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
Form und Gehalt in den Religionen
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-Purification
Water purifies; many ritesUse it to purify the soulSo that it be reborn; so that it miss notAccess to the Sovereign Good.There is no better ritual water — so saysA Scripture — than the spirit when it knowsWhat is real. And then the sacred Word,When you call the...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-The Origin
Primordial Water is, for Thales, God;Primordial Fire is God for Heraclitus;It may be that men have argued in their name;Each one was right, at least in his own way.Fire: Divine Virility, creative Power;Water: the Godhead’s Femininity,Primordial Substance of all...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Ignorance
It has been taught: nothing is in the IntellectThat was not first in our senses;This is an error. Because through pure Spirit aloneAre ultimate realities made clear to man.You say the sage is a mere accident,Like other men, and that throughout his lifeHe follows...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Philosophy
Sophists were the creators of wrong thinking —False philosophers, insolentAnd vainglorious. But in all the Greek world It was Plato who was chosen for Wisdom.Before him was Pythagoras, mysterious, deep —The Spirit bloweth where it listeth.One should call the inventors...
Featured Articles
Introduction to “Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy”
The “Introduction” to Frithjof Schuon: Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy covers a summary of the three dimensions of Schuon’s work (comprehension, concentration, conformation), a brief discussion of how his own life was led in the light of these dimensions, and then presents the essential elements of Schuon’s message in some further details. These elements are discussed under sections titles “Metaphysical Truth,” “Life of Prayer,” and “Moral Conformity.” Besides Fitzgerald’s explication, his points are reinforced by extensive quotes from Schuon’s unique prose, and his poetry.
Who is Frithjof Schuon?
This excerpt is taken from “Introducing the Writings of Frithjof Schuon” (the ‘Introduction’) in The Essential Frithjof Schuon. It was written by the editor, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and is a short biography of the preeminent Perennialist philosopher.
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.