Peter Lamborn Wilson on Frithjof Schuon

This blog already has several posts on the anarchist Peter Lamborn Wilson (1945-2022), also known as Hakim Bey, one of the most remarkable former Traditionalists. See here. One (here) reports an assurance that although Lamborn Wilson was definitely “in the circle of Nasr,” he was not actually a Maryami.

Daoud El-Alquist Bey of the Moorish Orthodox Church has drawn my attention to an interview conducted shortly before Lamborn Wilson's death in which he discusses the Maryamiyya. It is with Tamas Panitz, in Conversazione (Autonomedia 2022), pp 91–97. In this interview, Lamborn Wilson makes it clear that he was indeed a Maryami.

Lamborn Wilson said he followed Frithjof Schuon because he (LW) followed Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Nasr followed Schuon. When he met Schuon, he found him charismatic. “He was overwhelming. He'd blow you away with his absolute assurance that he was god on earth.” He became disenchanted, however, because there seemed to be one rule for “soldiers” like himself, and another rule for Schuon “and his inner circle.” “Soldiers” had to be “orthodox” and pray and fast and abstain from alcohol, but as Schuon was an avatar (divine incarnation), these rules did not apply to him. One evening in London, where Lamborn Wilson moved after leaving Tehran, he was walking across a bridge over the Thames and “I just had this vision of one of the Ismaili lmams… who told me to go drink a bottle of wine, and quit being Orthodox. So I did.”

Another moment of disenchantment came when he was talking to the British painter Cecil Collins (1908–1989) after having tea with the Neoplatonist poet Kathleen Raine (1908–2003), who “was one of the people who inspired me to get away from the Schuonites” and lived in the same house as Collins. Collins “had seen [Schuon’s paintings] and he said to me you know everything that Frithjof Schuon believes in is the exact opposite of what he does in his paintings. They're sentimental, they're like Hallmark greeting cards. Suddenly my eyes were opened, I said by god Cecil you're right, they're like Hallmark greeting cards. You can be under a spell with things like that, and not see them.”

René Guénon and the East: Call for contributions

A forthcoming edited volume entitled René Guénon and the East invites contributions.

Guénon famously placed ‘the East’ at the center of his intellectual project, conceiving it as the primary point of access to "the primordial tradition." Although his interpretations of Asian religious traditions have been highly influential, they have only rarely been examined critically by specialists in the relevant fields. This volume aims to address that gap.

The book welcomes historically, philologically, and theoretically informed contributions, including (but not limited to): critical analyses of Guénon’s readings of specific religious traditions; studies of the reception and practical use of Guénonian interpretations; reflections on the political, ideological, and Orientalist implications of Guénon’s concept of ‘the East’; and examinations of exceptional or contested cases such as Japan, Judaism, and Buddhism.

Contributions should not exceed 9,000 words, including notes and bibliography. A first draft is expected by September 2026. Further details regarding the timeline and formal requirements will be provided in due course. Interested scholars are invited to contact the editors for further information. Contact Roberto Corso and Davide Marino, davide.marino@theologie.uni-goettingen.de.

Spiritualism in defense of Islam

Mattias Gori Olesen recently covered the debate between René Guénon and the Egyptian intelelctual Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī (1875-1954) over modern spirituality in Al-Maʿrifa (see post here). A new article, “Taming the Animal within in Cairo: Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī and ‘Temperate Vegetarianism’” by Mariam Elashmawy (Alif 45, 2025), here, open access) revisits this debate and adds more to our understanding of Wajdī. “It is important to understand that he [Wajdī] sees spiritualism through an Islamic lens,” argues Elashmawy. Spiritualism was not an import from the modern West, as Guénon thought, but a long-standing part of Islam. “As for us Muslims,” wrote Wajdī, “the matter of the appearance of spirits is one of the most common occurrences for those close to Allah” [ie. saints/awliyāʾ]. Spiritualism, as a scientific endorsement of one aspect of Islam, could serve as a defense against the growing threat of materialism and atheism. Wajdī agreed with Guénon regarding the threat, then, but not regarding the remedy.