Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy; CCWV.LIFE

In 1945 Aldous Huxley publishes The Perennial Philosophy, an anthology of mystical texts from every tradition arranged under one doctrine: that a divine Reality substantial to the world stands behind all faiths. The book names the synthesis Huxley shares with the Vedanta circles of California, and its title becomes the common label for the position this category gathers.

Tagged: Eastern Pantheistic Monism

The Event

Date: 1945 (exact)
Era: The Countercultural Synthesis; Periodization of the construction and its sources
Location: New York; today New York, New York
Traditions: Eastern Pantheistic Monism
Streams: Eastern Pantheistic Monism
Key figures: Aldous Huxley
Key texts: The Perennial Philosophy

Connections

Illustration for The Sacred Books of the East begins

History Event The Sacred Books of the East begins 1879 reads the world's mystical texts as one philosophy, from the library the series built

Primary Sources

Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. New York: Harper, 1945.

Secondary Sources

Clarke, J. J. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought. London: Routledge, 1997.
Halbfass, Wilhelm. India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
King, Richard. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and 'the Mystic East'. London: Routledge, 1999.

Provenance: HIST-1379; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.