title: Sardinian language

text: Historically, the Sardinians have always been a small-numbered population scattered across isolated cantons, sharing demographic patterns similar to the neighbouring Corsica; as a result, Sardinian developed a broad spectrum of dialects over the time. Starting from Francesco Cetti's description in the 18th century, Sardinian has been presented as a pluricentric language, being traditionally subdivided into two standardized varieties spoken by roughly half of the entire community: the dialects spoken in North-Central Sardinia, centered on the orthography known as Logudorese ("su sardu logudoresu"), and the dialects spoken in South-Central Sardinia, centered on another orthography called Campidanese ("su sardu campidanesu").


title: Sardinian language

text: All the Sardinian dialects differ primarily in phonetics, which does not considerably hamper intelligibility; the view of there being a dialectal boundary rigidly separating the two varieties of High Sardinian has been in fact subjected to more recent research, which shows a fluid dialect continuum from the northern to the southern ends of the island. The dualist perception of the Sardinian dialects, rather than pointing to an actual isogloss, is in fact the result of a psychological adherence to the way Sardinia was administratively subvidided into a "Caput Logudori" ("Cabu de Susu") and a "Caput Calaris" ("Cabu de Jossu") by the Spanish.


title: Sardinian language

text: The dialects centered on the "Logudorese Sardinian model" are generally considered more conservative, with the Nuorese dialect of Sardinian ("su sardu nugoresu") being deemed the most conservative of all. They have all retained the classical Latin pronunciation of the stop velars ("kena" versus "cena", "supper"), the front middle vowels (compare Campidanese iotacism, probably from Byzantine Greek) and assimilation of close-mid vowels ("cane" versus "cani", "dog" and "gattos" versus "gattus", "cats"). Labio-velars become plain labials ("limba" versus "lingua", "language" and "abba" versus "acua", "water"). "I" is prosthesized before consonant clusters beginning in "s" ("iscala" versus Campidanese Sardinian "scala", "stairway" and "iscola" versus "scola", "school"). An east-west strip of villages in central Sardinia, mainly in the central part of the Province of Oristano, and central part of the Province of Nuoro, speaks a transitional group of dialects ("su sardu de mesania"). Examples include "is limbas" (the languages) and "is abbas" (the waters). The dialects centered on the Campidanese model, spreading from Cagliari (once the metropolis of the Roman province), show relatively more influences from Carthage, Rome, Constantinople and Late Latin. Examples include "is fruminis" (the rivers) and "is domus" (the houses).


title: Sardinian language

text: Some dialects of Sardinian from the extreme ends of the aforementioned continuum have been estimated in another research to have 88% of matches in 110-item wordlist, similarly to the 85–88% number of matches between Provençal Occitan and some Catalan dialects which by some standards is usually (even though arbitrarily) considered characteristic for two different, albeit very closely related, languages. ISO 639 counts four Sardinian languages (Campidanese, Gallurese, Logudorese and Sassarese), each with its own language code.


title: Sardinian language

text: Sardinian is the indigenous and historical language of most Sardinian communities. However, Sardinian is not spoken as the native and primary language in a significant number of other ones, roughly amounting to 20% of the Sardinian population; Sassari, the second-largest city on Sardinia and the main center of the northern half of the island, is amongst the latter. The aforementioned Gallurese and Sassarese, despite being often colloquially considered part of Sardinian, are two Corso-Sardinian transitional languages; they are spoken in the northernmost part of Sardinia, although some Sardinian is also understood by the majority of people living therein (73.6% in Gallura and 67.8% in the Sassarese-speaking subregion).


title: Sardinian language

text: Francesco Cetti, responsible for the dialectal partition of the Sardinian language in his early dissertation, went on to deem these Corso-Sardinian varieties spoken in the island "foreign" (i.e. not indigenous to Sardinia) and therefore "not national" (i.e. non-Sardinian) in that he averred they would be "an Italian dialect, much more Tuscan in fact than the vast majority of Italy's dialects themselves".


title: Sardinian language

text: There are also two language islands, the Catalan Algherese-speaking community from the inner city of Alghero (northwest Sardinia) and the Ligurian-speaking towns of Carloforte, in San Pietro Island, and Calasetta in Sant'Antioco island (south-west Sardinia).


title: Sardinian language

text: Until 2001, there was not a unifying orthographic standard available for all the dialects of Sardinian, neither in the literary nor in the oral domain (one designed for the latter does not exist to this day).


title: Sardinian language

text: After the Middle Ages, where a certain orthographic uniformity can be observed, the only steps to provide the language with a single standard, called "illustrious Sardinian", were undertaken by such writers as Hieronimu Araolla, Ioan Mattheu Garipa and Matteo Madau, who had based their works on the model of medieval Sardinian. However, attempts to formalise and spread this orthography would be hindered by the Iberian and later Savoyard authorities.


title: Sardinian language

text: The dialectally fragmented nature of the language is such that it is popularly contended that Sardinian is divided into two or more groups, which have provided themselves with a series of traditional orthographies already, albeit with many changes over the time. While this belief is not grounded on linguistic considerations, it is however motivated by political and social reasons.


title: Sardinian language

text: In addition to the orthographies commonly referred to as "Logudorese" and "Campidanese", the Nuorese orthography, the Arborense one and even those restricted to individual towns were also developed, sometimes finding common ground with some general rules, such as those required by the Ozieri Award. It is often the case, however, that speakers who are not commonly taught the Sardinian language and are thus literate only in Italian, for lack of a bilingual education, transcribe their local spelling following rules pertaining to the latter rather than the former.


title: Sardinian language

text: However, some attempts have been made to introduce a single orthographic form for administrative purposes over the recent decades; said form does not aim to refer to morphology and syntax, which is already fairly homogeneous, but concerns itself primarily with spelling.


title: Sardinian language

text: To allow for an effective implementation of the provisions on the language, as per the regional law no. 26/1997 and the national law no. 482/1999, the Sardinian Autonomous Region arranged for a commission of experts to elaborate a standard capable of overcoming the hurdle posed by the dialectal differences and thereby providing a unified writing system. A first proposal (the LSU: "Limba Sarda Unificada", published on 28 February 2001) was tabled, which identified a model language of reference (based on the analysis of local varieties of Sardinian and on the selection of the most representative and compatible models) so as to guarantee the necessary characteristics of certainty, coherence, univocity, and supra-local diffusion. The people appointed for the task were Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, Roberto Bolognesi, Diego Salvatore Corraine, Ignazio Delogu, Antonietta Dettori, Giulio Paulis, Massimo Pittau, Tonino Rubattu, Leonardo Sole, Heinz Jürgen Wolf, and Matteo Porru acting as the Committee's secretary. This study, although scientifically valid, has never been adopted at an institutional level: critics argued that it was an "artificial" system "imposed" on Sardinian speakers.


title: Sardinian language

text: Nevertheless, the LSU would act as a springboard for a subsequent drafting proposal, this time drawn by a new Committee composed of Giulio Angioni, Roberto Bolognesi, Manlio Brigaglia, Michel Contini, Diego Corraine, Giovanni Lupinu, Anna Oppo, Giulio Paulis, Maria Teresa Pinna Catte and Mario Puddu. The new project continued to be worked on, going by the name of LSC ("Limba Sarda Comuna"). The new experimental standard proposal, published in 2006, was characterised by taking the "mesania" (transitional) varieties as reference, and welcoming elements of the spoken language so as to be perceived as a more "natural" mediation; it also ensured that the common orthography would be provided with the characteristics of over-dialectality and supra-municipality, while being open to integrating the phonetic peculiarities of the local variants. Despite this, there was some criticism for this norm as well, both by those who proposed amendments to improve it, and by those who preferred to insist with the idea of dividing Sardinian into two macro-variants with their own separate orthographies.


title: Sardinian language

text: The Sardinian Regional Government, with the resolution of the Regional Council n. 16/14 of 18 April 2006 "Limba Sarda Comuna. Adoption of the reference standards of an experimental nature for the written language output of the Regional Administration", has experimentally adopted the LSC as the official orthography for the acts and documents issued by the Region of Sardinia (even if, as per Article 8 of the national Law no. 482/99, only the text written in Italian has legal value), giving citizens the right to write to the Public Administration in their own variety and establishing the regional language desk "Ufitziu de sa Limba Sarda". The resolution does not aim to impose the guide and further notes that it is "open to integrations" and that "all solutions are of equal linguistic value".


title: Sardinian language

text: In the following years, the Region has abided by the LSC standard in the translation of many documents and resolutions and in many other areas. In addition, the LSC standard has been adopted on a voluntary basis by many other institutions, schools and media, often in a complementary manner with orthographic norms closer to the local spelling. Regarding these uses, a percentage estimate was made, considering only the projects financed or co-financed by the Region for the diffusion of the Sardinian language in the municipal and supra-municipal language offices, for the teaching in schools and the media from 2007 to 2013.


title: Sardinian language

text: The monitoring, by the Sardinian Language and Culture Service of the Department of Public Education, was published on the website of the Sardinian Autonomous Region in April 2014. Regarding the school projects financed in 2013, for example, it appears that there was a clear preference, in schools, for the use of the LSC orthographic standard together with a local spelling (51%), compared to the exclusive use of the LSC (11%) or the exclusive use of a local spelling (33%).


title: Sardinian language

text: On the other hand, regarding the editorial projects in Sardinian language in the regional media, financed by the Region in 2012, we find a greater presence of the LSC (which could derive from a reward of 2 points in the formation of the rankings to take funding, a reward that was not present in the notice for schools). According to those data, it appears that 35% of textual production in media projects was in LSC, 35% in LSC and in local spellings and 25% in local spellings only.


title: Sardinian language

text: The local language offices, co-financed by the Regional Government, in 2012 used LSC in 50% of their writing, LSC together with local spelling for 9% and local spellings for 41%.


title: Sardinian language

text: A recent research on the use of the LSC orthography in schools, carried out in the municipality of Orosei, showed that the students of the local middle school had no problem using that standard despite the fact that the Sardinian they spoke was partly different. No pupil rejected it or considered it "artificial", a thing that proved its validity as a didactic tool. The results were first presented in 2016 and published in an article in 2021.


title: Sardinian language

text: From the Sardinian language stem both the historical , which the natives used to confer on each other until contemporary times, as well as most of the traditional surnames still common on the island. Sardinian place names have a very ancient history and, in some cases, have originated a significant debate about their origins.


title: An Education

text: An Education is a 2009 coming-of-age drama film based on a memoir of the same name by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby. It stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David, the charming conman who seduces her. The film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards in 2010: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby, and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan.


title: An Education

text: "An Education" premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It screened on 10 September 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was featured at the Telluride by the Sea Film Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 19 September 2009. The film was shown on 9 October 2009, at the Mill Valley Film Festival. It was released in the US on 16 October 2009 and in the UK on 30 October 2009.


title: An Education

text: In 1961 London, Jenny Mellor is a bright and beautiful 16-year-old schoolgirl who wishes to attend Oxford University. Her studies are controlled by her strict, overbearing father, Jack. After youth orchestra rehearsals, Jenny waits at a bus stop on the street in the rain when she meets David Goldman, a seductive older man driving a Bristol 405. Telling her that he is a music lover and that he is worried about her cello getting wet, David convinces Jenny to put her cello in his car while she walks alongside. As the rain becomes stronger, Jenny asks David if she can sit inside his car. The two continue talking about music and, before being dropped off, Jenny confesses that she will be able to do whatever she wants when she reaches university, such as going to art galleries and watching French films, wishing for a life of culture and luxury. The following week, David leaves flowers on Jenny's front porch, wishing her luck at her youth orchestra's concert. Later, she sees him outside the cafe she and her friends are in and approaches him. After a little small talk, David asks Jenny if she is free to go see a concert and have supper with him and his friends. She happily agrees and thanks him.


title: An Education

text: On the night of the concert, Jack disapproves of Jenny going while her much more lenient mother, Marjorie, tells him otherwise. David comes by to pick Jenny up and to talk to her parents, where he easily charms his way into convincing Jack that he take Jenny home later than her intended curfew. They arrive at the concert where Jenny meets David's friends, Danny and Helen. Afterward, they go to dinner at a fancy restaurant, where they invite Jenny to an art auction. David picks up Jenny at school and they go to the auction, winning a bid for a painting by Edward Burne-Jones and going to Danny's place afterwards. They talk about Oxford and they all agree to go and visit together the following weekend.


title: An Education

text: Jenny hears a commotion late one night and sees David drinking with her parents. He then uses the opportunity to ask them if he can take Jenny to Oxford, saying that he used to study there and would like to visit his old teacher, Clive Lewis, the author of "The Chronicles of Narnia". Her parents are reluctant at first, but agree, seeing it as a good opportunity. At Oxford, Jenny discovers that David is a con man who makes money through a variety of shady practices. She is initially shocked but silences her misgivings as she succumbs to David's charm. Back at her home, Jenny and David have their first kiss. Jenny then shows a signed copy of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" to her parents, which David actually signed. Impressed by his connections and charisma, Jack and Marjorie approve of their romantic relationship.


title: An Education

text: On the night of Jenny's 17th birthday, David arrives with presents and tells her parents that he intends to take her to Paris as a special birthday gift. Her father angrily disapproves, but later agrees after David talks to him. In Paris, the two dance, take photos, and Jenny eventually loses her virginity to David. Back in London, Jenny gives her favorite teacher, Miss Stubbs, Chanel perfume as a gift from her trip. Miss Stubbs refuses the gift, telling Jenny that she knows where it came from and is both concerned and disapproving of her relationship with David. They argue and have a falling-out. Later that night, David proposes marriage. Jenny accepts the proposal and, after an argument with the headmistress, decides to drop out of school and not apply to university.


title: An Education

text: While getting petrol on their way to dinner with her parents, Jenny rummages through the car's glove compartment for a cigarette and discovers, through letters, that David is already married. Shocked, Jenny tells David to take her and her parents back home. Jenny argues with David, telling him she gave up her education to be with him. David says he will get a divorce and agrees that he will go and tell her parents the truth with her. She then goes inside her house, her father asking what happened. Jenny tells her parents that David is mustering up the courage before coming inside to confront them. However, he drives off and is never seen again.


title: An Education

text: Jenny despairs, blaming Danny and Helen for not telling her the truth early on and blaming her parents for letting her throw her life away with an older man. Jenny confronts David's wife, and learns that David is a serial adulterer, and has a son. Later that night, Jack apologizes to Jenny, admitting that he messed up and that he believed David could give her the life she wanted. Jack points out that although David wasn't who he said he was, Jenny had also deceived her parents about David's nature by playing along with some of David's lies to her parents. Jenny then goes back to her school, requesting to repeat her last year and take her exams, but is refused re-admission. She then goes to Miss Stubbs, asking for help. She resumes her studies and is accepted at Oxford the following year. In a closing voiceover, Jenny shares a story about dating boys her age and starting over with fresh eyes, despite her experiences with David.


title: An Education

text: Nick Hornby created the screenplay based on an autobiographical essay by the British journalist Lynn Barber about her schoolgirl affair with conman Simon Prewalski, referred to by her as Simon Goldman, which was published in the literary magazine "Granta" (82: Life's Like That, Summer 2003). Hornby was the boyfriend of Amanda Posey, the film's producer, whom he later married.


title: An Education

text: Both the memoir and the film also allude briefly to Peter Rachman, the notorious post-World War II London property speculator, who Goldman is working for. Barber's full memoir, "An Education", was not published in book form until June 2009, when filming had already been completed. Hornby said that what appealed to him in the memoir was that "She's a suburban girl who's frightened that she's going to get cut out of everything good that happens in the city. That, to me, is a big story in popular culture. It's the story of pretty much every rock 'n' roll band." Although the screenplay involved Hornby writing about a teenage girl, he did not feel it was more challenging than writing any other character: "I think the moment you're writing about somebody who's not exactly you, then the challenge is all equal. I was glad that everyone around me on this movie was a woman so that they could watch me carefully. But I don't remember anyone saying to me, 'That isn't how women think.'"


title: An Education

text: Although Jenny's family home and her school are supposed to be in the suburb of Twickenham, Middlesex (incorrectly referred to as 'Twickenham, London' – Twickenham did not become part of Greater London until 1965), the residential scenes featured in the film were shot on Carbery Avenue in the Gunnersbury area of Ealing, west London as well as Mattock Lane in West Ealing and The Japanese School in Acton, which used to be the site of the girls' school called Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls. The concert hall shown in the film, St John's, Smith Square would have still been a wartime ruin at the time the film was set. It was subsequently restored and opened as a concert hall in October 1969.


title: An Education

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 197 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though the latter part of the film may not appeal to all, "An Education" is a charming coming-of-age tale powered by the strength of former newcomer Carey Mulligan's standout performance." The film has a Metacritic score of 85/100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: An Education

text: "An Education" won the Audience Choice award and the Cinematography award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Mulligan won a Hollywood Film Festival award for Best Hollywood Breakthrough Performance for a Female.


title: An Education

text: The film received three nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress for Carey Mulligan and Best Adapted Screenplay, but did not win in any category. The 63rd British Academy Film Awards saw the film come away with one award (for Best Actress) from nine nominations. The film received six British Independent Film Awards nominations and five Satellite Awards nominations.


title: An Education

text: The first adaptation of the screenplay to live theatre was staged at the University of St Andrews in 2019 at the annual On the Rocks Festival.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border spans the centre of the lake.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The Canadian cities of Toronto, Kingston, Mississauga, and Hamilton are located on the lake's northern and western shorelines, while the American city of Rochester is located on the south shore. In the Huron language, the name means "great lake". Its primary inlet is the Niagara River from Lake Erie. The last in the Great Lakes chain, Lake Ontario serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River, comprising the eastern end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam regulates the water level of the lake.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area (7,340 sq mi, 18,960 km), although it exceeds Lake Erie in volume (393 cu mi, 1,639 km). It is the 13th largest lake in the world. When its islands are included, the lake's shoreline is long. As the last lake in the Great Lakes' hydrologic chain, Lake Ontario has the lowest mean surface elevation of the lakes at 243 feet (74 m) above sea level; lower than its neighbor upstream. Its maximum length is , and its maximum width is . The lake's average depth is 47 fathoms 1 foot (283 ft; 86 m), with a maximum depth of 133 fathoms 4 feet (802 ft; 244 m). The lake's primary source is the Niagara River, draining Lake Erie, with the Saint Lawrence River serving as the outlet. The drainage basin covers 24,720 square miles (64,030 km). As with all the Great Lakes, water levels change both within the year (owing to seasonal changes in water input) and among years (owing to longer-term trends in precipitation). These water level fluctuations are an integral part of lake ecology and produce and maintain extensive wetlands. The lake also has an important freshwater fishery, although it has been negatively affected by factors including overfishing, water pollution and invasive species.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Baymouth bars built by prevailing winds and currents have created a significant number of lagoons and sheltered harbors, mostly near (but not limited to) Prince Edward County, Ontario, and the easternmost shores. Perhaps the best-known example is Toronto Bay, chosen as the site of the Upper Canada capital for its strategic harbor. Other prominent examples include Hamilton Harbour, Irondequoit Bay, Presqu'ile Bay, and Sodus Bay. The bars themselves are the sites of long beaches, such as Sandbanks Provincial Park and Sandy Island Beach State Park. These sand bars are often associated with large wetlands, which support large numbers of plant and animal species, as well as providing important rest areas for migratory birds. Presqu'ile, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, is particularly significant in this regard. One unique feature of the lake is the Z-shaped Bay of Quinte which separates Prince Edward County from the Ontario mainland, save for a isthmus near Trenton; this feature also supports many wetlands and aquatic plants, as well as associated fisheries.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Major rivers draining into Lake Ontario include the Niagara River, Don River, Humber River, Rouge River, Trent River, Cataraqui River, Genesee River, Oswego River, Black River, Little Salmon River, and the Salmon River.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The lake basin was carved out of soft, weak Silurian-age rocks by the Wisconsin ice sheet during the last ice age. The action of the ice occurred along the pre-glacial Ontarian River valley which had approximately the same orientation as today's basin. Material that was pushed southward by the ice sheet left landforms such as drumlins, kames, and moraines, both on the modern land surface and the lake bottom, reorganizing the region's entire drainage system. As the ice sheet retreated toward the north, it still dammed the St. Lawrence valley outlet, so the lake surface was at a higher level. This stage is known as Lake Iroquois. During that time the lake drained through present-day Syracuse, New York, into the Mohawk River, thence to the Hudson River and the Atlantic. The shoreline created during this stage can be easily recognized by the (now dry) beaches and wave-cut hills 10 to 25 miles (15 to 40 km) from the present shoreline.


title: Lake Ontario

text: When the ice finally receded from the St. Lawrence valley, the outlet was below sea level, and for a short time, the lake became a bay of the Atlantic Ocean, in association with the Champlain Sea. Gradually the land rebounded from the release of the weight of about 6,500 feet (2,000 m) of ice that had been stacked on it. It is still rebounding about 12 inches (30 cm) per century in the St. Lawrence area. Since the ice receded from the area last, the most rapid rebound still occurs there. This means the lake bed is gradually tilting southward, inundating the south shore and turning river valleys into bays. Both north and south shores experience shoreline erosion, but the tilting amplifies this effect on the south shore, causing loss to property owners.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The name Ontario is derived from the Huron word "Ontarí'io", which means "great lake". In Colonial times, the lake was also called "Cataraqui", a French spelling of the Mohawk "Katarokwi". The lake was a border between the Huron people and the Iroquois Confederacy in the pre-Columbian era. In the 15th century, the Iroquois drove out the Huron from southern Ontario and settled the northern shores of Lake Ontario. When the Iroquois withdrew and the Anishnabeg / Ojibwa / Mississaugas moved in from the north to southern Ontario, they retained the Iroquois name. Artifacts believed to be of Norse origin have been found in the area of Sodus Bay, indicating the possibility of trading by the indigenous peoples with Norse explorers on the east coast of North America.


title: Lake Ontario

text: It is believed the first European to reach the lake was Étienne Brûlé in 1615. As was their practice, the French explorers introduced other names for the lake. In 1632 and 1656, the lake was referred to as Lac de St. Louis or Lake St. Louis by Samuel de Champlain and cartographer Nicolas Sanson respectively (likely for Louis XIV of France) In 1660, Jesuit historian Francis Creuxius coined the name "Lacus Ontarius". In a map drawn in the "Relation des Jésuites" (1662–1663), the lake bears the legend "Lac Ontario ou des Iroquois" with the name "Ondiara" in smaller type. A French map produced in 1712 (currently in the Canadian Museum of History), created by military engineer Jean-Baptiste de Couagne, identified Lake Ontario as "Lac Frontenac" named after Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau. He was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to his death in 1698.


title: Lake Ontario

text: A series of trading posts were established by both the British and French, such as Fort Frontenac in 1673, Fort Oswego in 1722, and Fort Rouillé in 1750. After the French and Indian War, all forts around the lake were under British control. The United States took possession of the forts along the American side of the lake at the signing of the Jay Treaty in 1794. Permanent, non-military European settlement began during the American Revolution. As the easternmost and nearest lake to the Atlantic seaboard of Canada and the United States, population centres here are among the oldest in the Great Lakes basin, with Kingston, Ontario, formerly the capital of Canada, dating to the establishment of Fort Frontenac in 1673. The lake became a hub of commercial activity following the War of 1812 with canal building on both sides of the border and heavy travel by lake steamers. Steamer activity peaked in the mid-19th century before competition from railway lines.


title: Lake Ontario

text: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a type of scow known as a "stone hooker" was in operation on the northwest shore, particularly around Port Credit and Bronte. Stonehooking was the practice of raking flat fragments of Dundas shale from the shallow lake floor of the area for use in construction, particularly in the growing city of Toronto.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The Great Lakes watershed is a region of high biodiversity, and Lake Ontario is important for its diversity of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. Many of these special species are associated with shorelines, particularly sand dunes, lagoons, and wetlands. The importance of wetlands to the lake has been appreciated, and many of the larger wetlands have protected status. These wetlands are changing, partly because the natural water level fluctuations have been reduced. Many wetland plants are dependent upon low water levels to reproduce. When water levels are stabilized, the area and diversity of the marsh is reduced. This is particularly true of meadow marsh (also known as wet meadow wetlands); for example, in Eel Bay near Alexandria Bay, regulation of lake levels has resulted in large losses of wet meadow. Often this is accompanied by the invasion of cattails, which displace many of the native plant species and reduce plant diversity. Eutrophication may accelerate this process by providing nitrogen and phosphorus for the more rapid growth of competitively dominant plants. Similar effects are occurring on the north shore, in wetlands such as Presqu'ile, which have interdunal wetlands called pannes, with high plant diversity and many unusual plant species.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Most of the forests around the lake are deciduous forests dominated by trees including maple, oak, beech, ash and basswood. These are classified as part of the Mixedwood Plains Ecozone by Environment Canada, or as the Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or as the Great Lakes Ecoregion by The Nature Conservancy. Deforestation in the vicinity of the lake has had many negative impacts, including loss of forest birds, extinction of native salmon, and increased amounts of sediment flowing into the lake. In some areas, more than 90 percent of the forest cover has been removed and replaced by agriculture. Certain tree species, such as hemlock, have also been particularly depleted by past logging activity. Guidelines for restoration stress the importance of maintaining and restoring forest cover, particularly along streams and wetlands.


title: Lake Ontario

text: By the 1960s and 1970s, the increased pollution caused frequent algal blooms to occur in the summer. These blooms killed large numbers of fish, and left decomposing piles of filamentous algae and dead fish along the shores.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The lake has a natural seiche rhythm of eleven minutes. The seiche effect normally is only about inch (2 cm) but can be greatly amplified by earth movement, winds, and atmospheric pressure changes. Because of its great depth, the lake as a whole does not completely freeze in winter, but an ice sheet covering between 10% and 90% of the lake area typically develops, depending on the severity of the winter. Ice sheets typically form along the shoreline and in slack water bays, where the lake is not as deep. During the winters of 1877 and 1878, the ice sheet coverage was up to 95–100% of the lake. During the War of 1812, the ice cover was stable enough the American naval commander stationed at Sackets Harbor feared a British attack from Kingston, over the ice. The lake has completely frozen over on five recorded occasions: in 1830, 1874, 1893, 1912, and 1934.


title: Lake Ontario

text: When the cold winds of winter pass over the warmer water of the lake, they pick up moisture and drop it as lake-effect snow. Since the prevailing winter winds are from the northwest, the southern and southeastern shoreline of the lake is referred to as the snowbelt. In some winters, the area between Oswego and Pulaski may receive twenty or more feet (600 cm) of snowfall. Also impacted by lake-effect snow is the Tug Hill Plateau, an area of elevated land about east of Lake Ontario. The "Hill", as it is often referred to, typically receives more snow than any other region in the eastern United States. As a result, Tug Hill is a popular location for winter enthusiasts, such as snow-mobilers and cross-country skiers. Lake-effect snow often extends inland as far as Syracuse, with that city often recording the most winter snowfall accumulation of any large city in the United States. Other cities in the world receive more snow annually, such as Quebec City, which averages , and Sapporo, Japan, which receives each year and is often regarded as the snowiest city in the world.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Foggy conditions (particularly in fall) can be created by thermal contrasts and can be an impediment for recreational boaters. Lake breezes in spring tend to retard fruit bloom until the frost danger is past, and in the autumn delay the onset of fall frost, particularly on the south shore. Cool onshore winds also retard the early bloom of plants and flowers until later in the spring season, protecting them from possible frost damage. Such microclimatic effects have enabled tender fruit production in a continental climate, with the southwest shore supporting a major fruit-growing area. Apples, cherries, pears, plums, and peaches are grown in many commercial orchards around Rochester. Between Stoney Creek and Niagara-on-the-Lake on the Niagara Peninsula is a major fruit-growing and wine-making area. The wine-growing region extends over the international border into Niagara and Orleans counties in New York. Apple varieties that tolerate a more extreme climate are grown on the lake's north shore, around Cobourg.


title: Lake Ontario

text: A large conurbation called the Golden Horseshoe occupies the lake's westernmost shores, anchored by the cities of Toronto and Hamilton. Ports on the Canadian side include St. Catharines, Oshawa, Cobourg and Kingston, near the St. Lawrence River outlet. Close to 9 million people, or over a quarter of Canada's population, live within the watershed of Lake Ontario. The American shore is largely rural, with the exception of Rochester and the much smaller ports at Oswego and Sackets Harbor. The city of Syracuse is inland, connected to the lake by the New York State Canal System. Over 2 million people live in Lake Ontario's American watershed.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The Great Lakes Waterway connects the lake sidestream to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence Seaway and upstream to the other rivers in the chain via the Welland Canal and to Lake Erie. The Trent-Severn Waterway for pleasure boats connects Lake Ontario at the Bay of Quinte to Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) via Lake Simcoe. The Oswego Canal connects the lake at Oswego to the New York State Canal System, with outlets to the Hudson River, Lake Erie, and Lake Champlain. The Rideau Canal, also for pleasure boats, connects Lake Ontario at Kingston to the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario.


title: Lake Ontario

text: Nearly all of Lake Ontario's islands are on the eastern and northeastern shores, between the Prince Edward County headland and the lake's outlet at Kingston, underlain by the basement rock found throughout the region.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The Great Lakes Circle Tour and Seaway Trail are designated scenic road systems connecting all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. As the Seaway Trail is posted on the U.S. side only, Lake Ontario is the only of the five Great Lakes to have no posted bi-national circle tour.


title: Lake Ontario

text: In the 17th century, there were reports of an alleged creature, similar to the so-called Loch Ness Monster, being sighted in the lake. The creature is described as large with a long neck, green in colour, and generally causes a break in the surface waves.


title: Lake Ontario

text: , nearly 50 people have successfully swum across the lake. The first person who accomplished the feat was a Canadian long distance swimmer Marilyn Bell, who did it in 1954 at age 16. Toronto's Marilyn Bell Park is named in her honour. The park opened in 1984 and is east of the spot where Bell completed her swim. In 1974, Diana Nyad became the first person who swam across the lake against the current (from north to south). On August 28, 2007, 14-year-old Natalie Lambert from Kingston, Ontario, made the swim, leaving Sackets Harbor, New York, and reaching Kingston's Confederation basin less than 24 hours after she entered the lake. On August 19, 2012, 14-year-old Annaleise Carr became the youngest person to swim across the lake. She completed the 32-mile (52-km) crossing from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Marilyn Bell Park in just under 27 hours.


title: Lake Ontario

text: The government of Ontario, which holds the lakebed rights of the Canadian portion of the lake under the Beds of Navigable Waters Act, does not permit wind power to be generated offshore. In "Trillium Power Wind Corporation v. Ontario (Natural Resources)", the Superior Court of Justice held Trillium Power—since 2004 an "Applicant of Record" who had invested $35,000 in fees and, when in 2011 the Crown made a policy decision against offshore windfarms, claimed an injury of $2.25 billion—disclosed no reasonable cause of action.


title: Lake Ontario

text: While the Great Lakes once supported an industrial-scale fishery, with record hauls in 1899, overfishing later blighted the industry. Today only recreational fishing activities exist. Lake Ontario is the site of several major commercial ports including the Port of Toronto and the Port of Hamilton. Hamilton Harbour is the location of major steel production facilities.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Kick is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film produced and directed by Sajid Nadiadwala in his directorial debut under the Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment banner and starring Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead roles. An official remake of the eponymous 2009 Telugu original, it was made in collaboration with UTV Motion Pictures on a reported budget of .


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Rajat Arora scripted the film, apart from giving the screenplay alongside Nadiadwala, Chetan Bhagat and Keith Gomes. Released on 25 July 2014 coinciding with Eid, "Kick" grossed over worldwide and over 232 crores net domestically in India, becoming a blockbuster success and emerged as Khan's first film to enter 200 Crore Club and emerged as one of the biggest blockbusters of 2014 and became the 22nd highest grossing Indian film of all time.The film received mixed to positive reviews with praise for the humor, the performances and soundtrack. A sequel named "Kick 2" with the same cast & crew goes on shooting floors in June 2022 and will release on Eid 2023.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Dr. Shaina Mehra is a psychiatrist living in Warsaw, Poland. Her father Brijesh brings a marriage proposal and asks her to meet police officer Himanshu Tyagi, who is the son of a friend of Brijesh. The two meet in a train, where Shaina reveals she had an ex-boyfriend Devi Lal Singh, and talks about her crazy experiences with him. Devi is shown to be intelligent and adventurous, always looking for a "kick" in his life. Shaina was helping her friend, Vidhi elope with Devi's friend, Jignesh, when she met Devi in Delhi. After a long, hilarious chase, Devi got Vidhi and Jignesh married in a temple, but also helped Vidhi's mother reach the temple for a "kick". Shaina met Devi's family; the two began dating and fall in love. On her suggestion and getting ashamed from her father, Devi got a job in a chemical lab but resigned soon, suffering from the lack of a "kick". Devi tried hiding from Shaina that he is jobless again but she soon discovered it. Shaina scolded him for not being able to earn money, and Devi broke up with her and said that his new "kick" is now to earn money. She has since shifted to Warsaw, having to entertain Brijesh and his desire to see her married.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Himanshu shares his experiences with a thief he hates as he cannot stop him; the robber, "Devil", has been targeting the rich people associated with corrupt businessman Shiv Gajra, and is robbing them. Devil is actually Devi. As Himanshu fails in catching Devil, Devi contacts him and insults him by calling him a "loser", which is a clue that Devi gives Himanshu. While with Himanshu in Warsaw, Shaina spots Devi who is there for treatment after losing his memory in an accident. She offers to handle Devi's case, which was referred by Dr. Jayant Verma, and take him home. However, Devi is in fact faking his memory loss; his real plan is to befriend and fool Himanshu and rob Shiv, who will come to Poland. Devi enters a charity function and robs Shiv, but Himanshu and Shaina discover the truth and Devi is ultimately forced to drown himself. However, he escapes.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Devi's true intentions and good deeds are revealed by his father Ratan Lal in a flashback. He tells Shaina that Devi is committing robberies to help poor children who are battling diseases. Devi saved a girl, Jhumki after reading a letter in the hands of her dead parents, and got the most powerful "kick" when she smiled at him. When Dr. Verma told him that several such children are battling diseases, he decided to save them by robbing to get money for their treatments, knowing that it will give a lot of "Kick". Back in the present, Himanshu tracks Devi down to a bar in Delhi and warns him he will be killed if he robs again, but Devi says he will rob a huge party fund on 14 November. He dares Himanshu to kill him on the 14th, otherwise, Devi will be standing in front of him on 15 November and he won't be able to do anything.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: On 14 November, after fighting Shiv's henchmen and robbing the money, Devi kills him. Himanshu is set up with officers to shoot Devi, but several kids block his shot. Himanshu realizes the robberies were for the kids after a teacher informs him that the children are going to pray for their saviour and its Children's Day today. On 15 November, Devi joins the police force. He arrives at the police station and stands in front of Himanshu, who is unable to do anything about the situation, therefore completing his challenge. Himanshu is taken off of the case and it is given to Devi, who is now a police officer. Devi then thanks Himanshu, saying that he was never against him, but he is against the corrupt system.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Producer Sajid Nadiadwala initially signed A. R. Murugadoss as the director, but he was replaced by Shirish Kunder after Murugadoss was unable to direct the film. Apart from Ileana D'Cruz, who starred in the original 2009 film of the same name, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Sonakshi Sinha, Priyanka Chopra, and Angela Jonsson were considered for the female lead. After much discussions, Jacqueline Fernandez was signed on to act in the film. US-based Abhijat Joshi, who had written the scripts for "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." and "Lage Raho Munnabhai" was approached to write the script in 2009. Nadiawala wanted the script to be prepared during the release of "3 Idiots", when Joshi had come back to India. Chetan Bhagat eventually wrote the script for the film which is based on Vakkantham Vamsi's script.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Nadiadwala and his team visited South Korea in September 2011 at the invitation from the Korea Tourism Organization, and he signed an agreement to shoot portions of this project and others in that country. The shooting of the film began on 27 July 2013 in Scotland, where Khan shot a car crash scene and helicopter crash scene in Glasgow. Some scenes were shot at Mehboob Studios in February 2014 and at the Film City studio in Mumbai. In October 2013, while the shooting was in progress outside the city of Mumbai, the Film Studio Settings and Allied Mazdoor Union asked Sajid to pay them wages for one and a half shifts, which he refused. The workers stopped shooting for a week and only resumed when Sajid agreed to the worker's demands. The shooting of the movie "Roy" had to be postponed due to Fernandez's commitments to this movie. Fernandez started learning the Urdu language specifically for the film with a coach who was hired by Khan. While shooting was underway in Mumbai in March 2014, Khan's body double, Ajay, was injured while shooting a stunt scene. He was supposed to jump from the first floor of a house onto a railway track, but went through the sugar glass, injuring his face. He required hospitalization.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Khan wanted to shoot part of the film in United Kingdom, but he was refused a visa by the authorities. Umbrella (disambiguation).


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: The soundtrack album featuring 18-tracks were composed by Himesh Reshammiya, Meet Bros. Anjjan, and Yo Yo Honey Singh. The film's score was composed by Julius Packiam. The album was released on 2 July 2014. Sajid bought the rights to Rajiv Rai's movie Vishwatma's song Saat Samundar. It was a tribute to Sajid's first late wife and Bollywood actress Divya Bharti which the song was based on. Since this was his first movie he directed he wanted to do a tribute to his late wife Divya, and wanted her to be part of it. Salman Khan danced to the song "Saat Samundar Par" as a tribute to Bharti. The lyrics were written by Kumaar, Shabbir Ahmed, Mayur Puri, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Jasmine Sandlas.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: On its opening day, "Kick" earned around 260million, making it the second highest non-holiday opening grosser behind "Dhoom 3". The film had a similar collection on its second day, at around 270million. The collection on Sunday saw a jump as it went to 290million, to take it to a weekend total of 820million. On its first Monday the film went on to make around 140million, and on Tuesday the film showed a big increase due to Eid and collected a record total amounting to approximately 260million. On Wednesday, it earned a further 200million. And on Thursday, the film collected around 140million, taking its opening week total to 1.55billion, the second highest after "Dhoom 3".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: It grossed around 85million on its eighth day, around 100million on its ninth and 130million on its tenth day, taking the second weekend to 315million, the third highest behind "Dhoom 3" and "3 Idiots". The ten-day domestic total was thus 1.87billion. With this, it also became Salman Khan's highest grosser in India, beating "Ek Tha Tiger". "Kick" took its business to 2.04billion in two weeks as it made 480million in its second week. It further grossed 90million in week three and 20million in week four, taking the final domestic gross to 2.33billion and becoming the second highest earner in India after "Dhoom 3".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: In the Mumbai circuit, the film had a strong opening where it collected 310million from its first four days. whereas it earned about 177million from its first four days in the Delhi/UP region. In the East Punjab, C. P. Berar, Central India, and Rajasthan circuits, the film made 262million in its first four days. In the West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, and Odisha circuits, the film made a total of about 92million in its first four days, while it made 80million in the South Indian circuit in the same period. The film's final domestic gross in India was .


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: In Pakistan, not only did it break the Rs11.4 million opening day business of Waar but also eclipsed Dhoom 3's all-time highest opening day collection of Rs19m. Kick earned 20.01 Crore from Pakistan. "Kick" was one of the highest grossing Hindi films at the time, with a final worldwide gross collection of .


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Overseas earnings were in the first four days, including US$3million in its opening weekend. From United States theaters, the film made 4.99crore ($829,411) from 141 screens, while from Canada it fetched ₹1.17 crore (US$194,016) from 22 screens. In its opening weekend in the UAE-GCC region, including Thursday's preview shows, "Kick" grossed 4.09crore (AED 2,500,000). The film ran on 137 screens in the UK-Ireland region, where it grossed 2.44crore (£239,150). From 25 screens in Australia, it grossed 1.48crore (A$263,095) in the first three days. New Zealand and Malaysia had the lowest opening weekend total. From New Zealand it grossed 41.92lakh (NZ$81,721) and from Malaysia 5.98lakh (MYR 31,588).


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: At the end of its theatrical run overseas, the film earned $11.38 million (68.28crore) in overseas markets. The highest revenue came from the Gulf ($4.13 million), US/Canada ($2.473 million), UK (£1.314 million), and Australia (Aus $510,000).


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: The film became the highest holiday grosser ever in Pakistan, opening with 2.08 crore and beating the record of "Dhoom 3". In Pakistan, where the film catered to the ongoing Eid festivities, the film at the conclusion of its second weekend grossed 7.4 crore. The film released on 7 November 2014 in Poland and collected there.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: "Kick" generally received mixed to positive reviews.Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" gave the film 4.5 stars and predicted that it would become a blockbuster. Sarita Tanvar from "DNA" gave the movie 4 stars and called it "a non-stop entertainment and Salman Khan at his best." Saurabh Dwivedi from "India Today" also gave the film 4 stars and stated, "This film will rule over everybody's hearts and minds. The film is replete with all things about Salman, and it's a complete paisa vasool watch. It's a masala offering for families, students, kids, and everyone in between." "Times of India" also gave a positive review and rated it with 3.5 stars. They stated "Kick is Bollywood biryani, a masala movie spiced with the superstardom of Salman Khan, garnished by charming Jacqueline, smouldered over the wry talent of Randeep Hooda. Kick is not for lovers of fine filmi foie gras, but for those who want a hearty Eid banquet to enjoy". Subhash K. Jha gave 4 out of 5 stars and said "Nadiadwala ensures there are enough tailor-made sequences to accentuate Salman's super-heroic persona".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Raja Sen of "Rediff" gave it 3 out of 5 stars and stated that "Kick is Salman's best film in a decade".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Aparna Mudi of "Zee News" gave it 3 out of 5 stars and stated, "The movie is exactly what it promises – a larger than life Salman Khan movie which the director knows will go down well with his massive fan following". Mohar Basu of "Koimoi" gave 3 stars out of 5 and said that "Kick is no "Ek Tha Tiger" but it is an effectively enjoyable film that crackles enough to gives us bang for our buck!".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: Rachit Gupta from "Filmfare" gave the movie 3 out of 5 and called it "a brainless romp". Shubha Shetty Saha from "Mid-Day" gave the movie 2 out of 5 and called it "a bizarre movie". Anupama Chopra from "Hindustan Times" gave the movie 2.5 out of 5 and called it "an outrageously silly film". Rajeev Masand from "CNN-IBN" gave the movie 2.5 out of 5 and said "it doesn't make much sense". Rahul Desai from "Mumbai Mirror" gave the movie 2 out of 5 and called it "harebrained, patronizing and regressive at most points". Suhani Singh from "India Today" gave the movie 1.5 out of 5 and called it "unimaginative and unoriginal". Saibal Chatterjee from "NDTV" gave the movie 2 out of 5 and said "it provides a kick only sporadically". Shubhra Gupta from "The Indian Express" gave the movie 2 out of 5 and called it "unjhelable".


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: An official game based on the film was released by India Games Ltd. on the Google Play Store for Android users.


title: Kick (2014 film)

text: The sequel of "Kick" was officially announced by Sajid Nadiadwala in February 2018, which will be named "Kick 2". The script, which was written by Nadiadwala and Rajat Arora, was finalised in August 2020, and the film will also be directed by Nadiadwala. Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez will star opposite each other again, and filming is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022. The film is expected to hit the screens on Eid 2024.


title: René Guénon

text: René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwâhid Yahiâ (; "ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā") was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esotericism, "sacred science" and "traditional studies" to symbolism and initiation.


title: René Guénon

text: In his writings, he proposes "to expound directly some aspects of Eastern metaphysical doctrines" of "universal character", or "to adapt these same doctrines for Western readers while keeping strictly faithful to their spirit", following the Hindu pedagogy of "handing down" the doctrines while reiterating their "non-human character".


title: René Guénon

text: Initiated into Islamic esotericism from as early as 1910 when he was 24, he mainly wrote and published in French, and his works have been translated into more than twenty languages; later on he perfected his Arabic and from 1931 onwards wrote articles in it for the journal "Al Marifah".


title: René Guénon

text: René Guénon was born in 1886 in Blois in central France from Paris. Like most Frenchmen of the time, he was born into a Roman Catholic family, originally from the Angevin, Poitou and Touraine provinces in France; his father was an architect. He was very close to his mother and even more to his aunt Mme Duru, a teacher who taught him to read and write, both devout Catholic women. By 1904, Guénon was living as a student in Paris, where his studies focused on mathematics and philosophy. He was known as a brilliant student, notably in mathematics, in spite of his poor health. In Paris in 1905, due to his health problems he abandoned the preparation for the prestigious École Polytechnique and École normale supérieure admission competitions.


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon observed and became involved with some students under the supervision of Papus. Guénon soon discovered that the Esoteric Christian Martinist order, also supervised by Papus, was irregular: he wrote later that this occultist milieu had not received any authentic spiritual transmission. He joined the Gnostic Church of France founded by Léonce Fabre des Essarts (Synesius). While he did not take this Gnostic church seriously either, it enabled him to become the founder and main contributor of a periodical review, "La Gnose" ("Gnosis"), writing under the pen-name "Tau Palingenius" until 1922, and focusing on oriental spiritual traditions (Taoism, Hinduism and Sufism).


title: René Guénon

text: From his incursions into the French occultist and pseudo-Masonic orders, he despaired of the possibility of ever gathering these diverse and often ill-assorted doctrines into a "stable edifice". In his book "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times" he also pointed out what he saw as the intellectual vacuity of the French occultist movement, which, he wrote, was utterly insignificant, and more importantly, had been compromised by the infiltration of certain individuals of questionable motives and integrity. Following his desire to join a regular Masonic obedience, he became a member of the Thebah Lodge of the "Grande Loge de France" following the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite".


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon went on to be discharged from his military service due to his severe health problems, he took this opportunity to study philosophy at the Sorbonne during World War I. In 1917, Guénon began a one-year stay at Sétif, Algeria, teaching philosophy to college students. After World War I, he left teaching to dedicate himself to writing; his first book, "Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines", was published in 1921. From 1925 Guénon became a contributor to a review edited by P. Chacornac, "Le Voile d'Isis" ("The Veil of Isis"), which after 1935, because of Guénon's influence, became known as "Les Études Traditionnelles" ("Traditional Studies").


title: René Guénon

text: According to indications reproduced by his biographer Paul Chacornac and some of his close friends or collaborators such as Jean Reyor, André Préau and Frans Vreede, it is possible that René Guénon became acquainted with the initiatic lineage of Shankarâchârya, and with Taoism, due to his friendship with Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville, known under the pen-name Matgioi. Pouvourville was initiated into Taoism in Tonkin, Vietnam (circa 1887–1891) by a village chief: the Tong-Song-Luat (the 'Master of Sentences'). Paul Chacornac hypothesized that Guénon would also have received a direct transmission of Taoism via the younger son of the Master of Sentences, Nguyen Van Cang, who came to France with Pouvourville and stayed for a while in Paris. Most biographers recognize that the encounter which marked his life and his work the most is that with Hindus, with at least one of whom having played the role of instructor if not of spiritual teacher. This meeting took place very early during the period of 1904–1909, possibly upon his exact arrival in the occultist world, if not before.


title: René Guénon

text: Although the exposition of Hindu doctrines to European audiences had already been attempted in piecemeal fashion at that time by some orientalists, Guénon's "Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines" advanced its subject in a uniquely insightful manner, by referring to the concepts of metaphysics and Tradition in their most general sense, which Guénon precisely defined, along with the necessary distinctions and definitions of seemingly unambiguous terms such as religion, tradition, exoterism, esoterism and theology. Guénon explained that his purpose was not to describe all aspects of Hinduism, but to give the necessary intellectual foundation for a proper understanding of its spirit. The book also stands as a harsh condemnation of works presented by certain other European writers about Hinduism and Tradition in general; according to Guénon, such writers had lacked any profound understanding of their subject matter and of its implications. The book also contains a critical analysis of the political intrusions of the British Empire into the subject of Hinduism (and India itself) through Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy. The publication of this book earned him rapid recognition in Parisian circles. René Grousset in his "History of Eastern Philosophy" (1923) already referred to Guénon's work as a “classic”. André Malraux would say much later that it was, "At its date, a book capital". On the other hand, Guénon was very disappointed by the reaction of his neo-Thomist friends, his erstwhile supporter Jacques Maritain argued that Guénon's views were "radically irreconcilable with the [Catholic] faith"; he called them a "Hinduist restoration of ancient Gnosis, mother of heresies". After World War II, when Maritain became French Ambassador to the Vatican, he asked for Guénon's work to be listed under the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books, a request which had no effect due to the refusal of Pius XII and the support of Cardinal Eugène Tisserant.


title: René Guénon

text: René Guénon first adopted Islam in 1912, he insisted on recalling that the purely religious concept of an immediate conversion did not apply to his case, indicating he had previous acquaintance with the Islamic faith. According to P. Chacornac, Guénon thought that Islam was one of the only real traditions accessible to Westerners, while retaining authentic possibilities in the initiative domain.


title: René Guénon

text: In September 1920, Père Peillaube asked Guénon to write a book against the Theosophical Society. In 1921, Guénon debuted a series of articles in the French "Revue de Philosophie", which, along with some supplements, led to the book "Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion". His critique of Theosophy was received positively by conservative Catholics. However his later book "Orient et Occident" distanced him from his Catholic supporters. During the decade 1920–1930, Guénon began to acquire a broader public reputation, and his work was noted by various major intellectual and artistic figures both within and outside of Paris. Also at this time were published some of his books explaining the "intellectual divide" between the East and West, and the peculiar nature, according to him, of modern civilization: "Crisis of the Modern World", and "East and West". In 1927 was published the second major doctrinal book of his works: "Man and His Becoming according to the Vedânta", and in 1929, "Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power". The last book listed offers a general explanation of what Guénon saw as the fundamental differences between "sacerdotal" (priestly or sacred) and "royal" (governmental) powers, along with the negative consequences arising from the usurpation of the prerogatives of the latter with regard to the former. From these considerations, René Guénon traces to its source the origin of the modern deviation, which, according to him, is to be found in the destruction of the Templar order in 1314.


title: René Guénon

text: Urged on by some of his friends and collaborators, Guénon agreed to establish a new Masonic Lodge in France founded upon his "Traditional ideals", purified of what he saw as the inauthentic accretions which so bedeviled other lodges he had encountered during his early years in Paris. This lodge was called "La Grande Triade" ("The Great Triad"), a name inspired by the title of one of Guénon's books. The first founders of the lodge, however, separated a few years after its inception. Nevertheless, this lodge, belonging to the Grande Loge de France, remains active today.


title: René Guénon

text: In 1930, Guénon left Paris for Cairo, where he met with Abdalhaqq-Léon Champrenaud, and Abdalhadi Alaqhili, formerly known as John-Gustaf Agueli, to be initiated into a Sufi order of Islam. When he arrived, his outward behavior had changed and he had completely immersed himself in the popular Islamic milieu of the city. Guénon went on to be initiated into the Shadhili order by Agueli, taking the name "Abd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā". Agueli and Champrenaud on the other hand had been initiated by Sheikh Abderrahman Elish Elkebir: Guénon sought to meet Sheikh Elkebir himself, him having been the master of the Sufi spiritual lineage with which he was affiliated, but unfortunately he had just died, hence he chose to make dhikr at his gravesight instead. Guénon went on to meet Sheikh Salama Radi, the succeeding Qutb, the highest authority of the Shadhilite branch to which Guénon belonged, after the death of Sheikh Abderrahman Elkebir. Several testimonies certify that he became Guénon's final teacher. He lived for seven years in the medieval-style Islamic quarters around the Khan el-Khalili and often attended al-Azhar University, an intellectual center of Sunni Muslim scholarship.


title: René Guénon

text: One morning, at dawn, while he was praying like every day at the Seyidna el Hussein mosque, in front of the mausoleum housing the remains of Husayn ibn Ali, he met Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim, an elderly lawyer with whom he became very close. Guénon married Ibrahim's youngest daughter in 1934, with whom he had four children. In 1937, thanks to the generosity of an English admirer of Guenon's called John Levy, the couple became owners of a small villa, the “Villa Fatima” named after Guenon's wife, in the modern district of Duqqi, west of Cairo, at the foot of the pyramids. Guénon hardly ever went out and often refused Western visitors; his address remained a secret. He spent most of his time working in his office, praying in his oratory, and talking to close friends.


title: René Guénon

text: In 1949, Guénon obtained Egyptian citizenship. Sedgwick wrote about Guénon's life in Egypt, that while he continued to be interested in Hinduism and other religions, Guénon's own practice was purely Islamic. He was "not known ever to have recommended anyone to become a Hindu, whereas he introduced many to Islam"; some accounts even testify to him having actively discouraged people from converting to Hinduism.


title: René Guénon

text: In 1921, Guénon published his first book: an "Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines". His goal, as he writes it, is an attempt at presenting to westerners eastern metaphysics and spirituality as they are understood and thought by easterners themselves, while pointing at what René Guénon describes as all the erroneous interpretations and misunderstandings of western orientalism and "neospiritualism" (for the latter, notably the proponents of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy). Right from that time, he presents a rigorous understanding, not only of Hindu doctrines, but also of eastern metaphysics in general.


title: René Guénon

text: "For all his intellectual's skills might be, it seems unlikely that he succeeded just by himself or with the help of a few books in getting the profound and enlightening understanding of the Vêdânta he seems to have acquired by the age of 23"


title: René Guénon

text: As David Bisson explains, in addition to what concerns the definition of “Tradition”, René Guénon's work is generally divided into “four major themes”:


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon's writings make use of words and terms of fundamental signification, which receive a precise definition throughout his books. These terms and words, although receiving a usual meaning and being used in many branches of human sciences, have, according to René Guénon, substantially lost their original significance (e.g. words such as "metaphysics", "initiation", "mysticism", "personality", "form", "matter"). He insisted notably on the danger represented by the perversion of the signification of words which he saw as essential for the study of metaphysics.


title: René Guénon

text: The exposition of metaphysical doctrines, which forms the cornerstone of Guénon's work, consists of the following books:


title: René Guénon

text: "Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines", published in 1921, on topics which were later included in the lecture he gave at the Sorbonne on December 17, 1925 ("Oriental Metaphysics"), consists of four parts.


title: René Guénon

text: The first part ("preliminary questions") exposes the hurdles that prevented classical orientalism from a deep understanding of eastern doctrines (without forgetting that Guénon had of course in view the orientalism of his time): the "classical prejudice" which "consists essentially in a predisposition to attribute the origin of all civilization to the Greeks and Romans", the ignorance of certain types of relationships between the ancient peoples, linguistic difficulties, and the confusions arising about certain questions related to chronology, these confusions being made possible through the ignorance of the importance of oral transmission which can precede, to a considerable and indeterminate extent, written formulation. A fundamental example of that latter mistake being found in the orientalist's attempts at providing a precise birth date to the Vedas sacred scriptures.


title: René Guénon

text: The "general characters of eastern thought" part focuses on the principles of unity of the eastern civilizations, and on the definition of the notions of "tradition" and "metaphysics". Guénon also proposes a rigorous definition of the term "religion", and states the proper differences between "tradition", "religion", "metaphysics" and "philosophical system". The relations between "metaphysics" and "theology" are also explored, and the fundamental terms of "esoterism" and "exoterism" are introduced. A chapter is devoted to the idea of "metaphysical realization". The first two parts state, according to Guénon, the necessary doctrinal foundations for a correct understanding of Hindu doctrines.


title: René Guénon

text: The "Introduction to the study of the Hindu doctrines" had, among its objectives, the purpose of giving the proper intellectual basis to promote openness to the study of eastern intellectuality. The study of Hindu doctrines is continued in his book "Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta". There he described a part of the doctrine of Vêdânta according to the formulation of Adi Shankara focusing on the human being: his constitution, his states, his posthumous future, the purpose of existence being presented as identity with the Self. (Âtmâ), the transcendent principle of being, identical to Brahma. The "Self" is the essence, the transcendent "Principle" of being, the human being for example. He specifies that "Personality" comes under the order of universal principles: pure metaphysics has for its domain the "Universal", which is without common measure with the domain of the general and of what is designated by the term of categories in philosophy.


title: René Guénon

text: In the history of Western thought, only the transcendentals of scholastic theology belong to the “Universal”. The “Self” contains all the states of manifestation but also all the states of non-manifestation. If one considers the "Self" only as the principle of manifested states only, it identifies with Ishvara, the notion closest to the Creator God in Hindu doctrines, according to him. All manifested states represent "manifestation", or "Universal Existence," where everything is related. Nothing can fundamentally be isolated from the rest of the manifestation: there is oneness of “Existence”. Like the principle of manifestation, the "Being" (Sat, or Ishvara if considered in a personalized form), is "One." He then sets out the purpose of human existence: the realization of identity with the "Self" understood as the true essence of the human being. He adds that the "Self" resides in the vital center of the human being symbolized by the heart. According to Guénon, according to all spiritual traditions, the heart is "the seat of Intelligence" understood as supra-rational knowledge, the only form of knowledge allowing "Supreme Identity". This supra-rational knowledge (and especially not irrational) is Buddhi, the higher intellect, introduced by Guénon in chapter VII of his book. For its part, the brain is the instrument of the mind, in particular of rational thought, indirect knowledge. It is Buddhi, who resides in the heart of every being, who ensures the unification between all the states of existence and the oneness of "Existence".


title: René Guénon

text: The general considerations of the "Self", the "Unmanifested" and the universal "Manifestation" are introduced according to Advaita Vêdânta: the "universal Manifestation" is all that exists and its development is constantly being developed, towards destiny. The "Unmanifested" is all that is beyond universal Manifestation, so that it can only be designated by negation. The second chapter also establishes the fundamental distinctions between the "Self" and the ego, or "personality" and "individuality", the first being the only One that is "absolutely real". These ideas are declined in different denominations depending, for a first part, on the different degrees of reality considered, and also from the "transcendent" and "immanent" point of views that can be contemplated: Ishwara is the "Divine personality" or the Principle of universal Manifestation. It is unmanifested, for the Principle of Manifestation cannot be Itself manifested (this is in relation to the symbolism of "black heads": Ishwara has Its head in "darkness"). Atmâ, Paramâtmâ, Brahmâ: the realization that the Self, "in relation to any being whatsoever, is in reality identical to Atmâ", constitutes the heart of the Hindu doctrine of "delivrance" or "moksha", and that doctrine is absolutely identical to what Islamic esoterism calls the "Supreme Identity" (that is to say, expressed in Hindu terms, the identity of Atmâ and Brahmâ):


title: René Guénon

text: "the 'Supreme Identity', according to an expression borrowed from Islamic esoterism, where the doctrine on this and on many other points is fundamentally the same as in the Hindu tradition, in spite of great differences in form."


title: René Guénon

text: The rigor and quality of the presentation refer to the quality of the Hindu master whom Guénon had met during the period 1905-1909 and about whom he does not breathe a word in his book: some supposed that he must have studied the texts cited directly with these Hindus. The book was very well received and was the subject of many glowing reviews in the press on the right and on the left, sometimes in newspapers with very large circulation. Paul Claudel spoke about the book placing it next to those of Sylvain Lévi and René Grousset and the Islamologist Louis Massignon wanted to meet Guénon: the meeting took place that year (1925).


title: René Guénon

text: Paul Chacornac quotes a letter from Roger de Pasquier: “It was not until 1949, during a stay in Bénarès, that I learned of René Guénon's work. It had been recommended to me to read by Alain Danielou [who was then living in India in the entourage of Swami Karpatri, a master of Advaita Vêdânta], who had submitted Guénon's works to orthodox pundits. The verdict of these was clear: of all the Westerners who dealt with Hindu doctrines, only Guénon, they said, really understood the meaning. The academic Michel Hulin, a specialist in Indian philosophy, wrote in 2001 that Man and his future according to the Vedânta remains "one of the most rigorous and profound interpretations of the Shankarian doctrine".


title: René Guénon

text: "The Symbolism of the Cross" is a book "dedicated to the venerated memory of Esh-Sheikh Abder-Rahman Elish El-Kebir". Its goal, as Guénon states it, "is to explain a symbol that is common to almost all traditions, a fact that would seem to indicate its direct attachment to the great primordial tradition". To alleviate the hurdles bound to the interpretations of a symbol belonging to different traditions, Guénon distinguishes "synthesis" from "syncretism": syncretism consists in assembling from the outside a number of more or less incongruous elements which, when so regarded, can never be truly unified. Syncretism is something outward: the elements taken from any of its quarters and put together in this way can never amount to anything more than borrowings that are effectively incapable of being integrated into a doctrine "worthy of that name". To apply these criteria to the present context of the symbolism of the cross:


title: René Guénon

text: syncretism can be recognized wherever one finds elements borrowed from different traditional forms and assembled together without any awareness that there is only one single doctrine of which these forms are so many different expressions or so many adaptations related to particular conditions related to given circumstances of time and place.


title: René Guénon

text: A notable example of syncretism can be found, according to Guénon, in the "doctrines" and symbols of the Theosophical society. Synthesis on the other hand is carried essentially from within, by which it properly consists in envisaging things in the unity of their principle. Synthesis will exist when one starts from unity itself and never loses sight of it throughout the multiplicity of its manifestations; this moreover implies the ability to see beyond forms and an awareness of the principal truth. Given such awareness, one is at liberty to make use of one or another of those forms, something that certain traditions symbolically denote as "the gift of tongues". The concordance between all traditional forms may be said to represent genuine "synonymies". In particular, René Guénon writes that the cross is a symbol that in its various forms is encountered almost everywhere, and from the most remote of times. It is therefore far from belonging peculiarly to the Christian tradition, and the cross, like any other traditional symbol, can be regarded according to manifold senses.


title: René Guénon

text: Far from being an absolute and complete unity in himself, the individual in reality constitutes but a relative and fragmentary unity. The multiplicity of the states of the being, "which is a fundamental metaphysical truth", implies the effective realization of the being's multiple states and is related to the concept that various traditional doctrines, including Islamic esoterism, denote by the term 'Universal Man': in Arabic "al-Insân-al-kâmil" is at the same time 'Primordial man' (al-Insân-al-qâdim); it is the Adam Qadmon of the Hebrew Kabbalah; it is also the 'King' (Wang) of the Far-Eastern tradition (Tao Te King chap. 25). The conception of the 'Universal Man' establishes a constitutive analogy between universal manifestation and its individual human modality, or, to use the language of Western Hermeticism, between the 'macrocosm' and the 'microcosm'.


title: René Guénon

text: From these considerations, the geometrical symbolism of the cross, in its most universal signification, can be contemplated: most traditional doctrines symbolize the realization of 'Universal Man' by a sign that is everywhere the same because, according to Guénon, it is one of those directly attached to the primordial tradition. That sign is the sign of the cross, which very clearly represents the manner of achievement of this realization by the perfect communion of all states of the being, harmoniously and conformably ranked, in integral expansion, in the double sense of "amplitude" and "exaltation".


title: René Guénon

text: This book expands on the multiple states of Being, a doctrine already tackled in "The Symbolism of the Cross", leaving aside the geometrical representation exposed in that book "to bring out the full range of this altogether fundamental theory".


title: René Guénon

text: First and foremost is asserted the necessity of the "metaphysical Infinity", envisaged in its relationship with "universal Possibility". "The Infinite, according to the etymology of the term which designates it, is that which has no limits", so it can only be applied to what has absolutely no limit, and not to what is exempted from certain limitations while being subjected to others like space, time, quantity, in other words all countless other things that fall within the indefinite, fate and nature. There is no distinction between the Infinite and universal Possibility, simply the correlation between these terms indicates that in the case of the Infinite, it is contemplated in its active aspect, while the universal Possibility refers to its passive aspect: these are the two aspects of Brahma and its "Shakti" in the Hindu doctrines. From this results that "the distinction between the possible and the real [...] has no metaphysical validity, for every possible is real in its way, according to the mode befitting its own nature". This leads to the metaphysical consideration of the "Being" and "Non-Being":


title: René Guénon

text: If we [...] define Being in the universal sense as the principle of manifestation, and at the same time as comprising in itself the totality of possibilities of all manifestation, we must say that Being is not infinite because it does not coincide with total Possibility; and all the more so because Being, as the principle of manifestation, although it does indeed comprise all the possibilities of manifestation, does so only insofar as they are actually manifested. Outside of Being, therefore, are all the rest, that is all the possibilities of non-manifestation, as well as the possibilities of manifestation themselves insofar as they are in the unmanifested state; and included among these is Being itself, which cannot belong to manifestation since it is the principle thereof, and in consequence is itself unmanifested. For want of any other term, we are obliged to designate all that is thus outside and beyond Being as "Non-Being", but for us this negative term is in no way synonym for 'nothingness'.


title: René Guénon

text: For instance, our present state, in its corporeal modality, is defined by five conditions: space, time, "matter" (i.e. quantity), "form", and life, and these five conditions enter into correlation with the five corporeal elements ("bhutas" of the Hindu doctrine, see below) to create all living forms (including us in our corporeal modalities) in our world and state of existence. But the universal Manifestation is incommensurably more vast, including all the states of existence that correspond to other conditions or possibilities, yet Being Itself is the principle of universal Manifestation.


title: René Guénon

text: This involves the foundation of the theory of multiple states and the metaphysical notion of the "Unicity of the Existence" ("wahdatul-wujûd") as it is for instance developed in Islamic esoterism by Mohyddin Ibn Arabi. The relationships of unity and multiplicity lead to a more accurate "description" of the Non-Being: in it, there can be no question of a multiplicity of states, since this domain is essentially that of the undifferentiated and even of the unconditionned: "the undifferentiated cannot exist in a distinctive mode", although we still speak analogously of the states of the non-manifestation: Non-Being is "Metaphysical Zero" and is logically anterior to unity; that is why Hindu doctrine speaks in this regard only of "non duality" ("advaita"). Analogous considerations drawn from the study of dream state help understand the relationships of unity and multiplicity: in dream state, which is one of the modalities of the manifestation of the human being corresponding to the subtle (that is, non-corporeal) part of its individuality, "the being produces a world that proceeds entirely from itself, and the objects therein consist exclusively of mental images (as opposed to the sensory perceptions of the waking state), that is to say of combinations of ideas clothed in subtle forms that depend substantially of the subtle form of the individual himself, moreover, of which the imaginal objects of a dream are nothing but accidental and secondary modifications". Then, René Guénon studies the possibilities of individual consciousness and the mental ("mind") as the characteristic element of the human individuality. In chapter X ("Limits of the Indefinite"), he comes back to the notion of metaphysical realization ("moksha", or "Suprême identity"). A superior signification of the notion of "darkness" is then introduced, most notably in the chapter entitled "The two chaoses", which describes what is happening during the course of spiritual realization when a disciple leaves the domain of "formal possibilities". The multiples states of the Being is essentially related to the notion of "spiritual hierarchies", which is found in all traditions. Hence is described the universal process of the "realization of the Being through Knowledge".


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon gave a conference at La Sorbonne on December 17, 1925. This conference was organized by the “group of Philosophical and Scientific Studies for the Examination of New Ideas” founded by Doctor René Allendy. The objective of this association was to reflect on a European union based on overcoming national rivalries and to promote rapprochement between the East and the West. Guénon repeatedly explained that a union could only be based on a restoration of true "intellectuality" which, alone, could transcend the differences between cultures and this is the reason why he clarified what he called by real “intellectuality” during his speech. The Sorbonne conference was published in several parts in the journal "Vers Unité" in 1926 and then in book form in 1939.


title: René Guénon

text: During the conference, Guénon clarified what he called by true "intellectuality" and by "metaphysics". These points were essential for the constitution of a spiritual elite which aimed to reconstitute a union between the peoples. He explained that metaphysics "literally means that which is" beyond physics "", i.e. what is beyond nature. He insisted on the fact that this requires going beyond the manifested world and therefore all phenomena. Metaphysics therefore has nothing to do with phenomena even with extraordinary phenomena. Metaphysics must go beyond the domain of being and must therefore go beyond ontology. He added: “metaphysics is supra-rational, intuitive [beyond subject-object duality] and immediate knowledge” (while rational knowledge is indirect). The path to this knowledge requires "only one essential preparation, and that is theoretical knowledge [implied by traditional doctrines]". But, he clarified, all this cannot go far without the most important means which is "the concentration". Guénon then described the different stages of the spiritual path:


title: René Guénon

text: In his "Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines", Guénon writes that "metaphysics affirms the identity of knowing and being" and that "it does not only affirm it, it realizes it". The effective means of realization are found in what is called "initiation". Articles written by him on this subject were collected later in the form of two books including "Perspectives on Initiation" (1946) and "Initiation and Spiritual Realization" (published in 1952 after his death).


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon declared that the path to this knowledge requires "only one essential preparation, and that is theoretical knowledge [implied by traditional doctrines]". But he clarified, all this cannot go far without the most important means which is "concentration". The rational study of the initiatory texts and the implementation of the rites are of no use if the spiritual transmission has not taken place: for example, the recitation of a mantra is useless without the 'spiritual influence transmitted by the master during the initiation. One cannot initiate oneself alone. Moreover for Guénon, any desire to revive dead traditions (of ancient Egypt, Celts, Germans, etc.) has no meaning. The spiritual laws which govern the spiritual path have nothing to do with the magic or the paranormal phenomena which concern the psychic and not the spiritual: to be attached to these phenomena is an obstacle to the spiritual development. Guénon considers imperative the need to combine esotericism with the corresponding exoterism and not to mix the practices of different traditions: one must practice only one spiritual path (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.)


title: René Guénon

text: "Perspectives on Initiation", first published at the close of World War II in 1946, extends a series of articles on the central subject of initiation originally written between 1932 and 1938 for "Le Voile d'Isis" (later renamed "Etudes Traditionnelles"). Initiation is introduced as the transmission, by the appropriate rites of a given tradition, of a "spiritual influence". Related articles were later published, in 1952, in the posthumous collection "Initiation and Spiritual Realization". While the notion of initiation is introduced in the most general setting, it is impossible, writes Guénon, to write a complete and comprehensive book on the subject "for an indefinite number of questions could be raised – the very nature of the subject resisting any set limit". However, the subject of initiation being contemplated from a general point of view, the goal of Guénon goes beyond an introduction to the subject and, doing so, to make clear distinctions between what is relevant to initiation and what is not. First, in particular, he insists on clarifying his position on the essential differences between "mysticism" and initiation so that, to him, initiation is, by its very nature, incompatible with mysticism:


title: René Guénon

text: In the case of mysticism the individual simply limits himself to what is presented to him and to the manner in which it is presented, having himself no say in the matter [...] In the case of initiation, on the contrary, the individual is the source of initiative towards 'realization', pursued methodically under rigorous and unremitting control, and normally reaching beyond the very possibilities of the individual as such.


title: René Guénon

text: For Guénon, there are traditions where the esoteric/exoteric separation does not exist (Hinduism, Tibetan Lamaism) so much esotericism permeates everything. In China, the two are totally separate (Confucianism for exotericism and Taoism for esotericism). The two overlap in Islam (with Sufism) and Judaism (with Kabbalah). In the West, Guénon claims that Christianity had a strong esoteric character at its origin but that to save the Roman world, it exteriorized itself in a providential way: the Christian sacraments then went from esoteric to exoteric status. In the Middle Ages, Christian initiation groups existed, the most important was the order of the Temple. After the destruction of this order, Christian esotericism became more and more closed and separated from the official Church. Freemasonry and Compagnonnage inherited the last Western initiation rites. For Guénon, the Catholic Church has retained its authentic religious dimension but has lost its esoteric dimension no longer making access to final deliverance possible. Mysticism since the Renaissance is a passive path inferior to the initiatory path: it allows to reach the divine but in an indirect and often uncontrollable way. Freemasonry has kept initiatory transmissions but, in addition to the fact that it is about low initiations (initiations of trades mixed with remains of chivalrous initiations), its passage from operative masonry to speculative masonry in the 18th century prevents the transition from virtual initiation to effective initiation, the latter had to be done by exercising the profession in question. More seriously still, Masonry turned in part from its initiatory role in the 19th century to devote itself to politics in a more anti-traditional (anti-Catholic) direction. Guénon has long kept the hope of an alliance between some members of the Catholic Church and Masonry to reconstitute a complete elite (combining the Catholic religion and Christian Masonry). He envisioned that Eastern masters could spiritually revive these traditions from time to time.


title: René Guénon

text: The application of the distinction between esotericism and exoterism to Christianity, Guénon's position on mysticism and the assertion that the Catholic sacraments have lost their initiatory character have been the subject of strong criticism. It is this point which led to the rupture between Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. Guénon's ideas on esotericism had a significant impact on Freemasonry especially in Latin speaking countries. According to David Bisson, the redefinition of esotericism by René Guénon is considered "as an essential chapter in the history of Western esotericism - as it is conceived and developed by Antoine Faivre": the latter emphasized the importance of Guénon and the currents that claim to be based on his notion of Tradition in the esoteric Western currents.


title: René Guénon

text: On the subject of initiation, Guénon clarifies the signification given by the ancient Greeks to the classical names of "lesser" and "greater" mysteries: "they are not different "types" of initiations, but stages or degrees of a same initiation". Lesser mysteries lead to the "perfection of the human state", in other words to "something traditionally designated by the restoration of the "primordial state", a state that Dante, in the Divine comedy, relates symbolically to the "terrestrial paradise". On another hand, "greater mysteries" refer properly to "the realization of supra-human states"; they correspond to the Hindu doctrine of "deliverance" (Moksha) and to what Islamic esoterism calls the "realization of the Universal Man": in that latter tradition, "lesser" and "greater" "mysteries" correspond exactly to the signification of the terms "el-insân el-qadîm" (the Primordial Man) and "el-insan el-kâmil" (the Universal Man). These two phases are related to an interpretation of the symbolism of the cross with the notions of "horizontal" and "vertical" realization. They also correspond respectively to what is traditionally designated in "western hermeticism" by the terms "royal initiation" and "sacerdotal initiation".


title: René Guénon

text: Guénon introduces some preliminary aspects of a particular (and extremely complex) cosmological science: the Hindu doctrine of "cosmic cycles", for instance in the article "Some remarks on the doctrine of cosmic cycles". He writes that giving an overview of this theory and its equivalents in different traditional forms is merely an impossible task "not only because the question is very complex in itself, but specially owing to the extreme difficulty of expressing these things in a European language, and in a way that is intelligible to the present-day Western mentality, which has had no practice whatsoever with this kind of thinking". All that is possible in this respect is to clarify a few points with remarks "which can only raise suggestions about the meaning of the doctrine in question rather than really explaining it".


title: René Guénon

text: In the most general sense of the term, a cycle must be considered as "representing the process of development of some state of manifestation, or, in the case of minor cycles, of one of the more or less restricted and specialized modalities of that state". Moreover, in virtue "of the law of correspondence which links all things in universal Existence, there is necessarily and always a certain analogy, either among the different cycles of the same order or among the principal cycles and their secondary divisions". This allows to use one and the same mode of expression when speaking about the cycles, although this must often be understood only symbolically, and this allude here especially to the 'chronological' form under which the doctrine of cycles is presented: since a "Kalpa" represents the total development of a world, that is to say of a state or degree of universal existence, "it is obvious that one cannot speak literally about its duration, computed according to some temporal measure, unless this duration relates to a state of which time is one of the determination, as in our world". Everywhere else, this duration is only purely symbolic and must be transposed analogically, for temporal succession is only an image both logical and ontological, of 'extra-temporal' series of causes and effects.