Conclusions by Rene Guenon OUR chief purpose in this work has been to show how it is possible, by
the application of traditional data, to find the most direct solution
to the questions that are being asked nowadays, to explain the present
state of mankind, and at the same time to judge all that really makes
up modern civilization in accordance with truth instead of by conventional
rules or sentimental preferences. We make no claim to have exhausted the
subject or treated it in full detail, or to have developed all its aspects
completely without omissions. The principles that inspire us throughout
make it necessary, in any case, to put forward views which are essentially
synthetic and-not analytical, as are those of " profane " learning;
but just because these views are synthetic, they go much farther in the
direction of a true explanation than could any analysis, which, indeed,
can scarcely have more than a merely descriptive value. At least we consider
that enough has been said to enable those who are capable of understanding
to deduce for themselves a part at least of the consequences contained
implicitly therein; and they can rest assured that the work of doing so
will be of far more value to them than reading something that leaves no
matter for reflection and meditation, for which, on the contrary, we have
sought to provide an appropriate starting point, that is to say a foundation
from which to rise above the meaningless multitude of individual opinions. It still remains to speak briefly of what might be called the practical
bearing of such a study; this could be passed over or ignored if we had
confined ourselves to purely metaphysical doctrine, in relation to which
no application is more than contingent and accidental; but in the present
study applications are just the thing with which we are concerned. These
have, moreover, a twofold justification, quite apart from the practical
point of view: they are the legitimate consequence of the principles,
the normal development of a doctrine which, as it is one and universal,
must embrace all orders of reality without exception and at the same time,
as we explained when speaking of " sacred science," they also
form, at least for some persons, a preparatory means of attaining to a
higher knowledge. Furthermore, when in the realm of applications, there
is no harm in considering these for their own sake as well, provided in
so doing one is never led into losing sight of their dependence on the
principles. This last is a very real danger, since it is indeed the source
of the degeneracy that made " profane science " possible, but
it does not exist for those who know that everything derives from and
is altogether dependent on pure intellectuality, and consequently that
anything which does not proceed consciously from it can be no more than
mere illusion. As we have said many times already, the starting point
of everything should be knowledge; and thus what appears the most remote
from the practical order is nevertheless the most potent even within this
order, since it is impossible, here as everywhere else, to accomplish
without it anything of real value or anything that will prove more than
a vain and superficial agitation. But to return more particularly to the
question that concerns us here, it may be said that the modern world would
cease to exist at once if men understood what it really is, since its
existence, like that of ignorance and all that implies limitation, is
purely negative: it exists only through negation of the traditional and
superhuman truth. Thus, through knowledge, the change could be brought
about without the intervention of a catastrophe, a thing that seems scarcely
possible in any other way; is it not right, then, to say that such knowledge
can have truly incalculable practical consequences? At the same time,
however, it is unfortunately very difficult to conceive of all men attaining
to such knowledge, from which most of them are further-removed than was
ever the case before; but as a matter of fact, it is quite unnecessary
for them to do so, and it would be enough if there were a numerically
small but powerfully established elect to guide the masses, who would
obey their suggestions without even suspecting their existence or having
any idea of their means of action ; is it still possible for this elect
to be effectively established in the West ? We do not intend to repeat here all that we have already had occasion
to say elsewhere as to the part that the intellectual elect will have
to play in the various circumstances that can be regarded as possible
in a not too distant future. We will confine ourselves to saying this:
in whatever way the change, which may be described as a passage from one
world to another, may come about-whether these " worlds" be
larger or smaller cycles does not matter-it can never involve absolute
discontinuity, since there is always a causal chain linking the cycles
together, even though the change may have the appearance of an abrupt
breach. If the elect of which we spoke could be formed while there is
still time, they could so prepare the change that it would take place
in the most favorable conditions possible, and the disturbances that must
inevitably accompany it would in this way be reduced to a minimum; but
even if they cannot do this, they will still have before them another
yet more important task, that of helping to preserve the elements which
must survive from the present world to be used in building up the -one
that is to follow. Once one knows that a re-ascent must come, even though
it may prove impossible to prevent the downward movement first ending
in some cataclysm, there is clearly no reason for waiting until the descent
has reached its nadir before preparing the way for the re-ascent. This
means /that whatever may happen the work done will not be wasted: it cannot
be useless in so far as the benefit that the elect will draw from it for
themselves is concerned, but neither will it be wasted in so far as concerns
its later effects on mankind as a whole. The question, then, should be viewed in this way the elect still exists
in the Eastern civilizations, and granting that it is becoming less and
less numerous owing to modernist encroachments, it will nevertheless continue
to exist until the end, because this is necessary in order to safeguard
the "ark" of the tradition, which cannot perish, and to ensure
the transmission of all that, is to be preserved. In the West, on the
other hand, the elect now no longer exists; the question may be asked,
therefore, whether it will be reconstituted before the end of our epoch,
that is to say whether the Western world, despite its deviation, will
take part in this work of preservation and transmission. If not, the result
will be that Western civilization will have to disappear completely, since,
having lost all trace of the traditional spirit, it will no longer contain
any element that is of use for the future. The question, thus framed,
may have only a very secondary importance in so far as the final result
is concerned; it has, nevertheless, from a relative point of view, a certain
interest that cannot be overlooked once we consent to take into consideration
the particular conditions of the times in which we are living. In principle,
it would be sufficient to remark that this Western world is a part of
the whole, even though it seems to have broken away since the beginning
of modern times, and that all parts must to a certain extent contribute
towards the ultimate reintegration of the cycle. But this does not necessarily
involve a preliminary restoration of the Western tradition, - which, indeed,
may be preserved only in a state of permanent possibility at its source
and not in the special form that it has taken on at any time. We merely
indicate this in passing, for, in order to make it fully understandable.
it would be necessary to branch off into considerations affecting the
relations between the Primordial Tradition and the subordinate traditions,
for which there is no place here. Considered in itself this would be the
most unfavorable solution for the Western world, but the present state
of things in the West gives rise to the fear that it is the one which
is actually being realized; however, there are, as we have said, certain
signs which seem to show that all hope of a better solution need not yet
be quite' abandoned. There are at present more people in the West than one might suppose who
are beginning to see what is wanting in their civilization; if they fall
back on vague aspirations and embark on research that is too often barren,
and if they sometimes even lose their way altogether, it is because they
lack real knowledge, which nothing can replace, and because there is no
organization that can give them the doctrinal guidance they need. We do
not refer here, of course, to those who have succeeded in finding such
guidance in the Eastern traditions and who are therefore, intellectually,
outside the Western world; such persons must necessarily remain exceptional
cases and cannot in any way form an integral part of a Western elect;
they are, in reality a prolongation of the Eastern elects and might form
a link between these and that of the West once this was really established;
but the latter, by very definition, can only be established through the
initiative of the West, and therein lies the whole difficulty. This initiative
could come in one of two ways only: either the West would have to find
in itself the means of bringing it about through a direct return to its
own tradition, a return which would be a sort of spontaneous reawakening
of latent possibilities; or certain Western elements would have to bring
about this restoration with the help afforded by a knowledge of the Eastern
doctrines, which, however, could not for them be quite direct, since they
would have to remain Westerners, but which could be obtained by a sort
of second-hand influence working through intermediaries such as those
of whom we have just spoken. The first of these two hypotheses is very
unlikely, since it depends on the existence in the West of at least one
rallying point where the traditional spirit has been preserved intact,
and as we have already said, this seems to us very doubtful, notwithstanding
certain affirmations to the contrary; it is therefore the second hypothesis
that needs to be examined more closely. In this case it would be better, although not absolutely necessary, for
the elect to-be able to take ' as its basis a Western organization already
enjoying an effective existence. . It seems quite clear that there is
now but one organization in the West that is of a traditional character
and that has preserved a doctrine which could serve as an appropriate
basis for the work in question, and this organization is the Catholic
Church. It would be enough to restore to the doctrine of the Church, without
changing anything of the religious form that it bears outwardly, the deeper
meaning really contained in it, but of which its present representatives
seem to be unaware, just as they are unaware of its essential unity with
the other traditional forms; these two things are, as a matter of fact,
inseparable from one another. This would mean the realization of Catholicism
in the true sense of the word, which etymologically expresses the idea
of " universality," a fact that is too apt to be forgotten by
those who seek to make of it no more than the denomination of one special
and purely Western form, without any' real connection with the other traditions.
Indeed it may be said that in the present state of things, Catholicism
has no more than a virtual existence since we do not see in it any real
consciousness of universality; but it is none the less true that the existence
of an organization bearing such a name is in itself an indication that
there is a possible basis for a restoration of the traditional spirit
in its fullest sense, the more so because throughout the Middle Ages it
has already served as a support for it in the West. . Really, therefore,
all that would be necessary would be to re-establish what already existed
prior to the modern deviation, though with the adaptations called for
by the conditions of another period; and if such an idea astonishes or
offends certain people, it is because they themselves, though unconsciously
and perhaps even against their will, are so completely governed by the
modern outlook as to have quite forgotten the meaning of a tradition of
which they retain only the outer shell. The important question is whether
the formalism of the " letter", which is also, a variety of
materialism as we have defined it earlier on, has utterly smothered spirituality
or only temporarily overshadowed it, leaving the possibility of a re-awakening
within the existing organization; only the course of events will give
an answer to this question. It is possible, moreover, that this same course of events might sooner
or later force on the leaders of the Catholic Church, as an unavoidable
necessity, a decision whose intellectual import they would be far from
properly understanding. It would certainly be matter for regret if they
should be driven to reflection by circumstances as contingent as those
springing from the field of politics-so long, that is, as this is considered
apart from any higher principle. But at the same time,' it must be admitted
that the opportunity for the development of latent possibilities must
be accorded to each person through those means that fall the most immediately
within the scope of his present understanding. For this reason, we do
not hesitate to assert, in view of the ever increasing state of confusion
that is becoming more and more widespread, that it has become necessary
to call for the union of all the spiritual forces whose action still makes
itself felt in the outer world, as well in the West as in the East; and
so far as the West is concerned, we can see no other such force than the
Catholic Church. If the latter could thus be brought into touch with the
representatives of the Eastern traditions, it would be a preliminary step
we could not but rejoice at, and might serve as the starting point for
what we have in mind, inasmuch as it would doubtless not be long before
it became apparent that a merely outward and " diplomatic" understanding
was illusory and could not yield the desired results; it would then become
necessary to pass on to what should normally have come first, that is
to considering a possible, agreement on principles. For this agreement
the essential and only essential condition is for the representatives
of the West to return to a real consciousness of these principles, which
the East has never lost. A true mutual understanding, be it said once
more, can come only from above and within, which means that it must be
in the domain which can equally well be called intellectual or spiritual,
since the two words really bear exactly the same meaning; later, and starting
from this point, the understanding would be bound to extend over all other
domains, just as, once a principle is enunciated, it only 'remains to
extract, or rather to make more explicit, all the consequences implied
therein. There can only be one obstacle in the way of such an understanding:
that is Western proselytism, which cannot bring itself to admit that it
is sometimes necessary to have " allies " who are not subjects";
to put it more correctly, the obstacle is the lack of understanding of
which this proselytism is only one of the products; can this obstacle
be overcome? If it were not, the elect, in establishing themselves, would
be able to count only on the efforts of those who were qualified by their
intellectual capacity, apart from any particular environment, and also,
of course, on the support of the East; its work would thereby be made
more difficult and its influence could only make itself felt after a long
interval, as it would itself have to create all the necessary instruments,
instead of finding them ready to hand, as in the other case; but we are
far from supposing that these difficulties, however great they may, be,
are of a kind that could in any way whatsoever prevent the work that has
to be done. We therefore consider it opportune to make also the following statement:
there are now already, in the Western world, signs of a movement which
is still ill-defined but which may, and even, if things take their normal
course, must lead to the re-establishment of an intellectual elect, unless
a cataclysm comes too quickly for it to have had time to develop fully,
It is scarcely necessary to say that the Church would have every interest,
so far as the part to be played by it in the future is concerned, in giving
its support to such a movement rather than letting it take place quite
independently and being obliged later on to follow it in order to retain
an influence that threatened to melt away. Without attaining to a very-
lofty and difficult standpoint it can be understood that it is the Church
that would benefit the most by an attitude which, in fact, far from involving
the slightest compromise in the field of doctrine, would have the contrary
result of freeing it from all infiltration of the modern spirit, and which,
moreover, would entail no outward changes. It would be something of a
paradox to see integral Catholicism realized without the collaboration
of the Catholic Church, which might find itself under the strange necessity
of submitting to be defended against onslaughts more terrible than any
it has yet faced, by men whom its leaders, or at any rate those whom they
allow to speak in their name, had at first tried to discredit by casting
on them the most ill-founded suspicions. For our own part, we should be
sorry to see this happen; but if it is not to come to this, it is high
time for those on whom their position places grave responsibilities to
act with their eyes fully open to the matters at issue and no longer to
allow attempts which might have consequences of the utmost importance
to run the danger of frustration owing to the incomprehension or ill-will
of certain more or less subordinate individuals, a thing which has happened
before now, and which is one more sign of the extent to which confusion
reigns everywhere today. Doubtless we shall receive no gratitude for this
warning, which is given quite independently and disinterestedly; but this
is of no importance, and we shall continue none the less to say what has
to be said whenever it becomes necessary and in the form that we consider
most suited to the circumstances. The foregoing is only a summary 'of
the conclusions to which we have been led by certain quite recent investigations,
carried out, it is scarcely necessary to add, in a purely intellectual
field. There is no need, at least for the moment, to give a detailed description
of them and as a matter of fact this could have little interest in itself;
but it may be affirmed that not a single word of what has been said above
has been written without ample reflection. It should be clearly understood
that it would be utterly useless to put forward here by way of objection
any more or less specious philosophical arguments; we are speaking seriously
of serious matters, and have no time to spend over verbal disputes that
would be of no interest and could serve no useful purpose. Moreover it
is our intention to remain entirely aloof from all controversies and quarrels
of school or party, just as we refuse absolutely to accept any Western
label " or definition, since there is none applicable whether this
prove pleasing or displeasing, it is a fact, and nothing will make us
change our attitude in - this regard. Doubtless, the number will be small of those who will succeed in overcoming all these obstacles and triumphing over the hostility of an environment opposed to all spirituality; but let it be said once more, it is not numbers that matter, for we are here in a domain whose laws are quite different from those of matter. There is therefore no cause for despair, and, even were there no hope of achieving any visible result before the modern world collapses under some catastrophe, this would still be no valid reason for not undertaking a work whose scope extends far beyond the present. time. Those who might be tempted to give way to despair should realize that nothing accomplished in this order can ever be lost, that confusion, error and darkness can win the day only apparently and in a purely ephemeral way, that all partial and transitory disequilibriums must perforce' contribute towards the great equilibrium of the whole, and that nothing can ultimately prevail against the power of truth their device should be that used formerly by certain initiatory organizations of the West : Vincit omnia Veritas.
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