The Symbolism Of The Cross Book

The cross is mostly seen in its historical and redemptive importance, without a hint of a esoteric meaning. Guenon- rather than dismissing those interpretations- makes it clear that one can have one- if not multiple- symbolic intrepretations of a symbol, without denying it's literal ones. Sounding very much like Thomas Aquinas, he explains how the horizontal line of the cross represents the physical world of constant change and duality- like a time line- and how the vertical line is the Primordial state of being: the static, eternal Now through which the manifested world flows out of. It is the undifferentiated, quintessential, non-localized One. The unity behind the duality. And together with both lines overlapping, is the union of humanity and divinity. Guenon goes on to repeat the same unitive formula in all the spiritual traditions: Atman and Brahamin, Macrocosom and Microcosm, Ying and Yang, Prakriti and Purusha, ect. To justify his usage of different spiritual languages to communicate the same truth, he makes the critical distinction between synthesis and syncretism- the later being the one to stay away from.

Guenons knowledge of hinduism, buddhism, taoism, pythagoreanism, Plato, Aristotle, hermeticism, kabbala, christianity and islam is so crystal, that he interchangeably uses different concepts from all of them to communicate his points. A thing I'm not qualified to judge is his apparent knowledge of mathematics, which he uses to discuse the many dimensions and modalities of different states of being and how they all issue forth from the horizontal cross- I'll admit it got over my head at times. However, whether one grasps his mathematical explanations of the cross or not, isn't essential. What's important is not necessarily the information, but the number of comparisons made between all these seemingly different religions and philosophies. This book should serve to make the union of all the religions-or, the perrenial philosophy- easier to see.