‘The Divine Ray’- From Jules Ravier’s ‘Lueurs Spirituelles’. Volume III. Heugel- Editions de Psyche. Paris -1934.

With the Peripatetic Meditations, we weave thematically texts we resonate with and feel important to share with you, offering a soulful walk in the gardens of Hypatia.

Prelude 

‘There is no fair winds for the one who doesn’t know where he is going’.

First Meditation

‘The impressions the celestial bodies produce can reach indirectly the intellectual faculties and the power of the will, which themselves stay under the influence of the organic functions.’

‘Man can always act, under the rule of reason, against the inclinations produced by the celestial bodies.’

‘The stars impel but do not compel.’ (Astra inclinant, non necessitant).

Second Meditation

‘In this last matter the arguments of the Judicial Astrology, which teaches that the position of the stars ‘impel but do not compel’, are undermined, for the stars are considerably inferior to human Minds and, equally, little or nothing ignoble can be more noble deep inside itself. But if human bodies overwhelm the Feeling Soul and reduce it to the servitude of the corruptible Body then I have no doubt that, because the bodies of the stars are then more noble than those of human beings, those stars bodies can, equipped with similar bodies, impress their passions upon human bodies.’

Third Meditation

‘…For the outward life is fallen quite under the power of the stars, and if you wish to resist them, you must enter into God’s will, and then they are but as a shadow and cannot bring that effect which they have in their power-neither do they desire it, but the devil only desires it. For the whole Nature bows itself before the will of God. For the Image of God in Man is so powerful and mighty, that when it wholly catches itself into the will of God, it overpowers Nature so that the stars are obedient to it and rejoice themselves in the Image. For their will is that they may be freed from vanity, and thus be kindled in Meekness in the Image, at which the Heaven rejoices…’

Fourth Meditation

‘…In the ‘Genesis’, Abram tells the Lord: ‘What will you give me, as I am about to leave this life childless?’ The Lord made him come outside and said: ’Look upon the sky and count the stars; if you can count them: so shall your offspring be ’. (‘Genesis’ XV-5)

The great Jewish commentator Rachi shares what the Midrash says about it: ‘ Get out of your fate as it is written in the stars. You saw in the stars that you will not have children.’ Abraham saw in the wisdom of the stars, astrology, that he will not have children…The Holy-May-He-Be-Blessed told him: ‘Don’t meditate on these things (the science of the stars) but on the secret of my Name.’

Man is clearly carrying two fate: The first one, coming from the stars, is the astrological fate, that which, in some way, is blind. The second one comes from beyond the stars, from the Divine Name. Such is man’s true fate, and his free will consists only in choosing one or the other.

Originating from Ur in Chaldea, where he learned astrology, Abraham knew very well that according to his horoscope-or terrestrial fate, he could not have a child from Sarah. Though the Lord notified him that, through the blessing that He is giving him, he could escape his astrological fate and be the Father of a multitude.

The blessing that Abraham receives is the secret of the Name of God, the seed of Kabalah that is transmitted from master to disciple. This blessing is not under the rule of the stars; it doesn’t depend from fate because it proceed from beyond the sub-lunar world.’
 

Postlude

 ‘A long and solitary task, the indifference and mistrust of everyone,
rejection, hostility, poverty, silence and solitude for companions.
– Such is the holy work offered to the dead, such is the salary of the dead who do not receive it.

But of what importance is this for him who has the vision of the astonishing promise of the Perfect One? For his progeny shall be like the stars in the sky, and his children shall populate the holy earth.

It is not the host that shall be deprived, but in fact the guests that voluntary abstain. As regards he who is charged with announcing the feast of the holy union, he shall benefit with his friends from the absentees’ part.

Their lot shall be formidable and as though absurd, for outside there will be then hunger, suffering, desperation and death, and no one shall be able to close the gates of hell, and no one shall be able to open the gate of heaven.’

***

Sources

Prelude:  From Seneca. More here.

First Meditation: From Thomas d’Aquino in his ‘Summa’. More here.

Second Meditation: From Gerhard Dorn’s ‘Speculative Philosophy’, chapter 1 page 14, in the ‘Magnus Opus Hermetic Sourceworks’ 2008 edition. More here.

Third Meditation: From Jacob Boehme’s ‘ Threefold life of man’, chapter 11, excerpt from paragraph 38. More here.

Fourth Meditation: From Charles d’Hooghvorst’s ‘The book of Adam’, Beya Editions, page 31. Translated from the edition’s French. Link to the original here.

Postlude: From Louis Cattiaux’s ‘Message Rediscovered’, chapter XV, paragraph 45 and 46, 45′ and 46′. More here.