Against the Modern World

Is Aleksandr Dugin a Traditionalist?“Neo‐Eurasianism” and Perennial Philosophy

“…59 This combination of "Traditionalist" and geopolitical ideas is one of "the modifications Dugin made to the Traditionalist philosophy." 60 These "modifications" were so profound, however, that Sedgwick himself acknowledged that "neo-Eurasianism is not specifically or overtly Traditionalist." 61 Notwithstanding this admission, he still considers Dugin's "neo-Eurasianism" to be "a form of Traditionalism."…”

“…65 Sedgwick links Integral Traditionalism not only to Dugin's "neo-Eurasianism" but also to classical Eurasianism of the 1920s, which he identifies with "Geopolitics." 66 The link between the two systems of thought, in Sedgwick's mind, is that "both Guénon and the Eurasianists were formulating their ideas in the same period, and so were subject to some of the same general influences." 67 We and others, including Ilya Vinkovetsky and Stefan Wiederkehr, have argued that Dugin primarily used the terminology, rather than ideology, of the Russian émigré movement of the 1920s and 1930s, while formulating his new version of "Eurasianism."…”

Where East Meets West: Sufism, Cultural Rapprochement, and Politics

“…As a result, Guénon embraced Islam in 1912, adopting the name Abd al-Wahid Yahya. 63 Later, he dedicated one of his books, Le Symbolisme de la Croix (1931), to the memory of Illaysh, who died in 1921. 64 Guénon's strong attraction to esotericism and his keen interest in the works of Ibn Arabi led him to move to Cairo in 1930, where he remained until his death in 1951.…”

Between real and virtual communities: Sufism in Western societies and the Naqshbandi Haqqani case

“…Western Sufism is the complex intersection of different sources: (1) ‘traditional’ religious Sufi organizations formed by migrants and second- and third-generation migrants (e.g. Werbner, 2003), labelled as ‘transplanted’ by Hermansen (2004); (2) European esotericism – more precisely the figures of René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon – which has influenced the composition of European Sufism (Bisson, 2007; Sedgwick, 2004a); (3) ‘New Age culture’ (e.g. Hammer, 2004; Hermansen, 2004; Sedgwick, 2009); and (4) scholarly Sufism, which has often gone beyond an academic context to influence contemporary Sufism (Louis Massignon, Henry Corbin, William Chittick, Patrick Laude, Eric Geoffroy, etc.).…”