LUDOVIC NICOLAS STUDIO
An original thesis on space-time.
A JOURNEY INTO THE UNIVERSAL MATRIX
” Those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries. “
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
INTRODUCTION
Published
October 28, 2021
Pre-Scriptum : this text was originally written
in French. Unfortunately, when it comes to semantics, etymology, and homophony,
no translation can effectively preserve the original meaning. To remedy this,
and to preserve the explicit content, I have decided to keep the original
French words and put their English translations in brackets.
First of all, I would like to clarify that
this is not an academic thesis, as many people might automatically assume.
According to the definition of the word « thesis » in the Larousse dictionary: « theoretical proposition, opinion, or
position on something, the truth of which is sought to be demonstrated »,
my work can bear this title without needing recognition from any system or
authority. It neither requires nor seeks such validation. Thus, with complete and
uncompromising freedom of thought and, above all, without being answerable to
anyone, we are free to explore all topics dear to our polymathic enthusiasm
from any perspective. Thanks to this state of mind, original ideas
have flourished, blossomed, and revealed themselves beyond the confines of the
plantation where our curiosity is often restricted. To be invigorated by such
openness is truly a blessing. I wish to share the rose of its quintessence with
you, unabashedly and wholeheartedly.
•••••
The genesis of this thesis
dates back to the moment when my eyes turned to the sky, or more precisely, to
the night I realized that the vault of stars was revolving inexorably around a
fixed point, like a wheel spinning around an axle. As I marveled at this
awe-inspiring spectacle, I could never have imagined that my open-minded
reflections on the workings of the cosmos would lead me to explore a plethora
of disciplines, bridging astronomy with the seemingly immutable realms of
mineralogy.
I first turned to academic
science and, despite compelling discoveries in certain fields, such as quantum
physics, I encountered many theories but very few theorems. Unlike a theorem, a
theory is grounded in speculation: it is a system of hypotheses that seeks
coherence with established principles, whether philosophical or mathematical.
In other words, a theory does not establish rules or laws that are immutable in
the real world. Surprisingly, this explicit distinction seems to have eluded
some members of the scientific community, those who continue to mistake the
smoke for the fire. Contemporary scientific dogma is, in fact, rooted in
complex theories that cannot be demonstrated outside the confines of a
mathematical language whose abstraction verges on increasingly surreal
horizons. This is especially true given that this language relies on a semantic
architecture where equations tend to feed upon, intertwine with, and reflect
one another in a closed loop. This process inevitably forms an artificial
construct upon which further structures are built, often without questioning
the actual solidity of its foundations.
Theoretical science can thus be likened to the
Tower of Pisa: a structure that holds together admirably yet risks collapsing
under the cumulative weight of its aberrations each time another division is
added. The intricate lines of glyphs showcased in equations may impress the
average person, but, as René Guénon aptly noted, they
remain far removed from the sensible reality they purport to explain.
String theory stands as perhaps the most
striking example of how the synthetic complexity of mathematics can diverge
from the rationality of the biological environment. This raises a critical
question: why do we continue to devote so much time and energy to studying
abstract spaces that bear no reciprocal relationship to the metrology of
terrestrial life ?
Before turning their attention to realms
invisible to the naked eye – ranging from the infinitely large in astrophysics
to the infinitely small in particle physics – the scientific elite might gain
greater authenticity by devoting more time to reflecting on the manifestations
of natural laws with the seriousness they deserve. It is paradoxical that, at
the dawn of the 21st century, the physiognomy of life remains an enduring
mystery within a community that prides itself on understanding the origins of our
cosmos and continually expanding its boundaries. Perhaps it is time to take a
step back and focus on what is truly essential.
The causes (or perhaps the
cause?) of life merit far more attention than its effects. By
attempting to dazzle us with conceptual abstractions that lack any foundation
in fact, academic prestidigitators conceal their incompetence and their
ignorance of the elementary principles of observable reality. Instead, they
subjugate their audience – students and science fiction
enthusiasts alike – with an undeniably captivating display of smoke and
mirrors.
The
day academics distance themselves from a theoretical science that leads
nowhere, the great mysteries of nature may finally be reconsidered within their
lecture halls. When that day arrives, science will once again harmonize with
the universal foundations of physics. Research topics will be abundant.
We could begin, for instance, by exploring the influence
of lunar radiation on the vertical growth of plants or investigating the
analogous polarized relationship between the bronchi of a lung and the branches
of a tree (the former, sheltered from sunlight, inhales oxygen and exhales
carbon dioxide, while the latter, directly influenced by the sun, absorbs
carbon dioxide and releases oxygen).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Nikola
Tesla (1856-1943) – the visionary of
invisible physics – had already warned us about the mystifying excesses of
theoretical science (embodied in his time by Albert Einstein) in the American
newspaper The New York Times: « Einstein's work on relativity is a
magnificent mathematical garment that fascinates, dazzles and blinds people to
its underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar dressed in purple, whom
ignorant people mistake for a king... Its exponents are brilliant men, but they
are metaphysicians rather than scientists. »
Indeed, the case of Albert Einstein is more
than symptomatic of the intellectual morass in which we find ourselves. By
‘borrowing’ the main lines of his theory of general relativity from the French
physicist Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), we don’t take much of a risk in asserting that the fame of the
multigenerational icon of science is more a matter of social engineering than
genuine genius. These lies don’t just affect the honesty and morality that are
the pillars of our society; they also affect the technology we use every day.
At a time when electromagnetic waves connect everyone on earth, the anachronism
between the engineering of a cell phone and that of a car’s gasoline engine,
whose basic technology is about one hundred and seventy years old, is more than
laughable and raises a question that should be seriously considered: Is it only
the ‘scientific’ work that the system is proud of that does not threaten its
hegemony and the prosperity of its economic model? It’s a question worth
investigating.
Beware! If you want to graduate from a
prestigious university and build a career, it’s best to avoid certain subjects.
Conducting your research outside the framework imposed by conformism,
especially when it challenges the theories of the indestructible gods of the
scientific pantheon, is a mistake not to be made. Today, despite the obvious
impasses, it is unthinkable to question the structural beliefs of the
scientific ‘church’: refusing to bow down before its idols would mean
excommunication, loss of credibility, and respectability.
Since I have nothing to lose, gain, or even
prove, it’s easier for me to be honest and point out the frivolity of
extraterrestrial physics when it comes to the primary interest of this study:
the revolutions of the stars above our heads. Although astrophysicists are
still light years away from revealing the underlying mechanics of these
revolutions, they still insist, rooted in the dogma of their upbringing, on
demonstrating this phenomenon through Isaac Newton’s (1642–1726) universal law of gravitation.
The equation of this theory quantifies the
parameters of the fall of an object towards the Earth and provides a
mathematical solution to explain the equilibrium between two celestial bodies,
but it does not specify the cause of their displacement, which is, to say the
least, regular. Since the former president of the Royal Society made his
pronouncement on the law of gravity, no member of the establishment has
attempted, with applied seriousness worthy of the scientific method, to expand
on the cause of the force of rotation (vectorized by f in the illustration below,
where the orbit of the Moon around the center of the Earth is taken as an
example). This force, to use the current nomenclature, is never taken into
account; and that’s precisely where the problem lies.
If no answer can be formulated to the question
of the origin of the force f, gravity cannot
be validated as presented by contemporary cosmology. And let’s not forget that
no instrument can detect it, and no scientist can reproduce its field in the
laboratory. Of all the fundamental interactions, and because it defies our
understanding the most, this so-called cohesive force remains one of the
greatest mysteries in physics today. Consequently, we shouldn’t be afraid to
admit that the lack of scientific rigor surrounding this concept is not
reassuring for the quality of expertise and weakens the pillars on which its
reputation rests. Despite all this, speculations, each more improbable than the
last, continue to make their presence felt on the scientific scene. In fact, we
haven’t made a single step forward since the theory of the curvature of
space-time and the hypothetical subatomic particles of the quantum world called
‘gravitons’. Why not? Simply because the origin of this natural phenomenon
remains inscrutable to the science of our peers, who are content to explain
that the kinetics of the celestial bodies is the reminiscence of a hypothetical
explosion at the origin of our universe – the so-called ‘Big Bang’ – presented
to the world by the Jesuit Georges Lemaître at the end of the 19th century.
In any case, Newtonian gravity poses another
problem: the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity. If
gravity cannot be taken out of the equation, we must recognize that theoretical
physics is once again reaching the limits of its own extravagance.
Once we accept the fact that certain theories
are currently taught as truths, it’s easier to see that science has lost the
core of its immanent beauty; the glorious hours that made its reputation are
behind it, and the torches that separated it from religion now cast more than a
faint light. Richard Feynman (1918-1988), winner of the
1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in developing quantum electrodynamics,
had no problem admitting this: « Science is the belief in the ignorance of
experts. »
Even if the standard model of astrophysics
seems to be satisfied, our understanding of the universe is still juvenile,
inaccurate, and stitched with white threads. The human race will never be able
to emancipate itself from its cosmic Stone Age if we insist on building ever
higher on the foundations of a ‘science’ that has demonstrated its limitations
and that is more the stuff of fantastic theory than empirical theorem. It’s a
fact that science has sunk into doctrinal systems from which it is difficult to
exorcise. And the academic guardrails, in their vanity, never miss an
opportunity to ridicule anything that doesn’t fall within their realm of
possibility. Such a mentality will never be able to initiate the paradigm shift
that the scientific world needs to evolve. On the day that our approach merges
with the principles at the source of creation, perhaps nature will once again
reveal to us the gears used by the architect of her masterful clock.
Despite this consensus, annoying as it may be,
we should not fall into the trap of extremism and dismiss all theories out of
hand; some are worthy of interest because they come not from mathematics but
from pure intelligence. We are thinking in particular of the somewhat obscure
concepts of dark energy and dark matter, which set the scientific community
abuzz after Edwin Hubble’s observations in 1929. Since then, many
astrophysicists believe that the expansion of our universe is linked to a
dynamic phenomenon that is invisible and intrinsic to space. Previously thought
to be 96% (6) empty, this space would not be empty at all. It would be filled
with an energetic substance indescribable to our tangible world, yet
interacting with it. The vacuum would therefore be full of a more or less dense
kinetic essence that nobody can explain, measure, or reproduce at the moment.
So, it’s not impossible that behind the world accessible to the human senses
lies a continuum about which we know nothing. And it’s not David Bohm (1917-1992), one of the fathers of quantum physics, who will bring us the
contradiction, because he declared: « Space is not empty, it's full. The
universe is not separate from this cosmic sea of dark energy ».
As far as academic
cosmology is concerned, many fundamental questions about celestial mechanics
remain unanswered. Here, in my opinion, are the most pertinent:
•
What makes the Earth rotate ?
•
What makes the Earth orbit around the Sun ?
•
What makes the solar system orbit around the center of the galaxy ?
•
Why do the planets orbit the Sun on a common plane ?
•
Why do the planets revolve around themselves ?
•
Why is it possible to predict the motion and position of the wandering
stars over time with such great accuracy ?
•
Why are the Earth, the Sun, and all the planets spherical
?
•
According to the empirical law of action-reaction physics, what kind of
energy is consumed in the motion of celestial bodies ?
•
Is it possible that the circular motion of our stars is a reaction to
the action of the mysterious dark energy ?
•
Could the mysteries surrounding the mechanics of universal gravity be
the observable effects of an invisible cause within dark energy
?
In fact, I believe that
the answers to these questions lie at the heart of this abstraction of the
material world known as ‘dark energy’. But knowing that this space is
invisible, unknown, and unexplored, how can we grasp it from the material
world? If modern science has reached its limits, where can we turn?
•••••
At the age of 30 (3), I got my hands on a book
entitled « Le mystère des cathédrales,
esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of
The Great Work, written by Fulcanelli, the famous
French Adept. This book, a classic and indispensable reference on alchemy, gave
me the keys I was looking for to unlock the doors to the metaphysical realm of
dark energy: it was the spark that lit the fuse.
However, these keys were
preciously guarded behind the smokescreen of a ‘pictorial’ cryptographic
language called « cabale ». Strangely enough,
the mysterious essence of this Art captivated my mind from the very first
paragraphs written by the master. Despite my inability to fully grasp its
fragrance, its vibration was not foreign to me; its aroma resonated in a very
significant way, naturally and intuitively, within my innermost being since my
earliest childhood, without knowing that this axiom existed outside the
understanding of my secret garden. The best way to enlighten you is to define «
cabale » (from the Latin « cabbalus ») in the words of an author whose name my
notes have forgotten: « It's a language of hieroglyphic type theta
plays on all the registers of expression: images, words, letters, numbers,
sounds, colors, shapes, weights, etc....
It also uses secret conventions, the most widespread of which are
metaphor and emblematic rebus. It does not have a specific form and depends
only on the culture and imagination of those who use it. »
Today, unfortunately, the
only « kabbale
» known to the atrophy of Western culture and speculative masonry
appeared in the rabbinical tradition in Spain in the 13th century, through the
Zohar – Book of Splendor. Contrary to the proselytizing consensus, « kabbale » or «
kabbalah », or even « qabbalah »
to serve a more effective mystification, is not an original, isolated, and
predominant trend, but the simple reflection that Jewish mysticism gives to an
ancestral tradition that preceded it. In fact, the word « kabbale » is not of Hebrew origin,
since its etymology comes from the Greek «
kabbalès ». Therefore, in order to avoid the
trap of homophony, to counter the nonsense of popular culture, and to assert
the universality of its affiliation, scholars prefer to use the term « Hermetic Cabale », in honor of Hermes, the
mythological Greek figure.
In any case, whether « cabbalus » in Latin or « kabbalès » in Greek, these terms both define the animal that has
been the emblem of knowledge since antiquity: the horse. The semantic
relationship between « cabaliste » (cabalist) et « cavalier » (horseman) becomes clearer, more coherent, and more
justified in the light of the initiatory tales written by Chrétien de Troyes
since the first crusades and the discovery of oriental folklore. From the
height of the astronomical sympathies, we share here on Earth, how can we fail
to see the stories of the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, and the
search for the Holy Grail – the Cup of the Chalices – from a different angle than through the
Hermetic prism? It’s no coincidence that the Day of the Hero, always embodied
by a brave knight (the expression of the Donum Dei), is so emblematic of an
initiatory tradition that dates back to the dawn of time. It’s a fact, and we
will have the opportunity to prove it, that the Pegasus mount was already
ridden under the starry dome of the Chaldean-Egyptian priesthood.
To understand how the spirit of the Hermetic
Cabal is articulated, let’s take a literary example using the word « occult » (this choice is not insignificant, as it helps to distance
your thoughts from the association that vulgar culture makes with demonic
practices). The structure of this word breaks down into « o », « c » and
« cult ». For a Hermetist, the « o
» represents the hieroglyphic sign for the Sun and the « c », in its curvature, for the
Moon; consequently, « occult » emphasizes
the cult of these two luminaries. From an operational point of view, this
reading corresponds to the definition given by the Larousse dictionary: «
That which acts, or which is done in a secret way, whose aims remain unknown,
hidden: an occult influence ».
Before the universality of the Hermetic Cabal
was overshadowed by the Qabbalah and L’école des Beaux-Arts feigned amnesia, all Artists
(worthy of this capital letter) used it in their works to perfect beauty under
its best arcana until the end of the 10th century. When I fully realized that
these aesthetes were using their creation as an initiatory canvas, my feet
didn’t touch the ground for a few days, and my excitement bordered on
enlightenment. Indeed, the importance of such a practice in my relationship
with art, both for the interpretation of the concept and for the exegesis of
culture in general, was a revelation without precedent in my life, for I could
never have imagined that the natural predisposition to find analogies between
things that a priori had none would one day prove to be one of my greatest
assets in my quest for the absolute. What I had always considered a curse, a
psychological pathology, now seemed like a gift to be exploited. A sign had
just been sent to me, and I took its message with the utmost consideration:
Hermeticism embodied me.
The facetiousness that surrounds destiny is decidedly more than
romantic, for the path of this tradition had the potential to become an
inexhaustible source of inspiration and to channel my most metaphysical
thoughts. I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that the doors to this
mysterious kingdom of the invisible were no longer sealed forever. At the dawn
of my 33rd (6) birthday, I turned from the sublunary world toward the rising
sun.
•••••
Before continuing, it seems important to open a
brief parenthesis in order to explain why Hermetic Philosophy and its operative
applications – alchemy, magic, and astrology – are no longer respected and
valued as they were by the science of our ancestors.
Certainly, the mere mention of one of them is
enough to provoke a snigger from our contemporaries. This mentality, as
contemptuous as it is, was supported by a current of thought born in the 18th
century that dared to hijack the meaning and use of the word « Philosophy ». Let’s be clear on
this point: authentic Philosophy has nothing in common with the ‘philosophy’ of
the Age of Enlightenment; the sociological, humanistic, and naturalistic
speculations of the latter were never the salvific interests of ancient
philosophers such as Zarathustra (6th century B.C.), Plato (427-348 B.C.), or Confucius (551-479 B.C.). Certainly, the
search for spirituality, wisdom, and truth was not of the same purity among the
editors of the Encyclopédie and their Germanic counterparts.
Moreover, why not call its intellectual current
« la philosophie
de la Lumière » (« the
philosophy of the Light »)
instead of « la philosophie
des lumières » (« the philosophy of lights » which is the true translation of « the philosophy of enlightenment ») ?
The pluralization of the word « light
» is a diabolical attempt to
fragment what cannot be fragmented. Through this seemingly harmless
manipulation, truth no longer exists as such but becomes falsely multiple and
variable, depending on one's orientation.
Above all, let's not be dazzled by the worldly
pretensions of a certain bourgeoisie. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the
true definition of Philosophy, in its etymological excellence, is the love of
wisdom. Pythagoras (6th century B.C.) said: « I am a
philosopher, not one who claims to possess wisdom, but one who aspires to it. »
Ascribing a new architecture to words, in order to divert the power of their
egregores, is one of the perversions that have been used and financed by a
domineering ‘elite’ to consolidate its power by destroying the traditional
heritage of our past.
Under the revolutionary impulse of the Age of
Enlightenment, which our history books wrongly attribute to the people, society
fell into an unbridled and deadly obscurantism. Everything associated with the
beliefs of the previous culture had to disappear, fade away, be forgotten, and
as a symbol, our majestic cathedrals were sacked and desecrated.
The Jacobin mentality, perfected through
deceptive initiations that absorbed upstarts of all kinds, dealt the final blow
with the humiliating idea that man could now be considered equal to God. This
kind of teaching is blasphemy according to 1 Corinthians 6:19: « Do you not
know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have received from God? You are not your own. » From then on, the Gnostic
doctrine of divine transcendence had no place in the temple. And the operative
was cunningly replaced by the speculative: why bother to look at the sky and
its planisphere of stars, since in the eyes of these merchants, who never
really left the temple, there is no truth outside that of the all-seeing eye?
Since the advent of illuminism – materialistic,
naturalistic, and nominalistic – anything that cannot
be demonstrated, qualified, or measured no longer exists. Like St. Thomas,
encyclopedic science now believes only what it sees, and Hermetic teachings
have been relegated to the shelves of superstition. And let's face it, this
triumphant rationalism is at the root of the immobility, conformism, and
rationalism of today's scientific community. René Guénon
explained: « Rationalism is essentially defined by the belief in the
supremacy of reason, proclaimed as a true dogma, which implies the negation of
pure intellectual intuition, which logically leads to the exclusion of all true
metaphysical knowledge. »
With the parenthesis closed, let's return to a
more vertical approach to our considerations.
•••••
Since societies are only initiatory in name,
the only way to find the grace you are looking for is to help yourself. The
first step is to assimilate the secrets of Hermetic Philosophy, and within
this, the study of its texts is inevitable. For an occultist, this is no easy
task, as this literature is full of pretenses. If you didn’t know that the
initiates, with the help of the Hermetic Cabale, always veiled their writings
to keep the envious away, their grimoires would be useless. Many aspirants were
thus led astray. Michel Sendivogius, the famous 17th century
alchemist better known as the Cosmopolitan, warned us: « If Hermes, the
father of the philosophers, were to rise today, along with the subtle Geber and
the profound Raymond Lulle, they would not be considered philosophers by our
vulgar chymists, who would hardly deign to include
them among their disciples because they would not know how to proceed with all
those distillations, circulations, calcinations, and innumerable other
operations that our vulgar chymists have invented
because they have misunderstood the allegorical writings of these philosophers.
»
Moreover, after the tsunami of Illuminism
between the 18th and 19th centuries, false prophets took the liberty of
‘enriching’ the legacy of Hermes with texts of their own imagination in
order to captivate and manipulate their audience. Knowing that these deceptions
must be circumvented, the essence of our exegesis must therefore focus on the
texts of the Eastern tradition, translated into Greek since the conquests of
Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
When the Macedonian conquered Egypt and
installed one of his generals as the new Pharaoh (« Pharaoh » is a term of Greek origin that
translates as « he who carries the sun »),
the horizon of this ancestral land was revived by the luminous flame of a new
lighthouse. Most of the time, the annexation of a land sounds the death knell
for the local culture, but this was not the case with the Ptolemaic pharaohs.
Instead of destroying the land to impose their vision, the new rulers restored
the land to its former glory. Inspired by Aristotelian philosophy,
Greco-Hellenistic culture blended with the teachings of the Egyptian mystery
schools and the ancient traditions of the Mesopotamian world. Whether it came
from one of the first Persian prophets, in the person of Zarathustra (whose
name means « the golden star » or « the splendor of the sun »), or from the
temples on the banks of the Nile, the initiatory teachings of the priestly
castes received by the Greeks were certainly not new, as it is often repeated
that Plato (428-347 B.C.) and Pythagoras (570-495 B.C.) had already benefited greatly from them in their time.
The city of Alexandria – so renamed after its
conqueror – became a popular meeting place for Hermetic occultists from all
over the Mediterranean basin. In this prodigious and marvelous hotbed of
scholars, scientists, and magicians, the Gnose («
Gnosis » translates from Greek as « knowledge » and derives from
the desire to know God and His secrets) was incredibly magnified. But,
unfortunately for the salvation of humanity, most of the manuscripts produced
during this spiritual effervescence seem to have perished in the flames of the
memorable library. This ultimate barbarism against the heritage of our
historical peers not only signaled a change in mentality but also marked the
entry of our civilization under the temporal yoke of the Roman hegemon for
millennia to come.
Even if the power of Rome is not as visible as
it once was, you can be sure that its influence has endured through the ages.
After conquering its lands with the sword, the Catholic Church – the direct
heir of the Roman Empire – went on to conquer souls with the crucifix.
Fortunately for tradition, 17 manuscripts of
Egyptian Philosophy from the Ptolemaic era resurfaced under the translations of
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) – the
inescapable luminary of the Italian Renaissance. Collected under the name Corpus
Hermeticum, these texts are considered the
founding texts of Hermeticism. On the path of the sages, their radiant Philosophy
acts as a natural prism, breaking down the Light of divine revelation into the
following themes:
•
Order of the Cosmos
•
Unity (Omniscience, Omnipotence and
Omnipresence of God)
•
The Sun
•
The Demiurge
•
Cohesion of the spheres
•
Fusion of opposites and polarity
•
The visible and the invisible
•
Truth and illusion of our reality
•
Creation through the circular
motion of unity
•
Noos and
the creative will
•
Time, space and matter
•
Body, soul and mind
•
The good, the beautiful, the right
and the just
•
Vices and Virtues
•
Creation as Art and the concept of
harmony
•
The Ogdoad
•
Intelligence and its relation to
the God-Man
•
The 12/10 (or 6/5) ratio
•
The Zodiac and Astrology
Obviously, the inclusion of astrology in this
list might be surprising, but despite its current fate, the magi have always
considered it the cornerstone of all the sciences of antiquity. Along with
magic and alchemy, this esotericism brings together, under the heading of
theurgy, the 3 operative paths
of Hermetic philosophy. They form a harmonious whole, inseparable from each
other. Therefore, it is unlikely that an alchemist could define themselves as
such without having been initiated into the magisteria
of the other two disciplines
The importance of this trinity was well
understood by the Greeks, as suggested by the name of the god associated with
the father of the Philosophers, the aptly named Hermes Trismegistus. In
fact, in addition to the generally accepted translation of « Trismegistus »
as « the 3 times very great
», we can, thanks to phonetics, hypothesize another level of reading: « the 3 magisteria
». Although the Trinitarian doctrine of unity has passed through time via the
Pantheon of the Greek world, its historical origin is truly Egyptian. The
splendor of this testament is echoed on the Giza Plateau, where the 3 Pyramids remind the
contemplative mind that the Divine Trinity is timeless, immortal, and
indestructible. How can we fail to be overwhelmed by the majesty, grandeur, and
genius of the civilization that built them? The geometric, astronomical, and
energetic properties implicit in these volumes reveal to all eyes – especially
to those who know how to see beyond appearances – the beauty of a way of
thinking that ours has never equaled.
The
legacy of this intelligence from the mists of time is also embodied in the
attributes of the Egyptian messenger of the gods, Djehuty-Thot,
whose tradition has always drawn comparisons to Hermes-Trismegistus. The
late Jean Phaure (1928-2002) described Djehuty-Thot as
follows: « He is the scribe of the divine Ennead, the brush with which the
God of the Universe writes, the creator of languages, the great magician of the
spheres who presides over primordial creation, bringing the world into
existence through speech, alongside Ptah. Above all, he is the one who oversees
the order of the world, the great calculator, the master of the cycles of time.
»
It’s
important to note that in the Egyptian theogony, Djehuty-Thot
was not considered a god in the strict sense of the word, but rather a neter (phonetically similar to « nature »); in other
words, the anthropomorphizing of a Force, an action of divine immanence in the
manifested world, a kind of hypostasis or æon,
as the Gnostics liked to define it. We can no longer be so charitable as to
offer you the key that unlocks access to the 12 (3) verses of the Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina
in Latin or Lawḥ al-zumurrudh in Arabic), on which the entire firmament of
Hermetic Philosophy is synthesized.
All occultists, lulled by the history of
religions, have fallen in love with these writings engraved on an emerald – a
green gemstone. Depending on the culture or period, the most literate among
them produced a multitude of translations, more or less faithful to the first
version written in Arabic in the 9th century: the Appendix to the Book of the
Secret of Creation (Kitâb sirr al-Halîka). From the
perspective of tradition, the Arabic affiliation is not without significance,
as the descendants of the Persians expelled the Byzantines from Alexandria in
the 7th century and became, by force of circumstance, the active vectors of the
transmission of the initiation.
Personally, I prefer Hortulain's
14th century translation of the Latin Vulgate :
I.
It is true without
lying, certain and very true
II.
What is below, is
what is above: and what is above, is what is below, to work the miracles of one
thing.
III.
And as all things
have been, and have come from one, through the
mediation of one: so all things have been born of this one thing, by adaptation.
IV.
The Sun is its
father, the Moon is its mother, the wind carries it in its womb; The earth is
his nurse.
V.
The father of all the Telesme of everyone is here. His
Force or Power is whole,
VI.
If it is converted
to land.
VII.
Thou shalt
separate the earth from the Fire, the subtle from the thick gently, with great
industry.
VIII.
He ascends from
earth to heaven, and again he descends to earth, and he receives the Force of higher and lower things.
Thou shalt have by this means the glory of all; and for this all darkness will
flee from you.
IX.
It is the strong force of all Force: for it
will overcome every subtle thing, and penetrate every solid thing.
X.
Thus, the world
was created.
XI.
From this will
come admirable adaptations, the means of which is here.
XII.
That's why I was
called Hermes-Trismegistus, having the 3 parts of everyone's Philosophy. What I
have said of the operation of the Sun is
accomplished, & completed.
These
verses have a curious resonance with the prologue to St. John's Gospel, which
is quoted below :
I.
In the beginning
was the Word (the Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God
II.
The Word was with
God in the beginning.
III.
All things were
created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been
created.
IV.
In him was life,
and the life was the light of humanity;
V.
And The Light
shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
VI.
A man came, sent
from God, whose name was John.
VII.
This one came for
a witness, in order that he could testify about The Light, so that all
would believe through him.
VIII.
hat one was not
the light, but came in order that he could testify about the light.
IX.
The Word
was the true Light, which enlightens
every man by coming into the world.
X.
He was in the world, through whom the world was made, but the
world did not recognize him.
Indeed, the similarities between the two texts
are more than striking. Consequently, the scribes of the Catholic Church were
likely inspired by the wisdom contained in the breath of the Hermetic texts.
In the creation of the ‘Holy Scriptures’, the
plagiarism of earlier manuscripts by the Church Fathers is confirmed in two
ways. On the one hand, the Gospel of St. John bears a striking resemblance to
the Gnostic Gospels of Cerinthus, written in the first century of the Christian
era. On the other hand, the Apocalypse (« apocalypsis
» translates from the Greek as “revelation”), written by St. John, is a
compilation of a number of sacred texts, such as the Book of Enoch and the Book
of Ezekiel.
In a sense, the desire to incorporate ancient
knowledge into the message of Christ's favorite apostle, who in iconography is
always adorned with a green mantle, indicates that Catholicism was shaped on
the basis of pre-existing pagan doctrines. Moreover, let us not forget that
before the invention of printing in the 15th century, forging a manuscript was
child's play, and the forgers, thirsting for religious supremacy, carried out
this practice with the success we know. For example, when it comes to the Old
Testament scriptures, all exegetes know that the Ten Commandments supposedly
given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai are nothing more than a vulgar plagiarism
of paragraph 1:125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Whether we like it or not,
Judeo-Christian theology is a pale copy of the Gnostic precepts of the neter with the one green eye: Hor or Horus
– the Egyptian light-bearer. There's nothing new under the sun: even the
Hebrews recycled what came before. This is why the various biblical texts, the
Pentateuch, and the canonical Gospels can never be considered historical truths
or incontrovertible theological references.
In spite of all this, the sacred literature, even if it has been
modified, still contains initiatory treasures that should be studied. The
theosophical syncretism found in the texts of different civilizations
irrevocably suggests a common origin, a syncretism, a kind of primordial
tradition, as René Guénon liked to define it. Let's
return to the verses of the Emerald Tablet.
•••••
The first thing that strikes us in these verses
is the totally innovative principle that a power (« the Word » in the Prologue
of St. John) is linked to the creation of the world, to the action of the sun
(symbol of light) and to the mediation of unity. This ancestral conception of
the genesis of matter is uniquely close to the statement made by Max Planck,
winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1919: « All matter exists only
because of a Force that makes the particles vibrate and maintains this tiny
solar system of the atom. Behind this force we must assume the existence of a
consciousness and an intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.
» We cannot help but marvel at the knowledge of the ancient initiates,
who understood what 20th century man has only just begun to discover. And make
no mistake, it is indeed the existence of God that this leading figure of the
scientific community is suggesting. The reality of inaccessible, indescribable,
and incommensurable realms can no longer be dismissed as the stuff of science
fiction movies or the ravings of oriental wisdom masters. It's true that my
generation automatically thinks of the films of George Lucas when the idea of a
Force is mentioned. It's also true that no one doubts Master Yoda's description
of the Force to his young apprentice similar to the tradition of the Magi: «
My ally is the Force, and it's a powerful ally. Life creates it, makes it grow;
its energy surrounds and binds us. We are luminous beings, not this brute
matter. You must feel the Force around you, between you, me, the tree, the
rock, everywhere. » To master the Force is, as you may have guessed, to
attain the rank of Knight... After long centuries of religious ineptitude, undogmatic
science and popular culture can finally be reconciled on the fertile ground of
Gnostic clairvoyance.
Thanks
to these revelations about the power that equates creation with the will of an
intelligent consciousness or demiurge, the 12 (3) verses of the Emerald Tablet direct everyone's consciousness
towards the primacy and accuracy of the vision of Hermes' disciples. While our
peers limit themselves to a science of effects: material, our ancestors already
transcended the intelligible world and focused directly on the cause of
manifestation: spiritual, existing beyond time and space.
In Hermetic
culture, initiates have always compared the properties of the spiritual
substance that precedes matter to that of an ocean, because its waters fill the
‘void’ (« vidyā (विद्या) » in Sanskrit means
« knowledge ») like water in any container. This ocean echoes the cosmic sea of
dark energy alluded to by David Bohm. Since the homophone of « mer » (« sea ») is also « mère » (« mother »),
derived from Latin « mater », we can weave interesting semantic links
between « mer » (« sea »), « mère » («
mother »), « mercure » (« mercury ») (the
Latin avatar of Hermes-Trismegistus), « matière » (« matter »), « matrice » (« matrix »), and « Marie » (« Mary »)
(where « Marie » is an anagram of « aimer », « to love » in english).
If this invisible
matrix is at the origin of all manifestation, the assumption that she is a
virgin is self-evident, and the emblem of the Black Virgin (black, in contrast
to the synthesis of the 6 colors of the visible
spectrum, expresses the absence of light), like that of the Virgin Mary,
becomes more explicit from the point of view of Theosophy. The Blessed Virgin,
the Queen Mother, « la mère divine » (« the divine sea »), is the
ordinary figuration of the Philosophers' mercury. Curiously, the anagram for «
énergie noire » (« black energy ») is « reine ignorée » (« ignored
queen »), which reminds us of the parable in verse 1:5 of the biblical poem,
the Song of Songs, probably born of the love affair between King Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba: « I am black, but I am beautiful (…) ».
In his 12th
century work, Livre secret traitant de l'art caché et de La Pierre Philosophale,
the alchemist Artéphius described « l’eau
des sages » (« the water of the wise ») as follows: « Oh, how precious and
magnificent is this water! Without it, the work could not be completed: thus it is called the vessel of nature, the womb, the
matrix, the receptacle of the tincture, the earth and its nurse. It is the
fountain in which the king and the queen wash themselves, and the mother who
must be placed and sealed on the womb of her child, who is the Sun. »
Are you beginning to understand how the cabalists have
deliberately blurred the trail back to the primordial ocean, using a
deliberately convoluted lexical field to define a single concept; in this case
the uniqueness of matter – the materia prima ?
In the Corpus Hermeticum,
verse 16 of an excerpt from a speech by Hermes to Tat states that
« All that
exists is in motion; non-being alone is immovable. » Unity,
the preliminary state to divine manifestation, could then be imagined as energy
in the form of stationary waves, and when this energy is vectorized, the whole
is set in motion to create space, time and, consequently, matter. The universal
matrix is born from the rupture of the spatial equilibrium of unity: this first
impulse is the Strong Force of all forces, its Spiritus Mundi and its
Holy Spirit (« Saint-Esprit » in French). This is the passage from Ain Soph
to Ain Soph Aur
in the Tree of Life of the Hebrew Kabbalah
A skilled
cabalist would break down the word « saint » (« holy ») into 3 parts: « s », « ain » and « t ». The silent « t » is the outline of a
cross, expressing the center, « ain » is the
principle that precedes matter and defines « abyss » and
« non-existence » in Hebrew, and « un » (« one ») is the
number of unity, while « s » is the letter of
manifestation, because it undulates like the graphic representation of a pulse.
In other words, the saint is a person whose vibratory signature resonates with
the first impulse that emanates from the center of unity. That's why a saint's
soul – his or her spirit – will always be as close as possible to the resonance
of the divine unity.
The different
states of matter could then be compared to the rungs of a ladder, on which the
matrix Force gradually crystallizes, or condenses, into more or less regular
forms. This is supported by the best definition of alchemy you will find by Fulcanelli: « Alchemy is the permutation of the form by
Light, Fire or Spirit ».
Even if, according to the testimony of Irénée Philalèthe (1628-1665), the
transmutation of metals seems to be a reality, making gold to enrich oneself
has never been the ultimate goal of alchemy. Again, many have gone astray by
not understanding the cabalistic writings of our elders. To separate the pure
from the impure is to go from vile matter to rectified matter. As the molecular
arrangements become simpler and more orderly, matter and the matrix Source
gradually tend toward reunification, toward unity. Matter is purified in a
process that reverses the Luciferian fall (« Lucifer » is « Lightbearer » in Latin; it first appears in Greek
mythology, where he is the guardian of the horses of the sun god Apollo), hence
the Nietzschean concept of eternal return. The famous immortality about which
dreamers fantasize so much is perhaps, in the end, nothing more than the search
for eternity, for the absolute immobility in which God rests, as close to unity
as possible. The realm of the science of the adepts is therefore, by
definition, outside of time and space.
Moreover, unlike modern science, which deals
exclusively with matter, alchemy, magic, and astrology focus directly on the
matrix and the invisible laws that animate it.
•
Astrology measures
the energetic variations of the celestial Fire.
•
Alchemy is the
manifestation of this Fire in organisms that are a priori inanimate
(minerals and plants).
•
Magic channels
this Fire directly into the body of the adept. The adept is a magician in the
noblest sense of the word, and has always had perfect mastery of this cosmic
Fire, this Force, which he channels through the chakras of his body, modulating
and redirecting it according to its intended use. Either for positive purposes,
when God's love fills his heart (white magic), or to sow division and
destruction, when the dark side (black magic) has definitely seduced him.
On the horizon of our conclusions, it appears
that the driving principle of all existence – the Force underlying life – is
generated by a matrix that originates outside the boundaries of our reality.
This conclusion seems to be shared by Niels Bohr, winner of the Nobel Prize in
Physics, who stated in 1922: « Everything we call real is made of things
that cannot be considered as real. » Since the matrix Spirit is outside the
sensible, measurable field, how is it possible to perceive its substance in the
world accessible to humans ?
•••••
In my opinion, if this creative Force is the
cause of tangible effects, then its signature must be observable in nature.
It’s possible to glimpse the mechanisms of this matrix by adopting the
mentality of an insatiably curious person – in other words, by keeping our eyes
wide open. It would be a serious mistake to specialize in one field or another;
the Philosopher of nature must open up the field of possibilities to all
scientific disciplines, from astronomy to mineralogy – in other words, to all
visible phenomena between heaven and earth. The imprint of the Force must be
present everywhere, and as the Emerald Tablet suggests, in the infinitely large
as well as the infinitely small. The task is to identify the traces of this
Force and then to find the analogies that connect them.
It was while working on this task that the
mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci, in the 13th century A.D., noticed that an
arithmetic sequence was linked to generation in the biological world. In this
progression, each new number is the sum of the previous two, i.e., 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21(3), 34, 55, 89, 144 (9)... and so on. As the numbers become larger, the ratio between one
number and the next tends to a mathematical constant with a value of
approximately 1.618. This ratio of proportion was defined by the father of
Greek geometry, Euclid, as the division in extreme and mean reason. This
relationship, which is undoubtedly the most explicit example found in the
phyllotaxis of the plant world, is repeated in all of nature's creations.
Spiral
arrangements of this digital matrix can be seen in flowers, romanesco
cabbage, and pine cones, as well as in nautilus and gastropod shells. These
analogies are astonishing because they are not limited to these few examples
but find a universal echo in the 3 kingdoms of the living world: mineral, vegetable, and animal.
Nature creates geometry automatically, without the need for a square or
compass. Nature doesn't need a plan; it is the plan. Its architecture,
especially when expressed in a helical (« helical » and « helix » have the same etymological
root as Helios, the Greek sun god) and logarithmic fashion, is simply
dazzling. I never understand why most of us remain stoic in the face of such
beauty and elegance. Don’t they have eyes to see ?
Since the 20th century and the work of Matila Ghyka, the proportion ratio equal to 1.618 has been known
as « the golden number ». However, using this term would be a gross
error, as a proportion is not a number but the ratio between two numbers, in
their arithmetic or geometric expression. Personally, I prefer to use « golden ratio
» to preserve the synthesis between the semantics and the mystique of the term «
or » (« gold »).
The etymology « or » (« gold ») comes
from « aor », « aour »,
« aur » or « our » in Semitic languages, and its
translation is « the Light ». When we recall the prologue of St. John's Gospel;
« The Word was God (...) The Word was the true Light », the correlation
between God, the Word, Light, and the golden ratio becomes more than obvious
for one of the Magi's modes of thinking: synonymic reasoning. If you were
looking for concrete proof of the existence of God, of the Creator, the golden
ratio would provide your argument with a factual dimension that would be
difficult to refute. All the more so since the Greek symbol for the golden
ratio, Φ, was used by
early Christ worshippers to define « the Force of God », « the Will » (« the Telesme» of the Emerald Table) or the principle of the
concentration of the Spirit in matter.
The
signature of Φ
can also be seen in human anatomy. Among the many examples, the position of the
navel is the most significant. In fact, knowing that the word "nombril"
("navel") is the phonetic counterpart of « nombreel
», cabalists would break it down into « nombre » (« nomber ») and « el ». El
is the name given to God by the ancient Semites, making this point, so special
to Vitruvian man, a physical revelation of the divine signature in the
proportions of the human body. On the one hand, it was from here that the
nourishing energy of the mother was breathed into us, and on the other – and
this is what interests us here – it divides the average distance between the
feet and the head by the golden ratio. Therefore, verse 1:27 of Genesis, which
states that « man was created in the image
of God », is not just a parable but
must be taken literally, at the first degree.
The Larousse
dictionary explains: « Φ (phi) is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet
(21(3) = 3 x 7),
corresponding, in ancient Greek, to an aspirated « p » and, in modern
Greek, to an « f ». It is transposed by « ph
» in French words derived from Greek. » The first syllable of the
words « Philosophy », « physics », « phyllotaxis », « firmament », « Force »
and « Fire » underscores the close relationship these words have with the
golden ratio. Etymology is a science to be treated with the utmost seriousness
because, as you may have already noticed, the keys to investigation offered by
this tool are incomparable.
With all these
connections, it hardly seems presumptuous to me to assert that Φ, the true whirling fulcrum
of universal harmony (to be understood as « uni vers al », « uni vers el » (« united toward el ») or « uni vert sel » (« united green salt »), i.e. « the green salt
that unites » for a right-to-left reading), is the organic imprint of a
creative matrix, whose structure is subject to the laws of geometry and
arithmetic. Plato understood this very well when he declared: « God always makes
geometry » and « Geometry draws the soul toward truth, and forms
the Philosophical Spirit, by forcing the soul to raise its gaze upward, instead
of lowering it. »
Historians tell us that the golden ratio was
called « phi » in honor of the sculptor Phidias (480-430 B.C.), famous for his contribution to the construction of the Pantheon
in Athens, where the precious ratio is exalted in the proportions of the
facade. Should we be surprised to learn that the golden ratio was already used
five centuries before the Christian era by Greek architects, but also,
according to the work of René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz
(1887-1961), by their Egyptian
counterparts? Absolutely not, because all the artists worthy of this capital
letter have always tried to make their works resonate with this particular
signature. In their desire to mimic (« singer » in French, to be heard «
saint G » (« holy G »), where G is a graphic representation of the
spiral), they attributed to Φ the ultimate canon of
beauty. Every time Φ is used, it's a syncretic
tribute to nature and the Creator. From the grandiose pyramids of Giza to the
abstract paintings of Kandinsky, Φ has always been the
prerogative of artistic genius and the mark of a symbiotic relationship with
the universe. This form of expression was certainly born out of necessity: to
reveal and glorify in the material world the invisible intelligence of divine creation.
•••••
Whether
our contemporaries like it or not, the art of the 20th century has nothing in
common with the ‘works’ of today, and the word « art » has become a catch-all term
for any kind of plastic creation. One only has to visit the galleries to
realize that art
has become an intellectual masquerade and a visual pollution on which bad
people or charlatans try to make their fortune. In 1973, Jean Phaure described this trend with the objectivity it
deserved: «
modern art is black magic, sometimes in the most operative sense of the term,
and has the eschatological function, like psychoanalysis, of bringing back into
the field of our consciousness our infra-psychism, populated by all the psychic
and demonic residues that, in the previous phases of the cycle, were contained
in these cellars by sacred art, religions, and initiatory knowledge. »
It doesn't take a Ph.D. in art history to realize that creativity, compared to
the achievements of our past, is the victim of a controlled process of
destruction. Indeed, how can we place the paintings of Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) on the same pedestal as those of Michelangelo (1475-1564), Raphael (1483-1520) or Botticelli (1445-1410) ? Unfortunately for our enlightenment and
well-being, this imposed form of intellectual terrorism is not limited to the
boundaries of art, but rots all the pillars on which the emancipation of a
healthy and balanced society rests.
To this, we must add that a person’s creativity
does not necessarily make him or her an artist. The Masters are formal and are
always there to testify: you don’t become an artist overnight, and perfecting
your Art requires a lot of hard work and constant spiritual asceticism. Without
having gone through the purification and rectification of one’s soul – the
demonstration of holiness – it is virtually impossible to receive divine
inspiration, to resonate with the Force, and become one with the grace of its quintessence
to produce anything. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) drives the nail a little deeper into the flesh of the often talentless pretenders by suggesting that the
qualification of an artist is actually earned in high places: « The artist,
ceaselessly engaged in the contemplation of creation, pays everlasting homage
to the Creator. Our patient study of God’s work requires more effort than
singing matins. »
Art thus
creates a fusional relationship with the sacred, and in this sense, it must be
a reflection of the matrix space. To achieve this, every detail must be
carefully thought out, measured, and weighed. Nothing can be left to chance. As
Jean Phaure pointed out, this kind of work is the
antithesis of spontaneous art. Arithmetic proportions and regulating geometric
lines organize a harmonious, resonant composition. The choice of colors
corresponds to the symbolism of the figures and volumes. Mythological and
religious archetypes mix with cabalistic references of all kinds. And, of
course, never forgetting the hermetic nature of the form – that is, as the
traditional saying goes: « to show, to signify, and to hide... all at the
same time ». The divinity doesn't
show... it suggests !
In this highly creative magma, and since it is
often considered the cornerstone of all the Arts, architecture occupies a
privileged place in its relationship with the natural elements. The
synchronization between the characteristics of the temple and the temporal
cycles has always been one of the best-kept secrets of the high initiatory
spheres of the priestly castes. By squaring the circle, the building is
elevated to the sacred and thus asserts its operative function by combining
celestial and terrestrial energies within it. When a temple is built according
to the rules of Art, its geometric form gives orientation to space and, like a
hand on a sundial, gives the measure of time. In this respect, the scientific
knowledge of the cosmic cycles elevates the architect to the rank of initiate,
and in this sense, it cannot be otherwise.
Unfortunately for humanity, few people truly
understand the coding systems used in the artwork of our ancestors. And even
when their attempts are successful, the academic doxa automatically labels them
as mildly enlightened. This label makes it all the more appropriate for modern
artists to approach art through the prism of psychology, since we must try to
explain, even in a phantasmagorical way, the allegories, metaphors, and
parables of the traditional culture of our masters. In any case, in this work,
we will try to decipher some works for what they really are. In this sense, the
best way to do this is to use the tools that have been bequeathed to us, and in
this virtuosity, the measure of the Liberal Arts is inescapable.
There are 7 Liberal Arts, divided into two
paths: the Trivium and the Quadrivium.
•
The Trivium
is defined by the expression of the Word (the Light) through words. It is divided into 3 subjects: grammar, dialectic
and rhetoric.
•
The Quadrivium refers
to the powers of numbers, or the expression of the Word through mathematics,
and is divided into 4 subjects: arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy.
In addition to these 7 paths, a
linguistic axiom of the Hermetic Cabale, known as the Language of the Birds,
completes the artist’s already extensive palette. Described as a solar language
whose principles are sanctified by the appearance of its ibis-headed initiator,
Djéhuty-Thot, it is based exclusively
on the assonance of words, without ever considering the rules of spelling and
grammar. Richard Khaitzine (1947-2013) put it this way: «
This Language of the Birds is the language that Jesus revealed to the apostles
through His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Remember this episode from the Gospels.
It’s Pentecost, and the apostles receive the gift of tongues in the form of
tongues of Fire, Fire being a synonym for the Spirit. But then, you ask, why is
it called the Language of the Birds? Because the Holy Spirit, being volatile by
nature, is often symbolized by a bird, often a dove. »
In order to overcome the weaknesses
of language and to provide the final keys needed to open the closed realm of
the Magi, the disciples of Hermes used another means of transmission,
one that is still poorly understood today: the symbol.
•••••
The symbol plays a more than
singular role: stimulating only the psyche, this figurative sign links man to
his imagination and connects his thought to spheres indescribable by words. In
fact, the sound of a word is a vibration that can be heard, and in this state,
it already has a material manifestation. A word clumsily cuts off the dynamics
of the idea it seeks to define; it is precisely to remedy this weakness that
the use of the symbol proves its effectiveness: by creating a bridge between
the created and the uncreated, this mode of reading allows the mind to pass
through the mirror of appearances, to see the other side of the image, outside
of space and time. Ferdinand Brunetière (1849-1906) wrote: « The
symbol is an image; it is thought… It makes us grasp between the world and
ourselves some of those secret affinities and obscure laws which may be beyond
the reach of science, but which are no less certain for that; every symbol is,
in this sense, a kind of revelation. »
If a picture is worth a thousand words, as
ancient Taoist wisdom suggests, then a symbol is worth a thousand images.
We could not continue this introduction without
paying tribute to René Guénon (1886-1951), because his life and work alone crystallize an uncompromising
spirituality. In his book Symboles de la Science Sacrée,
he wrote: « We have already had occasion to speak of the importance of the
symbolic form in the transmission of traditional doctrines. Why is there so
much more or less open hostility to symbolism? Certainly, because it is a form
of expression that has become completely alien to the modern mentality, and
because man is naturally inclined to distrust what he does not understand.
Symbolism is the most suitable means of teaching the higher religious and
metaphysical truths, in other words, everything that the modern mind rejects or
neglects; it is the very opposite of what is appropriate to rationalism, and
all its opponents behave, some without realizing it, as true rationalists. In
this way, the supreme truths, which would not be communicable or transmittable
in any other way, become so to a certain extent, when they are incorporated, as
it were, into symbols which will undoubtedly hide them from many, but which
will reveal them in all their brilliance to the eyes of those who know how to
see. If the Word is thought within and spoken without, if the world is the
effect of the divine Word uttered at the beginning of time, the whole of nature
can be considered a symbol of supernatural reality. Everything that is, in
whatever form, having its principle in the divine intellect, translates or
represents that principle in its own way and according to its own order of
existence; and thus, from one order to the next, all things are related and
correspond to each other in order to coincide in the universal and total
harmony which is like a reflection of the divine Trinity itself. This
correspondence is the true foundation of symbolism, and it is for this reason
that the laws of a lower realm can always be taken as symbolizing the realities
of a higher order, where they have their profound reason, which is both their
principle and their end. »
In its vulgar figuration, the « saint bol » (« holy cup ») takes the form of a cup or chalice. In the magical ritual of the
Mass, at the moment of the Eucharistic Sacrament, it collects the Christic Blood, a metaphorical liquid representing the
cosmic fluid. The evocation of a watery substance inevitably recalls the way in
which the Hermetists associated the behavior of the
Mercurial spirit with a primordial ocean. By analogy, the symbol fulfills
exactly the same function as its homophone revealed by the Language of the
Birds; namely, the « saint bol » (« holy cup ») is the receptacle and
revelation in the tangible world of the ineffable principles of the universal
matrix.
I am
aware that for most of you, Hermeticism seems mysterious, even chimerical, all
the more so because this philosophical current proposes historical and
scientific perspectives that mainstream thinking considers irrational from the
outset. I can already hear the rhetoric of the most indoctrinated: « How could the men of the past have known what modern science is
just beginning to glimpse? Aren't we
superior to those hicks ? »
Yes, and no matter what he thinks, man today is
unaware of his ignorance. But it’s important not to blame him, because from
kindergarten benches to university lecture halls, he is driven to naively
repeat what he has been taught. And since the majority have grown up in the
same system, it’s logical that ‘normal’ people are all formatted in the same
way. To their credit, the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual and cultural
enrichment is no longer a valued activity. Absolutely nothing is organized to
encourage us to read library books and to multiply our general knowledge; this
sad fact is the inexorable consequence of a royal education that is constantly
being dumbed down, of the propagation and standardization of the culture of the
artificial (to the detriment of the natural), of the promotion and
standardization of mediocrity by the dominant media, and of the dumbing down
and hypnotic manipulation of the masses by television. And above all, the
growing denial of a transcendent, saving spiritual realm. It’s a fact that
there are now countless friends who are very proud of their agnosticism… How
sad!
At the
beginning of the 21st century, the collapse of thought reflects the decadence,
degeneration, and decline of our civilization. This intellectual sclerosis has
become an increasingly thorny obstacle to overcome for those who follow the
path of spiritual evolution, personal emancipation, or the Gnostic path. Social
conditioning is so powerful that the intrepid – those who still dare to think
for themselves – are often sidelined and ridiculed. It takes great strength of
character to free oneself from the vindictiveness and judgment of others. This
work requires deep and delicate self-introspection, and very few people are
willing to suffer in order to dissolve the illusions of daily life and become
completely free. To be able to empty one's chalice of all dross and then fill
it anew with a brighter light is an accomplishment that must be earned over
time.
Prudence,
temperance, fortitude, and justice are the cardinal virtues needed to open the
Kingdom of God; if perseverance and truth are our faithful servants on the path
of truth, the vertical essence of the Solar Fire will illuminate our hearts,
and the work we undertake will always be crowned with success. Without this
spiritual quest, I probably wouldn’t have found the courage to share these few
lines with you, because the metaphysical currents on which the winds of this
demonstration will carry us are ridiculed by the orthodoxy of the educational
system and are very poorly understood by today’s globalized culture.
To this end, the scientific and syncretic study
of the major religious symbols is the main axis – its axis mundi – around
which this thesis will unfold. Like a modern-day Jason in search of the Golden
Fleece, guided by the clarity of the North Star, we will navigate the most
mystical and unimaginably vibrant oceans. So, I invite you to explore sacred
science aboard my ship, to lift the veil on the naturalistic nature of the Holy
Spirit, and to set sail for the most absolute mysteries of all: creation and the
origin of space-time.
Ludovic Nicolas
