Many wish to heare and do not know how to listen.
Wisdom is as rare in Tibet as it is in Paris, said Louis Cattiaux. It may flourish everywhere, however, without anyone suspecting it. A man similar to, but not the same as so many other city-dwellers, has written these pages that it falls to the reader to judge. They are not for everyone, even though they are destined to circulate among the men of today who, through neglect of the ancient revelation, have allowed themselves to sink into profound ignorance.
Those for whom this book has been written shall know it well on reading it, for it is given to them, as the author puts it, to believe the unbelievable. They shall know how to read and understand it, they belong to the same spiritual family. Before leaving this world on 16th July 1953, the author left it for them as a rallying sign and a reason for hope (The Message Rediscovered XXXII, 37 and 38, and XXXIII, 35); he dedicated it most especially to the black peoples, still divided and as though in their infancy, but destined to become powerful in the world through the play of a Providence indifferent to the intentions and works of men.
The Message Rediscovered is not easy to approach. It contains, according to the author, a tightly-linked initiation and mystique presented in a concentrated form that demands more than a straightforward reading, the words being transcended by the revelation, and the work presenting itself as liquid air that has acquired other extraordinary properties, but which are invisible at first sight… (Louis Cattiaux. Letters to G. Chaissac).
The verses are arranged in two columns, for there are two men in us, the carnal man and the spiritual man, the external man and the internal man, just as there is also darkness and light, justice and love, the pure and the impure; all things are arranged two by two (The Message Rediscovered iii, 98). Each of the verses includes several profound meanings, the left column generally giving the earthly meanings: moral, philosophical and ascetic; the right column giving the heavenly meanings: cosmogonic, mystical and initiatory. Sometimes these verses are completed with a third one placed in the middle of the page, bringing together the two others in the alchemic meaning that unites heaven and earth, relating to the mystery of God, of creation and of man; as for this most profound meaning, it corresponds only to God to reveal it to the pious man. One will also notice that each of the XXXX books carries a double title, for example, for book 1, on the left: VÉRITÉ NUE, on the right: the GREEN SHOOT. The forty titles over the left hand columns are anagrams of one another. It is indeed rare to be able to make forty anagrams by means of nine letters that are always the same. The knowing reader will realize that not a single word of this book has been put there without intention.
The Message Rediscovered speaks to us of but a single thing, in continually different terms, so that the multitude of verses is not a dissipation. The ignorant ones in search of a new revelation, coming to add something to or subtract something from the old one, shall be disappointed. One shall find here only a testimony (Ibidem xxix, 36) in favour of the old one that speaks to us of the fall of man in this base world, of the physical and moral consequences of that fall, and of the means of his bodily and spiritual regeneration, via the mysterious way that leads to resurrection (Ibidem XXIX, 33 and 45).
We may perhaps scandalize more than one reader in affirming here that the Spirit of Elijah, still alive, manifests itself through the ages (Ibidem xxxvi, 95. ): let those people abstain, for here is the rock of scandal. Yet blessed is he who shall know, in the pages that are to follow, how to loose this spirit from its coarse outer shell, recognize its authenticity and take nourishment from it for an eternal life.
The general dedication of The Message Rediscovered tells us that it is intended «for the glory of God 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». The eyes of carnal reason or of the intellect shall, in fact, teach us nothing, there where language addresses itself to the eyes of the spirit and of the heart. The first ones reveal to us only the outer shell or the changing appearance of the world; the second ones guide us towards the Essence and the Substance, its indestructible support, and allow us to recognize the interior light that God lit up at the beginning in nature and in our heart (The Message Rediscovered VIII, 50).
It is, then, a work of meditation that demands to be read, re-read and studied in simplicity of spirit and purity of heart. Is it not multiplicity and restlessness of the spirit that deprive us of the possession of the Kingdom of the Heavens, and the impurity of our hearts that distances us from the vision of God? (Ibidem XIII, 32’)
The testimony of the Scriptures teaches us that knowledge of the divine light should proceed, not from the exterior, but from within; awoken and stimulated through its free origin, this buried light then germinates, and, becoming the «right measure» and the source of our judgements, it «appears then outside and shines fully in union» (Ibidem IX, 54’; IV, 36’ and XII, 12’ and 13’).
A deaf man will judge music from the description one can offer him, since he lacks the use of the organ that allows him to experience it for himself. It is the same for the other senses. The light shines in the darkness, but if man is deprived of the use of the appropriate organ to apprehend that interior light, it is darkness for him just as long as he does not recover the look of the spirit and of the heart.
If you have faith and patience, wrote the author with regard to The Message Rediscovered, it will become clear by itself a little at a time, and everything that seems obscure to you shall then appear evident.
It is therefore that we suggest the reader should develop his own personal opinion on this work and should judge for himself whether or not it is identical to traditional teaching.
Emmanuel & Charles d’Hooghvorst
