Renรฉ Guรฉnon: "Gathering what is scattered"

On November 15, 1886, the esotericist Renรฉ Guรฉnon was born in Blois, France. As a tribute to him, we propose the reading of an excerpt from his work, published posthumously, "Symbols of Sacred Science", which deals with the theme of the primordial fragmentation of the Universal Man (Purusha, Prajฤpati, Osiris, Adam Qadmon) and of its final reintegration into its original state.

On the traditional conception of figurative art and its sacral function

As stated by historians of religions such as Coomaraswamy, Zimmer, Eliade and by esotericists such as Guรฉnon and Evola, in traditional societies every profane art or science is always accompanied by a "sacred science", which had "an organic-qualitative character and considering the nature as a whole, in a hierarchy of degrees of reality and forms of experience, of which forms the one linked to the physical senses is only a particular ยป. Examples of this conception of art can be found in the bas-reliefs of Hindu times, but also in the rock representations dating back to the Cromagnon era.