Monday, November 15, 2004
HYPHENS...AND COINCIDENCES
Remember that curious website I linked not long ago--the one that I found in the Rene Guenon website---www.zen-it.com? The name of the website is "Zenit" but the URL uses a hyphen.
I've found another hyphen, and it has me wondering.
This time the hyphen is in the http://www.sophia-perennis.com/ website. Click the "English" there and you will get the Sophia Perennis index which will quickly acquaint you with the topic of this website--Rene Guenon and the Perennial Philosophy.
Now check out this URL also the Sophia Perennis website. No hyphen. A bland little website with four lonely links. A website that hasn't consumed much time of the webmaster. Are they the same "Sophia Perennis" one wonders. If they are, why two? Surely that little hyphen could be a telltale sign that they really reflect one and the same source. Sophiaperennis (no hyphen) uses a box number in Hillsdale, New York for a contact address.
Some of the links on the first Sophia Perennis links page go to other pages in the website. Several go to the Frithjof Schuon website. One goes to "Sophia: Journal of Traditional Studies" website of the Foundation for Traditional Studies. Titus Burckhardt's biography is part of the World Wisdom website. There is a link to James S. Cutsinger's website at the Department of Relgious Studies, University of South Carolina. Cutsinger is significantly involved in promoting Perennialism. He has a Schuon painting on his website. One link goes to a Hindu website that features a story by Schuon. One link even goes to an Amazon webpage which describes a book about Schuon published by SUNY.
There is one thing conspicuously absent from the website--the link to the sponsor. Nothing here tells the browser who is promoting Sophia Perennis. The only clue as to who might be behind this website is that hyphen so similar to the hyphen in a Masonic lodge website. Something to think about, anyway.
If you go to the French translation of the website, which can be done by clicking the link on the top right, there is a further clue as to where this might be coming from. On the bottom left of the French translation of the Sophia Perennis, Home Page is a link, "Un bon site sur Rene Guenon." Clicking it brings you to this website. Look familiar? You already saw it here in the Loge maconnique Rene Guenon, no. 76 website of the Grande Loge Suisse Alpina. (Remember as you consider this that all Masonic doctrine/philosophy is transmitted in symbols.) There she is again, Frithjof Schuon's Indian Madonna. Notice that URL? Once again we have a hyphen.
I took the hyphen out of the URL, and look what turned up! I will leave exploring this new website for another day.
Back to the Sophia Perennis website again. Down there at the bottom on the left are three remaining links. "Religio Perennis" will take you to the same link that also appears in the Rene Guenon Lodge we just visited a moment ago. "World Wisdom" takes you to Frithjof Schuon's books and bio. "THE COLLECTED WORKS OF RENE GUENON" takes you to Sophia Perennis (the Publisher) where Charles Upton's books for sale are listed. A list that is also included in the Religio Perennis website here where Charles Upton Books includes a list of Upcoming Titles that includes a new book by William Kennedy and one by Lee Penn.
I've been aware that Lee's publisher is Charles Upton for quite some time, but not of the association with Freemasonry that seems to be a cloud hanging over Guenonian Traditionalism. It was Charles Upton who asked me to review William Kennedy's book, "Lucifer's Lodge" prior to release. Until now Lee has never given any reason to think that he believed in a universal religion or supported Freemasonry...just the opposite, in fact. He assures me there is nothing occult in his forthcoming book and that he has had a priest review and approve of what he has written. He has suggested some titles that he believes explain where he is coming from. I've started on the first one - Rene Guenon's "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times" - and will be blogging a report when I get finished with it. I am quite anxious to see what Lee will have to say about all of this when his book is published, and would gladly blog any comments of his should he wish to make them now.
