Spirited: Guenon does not describe James as a Luciferian but as an unconscious Satanist. This is an important distinction. The first position speaks of knowing submission to Lucifer while the second speaks of the unwitting submission by those who like James, no longer believe in the Christian view of total-reality, thus are blind to the unseen powers under whose influence they’ve fallen.
Guenon’s own view of reality is based in perennial philosophy and rather than explain his meaning from within that worldview I’ll explain it from within our own total view of reality.
Both evolutionary materialism (i.e.,Secular Humanism/ Atomism) and evolutionary Eastern pantheism (and occult New Age) posit a one-sided view of reality rather than Christianity’s total view of reality encompassing both physical matter and spirit.
Atomism’s one-sided view holds that void and physical matter in motion (the ‘sensory’ or empirical dimension) encompasses all of reality while Eastern pantheism’s one-sided view holds that void (psychic energy/ the unseen) is spirit (mind) and since this is reality then the physical world is Maya, or illusion.
These two one-dimensional cosmogonies have a materialist philosophy that Christians share. The principal doctrine of Christianity is that the living, personal One God in three Persons became flesh (i.e., physical matter) in Jesus Christ God incarnate. Jesus Christ is a Person and the ultimate aim of Christianity is not just the salvation of immortal souls (the unseen) but the resurrection of the material body (the seen) in incorruptibility.
Christian reality consists of two interconnected, interfacing halves, hence this earth (the seen/empirical/material dimension) is really a theater and men live out their lives on its stage being observed by other men (the seen) and by the living, personal God and Angels (the unseen).
Men cannot see God and very rarely do they see Angels but they can see and hear us. God tests our hearts, knows our secrets, motives, and thoughts (Psa. 17:3; 44:21; 139: 1-4) and both righteous Angels and malevolent fallen Angels and demons are all around us, watching, listening, helping if righteous, if not then leading men astray, inflating and enflaming passions, blinding and corrupting minds, teaching one-dimensional views of reality and other persuasive thoughts into the minds of men.
With this in mind we can understand why Guenon described James as an unconscious Satanist: James radical empiricism posits a one-sided view of reality that blinds him to the actual though unseen presence and influence of hostile beings.
It is also with this in mind that we can understand why God holds all 'teachers'---be they priests, ideologues, philosophers, prophets, scientists such as Dawkins and Sagan, etc.---to higher levels of accountability.
"Urged on by some of his friends and collaborators, Guénon agreed to establish a new Masonic lodge in France founded upon his 'Traditional' ideals, purified of what he saw as the inauthentic accretions which so bedeviled other lodges he had encountered during his early years in Paris. This lodge was called La Grande Triade ('The Great Triad'), a name inspired by the title of one of Guénon's books. ... [T]his lodge, belonging to the Grande Loge de France, remains active today.... René Guénon died on January 7, 1951; it is reported that his final word was 'Allah' ('God')."Admittedly, this is from Wikipedia; so if you take it with a grain of salt, I'll understand.
The entry denotes Guénon's primary "school" affiliation as "Advaita-Vedanta, Sufism, Nondualism, and Platonism"; and his Main Interests: as "Metaphysics, Esoterism, Initiation, Symbolism, Mythology, Gnosis, Religious texts, Freemasonry, Mathematics, History, Society, Social criticism, Comparative religion." In the category "Notable Ideas," we are referred to his "Critique of modernity from the perspective of ancient wisdom traditions; refounding of western esotericism based on the still living eastern ones."
As I was reading through, I was stunned to realize how very much Guénon seems to resemble my former "guru," Benjamin Creme of the Maitrieya/Arcane School/Hierarchy of Masters/One World Religion/Esoteric flummary business from which I made my own personal escape in 1985. (Thanks be to God!)
I could never vet this guy as a credible authoritative source on the life and work of William James.
Sorry. Maybe it's just me....