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.

Many readers of Guénon's doctrinal works have hoped for translations of his detailed exposés of Theosophy and Spiritism. _Sophia Perennis_ is pleased to make available both these important titles as part of the _Collected Works of René Guénon_. Whereas _Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion_ centers primarily on historical details, _The Spiritist Fallacy_, though also packed with arcane facts, is unique in revealing how one of the greatest metaphysicians of our age interprets the phenomena, real or alleged, of Spiritism. The doctrinal expositions that accompany his astonishing account of Spiritism offer extraordinarily prescient insight into many deviations and 'psychological' afflictions of the modern mind, and should be as valuable to psychiatrists and spiritual counselors as to students of esoteric history. And 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 pointed out many years ago.

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 benefited from the work of two men with extensive experience both translating and interpreting Guénon's writings: Dr. Rama P. Coomaraswamy and Alvin Moore, Jr. Dr. Coomaraswamy, as both priest and psychiatrist, specifically hoped that those whose task it is to deal with maladies of the soul, and their societal concomitants, might benefit especially from the insights Guénon here provides into a region too little exposed to clear metaphysical scrutiny. Careful revisions of the entire text were made by Marie Hansen and James Wetmore. For further assistance with selected chapters and proofreading thanks are owed to Jocelyn Godwin, John Ahmed Herlihy, Jay Kinney, John Champoux, and Cecil Bethell. Cover design by Michael Buchino and Gray Henry, based on a drawing of an early Greek decorative motif, by Guénon's friend and collaborator Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.