Independent twentieth-century magic
René Guénon
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyā
The founder of the Traditionalist or Perennialist school, and the most severe critic modern occultism has produced from inside it.
- Dates
- 1886 – 1951
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Blois, France
- Died
- Cairo
The life
He investigated occult, Masonic and esoteric groups in his youth and became an increasingly hostile critic of occultism, Spiritualism and Theosophy. He moved permanently to Cairo in 1930, lived as a Muslim under the name ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyā, and died there.
Place in the tradition
He held that authentic civilisations descend from a transcendent metaphysical tradition, while the modern world reverses that order. His influence reaches far beyond ceremonial occultism.
a note on the record
History and later legend
He belongs in this chronology as its most articulate opponent as much as as a participant. Two of the books below are attacks on movements listed elsewhere in it.
the written record
Principal works
-
1921
Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines
Establishes his distinction between traditional metaphysics and modern Western philosophy.
-
1921
Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion
A hostile critique of Blavatskian Theosophy.
-
1923
The Spiritist Fallacy
Critiques Spiritualism and mediumistic explanations of the dead.
-
1925
The Esoterism of Dante
Interprets Dante through initiatory and symbolic traditions.
-
1927
The King of the World
Traditions of a hidden supreme spiritual centre.
-
1927
The Crisis of the Modern World
Diagnoses modern civilisation as spiritually inverted and cut off from traditional principles.
-
1931
The Symbolism of the Cross
Uses the cross as a metaphysical symbol of multiple states of being.
-
1932
The Multiple States of Being
One of his most rigorous metaphysical works.
-
1945
The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times
His great critique of modern materialism and the reduction of quality to quantity.