Sacred Web 32
Editorial: Rediscovering Virtue
by M. Ali Lakhani
"How can we inspire people to reach beyond rampant materialism, self-indulgent individualism, and unprincipled relativism?" Drawing on an address by His Highness The Aga Khan, the Editorial explores the vital link between faith and ethics, and looks at one Muslim leader's appeal to us to rediscover this traditional link in our understanding of 'virtue' and its central role in envisioning social harmony in the modern world based on universal principles and values "broadly shared across divisions of class, race, language, faith and geography." Read more...
Principles and Methods of Traditional Art
by Titus Burckhardt
translated by Edin Q. Lohja
In this early article on traditional art the author expounds on the function of crafts as supports for spiritual realization, corresponding symbolically to divine activities in general and the making of the world in particular, thus lending themselves to
serving as vehicles to initiatic work. The ritual character of traditional crafts is seen as inseparable from the fact that they actualize immediate and necessary possibilities of human activity, and this conforms to the primordial origin that traditional civilizations recognize in them. Read more...
Light from Light: A Christian Approach to Ibn 'Arabi
by Stratford Caldecott
In an age when there is such misunderstanding about the compatibility of the Muslim and Christian faith traditions, this brief essay examines some key correspondences in the metaphysics of the "Greatest Shaykh" (Shaykh al-Akbar), the Murcian Sufi sage,
Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, and those of the Church's greatest philosopher, the "Doctor Angelicus", St. Thomas Aquinas, demonstrating their alignment on matters such as the distinction between the ontological and supra-ontological realms of reality, the
archetypal bridge between man and God, and the epistemological and teleological implications of their views about man as a created being, and touches on the symbolism of Light in this metaphysical framework. Read more...
Universal Themes in a Contemporary Classic
of Jodo Shinsu Buddhism
a Review Essay by Reza Shah-Kazemi
This review of 'Naturalness', a classic of the Pure Land school of Mahayana Buddhism by Kenryo Kanamatsu (d. 1986), portrays the universal spiritual content of its doctrines, drawing parallels with doctrines in Christianity and in Islam. Read more...
The Spiritual Legacy and Heritage of Traditional Islam
and Sufism in North Africa: Interview with Shaykh Ahmed Habib
Interviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
This interview of a spiritual Sufi master of the 'Alawiyya tariqah in Algeria offers an insight into the wisdom traditions that subsist among the Sufis in North Africa. The interview explores both contemporary issues such as Islamophobia, as well as the deeper meaning of faith in the modern world. Read more...
On Noetic Vision In Sacred Art: A Letter
by Hieromonk Silouan
Written from an Orthodox Christian perspective by a monk who practices iconography, this article reproduces a letter sent by him to a correspondent, as part of an exchange concerning sacred art, and addresses the meaning and significance of "noetic vision" in the process of expressing archetypal realities through pictorial form. Read more...
'The Tree of Life' by Louis Cattiaux
Commentary by Gauthier Pierozak and Nigel Jackson
'The Tree of Life' was an alchemical painting sent by the French the artist-painter Louis Cattiaux to the traditional metaphysician, René Guénon, when he resided in Cairo, Egypt, in 1949. The painting is reproduced for the first time, together with a commentary to explain its provenance and significance. Read more...
Hermeticism and Cosmic Cycles
by Gauthier Pierozak
Referring to studies by René Guénon, this essay discusses how the structure of cosmic cycles pervades Nature, and then applies the principles informing the cosmic cycles to the interpretation of the divine name and its sacred invocation. Read more...
The Virtues of the Sovereign
by Nigel Jackson
In the traditional worldview, the worldly conception of Order is predicated on a Heavenly archetype, represented by the Monarch invested with the four cardinal virtues. This essay explores the traditional conception of Sovereignty and the principial virtues that it represents, which constitute the basis of moral and social order. Read more...
The Perennial Psychology and the Search for a Common Lexicon
by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
How does Tradition understand the world of modern psychology? Is there a lexicon that can distinguish modern psychology from sacred psychology? This essay approaches the topic through a discussion of the four 'forces' of modern psychology, and their false premises from the perspective of principial psychology. Read more...
"The Sound of the Beloved": Sir John Tavener (1944 – 2013)
by Ian Skelly
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Book Review
On the validity of the post-Conciliar Church's Sacraments:
The Problems with the Other Sacraments Apart from the New Mass
By Rama. P. Coomaraswamy
Reviewed by Marek Rostkowski
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Letters to the Editor
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Notes on Contributors
