction to a traditional and natural attribute of worldview: reverence.