DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction 1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Notes Introduction 1. Le paradoxe du monothéisme, Paris, L’Herne,1992. 2. “This contact between the Divine and the human is, by reason of its elu- siveness, a mystery, and even the mystery par excellence, for we touch God ‘everywhere and nowhere,’ as Pascal would say. God is quite close to us, infinitely close, but we are far from Him; He is incarnate in a given symbol, but we risk grasping only the husk, retaining only the shadow. Idolatry, which divinizes the shadow as such, and atheism, which denies God by reason of His intangibility—but it is we who are ‘absent,’ not God—reduce to absurdity the two aspects of symbolism: identity, which is unitive, and analogy, which is separative, but parallel.” Frithjof Schuon, Stations of Wisdom, Bloomington: World Wisdom, 1995, p.70. 3. “‘Mediation’ [. .] is always achieved by introducing a third category which is ‘abnormal’ or ‘anomalous’ in terms of ordinary ‘rational’ cate- gories. Thus myths are full of fabulous monsters, incarnate gods, virgin mothers. This middle ground is abnormal, non-natural, holy.” Edmund Leach, “Genesis as Myth,” Discovery, 23, 30–35, May 1962. 4. Translated by W.F. Trotter, “Car enfin qu’est-ce que l’homme dans la nature? Un néant à l’égard de l’infini, un tout à l’égard du néant, un milieu entre rien et tout.” Pensées, II: Misère de l’homme sans Dieu, 72. Translated by W.F. Trotter. “L’homme n’est ni ange ni bête, et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l’ange fait la bête.” Pensées, VI: Les philosophes, 358. Dover Publications, 2003. 5. Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, by John Fire/Lame Deer and Richard Erdoies, New York: Touchstone, 1972, p.79. 6. “This book contains many facts that Indians, until recently, had avoided divulging because they thought, with reason, that these things are too sacred to be communicated to just anybody; nowadays, the few old sages who still live among them say that as the end of the cycle is approaching, when men have become everywhere incapable of under- standing and above all of realizing the truths that were revealed to them in the origin—together with the consequence of disorder and chaos in all domains—it is allowed and even preferable to bring this knowledge into full light; for truth defends itself against profanation by its own nature, and it is possible that thus it may reach those who are qualified 230 Notes to penetrate it deeply and capable, thanks to it, to strengthen the bridge that must be built to lead out of this dark age.” Translation of Frithjof Schuon’s “Avant-propos,” in Héhaka Sapa, Les rites secrets des indiens sioux, collected and annotated by Joseph Epes Brown, translated by Frithjof Schuon and René Allar, Paris: Payot, 1975, p.5. 7. Barry Holstun Lopez, Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter: Coyote Builds North America, New York: Perennial, 1990. 1 MÂYÂ and the Divine Treasure 1. This “before” is to be interpreted as a symbol of metaphysical primacy, and not of chronological anteriority. 2. Cf. Henry Corbin, Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabî, translated by Ralph Manheim, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. The Greek term kenôsis (“empty- ing”) refers to the theological commentary of Phil. 2:6–8: “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But emptied [ekenosen] himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as man.” It primarily symbol- izes the “ontological humiliation,” lowering, or emptying, of God tak- ing flesh for the Redemption of mankind. But it may be more generally applied, in mystical theology, to God’s “letting be” of His exclusive Reality for the sake of the “being” of other-than-Himself. In the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria, the Infinite contracts (tsimtsum) and with- draws to allow the Creation to be. It is from this “withdrawal” that evil springs forth through the qelippot (literally “shells,” singular qelippa) in which the divine Light becomes entrapped after the breaking of the divine vases from which manifestation emanates. 3. This notion, as also the concept of “subject–object consciousness,” was forged by Franklin Merrell-Wolff in his Pathways through to Space, New York: Julian Press, 1973. 4. Swami Prabhavananda, Spiritual Heritage of India, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1977, p.43. 5. Ibid., p.288. 6. Cf. Pathways through to Space, New York, 1973, pp.148–150. 7. Brahmasutrabhâsya, II, 1, 33, translated by George Thibaut, Oxford, 1890. 8. Holy Laughter, edited by M. Conrad Hyers, New York: Seabury Press, 1969, pp.24–25. 9. Cf. Titus Burckhardt, Introduction to Sufism, San Francisco, 1995, pp.65–66. 10. “The idea of mâyâ, the world as the magical display of the gods, describes a world that is enchanting, topsy-turvy, and ephemeral. The world born of mâyâ is at once a stage created by the gods upon which they may strut, a toy for their amusement, and a mirage through and Notes 231 by which they may dazzle. As a by-product of divine display, the world as the play of the gods or the magic of the gods is a fleeting, albeit dazzling, creation that lacks ultimate reality.” David R. Kinsley, “Creation as Play in Hindu Spirituality,” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 4.2, 1974/5, p.113. 11. Eknath Easwaran, “Three in One: Spirit, Matter, and Mâyâ,” Parabola Magazine, 14.4, 1989, p.27. 12. “L’homme de l’Occident est un homme essentiellement tragique parce que la négativité est chez lui originaire et non dérivée. Sa croyance à la réalité de l’ego nous paraît expliquer ce par quoi il se distingue fonda- mentalement de l’homme asiatique traditionnel.” Georges Vallin, “Le Tragique de l’Occident à la lumière du non-dualisme asiatique,” Revue philosophique de la France et de l’étranger, 165, 1975, p.280. [“Western man is essentially tragic because, with him, negativity is original and not derivative. We think that his belief in the reality of the ego is the explicatory principle of his fundamental difference from the traditional mankind of Asia.”] 2Ambiguity of the Demiurge 1. Frithjof Schuon, Logic and Transcendence, London, 1975, p.152. 2. Ibid., p.154. 3. The Infinite is faceless because it transcends and encompasses all faces: “And Allâh’s is the East and the West, therefore, whither you turn, thither is Allâh’s face; surely Allah is Amplegiving, Knowing” (Qur’ân 2:115). 4. Frithjof Schuon, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, Bloomington: World Wisdom, 1986, p.23. 5. “To the extent that the God of Genesis is all-powerful in His creation, matter is a passive substrate; to the extent, however, that He is not responsible for evil in the world, matter is a factor of recalcitrance, though its role is reduced to a minimum and it shares the function of recalcitrance with human souls, which can turn in their freedom of choice to corruption.” Gretchen Reydams-Schils, Demiurge and Providence, Stoic and Platonist Readings of Plato’s Timaeus, Turnhout, Brepols 1999, p.150. 6. [houtô dê pan hoson ên horaton paralabôn ouch hêsuchian agon alla kinoumenon plêmmelôs kai ataktôs, eis taxin auto êgagen ek tês ataxias, hêgêsamenos ekeino toutou pantôs ameinon]. Cf. The Perseus Digital Library, Gregory Crane, Editor-In-Chief, Tufts University, www. perseus.tufts.edu. Text based on the following books: Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 4 translated by Harold North Fowler. Cambridge, MA; London, 1977. Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 7 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA; London, 1966. Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 8 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA; London, 1955. Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 232 Notes translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925. 7. [agathos ên, agathôi de oudeis peri oudenos oudepote engignetai phthonos: toutou d’ ektos ôn panta hoti malista eboulêthê genesthai paraplêsia heautôi]. 8. Purusha and Prakrti refer strictly speaking to the level of Being, thereby transcending the realm of the Demiurge, but what happens “above” is analogous to what happens “below.” Moreover, as the Demiurge can sometimes be understood in the widest sense as a dimension of Being itself. 9. “The Demiurge is no separate power or Independent Divinity, but merely a part or faculty of the World Soul, his apparent independence being due solely to the mythical form of the exposition.” Ibid., p.10. 10. “In [. .] the demiurgic Shiva of the Trimûrti [. .] it is not always easy to make a clear separation between principial necessity and demo- niacal initiative; or between the wrath of Heaven and this or that malefic caprice of the samsâra.” Frithjof Schuon, Having a Center, Bloomington, World Wisdom, 1990, p.67. 11. The black and white checkered textile that is the emblem of Shiva in Bali, the uses of which stem from devotion to magic, is a direct expression of this ambiguity. 12. Another passage of the Qur’ân states: “Remember how the unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, or get thee out (of thy home). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah” (8:30). 13. Cf. René Guénon, “Le Démiurge,” Mélanges, Paris, Gallimard, 1976, p.13. 14. Ibid., p.25. 15. Moreover, the King James version illustrates the two aspects of the matter by specifying “for thy sake” and “to thee,” thereby indicating that the “malefic” aspect of nature is not primordial but postlapsarian in origin. 16. Robert Ambelain, La Notion gnostique du Démiurge, Paris, Adyar 1959, pp.102–103.
Recommended publications
  • Book Review by Harry Oldmeadow of "Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of The

    Book Review by Harry Oldmeadow of "Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of The

    Book Review Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy by Michael Oren Fitzgerald (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2010). Review by Harry Oldmeadow Source: Crossing Religious Frontiers (Studies in Comparative Religion series), edited by Harry Oldmeadow (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2010) © World Wisdom, Inc. www.studiesincomparativereligion.com An issue of Studies in Comparative Religion dedicated to the theme “Crossing Religious Frontiers” could hardly find a more apposite subject than the life and work of Frithjof Schuon. Indeed, two of Schuon’s essays feature in this very issue. His work first appeared in the Anglophone world with the publication in 1953 of The Transcendent Unity of Religions, a book which articulated the metaphysical basis of the inner or essential unity of the world’s great religious traditions. This remarkable work was followed, over the next half-century, by more than thirty books in which Schuon provided a peerless exegesis of immutable metaphysical and cosmological principles, and an explication of their applications and ramifications in the boundless world of Tradition. These works, written in crystalline prose, stand as a beacon for those lost in the spiritual wastelands of modernity. Many years ago, in introducing one of Schuon’s books, Seyyed Hossein Nasr wrote: “His authoritative tone, clarity of expression, and an ‘alchemy’ which transmutes human language to enable it to present the profoundest truths, make of it a unique expression of the sophia perennis”.1 Quite so. Now we have to hand a biography of this frontier-crosser extraordinaire. For many readers of this journal, Schuon—metaphysician, poet, artist, spiritual master— requires no introduction.
  • The Religions of the Native Americans [REL 3573.29212] | Spring 2021 Matthew J

    The Religions of the Native Americans [REL 3573.29212] | Spring 2021 Matthew J

    The Religions of the Native Americans [REL 3573.29212] | Spring 2021 Matthew J. Pereira, PhD. Petroglyphs on Sky Rock Milky Way, Bishop, CA. Cell Phone: (310) 483–0862 Email: [email protected] Days and Time: M, W, F 3:30 – 4:15 pm Location: Wellness Center 102 Office Hours: T 2:00–3:30 pm | TH 10:00–11:30 am, or by appointment Course Description: In this upper-level survey course on religions and spiritualities of the Native Americans, we will practice the central disciplines in the field of Religious Studies, including the interrelated practices of: listening, reading, analyzing, reflecting and discussing a diverse range of interrelated topics placed in dialogue with varied perspectives from both practitioners and scholars (and scholars-practitioners) of Native American religions and spiritualities. The course begins with an introduction to current approaches and issues related to the study of Native American religions and spiritualities, followed by an historical outline and concludes with reflections on theoretical and methodological issues including the question of representation. Rather than arguing for a normative, central or dominant account of the religions and spiritualities of the Native Americans, we will seek to develop a balanced approach that seeks a deeper appreciation of the interconnectedness and diversity across the religions and spiritualities of the Native Americans. Committed to an integrative assessment of the intersections between the religions of Native Americans in dialogue with historical and contemporary challenges, we will employ approaches and interpretive frameworks from within the fields of historical studies, law and jurisprudence, ecology, sciences, archeology, gender studies, post-colonial studies, theoretical perspectives and religious studies.
  • Use of Native American Oral Tradition in Environmental Education

    Use of Native American Oral Tradition in Environmental Education

    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1988 Use of Native American oral tradition in environmental education Clayton T. Russell The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Russell, Clayton T., "Use of Native American oral tradition in environmental education" (1988). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 7905. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/7905 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 Th is is an unpublished manuscript in which copyright SUBSISTS. A ny further r e p r in t in g of it s contents must be APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR. MANSFIELD L ibrary Uun n iv iv e e r r s it y of MMONTontana Date ; 1 9 8 8 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. USE OF NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL TRADITION IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION by Clayton I. Russell B.S., Western Illinois University, 1978 M.A., Ball State University, 1983 Presented in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Studies University of Montana 1988 Approved by: lairman, B&ard of Examiners Dean, Graduate School Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
  • A Critical Examination of Ibn-Sina's Theory of the Conditional Syllogism

    A Critical Examination of Ibn-Sina's Theory of the Conditional Syllogism

    Sophia Perennis Vol. 1, Number 1, 2009 Iranian Institute of Philosophy Tehran/Iran A Critical Examination of Ibn-Sina’s Theory of the Conditional Syllogism Zia Movahed Professor at Iranian Institute of Philosophy Abstract: This paper will examine Ibn Sina’s theory of the Conditional Syllogism from a purely logical point of view, and will lay bare the principles he adopted for founding his theory, and the reason why the newly introduced part of his logic remained undeveloped and eventually was removed from the texts of logic in the later Islamic tradition. As a preliminary discussion, this paper briefly examines Ibn Sina's methodology and gives a short summary of the relevant principles of Aristotelian logic, before delving into the analysis of Ibn Sina's treatment of the conditional, which is the heart of the paper. This analysis explains Ibn Sina's theory of conditionals in systematic stages, explaining his motivation at each step and showing the weaknesses in his argument using the tools of modern symbolic logic. The paper concludes by mentioning a few of Ibn Sina's remarkable insights regarding conditionals. Key terms: Conditional Syllogism, Ibn Sina, Aristotelian Logic. Introduction After the publication of Ibn-Sina’s al-Shifa: al-Qiyas, edited by S. Zayed, Cairo, 1964, where Ibn-Sina presented most extensively his theory of the Number 1, Winter 2009 5 A Critical Examination of Ibn-Sina’s Theory conditional syllogism and, later on, the publication of Nabil Shehaby’s translaon of it into English in 19731 I think we have all we should have in hand to evaluate Ibn-Sina’s theory as it is, a theory Ibn-Sina regards as his important contribution to Aristotelian logic and as a new form of argument “unknown until now, which I myself discovered”2 (my translation).
  • Review of the Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G

    Review of the Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G

    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1986 Review of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie Paul Olson University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Olson, Paul, "Review of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie" (1986). Great Plains Quarterly. 899. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/899 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. BOOK REVIEWS The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings to destroy a nation but that Black Elk was Given to John G. Neihardt. Ed. By Raymond unable to bring himself to use it. I assume that J. DeMallie. Lincoln: University of Nebras­ Neihardt left out the detail because he did not ka Press, 1984. Photographs, appendices, wish to emphasize the destructive powers bibliography, index, notes. xxix + 425 pp. available to the pipe religion. Since the ethno­ botanical details of the plant are clearly given, When John Neihardt finished Black Elk we sould be able to identify it and discover Speaks, he put on deposit in the University of why the plant was assigned such power. The Missouri library the rough English expansion presence of a detail which can be inferred from of the shorthand from which he worked and the structure of Black Elk Speaks suggests both the shorthand transcript of Ben Black Elk's the systematic qualities of Black Elk's vision translation of his father's life story.
  • "The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork" Re-Awakening a Religious Sense of the Natural Order

    "The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork" Re-Awakening a Religious Sense of the Natural Order

    1 "The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork" Re-awakening a Religious Sense of the Natural Order Harry Oldmeadow Thou art the fire, Thou art the sun, Thou art the air, Thou art the moon, Thou art the starry firmament, Thou art Brahman Supreme: Thou art the waters, The creator of all! Thou art woman, thou art man, Thou art the youth, thou art the maiden, thou art the old man tottering with his staff; Thou facest everywhere. Thou art the dark butterfly, thou art the green parrot with red eyes, Thou art the thunder cloud, the seasons, the seas. Without beginning art thou, beyond time, beyond space. Thou art he from whom sprang the three worlds. The Upanishads 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Psalms 2 Crazy Horse dreamed and went out into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world. Black Elk 3 For the sage each flower is metaphysically a proof of the Infinite. Frithjof Schuon 4 The modern mentality characteristically looks for solutions to our most urgent problems in the wrong places; more often than not the proposed remedies aggravate the malady. Various responses to the so-called environmental crisis are of this type. Hardly anyone is now foolish enough to deny that there is something fundamentally wrong with our way of "being in the world". The evidence is too overwhelming for even the most sanguine apostles of "Progress" to ignore.
  • Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism

    Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism

    Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism Samuel Bendeck Sotillos “It is the one truth, which jnānins call by return all together, and He will inform different names.” you of that wherein you differ… Rigveda 1:164:46 Qur'ān 5:481 For each among you We have appointed The many faces of xenophobia a [different] law and a way. And had God threaten not only the national secu- willed, He would have made you one community, but [He willed otherwise], 1 See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner K. Dagli, Ma- that He might try you in that which He ria Massi Dakake, Joseph E.B. Lumbard and Mohammed Rustom (eds.), The Study Quran: has given you. So vie with one another A New Translation and Commentary (New in good deeds. Unto God shall be your York, NY: HarperCollins, 2015). 121 rity of a particular country, state or “Who am I?”—like religion itself, is region, but the stability of the entire reduced to socially constructed phe- world and fundamentally undermine nomena devoid of any transcend- the possibility of enduring peace for ent criteria. For some the mention all people. The rise of xenophobia, of religion itself provokes a nega- analogous to the violence and chaos that have become normalized today present-day and how estranged we are a symptom or a projection of the havetive reaction, become whichfrom religionis a reflection and the of imbalance and lack of peace found transcendent norms that were as- within the contemporary psyche. sociated with it that inform what it Given that very little positive news is means to be integrally human.
  • THE DECADENCE of the SHAMANS Shamanism As a Key to the Secrets of Communism

    THE DECADENCE of the SHAMANS Shamanism As a Key to the Secrets of Communism

    THE DECADENCE OF THE SHAMANS shamanism as a key to the secrets of communism ALANCOBEN This text was originally written for an academic conference held in Helsinki in May 1990: the International Association for the History of Religion regional conference on northern and circumpolar religions. But it is not written exclusively for an academic audience. On the contrary. Those who were most interested in the text at this conference were precisely those who, for one reason or another, find themselves on the margins of mainstream university thinking. This was no surprise. The text is written essentially for those who, in the manner of the shamans themselves, 'walk between the worlds' - for those who question the assumption that the present social order has completed the mapping of reality; those who may have had fleeting glimpses of other realities, but who are dissatisfied with or downright hostile to the wooly speculations of New Age philosophies; those who have understood that the revolution of tomorrow will create a new poetry; those who seek a convergence of hidden truths. I can only hope that this essay will provide such explorers with a starting point, a framework for discussion. And I hope that they will not leave me out of their debates: I can be contacted care of 234 Camden High Street, London NW1 805, UK. THE DECADENCE OF THE SHAMANS Thefirst men were much more fortunlJle than we are. Their camps were very close to the great silver birch which stands at the very centre of the universe and holds up the sky; whose roots lead down to all the Judls of the underworld and whose branches stretch up to all the seven heavens.
  • Joseph Epes Brown, the Spiritual Legacy of the American Indians, Bloomington

    Joseph Epes Brown, the Spiritual Legacy of the American Indians, Bloomington

    1 The Matheson Trust Book Review Joseph Epes Brown, The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indians Commemorative Edition, ed. Elenita Brown, Marina Brown Weatherly & Michael Fitzgerald, Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2007. Reviewed by Harry Oldmeadow, published in Sophia (Washington DC) 2007 In The Reign of Quantity (1945) René Guénon observes that it is only in these latter days, marked by the ever-accelerating „solidification‟ of the world, that „Cain finally and really slays Abel‟ (1995 edition, 178)—which is to say that the sedentary civilisations destroy the nomadic cultures. Moreover, as Guénon remarks, It could be said in a general way that the works of sedentary peoples are works of time: these people are fixed in space within a strictly limited domain, and develop their activities in a temporal continuity which appears to them to be indefinite. On the other hand, nomadic and pastoral peoples build nothing durable, and do not work for a future which escapes them; but they have space in front of them, not facing them with any limitation, but on the contrary always offering them new possibilities. (RQ,180) No doubt it was with these considerations in mind that Frithjof Schuon remarked that „traditions having a prehistoric origin are, symbolically speaking, made for “space” and not for “time”…‟ (Light on the Ancient Worlds, 1966, 14). It follows from these general observations that the slaying of Abel—the violent extirpation of the primordial nomadic cultures—not only constitutes a drastic contraction of human possibilities but is actually
  • The Eliatic Function in the Islamic Tradition: Khiąr and the Mahdì

    The Eliatic Function in the Islamic Tradition: Khiąr and the Mahdì

    The Eliatic Function in the Islamic Tradition: Khi ąr and the Mahdì1 Zachary Markwith * “Peace be upon Elias.” Thus indeed do We recompense the virtuous… (Salåmun ‘alå ’Ilyåsìn. ’Innå kadhålika najzil-mu ĕsinìn) (Quran 37:130-131) 2 Abstract: The present article is an in depth examination of the role of Khi ąr and the Mahdì in the Islamic tradition, focusing on their significance as spiritual guides, transmitters of sacred knowledge and on their importance in the preparation for the end of time. The author uses the concept of the 'Eliatic function' presented by Leo Schaya as a guiding principle for this study, and begins the article with an explanation of this concept. On the basis of this, he then discusses the traditional Islamic understanding firstly of Khiąr and then of the Mahdì. Throughout the analysis the author presents quotations from the Qur'an and Hadith along with the interpretations of classical and contemporary commentators, focusing in particular on Shi'ism and Sufism. * Doctoral Student in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 98 Sophia Perennis, Number 4, Autumn 2009 Key Terms: Khi ąr, the Mahdì, the Eliatic function , Leo Schaya , hidden men (rijål al-ghayb ), Islamic esoterism Introduction This essay takes as its starting point Leo Schaya’s seminal article “The Eliatic Function,” 3 where the author sheds light on the esoteric and universal function of Elijah or Elias (’Ilyås in Arabic), 4 mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, Gospel, and Quran, and revered as a prophet of God by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
  • Vincit Omnia Veritas Collected Essays

    Vincit Omnia Veritas Collected Essays

    Vincit Omnia Veritas Collected Essays Edited by Renaud Fabbri & Timothy Scott Vincit Omnia Veritas: The journal of perennial studies was the online journal of Religio Perennis: A Gate to Quintessential Esoterism (www.religioperennis.org) founded and managed by Renaud Fabbri (editor), Patricia Reynaud and Charles Amir Perret. Vincit Omnia Veritas was published biannually and ran from January 2005 to July 2007. With the advent of several new journals in the field, including Eye of the Heart (La Trobe University), the decision was made to discontinue Vincit Omnia Veritas. The six issues produced included republications and original articles. Most of these are available through the online “library” of Religio Perennis. It was felt that the original articles produced for Vincit Omnia Veritas might be presented in a collected format. To that end, Religio Perennis, with the assistance of the Philosophy & Religious Studies program, La Trobe University, Bendigo, and Eye of the Heart: The Journal of Traditional Wisdom, is happy to offer the following collection of original essays, Vincit Omnia Veritas: Collected Essays. Editorial note: The text has been simplified for the sake of consistency. Vincit Omnia Veritas: Collected Essays is made available through Eye of the Heart: A Journal of Traditional Wisdom www.latrobe.edu.au/eyeoftheheart Copyright: Unless otherwise indicated, all materials published in this collection are copyrighted by Religioperennis and the respective authors and artists. No reproduction without express written permission, except in critical articles and reviews. The Black Madonna featured on the cover is used with the kind permission of the artist, Paul Heussenstamm (www.mandalas.com). The image on p.34 is a reproduction of a painting by Frithjof Schuon, used by kind permission of the estate of Frithjof Schuon.
  • New Light on Black Elk and the Sacred Pipe by Michael Fitzgerald

    New Light on Black Elk and the Sacred Pipe by Michael Fitzgerald

    New Light on Black Elk and The Sacred Pipe By Michael Fitzgerald lack Elk (1863‑1950), the Lakota holy man, is beloved by millions of Breaders around the world. The first book the Indian visionary narrated, Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1932), has substantially contributed to our understanding of traditional Plains Indian culture.1 However, a landmark 1984 book, Raymond J. DeMallie’s The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk’s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (Lincoln: University of Nebraska), compared the text of Black Elk Speaks to the stenograph field notes and transcripts of Black Elk’s original interviews and concluded that the book’s author, John Neihardt, materially changed Black Elk’s words in multiple places to suit his own personal agenda. DeMallie’s work spawned scores of studies that debate the authenticity of Neihardt’s editing from different and conflicting points of view.2 Joseph Epes Brown’s (1920‑2000) collaboration with Black Elk, The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953), significantly contributes to our understanding of traditional Sioux religion and helps to inform the ongoing academic debate about the Lakota visionary. Yet there is surprisingly little information available about Joseph Brown’s personal philosophy and his editing process, in stark contrast to the mountain of material on John Neihardt’s collaboration with Black Elk. Twenty‑ four as‑of‑yet unpublished letters written in the 1940s were recently discovered.