R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz
The important documents published here, all unpublished in English, constitute part of René Schwaller de Lubicz’s confidential teaching of a hermetic-alchemical nature to his closest disciples. They are mostly lectures, but also letters and notes of various kinds, ranging from 1926 (the first two lectures given at Suhalia published in La Doctrine) to a series of texts drafted in different places (Delphi, Luxor, etc.) from about 1939 to 1953, and then circulated for years in different forms. An anthology of them is presented here, mainly excluding those that were later taken up and developed in the edited books.
In the texts (which can be roughly subdivided into Pythagorean-alchemical and symbolic-philosophical, and which enable us to penetrate his thought in depth) there are quite a few valuable keys to understanding Hermeticism in general and his masterpiece, The Temple of Man, in particular. Topics such as the purpose of life, the problem of knowledge, the general principles of traditional doctrine, the unique origin of everything, the Seed, form, miracle, the value of Pi, to name but a few, are addressed. In the appendix, readers will also find a curiosity: the Tarot cards created by Schwaller de Lubicz; elements of a “role-playing game” of which pictures and instructions in his own hand are attached.