The Perennial philosophy, also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a perspective in spirituality that views all of the world’s religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.
The figure above represents an allegory for the perennial philosophy. Say there is a giant redwood tree that stands equidistant from four particular geographic points, one North, one East, one South and one West. From each of these points a traveler embarks on a journey, seeking the giant tree. Each seeker encounters very different challenges during their journey to the tree. Upon arriving at the tree, which is over 100 feet in circumference, each individual has their own view of the same tree.
If asked to describe their respective journey and their particular view of the tree, each would have a very different story to tell though they each stand at the same destination. Only by gathering each of their stories would the individual asking arrive at a complete picture of the tree and the many ways in which it is possible to reach the tree.
In Spiritual Science we would view the tree, the core destination or target of each seeker as being that of the Christ, more precisely, the Mystery of Golgotha – the Christ upon the Tree.
