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
Herbstblätter & Der Ring
The German sense poems of Frithjof Schuon form a metaphysical and spiritual whole that unites the essential teachings of this master in a form as accessible as it is immediate.
Featured Poems
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Philosophy
Sophists were the creators of wrong
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Ignorance
It has been taught: nothing is in the Intellect
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Praise and Thanks
Al-hamdu li’Llâh — one praises God for what
Featured Articles
Biography of Frithjof Schuon
This biography of Frithjof Schuon by Mark Perry appears on the web site of World Wisdom, the publisher of most of Schuon’s books in English. Mark Perry was a close associate of Frithjof Schuon for many years, as were his parents, Whitall and Barbara. Mark Perry is himself a writer and metaphysician, and this biography of Schuon includes some insights that only a person very famililar with the Perennial Philosophy and with Schuon’s comprehensive perspective could pen.
An Artistic Dimension
Frithjof Schuon was also a noted artist whose paintings and sketches reflected his concern with the spiritual vocation of man, Beauty, virtue, and the reality of creation as a mirror of God. This chapter (number 18) from Michael Oren Fitzgerald’s book Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy covers how Schuon was led to create his works of art, his choice of subjects, and his sense of aesthetics, and includes some reproductions of his sketches and paintnings.
New Light on Black Elk and The Sacred Pipe
The American Indian Culture and Research Journal summarizes this article by Fitzgerald in this way: “This article provides new information that will oblige scholars to reassess the legacy of Black Elk (1863–1950), including excerpts from recently discovered unpublished letters written by Joseph Epes Brown while he was living with the Lakota holy man (1947–49). The author provides insights into Brown’s personal philosophy and a clearer context for the editorial role he played in recording The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux. Brown’s letters also help to illuminate Black Elk’s role in attempting to restore the sacred “religion of the Pipe” among the Sioux and to clarify controversies that include Black Elk’s dual participation in Catholicism.” For readers of Perennialist writings, it is noteworthy that Fitzgerald’s article also includes important new insight into Frithjof Schuon’s role in the chain of events leading to the recording of Black Elk’s teachings on the Seven Rites.