Louis Cattiaux (1904 – 1953) corresponded with René Guénon (1886 – 1951)
René Guénon (Blois, 1886 – Cairo, 1951) was one of the great teachers of Western esotericism. The latter, dismissed by the rationalist establishment from the second half of the 17th century, was tainted by heterogeneous elements, degenerated, illiterate, becoming wild and marginal. In short, Western esotericism had lost the necessary discipline and initiatory rigor that, however, had continued in the esotericism of other civilizations. René Guénon is credited with its rehabilitation, its purifying bath, the restoration of its original form and content. At least, that was his intention. It is up to us to judge the result.
James Chauvet, a friend and penfriend of Louis Cattiaux, connected the author of «The Message Rediscovered» with René Guénon, which led to the latter writing an exceptionally benevolent and laudatory review of «The Message Rediscovered» in the French journal «Études Traditionnelles» in September 1948. An enriching correspondence then developed between the two men until Guénon’s passing in 1951.
