EDITORIAL NOTE

The past century has witnessed an erosion of earlier cultural values as well as a blurring of the distinctive characteristics of the world's traditional civilizations, giving rise to philosophic and moral relativism, multiculturalism, and dangerous fundamentalist reactions. As early as the 1920s, the French metaphysician René Guénon (1886–1951) had diagnosed these tendencies and presented what he believed to be the only possible reconciliation of the legitimate, although apparently conflicting, demands of outward religious forms, ‘exoterisms’, with their essential core, ‘esoterism’. His works are characterized by a foundational critique of the modern world coupled with a call for intellectual reform; a renewed examination of metaphysics, the traditional sciences, and symbolism, with special reference to the ultimate unanimity of all spiritual traditions; and finally, a call to the work of spiritual realization. Despite their wide influence, translation of Guénon’s works into English has so far been piecemeal. The _Sophia Perennis_ edition is intended to fill the urgent need to present them in a more authoritative and systematic form. A complete list of Guénon’s works, given in the order of their original publication in French, follows this note.

The present volume, first published at the close of World War II, is based on a series of articles on initiation originally written between 1932 and 1938 for _Le Voile d’Isis_ (later renamed _Études Traditionnelles_). Initiation is presented as essentially the transmission, by the appropriate rites of a given tradition, of a ‘spiritual influence’. This transmission is, precisely, the ‘beginning’ (_initium_) of the spiritual journey, and is indispensable for the one who wishes to embark on a spiritual way. The work is unique in giving a comprehensive account both of the conditions of initiation and of the characteristics of organizations qualified to transmit it, and has led to some controversy regarding the distinction it draws between the initiati and the mystical paths, which some believe to be one and the same. Related articles were later published (1952) in the posthumous collection _Initiation and Spiritual Realization_.

Guénon frequently uses words or expressions set off in ‘scare quotes’. To avoid clutter, single quotation marks have been used throughout. As for transliterations, Guénon was more concerned with phonetic fidelity than academic usage. The system adopted here reflects the views of scholars familiar both with the languages and Guénon’s writings. Brackets indicate editorial insertions, or, within citations, Guénon’s additions. Wherever possible, references have been updated, and current English editions substituted.

The present translation is based on the work of Henry Fohr, edited by his son Samuel Fohr. The text was checked for accuracy and further revised by Patrick Moore and Marie Hansen. For help with selected chapters and proofreading thanks go to John Riess and John Champoux, and, for final reviews, to Brian Latham and John Herlihy. A special debt of thanks goes to Cecil Bethell, who revised and proofread the text at several stages and provided the index.