Perspectives on initiation

REVIEW QUOTES:

“Perspectives on Initiation is Rene Guenon’s highly rigorous and objective account of what initiation truly means and how significant a role it plays in spiritual realization. The author approaches the topic both in an scholarly fashion and from a traditional perspective. Thus, it is not just a theoretical treatment of initiation in the manner done in modern scholarship which is by its nature blind to the traditional significance of the matter. It is important to know that the author was himself a spiritual master and a serious practitioner of an authentic traditional form. Therefore, his knowledge of the matter is not a third-person kind of knowledge but an intuitively intellectual insight into the true meaning and import of initiation which he defines as “the transmission of spiritual influence.” This book along with his other work “Initiation and Spiritual Realization” are a must read for anyone interested in actually starting a spiritual path. Although the initiatic transmission and its efficacy does not depend on the initiate’s or the initiator’s knowledge of how it works, since spiritual influence belongs to an order of reality entirely independent of the contingencies of the manifested order as long as it comes from an unbroken chain of spiritual masters, yet a deeper understanding of initiation can assist the initiate in the inner work that begins after the initiation. This book offers this deeper understanding for any serious seeker. Another important function of this book, and all of the author’s books in general, is that it introduces a new way of thinking, a true intellectuality, that is usually concealed, if not destroyed, as a result of the mental habits and deformities caused by modern education. His works tend to restore the mind to its unprejudiced and primordial state so that one’s mind becomes prepared for a true knowledge of metaphysical truths.” – Tomaj Javidtash’s reviews, Goodreads

“Wonderful book, one of his most profound so far for me. It is truly tragic that René Guenon has become somewhat associated with reactionary politics and included in the same category as impostors such as Julius Evola, for the true object of Guenon’s reflections has never been other than the purely metaphysical and only relates to the profane in contingent, secondary and even disinteresting ways. It is truly a sign of intelectual degeneracy to read a good chunk of his oeuvre and extract from it merely political, often hateful, base-level considerations about culture, race and ideological inclinations that could never find center stage in Guenon’s profoundly universalistic views.” – Melvin Mullinix’s Reviews, Goodreads