glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

(* Such as Mormonism, Bahaism, the Ahmadism of Kadyan, and all the “new religions”
and other pseudo-spiritualities which proliferate in today’s world.) [CI, The Question of
Evangelicalism]
Rigorously speaking, all religious exoterism is an extrinsic heresy, evidently so with
respect to other religions, but also, and above all, with respect to the sophia perennis; this
perennial wisdom, precisely, constitutes esoterism when it is combined with a religious
symbolism. An extrinsic heresy is a partial or relative truth – in its formal articulation –
which presents itself as total or absolute, be it a question of religions or, within these, of
denominations; but the starting point is always a truth, hence also a spiritual archetype.
Altogether different is the case of an intrinsic heresy: its starting point is, either an
objective error, or a subjective illusion; in the first case, the heresy lies more in the
doctrine, and in the second, it is a priori in the pretension of the false prophet; but,
needless to say, both kinds can combine, and even do so necessarily in the second case.
Although there is no error possible without a particle of truth, intrinsic heresy cannot
have any doctrinal or methodic value, and one cannot bring to bear on its behalf any
extenuating circumstance, precisely because it projects no celestial model. [CI, The
Question of Evangelicalism]
Heresy / Wisdom: Heresy is a form severed from its substance, hence its illegitimacy,
whereas wisdom on the contrary is substance considered independently of forms, hence
its universality and its imprescriptible nature. [FSR, Form and Substance in the
Religions]
Heterodoxy (intrinsic): Intrinsic heterodoxy is, we repeat, contrary not only to a
particular perspective or a particular formulation, but to the very nature of things, for it
results, not from a perspective legitimate by nature and therefore “providential,” but from
the arbitrary judgment of a mind left to its own resources and obliged to “create” what the
intellect when paralyzed – fundamentally or accidentally – cannot transmit to it. When a
man seeks to escape from dogmatic narrowness it is essential that it be “upwards” and not
“downwards”: dogmatic form is transcended by fathoming its depths and contemplating
its universal content, and not by denying it in the name of a pretentious and iconoclastic
ideal of “pure truth.” [LS, Orthodoxy and Intellectuality]
Heyoka (Sioux): The heyoka were men who, having been honored in a dream by the
vision of the Thunderbirds, had thereby contracted the obligation, on the one hand, to
humble themselves, and, on the other, to dissimulate their consecration. Their case was
similar, in certain respects, to that of the dervishes known by the name of the “people of
blame” (malamatiyah), who sought to attract the reprobation of the profane and the
hypocritical, while realizing inwardly the most perfect spiritual sincerity. For the sake of
humility the heyoka condemns himself henceforth to perform virtually all actions the
wrong way round, or to be a man “upside down” – for example, by pretending to shiver
when it is hot, or to be stifled with heat when it is cold – and so to arouse the mockery of
simple or mediocre people; nevertheless, he is considered to have received mysterious
powers and may end by being deeply respected as a being apart and out of the common
run, and no longer completely belonging to this world of rampant logic. [FS, The
Demiurge in North American Mythology]
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