René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz (1887 – 1961), born in Alsace-Lorraine, was best known for his 15-year study of the art and architecture of the Temple of Luxor in Egypt and his subsequent book The Temple of Man (ISBN 0-89281-021-1). In the book, he explored the connectedness of ancient Egyptian philosophy, spirituality, mathematics, and science.
He was given the title "de Lubicz" by the Lithuanian writer and diplomat Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz.[1]
He also wrote under the mystical name 'Aor'. [2] [3]
His background is that of an alchemist, inspired by Paracelsus and other such "masters of the craft" (as it is declared in the foreword of The Temple of Man) and, as such, he taught groups of people inclined to accept that approach to the study of nature.
His elucidation of the Temple of Luxor and his presentation of the Egyptian understanding of a special quality of innate consciousness form a bridge that attempts to link the sacred science of the Ancients, to its modern rediscovery in our own time.
In his chief work, The Temple of Man, he proposes, and argues in great detail, for an interpretation of the Egyptian outlook rooted in numerology and sacred geometry; in several of his other works, he makes a corresponding case for the metaphysical richness of various mathematical concepts. As with much ancient mathematics, Egyptian research became quite complex. The complexity of various ancient mathematical concepts covered in his book provide an ongoing source of debate.
His arguments are controversial today among mainstream Egyptologists and contradictory to the thrust of mainstream anthropological and archaeological understanding. He is mistakenly considered by alternative Egyptologists as a "philosopher" and "mathematician". He was a student of Theosophy and Saint Yves d'Alveydre's Synarchy. He was committed to extreme right-wing views and was vehemently anti-semitic. His work is not widely accepted by Greek and Roman schools of thought. Many adherents of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way find parallels in de Lubicz's writings. He has been an inspiration to authors like John Anthony West and Naomi Ozaniec. [4]