Who was Louis Cattiaux? And what is the Message Rediscovered about?
LOUIS CATTIAUX, A STRANGER TO MOST (1990) by Charles d'HOOGHVORST
LOUIS CATTIAUX
Louis Cattiaux, poet, painter and apothecary, was certainly no ordinary man. He’s been gone a long time now (51 years), but for those who knew him well, he will always remain an unforgettable character.
Disconcerting, unpredictable in his reactions, guided by a peculiar logic that would catch his visitors off guard, he loved to shock and even scandalize, but always in a humorous way.
He was the man without complexes, perfectly free in the world, living the present intensely like a happy child, without malice.
Often playing the fool or the clown, he refused to take the world seriously, no more seriously than he took himself; never one to lecture, if he taught it was in the manner of the Court Jester, who possesses the art of talking to those who wish to understand while making the others laugh, without the possibility of their being offended.
We shall call ourselves incapable, useless and stupid when we rest in the contemplation of the Unique One; or else we shall call ourselves charlatans, jugglers and clowns when we teach his holy law in the world. – It is not up to us to take ourselves seriously, nor to demand of others that they do so. That is up to God, who is the only one to see the inside of creatures clearly. (MR XX, 66-66′)
We have taken up the habit of the charlatan, for the disinterested despise of the world is less difficult to bear than its interested admiration. – The Book is like the ark that carries and transmits the secret of the Unique One. Many shall carry it, but few shall penetrate it. (MR XXIII 61-61’).
You have wasted your life, he said, looking at my empty hands; and no-one heard the god singing in my heart. (Poems).
Undoubtedly, that Cattiaux, the authentic one, was not accessible on a first meeting; he could only be approached through The Message Rediscovered, the work he spent the last fourteen years of his life writing; indeed, his whole life’s work.
He worked six years to write the first twelve chapters, published in 1946; the verses there are concentrated in the extreme, each word carefully weighed, like a quintessence distilled patiently drop by drop, purified to perfection. The artist strove at length to master his art, which he achieved perfectly, for from that period onwards his verses seem to emerge at an ever-quickening pace.
Three years later, in 1949, he wrote:
It took ten years to write the Book; who, then, would refuse to read it for the same time before asking useless questions? (MR XVIII, 45)
He wrote day after day, verse by verse, as though guided, possessed by a secret God, listening only to him, without distractions in the hubbub of the city. The verses, which might come to him at any time in the day, were jotted down immediately on the first scrap of paper that came to hand.
It was like the collision of multiple everyday events with some mysterious secret reality, which he alone contemplated. Nothing of the speculative or the abstract here, but truly an incarnate experience. (All you needed was to know how to listen to him).
Now the man has gone, but his Message remains. Is it really a Message Rediscovered, or more precisely THE Message Rediscovered?
Many are those that have leafed through it distractedly; they are surely unaware that there exists a forgotten Message, and also a lost Word.
A few, however, attracted by a certain Scent of Truth, have taken the time necessary to read it and ponder it. They can confirm that the Message has indeed been rediscovered.
Certainly, it is not new, and that is, paradoxically, what makes it original. This fact, moreover, did not escape René Guénon.
It is not new, we were saying, in the sense that is authentic, always deriving from the Origin and therefore identical via the great chain of the Masters of Knowledge.
If you doubt what we are saying here, then take the trouble to examine it, this renewed Message, if you have the patience, and, leaving your prejudices to one side, you shall realize that, in modern language, what is expressed here is the eternal prophetic Message of the Sages of humanity.
Let us follow, then, their footprints in the Knowledge of ancient Egypt and that of the Fathers of Taoism, in the Wisdom of the Hebrew Cabala, in the mysteries of Ancient Greece, in the Gnosis of Christian Hermetism and that of Islam, in the Mysteries of the Great Work of the Philosophers…
Here there is more than a moral and more than an asceticism, more than a philosophy and more than a mysticism. Here is the key to the restitution of man and the world in God. (MR IX, 36’)
The Spirit of Elijah cannot be invented.
Certainly, the writings of the Sages are necessary, and we should read them and ponder them, believing their testimony. But what is the written Tradition without the updating of the oral Tradition, which is the only one that can give us back the SENSE? Without the oral Tradition, we can talk about it and write about it in a more or less learned way, but our intelligent speculations always collide with the surface of the words, for we do not know What it is truly about.
This book is not for all, but only for those to whom it is given to believe the unbelievable
(MR – Introduction).
It is not the work that counts, nor the worker, but the thing which the work and the worker speak of.
If you have found the unity of the Unique One, tear out the pages of the Book and let them fly away in the wind while humming a joyful song. – If not, do not leave them day or night until they penetrate your understanding and until they lead you to the mud that neither wets nor stains anything. (MR XXIII, 58′-57-57′).
What a pity for us, men of this end of the twentieth century, if this Message, expressed once more, failed to be heard!
What bad luck for all those that are absent, asleep or distracted, for all the insensitive ones, for all the reasonable ones, for all the well-off, for all the mediocre ones!
Shall we lack oil for our lamps, like the foolish virgins?
THE MESSAGE REDISCOVERED PRESENTED BY LOUIS CATTIAUX
The path of deliverance is visible everywhere in this world.
Oh fertilizing rain!
The Message Rediscovered is presented in the form of sentences or verses arranged in two columns and divided into 40 books or chapters.
Each one of the books is preceded by two epigraphs and followed by two hypographs taken from the holy Scriptures of all nations.
We speak a new language, but we repeat the ancient unique revelation, for nobody invents anything in the ART of God. (MR XXXIII, 42)
The holy Scriptures have been complete since their beginning, and each new book revealed does nothing more than confirm them without adding anything or taking anything away from the mystery of the incarnate spirit, which constitutes their sacred foundation. (MR XX, 2)
Let us not argue over any religion or any doctrine. Let us study all the holy Scriptures assiduously… (MR XVI, 44’)
Not one word of a holy Scripture actually contradicts the word of another holy Scripture. Thus, God appears multiple in people, yet he is unique in action and in repose, as he is the Being par excellence, that is to say the Primary and the Ultimate in everything. – Therefore, we need to know all the holy Scriptures and study them until we have discovered the primary and ultimate identity of the inspired word. «To think of God and meditate on his creation is to pray and praise God.» (MR XV, 50 and 50’)
This is the unequivocal affirmation of the universality of a single and identical revelation since the beginning, throughout all the holy Books. Fanaticism cannot be born here, and nor is there a place for sectarianism, since:
Those who love the ancient revelation shall also love the new one. – Those who understand the new revelation shall also understand the ancient one. (MR XXXX, 15 and 15’)
1. THE TWO TRIANGULAR PRAYERS
This is the opening of the book, through which everything must begin. It is the obligatory entrance.
The descending grace and the ascending love. (See MR XXXIII, 17’).
Without them, there is no understanding of the holy books.
One is : The holy Mother, light as air and changing as water; the other is: The sacred Father, heavy as the earth and immutable as fire. The union of the four engenders the triple Son, who manifests the prodigious creation of the Unique One. (MR VIII, 38)
This falling and rising current is like the Ladder or chain of gold that joins heaven and earth. When the triangle of Fire and that of Water come together, they form the six-pointed star. He to whom, like Jacob, it is given to contemplate it, no longer has any need for books or teacher, for Parousia, which means ‘Presence’, lives in him and is what guides him and teaches him.
We indicate as incomplete all the comments on the words inscribed in the Book, for the reflections of the thing are not the thing itself. (MR XXIV, 46’)
In fact, this book has no need of commentaries, for whoever takes the time to ponder upon it shall realize little by little that the verses explain and clarify one another. Our explanations are necessarily incomplete and imperfect, for the only one who can make valuable comments on the work is he who has lived through the same possessive experience as its author.
It is not a question here of intelligent words or speculations, but rather of intelligence of the heart, and, in sum, of ‘knowledge’, in its etymological sense of «to be born with» (from the Latin: cum-nascor).
Each one remakes his small experience of a blind man and each one proposes his little system of a dying one, without noticing the immensity of God’s creation and without suspecting the presence of the uniting doctrine of the masters.
Let us not break our head over the Book; instead, let us break our heart over it, so that our precious soul germinates and fructifies before God in the secret of the beginning and end of all things. (MR XVII, 53 and 53’)
2. THE TWO COLUMNS
The composition of the Book in two columns is disconcerting. How should it be read? These two symbolic columns cannot be separated, so that it must read horizontally, that is, verse 1, verse 1’, verse 2, verse 2’, and so on…
And why, then, must one not separate the left from the right? That would mean keeping heaven separate from earth. This teaching is as ancient as the Tradition itself. Let us recall the two columns of the Temple and those of the Tree of Sephiroth.
We seek the two columns of the Temple and we have them before our eyes and within reach of our hands, but our hearts are darkened by the sin of the fall and the truth of God has withdrawn into the well of the abyss. (MR XXI, 19)
According to the author (see Presentation to the reader), «the left-hand column represents the terrestrial meaning and the right-hand one represents the celestial meaning» . One is thus earthly, and we have it «in our hands» , and the other is heavenly, and we have it «before our eyes» . But here it is, the earth has been separated from heaven, as a result of the original fall, and man is separated from God; his senses have become coarse, and the truth of Adam has gone down into a bottomless well. It is Jacob’s well or the well of the Samaritan, stopped by a heavy stone that only the servant of God is capable of removing. Then, the column of heaven joins once more that of the earth, forming a single column represented by the verse in the middle.
Those who ignore God’s servant, those who forget him and those who deny him are cut off from God’s counsel and from his salvation. – Those fall into the abyss, for they stupidly cut the bond that links them to the heaven of eternity. (MR XXXVII, 13 and 13’)
3. THE FALL, THE EXILE AND THE REDEMPTION
The current world is neither real nor unreal, neither good nor bad. It is formed by a portion of divine light divided up infinitely in the darkness of non-being. / Here is the fall of Lucifer and the exile of Adam. / The return to God is like the separation with the darkness and like the reunion with the primordial light. / Here is the redemption of Adam. (MR IX, 5, 6, 7, 8)
The knowledge of good and evil caused the fall of the first created god. / Imprisoned in death, he can only be delivered by the part of him that has remained pure and free in God. (MR IV, 6 and 7)
The general mixture was produced by the minute interruption of the contemplation of God by man, who wanted to know the Nothing and the Everything, by eating the fruit mixed with death. / Thus, due to the fall of a fragment of the luminous Being into the dark non-being, the middle Being was born. / The separation and the reunion shall be accomplished by the assembling of the living parts and by the rejection of the dead portion. Accomplishment and perfection shall be brought about by the concentration of the light and through the ultimate marriage of heaven and earth. (MR IV 25 to 27)
The primary light was drawn from the chaos by God and made quintessence in Adam, who did no more than mix this sublime light once more with the exterior darkness of non-being; through curiosity, presumption, vanity and disobedience. / The new Adam, the true son of God that came, is coming and shall come, separates once more the light from the darkness, through humility, love and obedience to the law of the Unique One. / The first revolt exiled man in the foreign land. The second makes him organize himself comfortably in it. The third makes him give up this world and leads him back to God. (MR XII, 33 to 35)
Such are the Fall, the Exile and the Redemption.
4. THE SCIENCE OF MEN
The exile of man thus results from the mixture of the pure luminous substance with the external dark filth, and all nature, that is, the three kingdoms, was infected with him. That is why the human sciences, which by their nature concern this mixture, are still imperfect.
Life and death are inextricably mixed in the fallen world, and our profane sciences are powerless to separate them and exalt the pure life up to God’s repose. / Therefore, all our subtle thoughts, all our fine words and all our great works go to death, for our spirits, our hearts and our hands are darkened by the infamous mixture. (MR XXXVI, 79 and 79’)
The science of men organizes the pit of death, but the science of God delivers us from it forever. (MR XX, 11’)
All the scholars of the world judge the work of God stupidly, since they only consider the work and not the worker. (MR II, 26)
Their science was born of sinister interpretations of the teaching of the ancient sages. (MR II, 33)
Sinister means «left»; these are the interpretations that proceed from the left-hand column separated from the right-hand one, that is, an understanding of the teaching of the ancient sages restricted to the carnal or vulgar sense.
5. THE SCIENCE OF GOD
Who still believes in the existence of a divine Science? And yet it is the only one capable of providing a remedy for the ill that dwells in us in this base world.
There are no longer any candidates for the science of God because there are no longer any believers in the omnipotence of God. Thus, God’s initiated have become imperceptible in the world, and his adepts have completely disappeared. (MR XVI, 12’)
Neither believers nor atheists suspect God’s science exists, hidden behind the symbols, writings and figures of revealed religions. Those who believe in it try to appropriate it through cunning and violence. A few of them ask God for it in their heart, and scarcely one or two obtain it in the century. (MR XXIV, 33)
Our plain reason conceals from us the obviousness of the divine science. (MR V, 50)
It is always necessary to wash in order to separate the almond from the filth that surrounds it, and it is a great secret that nature displays every day before all. However, without God’s inspiration we are unable to understand the obviousness of divine science. (MR XVI, 62’)
The science of God perfects beings and things and leads to freedom in the sweet-smelling life. (MR XXIII, 65’)
The ignorant one humiliates life and constructs in death. The sage separates death and makes life perfect. / It is better to try and leave our prison than to attempt to improve it and to settle in it. (MR X, 2 and 2’)
True possession is the science of God experienced in the secret of the heart. Illusory possession is the science of men practised in the world. / The ignorant one speaks of getting rid of evil, the sage is content with separating it and rejecting it, in order to glorify good without hindrance. (MR VIII, 18 and 18’)
Let us study the triple ancient mysteries.
Let us revere the sacred doctrines and fables.
Let us search for the good that subsists in the evil.
Let us meditate on the works of the prophets and those of the saintly philosophers.
Let us understand that there is but one God, one science, and one creation everywhere and always. / All moisture shall be expelled from the earth, and fire shall consume the foul grime until the virginal salt appears, to which will be given back the heavenly water in order to form God’s new world. «Who shall make us hear this word from the beginning and from the end of time? Who shall show us the denuded germ of the Lord’s perfect creation?» (MR II, 83 and 83’)
Who, then, if not the mysterious servant of God, the Master of the Word, who renews the bond that unites heaven and earth?
The two columns of the book shall present to us these triple ancient mysteries in two different ways:
Woman disintegrates man until the water of the air.
Man consolidates woman until the fire of the earth.
From these two springs the infinity of the perfect creation that manifests the glory of the Unique One on the earth of the living. / The liquefaction and the vegetation of the earth are the first mystery.
The solidification and the animation of water, form the second mystery.
The alliance of the first water and the second earth constitutes the third mystery. (MR III, 82 and 82’)
To know the three hereditary foundations of man is to possess science.
The soul that comes from God, the spirit that comes from the stars, the body that comes from the earth. / He who delivers the buried man receives all from the Father by means of the Mother and Son clearly manifested. «We preach neither the wind, nor smoke, nor ashes; we preach life saved in the resurrected soul, spirit and body.» (MR II, 88 and 88’)
Are you thinking of doing something good without the sun, without the moon, without the stars, without air, without water, and without earth? Then you are ignorant of agriculture, which is the science of God. (MR XXIII, 48)
God’s salvation is the most experimental science there could be, for it is the science of the God that has created the world and the universes that surround it, and this one does not rave abstractly in the void! / We repeat the enormous revelation because it is incredible: God sends his holiest essence that becomes incarnate in the purest substance of the world for the salvation of all fallen creation.
Let him understand who can.
Let him experience who would.
Let us consider CHRISTMAS. Let us penetrate CHRISTMAS. Let us imitate CHRISTMAS. Let us adore CHRISTMAS. Let us sing CHRISTMAS. (MR XXXVII, 53, 53’ and 53’’)
The whole of God’s creation can participate in God’s salvation through the mediation of the sons of God. Thus, animals, vegetables and even minerals can be restored to the glory and the immortality of the Unique One; no-one must be ignorant of this nor forget it. (MR XXXVII, 55)
6. FAITH
The nonbelievers do not hear the Lord because they are not the first to speak to God. How shall we open their heart and mouth if the Lord does not aid us in person? For pride is an impenetrable armour-plate under which life is dying, and none other than God can break it from outside or melt it from the inside. (MR XXI, 22)
The believer returns to his source like the buried grain moves towards the light, and this is a great example of heavenly love and earthly faith. (MR IX, 21’)
«Never despair of God and of oneself», such is the law of salvation. We must therefore persevere, trust in the Lord and act according to his law for it is the act of faith of the sower and the act of love of heaven and of earth that save us from death. But how many shall penetrate this mystery and how many shall accomplish it before the hour of judgement? (MR XIV, 3)
Blind faith obtains from God that which reason dares not conceive. (MR X, 5’)
Faith is like the certainty of God in ourselves, and knowledge is like the proof of his intimate presence. (MR VIII, 30)
Our faith is not held in an abstract idea, nor in an elusive ideal, nor in the great number of faithful, nor in human works, nor in the goods of this world, nor in profane or religious honours, nor men’s sciences, nor in the powers of the ascetics.
Our faith is held in the certainty of the divine nature embodied in the flesh of the world.
Our faith is nourished by the hope of rediscovering this divine nature buried in the sin of death.
Our faith is brought to life by the effusion of the Holy Spirit that fertilizes the divine nature and thus remakes us as children of God, in the image of God himself. (MR XXXVIII, 19 and 19’)
There are three possible solutions for men here below: To rely only on oneself, as the ignorant ones who have gone astray in the night of the world do. To rely on oneself and on God, as believers that have heard about the light of the beginning do. – To rely only on God, as do sages and saints that know or approach the origin and end of all things. (MR XII, 72’ to 77’)
There are thus two kinds of faith: the faith of believers and that which emanates from the Gift of God. The first, indispensable for allowing entry to the second, is born out of the «memory» of the splendour lost by our first Parents; it is that which impels the believer to undertake Pilgrimage, that is, the Quest. The second is theological, which means given by God at the end of the Pilgrimage (in Islam this Gift is called Udj: it is «the irrefutable proof» given by Allah). It is also the Faith of Abraham: The certainty of the divine Nature embodied in the flesh of the world. That faith has only to wait for the germination; like the charcoal burner, it is enough to maintain the cooking fire constant. In the image of the faith of the sower who relies only on the action of the sky and the earth, it is blind at the beginning, but it «knows» that through the glass of the athanor it shall see the light appear like a dot in the darkness and shall grow until the day of God. (Cf. MR XXXVII, 47’)
7. THE QUEST
There is no Quest for God without faith in God. The Quest is a combination of the action of seeking and the fact of asking. Let’s just think about it. One cannot do without the other, for the body needs the spirit to be enlightened, and the spirit needs the body to embody itself.
Inspiration without action is powerless, and action without inspiration is blind. The two together make the perfection of the human work. / Art without nature is impotent, and nature without art is blind. The two united make the perfection of the divine work. (MR XXXVII, 41 and 41’)
Who is God? Who are we?
That is the quest, that is the wisdom and that is the repose.
God is all, man is medium, the shadow is nothing.
«Of course death stinks, and of course life exudes this unforgettable perfume». (MR VI, 36 and 37)
By withdrawing from that which is useless, one swiftly arrives at the solitude and the freedom necessary for the quest for God (MR V, 70’)
Let us first pray, then, for God to smooth the paths of our quest and for him to discharge us of alien worries, by making our faith stronger than the obviousness of our blind reason. (MR XXIV, 38’)
The word of God first humbles our reason, then secretly communicates its light to the soul, before enlightening the spirit, if we are attentive and persevering in our holy quest. (MR XVIII, 67’)
Some pursue in secret the quest for God beyond symbols and figures, for they are thirsty for the reality that can be seen, touched and eaten. Who could scold them, and who would dare to exclude them from the universal Church of the most-learned Lord? (MR XXI, 55)
8. GOODWILL IN GOD
All that is tiresome and complicated is not God’s. But goodwill uses all that appears for the best, without discussion and without judging rashly the life that is still veiled. (MR X, 9’)
[…] The goodwill in God uses as well as possible all that presents itself, but desires nothing. It is like highly sustained attention amid the most perfect quietness. (MR XIII, 46’)
It is the goodwill in God that saves us from death, and it is goodwill in ourselves that hurls us into it. In fact, though both are blind, the first is guided however, and becomes receptive and organising, while the second is errant and becomes anarchic and destructive. (MR XV, 8’)
Goodwill in God does violence to nothing, not even oneself. Goodwill in oneself does violence to everything, even to God.
«Who strips bare the almond and who makes the seed germinate? Is it not the spirit of the all-powerful Lord?» (MR XVIII, 43’)
Who would have the intelligence to listen within himself to the voice of the Highest, and who would have the wisdom to conform to it? That one would see that the greatest submission to God engenders perfect freedom in this world and in the other. (MR XVIII, 43)
Muslims are «the ones subject to the will of Allah»; that is why Imam Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, toured the tribes, proclaiming: «Become Muslims and you shall be at peace» , which means: «subject yourselves (to the will of Allah) and you shall be at peace».
Goodwill in God delivers us from the constraints of the world, for it allows us to hear the Lord’s teaching and gives rise to the action of his hidden Providence. (MR XIX, 30’)
[…]The righteous and the experts are close to God, but so are the charitable and the simple and, above all, those who have goodwill in God. (MR XIX, 38’)
9. PRAYER
The prayer experienced for one minute is worth more than the dead lesson pondered on throughout a whole lifetime. (MR V, 26)
Prayer and praise that ascend towards God fall back on us in multiplied blessings, just as the good thoughts that we send to the living and to the departed, return to us in the form of unexpected gifts. (MR XIX, 36’)
Prayer is like a secret conversation between the created God and the non-created God, that Is to say, like the bond of love that unites the finite with the infinite, and that allows the totality to know itself in One. (MR IX, 52)
There is an important and urgent prayer that we must repeat every day of our exiled life:
Deliver us, all-powerful Father, from the disgusting filth that submerges us on all sides, so that we become resplendent once more in your purity, and fertilize us with your holy love, so that we become fixed in you for eternity. (MR XX, 73’’)
The end is like the beginning, but the middle enlightens us. The Prayer, the Star, the Stone. (MR I, 2’)
The end is like the beginning, because Stone «Pierre» is the anagram of Prayer «Prière». As for the Star in the middle, see the two triangular prayers.
10. HOLY AND WISE BOOKS
The inspired holy books are the guides of humanity and form the most precious heritage of the ancestors. (MR VI, 22)
By confronting the doctrines of all the holy books, the truth of the Unique One can be discovered. (MR II, 82)
The holy and wise books are quite necessary to know the Lord, but a spade and a watering can are not useless in approaching the holy Mother. (MR XVIII, 23)
We must say it and repeat it: the most authentic, the most precise and the most accomplished revelation of the mystery of life and of God’s salvation is to be found in the known books of God’s prophets and in the unknown books of God’s sages. Is our religion not a living symbol of the mystery hidden in all times? Do we no longer see it? Do we no longer hear it? (MR XXXVII, 48)
Let us mention some of those Sages of God whose books are unknown: Morien, Geber, R. Lully, Nicolas Valois, Nicolas Flamel, le Cosmopolite, Basile Valentin, Henri Khunrath, President d’Espagnet, Philalethes, and so many others, many of whom have thought it better to leave their work unsigned.
[…] Holy books speak to us of interior wisdom known within.
Wise books speak to us of interior wisdom experienced outside. (MR XXII, 61)
It is, then, the holy books that make the language of wise books intelligible: they should be studied jointly. The Wise hermetic philosophers have often called one another ‘envious’; «this term» , says Dom A-J. Pernety in his Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermétique, «should be understood in the sense that one says a man is jealous of his secret, he keeps it hidden… for all their formulas are usually what one calls ‘fodder for the masses’… We must also bear in mind that they have practically never said everything at once, and that the majority have spoken only of the second operation» .
Who could avoid losing his way in this inescapable labyrinth?
The latter accumulate rare books and pursue hidden knowledge, but they deny God and the holy Scriptures, which are the only ones that could give them the intelligence of the veiled texts and the key to the buried treasures. (MR XVII, 13)
11. DEATH
The extreme humiliation of death is the compulsory entry to the splendour of heavenly life, for earthly separation is the beginning of heaven manifested. (MR II, 76’)
The mortification of the body has to prepare the purification of the spirit and the regeneration of the soul. – He who turns away from the mystery of death shall never know the power and the glory of God. (MR VIII, 5 and 5’)
Corruption shows up all purity. (MR III, 15’)
I have searched for the truth even in the corruption of the world and I have separated life from death. (MR IX, 2’)
The polished skull of a dead man reflects the truth to us better than any magic mirror. (MR IX, 12)
Mysterious mirror of the Kabbalists!
We have emphasized the death that holds the world in its blind claws, but we have also pointed out the life that constantly renews itself through it. – We have recalled the terrestrial lock and the heavenly key that open the door of the abode of blessed life, where God’s children rejoice for eternity with the joy of the unique Splendour. – Thus, we have deliberately lost our life in this mixed world, in order to save it in the kingdom of God. (MR XXXVII, 26, 26’ and 26’’)
Speaking of profane philosophers, a Spanish Cabalist of the XIII century said: «You should know that these philosophers, the wisdom of which you praise, end up there where we start» .
12. THE BLESSING
To bless (bénir in French) is to speak well (bien dire), just as to curse (maudire) is to speak ill (mal dire). Precisely through his generation in this base world, man has been cursed. In order to be regenerated he must be blessed. The Word is generative and creative. Man must be recreated.
It is the essential and substantial word transmitted by the master that makes us the heirs to the Highest, on condition that we receive it in a holy way with gratitude and not profanely with malice. (MR XXIV, 13)
We shall not save ourselves, not by the work of our hands, nor by the work of our will, nor by that of our intelligence. – It is the blessing of God and it is the operation of his holy love in our purified hearts that shall accomplish the work of deliverance and of resurrection. (MR XXXVI, 78 and 78’)
Without this blessing, man cannot free himself from the chains of evil that dwells in him. There is no regeneration without the transmission of God’s Gift.
It is the blessing of God that sends the water of life, and it is his love that embodies the holy fire. (MR IV, 37’)
This blessing is the water of life, and Grace, and Light.
He who has found the light of the Lord can abandon the Book; God shall establish him in peace through his love, just as he has introduced him into grace through his blessing. (MR XX, 55)
Without the blessing of God, we are totally powerless to manifest here below the life of the Lord of resurrection. / The light of God shall first fertilize our interior darkness; then, our darkness shall manifest the light of God. (MR XXXVII, 54 and 54’).
[…] He who says a word to his Lord has earned his daily wage, but he who hears a word from his Lord has earned his life. (MR IV, 14’)
This word is fecundating, like Gabriel, which means «man (in the virile sense) of God».
The thing comes from the inside to the outside, but it also goes from the outside to the inside, and it remains in itself for eternity. / Things say the word, but the word is not said by things. Words say the thing, but the thing is not said by words. (MR XXXVIII, 59 and 59’)
A curious identification between word and thing. The author did not know Hebrew, which uses precisely the word dabar to mean, at the same time, word, speech and thing.
The centre of the Universe lies in the heart of man, but in order to free it, it is first of all necessary for the free spirit to come to the help of the spirit imprisoned by darkness. (MR IV, 36’)
This one says to his brother: Help me to dissolve and I shall help you to congeal.
The gift of God remains solitary in our heart and in our hands, for this people has become stupid by the sheer force of believing in its own intelligence, and it revels in the works of death, and it repels the work of life that it is offered to it freely. (MR XXXVIII, 60)
[…] Sing us the NAME that forces open the gates of death… (MR XIII, 16)
13. GRACE AND LOVE
It is the water of grace that melts the mortified heart and that separates in us pure life from the filth of death. It is the fire of love that fertilizes the purified heart and that multiplies it in the glory of God. (MR XXII-58)
God is like a fixed, dry fire, hidden in a moving, humid one. He who discovers it possesses the mastery of life. (MR IV-48)
Grace is like the water that delivers, and love is like the fire that unites.
God is like the water that brings together the universes, and like the fire that matures them. (MR X-58′, 59′)
It is the blessing of God that sends the water of life, and it is his love that embodies the holy fire. (MR IV, 37′)
It is grace that saves the good that is in us. It is love that makes it perfect, but it is knowledge that accomplishes the mysterious and ultimate union. (MR VII- 10′)
No repose without knowledge.
No knowledge without love.
No love without grace.
No grace without abandonment (MR XII-32)
Love, which is the food of the soul, does not need to be digested like grace and like food, which are the food of the spirit and the body, for it is already like the divine fire: accomplished and perfect. (MR XIV-34′)
Love penetrates, love gives life, love exalts, love multiplies, love unifies in splendour. / It is through the purity of grace that we magnetize divine love and that we embody God in ourselves. (MR XVIII-66, 66′)
14. THE SAINT AND THE SAGE
The life of the sage comes out of the death of the saint just as the life of the butterfly comes out of the death of the caterpillar, which becomes a chrysalis, and then, a miracle of resurrection. / Likewise, our lives shall come out again of the chaos of the dark lysis where the divine mystery of God’s creation is renewed. Let those who know how ‘to reflect’, look into this dark mirror (MR XXV, 27 and 27’)
Here we have once more the famous mirror of the holy and wise Philosophers, about which one of them said: «They shall see Nature as in a mirror whose reflection shall show the infinite Wisdom of the Creator who guides it and leads it in all its operation along a simple and single path that makes the whole mystery of the Great Work».
As for Louis Cattiaux, he said the following: «d’Espagnet speaks well of the mirror that is the garment of the divine essence in which are reflected all past, present and future things. The mirror of the Philosophers is not a mirror that reflects that of the world, but a mirror that allows us to see through it like the heavens that open».
Saint Paul also speaks in Cabalist terms; in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (III, 18), he even makes a clarification, to which the Hebrew Cabalists have often referred: this mirror becomes progressively clearer:
«And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as it is fitting for the action of the Lord who is Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3, 18)
The saint disembodies himself from the death of the world. The sage reincarnates himself in the life of God. / Who is the ignorant one who sets them in opposition? Who is the expert who unites them? (MR XXV, 18, 18’)
Humility precedes. – Triumph follows.
Holiness prepares.- Wisdom accomplishes.
Darkness nurtures. – Light springs forth.
Death separates. – Resurrection reunites.
Exile instructs us. – Return fixes us. (MR XXV, 20 to 24’)
The saint binds the soul and the spirit in God and overcomes the second death. / The sage binds the soul, the spirit and the body in God and overcomes the first and the second death. (MR XXIII, 77 and 77’)
There are two ways back to God: either the dissolution in free and universal life, or the coagulation in it. / The first way is taught by many and accomplished by a few. The second way is taught by a few and achieved by very few. / He who separates them is ignorant. He who unites them is wise. (MR XXVI, 13, 13’ and 13’’).
Did the light of life not come out of the union of heaven and earth? And are the two ways of God not miraculously united in it alone? / The profane are ignorant of both, the half-instructed separate them and set them opposite one another; only the sages assemble them and unite them in the unity of God. (MR XXXI, 41 and 41’).
Am I not right to contemplate the face of my Lord?
Am I not right to expose myself to the love of the unique Splendour? / Give me, oh Lord, the pure and imperishable body, the only one that can support without harm your loving look and penetrate up to the repose of your holy depth. (MR XVIII, 15 and 15’)
Two stages, then, in the work of regeneration: the blessing that opens, separates and purifies: the Marian vision. Subsequently, the union that fertilizes, cooks and fixes: the union of Christ. The Flower and the Fruit. (cfr. MR II,60’)
[…] and no-one shall be able to rejoin the Lord without having been washed by his blessing and without having been revived by his Holy Spirit […] (MR XIV, 3’).
15. SPIRITUAL REALIZATION AND CORPOREAL REALIZATION
Some attain here below the spiritual enlightenment of the Lord of life, and we call them blessed. / But where are those who attain corporeal knowledge of the unique Splendour? And what shall we call them?
The most intelligent and the most advanced in the study and knowledge of the mysteries of God penetrate only spiritual realization. / It is the return to the free, moving and unconditioned state in God. They are God’s delivered.
Some of these obtain the knowledge of divine science and go beyond spiritual realization to penetrate substantial realization. / It is the access to the free, fixed and manifested state in God. They are God’s resurrected. (MR XXXII, 42 and 42’, 43 and 43’, 44 and 44’).
Religious schools and initiatory schools must not restrict their teaching to spiritual research; they must keep the ultimate rung, which is the substantial quest forgotten by all. (MR XXXII 45’)
The most instructed among the students of the wise and holy Scriptures interpret the divine mysteries as symbols of the spiritual renovation of man who has gone astray in this world. / How many of those understand that these holy Mysteries also describe the corporeal regeneration of the man crucified here below? (MR XXXVI, 13 and 13’).
The most scholarly and the most intelligent take the revealed Scriptures for treatises on history and morals. / The holiest and the most inspired take those same revealed Scriptures for treatises on asceticism and mysticism. / Where are God’s enlightened sages that also know how to recognize in them the hidden science of the unique Splendour that saves them from death? (MR XXXVI, 20, 20’ and 20’’).
16. PURITY
Knowledge of the tree is not as important as that of the fruit, and this is less useful than the knowledge of the kernel of the stone. In the end, it is the almond we must know in its purity and it is the germ that we must manifest in its perfection. (MR II-57′)
We shall stop our ablutions when we gleam with purity, and it is then that God’s sun shall fully fertilize us, for it is a virginal and light heart that we shall offer to the Lord and it is a sown and dense heart that he shall give to us in exchange. (MR XX-7′)
The centre of the centre is like the fire in the middle of the great water.
She who delivers us from all darkness. She who makes perfect all purity. (MR III-48′, 49′).
It is the purity of the Mother’s substance that will allow us to embody the splendour of the Father’s essence, and thus become true sons of God throughout eternity. (MR XX- l’)
Who shall present to the Highest a mirror of love and purity so that he lives again among us in the primary and ultimate splendour? / Our virgin has conceived under the gaze of the Highest and she has given us a son who has vanquished death and who shall make all his crippled brethren perfect. (MR XVIII-68, 68′)
Let us free our virginal queen, and she shall give us a son who shall save the human race and restore it in its primary splendour. I.N.R.I. (MR XX-44′)
17. THE LIGHT
What is more despised than the clothing of God?
What is more unknown than the light of the sun? (MR II, 11’)
He who sows and harvests the light of the sun possesses the highest virtue and the greatest treasure in the total world. (MR III, 40’)
The light of the sun, of the moon and of the stars perpetually fertilizes the water of heaven that carries the seed to the depths of the earth, from which springs the life of beings and things. (MR IV, 19’)
What is lighter than sunlight?
Nevertheless, it is what gives weight to all things in the world. (MR X, 3’)
Palpable light. – Weight of light. (MR, Litanies of the mother and of the son, 17, and 3’)
Shall you not allow one of your delivered sons to manifest your holy light of life that illuminates spirits and that saves souls and bodies? (MR XXXII, 34’).
The light of God shall first fertilize our interior darkness; then, our darkness shall manifest the light of God. (MR XXXVII, 54’)
18. GOLD
The gold that lies dormant in the mud is just as pure as that which gleams in the sun. (MR II, 21’)
The love of gold means that it is even searched for in the rubbish, but few men are capable of grasping it from heaven and fixing it on earth. (MR II, 24’)
It is the heavenly gold that we need, for the illness of death does not exhaust our desires. (MR VI, 9’)
19. NATURE
Nature is buried deep in the earth and placed high in heaven, but there is a particular place where it is more hidden and more evident than anywhere else. / Here there is a great ruin for the shrewd ones, but also a great recompense for simple and detached hearts. (MR VIII-47′, 48′)
Our life is eternally made pregnant by God.
Who shall make him appear before the term of death and resurrection of the great world?
«Nature shall deliver nature, and the mysterious child shall be born of the unique Mother.» (MR IV-96′)
The celestial nature united with the terrestrial nature thus form the unique one, the mother capable of giving birth to the mysterious infant.
Hidden nature shall be freed, purified and magnified up to her divine origin, to become the wife of the magnificent Lord. (MR VII-57′)
Our faith is held in the certainty of the divine nature embodied in the flesh of the world.
Our faith is nourished by the hope of rediscovering this divine nature buried in the sin of death.
Our faith is brought to life by the effusion of the Holy Spirit that fertilizes the divine nature and thus remakes us as children of God, in the image of God himself. (MR XXXVIII- 19′)
The greatest among men is he who is able to bring into accord the teaching of nature with that of the holy books to make one single thing. (MR III, 101)
God gave us the Book of nature, but we did not read it! / He sent us the Lord to spell it out to us, but we did not hear him!
He accomplished before us the mystery of incarnation and that of resurrection, but we did not see them! / If he prints for us his way white upon black, shall we notice it, shall we study it and shall we follow it? Or shall we say that we have not received it either? (MR XXIX, 50 and 50’, 51 and 51’)
In his Traité des trois principes, the wise philosopher Cosmopolite, disciple of Hermes, speaks unequivocally on the subject of this holy Nature:
«I therefore say that Nature is one, true, simple, and whole in its being, and that God made it before all ages and enclosed within it a certain universal spirit. It must be understood, however, that the term of Nature is God, as He is its principle, for all things always end in that in which they have taken their being and their beginning. I have said that it is unique and that it is through it that God has made all that He has made […]. All things come from this one and only Nature, and there is nothing in the whole world outside of Nature. (Le Cosmopolite ou Nouvelle Lumière chymique, Bibliotheca hermetica, Retz, Paris, 1976, p. 44)
And Nicolas Valois, in his Cinq Livres, adds:
For by that Nature, you will be illuminated, provided that you are in grace. (N. Valois, Les Cinq Livres ou La Clef du secret des secrets, La Table d’émeraude, Paris, 1992, p. 160).
Saint Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologies (L. XI, 1), provides a similar definition: «Nature derives its name from the fact that it gives birth to things». This is why it is seen as that which has the capacity to generate and give life. Some have claimed that Nature is God, by whom everything was created and exists. As Giordano Bruno said: Natura est deus in rebus.
20. THE MOTHER
The universal mother existing through God who moulds her according to his will.
She who is the fertilizing one of heaven.
She who is fertilized by God.
She who is the fertile one of earth.
«Truth is a curse for those who approach it and yet do not receive it.» (MR II, 71’)
Eternal life is the coming out of oneself and going back into God.
«The luminous Mother is the substance of all that lives. The shining Father is the essence of all that moves.» (MR VIII, 63)
The Mother is found in faith and in patience, and she acts immediately. She is the one that delivers and cures. The water from heaven makes the earth germinate, but all remain deaf and blind before the miracle of God, for they think they are more intelligent and wiser than the creator of innumerable worlds. (MR XIII, 7’)
We adore you, Water, mother of the waters, for the living fire is at your centre, and you are excellent over and above all other lights. The sun is your magnificent production. Holy Mother of fire, come to our aid right now and at the time of the difficult passage. Let it be done this way! (MR X, 60’)
[…] The wise man meditates on the light of the world until he finds it. Then he meditates on its content until he has manifested it. (MR X, 60)
21. THE NAME OF GOD
The holy Name of God is a living and palpable reality that is capable of everything. It is a mystery that very few have known or shall know. (MR XVIII-65′)
The Father-God is the NAME of God unexpressed in the secret of the Water-God. / God is hidden in his NAME.
The Water-God is the NAME of God which falls and rises in oneself. / And his NAME is life.
The Spirit-God is the NAME of God which moves in all directions over the Water-God. / And his NAME is alive.
The Body-God is the NAME of God which manifests and fixes itself in the Water-God. / And his NAME feeds on life. / Thus, God is he who IS, through that which he IS, in that which he IS, for that which he IS. (MR XXX 22-22′ to 25″)
Depending on whether the NAME of God rises or falls, it is a blessing or a curse; for it has an obverse and a reverse. Thus, the same NAME can produce life or it can make death appear, according to the way in which it is presented to us, and also according to the way we present ourselves to it. (MR XXVII, 46′)
He who reads until the end the Book of opposites and knows how to unite them in the unique, double, quadruple and octuple NAME, shall seem wise to the wise men, holy to the holy and foolish to the fools.
Thus, many have lectured magnificently on God, on his attributes and his creation, but how many have glimpsed the hem of his robe, and how many have kissed his footprints? But how many, then, have contemplated the splendour of his body, and how many – what astonishment! – have savoured the delights of his heart? (MR XIII, 38′)
22. KNOWLEDGE
Speculative knowledge with regard to possessing knowledge is what a wooden leg is to a healthy limb. (MR VIII, 35’)
All lies in our heart, in our spirit and in our hands. Few believe it, some sense it and only one experiences it. (MR VIII, 36’)
All knowledge not experienced is null and void, since it has no effect. (MR IX, 10)
The eyes of the spirit perceive easily the obviousness of eternity and the hands of knowledge manifest it effortlessly. (MR IX, 4’)
There is only one knowledge, one union and one repose that are true, which are in the accomplished fixity of heavenly fire. (MR IX, 59’)
It is abandon, grace and love that deliver us from the prisons of death and that give us access to the abodes of heaven; but it is possessive knowledge that fixes us in the secret centre. (MR XII, 37’)
True knowledge implies possession, absorption and transmutation. (MR XI, 58)
The sons of God deliver from misery, from illness, from old age, from doubt and from death. That is the mark that does not deceive. (MR IX, 10’)
Few men have been favoured with possessive knowledge here below, since few saints among the best are capable of acquiring divine power without adversely affecting themselves and others. / To be possessed by God is to be holy. To possess God is to be wise. But to penetrate God is to be senseless and become like God, who is the primary and ultimate sense (MR XI, 69 and 69’)
It is grace that saves the good that is in us.
It is love that makes it perfect, but it is knowledge that accomplishes the mysterious and ultimate union. (MR VII, 10’)
23. THE TWO FOODS
We shall thus pray for our meal:
«Thank you Lord, who delivers yourself for our food under the dark veil of earthly creatures. Make our digestion be accomplished perfectly, so that we receive your precious life and reject the poison of death. » / We shall pray thus for the communion: «Thank you Lord, who gives yourself to us for our salvation under the luminous veil of the celestial creature. Make your glorious life shine in us forever, after having annihilated the abomination of the sin of death that maintains us in the mortal agony of exile.» (MR XXXVII, 15 and 15’)
Thus, man overcomes earthly food and transforms it into him. But he is overcome by heavenly food that transforms him into God. / That which we repeat here to all believers is a great mystery, for it is the mystery of God that dwells in the purity of life delivered from death.
Therefore, it only remains for us to find the marvellous Lord descended from heaven who said: «Eat, this is my flesh; drink, this is my blood». – Or to obtain from a secret priest of God the communion of this prodigious Lord that saves from death. «Order of Melchizedek.»
For we know and we receive only in images in this world darkened by death, in prefiguration of the great day of judgement when we shall know and when we shall receive the holy and palpable reality. –
Nevertheless, God has allowed some of his sages to know him in this world, and has allowed some of his saints to receive him even here below, like the first fruits of the resurrection announced to all.
Thus, do we understand why it is said that the Lord God shall judge the living and the dead, the living first and then the dead? – For even the grace of the gift of life in this very world does not dispense us from the final judgement of the most-righteous God. (MR XXXVI, 26 and 26’, 27 and 27’, 28 and 28’, 29 and 29’.
24. THE FRUIT
The stump has flowered again, the flower has given its scent and the fruit has matured heavily without anyone suspecting it.
«Who shall eat the gift of God? And who shall be penetrated by his splendour?» (MR XXIII, 40)
Have we not given a marvellous fruit, like a good tree planted by the Lord in the land of exile? / Those who eat this fruit shall return to God’s paradise, and they shall never leave it again thanks to their experience of death. (MR XXXIV, 70 and 70’)
25. SALVATION
Once again, the promise of salvation is given to the exiled ones that suffer and that pray to God for their deliverance. / Once again, the gate of the kingdom is open for those who are thirsty for the pure and imperishable life that is resplendent in God.
Those who preach to us of heaven and who bury themselves in the petty things of this world are hypocrites who sow the hate towards God in the heart of exiled humans, instead of making his holy and perfect love flower there./ The salvation of God is not, as some teach it, a remote and vague possibility. It is an immediate and palpable reality for him who attains it here below. This is what we must all know.
Let us never be ashamed of giving up a limited and vague opinion to adopt a more precise and broader idea of the salvation of God, for we shall thus open up and germinate in God, instead of stagnating and decomposing in the world. (MR XXXIV, 76 and 76’, 78, 78’ and 78’’)
26. THE PRESENT CHARACTER OF SALVATION
The faithful pious ones hear of the thing under the veil of the holy Scriptures being talked about, according to their attention and according to their understanding. Those are listeners and are promised the salvation of God. / The holy believers in God benefit from the thing thanks to God’s chosen ones, according to their charity and their loyalty. Those are helped and saved by God.
God’s chosen ones receive the thing from the hands of the sons of God, according to their prayers and according to the purity of their life. Those are trustees and keepers of God. / The sons of God make the thing with their hands, according to the grace and the love of God, and they communicate it according to his holy will. Those are the experts and possessors of God.
Let each one practise his fathers’ religion or that of his choice, and let each one penetrate his particular faith before comparing it with that of others. / Thus, on penetrating as far as the secret centre, each one shall be unified in the unity of the Unique One and shall become a «Rediscovered Messenger».
Some good children sometimes receive from a son of God the thing which is hidden in all times, and they perfect it according to his instructions. / But very few wise inquirers obtain from God the grace to discover the origin of the chaos in which the holy light of life is hidden.
The former ones help their fellow-man and remind us in the darkened world of the wise and holy way that saves us from death. / The latter generally remain hidden, being content with raising up carriers of light who manifest God’s truth in the world.
Thus, there are those who hear of the thing being talked about or who see the effects of it. / Next, there are those who benefit from the thing without knowing it and without possessing it.
Then, there are those who receive the thing and who use it according to God’s commandments for the good of the poor and the abandoned. / Finally, there are those who with the aid of God know the thing and make it, for their salvation and for that of their own.
Who shall attain knowledge of the unique Splendour? / And who shall be unified with the Heloym in the unique God? (MR XXXV, de 2 and 2’ to 9 and 9’)
27. THE STONE
Faith, simplicity and sobriety shall sustain us in life more surely than science, than progress, and than the abundance of the profane world that is on its way to death without knowing it. «Shall we receive the gift of God with intelligence?» / We give you the crowning stone that completes the holy edifice, and its light shall illuminate the nations, for the foundation stone is like the summit stone, and the summit stone is like the foundation stone in the unity of the One.
The scholars and the intelligent deny the obviousness of God’s miracle, and the proud believers nail him in time without seeing that he renews himself constantly under their eyes of the blind. / Did the master not say: «He who falls on the foundation stone shall be broken, and him on whom the summit stone falls shall be crushed»? Do we no longer hear it?
Many have been broken because of the impurity of their hearts that has prevented them from recognizing the foundation stone planted in the earth. / Many shall be crushed by the summit stone because of the impurity of their eyes that shall prevent them from seeing it fall from the sky.
The foundation stone is a cubic stone, and the summit stone is a pyramid-shaped stone. Did you know that? / We have added nothing and we have taken away nothing. Do you see? (MR XXVI, from 47 to 50’)
28. THE BOOK IS OFFERED TO THE BLACK PEOPLES
The foundation stone is the most despised because it is dark, but it is the most precious one, for all the others are hidden in it. / Thus, the black people is the most despised, but it is also the best, for it shall make all the others shine in the rediscovered Lord. (MR XXVII, 11 and 11’)
The whites who receive the Book are the first inheritors, but they are not superior to the blacks in anything. Let us consider them all as equal brothers in the love of God, and let us receive them with great affection, but let us not mix them up with each other. / Do not be ashamed of the black colour that God has chosen for you, for it is in that that all the others are hidden. Do you not know that the light came out of the darkness in the beginning, and that in the end shall rest in the golden splendour?
It is because the Book has been refused by the right-thinking ones that the Lord has offered it to simple men. Let us therefore thank the Lord for the gift he grants to us, and let us thank the right-thinking ones who have therefore unknowingly sent it to us. / The Lord’s humour is great, and mocks the over-intelligent and the over-scholarly in an unheard-of manner.
The peoples that inherit the doctrine of heaven that have become proud have all experienced it in their time. (MR XXVII, 17 and 17’, 18 and 18’)
At present, there shall be a black community heirs to the holy foundation stone placed by the anointed one of God, because, for the first time, a Book and a prophet are given to the black peoples in particular, while formerly the divine revelation had been offered to them like a bone which is thrown to the dogs, to make it easier to put the collar of slavery on them. (MR XXVII, 34)
29. WHO WROTE THE BOOK?
We were not born into a rich family and no-one has instructed us in the mysteries of God. We have had to discover all by ourselves the wise and holy Scriptures, and we have had to study them in poverty and in abandonment, so that no-one should think himself forgotten, whatever his state here below. / We did not write the Book in the peace and security of a holy retreat. We wrote it from beginning to end in the midst of the fermenting sewer of the big city, so that nobody would feel abandoned, whatever their situation be here below. (MR XXVII, 57 and 57’)
Who truly wrote the Book?
The same one.
HIM
And who truly reads it?
The same one.
HIM (MR XXXII, 11 and 11’ to 13 and 13’)
The defects and insufficiencies of the Book must be imputed to our excremental weakness and indigence, which belong to the miry nothingness. / The qualities and the beauties of the work must be attributed to our substantial light and to our essential inspiration, which belong to God.
Likewise, our temporal individuality should not be an obstacle to anyone, either repelling him or attracting him. / For it is only the word of God and his salvation that finally matter, and they alone must be the object of all our thoughts and all our concerns here below.
Have we not stepped aside so as not to cast a shadow over God’s light? And have we not worked gratuitously? / In poverty, in solitude and in the reprobation of the world, for the community of our human brothers?
Are our masters not the living ones of eternity? / And is our master not the Lord of eternal life? (MR XXXII, 1 and 1’ to 4 and 4’) See also MR XXVIII, 2 and 2’, 3 and 3’.
30. GOD
God is like a fixed, dry fire, hidden in a moving, humid one. He who discovers it possesses the mastery of life. (MR IV, 48) God is like the water that brings together the universes, and like the fire that matures them. (MR X, 59’) God is like a treasure buried in the earth that we trample on, and like a secret hidden in the rain that falls on our heads. (MR V, 21’). There is no difference between the two faces of God except that between stone and stone, but one is dark and the other shines magnificently. (MR III, 61’) To the glory of God (HIM, in French LVI, the secret fire that gives rise to universes, that maintains them and that consumes them) and at the service of men who shall read with the eyes of the spirit and of the heart the signs inscribed in the flesh of the world. (MR p. 5).DIEU LE FEU ! (GOD THE FIRE)
DIEU LE VEUT ! (GOD WANTS IT)
