http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Gu%C3%A9non

René Guénon was born in Blois into a Catholic family. His father was an architect. In 1904 he lived in Paris, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. He was a brilliant student, notably in mathematics, in spite of his poor health.

As a young student in Paris, he observed and entered some occultist Parisian milieux (which were, at that time, under the supervision of Papus). Under the name "Tau Palingenius" he became the main contributor of a review he founded, La Gnose ("Gnosis"), henceforth writing articles for La Gnose until 1922. From his incursions into the French occultist and pseudo-masonic orders, he drew a conclusion about the impossibility of gathering these ill-assorted doctrines to shape a "stable edifice".[8] In his book The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times he also pointed out the intellectual vacuity of the French occultist movement, which, he wrote, was utterly insignificant, and most importantly, was terminally infiltrated by some individuals of a different, darker nature.[9]

At this time, according to indications coming from André Préau reproduced by his editor and biographer P. Chacornac,[10] it is very likely that René Guénon was initiated into Hinduism (in an initiatic lineage of Shankarâchârya) and Taoism. He was also initiated in 1911[11] into Islamic esoterism (Taçawuff) and his name in Islam became "Sheikh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya". His initiation into Islamic esoterism was effected by Ivan Aguéli (Abdul Hadi) and performed in accordance with Sheikh Abder Rahman Elish El-Kebir, a quite important representative of Islam in Egypt at that time, in both its exoteric and esoteric aspects. In particular, from the exoteric point of view, Sheikh Abder Rahman Elish El-Kebir was the head of mâleki madhab at Al-Azhar University. René Guénon later dedicated his book The Symbolism of the Cross to him.

In 1917, he made a one-year stay at Setif, Algeria, teaching philosophy to college students. After World War I, he left teaching to dedicate his time to his writings, with his first book Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines being published in 1921. From 1925 René Guénon became a contributor to the review edited by P. Chacornac Le Voile d’Isis ("The Veil of Isis") which became known, after 1935 and under his influence, under the name Les Etudes Traditionnelles ("Traditional Studies").

Although the exposition of Hindu doctrines had already been tackled at that time by many orientalists, René Guénon’s Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines contemplates its subject in a completely different manner,[12] by referring to the concepts of metaphysics and Tradition in their most general sense, which are precisely defined in the first part of the book, along with the necessary distinctions and definitions of words such as religion, tradition, exoterism, esoterism and theology. René Guénon explained that his purpose was not to describe all aspects of Hinduism, but to give the necessary intellectual foundation for a proper understanding of its spirit.[13] The book is also a severe condemnation of the works presented by the orientalists about Hinduism and Tradition in general (according to René Guénon, they had presented neither any deep understanding of the subject, nor any of its implications), along with a precise analysis of the political intrusions of the British Empire through Madame Blavatsky’s theosophism.[14]

During that same year, 1921, he debuted a series of articles in the French Revue de Philosophie, which, along with some supplements, led to the book Theosophism: History of a Pseudo-Religion. During the decade 1920-1930, René Guénon was remarked by numerous intellectual and artistics in the Parisian milieux, and at that time were published some of his books explaining the "intellectual divide" between the East and West, and the peculiar nature, according to him, of the modern civilization: Crisis of the Modern World, East and West. In 1927 was published the second major doctrinal book of his works: Man and His Becoming according to the Vedânta, and in 1929, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power, which delivers a general explanation of the fundamental differences between "sacerdotal" and "royal" powers, along with the consequences of the usurpation of the prerogatives of the latter with regard to the former. From these considerations, René Guénon traces to its source the origin of the modern deviation, which, according to him, is to be found in the destruction of the Templar order in 1314.

In 1930, he left Paris for Cairo, Egypt, with the project of gathering and translating written documents in taçawuff. The project was abruptly abandoned after a decision of his editor. Left alone in Cairo, he declined any propositions of coming back to France from his western friends; despite his declining material condition, he relentlessly kept on writing and corresponding with his counterparts from many countries in the world, sometimes at his own cost. The reasons for his refusal to come back to the West, even at the cost of his comfort and daily life, remain unknown. He met Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim whose daughter he married in 1934. From this marriage, he had four children, the last (Abdel Wahed) being born in 1951. In Egypt, René Guénon carried on an austere and simple life, entirely dedicated to his writings and spiritual life.[15] In 1949, he obtained Egyptian nationality.

Urged by some of his collaborators, he gave his agreement to the creation in France of a Masonic lodge of traditional nature, whose name La Grande triade ("The Great Triad") comes from the title of one of his books. The first founders of the lodge, however, separated a few years after its inception.[16] This lodge, belonging to the Grande Loge de France, is still active.

Other sites which may be of interest:
http://www.religioperennis.org/
http://www.livingislam.org/trg.html

I will add to this in due time