This Message Rediscovered is not a speculation about what God is; it is a reflection of the experience of God, and therefore, a prophecy.
THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE OF LOUIS CATTIAUX, by Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst - 1954
Diver drunk on all the pains, I wander sadly clothed in the skin of beasts, in this exiled world of great weights, where men, extinguished by the fall, stubbornly persist.
An obscure and certain logic seems to drive this world towards an unknown, but surely catastrophic goal. The naïve optimism of the last century has gradually given way to a great uneasiness, often unconscious among the millions of individuals that make up our civilization, an uneasiness that usually manifests itself increasing instability and a general rebellion of minds and hearts. Like those great rivers that dry up as they advance into the desert, the sources of life seem to run dry up (Everything returns to dust: «Solvet saeclum in favilla» goes the Catholic liturgy, and undoubtedly, there is there more than an image if you think, for example, of the most recent accomplishments of atomic science: The world shall dissolve into dust) as man’s intelligence increases; we are talking about his malice, of that cold light like that of our electric lamps that illuminate without warmth like dead fires (Intelligence not fertilized by God turns into malice). There exists another intelligence, the true one, that comes to man through his antennae, not those of radio or television, but his natural antennae that allow him to communicate with the deep source of life hidden in nature, gradually bringing him back to the living and nourishing light.
The large wild flocks in the steppes do not have radar systems, but they have guides whom they obey and follow. These are usually the oldest and wisest individuals, those who possess the sharpest antennae. They are the ones that foresee storms and cyclones, who know, according to the seasons, where the best pastures are, they, also, who discover traps and sense danger. They are the seers of the flock, and the flock follows them safely. But our own antennae are atrophied to the point of having become like those dead organs, useless vestiges of a bygone humanity. Soon, they will no longer exist at all. And we no longer feel safe anywhere. Do these words of the prophet Isaiah not apply to our time, more than to any other:
IHVH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and you rulers, the seers hath he covered. (Isaiah 29, 10)
And if by chance there were still among us an individual that had kept intact that so-precious faculty of drinking deeply from the source of the pure waters of the Sun and the Moon, or who had rediscovered it after a long quest, what destiny would we bestow upon him? What destiny would we give him if he revealed himself to us as he is, that is to say, so different mentally and physically? Would we subject him to the benefits of psychoanalysis with the laudable aim of rehabilitating him? Cattiaux, my friend, your obscurity in the world and its blindness were a strange safeguard for you!
Perhaps there are still some men on this sleeping earth who watch over and question the stars like the magi of former times. It is for them that we have written these lines, for them alone, for they have received that gift from heaven to be able to BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE. They are unknown to us, scattered in the darkness. Nevertheless, and without knowing it, they shine like glow-worms, reflecting, on the darkened earth, the brightness of the stars. Perhaps angels of God shall come to pick them up one by one to bring them together in the Virgin’s apron before the great tribulation that is certainly coming, this great tribulation so often announced, always deferred, but whose proximity seems increasingly evident to those who are still capable of attention.
Louis Cattiaux lived in Paris, on Casimir Périer Street, in the shadow of Sainte-Clotilde church, facing a small, peaceful, provincial square. On his visiting cards he wrote: «Louis Cattiaux, poet, painter and apothecary». In his mysterious shop front he painted strange and magnificent canvasses; hieratic virgins surrounded by forgotten symbols. He painted them with a rich, dense, brightly-coloured matter. He claimed to have rediscovered the secret of the ancient pictorial matter of the Van Eyck brothers, that professional secret that painters of old passed down by word of mouth and from master to pupil. His art was of a sacred nature, and his canvasses looked like pentacles; for that reason he was taken for a magician. He was also a healer, and provided those who asked him, wondrous ointments that had curative effects.
His tiny shop, magically decorated, seemed to encompass the whole universe. One could breathe in the perfume of some kind of Eden garden kept closely within; one returned often there, without much knowing why, perhaps simply attracted by the warmth. For a warmth never before approached, a warmth that was something quite other than ordinary cordiality, emanated from this man, along with the presentiment of an immense secret, alive, but jealously concealed, like the philosophical fish swimming in deep waters. He lived candidly, soberly, and poorly in the eyes of men, happy and joyful like a child, and, like children, without malice. He lived as a good family man between his wife, whom he loved and his son whom he often caressed tenderly. For he had a son, this man, a son who responded with a graceful miaou (meow) when his father took him in his arms and lovingly cuddled him, saying: «My big Jesus!» A magic cat, of course!
His friends wondered: «Who is he?» and without being able to answer the question precisely, they nevertheless said to themselves: «He is not like us». Cattiaux, what then was this secret life that shone within you? Had you discovered the jewel of eternity? Had you unravelled the enigma of this world?
«Would you like to know what this world is?» said Cattiaux. Imagine a model concentration camp; it is an image that has become familiar to us, a concentration camp designed and built according to the latest discoveries in technology and psychological science, where work, perfectly useless in any case, would be rationalized to the highest degree, but above all, where each prisoner would be his own guard and that of his neighbour:
- – Who is the greatest among the prisoners of the dark, stinking gaol?
- – Who is the most estimable among those who rot in the cul-de-sac of death?
- – Which one is the most known, but which one is the best?
- – Which one is the most honoured, but which one is the most useful?
- – Which is the intelligent one, but which one is the saint and which one the sage?
- – Which one is the saved, and which one is the saviour?
- – Who serves, and who is truly served?
- – He who shares his bread, or he who makes it for everyone?
- – He who cleans the gaol, or he who organises it?
- – He who consoles, or he who looks after?
- – He who prays for the deliverance of all, or he who suffers with the damned?
- – He who rebels in slavery, or he who installs himself in it?
- – He who preaches good behaviour, or he who shows the hidden exit?
- – He who wants to force the locks of death, or he seeks the key that opens all of them?
Louis Cattiaux willingly referred to himself as an «idler of God», of that God who created everything from nothing. But the quest for this God, just as long as we have not found Him, is the most arduous and painful work in the world. Is not God the «Good-for-nothing» we are looking for and shall indeed find when we ourselves are reduced to nothing, at least as far as our dark outer layers are concerned? The «heart crushed like ashes» mentioned in Scripture (Psalms 44, 26) is not merely a stylistic image.
He who reaches the Lord of life here below is like an idler whom all the workers of the world would not be able to equal with all of their labours.
How hard-working is he who has no respite day or night in the quest for imperishable life! How idle is he who rests in the living unity of the Unique One!
(MR, XXV, 1 et 1’)
If Cattiaux set so passionately about the quest for the «Unique One», it was because he did not know quite what to do in that which he called our exile down here, where he felt quite like a fish out of water, and to which he had never been able to adapt. It is not without reason that we weep when we enter this concentration jail, and that our first cry was a cry of pain. Although he courageously endured the labours, the fatigue, the disappointments, and the patient quests of a poor, unknown Parisian painter, without support, Cattiaux was ashamed to work in the world and for the world. He believed that his natural qualities predisposed him to live in the garden of Eden, and nowhere else. He had turned all his internal rebellion towards what he called a lamentable straying, after which he had come to be embodied here below. He regarded all worldly work as worthless when it went beyond the maintenance of bodily life; likewise, he himself was considered by almost everyone as worthless and useless:
You have wasted your life, they said, looking at my empty hands; and no-one heard the god singing in my heart.
Towards the end of his life, we often heard him repeat this phrase from a Sufi master:
I ask nothing more than a meadow where madness might frolic at its ease.
This idler left this world in Paris at the age of 49 on 16th July 1953, the victim of a «strange and sudden illness» that no one could have predicted. He had accomplished a work on this earth that time shall take upon itself to reveal to the world at large.
His pictorial work alone would deserve a lengthy study. He had condensed his artistic experience into a book as yet unpublished (in 1954; its available today in its English version), The Physics and Metaphysics of Painting.
He leaves us his poems, whose depth is astonishing: The Zen Poems, The Poems of the Idler, The Sad Poems, which bear the epigraph: «The athlete who undresses before an assembly of hunchbacks should not expect compliments»; The Poems of Resonance, The Poems of Knowledge, and finally The Alchemical Poems, of which here is an excerpt:
To the Jewel
Antique solitude of primordial forests,
Where the emerald emanated from the stars, shines,
He who found you possesses the divine secret,
that a true master passed on to us in bread and wine.
It is, above all, about his main work, (The Message Rediscovered), that we would like to speak today. Perhaps we will have to wait a little longer before this Prophetic Message can break the wall of indifference that encloses it and spread throughout the world. Shall this work, matured over fifteen years in silence and abandonment, reveal to us the secret of this seemingly useless life?
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.
It is on purpose that we have spoken of a «Prophetic Message». There is no other word to describe such a singular, original book both in content and form, that is to say, of such evident origin. The prophet, indeed, is an original in the most accurate sense that can be given to this term. It is undoubtedly under this aspect, transcending all others, that the figure of Louis Cattiaux shall emerge more and more firmly in the future.
A few days before leaving this world he wrote in the fortieth and last book of The Message Rediscovered:
I shall go to you, my hands full of your grapes and my back bent under the weight of your harvest, and my joy shall be to receive your kiss of life and to communicate it to the children you have entrusted to me, oh, Lord who rewards holy obedience.
I shall go to you, with purified heart and clear spirit in your resurrected body, if you send me your salvation from this world, Lord of true love and knowledge; for only your splendour is received by your splendour, and only your holy unity melts into the Unique One.
(MR, XXXX, 1 et 1’)
If we are to believe the apostle Paul, the exercise of the prophetic mission should be pursued as long as Christianity exists, that is, until the end of times. Did he not indeed write: Do aspire to the gift of prophecy as being the most excellent? (Cf. I Corinthians 14, 1). Does its excellence not designate it as the most perfect Christian accomplishment? However, for reasons that would be too lengthy to go into here (Cf. on this subject, R. Guénon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times), this gift of the Holy Spirit is becoming increasingly rare as humanity pursues its downward course that should terminate at the end of the present cycle with a new deluge (Cf. Raymond Abellio has addressed this issue in a recent book. We will return to it later: R. Abellio, Vers un Nouveau Prophétisme, N.R.F., s.l., 1953). It is becoming so rare because there are fewer and fewer men qualified to receive it, keep it and mature it. And we no longer even know, in general, what a prophet is, or what his mission consists of. Perhaps the mere mention of this word will raise a smile. We do not need to convince anyone. It is enough that a few recognize one another and meet up. But we have also been advised to test spirits in order to know if they are from God. Especially in the last days, false prophets will become numerous and seductive; in fact, there are many of them currently. Perhaps The Message Rediscovered will give us the opportunity to exercise our judgement and distinguish the true from the false.
Subjecting ourselves in advance to the judgement of God, to the judgement of the sons of God, to the judgement of the friends of God and to the judgement of the prophets of God, we cannot fear the judgement of the intelligent of the world, nor that of the powerful of the world, nor that of the scholars of the world, nor that of the hypocrites and ignorant ones who bury us at present. (MR XXVII, 49’)
Such unexpected candour, such total absence of malice in expression, is somewhat shocking about in the twentieth century. They can only be explained if they are true – and that is for the reader to judge – by the possession of an immense secret; for the true candour of a man who has become a child, is a gnosis that is kept. We alluded earlier to an image that is certainly not new, that of this world considered as a model prison. Cattiaux was steeped in it; his whole life and his writings are testimony to it. But if he had rediscovered it within himself and outside of himself, it is not because he had experienced here below the tragic ordeal that the author of The Twenty-Fifth Hour speaks of, for example. Gheorghiu’s characters would undoubtedly never have complained about their lot here below if they had not been dragged, against their will, through the terrible drama of concentration camps, administrative internments and automatic releases. Cattiaux apparently led the life of a «bourgeois in Paris», a bourgeois who was a bit of a magician, it is true, an artist and original, but ultimately, a man who had scarcely left his neighbourhood, living his «everyday life» sheltered from the great social and political storms that plunged millions of people into despair and revolt. The conflict that had arisen within him was much deeper. It was the drama of the struggle with the angel. He who undertakes it can only conclude favourably by making a pact with his adversary at the end of this long night of anguish,
[…]at the time when the geomancers see their Major Fortune rising in the East, by a route that was obscure shortly before (Dante, The Divine Comedy, Purgatory XIX).
It is then that the exile here below becomes cruel for that victor, whatever his position in the world of dissimilarity; where shall he now find allies and friends?
It seems that the sacred writer, in the early pages of the book of Exodus, wanted to give us a summary of the entire history of the world and the prophetic mission when he speaks to us of the descent into Egypt of the Abraham’s children, of their difficult stay they had there and of their eventual exit, under the lead of Moses. It is also the apostle Paul who tells us:
That which is written is done so to instruct us and to serve as an admonition (I Corinthians 10, 11).
The children of Israel who descended into Egypt with Jacob their father, the Scriptures tell us, became powerful there after Joseph’s death and multiplied. Let us note first of all that, in this paternity, the sacred text suggests to us the existence of a mystery:
And the number of souls that came out from Jacob’s thigh was seventy (Exodus 1, 5. Vulgate: Erant igitur omnes animæ eorum qui egressi sunt de femore Jacob septuaginta).
These are the seventy souls that came to Egypt with Jacob. They multiplied later, after Joseph’s death.
After his death, the children of Israel began to grow, and, like germinating, they multiplied […] (Exodus, I, 7. Vulgate: Quo mortuo […] filii Israel creverunt et quasi germinantes multiplicati sunt […]. This image evokes the work of leaven or yeast in dough or that of the grain of wheat in the ground.),
as if Joseph had to die in order to prompt the germination and growth of his descendants. Alongside this growth, moreover, another phenomenon occurred: there ruled over Egypt a new king who did not know Joseph, and the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over Israel so as to grind it down with hard and fruitless labours. They made Israel’s lives bitter with hard bondage, forcing them to toil with bricks and mortar (Cf. Exodus 1, 8 onwards ).
These things were not written for historical purposes, –wrote Origen (Origen, Homilies on Exodus, translated by P. Fortier s.j., Sources Chrétiennes series, Cerf, Paris, 1947. Cf. also Romans 1, 18 and Luke 11, 52), «let us not believe that the holy books recount the history of the Egyptians. It is so that you who listen, you may recognize that a new king risen in you, who ignores Joseph. He is a king of Egypt, he forces you to work for his enterprises, he makes you work for him with bricks and mortar. He imposes foremen and taskmasters upon you, he leads you with the whip and the rod to work the land, he wants you to build cities for him. He makes you travel the world, disrupt the earth and the seas for the sake of gain. It is this king of Egypt who makes you trample the forums for lawsuits, quarrel with your own over a plot of land, commit shameful acts at home, cruelty abroad, and infamies within your conscience. Do you realize that you commit such acts? You should know that you are fighting for the king of Egypt, that is to say, you are acting under the impulse of the spirit of this world […].
It is the opposition of the two kingdoms, that of light and that of darkness, whose prince is already judged by the vanity of his works. As the light of Israel, moving away from its source, germinates and grows, there occurs around it, as though by reaction, a hardening of the shell that envelopes it, an incarnation in increasingly coarse matter, oppressing it, suffocating it, blindly opposing its manifestation in the world.
When the deaf and the blind dominate in the world, vulgar methods take over subtle methods […]. (See MR XXVIII, 11)
writes the author of The Message Rediscovered ; this is also the reason why subtle men find themselves prisoners and exiled in the world. Let us seek to know precisely who are the oppressed Israelites, down here. Not all are descendants of the patriarchs, but only those «who came into Egypt with Joseph». These are mixed with the Egyptians like good grain among the chaff, and nothing distinguishes them in appearance, nothing, except for their secret desire, for «we are made of the stuff that dreams are woven» said Shakespeare, paraphrasing in his fashion that teaching of the Epistles: «Faith is the substance of things hoped for» (Hebrews 11, 1). Therefore, true Israelites are not so according to the flesh but according to the spirit (John 1, 47: «Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit»).
The fault consists in leaving the seekers of God in abandonment and destitution. But the crime consists in forcing them into the works of the world on the hypocritical pretext of utilizing them or saving them. (MR XXVII, 50’)
Also, God said to Moses in the burning bush:
I have surely seen the suffering of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard the cry their taskmasters make them utter; for I know their pains […]. The cry of the children of Israel has come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them […]. And now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt (Exodus 3, 7 to 10).
And from the midst of the burning bush, IHVH told Moses his name. This scene from the book of Exodus teaches us about the mysteries of the prophetic vocation. To whom does God send the prophet? To His people who are in Egypt. Who is this people? Those who moan and cry out to God. What is the mission of the prophet? To lead these people out of Egypt and into the holy land. How shall this recognition between the prophet and those to whom he is sent take place? Moses is first recognized by the Elders, that is to say, the spiritual leaders of the people, through certain signs.
But that is not the essential part, for Jesus bitterly complained about «that wicked generation that seeks a sign» (Mark 8, 12). There are above all certain mysterious affinities between the Word and those to whom it is addressed, and here we touch upon the mysteries of choice, which are also those of our freedom. «They shall listen to your voice» (Exodus 3, 18), says God to Moses. The miracles and prodigies performed openly by Moses were intended to force Pharaoh, to shake the power of his empire over Israel, not to save him. The miracles of Jesus, on the other hand, were meant to comfort believers and to confirm them in their faith, and we read that where there was no faith, there was no healing either. God’s envoy does not present himself in such a way as to draw attention to himself. No sign, no special clothing, no halo of profane light designates him to our notice. All of this is useless, for he does not go to the world, but into the world, towards his own, simply: towards his brothers who are in Egypt.
Here I am […], I speak and your soul trembles, on recognizing ancient words: a voice that is within you and that has long since died, responds to the call of my own […] (Cagliostro before his judges).
Christ is surely unique in God, but his forms are multiple in creation. Thus, we shall recognize him, first, by his work and by his weight, and then, by his word; but never by his appearance. (MR XXXI, 18’)
Shall we not recognize the inspired teaching that rings out in the plenitude of the word from among the delirious words that ring out in the void of the profane world? (MR XXXIV, 66’)
Those who are chosen have chosen themselves by virtue of the deep gaze that illuminates them through the outer layers of the fleshly and corruptible generation, that wicked generation. It is an infallible judgement: to him who has, more will be given.
If God does not give us belief, we cannot believe by ourselves […].
We can weep over the impious ones, we cannot judge them […].
(MR, XXIV, 36 et 36’)
*
After the mysteries of choice and recognition come those of the exodus of the sanctified people, or rather, of the people of the saints, led by Moses, out of the dark land, towards the «holy land where nothing perishes» (MR XXXIV, 13’). At night, it is a column of light that guides their steps; by day, a cloud covers them and hides them from the sight of their pursuers (Cf. Exodus 13, 20 to 22). The brightness that lights the way of the gnosis is a sure guide for those who follow it once they have known it, but it is also for the impious, the hypocrites and the violent, a cloud that blinds them and leads them to dissolution in the waters of the Red Sea. This is also why the holy books and the teachings of ancient sages have at least two meanings: an apparent meaning, the cloak of darkness, and a hidden meaning, the core of light (the right meaning and the sinister meaning). Is it not also this same light, this star that led the Magi from a distant land to the birth of the Son of God?
Oh, you who hope for God’s salvation, wake up in the world!
And seek the secret light of the words of life, instead of being content with their clothes of shade.
(MR, XXXV, 77 et 77’)
Is it not also this same secret light of which it is written:
And the life was the light of men and the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1, 4-5)?
That is why those who do the works of darkness say in their night: Show us something and we shall believe, thus testifying in favour of their blindness. But we know that this light illuminates a path, and that path leads to the birth of the Son of God, that is to say, the Sun of Justice, of which it is written – is it not? – that he shall germinate from the earth:
Who can differentiate fire from fire? Who can manifest, embody the sun in the morning star issued from the darkened earth? (MR I, 18’)
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’)
This is the wedding of Heaven and Earth:
Neither the morals of the world nor its licentiousness shall deliver us from death .
The science of God knows no progress, for it is perfect from the beginning
Only the incarnate love of the Perfect One that reigns in heaven.
And his light illuminates the believer who harmonizes heaven and earth.
(MR, XXXV, 78 à 79’)
On the summit of Sinai, IHVH says to Moses:
And you shall put the Urim and the Thummim on the breastplate of judgment, and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the IHVH; and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the IHVH continually (Exodus 28, 30).
Now, Urim means «Light» and Thummim, «Perfection». There is the beginning and the end, for the perfection of light is nothing less than that very heavy fruit of the Sun, this embodied light, the adorable and glorious body of the Son of God before whom we shall all stand trial, the living and the dead. Who, then, are the living ones?
A few chosen ones of God have received, right in this world, the spiritual and bodily gift of the Highest before the end of time.
These are the cherished children of God, in whom he has placed all his trust, and the great witnesses of his judgement.
(MR, XXXIV, 15 et 15’)
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 unbelievable: 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 à 53’’)
St. Augustine alluded to these same mysteries of judgement in his catechetical instructions to Brother Deogratias:
For he shall come in the splendour of his power, he who condescended first of all to come in the lowliness of human nature, and he shall separate all the saints from those who are not, not only from those who shall have refused to believe in him, but also from those who shall have believed, but in vain and fruitlessly (De Catechizandis Rudibus, 44).
For «faith without works is dead faith» (James 2, 17).
Here is also, regarding these same mysteries, an excerpt from The Message Rediscovered:
Like the monkey who remains a prisoner in his gourd, his hand obstinately gripping the bait, it is also enough for us to let go of the fistful of mud that we stupidly clutch in this world in order to be returned to our primary freedom. However, everyone makes fun of monkeys, and no-one barely makes out his own greediness.
My Lord asked me once: «What shall you bring me on the day of judgement?» And I replied: «You in your secret in me». Then he said: «Very well. Go then, germinate, ripen and produce fruit for my harvest» and I cried bitterly at being still covered by the mud of the foreign land.
(MR, XX, 9 et 9’)
A day shall come when what was hidden shall be discovered; when the mysteries buried beneath the stones of our ancient cathedrals shall be revealed; when the black virgin who sleeps silently in the damp crypts shall bloom again like the flowering snow.
*
Jesus said to the crowd, speaking of John the Baptist:
This is the one of whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before you to prepare your way. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matthew 11, 10 and 11).
And St. Paul said, speaking of the prophets:
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, mistreated; they of whom the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11, 37 and 38).
Although they have wandered in this world, covered with the skins of the beast of Adam’s children, they have nevertheless made their way like pack donkeys of the Holy Sacrament, loaded with the treasure of the king of heaven. Those who reject the donkey because of its long ears and rough coat clearly show that they are once again blinded by the appearances of the world.
Happy are they who remember that the Lord was born in a humble stable, blessed are they who rediscover his footsteps in this world, and most blessed are they who once more give him warmth likewise donkeys. (MR XXXX, 16’)
The mysteries of prophetism are none other, as the term itself indicates, than those of the word, that word that was transmitted to Moses in the burning bush. But the word of God does not return to Him without having germinated and grown (see Isaiah 55, 10 and 11: «As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth: it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it»):
The word of God proceeds from his NAME and goes back to his NAME. It leaves fluid and it returns solid.
The Lord of the worlds is embodied in turn!
Oh, miracle! oh, mystery! oh, perfection! oh, all that ripens!
(MR, XXXI, 44 et 44’)
It is this ineffable Name, unheard by mortals, which gives existence and life to all things. It is that which kills but also which renews everything when the new spring of the Resurrection sings. It is also this Name that blesses or curses depending on how it presents itself to us, and how we present ourselves to it. For it has a front and a back side. Like the sphinx of the fable that devours passers-by who are shortsighted, IHVH is presented to us by the biblical prophets, clothed in terror, wrath and death. We are the passers-by of this world, and one day, we shall have to answer the fateful question. What shall we do then? It is written that all men die for not having observed the works of IHVH (that is, His Art); and yet this same God, filled with anger, fearsome and destructive, is He not also called the God of the living ones? Also, did the prophets not speak to us about what we might call the two faces of God: they foretold the history of the world and its unfolding until its final dissolution; but, alongside this, the evolution of the Holy Stone until its final coagulation; of this Stone that was rejected by those who were building and which shall become a stumbling block for them, because they have built in vanity, «and those shall be like a dream», says the psalmist, «that IHVH dissipates on waking» (Psalms 73, 20); of this Stone finally against which the gates of hell shall not prevail:
God forms and dissolves images, but he saves some of them through the Son, who is similar to the Father. (MR XX, 47)
The trap of this world consists of endlessly chasing its deceptive appearances instead of seeking the one who animates them all, said Louis Cattiaux. But who can ever reach the very pure and very holy Heart that lives in the centre of all things if he does not come to it himself in a gift of love? Is not the Sacred Heart surrounded by a circle of protective thorns, like the forehead of the Lord? And how many, through too much haste and violence, have wounded and cruelly torn themselves? And how many have died along the way from their wounds? Is it not necessary first of all that he burns the thorns, with the fire of His love, so that we can reach Him in the sweetness of nourishing ashes, where nothing is combustible anymore? God said to Moses, from the midst of the burning bush:
Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3, 5 and 6).
All these things, once again, are written for our instruction, and nothing is said unnecessarily. The purity that allows one to tread the holy ground and the clarity of vision, this too is a gift of love.
A master of medieval hermeticism wrote that we cannot know IHVH unless we have, with respect to ourselves, dissolved, purified, and freed Him from his Mosaic veil and his aspect of anger, and unless we have, through a subsequent divine enlightenment, drawn from God His heart and His soul, which is Christ. This is done through the Holy Spirit, which purifies our hearts as pure water would; moreover, it enlightens them like a divine fire. And then, the irritated God shall appear to you appeased.
On that day it will be said: A vineyard with generous wine, sing to it! It is I, IHVH, who keeps it; I water it at all times; for fear that anyone may penetrate it, I guard it night and day; I have no more anger. Who will give me thorns and briars to fight against? I will walk against them. I will burn them all. Or let them make peace with me; let them make peace with me (Isaiah 27, 2 to 5; cf. also Luke 12, 58 and Matthew 5, 25p). The ancient Pythagoreans alluded to this same revelation when they spoke of a dissonance, a false note, a lack of harmony in this sublunary world. Let us think of the words of Socrates: «It is in working with music that you must strive». For Pythagoreanism, the philosopher is a perfect musician, having long been a good philologist).
And Jesus said: I am the vine, and my Father is the vinedresser […], I am the vine, and you are the branches […], abide in me as I abide in you […] (John 15, 1 to 7).
À IÉEOÔUA
Like those stars suddenly ignited in the night of the cosmos, the divine heart bursts forth disproportionately when a sage penetrates to it. (Louis Cattiaux, Poems of the idler)
We could be rightly accused of a clear lack of sense of decency if we were to assemble here all the verses of The Message Rediscovered, betraying the author’s experience of these extremely holy mysteries. The curious reader shall easily recognize them in passing.
The truth of God runs to meet him who seeks it with a humble and purified heart.
But it flees from those who think they are able to do violence to it, it hides from those who scorn it and it abandons those who do a disservice to it.
(MR, XXXI, 12 et 12’)
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’)
*
We have strived to highlight this aspect of Cattiaux’s Message that speaks to us precisely of the coagulation of the Holy Stone. However, we cannot overlook another side of his book. It brings the book closer to us, makes it more accessible, perhaps: it tells us of the impending dissolution of the present world, of this world that returns to dust.
Cattiaux had written, as an epigraph at the beginning of his Book XXXIX this warning given to the little shepherds of La Salette by the lady of Light:
On the first strike of his thundering sword, the mountains and the whole earth shall tremble in terror because the disorder and crimes of men pierce the vault of the heavens.
What we have to say on this subject may not be appreciated by all; scepticism in these matters may also be a judgement of God. The Message Rediscovered contains numerous and precise prophecies about what could be called the last times of the current world. They are spread throughout the work. Yet, in the spring of last year, this threat must have seemed very close to him, and it was then that he wrote Book XXXIX, whose urgent and anguished tone is plain for all to see:
The official scholars, heirs and descendants of the furious coalblowers (i.e. bad alchemists who blow on the vulgar fire ) who were the first to force fire, nature, beings and things, are right now honoured and rewarded more than anyone, for they are the priests of the science of the evil one who has the world in his clutches…
who enchains it on the pretext of freeing it, who poisons it under the mask of beneficence, who stupefies it on the promise of distracting it, who plunges it into darkness on promising it light, who severs it from the God of life by passing himself off as him and imposing death on all.
It is not by chance that the demons of hell are represented as ceaselessly working the bellows of the forge that fan the fire in which the damned are burning.
There we are, but our situation is so identical to the ancient image that we can no longer know the state into which we have been hurled by the science of the devil.
What is more stupid than the machine? And are we not under the reign of the blind and deaf machine? And do we not adore the machine that chews us up like a beast?
Is there anything more stupid than the anonymous State? And are we not under the reign of the blind and deaf Beast? And do we not adore the Beast that blindly grinds us?
The official magicians of Pharaoh are stronger than ever in the world. They have only changed their appearances and tricks, their names and methods, but their marvels still stupefy the world and maintain it in the slavery of death.
Profane science has even conquered the heart of the religious ones, who ally themselves with it, without realizing that it devours them unforgivingly.
For they scorned the science of God, which was taken away from them, and now they are held up to ridicule by the science of the devil, which they publicly adore.
The time of machines has hardly begun and everyone is seduced, without realizing that machines are dead works that produce nothing but death.
And all think they make use of the machines, without realizing that they themselves serve the machines like slaves dulled by death.
They all plead the cause of the rebel at present and praise his accursed science. Priests and nonbelievers, monks and laymen, scholars and the ignorant, artists and workmen, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the right-thinking and the impious, bosses and labourers, all applaud the fire that shall devour them.
The impious ones say: «We have substituted God for our science» and the believers add: «God has given science to man so that he can free himself» but neither one or the other sees the open abyss beneath their feet, nor the smoke that rises and that shall swallow them up forever.
Oh, pain! Our voice is stifled by the multitude of cripples who sink cheerfully into the stinking death of hell, and we remain alone, without means and without help, to make them hear the ultimate warning from the Lord of justice who sends us into the world, like the grain under the wheel of mill.
Oh, cruel punishment! the Book of deliverance remains unknown, while the very filth is royally financed by the rich ones of the world, while the dead faith is bursting with the gifts of the right-thinking ones, while the works of death are encouraged by the good-intentioned ones who serve the devil without wanting to know it.
Oh, who shall announce the urgency of repentance with us? And who shall come and help us gather the seed of the new world?
Oh, who shall let out the cry of alarm with us before absurdity engulfs the world? And who shall pray to the God of forgiveness so that the Book might appear before the flashing blow of his growling thunderbolt?
(MR, XXXIX, 28 à 35’ )
There is an essential difference between clairvoyance and prophecy. The prophet is always a seer but the seer is not a prophet. Although definitions of this nature are always delicate and necessarily incomplete, we can say that clairvoyance is generally a natural ability to see into the subtle world –which modern occultists call the astral world–, the future events in gestation. It is a purely passive role and, necessarily, quite limited, although there can be a great number of nuances and degrees of accomplishment. It is in the exercise of clairvoyance that we find the discernment of spirits, an activity that not all seers practice with equal success. The seer can predict but he is incapable of prophesying. Prophecy, on the other hand, is a gift of the Holy Spirit: the subject plays both a passive and active role because if he communes with the cosmic consciousness, he shapes the future simply by uttering the word, and the future thus fixed by the prophetic word becomes the fatum of the Elders (God says: «I accomplish the word of my servants», Isaiah 44, 26).
In our times, enlightened minds like René Guénon and Raymond Abellio have announced to us, in light of traditional sciences, the imminent end of the current cycle of history. For Raymond Abellio, for example, this dissolution of the current world will likely come through a catastrophe of geological nature, a new deluge, similar to those that once destroyed Lemuria and Atlantis. The Message Rediscovered brings us a similar warning:
Since we have been threatened with the imminent end of the world and nothing has happened, say the impious ones, we no longer believe in that bad joke. Leave us in peace now, and let us organise ourselves in this world that belongs to us.
Alas! they do not know that the prayers, the tears and the sacrifice of the saints and of their patroness have only held back until now the arm of God’s wrath, but the weight increases in proportion to our denial of God, and now it is enormous and becoming unsustainable, even for the strongest.
Even the crash of God’s wrath, which teeters before swooping down on the world, shall not be understood by the men in revolt against God.
Even the rumbling of God’s wrath, which seethes before submerging the world, shall not be understood by the men occupied with themselves.
(MR, XXXIX, 42 à 43’)
My friends, do you not see the restlessness of the absurd that piles up before you all over the world in an impossible equilibrium?
Do you not see the universal denial of the true Lord of life, to the benefit of him who fakes and disembodies all life in order to feed on it?
(MR, XXXIX, 45 et 45’)
Raymond Abellio in his book talks about the creation of an Order, similar in some ways to the great religious orders of the Catholic Church, but more closely aligned with new requirements. For the problem is no longer, he tells us, to save this world, but simply to save and gather the small number of men qualified to form the new world after the deluge. Although we do not know Raymond Abellio at all except through his writings, we wished to highlight this new testimony of the great concern that is gradually descending upon those whose eyes are still open.
Some have asked us this question: «Did the author of The Message Rediscovered intend to found a new religion?» We shall reply that nothing was further from his mind than that, due to the purely profane character that marks it. Moreover, there has only ever been one religion since the beginning of the world. The author wrote this book to serve believers in unity, and not to add further to the confusion of languages.
It is impossible to speak, moreover, about The Message Rediscovered, as a new revelation, in the sense that nothing can be added or taken away from the given of traditional revelation, which is complete. This is, furthermore, a constant tradition in the Church, and no one can distance himself from it without falling at the same time into the aberrations and straying of false prophetism. There is no progress or evolution in this domain. We have precisely endeavoured to show, as much as possible within the limited scope of this study, the conformity of the inspiration of The Message Rediscovered with that of the Scriptures, and it is precisely this conformity that makes it legitimate and authentic:
The words of the wise are like goads, and their compilations are like firmly embedded nails; they are given by one Shepherd (Ecclesiastes 12, 11).
One can only legitimately speak of a new revelation in the sense of a new veil covering the same ancient mystery that remains eternally identical to itself.
Oh, pure essence included in the pure substance that moans with fallen man, allow the Book that speaks once again of your love to appear in the world, so that your mourning children perceive your call once more before the terrifying judgement that is coming.
Oh, Loved One (The French «Aimée» is feminine) who contains the Loved One (The French «Aimé» is masculine), allow the Book of your splendour to magnetize once again the multitude of your children who have fallen in the mud, and who wander miserably, reassuring themselves with your old promise, without doing anything to penetrate it or to truly put it into practice.
Oh, holiest Father – Mother – Son! please enlighten your dying ones before it is too late.
(MR, XXXIX, 8, 8’ et 8’’)
We have not exhausted our subject. Moreover it would be an impossible task. We have simply sought to bear witness to that we have read and heard. Those to whom the author dedicated his book will hopefully forgive us our shortcomings. The Message Rediscovered indeed carries two dedications. One is general, even though it addresses only a very small number:
This book is not for everyone, but only for those who are given the ability to BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE.
The second dedication is more specific; it concerns, nevertheless a very large number of people on our globe: this Message is specially dedicated to the black peoples, to whom it announces the advent in the world. After having been slaves for so long, or considered as children under guardianship, black people shall become free, powerful, and they shall dominate their former masters. It is for them, specially, that this book was written, under the inspiration of the Spirit.
*
When the enchanter Merlin descended into blue Brittany to establish, according to the order received from God, the quest for the Grail, his allies recognized him and welcomed him joyfully, even though he was of obscure origin. Often, he amused himself by changing form to mystify strangers, and mislead his enemies, but his friends laughed and rejoiced with him, for they knew how to recognize him in all his aspects: sometimes he was a large-antlered stag, sometimes a wild and bearded man, or a young and fresh youth. The enchanter was master of forms and appearances, all of which belonged to him.
But, while the tale tells us everything Merlin did for the Grail, how he revealed its existence and the quest to the knights of King Arthur, it also tells us, in the end, of his wild loves with Vivien, his immortal lady-love.
So where did he passionately seek her, and for how long? In the ruins of Komper, in forgotten caves, on the banks of Painport?
He found her when he was no longer looking for her.
It was in the forest of Broceliande, by a clear fountain whose pebbles gleamed like fine silver. Its name meant I shall make nothing of it ([1]See I Corinthians 1, 27: «God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God had chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty ones; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, had God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence»). At first glance, Merlin recognized Vivien and Vivien recognized Merlin; and upon seeing her, he fell in love with her. Was he not the only one who could see her? So many others had merely looked at her and passed by. He promised her a rendezvous on St. John’s eve. However, the tale scarcely mentions their encounters.
They met up again by the fountain, in the pretty orchard called Retreat of Joy that Merlin had magically created for his lover. Each time they met, Merlin felt his love for Vivien growing, due to the warm welcome she gave him. It was like an increasingly strong attraction. One day, using his magic art, Merlin created for Vivien a mysterious palace in the middle of a lake, the lake of Diana. No one would ever see it who «was not of her household», because it was invisible to anyone else, and to everyone’s eyes there was nothing there but water. And if by misfortune, some thief, driven by envy or treachery, wanted to penetrate this secret, he would drown while believing he was entering.
«By God, my dearest friend», said Vivien, «never has anyone heard of a more secret and more beautiful dwelling!»
But Vivien was jealous. She wanted to possess all Merlin’s magical science, and Merlin could not resist teaching it to her little by little. As she was a «high priestess in the seven arts», she wrote everything down, and thought of nothing but teaching. Is she not indeed the «Alphabet of the prophets» (MR, Litanies of the Mother and the Son, 122)?
«My Lord», she asked him one day, «there is still one thing I would like to know: how could I enclose a man without a tower, without walls and without chains, so that he could never escape without my consent?» Merlin bowed his head and sighed. –«What’s wrong?», she asked – «Ha! I know exactly what you are thinking and that you want to lock me up for ever, and since I love you so much, I will have to do as you wish!»
Did such a great love not deserve that Merlin fulfilled the Vivien’s wishes and Vivien fulfilled Merlin’s?
«My Lady», said Merlin, «on my return I shall teach you what you wish».
And it was with sadness that Merlin returned to see his friends at King Arthur’s court, for he knew it was the last time and that soon, he would no longer see them. So, when the time came for the rendezvous with Vivien, Merlin told the king and queen that he had to leave them forever. They did not understand what he was telling them. But when he saw that seven weeks had gone by and that Merlin had not returned, the king remembered the words his friend had told him, and remained for a long time deep in thought and gloomy.
Sometime later, while Gawain, the king’s nephew, was wandering through the forest of Broceliande in search of Merlin, he heard a distant voice calling him and saw before him «a sort of mist that, as airy and translucent as it was», prevented his horse from advancing.
Alas, Gawain! said Merlin, you shall never see me again, and after you, I shall no longer speak to anyone but my beloved. There is no tower in all the world as strong as the prison of air in which she has sealed me[…]. – What, dear sweet friend, said Gawain, you, the wisest of men! – Not at all! But the most foolish, replied Merlin, for I knew well what would happen to me. One day as I was wandering with my beloved in the forest, I fell asleep at the foot of a thorn bush, my head in her lap; presently, she arose gracefully and made a circle with her veil around the bush; and when I awoke, I found myself on a magnificent bed in the most beautiful and most firmly closed bedroom that had ever been. – Ha, Milady, I said to her, you have tricked me! Now, what shall become of me if you are not here by my side? – Dear sweet friend, I shall be here most often and you shall hold me in your arms, for you shall have me from now on ready for your pleasure. And, indeed, there is scarcely a day or a night when I do not have her company. And I am more of a fool than ever, for I love her more than my own freedom.
We were talking one day about this legend, if legend it is, to the author of The Message Rediscovered .
– It’s curious, he replied to us, what you tell me about Vivien, for I truly hope one day to be able to disappear, dissolved by the fairy Vivien, and to revive gloriously in her.
Let us re-read untiringly the wise and holy words, for each time it shall be like dew that is ever more abundant and ever more nourishing for our hearts.
All the Universe and we ourselves are darkness and death without your love, Lord.
While without our love, you remain alive and radiant forever before our wretched mortal agony
Oh, my Lord and my God, through your love for us that is infallible, do not allow our love for you to falter. Oh, my King, do not let our faces ever again turn away from your face, until you enter us and until we penetrate you for ever.
AMEN.
(MR, XXXVI, 108’’)
In R. Arola, Croire l’incroyable.
