Life and works
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1886 | Born in Blois, France; raised in a strict Catholic milieu and educated by Jesuits.[1] [2] [3] |
| 1905 | After mathematics studies in Paris (Collège Rollin), abandons preparation for the academic examinations.[1] |
| c. 1906–1912 ≈ | Frequents the Parisian occultist and neo-spiritualist milieux — the most obscure period of his biography.[1] [2] |
| June 1909 | Founds the occultist review La Gnose, which publishes his first writings, already conversant with Vedanta.[1] |
| 1912 | Marries a devout Catholic; a new phase of withdrawal from the occultist circles and association with Catholic intellectuals (among them Jacques Maritain).[1] |
| 1921 | Publishes his first book, Introduction générale à l'étude des doctrines hindoues, and the critique Le Théosophisme: histoire d'une pseudo-religion; L'Erreur spirite follows in 1923.[1] [2] |
| 1924 | Publishes Orient et Occident.[1] [2] |
| 1925 | Publishes L'Homme et son devenir selon le Vêdânta, his axial work on Vedanta; L'Ésotérisme de Dante is from the same year.[1] [2] |
| 1927 | Publishes La Crise du monde moderne and Le Roi du monde; Catholic criticism of the latter deepens his estrangement from the Church.[1] [2] |
| January 1928 | Sudden death of his wife.[1] |
| 1930 | Travels to Cairo for a three-month stay and remains until his death; openly embraces Islam, is initiated into the Shadhiliyya Sufi order under the name Abdel Wahed Yahya, and remarries.[1] [2] |
| 1945 | Publishes Le Règne de la Quantité et les Signes des Temps, considered his masterpiece of the critique of modernity.[1] [2] |
| 1951 | Dies in Cairo, Egypt.[1] [3] |
Reception in the COF
Present in 118 of the 589 transcription files of the Curso Online de Filosofia; 32 lectures engage him substantially (5 or more mentions). The most engaged lectures:
This section documents what Olavo said and when — never what the philosopher "really" meant. Characterizations are Olavo’s, tied to a lecture by number and date.
| Lecture (aula) | Date | Mentions |
|---|---|---|
| 209 | 2013-06-29 | 65 |
| 41 | 2010-01-16 | 46 |
| 344 | — | 44 |
| 223 | 2013-10-12 | 41 |
| 19 | 2009-08-15 | 36 |
| 343 | — | 30 |
| 465 | — | 24 |
| 218 | 2013-08-31 | 22 |
| 551 | — | 22 |
| 94 | 2011-02-12 | 17 |
| 105 | 2011-05-07 | 16 |
| 342 | — | 16 |
| 43 | 2010-01-30 | 15 |
| 131 | 2011-11-19 | 14 |
| 421 | — | 14 |
A dash in the date column means the transcription file carries no verified date — an undated file, not an undated lecture. Counts are accent-insensitive, word-boundary matches over the public community transcription corpus.[4] [5]
References
- René Guénon (biographical essay by Harry Oldmeadow, PDF) — The Matheson Trust (scholar associated with perennialist studies — labeled as such)
- René Guénon — author biography — World Wisdom (perennialist publisher — labeled as such; biographical text by Oldmeadow)
- GUÉNON RENÉ (1886-1951) — Encyclopædia Universalis (full text paywalled; the title confirms the dates 1886–1951)
- COF — community transcriptions of the Curso Online de Filosofia (585 lectures) — Community transcription repository (upstream declares CC0 for the transcription work; the lectures remain the estate's)
- COF em Áudio — lecture audio collection — Internet Archive (community upload)