"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....
Isn’t this Guenon guy one of the inspirations of the anti-Semitic “New Right” in Europe? Didn’t he become a moslem of some kind?
Guenon freely admits he is of the perennial philosophy tradition. However, the purpose of his book, “The Spiritist Fallacy” is not to draw us into his tradition but to refute many central Spiritist (from spirits) ideas flooding the West such as reincarnation, spiritual evolutionism, communication with the dead, depictions of the afterlife, the plethora of psycho-technologies being advanced by New Age gurus and subtle but far more dangerous ideas.
In other words, Guenon is warning us away from what Western modernists such as William James and a bevy of Western theologians partook of and what you were caught up in.
Amazon’s review of The Spiritist Fallacy:
“The doctrinal expositions that accompany his astonishing account offer extraordinarily prescient insight into many deviations and ‘psychological’ afflictions of the modern mind, and will be as valuable to psychological practitioners and spiritual counselors as to historians of esoteric history. It also offers a profound corrective to the many brands of New Age ‘therapy’ that all too unwittingly invoke many of the same elements whose nefarious origins Guénon so clearly described many years ago.”
Though his book is not for everyone and must be read with discretion and discernment Guenon was trying to help us, not harm us.