$TLDIE$ IN COMPARATIVE RELIOION

Abhishiktananda
Rodney Blackhirst
Titus Burckhardt
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
]ames $. Cutsiner
Michael Oren Fitzerald
Rene Ouenon
HH the 68th ]aaduru ot Kanchi
Peter Kinsley
Patrick Laude
Marco Pallis
Frithjot $chuon
Timothy $cott
William $toddart
Thomas Yellowtail
Art:ci.s o,
Ec:t.c o,
Harry Oldmeadow
CROSSING
RELIGIOUS
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World Wisdom

Stuc:.s :r Coorot::. R.i::or (19631987) was a landmark in the tield ot traditional

literature, atherin within its paes the wisdom ot some ot the most important thinkers
ot the twentieth century, who wrote mostly trom a principial, primordial, and perennial
perspective that transcended the limitations ot merely tormal boundaries while respectin
tormal orthodoxy. Theretore it is tittin that the muchwelcome revival ot this vital series
is bein inauurated with a tocus on the theme ot 'Crossin Reliious Frontiers.' In
our times, when there is so much misintormation about reliion, so much abuse within
its ranks, and where there are so many encounters with reliion, it is vital tor us to
understand comparative reliion in a way that neither dilutes reliion nor ossities it. The
essays in this edition ot the new series, with their tocus on principles, perspectives, and
encounters between reliions, will aid us in this task."
-Ali Lakhani, author ot Ti. T:.i.ss R.i.:orc. o, Troc:t:oroi V:sco and editor ot
Socr.c V.o: A ourroi o, Troc:t:or orc Moc.rr:t,
This is the most reliable, accessible, and protound introduction to the thouht ot the
leadin perennialist authors ot the twentieth century. This set ot remarkable essays is
indispensable tor every contemporary student ot traditional wisdom."
-Algis Ldavinvs, editor ot Ti. Goic.r Cio:r: Ar Artioio, o, P,tioor.or orc Piotor:c
Pi:iosoi,
To restart the publication ot Stuc:.s :r Coorot::. R.i::or with a volume on 'Crossin
Reliious Frontiers,' is most appropriate. At a time when intertaith dialoue is a dire
necessity, the reliious communities will welcome with reat interest this volume where
real builders ot indepth dialoue were judiciously chosen to express the very roots ot the
issues at stake. The main messae shared by most ot the authors' articles athered in this
volume is that 'crossin reliious trontiers' does not mean 'ray' syncretism but protound
appreciation and understandin ot the various 'colors' or qualities ot each reat reliion."
-JeanPierre Lafouge, Marquette Lniversity, editor ot For Goc's Gr.ot.r Gior,: G.s o,
.su:t S:r:tuoi:t,
HARRY OLDMEADOW is Coordinator ot Reliious $tudies at La Trobe Lniversity Bendio.
Amon his many previous publications is ourr.,s Eost: 2uti C.rtur, V.st.rr Ercourt.rs
u:ti Eost.rr R.i::ous Troc:t:ors (200+). He lives in Manduran, Australia.

R.i::orCoorot::. R.i::or
In a world where misunderstandins and disareements between cultures and taiths
are commonplace, this tascinatin book, the tirst in a new series called $tudies in
Comparative Reliion, helps us put other taiths in context and addresses the problem ot
encounterin torein reliious torms.
43
The Paths of the Ancient Sages:
A Sacred Tradition Between East and West
Peter KingeIey
The year. 1191. At Aleppo in Syria a man called Shihah al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi was
executed on direct orders lrom the reat Islamic ruler, Saladin. He was 38 years old.
His death and short lile miht appear to have nothin to do with ancient Greece, or with
the person known to us as Pythaoras. But appearances are olten misleadin.
Suhrawardi has heen known in Persia since his death as 'The Sheikh ol the East, or simply
as 'He who was killed. While still alive he tauht and wrote ahout how he had uncovered a
continuous line ol esoteric tradition. a tradition that started in the East, passed lrom there to the
early Greek philosophers, then was carried lrom Greece to Eypt where it traveled a lon way
up the Nile and eventually was transmitted lrom southern Eypt hack to Persia.
Ior him this tradition wasn`t just a matter ol history. On the contrary, he presented himsell
as its livin representative in his own time. And he explained that he was the person responsihle
lor hrinin it to its lulnllment hy returnin it, lull circle, to its roots in the East.
The lew people in the West who study Suhrawardi nowadays tend to helieve his vision
ol the past is strictly symholic, that his interpretations ol history aren`t to he taken literally,
or seriously. Suhrawardi himsell, thouh, was very serious ahout what he said. And so were
his successorspeople who down to the present day claim they have perpetuated intact an
esoteric tradition hased not on theorizin or reasonin ahout reality, hut on direct experience
ained throuh spiritual strule and very specinc techniques ol realization.
Ior them this tradition was alive, incredihly powerlul. Suhrawardi descrihed it as an eternal
'leavenlikely to create a tremendous lerment or restless dissatislaction with the way thins
are hut also capahle ol translormin whatever it touches, ol raisin people who are ready into
another level ol hein. And just as yeast acts suhtly hut irresistihly, translormin lrom the
inside, unrestrainahle precisely hecause it`s so suhtle, the theoloians in his time reckoned that
the only way to try and stop his teachin lrom rowin would he to kill him. But ol course in
killin him they stopped nothin.
And Suhrawardi, like his successors amon Persian Suns, was quite precise ahout his
ancestors. He mentions two early Greek philosophers in particular. Pythaoras and a man
lrom Sicily called Empedocles. He also states the name ol the particular town in southern
Eypt where the tradition eventually arrived. And he ives the name ol the man responsihle
lor carryin it out ol Eypt in the ninth centurynearly one and a hall thousand years alter
Pythaoras and Empedocles.
As we will see, he knew what he was sayin. But nrst we need to start at the heinnin.
* * *
Those who specialize in the history ol classical Greece naturally tend to dislike any talk ahout
contacts with the ancient East. It can he disconcertin to nnd that the area you have iven your
lile to studyin is nothin hut one tiny square on a lar vaster chess hoard, that the details you
have heen analyzin lor so lon are just the marks lelt hehind hy chess pieces hein moved lrom
somewhere you don`t know ahout to somewhere you don`t understand.
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Crossin Pe|iiovs Froniiers. SivJies in Comporoiive Pe|iion
Western philosophy is presented nowadays as strictly a Greek phenomenon, explainahle in
Greek terms alone. Claims made hy ancient sources that the earliest philosophers traveled to
distant places in search ol wisdom are dismissed as romantic lantasies, dreamed up hy Greek
writers lon alter the time ol the people they were writin ahout.
The trouhle is that, in the case ol Pythaoras, the reports ahout him travelin lar and wide
o hack more or less to the time when Pythaoras was alive. Historians like to speak ahout what
they call the 'Oriental miraethe exotic illusion conjured up hy Greeks that their culture
owed a reat deal to the East. But the real mirae is the 'Greek mirae. the illusion that the
Greeks rew up in a sell-enclosed world on their own.
The reality is this. the ancient world was one vast, interrelated whole. Everythin was
intimately and suhtly interconnected. You only have to look at what happened in Pythaoras`s
own liletime and you nnd Bahylonian astroloical traditions hein introduced into Eypt hy
Persian Mai. Iurther to the east, the same traditions were hein carried hy Mai to India.
Almost everywhere you look nowadays it`s stated that Alexander the Great was responsihle lor
openin up the Eastcenturies alter Pythaoras. But that`s just a myth. The routes Alexander`s
army lollowed had heen used hy Persian traders, and teachers, lon helore Alexander was even
horn.
Then there`s the case ol Pythaoras himsell. His home was an island called Samos, just
oll the mainland lrom what`s now the Mediterranean coast ol Turkey. It so happens that the
people ol Samos were amon the specialists ol specialists in lon-distance trade. They had a
reputation lor travelin and tradin that was almost mythical in its dimensions. And there is
nothin mythical or unreal at all ahout the archaeoloical discoveries that show how the reat
temple ol Hera on Samos hecame a storehouse lor ohjects imported lrom Syria and Bahylonia,
lrom the Caucasus, Central Asia, India.
Ol all the places that people lrom Samos did trade with, there`s one in particular that they
had close ties with. This was Eypt. They huilt their own depots and places ol worship alon
the Nile, toether with other Greeks. Ior them Eypt wasn`t just some lorein or exotic land.
It heloned to the world they knew and lived and worked in.
And that`s only part ol the story. Accordin to an old tradition, Pythaoras`s lather was a
em enraver. What Pythaoras` lather did, Pythaoras himsell would have learned as a matter
ol course. But lor a Greek em enraver ol the time, in the middle ol the sixth century BC,
lile would have meant learnin skills introduced lrom Phoenicia and hrinin in materials lrom
the East. We happen to know ahout other lamous em enravers on Samos at the time when
Pythaoras was alive. They trained in Eypt, worked lor kins ol Anatolia, produced some ol
the nnest works ol art riht in the heart ol ancient Persiahecause Samos was an island that,
lrom century to century, had the closest ol ties with Persia.
* * *
The realities ol history are lull ol ironies and paradoxes at every turn. With Pythaoras the
paradoxes start multiplyin lrom the moment he decided, in around 530 BC, to leave Samos
and settle in Italy.
The island where he had rown up had contacts with Eypt, and one would suppose that in
leavin Samos lor the West he was leavin those contacts hehind. But he didn`t leave anythin
hehind. Italy was saturated with innuences lrom Eypt. The most extraordinary nnds have
heen made, there and in Sicily, like Eyptian maical ohjects datin lrom the seventh century
45
Peier Kins|e,, T|e Poi|s o| i|e Ancieni Soes
BC that show the oddess Isis sucklin her son Horus. Their similarities to the imaery ol
Persephone sucklin her son Dionysusimaery that depicts the crucial moment in Orphic
mysteries ol initiation, when the initiate dies to he rehorn as Persephone`s childare hy no
means a coincidence.
Orphic tradition hlossomed in Italy. Early Pythaorean tradition ahsorhed its lanuae and
techniques, made them its own. And in oriin they`re plainly Eyptian.
This is particularly clear in the case ol the lamous Orphic old plates that oriinally were
huried toether with initiates in south-Italian tomhs. They`re pieces ol lolded old loil, inscrihed
with directions lor nndin one`s way in the world ol the dead and with promises lor ohtainin
immortality. They descrihe the uardians in the underworld that challene the soul, prevent it
lrom nndin the relreshment it needs. But then they remind the soul how to announce its real
identity hy statin that it helons with the ods.
And here we come to the other man mentioned hy Suhrawardi alonside Pythaoras. the
reat philosopher Empedocles. Empedocles lived in the nlth century BC and played the major
role ol transmittin Pythaoras` teachins in Sicily. He used the lanuae ol the old plates in
the poetry he wrote, and throuh what he says he shows that the process ol dyin to he rehorn
doesn`t just reler to dyin physically. Initiates had to die helore they diedlace the underworld
helore their physical death.
The similarities in detail hetween the maical sayins on the old plates and Eyptian texts
in the BooI o| i|e DeoJ are ohvious. But what hasn`t heen realized is that this isn`t just a case
ol parallels hetween texts lrom Italy and texts lrom Eypt. the missin links have also heen
discovered.
They`re strane discoveries, like steppin stones carelully markin out a curve ol innuence
that stretches lrom Eypt across to Italy. Strips ol old loil have heen lound in tomhs at Carthae,
on the coast ol what now is Tunisia, and on the island ol Sardinia. They were put there durin
the seventh, sixth and nlth centuries BC. The strips were made hy Phoenicianshut they`re
enraved with Eyptian imaes. And they were rolled up, like amulets, inside tuhes olten
sculpted with pictures ol Eyptian ods.
You won`t nnd much mention ol these strips ol old loil in Phoenician tomhs. Most modern
historians have little respect lor Phoenicians, disreard them as inlerior to the Greeks. Evidence
that Pythaoreans in Italy included Phoenicians amon their numher, or were tauht hy
Phoenicians, is nelected. And no sinincance is seen in how one particular manthe man who
most hlatantly ives the lie to the modern lantasy that ancient Pythaoreans were impractical
dreamersis said to have learned mechanics and enineerin lrom a Phoenician in Carthae.
The man`s name was Archytas. He was Plato`s reatest lriend amon the Pythaoreans, and
he alon with his disciples transmitted to Plato the wisdom preserved in the lamous Platonic
myths. But already in Plato`s own circle the tendency to lorily the Greeks, especially the
Athenians, at everyone else`s expense quickly covered over the lacts. It was Plato`s secretary
who wrote down the lamous statement that 'whatever Greeks receive lrom harharians they
improve on, carry to perlection.
And it was precisely the people who were in a position to know hest who went so lar
in creatin our Western sense ol superiority that now we nnd ourselves proudly clutchin at
straws.
* * *
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Crossin Pe|iiovs Froniiers. SivJies in Comporoiive Pe|iion
Traditions have their ehhs and nows, just as cultures do. People o, whether they understand
why or not, exactly where they`re needed.
Eyptian ideas had lor a lon time heen carried to Italy, hut eventually the opposite
movement startedlrom Italy hack to Eypt. It hean in a hi way when Alexander the Great
had the city called Alexandria huilt at the mouth ol the Nile durin the late lourth century BC.
People in southern Italy and Sicily ave themselves all kinds ol reasons lor doin what they had
to do. emiratin to Eypt.
Pythaoreanism itsell had always heen a nexihle tradition. Its personal demands on anyone
who wanted to hecome a Pythaorean were immense. But, paradoxically, to he a Pythaorean
meant helonin to a system that encouraed initiative and creativity. that kept chanin,
consciously adaptin to the needs ol dillerent people and places and times.
So when Pythaoreans started arrivin in Eypt they didn`t simply set up shop as Pythaoreans.
They also started merin their teachins with a tradition that was eminently Eyptian. This
was the tradition that heloned to the od Thothor, as he came to he called hy Greeks in
Eypt, Hermes Trismeistus.
The Hermetic texts, or 'Hermetica, that hean hein produced in Greek were initiatory
writins. They served a very particular and practical purpose inside the circles ol Hermetic
mystics. And many ol the methods they descrihe, as well as a reat deal ol the terminoloy they
use, are specincally Pythaorean in oriin.
But the Hermetica are lar more than adaptations ol Pythaorean themes. They are also the
most ohvious manilestation ol Pythaoreanism returnin to Eypt.
Until not lon ao, the occasional relerences to Eyptian ods and reliion in the Hermetic
writins were dismissed as superncial veneer. as touches ol local color added to the Greek
texts to ive them the illusion that they contained the authentic wisdom ol Eypt. But the
Hermetic literature is Eyptian to its core. Even the name 'Poimandres or 'Pymander, the
title olten iven to the Hermetica as a whole, is Eyptian throuh and throuh. It`s simply a
Greek version ol Peime niere, 'the intellience ol Re. And the od who was known in Eypt
as the 'intellience ol the sun od, Re, was Thoththe Eyptian Hermes.
Already in the early 1990s it was possihle to start mappin out the details ol how much
the Hermetica owed to Eypt. The resultin picture was startlin enouh. But then somethin
extraordinary happened.
In 1995 two historians quietly announced the existence ol a BooI o| T|oi|, written in
Demotic Eyptian. ust like the Greek Hermetica, it`s a dialoue hetween a teacher and disciple.
The teacher is Thoth 'the three times reatthe exact equivalent ol Hermes Trismeistus.
He talks, like in the Greek Hermetica, ahout the process ol rehirth. ahout the need to hecome
youn when you`re old, old instead ol youn.
The BooI o| T|oi| is purely Eyptian, with not a trace or sin ol any lorein innuence. But
its eneral correspondences with the Greek Hermetic texts, and its parallels with them down
to the most specinc expressions and details, prove without any douht that here we have a lost
Eyptian prototype ol the Hermetica only known to us helore throuh their Greek translations
and adaptations.
These were the Eyptian traditions that Pythaoreanism started merin with to hecome
those Greek Hermetica. And you could say that in doin so it was at last comin home.
* * *
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Peier Kins|e,, T|e Poi|s o| i|e Ancieni Soes
The Greek Hermetic writins weren`t the end ol Pythaoreanism`s return to Eypt. On the
contrary, they were just the heinnin.
Already in the second century BC Greek-speakin Eyptians who lived on the Nile Delta
had started receivin Pythaorean traditions on one hand and, on the other, shapin what was to
hecome known as the art ol alchemy. Northern Eypt was simply the startin point lor a whole
process ol transmission lrom West hack to East.
Over the centuries a comhination ol Pythaoreanism and alchemy was carried hundreds ol
miles alon the Nile, down towards the Ethiopian lrontier. And it was carried to one town in
particular. The Greeks called it Panopolis, later it would hecome known as Akhmim. It`s heen
said that outwardly this town in the middle ol the desert 'has no history. That`s quite correct.
Its history and sinincance heloned in another dimension.
The most lamous ol Greek alchemists, Zosimus, lived in the third century AD. He came
lrom Panopolis. Already in his time there were small roups ol alchemists either livin in
the town or stayin in contact with the alchemists who lived there. These roups weren`t
just concerned with translormin physical ohjects. They were also preservin and perlectin
techniques lor the translormation ol themselves.
It was here, when the real meanin ol early Greek philosophy had already hecome lost in
the West, that the alchemists kept those philosophers` teachins aliveespecially the teachins
ol Pythaoras and the Pythaoreans. And they would o on preservin the sinincance ol their
teachins intact, lrom eneration to eneration, lor hundreds ol years.
It`s still possihle to trace how the teachins ol Empedocles in particular were transmitted
lrom Sicily down to Eypt and into the Hermetica, into Eyptian maical traditions, and in
alchemical circles all the way down to Akhmim. In 1998 the remains ol a papyrus, discovered
at Akhmim, which had contained hue amounts ol Empedocles` poetry were puhlished lor the
nrst time. This was much more than a chance discovery.
Durin the ninth century AD, seven hundred years alter Empedocles` teachins had
heen copied onto this papyrus, an alchemist in Akhmim wrote a work that was to have the
proloundest innuence on virtually every aspect ol medieval alchemy. His name was Uthman
Ihn Suwaid, and he wrote the work in Arahic.
It hecame known in the Islamic world as T|e BooI o| i|e Coi|erin, translated into Latin it
came to he called the Tvrbo p|i|osop|orvm, or Coi|erin o| i|e P|i|osop|ers. The hook descrihed
a series ol meetins hetween ancient Greek philosophers at lour 'Pythaorean conlerences,
all ol them dedicated to ettin to the heart ol the alchemical art. The meetins were presided
over hy Pythaoras himsell. And in the text one ol the speakers at the atherin, Empedocles,
outlines enuine aspects ol the historical Empedocles` teachinahout the lundamental
importance ol nre at the center ol the earthwhich until recently had heen, when not just
lorotten, completely distorted in the West.
The sinincance ol these details is immense. What Empedocles wrote and tauht durin
the nlth century BC played a crucial role in shapin Western philosophy, Western science, the
history ol Western ideas. But the simple lact is that a true understandin ol what Empedocles had
tauht didn`t survive in the West. All that was lelt there ol his teachinahout the mysteries
ol the world around us, ahout the nature ol the soulwas empty theorizin and hollow ideas.
The lived reality had moved elsewhere.
It`s strane, now, to look at the survivin evidence in Arahic texts ahout the existence ol
roups ol alchemists who called themselves 'Empedocles circles, or 'Pythaoras circles. You
nnd 'Empedocles circles mentioned aain in descriptions ol Islamic esoteric roups who saw
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Crossin Pe|iiovs Froniiers. SivJies in Comporoiive Pe|iion
Empedocles as their uide. who 'reard themselves as lollowers ol his wisdom and hold him
superior to all other authorities. Here were people who in spite ol their culture, reliion,
lanuae, took as their inspiration and teacher a man who had lived one and a hall thousand
years helore them.
* * *
And this is where we come hack to Suhrawardi, 'Sheikh ol the East.
It was Suhrawardi who ave the name ol the man who passed the essence ol Pythaoras`
and Empedocles` teachins to the Suns. Dhu `l-Nun.
Dhu `l-Nun came lrom Akhmim. He was nercely attacked hy Islamic theoloians, put
on trial. He narrowly escaped with his lile. And this man, who aroused so much opposition
throuh what he tauht, would come to he known as 'the head ol the Suns lor the simple
reason that practically every line ol Suns in existence looks hack in one way or another to him.
He soon came to he considered the crucial nure in 'a line ol secret nostic teachin that
he transmitted to the reat Sun Sahl al-Tustari and thenthrouh Sahlto Sahl`s disciple al-
Hallaj and into the early Sun orders. But Dhu `l-Nun was also lamous lor his involvement with
alchemy, and lor derivin his wisdom lrom the alchemical traditions preserved at Akhmim.
This connection hetween alchemy and the heinnins ol Sunsm has olten heen put aside as
somethin ol an emharrassment. And yet, as a lew historians have realized, the evidence lor the
connection oes hack too lar into the past to he discounted so easily.
But even that isn`t all, hecause there is one other piece ol evidence that stranely has heen
missed.
This is the lact that the earliest witness to Dhu `l-Nun`s involvement with alchemy lived
hardly any later than Dhu `l-Nun himsell. He was Ihn Suwaid, the alchemist lrom Akhmim
who wrote the Pythaorean BooI o| i|e Coi|erinand who, alonside the other alchemical
hooks he produced, wrote one specincally relutin the accusations leveled aainst Dhu `l-Nun.
Apart lrom his connections with alchemy and Pythaoras, with Empedocles and Dhu
`l-Nun, Ihn Suwaid was linked with the heinnins ol Sunsm in more ways than one. He also
wrote a work called BooI o| i|e PeJ Sv|p|vr. That`s hihly sinincant. Red sulphur played a
crucial role lor alchemists hecause it represented the liht in the depths ol the underworld, the
sun at midniht, the nre at the center ol the earth. But it`s sinincant, as well, hecause BooI o|
i|e PeJ Sv|p|vr was soon to hecome a standard hook title amon Suns themselves. Ior them,
red sulphur was the name used to descrihe the essence ol the esoteric 'inheritance that was
the ultimate oal ol hein a Sun.
The tendency nowadays is to assume that when Suns took over this alchemical lanuae
they chaned its meanin hy spiritualizin it, ivin it a hiher sinincance which it hadn`t had
helore. But that`s as accurate as the heliel that Carl un in the twentieth century was the nrst
person who ever ave alchemy an inner or symholic meanin, who explained it as relatin to
human translormation.
The simple lact is that the oldest alchemical texts in the West which survive in anythin
approachin their lull and oriinal state talk explicitly ahout alchemy as the art ol inner
translormationas the process ol hrinin the divine into human existence and takin the
human hack to the divine.
These texts have never heen properly translated into Enlish. They were written down in
Greek durin the third century hy Zosimus, the lamous alchemist lrom the town ol Panopolis
or Akhmim.
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Peier Kins|e,, T|e Poi|s o| i|e Ancieni Soes
* * *
It`s no surprise that Suhrawardi was killed.
His writins show he was a deep Muslim, proloundly inspired hy the Quran. But the hasic
thrust ol his teachin pointed in another direction. It was mainly throuh him that Empedocles
and Pythaoras came to he seen, especially hy certain Suns in Persia, as amon the reatest ol
Sheikhs who had ever lived.
Ol course this way ol viewin ancient philosophers has no place at all in the standard pictures
ol Sunsmany more than the idea ol Empedocles or Pythaoras as teachers, responsihle lor
transmittin an esoteric tradition hased on enuine spiritual practice and realization, has any
place in the standard pictures ol ancient philosophy.
But that was hound to happen. Ior a lon time in the West we`ve manaed to loret the
oriinal meanin ol the word 'philosophy. love ol wisdom, not the love ol endlessly talkin
and aruin ahout the love ol wisdom. And what`s even sadder is the way we`ve manaed to
persuade ourselves that we haven`t lorotten anythin.
As one ol Suhrawardi`s successorshis name was Shahrazuristated very simply, the
realities that Suhrawardi wrote ahout and died lor are so lundamental they aren`t easy to
understand. In the West it was a lon time ao that 'the traces ol the paths ol the ancient saes
disappeared, 'that their teachins were either wiped out or corrupted and distorted.
But, as Suhrawardi and his lollowers knew, these realities are never lost lor ood.