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
Das Spiel der Masken
The book is intended for people who are searching for a spiritually grounded understanding of the world and their own lives, an understanding that goes beyond the answers that modern sciences or religions understood only exoterically can provide.
Featured Poems
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Narcissus – Euterpe
Poems of youth: all too often they are
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Animality
Mankind, they say, with reason is endowed,
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Culpa
It is certain not every man is bad,
Featured Articles
Frithjof Schuon and Prayer
The importance of prayer was a fundamental theme in the writings of Frithjof Schuon. This article sets out to “draw attention to the subtlety, depth, and comprehensiveness that characterize Schuon’s elucidation of prayer, an elucidation which renders prayer not only an intelligible necessity for man in his quest for God, but also an irresistible summons and an inestimable gift from God to man.” This is accomplished through a general survey of Schuon’s perspective upon prayer and then a look at “the modes and degrees of prayer, beginning with the most ordinary meaning of prayer—personal petition to God—and culminating in the most exalted form of prayer—methodic invocation of the Name of God.”
The Introduction to “Prayer Fashions Man”
Editor James S. Cutsinger provided this probing “Introduction” to a selection of Schuon’s writings on prayer, Prayer Fashions Man. Cutsinger summarizes the various types of prayer covered by Schuon, as well as Schuon’s overall perspective.
The Introduction by Thomas Yellowtail to “The Feathered Sun” by Frithjof Schuon
Crow Sun Dance Chief and Medicine Man Thomas Yellowtail (1903-1993) wrote this introduction to Frithjof Schuon’s book “The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art and Philosophy” to attest to the authenticity and truthfulness of Schuon’s writings and paintings found in this book. Yellowtail details his long relationship with Schuon and goes on to point out that Schuon captured the spirit of the olden-days Indians in both his paintings and his prose.