Archive for May 2007
This review turned out to be an article and is posted in the articles section… Continue reading The Origins Of Old Germanic Studies In The Low Countries * Kees Dekker (1998 brill * isbn 9004110313)
Cambridge like the Dutch publisher Brill is one of these publishers publishing books by and for scholars. The books are usually extremely expensive, hard to get and only available via your library. Yet, sometimes interesting investigations come forth from the world of universities and it is worthwhile to try and locate such books (not too hard if you know your ways) and read them. Instead of just reviewing this book… Continue reading The Renaissance In National Context * Roy Porter and Mikulás Teich (editors) (1992 cambridge university press * isbn 0521361818)
This review of this book is more like a summery, an article, so please read it in the articles section… Continue reading De Kinderen van Hiram * Andries van den Abeele (1991 roularta books * isbn 9072411757)
There sight cannot go, speech cannot go, nor the mind. We cannot know, we cannot understand. How can one explain It? It is other than all that is known. It is above the Unknown.
(Kenu Upanishad 1.3 [26])… Continue reading Divine quote 10
For He cannot be known by hearing, nor made known by speech; nor can He be seen with bodily eyes, but with mind (’nous’) and heart alone.
(Corpus Hermeticum VII.2)… Continue reading Divine quote 9
“…He is unbegotten, having no beginning; for everyone who has a beginning has an end. Since no one rules over him, he has no name; for whoever has a name is the creation of another.” He is unnameable. He has no human form; for whoever has human form is the creation of another. “And he has a semblance of his own – not like what you have seen and received… Continue reading Divine quote 8
“In the beginning, my dear, this world was just nondual Being (sat). To be sure, some people say that in the beginning this world was just nondual non-Being (a-sat), and that Being arose from non-Being. But how could that be? How could Being be produced from non-Being? In the beginning this world must have been pure Being, one and without a second.”
(Chandogya Upanishad 6.2.1-2)… Continue reading Divine quote 7
“He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not… Continue reading Divine quote 6
There is but one Self for all beings, [one Power] that controls all, one Form that creates all forms.
(Katha Upanishad 5.12)… Continue reading Divine quote 5
You see, the All had been inside of him, that illimitable, inconceivable one, who is better than every thought.
(Gospel of Thruth, NHC I.3)… Continue reading Divine quote 4
It is the hearing of the ear, the thought of the thinking faculty, the spoken word of speech, as also the breathing of breath and the sight of the eye.
(Kena Upanishad 1.2)… Continue reading Divine quote 3
It was Time’s morning, When there nothing was; Nor sand, nor sea, Nor cooling billows. Earth there was not, Nor heaven above. The Ginungagap was, But grass nowhere.
(Völuspa 3 (poetic Edda))… Continue reading Divine quote 2
He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.
(Qor’an 57:3/4)… Continue reading Divine quote 1
la crise du monde moderne 1927
This is not only Guénon’s most famous book, but also the first one that you have to read of him. It is only 116 pages, it is written (especially in the first half) very clearly without too much of his extensive sidepaths and descriptions (he does fall back on this a bit in the second half though). The book is clear of structure, gives the… Continue reading The Crisis Of The Modern World * René Guénon (2004 sophia perennis * isbn 0900588241)
rivolta contra il mondo moderno * 1934
In 2002 I wrote an article about Julius Evola (1898-1974). I hadn’t read much of the man, nor did I know much about his background. It was a request, what can I say? Now that I have delved more into ”Traditionalism” I thought it was time to read one of the classics of this genre. “[...] my intend was to offer a bird’s-eye… Continue reading Revolt Against The Modern World * Julius Evola (1995 inner traditions * isbn 089281506X)
symboles fondamentaux de la science sacrée 1961
This is a book that was published post-mortem, containing 75 articles in four different periodicals between the years 1926 and 1950. I ran into this book on the internet when I was writing an article and because yet another ‘Traditionalist clue’ came to me, an interest to deep into this current deeper was awoken within me. This book by Guénon is no easy… Continue reading Symbols Of Sacred Science * René Guénon (sophia perennis 2004 * isbn 0900588772)
aperçus sur l’initiation 1946
In 48 short chapters, Guénon writes about (almost) every imaginable aspect of initiation. This book is very ‘Traditionalistic’ and Guénon keeps stressing the ‘authenticity’ or ‘regularity’ of initiatic movements. In the West he recognises only two: Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage (articles about both can be found in the articles-section). He is extremely strict about the ‘unbroken link’ since time immemorial and the fact that initiation is… Continue reading Perspectives On Initiation * René Guénon (2004 sophia perennis * isbn 0900588322)
la règne de la quantité et les signe des temps 1945
Guénon wrote a lot of books about a lot of subjects. The recently reviewed Symbols Of Sacred Science is regarded Guénon’s primary book about symbolism, The Reign Of Quantity is regarded his primary metaphysical book. Indeed, the first part of the book is very and very literary meta-physical, but the title of the book has two parts. The book… Continue reading The Reign Of Quantity & The Sign Of Times * René Guénon (sophia perennis 2004 * isbn 0900588675)
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) (not to be mistaken with his almost equally famous son Rama Poonambalam Coomaraswamy (1929-) was a contemporary of René Guénon and ‘fellow-Traditionalist’. He was the son of a Sri Lankan father and a British mother, born in Sri Lanka, but raise in the United Kingdom and was in person and ‘philosophically’ a bridge between the East and the West. Like I said, he was a Traditionalist… Continue reading The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (2003 world wisdom * isbn 094153246)
la tradizione ermetica 1931/1971
Five years ago I was asked to write an article about Julius Evola. Because of the music that I listen to, I was aware of ‘new right’ thinkers (but never read them), including Evola. I did some investigation and Evola became my first acquintance with Traditionalism. I didn’t quite grasp the implications of this way of thinking it seems when I look back to my review… Continue reading The Hermetic Tradition * Julius Evola (inner traditions 1995 * isbn 0892814519)
