Symbols of Sacred Science

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. The articles that comprise Symbols of the Sacred Science appeared in a number of French journals and were only collected after the author's death. Here René Guénon, a master of precise, even "mathematical" metaphysical exposition, reveals himself as a consummate exegete also of myth and symbolism. This extraordinary text unveils the cosmological meanings of root symbols organized under such general headings as: The Center of the World, Cyclic Manifestation, Symbolic Weapons, Axial Symbolism and the Symbolism of Passage, The Symbolism of Building, and The Symbolism of the Heart. In this sense, it constitutes a kind of "bibliography" of books Guénon found neither time nor pressing call to write-for nearly every article is so pregnant with meaning that it could have been expanded into an independent work. But the same thread of symbolic exegesis woven here into so rich a tapestry does also run through many of Guénon's other works, including Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles, The King of the World, and The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times. Far more than a simple catalogue of myths and symbols from many traditions, Symbols of Sacred Science lays the foundation for a universal esoteric symbology. In this work, Guénon demonstrates the fundamental unity-across all cultures and ages-of the images with which the Absolute clothes itself in its cosmic self-revelation.