Volume VII Numbers 7-9 ORIENS Summer 2010

The Enigma René Guénon

and Agarttha (IV)
Review by Mircea A. Tamas

As we said, in 1956, Paul Chacornac wrote Guénon’s first biography, where the spiritist
modality used for the foundation of the OTR was described. As Marcel Clavelle declared,
he helped Chacornac with Guénon’s biography; in his unpublished “Document,” Clavelle
gave his personal opinion trying to explain this episode: or Guénon influenced the
medium’s mind, or Guénon himself caused the spiritist phenomenon.
The “Ordre du Temple rénové” was founded in the year 1908. The Golem of Gustav
Meyrink was published in 1914; in 1909, Mark Twain wrote the Letters from the Earth
that was published posthumously. The 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century
actively prepared the last phase of the Kali-yuga, and had as main objective to create a
paramount confusion. In that period, the solidification of the world, illustrated by an
obtuse and dark materialism, was corroborated by the commencement of the dissolving
process, to which the spiritist movement belonged. The confusion aimed at the
annihilation of the true spirituality, of the true esotericism, and therefore, the episode of
OTR could easily (and wrongly) be considered just a spiritist application, with René
Guénon as its exponent.
The counter-initiatory forces have no access to the “power of discrimination.” On the
contrary, they use indiscriminately all the tools they can get, and because they need to
create confusion, these tools can appear as opposing each other. Some of these tools are
writers like Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Mark Twain (1835-1910), Gustav Meyrink
(1868-1932) and Alfred Kubin (1877-1959).
Âtmâ, the universal spirit, which is not different from Brahma, is concealed to our eyes
by three main veils that – the Hindu tradition explains – represent its “limitative
conditions” and correspond to the three-partition of the universal manifestation (the
“Three Worlds”) and to the accordingly tripartite constitution of the total being (Corpus-
Anima-Spiritus). The “waking” and the “dream” states,1 components of the changeable
and perishable individuality, embody the external grosser veils. Closer to Âtmâ is a
diaphanous veil, the “deep sleep” state, a state without dreams and full of bliss (ananda),
but beyond these three states there is the supreme and unconditioned one, “The Fourth,”
where Âtmâ dwells in itself.2 These last two are essential for a complete initiation and
1
Mândûkya Up. I, 3-4.
2
Mândûkya Up. I, 5-7.

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spiritual realization. The “deep sleep” state, corresponding to Dante’s Paradiso, leads to
the Gate of Liberation, yet it is still a limitative state and the truly effective and total
liberation through the Sundoor aims at Turîya, “The Fourth” state.3 Consequently, the
grosser states are inadequate for a full initiation and in the best case they could provide
support for a realization of the Lesser Mysteries.
In the domain of the Lesser Mysteries, the danger is tremendous. The “waking” and
“dream” states constitute the realm where the satanic forces have access and, the closer
the end of time is, the stronger they act. The communication with the superior states
breaks and the path towards Turîya (or at least towards the “deep sleep” state) is lost,
which facilitates the chaos and confusion in the individual order. And the corporeal
sheath, the grossest, is not the most vulnerable, even if the lower appetites and desires are
its emanations; but the psychical sheath, with all those sentiments and emotions, and
especially the mind represents the favourite place for mixed influences. The mind is the
fanatic supporter of duality that permits the devil to feel legitimated. “As in dream the
mind acts through Mâyâ presenting the appearance of duality, so also in the waking state
the mind acts, through Mâyâ (the art of illusion), presenting the appearance of duality”
and only in the “deep sleep” state the mind ceases to act and “becomes identical with
fearless Brahma.”4 An untamed mind maintains the illusion of reality; that is what
happens in the “waking” and “dream” states.
It is desirable then to abandon the illusion and look upwards to the everlasting and non-
dual Principle. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream repeatedly illustrated the
above fundamental doctrine. Illusion, “country of dreams,” chaos and confusion, sports,
characterize this special night; yet at the end order is restored and a new luminous cycle
is ready to begin, proving the ties with the Principle. Dante travels through Hell (where
there is no hope), yet at the end he rises to Heaven, reaching the Celestial Paradise. “No
hope” is only for those lost into the labyrinthine “outside darkness,” those who look
downwards and not upwards, those who wander without a guide or having a deceiving
one. With the evolvement of the cycle, more and more often the interest is directed
towards Hell, ghosts, dreams and “chthonic gods”; the tendency (guna) tamas (error,
inertia, darkness and ignorance) dominates, and these who follow tamas go downwards,
says Bhagavad-Gîtâ (XIV.18). For the tamasic individuals, the monster’s jaws are the
Jaws of Death and not the Gate of Liberation, and the Existence is a chaos containing
nightmares, spirits, fear and death.
This kind of limitation due to the ignorance of the decaying world happens equally for
extensive and secondary cycles. We note it with the “evolution” in time of Western
literature. Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, Edgar Poe, even if they provide
dwelling for some traditional symbols in their works, all are more concerned to look
downwards. For Melville, the quest of the white whale is a fearful enterprise, Moby Dick
illustrating the Jaws of Death. For Verne, the journey through Hell leads to illusion and
destruction. In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Hermione, whose illusory “image” is a
statue, a perfect copy of herself, symbolizes Madonna Intelligenza and Shekinah (the

3
“The Fourth” state corresponds to Meister Eckhart’s Godhead, the divine abyss, where God appears
without names and attributes (Eckhart, Sermons, I, 56).
4
Mândûkya Up. III.29-35.

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“divine presence” of the Kabbalah), the immortal Knowledge and Tradition descending
to initiate a new cycle and establish a new spiritual center. Hermione is absolutely real,
infinitely more real than the world. When Paulina, the Initiatress, commands her to
descend, she says: “Music, awake her: strike!”5 The music has divine powers providing
resurrection and life. For Verne, on the contrary, music causes death and then, like
Stilla’s image, is just an illusion, a devil’s trick. In the same way, Dumas and Stoker,
instead of suggesting a luminous way upwards, maintain their stories at the level of
graveyards, vampires and death.6 In the modern times, especially these authors, with
interest in extraordinary tales, give the opportunity to the traditional symbols to find
refuge in their work and, despite the authors’ attraction to the tamasic domain, a spiritual
symbolism is very likely to hide under the fictional surface.7 Beside the rare authors who
still consciously know some genuine traditional data, the majority are more or less
innocent transmitters and it is the reader’s responsibility to be capable to unveil or restore
a sacred meaning where it is the case. Not sentimentalism and profane analysis, but the
power of discrimination in accordance with the sacred writings of divine inspiration
should be the infallible guide – say the seers. The power of discrimination (symbolized
by the Hamsa in the Hindu tradition and by the Qur’an in Islam) guarantees the right
choice between heavenly (supernal) and terrestrial (infernal) symbols, between the
immortal and mortal twin, between the wheat and the darnel,8 which could cohabit
together, as it happens in Christ’s parable. The same cohabitation appears in the literary
works, which always imposes a selective approach. It does not mean that such works are
in any way genuine traditional or initiatory stories; it is a fundamental mistake to consider
that the work itself, because some traditional symbols are hiding there, is a traditional one
or an initiatory one; on the contrary, this type of “literature” is usually just a “parody” of
the genuine sacred stories and is infested with infernal influences, aiming at confusing the
reader.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Pym is mostly concerned with evil and infernal trials. In Ms. Found in
a Bottle, Poe describes the pole, the center, as a fearful abyss, a whirlpool in which, amid
a bellowing and thundering of ocean and tempest, the ship, whirling in concentric circles,
is falling down. Mark Twain wrote in 1896 a similar story, unfinished, called The
Enchanted Sea-Wilderness, in which he depicts an infernal abyss, close to the South Pole,
and named the “Devil’s Race Track.”9 The sea voyage starts at the winter solstice and it
is directed southward; eventually, the brig reaches the “bewitched domain” of circular
shape, being “in the whirl and suck of the Devil’s Race-Track.” The “Great Dark”

5
V.III.
6
It seems that E. T. A. Hoffmann played a very suspect role in all of this. His work influenced not only
Dumas, Verne and Poe, but also Freud and Carl Jung.
7
It is a kind of a game. The devil’s parody of the spiritual domain and sacred rituals, its monkey-like
symbols, constitute an attempt to confuse and delude, in a vain hope to eliminate the celestial influences.
The devil is tricky, a master of deception, and altering the divine symbols and mystifying their meaning,
it tries to take control over the sacred kernel. On the other hand, the traditional symbols take advantage of
this parody to remain alive and accessible to a true quest. The inferior influences have no access to the
spiritual and celestial domain, only to the psychical one, therefore the traditional symbols, even covered
with dirt or devilish illusions, will preserve their divine significances.
8
Matthew 13:24-30.
9
The Devil’s Race-Track: Mark Twain’s Great Dark Writings, Univ. of California Press, 1980, p. 29.

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governs there, but in the center there is “a trap” called the “Everlasting Sunday” where
ghost-ships keep rotating and a forever bright sky replaces the darkness. Like in Poe’s
Pym, black and white alternates, marking the “center,” but in Twain’s case it is more
obvious the infernal character of the abyss; even the “Everlasting Sunday,” which
normally should symbolize the eternity and peace of the spiritual and paradisiacal center,
is a “ghostland.”10
Another unfinished story, so-called The Great Dark,11 presents an illusory world seen
through a microscope, which reminds of Verne’s telescope that opened the window to
illusion and evil. In this story, Mark Twain introduces a “master puppeteer” named the
“Superintendent of Dreams,” who in The Mysterious Stranger becomes the Little Satan.12
The Great Dark uses, like The Enchanted Sea-Wilderness, Pym’s skeleton: a ship aiming
at the South Pole, enters a zone of total darkness (the Great Dark) and is sailing toward a
Great White Glare, a zone of “disastrous bright light.”13 As Melville’s fearful white,
Twain’s light is not the spiritual illumination but a terrible, demonic light.14 This story
seems to be not about “ghostland” but about the “country of dreams,” suggesting that life
is an illusion, and showing the confusion between “waking” and “dream” states.15 Twain
appears in agreement with the Hindu tradition and Zhuang Zi, yet for him there is no
other reality. This limitation to the individual order, without any link to the supernal
levels of more consistent reality, facilitates the tamasic actions, which try to replace the
traditional symbolism with counterfeits and deceiving meanings.16 Therefore, Twain’s
“country of dreams” is also a “ghostland,” during the process of confining everything to
the psycho-physical domain the spiritual order (the “deep sleep” state as super-individual,
celestial world) being replaced with “spiritism” or other hoax, which can be crowded into
the individual plane.17 For that reason the “Superintendent of Dreams” is described as a
spirit, a ghost.18

10
In August 1896, Mark Twain’s favourite daughter, Susy, dies. This misfortune and others made Twain
turn to spiritism and develop his “dark” writings. He is not an isolate case; tragic deaths in the family
made many others to find consolation in spiritism (Guénon, L’Erreur, p. 372). For Twain, the
“ghostland” is interwoven with the “country of dreams” and he studied William James’ theory about
dreams (note that James at the end of his life became involved with spiritism). See John S. Tuckey, Mark
Twain and Little Satan, Purdue Univ. Studies, 1963, p. 27 and Guénon, L’Erreur, p. 89.
11
See Bernard DeVoto’s commentary in Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Crest Book, 1964, p. 231 ff.
12
“Little Satan” is a suitable expression used by Tuckey.
13
Twain, Letters, p. 227.
14
That is not surprising, thinking of some occultist movements, in Twain’s time, which praised Lucifer as
“light-carrier” and “Creative Intelligence” (Guénon, L’Erreur, p. 303). Unfortunately, this Lucifer isn’t
different from Satan, which makes his “light” a satanic light.
15
Henry, the main character of the story, considers the miniature sea voyage only a dream, not real life, but
his wife, Alice, regards their previous life as a dream and this one, on the ship, as real (Twain, Letters, p.
207-8).
16
As we said before, there is no perfect deception; there is always a hint to reveal the truth. For example, in
Twain’s unfinished story, Turner, the mate, thinks, “that the world has come to an end,” because there is
no sun or moon or stars (Twain, Letters, p. 200). This remark is enough to warn us. At the end of a cycle,
the link with the Principle is extremely damaged and everything is limited to the individual order, which
implicitly explains Twain’s attitude.
17
Another “hoax” could be the theory of subconscious. G. K. Watkins, comparing Poe’s Pym to Twain’s
The Great Dark, (God and Circumstances, Peter Lang Publishing, 1989), makes the common error to

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Twain’s “Superintendent of Dreams” is a kind of Puck, but he plays an ambitious role,

which ruins the symbolism. He is not under a higher command, because there is no
higher level. He creates a microscopic world, the “little people” constituting here the
corporeal order, even if it is a “dream world.” The character is more obvious in The
Mysterious Stranger, where he is Satan but called Traum (German “dream”); he is a boy,
who creates a “small” world with small people and animals made of clay, indicating that
Twain thought of him as Creator, yet even if he is presented as an angel and Lucifer’s
nephew, there is no mistake: he is the Devil.19
Gustav Meyrink makes good company with Verne, Poe and Twain. He also uses some
traditional symbols, but it is obvious that his work is a “parody” of the genuine initiatory
stories and creates a terrible confusion. Like Jules Verne in his works The Carpathian
Castle and Mathias Sandorf, Gustav Meyrink uses (in fact, abuses) the symbolism of the
center. Verne’s and Meyrink’s center is a pseudo-center, an “occultist” center, a
caricature and a mockery, a suspect center influenced by the counter-initiatory forces, and
we have to use our power of discrimination to understand Guénon’s sayings that the
“‘counter-initiation’ derived from the unique source to which every initiation is
attached,” which indicates how dangerous such a pseudo-center could be.

confound the subconscious with spirituality, that is, to confound the “below” with the “above.”
Spirituality belongs to the “super-conscious” and to the “super-rational” (see Shri Aurobindo, Le guide
du Yoga, Albin Michel, 1970, pp. 115-6, Guénon, Le règne, pp. 303-313, and Burckhardt, Mirror, pp.
45-67).
18
Twain, Letters, p. 195. Normally, the “dream” state, as part of the psychical domain, is open to
influences coming from “above” and “below.” The former are, as Titus Burckhardt says, “the dreams
coming from the Angel”; they carry a genuine spiritual symbolism and sometimes they have a
providential meaning (see Joseph’s dream about Christ’s conception, Matthew 1:20). The latter are
“dreams of satanic impulsion, containing palpable caricatures of sacred forms” and opposing the “dreams
of divine or angelic inspiration.” The satanic dreams bring a sensation of “obsession and vertigo; it is the
attraction of an abyss” (Burckhardt, Mirror, p. 57). In some ancient Mysteries, this abyss was described
as mire, symbolizing Hell, but it is a huge difference between the initiate “descending to Hell” and then
ascending to Paradise, and the profane “falling into the mire.” Descending to Hell, the neophyte
transforms and integrates his inferior levels; falling into the mire, the profane is caught by the mire
without hope of salvation (Guénon, Le règne, p. 310). This very abyss, a parody of the center, is
described by Poe and Twain in some works as a whirlpool, a Hell without salvation, indicating the “fall
into the mire.”
19
Mark Twain names the village where Satan appears “Eseldorf,” which means in German “the Ass’
village.” The village represents for Twain the whole mankind and the name suggests the degradation of
the world and the evil and stupidity of the human race as Little Satan states it. But “Eseldorf” is a sign
that betrays Satan: where else could the Devil land, if not in Bottom’s village? The village is “in the
middle of that sleep,” which indicates the “country of dreams” (See Mark Twain, The Mysterious
Stranger, Signet Classics, 1962, p. 161). Twain describes also a castle there, which is a copy of Dracula’s
castle; the oldest serving-man in the castle tells the children about ghosts, vampires, and other horrors he
had seen in that region (ibid. p. 165). Little Satan is described creating a miniature world and destroying
it after, without remorse, like a playful child (ibid. pp. 168-9, 173); but he is a spirit (ibid. p. 175). At the
end of the story, Little Satan makes the terrible statement that no other world exists but this one (that
means no supernal levels and no God), and that life is just a dream, a vision; in fact, nothing exists but a
thought (ibid. p. 252). As we mentioned before, the mind is a favourite field of action for devil, so Little
Satan’s affirmations that “there is no God, no universe, no human race, no heaven, no hell,” and “it is all
a dream” and “nothing exists but you, and you are but a thought” (ibid. p. 253), seem pretty devilish.

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In a letter to Julius Evola (from 1949), René Guénon wrote: “There are cases in which the
influence of counter-initiation is clearly visible. Among these cases we must include
those in which the traditional elements are presented in an intentionally ‘parodist’ form;
this is, in particular, the case of Meyrink, which, of course, does not mean that he was
clearly aware of the influence which was exercised upon him. Therefore, I am surprised
to learn that you seem to respect Meyrink.”20
When Meyrink’s last book, Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster (The Angel of the West
Window), was translated in French, it was published with a Foreword by Julius Evola,
and this Preface shows how such books can create confusion, even in the case of people
like Evola, who knew well Guénon’s teachings. However, Evola himself had his
contribution to the general confusion, with his wrong ideas about initiation, Masonry and
the spiritual authority. Even though Evola tried to highlight some of Meyrink’s errors, the
Preface remains dubious, especially at the end when Evola compares Agarttha from
Guénon’s Le Roi du monde to Meyrink’s Elsbethstein.21 Meyrink’s center is, in the best
case, a pseudo-Agarttha; nonetheless, it is instructive to see how Meyrink abuses the
traditional symbols. For example, in Evola’s opinion (expressed in his Foreword22) the
novel transmits a real teaching when, at the end, denounces the Angel to be just an echo,
an illusion,23 a spiritist error. What Evola could not see is that the title, which represents
the quintessence of the work, is The Angel of the West Window, emphasizing the
importance of this “Angel,” and if Meyrink at the end negates it, he negates the whole
book. Not to say that the idea to use the term “angel” for this ghost is not only
inadequate, but directly diabolical. And even if it seems that Meyrink eventually rejects
the “Angel,” his book extensively presents spiritist sessions.24
The Angel of the West Window continued the confusion created by Verne, Poe, and
Twain, and influenced the modern antitraditional authors. We see from the beginning the
importance of the “documents,”25 a modern and profane idea, used by malevolent authors
with regards to Masonry, Templars, and initiation. Here it is not only about the modern
mentality, which cannot accept anything that is not “corporeal” and cannot understand

20
Julius Evola, René Guénon, A Teacher for Modern Times, Sure Fire Press, 1994, p. 33.
21
“[Meyrink] talks about a supreme center of the world (Elsbethstein, an analogue idea to that of
Agarttha)” (Gustave Meyrink, L’Ange à la fenêtre d’Occident, La Colombe, 1962, p. 17). We should add
that, inexplicable, Julius Evola considered Gustave Meyrink as expressing in his work some “magico-
initiatory teachings” (Julius Evola, Masques et visages du spiritualisme contemporain, Les Éditions de
l’homme, 1972, p. 271)
22
See also Masques et visages, p. 288.
23
That is what Meyrink says at the end of his book (Gustav Meyrink, L’ange de la fenêtre d’Occident, Le
Rocher, 1986, pp. 292, 312-313). We see here the same pattern that Twain used in The Great Dark,
where the conclusion was that everything is illusion, but, in comparison with the sacred writings, there is
nothing beyond this illusion. The Angel could be compared to Twain’s “Superintendent of Dreams.”
24
L’ange de la fenêtre d’Occident, p. 138. Marcel Clavelle (Jean Reyor) published in 1932, in Le Voile
d’Isis, un article about Meyrink, and it is depressing to read that this collaborator of Guénon could say
that Meyrink’s Green Face offers practical guidance with respect to the initiatory process (Jean Reyor,
Études et recherches traditionnelles, Éditions Traditionnelles, 1991, p. 179); however, this is another
proof that Reyor’s opinion cannot be trusted or at least that his opinions should be regarded with caution.
25
L’ange de la fenêtre d’Occident, p. 7.

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that the genuine spirituality and initiation do not need “documents,”26 but it is a result of
the influence of the counter-initiatory forces. Meyrink introduces a character called
Lipotine or Nitchevo,27 a name similar to Verne’s Nemo; in Russian, nitchevo means
“nothing”; nemo comes from Latin and means “nobody.” As in Twain’s case, the
(malefic) dream plays an important role28; but also the abyss, the Templars29 and the
Baphomet, which becomes a substitute for the Principle, the head turned backward, the
blood, Tula,30 St. Patrick and St. Dunstan,31 are elements participating at the general
confusion.32 Meyrink makes of Bartlett Green a mock imitation of Christ.33 Even though
Evola tried to defend Meyrink, this one uses the erroneous theory of reincarnation,34 and
expressions like “the satanic astral body,”35 “Golden Rose,”36 “vampirism,”37 “the Lodge
of the West Window,”38 and “the realization of Baphomet.”39 We find in this work the
same pattern used today in books like The Da Vinci Code, Mysteries and Secrets of the
Masons and many others, where Alchemy, Rose-Cross, Masonry, Templars, etc. are
mixed in a horrible way. But The Angel of the West Window is more than a sinister
mixture; it is a “parody”40; and even more, it transmits an upside down symbolism, which
represents the actual “Satanism.” In opposition to Solomon’s Temple, where there are
three windows / doors open to the three of the cardinal points, Meyrink describes a room
of a castle having the East, South and North windows immured.41 The Alchemy is
combined with Chemistry,42 the Pentagram is abused,43 the angels are ghost, and the
spiritual forces are magnetic forces.44 At the end, it is said: “Brother, you have crossed

26
Soon we will see authors trying to make us believe that Jesus Christ or the Templars made DVDs and hid
them somewhere.
27
Ibid. p. 9.
28
Ibid. p. 11.
29
“The Knights Templar of the New Grail,” see ibid. p. 254.
30
And also Thule of Greenland, ibid. pp. 84-5.
31
It is known that both, St. Patrick and St. Dunstan, were connected by some authors to Glastonbury. “St.
Patrick’s well,” often used by Meyrink, is, in this case, similar to the abyss of Poe and Twain, or to
Dumas’ “le trou de l’enfer.” Ibid. pp. 21, 30-31, 133.
32
Ibid. pp. 13-14.
33
Ibid. pp. 60-61, 63 (Green is resurrected), 65 (he comes back to visit the main character of the book, but
he is a ghost).
34
Ibid. p. 70.
35
Ibid. p. 102.
36
Ibid. p. 114. Guénon revealed the imposture of an organization like Rose-Croix d’Or (Aperçus sur
l’initiation, p. 246). Also, the symbol of the Rose-Cross is suggested by Meyrink at page 282.
37
Ibid. p. 233.
38
Ibid. p. 257.
39
Ibid. p. 158.
40
It presents a parody of initiation (see ibid. p. 175).
41
Ibid. p. 139.
42
Ibid. pp. 147, 150.
43
Ibid. p. 140.
44
Ibid. p. 173.

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the threshold of initiation with your face turned backwards.”45 In fact, in a genuine
spiritual realization, the neophyte must not look back, and all the initiatory stories are
adamant in warning about it.
The author spends a tremendous effort narrating about the Angel to conclude in the end
that the Angel is an illusion. The same effort is spent in all the modern occultist books
about the “Secret,” which in the end appears to be something very disappointing, a
nitchevo. L’Énigme René Guénon et les “Supérieurs Inconnus,” Contribution à l’étude
de l’histoire mondiale “souterraine,” written by “Louis de Maistre,” is not different in
this respect; on the contrary, it is the best illustration, since the effort was a long one,
covering a length of 1000 pages.46
“Louis de Maistre,” in search for Guénon’s “sources” with regard to the Lord of the
World, mentions Gustav Meyrink and his novel The Walpurgis Night, where he alluded
to the “Emperor of the World,” and the reader is left with the impression that Meyrink
was one of the “other” sources for Guénon’s Le Roi du Monde.47 But “Maistre” cannot
develop this devilish suggestion, since René Guénon clearly denounced Meyrink, so he
tries to work out his scheme using another similar individual: Alfred Kubin, a friend of
Meyrink. “Maistre” declares: “Kubin’s book [Die andere Seite, “the other side”] … has a
superior load and visionary power in comparison to Gustav Meyrink’s work, for
example.”48 In fact, the “superiority” of Kubin is “inferiority,” since, in comparison to
Meyrink, he is even deeper sunken into the realm of the counter-initiatory forces. For
“Louis de Maistre” the almost 1000 pages were not enough to clarify the “enigma
Guénon,” and another book was published under another pseudonym: Alexandre de
Dánann, Un envoyé de la Loge Blanche, Bô Yin Râ,49 where again Gustav Meyrink and
Alfred Kubin were mentioned,50 even though this time it is suggested a comparison
between Bô Yin Râ’s book, The Book of the living God, and Guénon’s Le Roi du
Monde.51
Without any doubt, Le Roi du Monde was the most disputed and attacked work of
Guénon, and the notion of Agarttha the most criticized; a lot of energy, hate and
malevolent suggestions were used to annihilate this notion. Also, as we already said,
creating confusion was a very convenient scheme, which could make Agarttha to appear
as a fantasy and Guénon as an “occultist” no better than Bô Yin Râ or Meyrink.

45
Ibid. p. 315.
46
This is not new. When Baron Hund promised to reveal his great secret, everybody was thinking of
something magic and miraculous, yet his secret was that every Mason is a Knight Templar. René Guénon
was very explicit about what an initiatory secret real is. Today, many execrable books about Masonry
abuse the word “secret” in their titles, but it is only a revival of the title of a book written at the end of the
18th Century.
47
L’Énigme René Guénon, p. 108.
48
Ibid. p. 139.
49
Archè, Milano, 2004. L’Énigme René Guénon et les “Supérieurs Inconnus,” Contribution à l’étude de
l’histoire mondiale “souterraine,” was also published in 2004 at Archè.
50
Un envoyé de la Loge Blanche, Bô Yin Râ, pp. 22, 69, 93.
51
Ibid. p. 26. Also, the author, ceaselessly in search for Guénon’s “sources,” advanced the hypothesis that
maybe René Guénon’s idea about the initiation and the counter-initiation came from the Hermetic
Brotherhood of Luxor and Taychou Marou (ibid. p. 49).

8
 L’Enigme René Guénon et l’Agarttha (IV)

However, the hidden objective was not only to present Guénon as a common individual
interested in all kind of occultist subjects, but to suggest his connection to the counter-
initiation.
Therefore, if we ask the question ‘why should “Maistre” spend time writing about Alfred
Kubin?’, the answer is obvious: his objective is, of course, to create confusion; but,
moreover, his efforts aim at creating a parallel between Guénon and Kubin, not by
comparing their works, but by suggesting similarities in respect to their lives, and then,
by implying that they had a similar mentality.
“Louis de Maistre” titles his chapter about Kubin “Alfred Kubin the ‘prophet’ of
Agarttha,”52 which is a wretched and malevolent title, and suggests, of course, a
similitude between Guénon and Kubin. There are other elements, not openly specified but
insinuated: Kubin had health problems when he was young and was very sensitive; and
so was Guénon. Kubin was called “the hermit of Zwickledt”53; Guénon was called by
“Maistre”’s friends “the hermit of Duqqi.”54
For the reader interested in Kubin, “Maistre”’s chapter does not help much; for the reader
interested in Guénon, the chapter is out of place and futile. Hence, it seems that “Maistre”
wrote this chapter for the “traditionalists” (see Guénon’s definition), occultists like
“himself” and for the newcomers, aiming at corroding René Guénon’s reputation; at the
same time, the author(s) had as main purpose to deteriorate the Agarttha concept. To
name Kubin a “prophet” of Agarttha, even if the word prophet is put inside the quotation
marks, is such an enormity that you have to belong to Twain’s “country of dreams” to do
such a thing.
“Maistre” is not embarrassed to declare that many of the themes developed by Kubin in
his novel The Other Side were tackled later by Guénon in his Le règne de la quantité et
les signes des temps.55 Also, he says that some of The Other Side’s themes present, in
detail, disturbing analogies with what Guénon and Ossendowski said about Agarttha.56
As usually, “Maistre,” after throwing out this calumnious affirmation, fakes objectivity,
and adds that these are analogies and not assimilations, and there are fundamental
differences between Guénon and Kubin. If there are fundamental differences, why then
introduce Kubin in “Enigma René Guénon”? Maybe because Kubin, like Meyrink and
others, is more compatible with “Maistre”’s mentality and soul?

52
L’Énigme René Guénon, p. 133.
53
Alfred Kubin, L’Autre côté, Jose Corti, 2007; see Laurent Évrard’s Une lecture de L’Autre côté, p. 368.
54
Xavier Accart, L’Ermite de Duqqi, Archè, 2001.
55
Ibid. p. 135.
56
Ibid. p. 139.