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 meta-physics, 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 book grew out of a conference called by the chief editor of the prestigious journal Les Nouvelles Littèraires in 1924 to discuss Ferdinand Ossendowski's then recently published Beasts, Men and Gods. The spokesmen called upon to lead the discussion were the well-known sinologist René Grousset, the neo-Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain, and René Guénon, who was invited as an expert in Hinduism. Beasts, Men and Gods is a thrilling account of an escape through Central Asia, in which the author faces great hardships, meets and foils various enemies, and then comes into contact first with shamans, and then with Mongolian lamas, whose marvels he describes. The book caused a great sensation, especially the final chapters, in which Ossendowski recounts legends allegedly passed on to him concerning the 'King of the World' and of his subterranean kingdom of Agarttha. Three years after this conference, Guénon published the present text, in which he develops the theme of the King of the World from the point of view of traditional metaphysics.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.A translation of this work under the title The Lord of the World was published by Coombe Springs Press in 1983. The present translation is based on the work of Henry Fohr, edited by his son Samuel Fohr. The entire text was checked for accuracy and further revised by Marie Hansen. Editorial contributions were also made by John Champoux, John Ahmed Herlihy, William Quinn, and Mark Mancuso. 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 the Green Man, known to Islam as 'al-Khidr', by Guénon's friend and collaborator Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.

THE WORKS OF RENÉ GUÉNON Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (1921) Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion (1921) The Spiritist Fallacy (1923) East and West (1924) Man and His Becoming according to the Vedānta (1925) The Esoterism of Dante (1925) The Crisis of the Modern World (1927) The King of the World (1927) Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power (1929) The Symbolism of the Cross (1931) The Multiple States of the Being (1932) The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times (1945) Perspectives on Initiation (1946) The Great Triad (1946) The Metaphysical Principles of the Infinitesimal Calculus (1946)

Initiation and Spiritual Realization (1952)Insights into Christian Esoterism (1954)Symbols of Sacred Science (1962)Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage (1964)Studies in Hinduism (1966)Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles (1970)Insights into Islamic Esoterism and Taoism (1973)Reviews (1973)Miscellanea (1976)