Title - White Band

LUDOVIC NICOLAS STUDIO

An original thesis on space-time.

A JOURNEY INTO THE UNIVERSAL MATRIX

Losange

” 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)

Rockefeller Center - New York City, USA

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 parentheses.

 

 

First of all, I would like to clarify that this is not an academic thesis, as many people automatically associate it. If we follow the definition of the word « thesis » given by the Larousse dictionary: « theoretical proposition, opinion, position on something, the truth of which is sought to be demonstrated », my work can have this title without the recognition of the system or of any ‘authority’; it doesn't need it and doesn't care about it. In this way, with complete, uncompromising freedom of thought and, above all, without having to answer to anyone, we can study all the subjects dear to our polymathic enthusiasm from any point of view.

 

Thanks to this state of mind, original ideas have been able to flourish, blossom, and reveal themselves outside the plantation to which our curiosity is usually confined. To be enlivened by such openness is a blessing. I'd like to share the rose of its quintessence with you without blushing.

 

 

•••••

 

 

The genesis of this thesis can be traced all the way back to the day when my eyes turned to the sky. That night, at least, I became aware that the vault of stars was turning inexorably around a fixed point, like a wheel around an axle.  As I contemplated this awe-inspiring spectacle, I never imagined that my open-minded reflections on the workings of the cosmos would lead me to study a plethora of disciplines, linking astronomy to the seemingly immovable spheres of mineralogy.

 

I turned first to academic science, and despite compelling discoveries in certain areas, such as quantum physics, I found many theories and very few theorems.  Unlike a theorem, a theory is based on speculation: it's a system of hypotheses that tries to find coherence with established principles, whether philosophical or mathematical. In other words, a theory does not define rules and laws that are immutable in the real world.  And surprising as it may seem, this explicit observation seems to have escaped the notice of some members of the scientific community, those who continue to mistake the smoke for the fire.

 

In fact, contemporary scientific dogma is based on complex theories that cannot be demonstrated outside a mathematical language whose abstraction borders on increasingly surreal horizons.  This is all the more true since this language is based on a semantic architecture in which equations tend to feed on, intertwine and reflect each other in a closed circle, inevitably forming an artificial body on which we continue to build without worrying about the actual solidity of its foundations. Theoretical science can then be compared to the Tower of Pisa, whose body holds together admirably, but which threatens to collapse under the weight of the sum of its aberrations each time a division is added. The lines of glyphs highlighted in the equations are certainly very impressive to the average person, but, as René Guénon pointed out, they are far removed from the sensible reality they claim to explain. String theory is undoubtedly the most revealing example of how the synthetic complexity of mathematics can be confronted with the rationality of the biological environment. The question then arises: why do we continue to spend so much time and energy studying spaces that have no reciprocal relationship to the metrology of terrestrial life?

 

Before turning their attention to areas invisible to the naked eye, from the infinitely large in astrophysics to the infinitely small in particle physics, perhaps the scientific elite would gain in authenticity if they spent more time reflecting on the manifestations of the laws of nature with the seriousness they deserve.  It's paradoxical that at the dawn of the 21st century, the physiognomy of life remains a stubborn mystery in a community that prides itself on knowing the beginnings of our cosmos and constantly pushing back its boundaries. Perhaps it should take a step back and focus more on the essentials. The causes (the cause?) of life deserve much more attention than its effects. By attempting to impress us with conceptual abstractions that have absolutely no basis in fact, university prestidigitators mask their incompetence and their lack of knowledge of the elementary principle(s) of observable reality by subjugating their audience – their students and science-fiction fans alike – with an undeniably fascinating smoke and mirrors.

 

The day when academics distance themselves from a theoretical science that leads nowhere, perhaps the great mysteries of nature will finally be reconsidered in their lecture halls.  When that day comes, science will once again be in symbiosis with the universal foundations of physics. There will be no shortage of research topics. We could begin, for example, by studying the influence of lunar radiation on the vertical growth of a plant, or the analogous polarized relationship between the bronchi of a lung and the branches of a tree (the former protected from sunlight, inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, while the latter absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen under the direct influence of the sun).

Screenshot
Analogy lung – tree

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 on a daily basis. 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...

 

So beware ! If you want to graduate from a prestigious university and make a career, it's best to avoid certain subjects. To conduct your research outside the framework imposed by conformism, especially when it attacks 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 to 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 figure 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.

Law of universal gravitation

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 can't 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 a more than 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 that it finds difficult to exorcise. It is 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 governor of her masterful clock.

 

Despite this consensus, annoying as it may be, we shouldn't 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% 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 Böhm (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 ».

Materia Prima

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 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 motionof stars? 

-       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 unseen 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, 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 embalmed my mind from the very first paragraphs written by the master, and despite my inability to fix its fragrance, its vibration was not foreign to me, its aroma already resonated in a very significant way, naturally, intuitively, in 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 ») with the words borrowed from 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 rabbinic tradition in 13th century Spain, throught 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 promote the nonsense of popular culture and to assert the universality of its affiliation, scholars prefer to use the term « Hermetic Cabale », in honor of the Greek god Hermes.

 

In any case, whether « cabbalus » in Latin or « kabbalès » in Greek, these terms both define the animal that has been thesymbol of knowledge since antiquity: the horse. The semantic relationship between « cabaliste » (cabalist) et « cavalier » (horseman) becomes more clear, coherent and 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 quest for the Holy Grail – the chalice of chalices – from a different angle than 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 goes back to the dawn of time. It's a fact, and we will have the opportunity to dprove it in greater detail, that the Pegasus mount was already being ridden under the starry dome of the Chaldean-Egyptian priesthood.

Pegasus with the "Cabalist" Hermes in the Caroussel garden - Paris, France

To understand how the spirit of the Hermetic Cabale is articulated, let's take a literary example using the word « occult » (this choice is not insignificant, as it will help 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 Hermeticist, the « o » is 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 operative point of view, this reading resonates with 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 cabale was misled by the Kabbalah 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 became fully aware 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 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 birthday, I turned from the sublunary world to 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 ancients.

 

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 (c. 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 encyclopedia 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 apparently 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 tartuferies 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 perversities 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.

Spire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral - Paris, France

The Jacobin mentality, perfected by deceptive initiations that swallowed up upstarts of all kinds, delivered the final blow with the humiliating idea that man could now be considered equal to God. This kind of doctrine 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 the societies are only initiatory in name, the only way to find the grace you're 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, for this literature is full of pretense.  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, 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 straight of their own imagination in order to captivate 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 B.C.

 

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, bbut this was not the case with the Ptolemaic pharaohs.  Instead of destroying the land to impose their vision, the new legislators 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 teaching of the priestly castes received by the Greeks was 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 it 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, Gnosis (« 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, it 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 power has endured through the ages: after conquering its lands with the sword, the Catholic Church –  the direct heir of the Empire –  went on to conquer souls with the crucifix.

YHWH watches over the Latin cross of the Saint-Roch church - Paris, France

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 of 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 could not be more surprising, but despite its current fate, the magi have always made 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 the Hermetic philosophy. They form a harmonious whole, inseparable from each other. It is therefore unlikely that an alchemist could define himself 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 it is 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, i.e. « the 3 magisteria ». Although the Trinitarian doctrine of unity has passed through time via the Pantheon of the Greek world, its historical origin is well and 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, but especially to those who know how to see beyond appearances, the beauty of a way of thinking that ours has never been equaled by ours.

 

The legacy of this intelligence from the mists of time is also embodied in the attributes of the Egyptian messenger of the gods, Djéhuty-Thot, whose tradition has always drawn comparisons to Hermes-Trismegistus. The pen of the late Jean Phaure (1928-2002) described Djéhuty-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 the primordial creation to bring the world into existence through speech, alongside Ptah. Above all, he is the one who presides over 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, Djéhuty-Thot was not considered a god in the strict sense of the word, but rather a neter (very close phonetically to « nature »); in other words, the anthropomorphization 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 opens access to the 12 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 representative of 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 point of view of the tradition, the Arabic affiliation is not without significance, since 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, 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 probably 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 Gopsel 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, aall 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. 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 camd 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, because 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 Eastern 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: « 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 » is similar to the tradition of the Magi. To master the Force is, as you may have guessed, to attain the rank of Knight... After long centuries of religious ineptitude, adogmatic 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 verses of the Emerald Tablet direct everyone's consciousness to the primacy and accuracy of the vision of Hermes' disciples. Where 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, beyond time and space.

Hermes' caduceus on the façade of the Orsay Museum - Paris, France
The Force - XI lame of the Tarot de Marseille

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’ (« vidia » in Sanskrit means « knowledge ») like would water in any container. This ocean echoes the cosmic sea of dark energy alluded to by David Böhm. Since the homophone of « mer » (« sea ») : « mère » (« mother »), comes from (« mater ») in Latin, 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 ») (« Marie » is an anagram of « aimer » (« to love »)).

 

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, since 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 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 thing, in this case the uniqueness of matter – the materia prima ?

Prima Materia at Phra That Lampang Luang Temple – Thailand

In the Corpus Herméticum, 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 in French, and « 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 divine, creative resonance of God.

 

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 up by the best definition of alchemy you'll find, Fulcanelli's: « Alchemy is the permutation of the form by Light, Fire or Spirit ».

The Philosophy (Scala Philosophorum) on the facade of Notre-Dame Cathedral - Paris, France

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 the vile matter to the 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 revolution that is reversed from 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.

 

The Holy Spirit in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal - Paris, France

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 opening our eyes wide. 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 fields, 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 the progression of this sequence, each new number is the sum of the previous two, i.e. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144... 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 1.618. This ratio of proportion was defined by the father of Greek geometry, Euclid, as the division in between extreme and mean reason. This relationship, of which the phyllotaxis of the plant world is undoubtedly the most explicit example, is repeated in all of nature's creations.

Phyllotaxis, cactus at Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden - Chiang-Mai, Thailand

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 makes geometry, automatically, without 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'll never understand why most of us remain stoic in the face of such beauty and elegance? Don't they have eyes to see?

 

Today, the ratio equal to 1.618 is better known as the « nombre d’or » (« golden ratio »).  Popularized by Matila Ghyka in the 20th century, it is the result of a cross between semantics and mysticism. The etymology of the word « or » (« gold ») comes from « aor », « aour », « aur » or « our » in Semitic languages and its ttranslations is « the Light ».  When we recall the prologue of St. John's : « 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 give your argument 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 the 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 of examples, we could cite, the case of the position of the navel is the most significant. In fact, knowing that the word « nombril » (« navel ») is the phonetic counterpart of « nombreel », the cabalists would break it down into « nombre » (« nomber ») and « el » in order to find its essence.  As el is the name given to God by the ancient Semites, this point, so special to the Vitruvian man, is the 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 says that « man was created in the image of God », is therefore not 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=3x7), 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 of investigation offered by this tool are incomparable.

Vitruvian Man - Leonardo da Vinci

With all these sympathies, it hardly seems presumptuous to me to assert that Φ, the veritable 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, 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 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. And as Jean Phaure pointed out, this kind of work is the antithesis of spontaneous art. And 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. » Divinity doesn't show... it means, it suggests !

Symbolic facade of 63 rue Reaumur - Paris, France