As it happens, three theosophists have published significant critiques of traditionalism (Ellwood, Quinn, Smoley). They were probably more tolerant than the dismissive approach against theosophy inaugurated by René Guénon. (Theosophism' s first 100 pp. is about Blavatsky. He only quotes some bits from the Key to Theosophy, what kind of critique is that? But of interest for his contemporaneous take on the admittedly curious neo-theosophy scene, which he blames on Blavatsky). The call for rapprochement does not seem to have made much of an impact. As the Ellwood review indicates, the discovery of troubling political involvements or attitudes of certain adherents of the traditionalist, structuralist, ritualist schools, mainly from the 1930s (Jung, Eliade, Tucci, Schwaller de Lubics, Karlfried Graf Durkheim, Dumézil, Evola, Benoist-Méchin, Campbell), was too much for a lot of people and contributed to their relative downfall from the rather high general popularity in mainstream publishing that they enjoyed in the 1950s to the 80s. Many had successful academic careers, some were very gifted scholars, with a modest success in developing their approach in academia. Their influence has diminished since the 1990s, but still remains present.
Prof Mark Sedgwick - Sufism,
Anarchism, Traditionalism, New Right, Against Modernity
Good interview with Varna Institute for Peace Research (VIPR) Jan 11, 2022
Author of Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and
the secret intellectual history of the twentieth century (Oxford University
Press, 2004)
“Traditionalism” through the Lens of Cultural Ecology
Review The
Politics of Myth: A Study of C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph
Campbell. Robert Ellwood.
by RT McCutcheon · 2001
21 Years On, Revisiting Ellwood’s The
Politics of Myth
"Against Blavatsky: Rene Guenon's Critique of
Theosophy."
Smoley, Richard. Quest 98. 1 (Winter 2010): 28-34.
Waiting for the End of the World: René
Guénon and the Kali Yuga
Richard
Smoley July 15,
2013
Important
correction: Blavatsky essentially follows the traditional Hindu dates for the
Kali Yuga. She wrote that an important initial 5 000-year cycle within the
Kali Yuga ending was approaching, but the Kali Yuga as a whole still has 427
000 years to go.
‘One of the
sources that come closest to Guénon’s view of the Kali Yuga is H.P. Blavatsky
(1831-91), founder of the Theosophical Society. In her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky writes,
“The Kali-yuga reigns now supreme in India, and it seems to coincide with the
Western age.”19 Blavatsky, writing around 1888, dates the
beginning of this epoch to “4,989 years ago” – close to the traditional date of
3012 BCE – and places its end roughly at the close of the nineteenth century:
“We have not long to wait, and many of us will witness the Dawn of the New
Cycle.’’
Gary Lachman Politics and the Occult: The Left, the
Right, and the Radically Unseen (2008)
Reviewed by Rene Wadlow
High Irrationalism and Far Right Politics
Review by Tim
Pendry (Lachman makes a pretty good political prediction in this book)
Today
we have two competing 'occultisms' - a liberal individualist, almost
anarchist, dissent against the 'Man' (the machinery of government and
commerce) and a traditionalist and anti-Western tribal approach, based
on struggle, that owes a great deal not just to Evola but to Benoist
and, latterly, Southgate. Both can sometimes lay claim paganism but these two models of
the political universe could not be more different. I am sorry that
Lachman does not go more deeply into this.
Julius Evola: Theosophy and Beyond
Joscelyn Godwin
In 2008 Marco
Iacona asked me to join 40 others in answering some questions about Julius
Evola, specifically (in my case) about his connections with Theosophy. The
questions and answers were published in Italian as Il Maestro della
Tradizione: Dialoghi su Julius Evola (Naples: Controcorrente, 2008)
Beginnings of Theosophy in France
Joscelyn Godwin,
Theosophical History, 2018
Since René Guénon
was influenced by the turn-of-the-century French occult scene, this text gives
useful background information.
William W. Quinn, Jr. - Mircea Eliade and
The Sacred Tradition, A Personal Account
Theosophist and rare former post-grad student of Eliade video lecture. 35m.
William W. Quinn, Jr. The Only Tradition
Fine study on
traditionalism and theosophy.
Response to a
Criticism of Theosophy by Rene Guenon - Paul Bertrand - 1922:
Friends of the Theosophical Archives newsletter - Special Edition - Autumn 2016
Theosophy and Theosophism: Response to a Criticism of Theosophy by René Guénon written by Paul Bertrand a pseudonym of Georges Méautis.
The Swiss scholar Georges Méautis (1890-1970) graduate of several European universities, he passed his doctorate in 1918 at the University of Neuchâtel, and by 1922 was already a professor there. He held the chair of Greek language and literature from 1930 to 1961. Many prizes and honors came his way, and it does not seem to have hurt his reputation that he was a prominent Theosophist and a declared believer in reincarnation, as befitted his speciality of Pythagoreanism.
Traditionalist reviews of Mark Sedgwick, Against the
Modern World: Traditionalism and the secret intellectual history of the
twentieth century
Esotericism & Democracy: Some Clarifications
wouterjhanegraaff.blogspot.com/2022/10/esoter 
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