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 Weltrad 6, 7
As such, in their simplicity and directness, these poems may seem like a final mercy, a bit like a last lifeline thrown to us; mercy of a sage whose life and work can only be understood in the sign of giving, of conveying a core of certainty that is the key to happiness in this world and the next.
Featured Poems
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Trinitas
Spirit, Truth, Name — the three high marvelsIn which God wished to give Himself unto the world.Intellect, Doctrine, Sacrament —In their profundity thou shouldst immerse thyself,So that the meaning of thy nature be fulfilled.And may God guide the powers of thy mind...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Pneuma
Man lives in two worlds; it is hardTo understand: he is soul and he is spirit.The first one is the to and fro of our existence;The second, which promises us the Highest GoodWithin God’s Name, is infinitely more.The soul lives, but the spirit discerns —It is the fire...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Outlook
You think you own your earthly life;But no, body and life are borrowed.The next life gives us infinitely moreThan what is offered here below.Whatever leads to foolishness and pain,See through and avoid.All suffering passes; it can only be illusion —The rest is joy.Our...
Adastra and Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon-Sufficiency
Not to be ungrateful, but still you ask:Why does the Enemy so often win?Well, one must leave some scope to evil —Let Fate spin her black threads.Bright gold is hidden in the dark —So be comforted; the Lord shall provide.Perhaps you wish to understand too much —That...
Featured Articles
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.”
Frithjof Schuon and Our Times
Swedish philosopher Tage Lindbom surveys some central concepts of the thought of Frithjof Schuon regarding: the modern world, ontology, the “pure Absolute” and the “relative Absolute,” secular man’s illusory view of existence, the “hierarchical order of creation,” the Sovereign Good, and man’s place in the universe. Lindbom states, “The unique position of Frithjof Schuon’s message is especially characterized by the fact that he provides an answer to the spiritual misery of our times,” and “Looking back in time, we like to pause before historical figures who have produced a legacy of spiritual work that is characterized by timelessness, the Eternal. We pause before three names: Plato, Shankara, Frithjof Schuon.”