The Tradition

The Tradition (French: la Tradition; Hebrew: שַׁלְשֶׁלֶת הַקַּבָּלָה, shalshelet ha-Kabbalah, "chain of Tradition") is, in the Wheel of Heaven framework, the cross-cultural body of preserved knowledge transmitted across millennia within esoteric pedagogical-textual traditions, traceable on the framework's reading to original Elohim contact and instruction during the early post-flood ages. The concept is principally articulated by Jean Sendy (1910-1978) across his major works from 1963 to 1972, where it operates as the central interpretive scaffold supporting Sendy's broader engagement with Hebrew Bible, Greek philosophical, Hermetic, and Christian-medieval material. The corpus inherits Sendy's Tradition framework substantively, integrating it with subsequent Raëlian source material (Vorilhon's 1973-1975 contact accounts), the Hamlet's Mill precessional reconstruction, and broader cross-cultural comparative material.

The Tradition operates substantively distinctly from mainstream sociological "tradition" (cultural-customary practices passed down through generations) and from mainstream comparative-religion "tradition" (substantial religious-cultural inheritance generally). What the framework engages by The Tradition is specifically the body of preserved cosmic-religious knowledge content traceable to Elohim contact — content with specific historical-temporal coordinates (the early post-flood ages, particularly Taurus and Aries on the corpus's chronology), specific transmission lineages (priestly-pedagogical chains across multiple cultural-religious traditions), and specific operational content (precessional astronomy, the Elohim plurality reading, the broader cosmic-civilizational framework, the various technical and theological elements that the framework has been recovering). The capitalization signals the proper-noun framework concept rather than the generic-noun usage.

Sendy's distinctive position registers across his entire body of work: the various ancient and medieval traditions (Hebrew prophetic, Greek philosophical-Pythagorean, Hermetic, Christian-medieval) preserve substantive accurate content from original "sky-people" (extraterrestrial) contact, with the broader transmission lineage operating through specific pedagogical-priestly chains. The principal chains Sendy registers: the Egyptian priestly tradition; the Hebrew prophetic and rabbinic tradition (with the Kabbalistic tradition as the principal esoteric-protective stream); the Pythagorean-Platonic Greek philosophical tradition; the Hermetic tradition (Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum); the Christian medieval-scholastic tradition; the various subsequent esoteric-transmission traditions across early-modern and modern Western intellectual history.

Sendy's central rhetorical-interpretive move is the medievalist self-positioning. Throughout his works, Sendy explicitly identifies as a "medievalist" (médiéviste) — a position that registers paradoxically against the dominant Renaissance / Enlightenment "humanist" tradition that has shaped mainstream Western intellectual discourse. The medievalist self-positioning operates as substantial polemical reversal: the medieval intellectual tradition anticipated specific technical and cosmological developments (transmutation of metals into other metals, machines that fly, journeys to the moon, life on other worlds) that the humanist tradition confidently dismissed as superstitious nonsense; the twentieth century has progressively confirmed the medieval anticipations and progressively falsified the humanist dismissals. Sendy's articulation: "Above the smug nineteenth century, our twentieth century is joining the Middle Ages, which were directly connected with the Biblical Tradition. This book is a reading of that Tradition in the light of today's scientific knowledge, and it will be either confirmed or invalidated by the knowledge and discoveries of tomorrow."

The framework's distinctive contribution within this broader Sendy-inherited landscape is integration. Sendy's Tradition framework operates principally through Hebrew Bible exegesis, Greek philosophical engagement, and Hermetic-medieval material. The corpus extends Sendy's framework substantially: integrating with subsequent Raëlian source material that postdates Sendy's principal works (Vorilhon's first contact occurred in December 1973, after Sendy's principal Tradition articulations); integrating with the Hamlet's Mill precessional reconstruction (Santillana and von Dechend, 1969, contemporaneous with Sendy's principal works); integrating with mainstream comparative-religion scholarship that Sendy did not principally engage; integrating with substantial cross-cultural material across Mesopotamian, Vedic / Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, Mesoamerican, and indigenous traditions that Sendy engaged less systematically.

The reading is grounded in Sendy's substantial body of work and extended through the corpus's subsequent engagement. The framework's epistemic status is substantial-Sendy-source-grounding-with-substantial-corpus-extension — the broader concept and its principal interpretive moves derive from Sendy substantively; the corpus's specific subsequent integrations operate as the corpus's distinctive contributions.

Etymology and naming

The Tradition concept has multiple designations across distinct linguistic-cultural traditions, each registering different aspects of the underlying transmission framework.

"Tradition" — Latin "traditio"

The English tradition derives from the Latin traditio, a noun from the verb tradere ("to hand over, to deliver, to transmit," from trans- "across" + dare "to give"). The Latin traditio registers the substantial semantic content of "that which is handed across" — the transmitted content as distinct from its individual transmission moments. The classical Latin meanings:

• Handing over (the active transmission of something from one party to another)
• Surrender (the legal sense of handing over property or persons)
• Tradition (in the religious-pedagogical sense — the substantial body of teaching transmitted across generations)
• Betrayal (in late Latin, by extension from "handing over to enemies")

The framework operates principally through the third sense: tradition as the body of transmitted teaching. The capitalization to The Tradition registers the proper-noun framework concept — the specific body of cosmic-religious-technical content the framework engages — rather than the generic-noun usage designating cultural-customary practices generally.

Sendy's "la Tradition"

The French la Tradition is Sendy's principal designation across his major works. Sendy capitalizes the term consistently to register the proper-noun framework concept. The substantial Sendy use registers:

• Active transmission (rather than passive cultural-inheritance)
• Specific content (the cosmic-religious-technical material traceable to original sky-contact)
• Specific lineages (the priestly-pedagogical-philosophical chains preserving the content)
• Specific epistemic status (the content as substantively accurate rather than as superstitious-mythological)

The corpus preserves Sendy's capitalization convention.

Hebrew "Kabbalah" / "shalshelet ha-Kabbalah"

The Hebrew קַבָּלָה (Kabbalah) literally means "reception" or "received [tradition]," from the root קבל (q-b-l, "to receive"). The substantial term names the transmission framework directly — what is received across generations from teacher to student.

The phrase שַׁלְשֶׁלֶת הַקַּבָּלָה (shalshelet ha-Kabbalah, "chain of Tradition") registers the substantial transmission-lineage content. The principal articulation appears in Pirkei Avot 1:1 (Mishnah, c. 200 CE):

"Moshe kibbel Torah mi-Sinai u-mesarah l'Yehoshua, vi-Yehoshua le-zekeinim, u-zekeinim le-nevi'im, u-nevi'im mesaruha le-anshei knesset ha-gedolah." "Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the Prophets; and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly."

The articulation establishes the substantial Hebrew chain-of-tradition framework — Moses as initial receiver from Sinai, with subsequent transmission across explicit pedagogical chains. The detailed treatment of the Kabbalistic tradition specifically lives in the Kabbalah entry; The Tradition entry's contribution is registering the broader framework concept of which the Kabbalistic tradition operates as one substantial instance.

Sanskrit "parampara" / "guru-shishya parampara"

The Sanskrit परम्परा (paramparā, "uninterrupted succession," literally "one after another") and the substantial guru-shishya parampara (गुरु-शिष्य परम्परा, "teacher-student succession") register the principal Hindu-Vedic and Buddhist transmission framework. The substantial concept operates substantively as functional equivalent of the framework's Tradition concept within the Indian religious-cultural context.

Greek "paradosis"

The Greek παράδοσις (paradosis, "handing over, transmission") is the principal Greek-philosophical and New Testament Greek term for the substantial transmission framework. The term appears in substantial Pythagorean-Platonic philosophical use and in substantial New Testament Christian use (1 Corinthians 11:2, 11:23, 15:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 3:6).

Arabic "isnad" / "silsila"

The Arabic إسناد (isnād, "supporting, attribution"; the formal chain of transmitters in hadith literature) and سلسلة (silsila, "chain"; the substantial Sufi spiritual-transmission lineage) register the principal Islamic transmission framework. The substantial Sufi silsila tradition operates substantively as functional equivalent of the framework's Tradition concept within the Islamic mystical-pedagogical context.

Cross-cultural designations

The substantial cross-cultural framework has additional designations across multiple traditions:

• Tibetan: rgyud (རྒྱུད་, "continuum, lineage")
• Chinese: 道統 (dàotǒng, "lineage of the Way") in Confucian usage; 傳承 (chuánchéng, "transmission") in broader Chinese cultural-religious usage
• Japanese: 系統 (keitō, "lineage") and 伝承 (denshō, "transmission")
• Hebrew alternative: מָסוֹרֶת (masoret, "tradition," from the same root as masorah, the principal scribal tradition for Hebrew Bible textual transmission)

Corpus-internal usage

The Wheel of Heaven corpus uses The Tradition (capitalized) as the principal designation, with Sendy's Tradition framework used in contexts requiring Sendy-specific specificity, and the various cross-cultural designations used in comparative engagement contexts.

The framework's specific position

The framework articulates a specific position on what The Tradition IS, drawing principally on Sendy's articulations and integrating the corpus's broader engagement.

The Tradition as preserved knowledge

The Tradition is, in the framework's reading, the body of preserved knowledge that has survived across millennia within specific pedagogical-priestly transmission lineages. The principal features:

It is specific content. The Tradition is not vague spiritual-cultural inheritance but specific knowledge content: precessional astronomy (the substantial 25,920-year cycle and its zodiacal articulation), the Elohim plurality reading (the substantial creators-as-multiple framework), the broader cosmic-civilizational framework (the substantial Earth-as-creation-site-within-broader-cosmic-order content), the various technical elements (the substantial transmutation-of-metals, flying-machines, lunar-travel, extraterrestrial-life anticipations), the various theological elements (the substantial alliance-contact framework, the substantial covenant content, the substantial prophetic-tradition content).

It has specific historical origins. The Tradition's content traces, on the framework's reading, to original Elohim contact during the early post-flood ages — particularly the Taurus age (c. 4530-2370 BCE on the corpus's chronology) when post-flood civilizational reconstruction occurred and substantial alliance-instruction was transmitted to the surviving human populations. The detailed treatment of the post-flood reconstruction lives in the Age of Taurus entry; The Tradition entry's contribution is registering the transmission framework that preserved the substantial content across the subsequent ages.

It has specific transmission lineages. The Tradition operates principally through specific pedagogical-priestly chains across multiple cultural-religious traditions. The principal chains Sendy registers — Egyptian priestly, Hebrew prophetic-rabbinic-Kabbalistic, Pythagorean-Platonic Greek philosophical, Hermetic, Christian medieval-scholastic — operate as substantively distinct cultural receptions of the same underlying Tradition content. The substantial cross-cultural recurrence registers substantive evidence for the framework's reading: independent fabrication does not produce the substantial structural convergences that the various traditions exhibit.

It has specific operational character. The Tradition operates substantively as active transmission rather than as passive cultural inheritance. The substantial pedagogical-priestly lineages have actively cultivated the content across generations through specific institutional structures (priesthoods, schools, mystery-religion lineages, monastic orders, scholastic institutions, esoteric-initiatic groups). The active-transmission character distinguishes The Tradition from generic cultural-customary inheritance.

The Tradition vs. mainstream "tradition"

A clarification is worth registering. The framework's specific position does not contest the broader sociological-anthropological usage of "tradition" to designate cultural-customary practices passed down through generations. Various cultural-customary traditions exist that are not principally about preserved cosmic-religious knowledge content from original Elohim contact. The framework's position is that The Tradition (the proper-noun concept) is a specific subset within the broader generic-noun "tradition" landscape — specifically, the subset that operates as preserved-cosmic-religious-knowledge transmission rather than as generic cultural-customary transmission.

The corpus operates with substantial editorial discipline about this distinction without polemicizing it. The capitalization registers the conceptual specificity.

The Tradition vs. perennialism

The Tradition concept has substantial conceptual proximity to the perennialist / traditionalist tradition (René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Huston Smith, the broader school) but operates substantively differently in several principal respects. The detailed treatment of these distinctions lives in the Modern reinterpretations section below.

The Tradition's content registers

The Tradition's content operates across several principal registers within the framework's broader engagement:

Cosmological content. The substantial precessional-astronomical content (the 25,920-year cycle, the zodiacal articulation, the doubled-signature principle) operates as one of the principal Tradition registers. The detailed treatment lives in the World Age and Zodiac entries.

Theological content. The substantial Elohim plurality content (the cross-cultural recognition of multiple creators rather than singular God) operates as a principal Tradition register. The detailed treatment lives in the Plurality of Gods entry.

Technical content. The substantial anticipations of contemporary scientific developments (flying machines, lunar travel, transmutation, extraterrestrial life, the broader contemporary trajectory) operate as a Tradition register that Sendy emphasizes substantively.

Eschatological content. The substantial Aquarian-age opening content (the "end of the times of secrecy," the predicted twentieth-century convergence of medieval anticipations and contemporary scientific developments) operates as a principal Tradition register.

Esoteric-protective content. The substantial framework-protection content (the Tradition's transmission through esoteric-initiatic chains preserved the content against the kind of distortion that more widely-distributed traditions suffered) operates as a principal Tradition register.

In primary sources

The framework's principal primary-source material on The Tradition is contained in Sendy's body of work, with substantial subsequent corpus development.

Sendy's principal articulations

Jean Sendy (1910-1978) articulated The Tradition framework across his major works from 1963 to 1972. The principal articulations:

Les cahiers de cours de Moïse (Julliard, 1963). Sendy's first major book in this framework. The substantial articulation: Moses operates as "the custodian of an ancestral Tradition" with both historical and prophetic content. The historical content registers the arrival on Earth of "Theosites" (Sendy's earliest terminological choice, from a putative home planet "Theos") — beings who arrived from the sky and conducted substantial interactions with humanity across an extended period. The prophetic content registers humanity's anticipated spiritual and technological development after the Theosites' departure. (The "Theosites" terminology is Sendy-specific to this earliest articulation; Sendy moves toward "Galaxiens" and broader engagement with "Elohim" terminology in subsequent works.)

Les dieux nous sont nés (Grasset, 1966). Substantial subsequent engagement with the Hebrew Bible's Elohim plurality and the broader cosmic-civilizational framework.

La Lune, clé de la Bible (Julliard, 1968). Sendy's principal articulation of the lunar-related Hebrew Bible content within the broader Tradition framework.

Ces dieux qui firent le ciel et la terre (Robert Laffont, 1969). Sendy's principal mature articulation. The Tradition framework articulated systematically across the substantial chapter-by-chapter engagement with Hebrew Bible and broader religious-cultural material. Substantial Sendy content:

"The priests of ancient Egypt, Judaism and Christianity have all claimed to be the heirs of a Tradition that came 'from the sky'. The persistence with which the Bull-Ram-Fish zodiacal symbolism has been maintained down to the present shows that a single Tradition is involved. The physical transmission of knowledge that came 'from the sky' was attributed by the Egyptian priests to 'gods,' by the Jews to 'Elohim,' by the Christian Tradition to 'angels.'"

The substantial four-point summary establishes Sendy's principal interpretive position: the various religious traditions claim heir-status from a sky-derived Tradition; the precessional-zodiacal symbolism's persistence registers single underlying Tradition; the various traditions' specific terminology (gods / Elohim / angels) names the same underlying reality; the rational explanation of the substantial precessional-astronomical content preserved across the traditions is the actual existence of the entities the traditions describe.

L'ère du Verseau (Robert Laffont, 1970). Sendy's principal articulation of the Aquarian-age opening within the broader Tradition framework. Substantial sections include Le Sceau de Salomon et la Tradition de Platon (the substantial Hebrew-Platonic Tradition convergence), Les Sources de la Tradition (the substantial Tradition-source-lineage articulation), and the broader medievalism-vs-humanism interpretive frame.

The medievalist self-positioning

A central Sendy interpretive move: the medievalist (médiéviste) self-positioning. The substantial Sendy articulation:

"Did the assumption of mediocrity, which von Hoerner reproaches the Greeks for not having formulated and applied, constitute the basis of the thought of the First Civilizations, the thought that has been transmitted since the dawn of historic times by what is called the Tradition? In other words, did 'the Ancients' think more accurately than 'the Greeks'? That is exactly what men of the Middle Ages (of whom I am one) have always repeated to Renaissance humanists, reproaching them for their determination to replace the thought of the Ancients with neo-Greek thought."

The substantial interpretive position: Sendy embraces "medievalism" as substantial polemical reversal. The Renaissance / Enlightenment "humanist" tradition rejected medieval cosmological-technical anticipations as superstitious nonsense. The twentieth century has progressively confirmed the medieval anticipations:

"Medievalists have always believed in the possibility of transmuting metals, making flying machines, and even going to the moon. They were positively ridiculous in the nineteenth century, when the absurdity of their wild notions was clearly demonstrated. Today, of course, being a medievalist, I feel more at ease than a humanist..."

The substantial Sendy formulation registers the polemical-rhetorical character: contemporary scientific developments (transmutation through nuclear physics; flying machines through aviation; lunar travel through Apollo program) have substantively confirmed positions the medieval Tradition affirmed and the humanist tradition confidently dismissed.

The substantial four-point articulation

Sendy's substantial four-point articulation in Ces dieux qui firent le ciel et la terre registers the framework's principal evidence:

"I have presented four main points in support of my thesis: 1) The priests of ancient Egypt, Judaism and Christianity have all claimed to be the heirs of a Tradition that came 'from the sky'. 2) The persistence with which the Bull-Ram-Fish zodiacal symbolism has been maintained down to the present shows that a single Tradition is involved. 3) The physical transmission of knowledge that came 'from the sky' was attributed by the Egyptian priests to 'gods,' by the Jews to 'Elohim,' by the Christian Tradition to 'angels.' (And the Byzantine theologians maintained that those 'angels' had sexes.) 4) The concrete reality of those gods-Elohim-angels is the most rational explanation of the knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes indicated by the zodiacal symbolism of the three related religions."

The substantial articulation establishes the framework's principal evidentiary position: the precessional-zodiacal symbolism's substantial cross-cultural persistence registers substantive evidence for a single underlying Tradition with concrete-reality referents.

The Hermes-as-Tradition-source articulation

A substantial subsequent Sendy articulation in L'ère du Verseau:

"Le dieu qui a transmis aux hommes la science des dieux s'appelle Hermès, dans la Tradition grecque. Un des enseignements essentiels d'Hermès était que 'ce qui est en haut [dans les cieux] est comme ce qui est en bas [sur Terre]'."

("The god who transmitted to humans the science of the gods is called Hermes, in the Greek Tradition. One of Hermes's essential teachings was that 'what is above [in the heavens] is like what is below [on Earth]'.")

The substantial articulation registers the Hermetic Tradition lineage specifically — Hermes Trismegistus as the substantial Greek-Tradition figure transmitting the cosmic-knowledge content, with the substantial "as above, so below" principle (Latin: quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius) registering the substantial cross-scale cosmic-correspondence content.

The Hebrew-Platonic convergence articulation

A substantial Sendy articulation registers the Hebrew-Platonic convergence:

"Cette identité entre 'ce qui est en haut' et 'ce qui est en bas' est rappelée par le sceau de Salomon : deux triangles identiques, celui 'des cieux' pointant vers le haut, et celui 'des hommes' pointant vers la terre, entrelacés pour rappeler l'alliance promise."

("This identity between 'what is above' and 'what is below' is recalled by the Seal of Solomon: two identical triangles, the one 'of the heavens' pointing upward, and the one 'of humans' pointing toward the earth, interlaced to recall the promised alliance.")

"Ce que la Tradition hébraïque enseigne par un symbolisme de langage, la Tradition grecque a toujours cherché à l'exprimer par un symbolisme mathématique."

("What the Hebrew Tradition teaches through linguistic symbolism, the Greek Tradition has always sought to express through mathematical symbolism.")

The substantial articulation registers the principal cross-tradition convergence: the Hebrew Tradition's adam rishon / adam kadmon content (the earthly Adam made on the prototype of the cosmic-Galactic Adam), the substantial Star of David / Seal of Solomon symbolic content, the substantial Greek-philosophical mathematical-esoteric content (Pythagorean number-mysticism, Plato's Timaeus mathematical articulations) — all preserve the same underlying Tradition through distinct cultural-symbolic media.

The "end of the times of secrecy" articulation

A substantial Sendy articulation registers the Aquarian-age opening as the predicted "end of the times of secrecy":

"Il y a, d'abord, le fait que nous sommes enfin entrés dans ce Verseau que la Tradition médiévale fixait comme terme aux 'temps du secret'. Il y a, ensuite, le fait qu'à Jérusalem sont publiés, depuis une vingtaine d'années, les 'textes ésotériques de la Kabale' qui ne devaient être publiés qu'aux approches de l'accomplissement des temps."

("First, there is the fact that we have finally entered this Aquarius that the medieval Tradition set as the end of the 'times of secrecy.' Then, there is the fact that in Jerusalem, for the past twenty years, the 'esoteric texts of the Kabbalah' have been published, which were not to be published until the approach of the fulfillment of times.")

The substantial articulation registers the framework's principal Aquarian-age positioning: the Tradition predicted an end to "the times of secrecy" with the Aquarian-age opening; the contemporary period has substantively witnessed this with the systematic publication of previously esoteric-restricted Kabbalistic content (principally Scholem's twentieth-century scholarly work, treated in the Kabbalah entry) and the broader contemporary scientific convergence with substantial Tradition content.

The corpus's subsequent integration

The corpus integrates Sendy's Tradition framework substantially with subsequent Raëlian source material and broader engagement. The Raëlian source material (Vorilhon's 1973-1975 contact accounts) postdates Sendy's principal works and provides substantial additional content (the substantial Elohim-civilizational specificity, the substantial Aquarian-age inaugural prophetic mission content, the substantial cosmic-chain framework). The corpus integrates Sendy's Tradition framework as the principal interpretive scaffold supporting cross-cultural integration while extending it substantially through the additional source material.

The Bigliardi scholarly framing

Stefano Bigliardi's "A Gentleman's Joyous Esotericism" (treated principally in the Modern reinterpretations section below) provides substantial scholarly framing of Sendy's Tradition framework. Bigliardi's substantial articulation:

"Sendy's hypothesis is that Moses was the custodian of an ancestral 'Tradition.' The Tradition involves an historical and a prophetic element. The history is that of the arrival on earth of extra-terrestrial cosmonauts, which Sendy calls Theosites (their home planet being Theos, p. 201). The Book of Genesis is, therefore, an account of their arrival and of their manipulation of humans, as well as the Earth's environment, over a long period of time. Each 'day' in Genesis can be understood as a specific phase in the Theosites' presence on our planet, and each phase corresponds, in turn, to the sun's different positions at dawn, with reference to the constellations of the horoscope. These positions shift over the millennia (a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes, pp. 33-44). The prophetical part of the Tradition, which, likewise, makes reference to the precession, hints at humanity's spiritual and technological development after the Theosites left our planet."

The substantial Bigliardi articulation operates as substantive scholarly framing of Sendy's Tradition framework, with attention to both historical and prophetic dimensions. Bigliardi's broader engagement with the Tradition concept registers Sendy's substantial Catholic-Christian engagement (Catholicism as substantive repository of Tradition content) and the broader civilizational-developmental position (civilizations preserving the Tradition flourished; civilizations losing it went astray).

Application across the corpus

The Tradition concept operates substantively across multiple corpus framework engagements.

The Jean Sendy entry

The detailed treatment of Sendy as figure lives in the Jean Sendy entry when written. The Tradition entry is the principal interpretive-content entry registering Sendy's framework concept itself; the Jean Sendy entry will provide the principal biographical-bibliographic context and the substantial broader Sendy contribution beyond the specific Tradition concept.

The Kabbalah entry

The Kabbalah operates as the principal Hebrew-tradition esoteric stream within The Tradition framework — substantively the most direct preservation of the Hebrew-tradition content within the broader Jewish religious-textual landscape. The detailed treatment lives in the Kabbalah entry; The Tradition entry registers the broader transmission-framework concept of which the Kabbalistic tradition operates as one substantial instance.

The Plurality of Gods entry

The Plurality of Gods content operates as one of the principal Tradition registers — the substantial cross-cultural recognition of multiple creators rather than singular God preserved across the various Tradition lineages. The detailed treatment lives in the Plurality of Gods entry.

The Wheel of Heaven entry

The Wheel of Heaven framework operates as the corpus's broader engagement with The Tradition content — the corpus inherits The Tradition framework from Sendy and integrates it with substantial subsequent material. The detailed treatment lives in the Wheel of Heaven entry.

The World Age and Zodiac entries

The substantial precessional content (the 25,920-year cycle, the zodiacal articulation, the doubled-signature principle) operates as one of the principal Tradition registers. The detailed treatments live in the World Age and Zodiac entries.

The Hebrew Bible entry

The Hebrew Bible operates as substantial Tradition source-textual content — the principal preserved textual record of the Hebrew-tradition content. The detailed treatment lives in the Hebrew Bible entry.

The Religion entry

The Tradition framework operates substantively within the broader Religion concept (the cultivated relationship between humanity and its creators) — religious traditions operate principally through Tradition-transmission as their substantive cultivational mechanism. The detailed treatment of the broader Religion concept lives in the Religion entry.

Various cross-cultural-tradition entries

The Tradition concept operates as substantial reference for various cross-cultural-tradition entries when written (the Hermetic tradition specifically, the Pythagorean-Platonic tradition, the various Vedic / Hindu tradition entries, the various Buddhist tradition entries, etc.).

Distinguishing from adjacent concepts

The Tradition vs. tradition (lowercase)

The Tradition (proper-noun framework concept) is a specific subset within the broader generic-noun "tradition" landscape. The relationship is specific-framework-concept-vs-broader-generic-category:

• The Tradition designates the body of preserved cosmic-religious-knowledge content traceable to original Elohim contact, transmitted across millennia within specific pedagogical-priestly chains
• tradition (generic noun) designates cultural-customary practices passed down through generations generally

The framework operates with substantial editorial discipline about this distinction.

The Tradition vs. the perennial philosophy

The perennial philosophy (Latin philosophia perennis) — articulated principally by Agostino Steuco (De Perenni Philosophia, 1540), revived by Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy, 1945), and systematized by the perennialist / traditionalist school (Guénon, Schuon, Coomaraswamy, Huston Smith) — has substantial conceptual proximity to The Tradition. The relationship is substantial-conceptual-proximity-with-substantive-distinctions:

• The perennial philosophy operates principally through "transcendent unity of religions" framing — the substantial position that all major religious traditions express the same underlying transcendent metaphysical reality
• The Tradition operates principally through "preserved-knowledge-from-Elohim-contact" framing — the substantial position that the various religious traditions preserve substantive cultural memory of actual extraterrestrial-civilization contact
• Both concepts register substantial cross-traditional convergence; they articulate the convergence through distinct epistemic-interpretive frameworks

The detailed treatment of the perennialist tradition's relationship to the framework lives in the Modern reinterpretations section below.

The Tradition vs. the Hermetic Tradition

The Hermetic Tradition — the broader Western esoteric tradition deriving principally from the Corpus Hermeticum (c. 100-300 CE) and elaborated through medieval Islamic, Byzantine, Renaissance Christian, and modern Western-esoteric sources — operates substantively as one of the principal Tradition lineages within Sendy's broader framework. The relationship is subset-relationship: the Hermetic Tradition is one substantial transmission lineage within the broader Tradition; The Tradition encompasses the Hermetic Tradition along with the Hebrew, Greek-philosophical, Christian-medieval, and various other transmission lineages.

The Tradition vs. specific cultural-religious traditions

Each of the various specific cultural-religious traditions operates substantively as a distinct cultural reception of Tradition content. The relationship is distinct-cultural-receptions-of-shared-underlying-content:

• The Hebrew tradition (Hebrew Bible, rabbinic tradition, Kabbalah)
• The Greek philosophical tradition (Pythagoras, Plato, the Pythagorean-Platonic lineage)
• The Hermetic tradition (Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, the broader Western esoteric tradition)
• The Christian tradition (with the Gospel as Pisces-age inaugural revelation, the medieval scholastic tradition as Tradition-preservation, the various subsequent Christian-mystical and Christian-esoteric traditions)
• The Islamic tradition (with the Quran as substantial revelation, the Sufi mystical tradition as substantial Tradition-preservation)
• The various other major religious-cultural traditions

Each operates within the broader Tradition framework while preserving substantive specific cultural content.

The Tradition vs. New Age "wisdom tradition"

The broader contemporary "wisdom tradition" or "ancient wisdom" popular framework (operating substantively across various New Age publishing and cultural-popular contexts) has substantial conceptual proximity to The Tradition but operates substantively differently. The relationship is shared-broader-direction-with-substantive-distinctions:

• The Tradition operates with substantial source-discipline (specific Sendy / Vorilhon / Hamlet's Mill / mainstream-scholarship engagement)
• The popular "wisdom tradition" frequently operates with substantial source-dilution (broad inspirational engagement without substantial source-textual specificity)
• The Tradition operates with specific interpretive content (precessional-astronomical, Elohim plurality, alliance-contact framework)
• The popular "wisdom tradition" frequently operates with broader inspirational-spiritual content without specific interpretive commitments

The Tradition vs. the Mystery Religions

The classical Mystery Religions (the Eleusinian, Orphic, Mithraic, and various other initiatic-religious traditions of late antiquity) operate substantively as principal Tradition lineages within the broader framework. The relationship is subset-with-distinctive-cultural-content: the Mystery Religions are substantial Tradition-transmission institutions preserving specific cultural content within their distinctive initiatic-pedagogical structures.

Modern reinterpretations

The Tradition concept has substantial scholarly engagement across multiple distinct disciplinary contexts.

The perennialist / traditionalist tradition

The substantial perennialist / traditionalist tradition is the principal modern intellectual movement engaging "Tradition" content with substantial systematic articulation. The principal figures:

René Guénon (1886-1951). The principal twentieth-century articulator of the traditionalist position. Guénon's substantial works: Introduction générale à l'étude des doctrines hindoues (1921); Le Roi du Monde (1927); La Crise du Monde Moderne (1927); Le Règne de la Quantité et les Signes des Temps (1945); various others. Guénon's substantial position: a single transcendent Primordial Tradition exists, expressed through multiple religious-cultural traditions; modern Western civilization represents substantial deviation from the broader Tradition; the substantial cyclical cosmology of the Hindu yuga system registers the broader cosmic-degenerative trajectory.

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). Substantial systematic development of the broader Guénon framework. Principal works: De l'Unité Transcendante des Religions (1948; English: The Transcendent Unity of Religions, 1953); Logique et Transcendance (1970); various others. Schuon's substantial articulation: the various religious traditions express the same underlying transcendent reality through distinct cultural-symbolic forms; the "religio perennis" operates as the substantial unity underlying the various traditions.

Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947). Substantial Indian-traditionalist engagement, particularly through the broader Indian art-historical and metaphysical tradition. Principal works: The Transformation of Nature in Art (1934); Hinduism and Buddhism (1943); various others.

Huston Smith (1919-2016). Substantial American-popular articulation through The World's Religions (1958, originally The Religions of Man), various subsequent works. Smith's substantial position: the major religious traditions preserve substantial wisdom content through their specific cultural articulations.

The framework's relationship to the perennialist tradition. The relationship is substantial-conceptual-proximity-with-substantive-distinctions:

• Both frameworks register substantial cross-traditional convergence through specific transmission lineages
• The perennialist tradition operates principally through "transcendent unity of religions" framing — the substantial unity at metaphysical-religious level
• The Tradition framework operates principally through "preserved-knowledge-from-Elohim-contact" framing — the substantial unity at historical-civilizational level
• The perennialist tradition is substantively religious in commitment (operating substantively within mainstream religious-traditional framings)
• The Tradition framework operates with substantial atheist-religion positioning (the Elohim as biological beings rather than transcendent divinity)
• Both concepts register substantial value to traditional pedagogical-initiatic transmission while operating with different specific commitments

The framework engages the perennialist tradition substantively while operating from distinct epistemic foundation.

Hermetic-tradition scholarship

Substantial scholarly engagement with the Hermetic Tradition specifically.

Frances Yates (1899-1981). The principal twentieth-century scholar of the Renaissance Hermetic tradition. Principal works: Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (University of Chicago Press, 1964); The Art of Memory (University of Chicago Press, 1966); The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972); The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979). Yates's substantial work transformed the scholarly engagement with Renaissance esotericism, registering substantial intellectual seriousness for material that earlier scholarship had often dismissed as marginal-superstitious.

Wouter Hanegraaff. Contemporary principal scholar of Western esotericism. Principal works: New Age Religion and Western Culture (Brill, 1996); Esotericism and the Academy (Cambridge University Press, 2012); various others. Hanegraaff's substantial position: Western esotericism constitutes a distinct domain of Western intellectual history that mainstream scholarship has systematically marginalized, deserving substantial scholarly engagement on its own terms.

Antoine Faivre (1934-2021). Foundational figure in the academic Western Esotericism field. Principal works: L'Ésotérisme (1992); Access to Western Esotericism (SUNY Press, 1994); various others. Faivre's substantial articulation of the principal characteristics of Western Esotericism (correspondences, living nature, imagination/mediations, transmutation experience, transmission practice, concordance) operates as substantive scholarly framework.

Bigliardi's "A Gentleman's Joyous Esotericism"

Stefano Bigliardi's scholarly paper "A Gentleman's Joyous Esotericism: Jean Sendy's 'Religion of Cosmonauts'" provides substantive scholarly engagement with Sendy specifically. Bigliardi's substantial contribution: situating Sendy within the broader twentieth-century proto-ancient-aliens tradition while preserving substantial respect for Sendy's distinctive intellectual seriousness, scholarly engagement (Sendy operating substantively within broader French intellectual culture, with substantial engagement with mainstream scholarship), and distinctive rhetorical character ("joyous" / playful esotericism that distinguishes Sendy from more polemical figures).

The Bigliardi engagement is one of the principal contemporary scholarly anchors for serious engagement with Sendy's Tradition framework. The detailed treatment of Sendy as figure (with substantial Bigliardi engagement) lives in the Jean Sendy entry when written.

Western Esotericism scholarship

The broader Western Esotericism academic field (developed principally through Faivre, Hanegraaff, the broader European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, the Amsterdam center, the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism, various others) provides substantive scholarly framework for engaging the broader Tradition content. The field has substantive engagement with:

• The Hermetic tradition (Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, the medieval Islamic-Byzantine-Renaissance development)
• The Kabbalistic tradition (Jewish, Christian Kabbalah, Hermetic Qabalah)
• The alchemical tradition
• The astrological tradition
• The Rosicrucian tradition
• The Theosophical tradition (Blavatsky and successors)
• The various contemporary New Age and esoteric movements

Alternative-history "lost civilization" tradition

Various alternative-history scholars engage substantial "lost civilization" content with substantial structural alignment with Tradition framework material.

Graham Hancock's body of work (treated principally in the World Age and Wheel of Heaven entries) engages substantial pre-Hipparchean precessional-awareness content and substantial pre-flood civilizational content within distinctive alternative-history framing.

John Anthony West's Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt (Julian Press, 1979) and related works engage substantial Egyptian wisdom-tradition content within the broader alternative-history tradition.

The framework engages these substantively while operating from distinct source-material warrant.

The academic engagement with Sendy as proto-ancient-aliens figure

Various contemporary academic engagement registers Sendy as substantively important figure in the broader twentieth-century proto-ancient-aliens tradition. The substantial scholarly recognition: Sendy operates as substantial pre-Däniken articulator (Sendy's principal works 1963-1972 substantively predate Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods, 1968, in conceptual development if not in publication date), with substantial intellectual seriousness and scholarly engagement that distinguishes Sendy from more popular ancient-aliens figures. The detailed treatment lives in the Jean Sendy entry when written.

The framework's relationship to the broader scholarly landscape

The Wheel of Heaven framework is positioned within this scholarly landscape as follows: aligned with the perennialist tradition at the cross-traditional-convergence-recognition level while operating from distinct epistemic foundation; aligned with mainstream Hermetic-tradition scholarship at the historical-developmental level (Yates, Hanegraaff, Faivre); aligned with the broader Western Esotericism academic field at the substantial scholarly-respect-for-esoteric-content level; aligned with Bigliardi's substantial Sendy scholarship; engaging various alternative-history "lost civilization" traditions at the substantive-evidence-for-pre-flood-civilization level while operating from distinct source-material warrant.

Comparative observations

The Tradition concept has substantial cross-cultural distribution, with substantively parallel transmission frameworks operating across virtually every major religious-cultural tradition globally.

The Hebrew chain of Tradition

The Hebrew tradition preserves the most substantively developed transmission framework within the broader Western religious-cultural landscape.

The shalshelet ha-Kabbalah (chain of Tradition). The substantial Hebrew transmission framework articulated principally in Pirkei Avot 1:1 (Mishnah, c. 200 CE): "Moshe kibbel Torah mi-Sinai u-mesarah l'Yehoshua, vi-Yehoshua le-zekeinim, u-zekeinim le-nevi'im, u-nevi'im mesaruha le-anshei knesset ha-gedolah" ("Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the Prophets; and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly"). The substantial chain extends from the Sinai theophany (c. 13th century BCE in traditional dating) through the substantial subsequent rabbinic-traditional development.

The Kabbalistic stream. The Kabbalistic tradition operates as the substantial esoteric-protective stream within the broader Hebrew Tradition. The detailed treatment lives in the Kabbalah entry. The substantial Safran articulation (preserved in the v1 Kabbalah entry): "The Kabbalah exceeds, in antiquity, the Revelation of Sinai; it dates back to prehistoric times. Moses only introduced it into the history of Israel." The substantial articulation extends the Kabbalistic chain back beyond Sinai to prehistoric origins.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the Hebrew chain of Tradition as substantial preservation of the broader Tradition framework — substantively the most direct preservation of Elohim-contact content within the broader Western religious-textual tradition.

The Hermetic Tradition

The substantial Hermetic Tradition operates as one of the principal Tradition lineages within Sendy's broader framework.

Hermes Trismegistus. The substantial Hellenistic-Egyptian figure operating as the substantial source attribution for the Hermetic Tradition. The substantial legendary biography registers Hermes as ancient Egyptian sage, identified with the Egyptian Thoth (the substantial Egyptian deity of writing, wisdom, and astronomical-mathematical knowledge), with substantial subsequent Hellenistic-Greco-Roman elaboration.

The Corpus Hermeticum. The substantial body of seventeen treatises composed in Greek principally between approximately 100 and 300 CE (principally in Hellenistic Egypt), with substantial subsequent transmission across medieval Islamic, Byzantine, and Renaissance Christian intellectual culture. The substantial principal works include: Poimandres (the substantial cosmological-anthropological treatise), the Asclepius (the substantial dialogue on the nature of the divine and humanity), various others.

The "as above, so below" principle. The substantial Hermetic principle articulated principally in the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet, c. 6th-8th century CE): "Quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, et quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius" ("That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, to perform the miracles of the one thing"). The substantial principle registers the substantive cross-scale cosmic-correspondence content that the framework reads as substantial preservation of the broader Tradition content.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the Hermetic Tradition as substantial preservation of the broader Tradition content within distinctive Hellenistic-Egyptian framing. The substantial cross-cultural-influential character (medieval Islamic, Byzantine, Renaissance Christian, modern Western-esoteric) registers the substantial transmission-fidelity that the Hermetic chain has maintained across approximately two millennia.

The Greek philosophical Tradition lineage

The substantial Greek philosophical tradition preserves substantial Tradition content principally through the Pythagorean-Platonic lineage.

Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BCE) and the Pythagorean tradition. The substantial Pythagorean tradition operates as the principal Greek-philosophical Tradition lineage in Sendy's articulation. The substantial Pythagorean content: substantial mathematical-cosmological framework (the substantial harmony-of-the-spheres, the substantial mathematical structure of cosmic reality), substantial initiatic-pedagogical structure, substantial astronomical engagement, substantial transmigration-of-souls content. The substantial Sendy articulation: Pythagoras and his disciples explicitly inscribed themselves within the Tradition lineage.

Plato (c. 427-347 BCE) and the Platonic tradition. Plato's substantial work continues the Pythagorean-Tradition engagement through substantial mathematical-philosophical articulation. The substantial Sendy articulation registers Plato's substantial Timaeus mathematical content (the substantial 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 8, 27 series in Timaeus 35b) as substantial mathematical-esoteric Tradition preservation, with the unusual ordering (9 before 8) registering substantial encoded content that humanist commentators have failed to recognize. Plato's substantial broader cosmological-religious content (the Republic's Myth of Er, the Phaedrus's charioteer, the substantial broader Platonic mythological-philosophical engagement) operates substantively within the broader Tradition framework.

The Eleusinian Mysteries (c. 1500 BCE - 392 CE). The substantial initiatic-religious institution at Eleusis operating across approximately two millennia, with substantial initiation-pedagogy preserved across the substantial period. The detailed treatment of the Mystery Religions lies beyond the present scope.

Neoplatonism. The substantial subsequent Greek philosophical development principally through Plotinus (c. 204-270 CE), Porphyry (c. 234-305 CE), Iamblichus (c. 245-325 CE), Proclus (412-485 CE). The substantial Neoplatonic tradition operates as substantial subsequent Pythagorean-Platonic Tradition lineage.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the substantial Pythagorean-Platonic-Neoplatonic Greek philosophical lineage as substantial preservation of the broader Tradition content within distinctive Greek-philosophical framing.

The Vedic / Hindu transmission tradition

The substantial Vedic / Hindu tradition preserves the most substantively developed Eastern transmission framework.

The guru-shishya parampara. The substantial Sanskrit गुरु-शिष्य परम्परा (guru-shishya paramparā, "teacher-student succession") registers the principal Hindu-Vedic transmission framework. The substantial structure: knowledge transmitted through specific teacher-student lineages across multiple generations, with substantial pedagogical-initiatic relationship and substantial textual-experiential transmission.

The Vedic textual tradition. The substantial four-Veda corpus (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, c. 1500-500 BCE in principal textual development) operates as the principal Vedic textual foundation. The substantial subsequent development through the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, and broader textual tradition registers substantial multi-millennial transmission with substantial fidelity.

The substantial sampradāya tradition. The substantial Sanskrit सम्प्रदाय (sampradāya, "tradition / lineage") registers the various distinctive Hindu transmission-lineages (the principal Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, and various other sampradāyas), each operating as substantively distinct cultural-religious tradition preserving specific Tradition content.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the Vedic / Hindu transmission tradition as substantial parallel preservation of the broader Tradition framework within distinctive Indian framing. The substantial multi-millennial transmission-fidelity registers substantively impressive preservation of substantial original content.

The Buddhist transmission lineages

The substantial Buddhist tradition preserves substantively developed transmission frameworks across multiple lineages.

The mind-to-mind transmission tradition. The substantial Buddhist concept of mind-to-mind transmission (Sanskrit citta-paramparā; Chinese 以心傳心 yǐ xīn chuán xīn; Japanese ishin-denshin) registers the substantial Buddhist understanding of substantive teaching-transmission as principally direct experiential transmission rather than principally textual-conceptual transmission.

The various Buddhist lineages. The substantial Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana traditions each operate through substantive distinctive transmission lineages. The Tibetan Buddhist transmission lineages (the substantial brgyud / lineage tradition; the various principal lineages: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug) operate with substantial multi-generational pedagogical-initiatic structure.

The Zen / Chan transmission lineages. The substantial Chinese Chan / Japanese Zen tradition operates principally through specific master-student transmission lineages claiming traceable continuous transmission from the historical Buddha through the substantial Indian patriarchs (Bodhidharma as the substantial 28th patriarch in the Indian lineage and the 1st patriarch in the Chinese lineage) and through the substantial subsequent Chinese-Japanese development.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the various Buddhist transmission lineages as substantial parallel preservation of the broader transmission framework within distinctive Buddhist framing.

The Daoist transmission tradition

The substantial Daoist tradition preserves substantively developed transmission framework.

The substantial daotong (道統, "lineage of the Way"). The substantial Confucian and broader Chinese-philosophical concept of substantial transmission lineage operates substantively across the broader Chinese intellectual-religious tradition.

The various Daoist lineages. The substantial Daoist tradition operates through specific transmission lineages, with the principal Quanzhen (全真) and Zhengyi (正一) lineages operating across substantial multi-generational structures.

The framework reading. The corpus reads the Daoist transmission tradition as substantial parallel preservation of the broader transmission framework within distinctive Chinese framing.

Various other esoteric-transmission traditions

Substantial parallel content operates across multiple additional traditions:

The Sufi silsila tradition. The substantial Arabic سلسلة (silsila, "chain") registers the substantial Sufi spiritual-transmission lineage, with substantive multi-generational pedagogical-initiatic transmission across approximately fourteen centuries.

The various indigenous shamanic traditions. Substantial pedagogical-initiatic transmission frameworks operate across virtually every indigenous-shamanic tradition globally, with substantial multi-generational transmission preserving substantive cultural content.

The Druidic-Celtic tradition. Substantial pre-Roman Celtic religious-pedagogical tradition with substantial multi-generational transmission, principally preserved through Roman and Christian-medieval engagement (Caesar's De Bello Gallico, the substantial Irish-mythological tradition, various other sources).

The Etruscan religious tradition. Substantial Etruscan religious-pedagogical tradition with substantial pre-Roman development, principally preserved through Roman engagement.

The various Mesoamerican priestly traditions. The detailed treatment lives in the broader Mesoamerican-engagement entries when written.

The "preserved-knowledge-from-antiquity" cross-cultural pattern

The substantial cross-cultural pattern of preserved-knowledge-from-antiquity transmission frameworks registers across virtually every major religious-cultural tradition globally. The principal pattern features:

• Specific source-attribution: substantial traditions principally trace to specific source-figures (Hermes, Moses, Pythagoras, the Buddha, the Vedic rishis, various others)
• Multi-generational transmission: substantive pedagogical-initiatic structures preserving content across multiple generations (often thousands of years)
• Esoteric-initiatic protection: substantial protection of content through restricted access (initiation, pedagogical relationship, gradual disclosure)
• Specific lineage-claims: substantial transmission-lineage claims operating as substantive authentication mechanisms
• Cross-tradition convergence: substantial structural-content convergence across distinct cultural-religious traditions

The convergence

The corpus's working position on the comparative-Tradition question is that the substantial cross-cultural distribution of preserved-knowledge-from-antiquity transmission frameworks across virtually every major civilization globally registers substantive evidence for the framework's reading.

The mainstream scholarly explanation generally treats the cross-cultural pattern through some combination of independent religious-pedagogical development (cultures developed transmission frameworks independently because the broader pedagogical impulse is universal), shared cognitive-evolutionary substrate (the broader human cognitive architecture produces transmission-tradition phenomena), and substantial cultural diffusion (transmission frameworks spread across cultures through historical exchange). The framework reading: the cross-cultural pattern preserves common memory of the actual original content that the framework articulates — the actual Elohim-contact content that the various transmission lineages have preserved across the post-flood ages, with each cultural tradition preserving substantive specific content within its distinctive framing.

The corpus does not require rejecting all of the mainstream explanatory framework. Independent religious-pedagogical development certainly contributes to specific cultural articulations; the cognitive-evolutionary substrate certainly contributes to the broader cross-cultural pattern; substantial cultural diffusion certainly operated across the historical period (particularly the substantial Mediterranean intellectual exchange and the substantial Eurasian Silk Road exchange). What the framework adds is the underlying historical reality: the cross-cultural transmission-pattern reflects the actual content being transmitted, with the priesthood-school-lineage complexes operating as substantively functional institutions for substantively functional purpose rather than as autonomous human cultural elaboration alone.

The framework's distinctive contribution within this broader comparative landscape is the alliance-contact reading (the substantial Tradition content preserves cultural memory of actual original Elohim contact rather than mythological-archetypal-substrate alone) and the systematic integration with the broader corpus narrative architecture (The Tradition operating as the principal interpretive scaffold supporting the corpus's broader cross-cultural integration).

See also

• Wheel of Heaven
• Jean Sendy
• Religion
• Kabbalah
• Hebrew Bible
• Plurality of Gods
• World Age
• Zodiac
• Doubled Signature
• Cosmic Chain
• Cosmic Competition
• Elohim
• Yahweh
• Prophet
• Apocalypse
• Star of David
• Hermes Trismegistus
• Hermetic Tradition
• Pythagoras
• Plato
• Atlantis
• Hamlet's Mill
• Mauro Biglino
• Paul Anthony Wallis

References

Sendy's principal works

Sendy, Jean. Les cahiers de cours de Moïse. Julliard, 1963. The first major Sendy articulation of the Tradition framework.

Sendy, Jean. Les dieux nous sont nés. Grasset, 1966.

Sendy, Jean. La Lune, clé de la Bible. Julliard, 1968.

Sendy, Jean. Ces dieux qui firent le ciel et la terre. Robert Laffont, 1969. The principal mature Sendy articulation, with the substantial four-point Tradition argument.

Sendy, Jean. L'ère du Verseau. Robert Laffont, 1970. The principal Aquarian-age Sendy articulation, with the substantial Le Sceau de Salomon et la Tradition de Platon and Les Sources de la Tradition sections.

Sendy, Jean. Nous autres, gens du Moyen Âge. Various editions.

Bigliardi's substantial Sendy scholarship

Bigliardi, Stefano. "A Gentleman's Joyous Esotericism: Jean Sendy's 'Religion of Cosmonauts'." Various scholarly publications.

Raëlian sources

Vorilhon, Claude (Raël). Message from the Designers. Tagman Press, 2005.

Hamlet's Mill tradition

de Santillana, Giorgio, and Hertha von Dechend. Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time. Gambit, 1969.

Perennialist / traditionalist tradition

Guénon, René. La Crise du Monde Moderne. Bossard, 1927; subsequent editions.

Guénon, René. Le Règne de la Quantité et les Signes des Temps. Gallimard, 1945.

Guénon, René. Symbolisme de la Croix. Véga, 1931.

Schuon, Frithjof. The Transcendent Unity of Religions. Trans. Peter Townsend. Quest Books, 1984 [originally 1948].

Schuon, Frithjof. Logique et Transcendance. Editions Traditionnelles, 1970.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. The Transformation of Nature in Art. Harvard University Press, 1934.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Hinduism and Buddhism. Philosophical Library, 1943.

Smith, Huston. The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. HarperOne, 1991 [originally The Religions of Man, 1958].

Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. Harper & Brothers, 1945.

Steuco, Agostino. De Perenni Philosophia. Lyon, 1540.

Hermetic-tradition scholarship

Yates, Frances A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press, 1964.

Yates, Frances A. The Art of Memory. University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Yates, Frances A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.

Yates, Frances A. The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Brill, 1996.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Faivre, Antoine. Access to Western Esotericism. SUNY Press, 1994.

Faivre, Antoine, and Jacob Needleman, eds. Modern Esoteric Spirituality. Crossroad, 1992.

Western Esotericism academic field

Hanegraaff, Wouter J., et al., eds. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. 2 vols. Brill, 2005.

Versluis, Arthur. Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Hermetic primary sources

Copenhaver, Brian P., trans. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Hermes Trismegistus. Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet). Various medieval Latin and Arabic versions.

Pythagorean-Platonic primary sources

Plato. Timaeus. Trans. Donald J. Zeyl. In Plato: Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper. Hackett, 1997.

Plato. Republic. Trans. G. M. A. Grube and C. D. C. Reeve. In Plato: Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper. Hackett, 1997.

Plotinus. The Enneads. Trans. Stephen MacKenna. Penguin Classics, 1991.

Hebrew chain of Tradition sources

Pirkei Avot. Various translations and editions.

Mishnah Avot 1:1. Various translations.

Safran, Alexandre. La Cabale. Payot, 1960.

Vedic / Hindu sources

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Doniger, Wendy, trans. The Rig Veda: An Anthology. Penguin Classics, 1981.

Buddhist transmission sources

Faure, Bernard. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Stanford University Press, 1997.

McRae, John R. Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. University of California Press, 2003.

Sufi silsila sources

Ernst, Carl W. Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam. Shambhala, 1997.

Alternative-history sources

Hancock, Graham. Magicians of the Gods. St. Martin's Press, 2015.

West, John Anthony. Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt. Julian Press, 1979.

Web resources

"Tradition." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradition

"Perennial philosophy." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy

"Western esotericism." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism

"Hermes Trismegistus." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus