Sunday, October 24, 2004
RENE GUENON AND TRADITIONALISM
I've blogged about him before, but it is impossible to talk about Traditionalism without mentioning him, he is that central to the movement. William H. Kennedy has an article about Guenon online in which he says:
That religion no longer plays a central role in the lives of Catholics is the most important lesson Guenon has to teach. The Second Vatican Council destroyed many of the cultural features which gave Catholics the social shape of their faith. Various work and dietary restrictions gave devout Catholics a clear identity within their community and a defining boundary with anyone outside of the Church of Rome. Such distinctions acted as the generators of Catholic spiritual experience and halted the limiting of religion to purely social categories with no metaphysical content. Without these checks and defining characteristics the Catholic Tradition became a faint shadow in the lives of the devout, and became more or less meaningless in the 21st century Roman Catholic Church.
Well yes, that is precisely what we are seeing in John Kerry. Somehow I can't even picture Kerry being a part of a May crowning, unless the "Catholic" cameras were turned on, that is. To be truly Catholic is a 24/7 proposition, just as it is to be truly Jewish or Muslim, I would imagine. We each view daily events through the lens of our faith. To take away that lens is to render a person blind not only to the nature of the world, but also to his own reality. If I am not Catholic, I really don't know who I am or why I'm here.
However, with the following passage from Kennedy's article, I disagree:
The Tridentine Mass, which held the Church together during the onslaught of Luther’s reform, was altered to the New Mass, which greatly resembles the debased Feast of Fools parody Mass more than the service conducted by the Traditional Church of Rome. There are Church sanctioned “Rave Masses”, “Clown Masses”, “Guitar Masses”, “Ecumenical Masses”, and “Workers Masses.” Georgian chant was replaced with the folk droning of Bob Dylan wannabees. Such absurd daily rites mimic the surreal rituals which the Church called for on the Feast of Fools. The Traditional Latin Mass was replaced with the New Mass in 1968, and now absurdity rules the See of Peter. Degenerate priests are given daily free reign by bishops, who could less about the welfare of children. With all of the bizarreness which has been allowed to go on, one can only wonder if the Pope should call for a “Feast of Normalcy” to help correct our present abnormal liturgical course.
I certainly wouldn't argue that this never happens. It is not universal, however; and the frequency of it is declining. Yes, there are pockets where this is a regular feature, but there are just as many pockets within the Novus Ordo communities where the Mass is reverent and the church looks Catholic. If he wants to argue that a Novus Ordo lacks the poetry and beauty of a Tridentine, I would concede; but given the proper setting, given a good choir that sings some Latin hymns and chant, given a pastor who is Traditional in his conception of the faith, and given a priest who is not intent on "creating liturgy", the Novus Ordo can be reverently Catholic.
A reader has emailed to me some comments to the effect that definitions of Traditionalism are essential. I would agree. But the point I'm getting at is that a person approaching Traditionalism from a neutral perspective is going to see a syncretistic mix of the religions of the world. A person coming from the esoteric milieu will see Catholic Traditionalism as just another nice form of the perennial philosophy. Rene Guenon's shift from Catholicism to the Parisian occult societies, to Islam will help solidify that perspective. Yet to reject Guenon is to also reject the argument Traditionalism makes in opposition to United Religions Initiative. In other words, in Traditionalism we are damned no matter which way we turn.
The reader also indicated that Catholic Traditionalism rejects Freemasonry. Yet Freemasonry embraces Rene Guenon and the beliefs of Traditionalism. If a Catholic embraces Guenon and a Freemason embraces Guenon, how does the Catholic define the boundaries of the faith so as to use Guenon's methods while putting barriers up to prevent the obvious migration into Freemasonry? Alternatively, is there a movement on the Catholic right that is open to Freemasonry? It's a nagging question that I've been walking around the fringes of for months as more and more often these hints of Freemasonry on the right surface.
Some time ago I posted the link to the Rene Guenon Lodge within the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina Obedience, a part of Grand Orient Freemasonry. In that website there is a link to a Loge Tradition a l'Orient de Lausanne.
Also within the Rene Guenon Lodge website, I found the Grande Oriente d'Italia linked on this page in the website. If you click on "goi" you will end up here. Much of this website is in Italian, but not all of it. From this website I've quoted the Grand Master Gustavo Raffi in previous blogs.
Another interesting link in the Rene Guenon website can be found on this webpage. Click on "Zenit" to arrive here. How ironic that the Catholic news service Zenit shares the same name! This Zenit website is full of interesting material, though it's mostly in Italian. That black bar across the top is the menu. As you click the words, a drop-down menu appears. Behind "nuove sezioni" you will find a paper on Qabbalah. You will also find Rene Guenon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and Denys Roman located at the link "Studi tradizionali." This webpage mentions Gershom Scholem, in what appears to be a lecture he gave.
At the first section on the black index bar, under the subheading "Storia & societa" appears the names Salvador Allende and Jacques Chirac. Also on this page at the top of the right-hand column in the red box is P2. Those who have read David Yallop's book know that P2 was associated with the Vatican Bank scandal. Yallop says this of P2:
With Italy about to face another general election in June, the parliamentary commission that had been investigating P2 was suspended. At least five of the Christian Democrats running for office were members of P2. Tina Anselmi, who had chaired the commission, was asked what her views were on P2 after two years of intensive study. She responded:
"P2 is by no means dead. It still has power. It is working in the institutions. It is moving in society. It has money, means, and instruments still at its disposal. It still has fully operative power centers in South America. It is also still able to condition, at least in part, Italian political life." (Yallop, In God's Name, p.317)
The link on the index bar all the way over on the right--"forum"--offers a "liberi muratori" option which will get you this webpage. If a lock box appears, "X" it out and you should get a webpage where the words "Flicks - Access Denied" and "AuthentiX for Microsoft's Webserver: IIS. It appears to be software that will provide locked access requiring registration and a code.
There is another oddity. Zenit.org is a primary Catholic news source for Catholic journalists. Zen-it.com is a website that is associated with Grand Orient Freemasonry. Now what, exactly, is Zenit.com promoting and is it associated somehow with that Zen-it.com URL that opens the Masonic Zenit website? Is this the door behind the locked box at the "Liberi Muratori" option above? That trailer in the Zenit.com website, "The leather area portal," would seem to indicate a porn website. The website has been a "work in progress" for more than a week, with no changes in the website taking place.
Yet another interesting session of connecting the dots.
