The concept of the Antichrist interpreted by René Guénon..

The reign of the 'counter-tradition', ( which is our present time ) writes Guenon, is identical to the traditional notion designated by the 'reign of the Antichrist', whichever way this latter symbol is understood, either as an individual or a collectivity. In a certain sense it could be both, as there will be a collectivity that will appear as the 'exteriorization' of the 'counter-initiatic' organization itself when it finally appears in the light of day, "and there must also be a person who will be at the head of the collectivity, and as such be the most complete expression and even the

very 'incarnation' of what it will represent, if only in the capacity of 'support' to all the malefic influences that he will first concentrate in himself and then project onto the world". Guenon precises that he can therefore be regarded as the chief of the awliyâ esh-Shaytân, it can be said that he will be as it were their "seal" (khâtem), according to the terminology of islamic esoterism. He will be an 'imposter' (this is the meaning of the word dajjal by which he is designated in Arabic), since his reign will be the 'great parody' in its complete form, the 'satanic' imitation and caricature of everything that is truly traditional. The Antichrist can adopt the very symbols of the Messiah, "using them of course in an inverted sense" In the same way, "there can be and must be a strange resemblance between the designations of the Messiah (El-Mesîha in Arabic) and of the Antichrist (El-Mesîkh) " Here, writes Guenon, there is an untranslatable double meaning: Mesîkh can be taken as a deformation of Mesîha, by the mere addition of a dot to the final letter; but at the same time the first word means 'deformed', which correctly expresses the character of the Antichrist...

Written by Maya