Whether the world will go with a bang or with a whimper is the great question of modernity. T.S. Eliot’s famous line on “broken jaw of our lost kingdoms” and the world as “a valley of dying stars” is a pretty close poetic image of what Rene Guenon calls deviation. The existence of Tradition implies that there will be a civilization which turns away from it, necessarily deviating to a point when it begins to develop Counter-Tradition, i.e. becomes consciously opposed to its Origin. This process is pushed forward by counter-initiation, by which Guenon means the activity of producing “qualities” for the exercise of mock spirituality.

Philosopher Rene Guenon as a young man.

The intrinsic need of the human soul to be illuminated by Spirit gets transformed into a thirst for spiritual experience, and whoever can provide it is welcomed by the masses. This is an instance…