The Feminine Universe Monday, Sep 17 2007
Metaphysics, Philosophy and Science and Society and Culture 7:31 pm
The Feminine Universe by Alice Mary Trent is the first systematic exposition of the Perennial Wisdom. It is an attempt to express in the clearest possible terms and in the smallest possible space the Primordial Philosophy accepted and understood in all times and in all places before the aberrations of the modern world. It gives this philosophy in its feminine form - that being the earliest known on this earth.
Ananda Coomaraswamy described traditional societies as “unanimous societies”: that is societies not fragmented by conflicting factions and opinions, but united by a single, essential Truth. And this unanimity exists - though often unrecognised—not only within all traditional societies, from the red Indian medicine lodge to the Chinese temple, from the Siberian shaman to the Indian guru, from the Platonic West to the Confucian East, but between all traditional societies. Each one is founded upon the same essential, unchanging truths, even though they may express these truths in superficially different ways. Each one is a unique expresion of the Sophia Perennis, the primordial, changeless and eternal wisdom that is the common heritage of all humanity.
While many books have been written about this Primordial Tradition, this is the first one to expound it systematically in its salient features. That alone would make it a book of the greatest significance, but, within an extraordinarily short space, this book does much more than that. It also discusses the essentially feminine nature of the earliest traditions and shows the importance of this in the development of the historical cycle and its special relevance to the developments of the last few decades.
Writers such as René Guénon and Ananda Coomaraswamy have expounded the Sophia Perennis in many volumes. They have done so from a purely metaphysical and Traditional perspective (which is necessarily the highest and truest). While this book certainly expounds metaphysical Truth. which is indeed its very core, it also examines the consequences and ramifications of traditional thought from a lower, more ‘human’ perspective. It takes a fresh look at post-Enlightenment culture, analysing both its faults and its virtues, and shows how, even up to the earlier 20th century, the Traditional spirit remained vital in the aesthetic and cultural life of the Western world. What is necessary is to distinguish between those ‘modern’ developments that are legitimate Final Fruits and those which are truly malignant aberrations.
In the light of this, the book examines phenomena which Guénon and Coomaraswamy did not live to see and comment on: the cultural collapse of the 1960s with its complete inversion of normal values, and most terrible of all, the destruction of femininity and the creation of an unbalanced world in which the Masculine Principle has come to dominate the culture absolutely, extirpating femininity even from the heart of woman herself. This book explains the traditional value of femininity and its essential superiority. It exposes the modern attack on femininity and the absurd doctrine that this cosmic Reality is the result of ’social conditioning’. It shows how what is being lost by the totalitarian imposition of an all-masculine culture is something of immeasurable importance to our spiritual health and our very survival.
The Feminine Universe, a 128-page paperback, can now be bought via PayPal for $19.99 (approximately £10) including postage. See The Ancient Wisdom
November 18, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Being male, and first time visitor to your web, I am in full sympathy with your message. I also take the Primordial Tradition very seriously; you mention R. Guénon and A. K. Coomaraswamy, but not Frithjof Schuon. Not only he is more recent but , I submit, he would be your best ally in all that interests you - you could verify that by reading any of his books, but I would draw your attention in particular to the chapter ´The Problem of Sexuality´in his book, ‘Esoterism as Principle and as Way.
Respectfully yours, Alberto Martin.
November 19, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Honoured sir, thank you for your kind comments. While this particular weblog is specifically Aristasian, you will find much material along the same lines at http://www.mother-god.com
Honoured M. Schuon is certainly recognised. As you will see, he is quoted at the head of the introduction to The Feminine Universe:
http://aristasia.net/fuintro.html - and this piece at the Mother God Chapel certainly recognises his greatness: http://www.mother-god.com/our-lady-mary.html
Incidentally, I have tried to look at your own weblog but it appears to be unavailable. I do hope it will be back again soon as I am most interested to see it.
March 9, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I, as a male, have likewise found Alice Lucy Trent’s foundational work to be a very compelling exposition of the integralist and perennial wisdom and furthermore one which is unique in its clarity. ‘The Feminine Universe’ is a work which expounds the immutable norms of the traditional worldview and its vertical and qualitative-spiritual dimension of Being with great lucidity and contrasts this perennial ‘Prisca Sapientia’ with the ‘pit of quantity’ that is the modern world and mentality, that atomized and delusional inversion of all that is (in the Platonist sense) the True (Agathon. Alice Lucy Trent’s book is an exceptional work of great depth and inspired perception - a providential revelation of traditional metaphysics and wisdom from the universal feminine perspective which was never more timely than in this hideous epoch of masculinism, corrosion and decline. One point I have found especially meaningful ( amongst many)is the Aristasian equivalence of the ‘iron age’ of the Kali Yuga with the planetary rulership of iron by Mars - a most telling correspondance which reveals much about the deteriorated and abnormal conditions of this negative cycle of time.
March 9, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Just an afterthought…This particular point of Aristasian metaphysics, the Hesiodic ‘Age of Iron’/Kali Yuga corresponding to iron as the planetary metal of Mars got me to thinking…this symbolic connection affords a very profound insight into the true nature of this age, especially in the light of Mars as a ‘Malefic’ in traditional astrology and iron naturally linking with the inferior and maleficent aspect of metallurgy and metals, expressed all too tangibly in this cycle of the Mahayuga with its overwhelmingly coarse and degraded climate, the endless turbulence of wars, the ubiquitous atmosphere of aggression which increasingly characterizes daily life in the modern world and the relentless emphasis upon violence in popular culture. Again this chimes with certain concepts in Esoterism, particularly traditonal Kabbalistic ideas re. the connection between Mars and demonic and infra-human powers and Rene Guenon in particular has underlined the connection between iron and metals in this inferior aspect and the demonic potencies (Klippoth) in Jewish mysticism.
Very Best Wishes,
Nigel Jackson