I've been reading some Guénon lately and I don't exactly understand the role of initiation. Does he think we're supposed to go to India or the Middle East to find a spiritual teacher who can initiate us into esotericism? And he clearly thinks this is not to be found in West and that enlightenment is not to he found by reading his books.
>>25126493>I've been reading some Guénon lately and I don't exactly understand the role of initiation.According to René Guénon (pbuh), the absence of connection to a living initiatic tradition constitutes a profound limitation upon the human capacity to participate in the metaphysical order in its full integrity. Initiation is not merely a symbolic or intellectual affiliation but a genuine transmission of principles whose efficacy operates on levels inaccessible to unaided reason or personal effort alone. One who is cut off from such a lineage is thereby deprived of the formal means by which the human consciousness can be aligned with the supra-individual and supra-temporal realities that underlie the manifested cosmos. In Guénon’s (pbuh) view, this absence restricts the individual not only in the actualization of higher states of being during life but also in the assured progression through the hierarchically ordered post-mortem stages of subtle existence, for these stages presuppose the operative presence of initiatic guidance and the sacramental efficacies it conveys. The spiritual ascent of such a person remains contingent, erratic, and liable to deviations that render the full realization of metaphysical truths uncertain or altogether inaccessible.Nonetheless, Guénon (pbuh) acknowledges that the innate principles of traditional wisdom are not entirely annihilated for those outside a living initiation. Certain rudimentary or “preparatory” realizations, corresponding to the more general harmonization of the human faculties with universal order, may be attained through authentic intellectual comprehension, rigorous contemplative discipline, or natural predisposition. These attainments, however, do not reach the apex of metaphysical hierarchy, which is strictly reserved for those integrated into the continuity of initiatic transmission. Sublime heights may thus exist outside formal initiation, but they are exceptional, sporadic, and precarious, lacking the definitive guarantee of verifiable transformation. For Guénon (pbuh), only through the confluence of proper initiation and adherence to the unbroken metaphysical principles can one traverse the full spectrum of spiritual states, culminating in the realization of the immutable and supra-cosmic realities that constitute the ultimate purpose of human existence.>Does he think we're supposed to go to India or the Middle East to find a spiritual teacher who can initiate usThat's one option, but Sufi orders and Vajrayana orders are present in the west now you can be initiated that way. Hindu tantra can also sometimes be found in the west but to a much smaller degree. You can travel to the middle east or asia and learn the language and study under them for a deeper immersive experience, but it's possible to at least develop a connection to the tradition and a daily spiritual practice while still in the west.
>>25126493Why the long face?
>>25126493Guénon's view on initiation is shaped by his freemasonry background where initiation is tied to a ritual made only for a select group of people. At the end of his life he realized that even sufis are found in masses in muslim countries so he tried to cope by saying that all initiation comes first in a virtual way. You shouldn't trust him on this concept without further investigation, in fact some of the people influenced by him such as Schuon and Borella reject his opinion that Christianity is no longer initiatic. In pic related Borella says how christian baptism can go from a virtual initiation to an actualized initiation without the need of a dufferent rite, he bases this on Symeon the New Theologian which was an eastern mystic which alongside Palamas, defines the Orthodox Christian spiritual path.
>>25126867sorry, this was meant to be pic related, from Borella's Christ the Original Mystery
