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.

René Guénon had a lifelong preoccupation with Freemasonry. In his search for an operative initiatic path in the Western world, he explored many groups—occult, neo-Gnostic, Theosophical—claiming to be initiatory, ultimately rejecting them all, with the single exception of the Craft. His relation to Freemasonry, however, was far from simple; mostly before World War I, for example, he contributed articles to both Masonic and anti-Masonic publications, though he continued to review books on Masonry and refer to Masonic lore in his own works until the end of his life. Recognizing that the symbolism and ritual employed by Masonry was for the most part both traditional and esoteric, he labored to discover, define, or create a Freemasonic initiation that would be compatible with Catholic Christianity, as it supposedly was when the Masonic guilds designed and built the great cathedrals of Europe. However, the thick overgrowth of pseudo-esoterism obscuring that 'original' Freemasonry, not to mention the various rationalist, anti-clerical, illuminist, and even revolutionary strands to be found within the Masonic tradition, ultimately forced him to abandon his project. Nonetheless, this record of Guénon's struggle to come to terms with an initiatory lineage fallen on hard times is of real relevance to all now seeking a spiritual affiliation in the darkness prevailing in our time.

For this edition, the chapters and articles contained in the two volumes of the French original have been rearranged in accordance with their content, and book and article reviews have been selected with the anglophone reader in mind.

Guénon often 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 English editions substituted.

The translation is based on the work of Henry Fohr (edited by his son Samuel Fohr), Cecil Bethell, and Michael Allen. The text was checked for accuracy and further revised by Marie Hansen. A special debt of thanks is owed to Cecil Bethell, who revised and proofread the text at several stages and provided the index. Cover design by Michael Buchino and Gray Henry, based on a drawing of Sagittarius from the Denderah Zodiac ceiling, Upper Egypt, now in the Louvre, by Guénon's friend and collaborator Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.