Frithjof Schuon Archive
A Resource on Frithjof Schuon’s Life and Teachings
This site is the most comprehensive repository of information pertaining to the life and work of Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998); materials include published articles, personal correspondence, private papers, poems, photographs, and works of art.
Frithjof Schuon is the preeminent spokesman of a school of thought that focuses on the expression and explanation of the Perennial Philosophy. This philosophy expresses the timeless metaphysical truths underlying the diverse religions; its written sources include the revealed Scriptures as well as the writings of the great spiritual masters. Because these truths are permanent and universal, the point of view may thus be called “Perennialist.” The Perennial Philosophy is an important perspective that can inform the study of Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Art, Literature, and many related areas.
Schuon was a philosopher in the tradition of Plato, Shankara, and Eckhart, and he wrote over two dozen books on religion, metaphysics, sacred art, and the spiritual path. Describing Schuon’s first book, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot wrote, “I have met with no more impressive work in the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental religion”, and world-renowned religion scholar Huston Smith said of Schuon, “The man is a living wonder; intellectually apropos religion, equally in depth and breadth, the paragon of our time”. Schuon’s books have been translated into over a dozen languages and are respected by academic and religious authorities alike. Schuon’s writings remain unequaled in setting forth the principles of perennialist thought as well as their applications on the spiritual, aesthetic, and other related levels.
Besides his accomplishments as an author, Frithjof Schuon was also a gifted artist and poet. His art and his poetry flowed naturally from his awareness of God’s Presence in creation. Catalogue notes from a museum display of Schuon’s art explain that “springing as they do from his rich and unique personality, Schuon’s paintings…have a rare value, not only as regards artistic merit but above all because of their gift for manifesting the human soul at its noblest and most beautiful—hence, as a vehicle for Truth.” The sense of the sacred figures as much in Schuon’s art and poetry as in his philosophical writings.
The story of Schuon’s life presented in these pages demonstrates how his own intellect, personality, and actions reflected the elevated metaphysics, spiritual insights, and artistic creations that comprised his body of work.
This online resource brings together, through a survey of his many-faceted dimensions, Frithjof Schuon’s important contributions to the manifestations of the timeless Truth.
Featured Books
Den Islam verstehen
This book by the great philosopher of religion Frithjof Schuon is considered worldwide as one of the best introductions to the true teachings of Islam.
Featured Poems
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Pneuma
Man lives in two worlds; it is hard
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Outlook
You think you own your earthly life;
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Trinitas
Spirit, Truth, Name — the three high marvels
Featured Articles
The Introduction by The Prince of Wales to the 2006 Sacred Web Conference
This is a transcript of The Prince of Wales’ videotaped introduction to the Sacred Web Conference, “Tradition in the Modern World,” presented on September 23, 2006, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Prince Charles begins his comments with: “In these uprooted times, there is a great need for constancy; a need for those who can rise above the clamour, the din and the sheer pace of our lives to help us to rediscover those truths that are immutable and eternal; a need for those who can speak of that eternal wisdom which is called the perennial philosophy.” The address continues to outline key points of Traditionalism and the Perennial Philosophy, supporting The Prince’s theme that there are real and positive applications of these points in “finding practical solutions to what, at first, seem to be impossible difficulties – and sometimes to speak for those whose voices are unheard amidst the clamour of Modernism.” The Prince’s insights demonstrate his thoughtful consideration of and interest in the worldview offered by the Perennial Philosophy.
Book Review of “The Transcendent Unity of Religions”
“Signposts to the suprasensible”: Notes on Frithjof Schuon’s understanding of “Nature”
Author Prof. Harry Oldmeadow states that the goal of this essay is to “provide a sketch, largely through direct quotation, of a few of the key principles and doctrines which govern Schuon’s understanding of the natural order.” This can assist us, because today we “witness a plethora of writings on the ‘ecological crisis,’ often well-intentioned and sometimes enlivened by partial insights, but fundamentally confused because of an ignorance of timeless metaphysical and cosmological principles. It has been the task of figures such as René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon, authoritative expositors of the sophia perennis, to remind the modern world of those principles.”