A review written by a reader of Cattiaux’s Message Rediscovered
By Nigel Jackson (United Kingdom, 3 of January 2014)
The hermetist, poet and ‘Transhyliste’ painter Louis Cattiaux captured within the 40 Books of The Message Rediscovered a rare distillation of authentic esoterism which illuminates and profoundly nourishes the reader who approaches with the correct disposition, for this work, subtitled ‘The Clock of God’s Night and Day’ is without doubt a genuinely inspired text wherein we hear the clear voice of a true Initiate amid the babel-like confusion of our degenerate modern world, conveying beautiful refractions and fragrant scintillations of that Primordial Gnosis renewed and transmitted from ‘heart to heart’ down through the ages along the luminous chain of hidden sages, alchemists, sons of Hermes, unknown philosophers and noble travellers.
The text is arranged in 2 columns like the pillars of the temple – one column expresses the external teachings while the other opens up the innermost esoteric significance of the doctrine: however in keeping with the uniquely paradoxical character of the orthodox Christian revelation wherein, as is symbolized by the Veil of the Temple being sundered at the moment of the Mystery of the Crucifixion, the boundary dividing inner and outer, esoteric and exoteric, was forever abrogated, annulled and dissolved, just so the precise relations between the two columns of text shifts and alternates subtly so that one sometimes finds oneself reading horizontally and at other times vertically, as the mysteriously pregnant oracles and utterances of Louis Cattiaux unfold their beautiful depths of profundity to the meditative reader. ‘
The Message Rediscovered is a collation of the eternal truths inscribed upon and within the eternal substance of the heart of light, revealing the secrets of the mysteries and the path of spiritual regeneration, rendering visible the arcana of the Invisible to manifest a repository of the ever-living teachings of Elias Artista.
The Message is a truly amazing and precious work through which the quickening breath of the Spirit moves, pervading and vivifying the verses ‘condensed like liquid air’. However there is a certain special method by which the ‘reading’ of MR is most fruitfully approached and which was practised by Louis Cattiaux and his friends (see the frontispiece illustration of his ‘Letters’ for a photograph depicting this) – one should take a fine poigniard (symbolic of the sword of gnosis) with a long slender silver blade : taking it lightly and without deliberation or concentration whilst holding the volume side upwards in the other hand, subtly slip the pointed tip of the blade between the leaves of Message Rediscovered, opening the book pages to see which specific verse is thus providentially indicated in the ‘Clock of God’s Day and Night’ – I can attest from my own experience that this ‘hermetick’ method, quasi-oracular, supra-rational and seemingly random, really is the best way to access the mysteries of the book and allows its message to coagulate and crystalize in the most delicate and incisive manner. Perhaps the most succinct homage to Louis Cattiaux’s opus is that of the late + Robert Amadou who says all that really needs to be said regarding M+R and its author: ‘Cet initié nous a laissé un livre d’initiation.’
In the review ‘Etudes Traditionelles’ the metaphysician René Guenon greeted this work with one of his rare positive reviews, locating Cattiaux’s text within the climate of Christian esoterism and noting that it constituted a work of considerable significance for those drawn to this aspect of Tradition.
This is in truth a beautiful and holy book, a continual springhead of guidance, encouragement and illumination. For me the figure of Louis Cattiaux, more especially his refreshing child-like honesty and exuberant freedom of vision, always brings to mind that other great artist, Cecil Collins.