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
L’Esotérisme comme principe et comme voie (Paperback)
In this book, while starting from the idea that it is authentic esotericism, he explains why this perspective is possible and even necessary, and how it applies to the various planes of human existence.
Featured Poems
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Wakan Tanka
Indian world: nature and wild grandeur;
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Dawn
Morning shivers over the cypresses,
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-The Hunter
Man is both warrior and
Featured Articles
Thoughts on Reading Frithjof Schuon’s Writings on Art
Frithjof Schuon and the American Indian Spirit: Interview with Michael Fitzgerald
It is generally recognized that Frithjof Schuon had a special interest in the spiritual traditions of the American Indians, but only some aspects of his relationship with them are well known. The online journal Vincit Omnia Veritas, which published six issues between 2005 and 2007, interviewed Michael Fitzgerald on the subject of Schuon’s many decades of interest in, and study of, American Indian spirituality in its many dimensions. This interview, posted on the Religio Perennis website, remains one of the most in-depth explications of Schuon’s frequent focus on many aspects of American Indian traditions. Fitzgerald also gives some important historical context to the life and times of Schuon, to his American Indian contacts and friends, and to the work of Joseph Epes Brown, a scholar of Indian Studies and a friend to both Black Elk and Schuon.
Travel Meditations
Many questions arise simply because man lets himself be enticed into the domain where questions lie, instead of keeping firmly to the domain of certainty, If a man is confused by something, he should first of all come back to the certainty that it is not this world as such which is important, but the next world, and above all that God is Reality; and he should say to himself: in the face of this truth, which in principle is the solution to all questions, this or that question just does not arise; it is enough if he has the Answer of answers. And then God will give him a light also for what is earthly and particular.