glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

Substance; therefore it cannot become the object of any scientific investigation claiming
to lead to a polyvalent and definitive result. Otherwise said, the macrocosm is neither our
visible world nor is it God: we can know creation and the Creator, or the “I” and the
“Self” – with all the reservations and conditions that impose themselves as the case may
demand – but it is not possible for us to know the totality of the phenomena of the
Universe: the latter escapes the mind, which is especially made for knowing our world,
and the Intellect, which is especially made for knowing the Absolute. [TB, Cosmological
and Eschatological Viewpoints]
Magic (white / black): In “white magic,” which is normally that of the shamans, the
forces called into play, as well as the purpose of the operation, are either beneficent or
else simply neutral. In cases, however, where the spirits are maleficent and where the
purpose is equally so, “black magic” or sorcery is involved; in such a case, nothing is
done “in God’s name,” and the link with the higher powers is broken. [FS, The
Shamanism of the Red Indians]
Magic in itself is neither good nor bad, it is amoral. Magic performed in the name of the
Great Spirit and with the help of good Spirits, and for good purposes, may be called
“white magic”; the same art performed without appeal to the Great Spirit and with the
help of bad spirits and for evil purposes, may be called “black magic” or sorcery. Sorcery
has always been strongly forbidden everywhere, and it very often harms the sorcerer
himself even in this life. [FS, A Message on Indian Religion]
Mahapralaya: The total cyclic dissolution that the Hindus call maha-pralaya, a
dissolution that implies the annihilation of the entire Creation (samsara). [TUR,
Universality and Particular Nature of the Christian Religion]
Mahapralaya / Pralaya: The difference between the “particular judgment” and the Last
Judgment, or between death and the end of the world, consists in the fact that at the time
of death only the soul – and not the body, which belongs to our own world – is
reabsorbed in the direction of the Principle in order to be judged, whereas at the time of
this world’s ending it is the world itself that is thus reabsorbed. But there is yet a third
and ultimate reabsorption to be reckoned with, the one marking the end of all
manifestation: for the elect, this is not an ending but an exaltation in the “Uncreated
Light.”*
(* In Hindu terms, this is the mahapralaya, the great return into undifferentiation –
pralaya being this return when applied to our world alone – and doubtless such is also the
meaning of the apocatastasis of Western Antiquity and of certain gnostics.) [TB,
Cosmological and Eschatological Viewpoints]
Man: Man is spirit incarnate; if he were only matter, he would be identified with the feet;
if he were only spirit, he would be the head, that is, the Sky; he would be the Great Spirit.
But the object of his existence is to be in the middle: it is to transcend matter while being
situated there, and to realize the light, the Sky, starting from this intermediary level. It is
true that the other creatures also participate in life, but man synthesizes them: he carries
all life within himself and thus becomes the spokesman for all life, the vertical axis where
life opens onto the spirit and where it becomes spirit. In all terrestrial creatures the cold
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