Observations placeholder

The Creation of a Universal System:   Saint-Yves d’Alveydre and his Archeometer by Joscelyn Godwin

Fourth Revelation: Marie-Victoire provides a Definition of Life

Marie-Victoire de Riznitch, born 1827, the divorced wife of Count Keller, married Saint-Yves in London in September 1877. Thanks to her, he was able to resign from his job at the Ministry of the Interior, acquire the Italian title of Marquis d’Alveydre, have his books published, and pursue his esoteric researches and his plans for political reform through Synarchy. Their marriage is said to have been very happy, but Marie suffered much from ill health in her last years, and died on June 7, 1895.

Towards the end of 1895, Saint-Yves installed an oratory in his apartment on the ground floor of 9 Rue Colbert, just opposite the Palace of Versailles, and had it consecrated in correct Catholic fashion. On June 6, 1896, the eve of the anniversary of Marie’s death, he had a mass celebrated there, after which he had an 'ecstatic' experience. He described it on a blank page of the Hermetic notebook which he had neglected for nine or ten years.

This seems to have been the first reappearance of Marie, who appeared to him again on July 21, 1896 “in a blinding light,” as he told Alfred Erny on August 16

This initiated a new period of researches, which would fill out this notebook and several others.

Saint-Yves writes: “My wife demonstrated to me a definition of life, and inspired me to find it in this grouping of the sacred letters.” There follows the Hebrew alphabet with its numerical equivalences, and then a grouping of it into threes and twos:

איק      center of obedient activity

בכר     compression inwards, manifestation spreading outwards

גלש     revolution of the celestial spheres, universal exchange, brewing and mixing of the cosmic substance

דמת     integration and disintegration of bodies, assimilation and de-assimilation of elements, fixation and mobilization of souls, astral identification of beings and migration through the transition of death

הנ        such is life

וס        fruit of the celestial ocean

זע        present agitation in fear of the future

חפ       repose, assured security

טצ       temporary and mobile shelter of mortal man, eternally stable goal of his immortality.

The “words” thus obtained make no sense in Hebrew. They appear with quite another meaning in the Oedipus Aegyptiacus of Athanasius Kircher as “names of God” in the “Saracenic,” namely, Arabic, Kabbalah.

Without a doubt, Saint-Yves consulted La Langue Hébraïque Restituée (The Hebrew Tongue Restored) of Fabre d’Olivet, which includes a “Radical Vocabulary” of all the possible combinations of two letters, and many of three. Fabre d’Olivet’s interpretations are taken virtually word for word by Saint-Yves, except in the case of the sixth root, where the earlier writer understands a whispering in the ear, even a temptation of the devil, that would not fit very well in the present case; and in the last word, which Fabre d’Olivet says is not used in Hebrew or Arabic.

For Saint-Yves, this grouping confirmed his cosmogony, the first three words corresponding closely to the hypostases symbolized by his three “foundation letters” Aleph, Shin, Thau.

And of course, Marie’s visitation was the experiential proof of life beyond death.

It inspired him to write a poem, “Let the Peace of Jesus, King of Heaven, be on Us.” Then he started an essay called “Life after Death.” But he stopped after having written only a few words on the parts of the human being according to the Egyptians. The next page of his notebook carries a new revelation.