Saint-Yves
d’Alveydre and his Work
By
Dr. Gérard
Encausse
(Papus)
An excellent writer, a sociologist of high caliber, a great historian, an orientalist possessing a complete command of Hebrew and Sanskrit, a remarkable musician: Saint-Yves d’Alveydre generously fulfilled all the requirements of Esotericism.
His initiatory path was always one of suffering and sacrifice. He was initiated into the Western tradition by the highest Centers, and into the tradition of the East by two of the highest dignitaries of the Brahmanic Church, one of whom was the Brahatma of the holy Centers of India. Like all the pupils of true Eastern initiation, he had all the notebooks from the lessons, and each page is countersigned by the Brahmin responsible for transmitting the holy Word.
Reading these notebooks requires profound knowledge, not only of Sanskrit and Hebrew (which the Brahmins of high initiatory degrees know in depth), but also of primitive languages whose adaptations are hieroglyphs and Chinese characters.
Besides knowledge of the Vedas, and consequently the holiest Mantras, the seven meanings of Sepher, and the Kabbalistic keys, the “Intellectual Master” held the true proof of his degree: the living key, permitting one to transform, in immediate application for man, art, and society, the knowledge that would otherwise constitute a mere encyclopedia of beautiful things, dead and frozen.
Beneath his fingers, the rhythms of ancient druidic songs took form, prodigious and disturbing; the secrets of the ancient Gothic forms of architecture and future buildings of iron and glass were voiced, translating the words of Christ and the angels of revelation into architectural language. And I could follow my argument through pages and pages without reaching the depths of this admirable science, which was so admirable simply because it was living, and which was living simply because it had its source in the Principle of Love.
Writers and
artists were touched by Saint-Yves’s poetic works: the Lyrical Testament, now lost, his various
poems to the Queen of England and the sovereigns of
As a sociologist, Saint-Yves dedicated the greater part of his life to the defense and diffusion of a certain form of social organization: Synarchy.
Synarchy is by no means a new social movement. It was in operation in humanity thousands of years ago. The 900 pages of Saint Yves’s Mission of the Jews are devoted to demonstrating this thesis throughout universal history.
The Mission of the Sovereigns and True France demonstrate how immediate progress will be achieved by the application of Synarchy to our current social forms in all countries.
An immense misfortune struck Saint-Yves suddenly. The companion to whom he had devoted his entire life was taken by merciless death, despite Saint-Yves’s sleepless nights and months of struggle. At this moment he revealed himself as a husband worthy of his name and title, in the Christian sense of the term.
This death, which could have destroyed everything, saved everything. From the deepest despair, the voice of the dear departed resonated, and from then on, as an angel from on high, she accompanied all the efforts of the poor exile here below.
Under the direction and inspiration of the departed, new works of an entirely new character were born: the Archeometer and its applications came to see the light of day.
What is the Archeometer?
The Archeometer is the instrument used by the Ancients for the formation of the esoteric myths of all religions. It is the canon of ancient Art in its various architectural, musical, poetic, and theogonic manifestations. It is the Heaven that speaks: every star, every constellation becomes a letter or a phrase, or a divine name lighting the ancient traditions of all peoples with a new day.
Saint-Yves applied Archeometric keys to a new translation of the Genesis of Moses, in a work that is sadly little known: The Theogony of the Patriarchs. Together with the Vulgate, Fabre d’Olivet’s translation, and other earlier attempts, this new adaptation of the words of Moses in Saint-Yves’s rhythmic prose is of greatest interest to the members of all the Churches of Christianity, pastoral or secular.
Over time, Saint-Yves, initiated directly by the Hindu Brahmans, wrote his Mission of India, in which the question of the “Mahatma” is resolved definitively and clearly. His “friends” have reverently reprinted this work, of which all but one example had been destroyed.
Thus, here is a subject of study for future critics, or rather, many subjects, and we do not know what posterity will find most striking: the author’s immense erudition, his style as personal as it is brilliant, or the exalted revelations of the initiate and historian.
Papus.
Note
Barely two years have passed since our
venerable master, quitting the visible world, passed through the Gate of Souls
to be united forever in the divine Word with that angelic soul who, although
invisible, was always his support and his life here below.
The passing of this brilliant genius caused
a number of his disciples to come forward from all sides, and we can only be
happy that some of these converts of yesteryear, with a little too much
neophyte zeal, attempted to persuade themselves and others that they were truly
the depositories of the Master’s highest confidences and his most
intimate thoughts. Needless to say, they all had complete possession of the
Archeometer, whose exact description, which we have from the very hand of its
Inventor, has heretofore been entirely unpublished.
Some have not hesitated to give Qabbalistic
interpretations to this Instrument of interpretation. Others, who do not blush
in claiming knowledge of the utmost secrets of Archeometric Science, promise
grandiose and phantasmagoric Initiations which, thank God, will never exist
except in their impetuous imaginations. Finally, others, all the while invoking
Saint-Yves’s name, serve up lucubrations to
their readers exhibiting an anticlericalism and antipapism
that is truly far too rudimentary and juvenile, worthy at best of an electoral
village subcommittee or a lodge of the tenth order of the Grand Orient of
France. During the Master’s lifetime, such writings would have gotten
their authors pilloried for the use of even one of those stinging words of
which he had the secret.
Among those spirits who read and appreciated
Saint-Yves sincerely, some may have wondered why his Friends have shown so
little enthusiasm in defending his memory. The reason for this is simple. A
being such as himself, whose passing we can never lament enough, does not need
to be defended; although dead on Earth, he is powerful enough to defend himself
alone, having left behind enough unpublished works to close the mouths of all
imposters. The work we publish today is a resounding proof of this. Its hour
has come, the hour desired and chosen by the Master, and like a thunderclap, it
drowns out all the nonsense produced under his name in the last two years.
This book, the complement and final seal to
the Missions, is the true
Introduction to the Study of the Archeometer. Never, in any of his previous
works, did Saint-Yves reveal the foundation of his innermost thoughts as much
as he does here; never, in any other work, did he scrutinize the Mysteries so
boldly; and never has he revealed himself so completely as in this work.
He is no longer merely the Christian genius,
the inspired reformer of the Synarchy that we will rediscover; he is the true
successor of the ancient Nabis, the last Prophet. A
terrible flame burns in the work of this modern Isaiah, every bit as severe for
contemporary Pharisees and Scribes as was the son of Amos for the scholars and
priests of
But as he points to the catastrophes
imminent for peoples subject to the unrelenting Laws of historical Cycles, his
heart bleeds before this Fate, which seems inevitable, but which might still not
happen. And he adjures his human brothers to abandon the false path and follow
the true Path, which he has already shown them for twenty years, and which he
shows them still. He beseeches them, finally, to give a true testing to the
only means that can still oppose Fate and save Humanity. And in this he is a
true man, a man to whom “nothing human is alien,” and this is not
the least of his entitlements to our veneration and our deepest affection.
As indicated by certain allusions to
contemporary events, the work we offer to the public today was written around
1903. We reverently gathered scattered notes and complete sections, and in this
we wished to be strictly nothing but the simple organizers. Of this we forewarn
the reader, who will then understand why we had to place one fragment, written
in a completely different manner and style from the rest of the work, in an
appendix. We have preserved and published this incomplete fragment with the
conviction that it will be read with pleasure by all those who have known the
Master and visited him; for there they will find him complete with all that
fine irony, effervescent spirit, and exquisite mixture of Attic and Gallic wit
which lent so much charm, originality, and occasional surprises to his most
elevated and serious conversations.
As for the form and division of the work, we
need not discuss it; it is clear enough, especially now that plates from the
Archeometer have been circulated and reproduced far and wide.
23 May 1911.
The Friends of Saint-Yves.