Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

May 10 – September 7, 2025

Upcoming - Exhibition of Cattiaux's work - Berthe Weill, Galeriste de l’avant-garde parisienne

«La Vierge attentive ou la Vierge à l'étoile»
«The Attentive Virgin or the Virgin with the Star» - L. Cattiaux
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He who knows how to pray alone is self-sufficient, for the Lord is an almighty and perfect companion. However, he does not disdain to pray sometimes also with the community of believers in the joy of fraternal union.
- The Message Rediscovered, 3513'

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The Message Rediscovered

LOUIS CATTIAUX

– Valenciennes, 1904 – Paris, 1953

This space is devoted to the work of Louis Cattiaux, painter, poet and philosopher

A contemporary of the avant-garde movements of the turbulent years of the first half of the 20th century, he created a personal style with an obvious visionary undertone. Cattiaux, like all genuine artists, manages to cross the realm of darkness and the unconscious, where most of them are shipwrecked, to reach the place of the invisible and show an inner sky illuminated by stars that those who only have their external senses have never heard of.

Louis Cattiaux
Louis Cattiaux and his cat Poupinet

Hermetic tradition

Cattiaux is interesting not only for his painting, but also and above all for his links with the Hermetic tradition, as his artistic practice was strongly oriented towards alchemy and the search for the Absolute. This search led to a masterwork: «The Message Rediscovered», a book composed of more than five thousand sentences or aphorisms that are much more than a study of the Hermetic tradition.

- wrote Cattiaux himself - we must also understand what we study, and what good is understanding, if we do not experience in ourselves the truth of God?’ (MR 18, 40).
Main de Cattiaux
The Message Rediscovered
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Louis Cattiaux’s literary works

«The Message Rediscovered» is a treatise on art, poetry, philosophy, alchemy, hermeticism, mysticism, metaphysics, religion, science, love in which «the truth of God» is contained. «How to define it? -Emmanuel d’Hooghvorst asked himself -, no one will read it in the same way. (…) -Who will be the readers who will be able to discern in it a wisdom of unity, as old as traditional humanity, a wisdom of holiness, a wisdom of salvation?»

 

Cattiaux also wrote an essay dedicated to painting: «Physics and Metaphysics of Painting». This is a text written with the intention of probing, through artistic language, the mystery that lies beyond art.

 

Among his writings is also a collection of Poems, which are like reflections expressing, in a very vivid way, an occult and transcendent spiritual reality experienced by the author.

 

Finally, the epistolary correspondence of Louis Cattiaux with his contemporaries reveals valuable exchanges on Art, spirituality, and hermeticism, which enrich the understanding of his work as a whole.

«The Message Rediscovered» is a treatise on art, poetry, philosophy, alchemy, hermeticism, mysticism, metaphysics, religion, science, love, where «the truth of God» resides.

Art

For Louis Cattiaux, «there is only one true ART, that which manifests the free spirit, which is the light of the Universe. There is only one true science, that which fixes this divine light in the repose of God». In The Message Rediscovered, we find the two stages of the great work of the alchemists, which is also a Great Art: the SOLVE and the COAGULA; it is the law of heaven and earth. One has to imbibe and dissolve before drying and cooking, for he who begins by cooking fixes the filth of sin instead of eliminating it.

Poetry

For Louis Cattiaux, «among all forms of art, poetry is certainly the worthiest to admire here on earth, since it has as its material the noblest human function: the word. True poetry is indistinguishable from prophecy. The Ancients did not doubt that poets were possessed by a divine being, the Muse. Without the Muse, there is no poet».

Philosophy

For Louis Cattiaux, «true philosophy does not rest on the frenzied subtleties of the spirit, nor on rigid moral principles, nor on the meticulous observance of rites, but rather on knowledge of the content at the core of all things»; true philosophy is based on the knowledge of the perfectly tested divine reality, which liberates from all the servitudes of the world; «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».

Alchemy

For Louis Cattiaux, alchemy is not merely an ancient science aimed at transforming metals, but rather a spiritual and corporeal quest for inner transmutation. «Alchemy, which is the practice of hermeticism, is the total science of being. It is the realization of the sacerdotal Art and the royal Art. It is the golden key that opens the traditional secret, which is the regeneration of the fallen creature. Alchemy truly and palpably unites the spirit, soul, and body. It is only permitted to those who are genuinely detached enough to receive the power and wealth of unveiled life without ever being tempted to use it against anyone or for personal glorification. Alchemy should not be confused with Chrysopoeia, which is merely a branch of the noble science, and the least significant».

Hermeticism

For Louis Cattiaux, «hermetism is an exact and tangible science, the most exact and tangible that exists in reality, that is to say, the highest spiritual doctrine while also being the most measurable and materialistic of sciences, even though all the rationalists of the world consider it a fiction, and all the spiritualists deem it impossible and impious».

Mysticism

For Louis Cattiaux, mysticism is the path to holiness, to purity, the primary way of returning to God. «Only a few receive the spiritual gifts of God and attain here below the spiritual enlightenment of the Lord of life, and we call them blessed. It is the return to the free, moving and unconditioned state in God. They are God’s delivered; however, the mystical path must accompany the hermetic path for unity to be realized within man. The mystic gives birth to the adept just as the caterpillar, by dying, becomes a chrysalis and then a butterfly».

Religion

For Louis Cattiaux, «religion is like the wrapping of God's secret; it offers the incarnation in the eternity of life and conveys a teaching that it is up to the believer to revive through his faith and love. Religion is like the bridge that links us to God’s salvation. The true religions are those that proclaim resurrection, judgment, and life in God. He who studies the holy books and speaks to the Lord in his heart practises true religion».

Science

For Louis Cattiaux, «the science of God perfects beings and things and leads to freedom in the sweet-smelling life. Neither believers nor atheists suspect God’s science exists, hidden behind the symbols, writings and figures of revealed religions. A few of them ask God for it in their heart, and scarcely one or two obtain it in the century. 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. This is the first and last science, the science of the renovation of creation. It is the mystery of mysteries, it is Christ, the philosopher's stone and the cornerstone capable of saving the world».

Love

For Louis Cattiaux, «love it is the key that opens and closes the mysterious treasure of life, it is the food of the soul, it is already like the divine fire: accomplished and perfect. The love of God is like the intense memory of our freedom and of our primary unity in the purity of heaven. Love began with the primary separation and shall repose with the ultimate reintegration, in the possessive and uniting knowledge of the Lord of the worlds. The accumulation of interior love is a treasure that saves one from death. God is like an infinite ocean of living, luminous essence, in which all penetrates and knows itself through love. The love of God, which brings about man’s enlightenment, leads to unique knowledge. All the rest is therefore like useless mud that conceals nothing but death. It is the love of God, which seems so derisory to the shrewd ones of this world, that shall save us on the day of judgement. It is the sincere love of God and the ardent desire of his knowledge that provoke the conditions of our meeting and our union with the living glorious one». «When you love yourself as I love you, you will be one with me», says the Lord of the unity of love.

The philosophical forest

Cattiaux painted over 300 works during his lifetime.

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