THUS far, The Crisis of the Modern World has provided its readers with an unparalleled insight into the spiritual and intellectual state of humanity during the latter stages of the Dark Age and the author now turns his attention to more practical considerations.

Whilst Guénon has often found himself critical of certain efforts to defend metaphysical ideas at such a mature phase in the cycle, he nonetheless appreciates the great importance of realising Traditional values beyond the purely theoretical and such becomes

the legitimate consequence of principles, the normal development of a doctrine which, since 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’, these principles also form, at least for some, a preparatory means for attaining to a higher knowledge. (p.108)

As discussed earlier in the book, this principle must therefore permeate all aspects of human existence.

The key, as he infers, is knowledge. Whilst knowledge itself is usually confined to the intellectual sphere and would appear to undermine the importance of practicality, this latter is actualised by the pursuit of knowledge itself and thus becomes the ‘most potent’ means of all.

One fascinating point raised by Guénon is that

the modern world would immediately cease to exist if men understood what it really is, since its existence, like that of ignorance and everything that implies limitation, is purely negative: it exists only through negation of the traditional and supra-human 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 then not right to say that such knowledge can have truly incalculable practical consequences? (p.108)

As we have seen, the author often alludes to an intellectual elite and this surely implies that most people are not capable of determining or, indeed, utilising such knowledge.

Guénon rejects the idea that there will be an ‘absolute discontinuity’ between the end of this cycle and the beginning of the next, so in terms of acting as an effective spiritual and intellectual guide the role of any metaphysical nobility is absolutely crucial:

If the elite of which we spoke could be formed while there is still time, it could so prepare the change that it would take place in the most favourable conditions possible, and the disturbances that must inevitably accompany it would in this way be reduced to a minimum; but even if this cannot be, it will still have another, and more important, task — that of contributing to the conservation of the elements that must survive from the present world to be used in forming the one to follow. (p.109)

Although it is impossible to rule out the potential for a final catastrophe that will obliterate everything in its path, Guénon believes that practical work of this kind will nonetheless be valuable in the sense that it will still have an impact on a certain section of humanity and allow the elite to fulfil its vocation.

As for the precise manner in which this practicable exercise will operate, the author is convinced that our real hope still lies in the East. Despite the continuing effects of Western encroachment, he argues, it will

nevertheless continue to exist until the end, because this is necessary for the safeguarding of the ‘ark’ of tradition — which cannot perish — and for the transmission of everything that is to be preserved. In the West on the other hand the elite no longer exists; the question may therefore be asked whether or not it will be reconstituted before the end of our epoch, that is, 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. (pp.109-110)

The Frenchman accepts that Western civilisation has detached itself from a former state of wholeness and that one would expect it to return to the source, but this should not imply that Western Tradition can be restored

since the latter may be preserved only in a state of permanent possibility at its source, and not in any particular form that it may have assumed at a given period. (p.110)

Guénon does not go into any further detail, but suggests that one must make a distinction between ‘the primordial tradition’ and ‘the subordinate traditions’.

There were, even at the time The Crisis of the Modern World was first published, a small minority of Westerners who had immersed themselves in Eastern spirituality and therefore stepped outside the boundaries of the West completely. If not geographically, then certainly spiritually and intellectually. Guénon himself would convert to Islam several years later, of course, but was reluctant to describe individuals of this kind as part of an emerging ‘Western elite’ on account of them comprising what he described as ‘a prolongation of the Eastern elites’. The metaphysical realities of adopting such a position thus outweighed the purely racial and cultural factors that more obviously betrayed their Western origins.

So what are the chances for the formation of a truly Western elite that continues to operate, so to speak, within the belly of the beast itself?

This initiative could come in one of two ways: 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 that 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; this however could not for them be quite direct, since they would have to remain Westerners, but it might be obtained by a sort of second-hand influence working through intermediaries such as those of whom we have just spoken. (p.111)

The second possibility, that of operating in the West under the guidance of the East, can actually be facilitated by way of the first. As we saw in part eight of this series, Guénon believes that the Catholic Church – however much it may have degenerated over the course of the last few centuries – still offers a valid means for the successful promulgation of Tradition within a Western context:

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 that is truly 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 being, 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 particular and purely Western form, without any real connection with the other traditions. (p.111)

Guénon therefore insists that the revival of Western Tradition can only be effective if it is prepared to embrace the wisdom of its Eastern counterparts and that this would represent a true fulfilment of the underlying ‘Catholic’ principle. Not a principle that is confined to Church dogma, but something that recognises the perennial unity that lies at the heart of all religions.

Few Catholics appreciate the real meaning of this universality, regardless whether they happen to favour the old Church or that of the modernists, but

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 already served as a support for it in the West. All that would be necessary therefore is to re-establish what already existed prior to the modern deviation, though with the adaptations called for by the conditions of a different period; and if such an idea astonishes or offends some 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. (p.112)

Far from clutching at metaphysical straws like a utopian idealist, Guénon understands that in order for such an approach to come to fruition it would be necessary for the hierarchy of the Church to familiarise itself with the wider principles themselves:

If the latter could thus be brought into touch with representatives of the Eastern traditions, it would be a preliminary step, at which we would rejoice, being possibly 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 would normally come first, namely to consider a possible agreement on principles. (pp.112-113)

Clearly, the modernist Catholic strategy of using syncretism and ecumenicalism to break down barriers between different faiths leads to nothing more than the watering-down of one’s own beliefs and this is something that Guénon had already opposed six years earlier in the form of the Theosophical Society. The solution is not to dwell on the outer trappings of the world’s great religions, but to establish what lies at the actual roots of each.

Guénon argues that the single most important factor that prevents a rapprochement of this kind is the West’s arrogant refusal to accept guidance from the East, but whilst this may be true in a political and economic context in the years following The Crisis of the Modern World the West began to absorb Eastern spirituality in a quite unprecedented fashion and among the leading figures involved in this process were Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983) and Alan Watts (1915-1973). As Guénon makes clear, it

is the Church that would benefit the most by an attitude which, far from involving the slightest compromise in the field of doctrine, would in fact have the contrary result of freeing it from all infiltration of the modern spirit, and which at the same time 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 being 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. (p.114)

This role, as we have seen, has been performed to a large extent by the excommunicated Lefebvrists and Sedevacantists, but neither group of Catholic Traditionalists would entertain the idea of collaborating with ‘heretics’ from other religions. The most traditionally-minded, in other words, are often the most closed-minded of all.

Conversely, Guénon suggests that there is simply

no time to waste on 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 none is applicable; whether this is pleasing or displeasing, it is a fact, and nothing will change our attitude in this regard. (pp.114-115)

Those who seem destined to form part of the coming elite, he says, must remain aware that their efforts to form a cohesive unit will be attacked at every turn. At a time when those of us attempting to mount a serous resistance to the prevailing order find ourselves ‘de-platformed’ or vilified as ‘extremists,’ the enormity of the task facing all Traditionalists becomes only too apparent. It is vital to remain resolute in the face of adversity:

Those who have not yet reached the point beyond which an infallible guidance makes it henceforth impossible to stray from the true path always remain in danger of the most serious deviations; they need to display the utmost prudence; we would even say that prudence should be carried to the point of distrust, for the ‘adversary’, who up to this point has not yet been definitively overcome, can assume the most varied, and at times the most unexpected, disguises. (p.115)

Given the characteristics of those who exert control over government, media and finance, not to mention the severe penalties for identifying them, we are living in very challenging times indeed.

Indeed, if one can remain as a pillar of strength and fortitude in the worst of circumstances the vocation of the individual who is part of an elite is nonetheless fulfilled. As Guénon suggests:

We are entering upon a period when it will be extremely difficult to ‘separate the grain from the chaff’ and carry out effectively what theologians call the ‘discerning of spirits’, both because of the general confusion manifesting itself in intensified and ever more varied forms, and also because of the want of true knowledge on the part of those whose normal function should be to guide the rest, but who today only too often are no more than ‘blind guides’. (p.116)

Philosophical knowledge or that of the modern sciences is not enough, he tells us, and the most effective safeguard against despair is to remember that

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. (pp.116-117)

The great paradox behind The Crisis of the Modern World is that the disintegration of the old is necessary for the construction of the new. Not in terms of embracing modernism, but of saving what we can from the world of Tradition and contributing to its safe passage into the next cycle. What better role could there possibly be for those who are born into the great impetus of the age?