The Great Triad

Guénon’s The Great Triad was the last book to appear during his lifetime. Even for his regular readers, this book contained largely new material, as did his The Metaphysical Principles of the Infinitesimal Calculus, published the same year. The author here refers especially to the Chinese tradition, principally in its Taoist form (though touching on Confucianism as well), in which the ‘Great Triad’ is defined as Heaven-Man-Earth. It is as much a cosmological as a metaphysical doctrine that is implied in this ternary of the ‘three worlds’. In spite of its Taoist title, however, the work draws heavily on Hermetic teachings, Hindu and Buddhist metaphysics, and Masonic symbolism, not to mention doctrines from Judaism, Christianity. and Islam. It is also Guenon’s most comprehensive exposition of the science of Alchemy.