The Sacred Heart and the Legend of the Holy Grail

René Guénon (1886-1951), martinist, gnostic, esotericist and freemason, was one of the greatest interpreters of Tradition and esoteric and initiatory studies, even if he never claimed, in itself, no other function than that of having tried to expose, within the limits of ordinary language, the ideas conveyed in the symbolism, rituality and operational methodology of the "traditional forms", to be understood as ways of spiritual improvement of the being human.

In his writings, he tryed to hand down eastern religious traditions and adapt them to western readers "while keeping strictly faithful to their spirit".

Initiated into Islamic esotericism from as early as 1910 when he was 24, taking the name of Shaykh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya, he mainly wrote and published in French, and his works have been translated into more than twenty languages.

The Guenon’s short essay The Sacred Heart and the Legend of the Holy Grail (Le Sacré-Cœur et la légende du Saint Graal), which we propose to our readers today, was published in August-September 1925 on the magazine Regnabit. In 1962 it was included in the collection Symboles de la Science Sacrée (Symbols Of Sacred Science), printed in Paris by Gallimard.