Guénon quotes in the text "Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power"the medieval parable of the blind man and the paralytic: in it the blind man has the paralytic on his shoulders. in fact, the blind man is guided by a paralytic who, resting on his shoulders, directs his action. 

What does this story want to teach us? The blind man is the temporal power, the political action, while the paralytic is the spiritual authority, the contemplation. One cannot exist without the other. 

Contemplation without action, spirituality without politics is impotence, while politics without spirituality is mere brute force. These examples, although referring to the relationship between spiritual Authority and temporal power, a task, a work that is not only mere culture, or mere study, and which is not only mere politics or mere militancy.

~ Paolo Rada