Saint-Yves d’Alveydre - The Intellectual
Master
The Marquis Saint-Yves d’Alveydre (1842-1909) was
and remains one of the great names of fin de siècle French occultism. Even
Papus acknowledged him as his ‘intellectual master’, superior to all apart from
Maïtre Philippe who became his ‘spiritual master’. Whilst Victor-Émile Michelet
writes that in his experience no one else carried such an enormous grasp of
esoteric knowledge or so harmoniously expressed it.
He became something of a recluse after the death of
his wife, devoted himself to esoteric study and was visited only by the
occasional student, which could be something of a marathon.
Michelet recalls going to visit him one Sunday
morning and not getting away until evening after a whole day’s discourse on
various esoteric questions. Most of these Saint-Yves had never written about,
as he was extremely cautious when it came to traditions of occult secrecy,
despite writing a whole raft of books. His early studies had been under the
influence of savants of the 18th century and we should not be misled
by the assumption that this period was completely dominated by the rationalism
of the Encyclopaedists or the mockery of Voltaire. The time was also rife with
hermeticists and mystagogues. Fabre d’Olivet, in particular, (through his
works, The Hebrew Tongue restored etc.) opened the way for Saint-Yves
who, by his own efforts, went beyond his teachers, although some have accused
him of plagiarising them.
What became his major works were a book La Mission
des Juifs (The Mission of the Jews) and a device, l’Archéomètre. At
least this is the opinion of Michelet, writing his memoirs many years later. In
fact Saint-Yves wrote a whole series of books on the development of human
civilisation of which La Mission des Juifs was generally reckoned to be
the culmination, while the Archéomètre was a device similar to Wronski’s
that ended up rescued, in a somewhat parlous condition, by Eliphas Levi. As far
as one can gather, it was a three dimensional mechanical device with much the
same functions as the Tarot plus considerable ancillary zodiacal and similar
symbolism. It seems to have been a kind of ingenious pre-computer that
fascinated many at the time but which appears something of an enigma nowadays.
Whether this is to our loss or gain remains a matter for conjecture.
Certainly, when it comes to the series of books, we
could categorise Saint-Yves as a kind of Western equivalent to Madame Blavatsky
and later attempts, from W.B.Yeats to Alice A. Bailey, to account for the
universe on umpteen cosmic planes. One is likely to be either very impressed or
very sceptical – or awkwardly shunteded somewhere inbetween.
We may feel, from the sketchiness of his remarks,
that Michelet was somewhat out of his depth when it came to interviews with the
hyper intellectual and intuitional Saint-Yves. However, we also have an account
from our alchemist friend Jollivet Castelot, who spent some time with the sage,
whom he refers to as ‘the Grey Eminence of Hermeticism’ or ‘the enigmatic Hermit’.
It was not easy to arrange a meeting, and had to be
done through a number of intermediaries, possibly after several attempts, as the great
man disliked the idly curious or the importunate; his fastidious delicacy and
high intellectuality caused him to avoid contact with those he regarded as imbeciles
or fools, so he was quite incapable of being a populariser like the highly
sociable Papus and his friends.
Castelot found the white furniture and Louis XV
sculptures in Saint-Yves’ apartments in Versailles to be in much the same
antique style as one would expect in a town conceived and steeped in ancient royalty.
Whatever the semi-Bohemian Michelet says about Saint-Yves having come down in
the world after his wife’s death, he was still comfortably off, thanks to
connections with the family of Napoleon III. The carpets were soft and thick
underfoot, the curtains heavy, the armchairs deep and covered in fine silk.
Each piece of furniture and ornament indicating refined taste. Silence reigned;
almost mystic in its calm fragrance.
Saint-Yves invited him into the little private salon
that he kept as a sanctuary for his private thoughts and that communicated with
an oratory. He asked Castelot to sit before him, his face to the light, and thus
dominated his guests, keeping them under his regard. Sporting a well cut frock
coat with the prestigious thin ribbon of the Legion of Honour, he sat in a
throne-like chair of purple velvet, his legs casually crossed, a cigarette
between his fingers, captivating all with a lordly charm - like an elderly
courtier, senior churchman, or professional diplomat says Castelot..
Conversation was more like a monologue but Saint-Yves
spoke admirably, handling words with consummate art that produced the effect of
fine music – and he expected people to listen attentively. Any interruption cut
his flow, and any contradiction was disagreeable to him, for he expected people
to be convinced by the superiority of his discourse.
According to Jollivet Castelot it was best to sit
back and let him express his ideas in full force, which were usually
beautifully and harmoniously expressed in the context of a deep background of
metaphysics. The Gnostic doctrines of Saint-Yves were vast and fruitful, like
the universal nature that they claimed to express.
He commented on the theory of the Incarnate Word,
the universal immanence and transcendence of Christian Redemption, the
fundamental unity of all religions, derived from a Christianity developed from
an original Catholicism, constituting a universal synthesis embracing the
origin of languages and the symbolism of alphabets, hieroglyphs, philosophies,
societies and arts, which he had reconstituted by means of his Archéomètre,
to which he had put the final touch after twenty years of study, aided by the
revelations of a Brahmin initiated into the ultimate divine Mysteries. Thanks
to this, seekers would finally possess the sovereign key to all Nature, all
religions, all knowledge, as the Archéomètre would reveal the supreme
arcana of the Gnosis, Hermeticism, Alchemy, Astrology and Magic. The marquis
stopped his flow of instruction only to offer another cigarette, glass of superior
champagne or a pink biscuit.
Castelot was still there at six o’clock in the
evening, and returned two days later to remain just as long under the
prestigious charm and ennobling influence and dialectic of this incomparable intellectual mystic,
marvelling at the ease and grace of his metaphysical constructions and immense
horizons, along with a general critique of diverse modern systems.
Saint-Yves made little of current occult teaching or
the esoteric movement in general. His ideas on initiation, secret societies and
magic differed considerably from the opinions of Papus, Guaita and others. He
had little use for their occult systems or even most occultists, considering
their definitions arbitrary and their practices dangerous. He identified true Magic
with pure Religion and absolute Knowledge – that only those identified with Christ
attained, for they then lived in God.
Nonetheless he enjoyed
enormous respect from his contemporaries including Castelot and it is not easy
for us to come to our own assessment of his teaching without wading through a
great deal of untranslated work, at least until the recent translation of his Mission
de l’Inde en Europe (The Mission of
India to Europe) of 1886 under the title of The Kingdom of Agartha – A
Journey into the Hollow Earth, which book maintains that deep below the
Himalayas were enormous underground cities under the rule of a sovereign
pontiff known as the Brahâtma. Throughout history, the ‘unknown superiors’
cited by secret societies were believed to be emissaries from this realm who
had moved underground at the onset of the Kali-Yuga, the Iron Age. Ruled in
accordance with the highest principles, the kingdom of Agarttha, sometimes
known as Shamballa, represents a world that is far advanced beyond our modern
culture, both technologically and spiritually. The inhabitants possess amazing
skills their aboveground counterparts have long since forgotten and it is home
to huge libraries of books engraved in stone, enshrining the collective
knowledge of humanity from its remotest origins. Saint-Yves explained that this
secret world would be made available for humanity when Christianity and all
other known religions of the world began to truly honour their own sacred
teachings.
Personally a little of
this goes a long way despite my respect for Joscelyn Godwin who claims “There
is a grandeur to this book. Its vivid and elegant prose lifts it far above the logorrheic
authors of visionary and channelled literature. It rivals the fantasy fiction
of H.P.Lovecraft or Jorge Luis Borges and reminds us that the earth is a place
with many unexplained corners, enigmas and surprises in store for us surface
dwellers.”
I am still not
convinced, not being a Lovecraft or Borges enthusiast anyway, but then I am
known to have been wrong before. We must each find our own way through the
labyrinth!