‘The Chaldean Shepherds, inventors of Astronomy’, painting by Eugène Delacroix in the library of the French House of Representatives. © Assemblée Nationale – photo Laurent Lecat.

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With today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA, alike for Louis Menard, we start re-posting works from Joséphin Péladan, as we are also preparing new entries. The below excerpt is taken from Edouard Bertholet’s, ‘La pensée et les secrets du Sâr Joséphin Péladan’, volume II, Editions Rosicruciennes de Lausanne, Pierre Genillard Editeur. 1952. From page 350-353.

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The ‘Introduction To The Occult Sciences’ begins with some general considerations. Péladan starts from the contemplation of the allegoric paintings in the library of the House of Representatives (Assemblée Nationale), where we see on one panel, Chaldean shepherds praying to the stars and on another, a traveller walking up the stairs of a temple; magnificent priests, calm and dignified, in their ample linen robes, great him a the threshold of their sanctuary; they are the ancient guardians of the mysteries and it is called: ‘Herodotus comes to ask to the Magus of Babylon the keys of history’. These paintings, (by Eugène Delacroix) fruit of a masterly conception are in nature to show us what was the beginning of the research and the occult intuitions of the primitive humanity.

The panel representing the ‘prayer to the stars of the Chaldean shepherds’ can be put in parallel with a remarkable scene, by the length of its esoteric teaching, taken from one of the plays of the ‘Théatre de la Rose+Croix’ de Péladan: ‘The Son of the Stars’ (‘Le Fils des Etoiles’)(Acte 1, scene IV). It is worth meditating this ‘Prayer to the Seven’, of the Chaldean shepherds; it initiates us to the astrological knowledge of that time and tells us of the occult influence of the seven luminaries.

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Chorus of the Shepherds

Oelohil! Beloved son of the Gods,

Take the lyre and tell us the prayer to the stars.

Sing to cast the demons away,

Purify the air by the lyre and the voice.

For the prosperity of the flocks and the shepherds

Claim the harmonious names of the Seven.

Oelohil

Admirable brightnesses, gaze of the invisible,

You are the mean to foretell and the reason to believe,

Sparkling lighthouses in the unbound sky!

Each of you is a golden letter of the great mystery:

And your rays, penetrating our souls,

Teaches us carefulness and piety.

Hail to the Seven, the great rulers

And Glory to the numberless stars!

First Chorus

Hail to the Seven, the great Rulers!

Second Chorus

And glory to the infinite stars!

Oelohil

Spirit of Sin, O Moon! Spirit of fantasy and Adventure,

Stars of travels and of the seers,

O lamp of love and mystery,

Giver of rest and dreams,

Quiet by your white rays, our fevers; pacify our aims;

Inspire to your followers, the holy inspiration,

Star of thought and silence, O Sin! O Moon!

First chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Samas! O Sun! Spirit of joy, peace and fertility,

Master of life and of the wheat, master of shapes and glory,

Miraculous amongst wonders,

Dissipate plots and scatter ghosts,

Show up the liar, heal our fears,

Strengthen our souls and turn golden our wheat ears,

King of gold and art, O Samas! O Sun!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Adar! O Saturn! Sublime and dark spirit,

Lord of the great schemes and the long studies,

Master of patience and tenacity,

August lonesome, inspire gravity, independence,

The price of time, the secret of aging.

Austere and wise star,

Lord of thoughts, laws and long rules, O Adar! O Saturn!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Merodack! O Jupiter! Spirit of strength and mercy,

Over generous Lord, benevolent emperor of the Gods,

Master of the temple and the palace,

Patron of magus and kings,

Star of the scepter and the tiara,

Make us honor in each of us what is his worth, O Merodack!

O Jupiter!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Istar! O Venus! Spirit of grace and goodness,

Mother of piety and of genuises, smile and beauty of heaven,

Lady of all choruses,

Lady of the forests and springs,

Give to each of us, his companion,

Spread upon us your attractive and fertile grace,

Goddess of life, goddess of love, O Istar! O Venus!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Nergal! O Mars! Spirit of courage and struggle,

Trampler of the fray, with the sparkling blade,

Lord of boldness and fierceness,

Divert your gaze from us.

For your glory and our peace,

Fight the demons of the abyss, the dreadful genies of the Astral,

Star of iron and rage! O Nergal! O Mars!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

Oelohil

Spirit of Nebo! O Mercur!

Spirit of subtility and magic, who teaches the arts,

Keeper of the secrets, master of the talismans,

Arbitrator of destiny, expand in us

The prophetic and sacred spirit;

Let us guess the celestial mystery.

Spirit of intelligence, success, miracles, O Nebo! O Mercur!

First Chorus

Spirit of Heaven, remember this!

Second Chorus

Spirit of Earth, remember this!

All together

Hail to the Seven, the great rulers

And to the infinite stars!

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Péladan highlights here the primordial importance the ancient gave to the astral influx and from the beginning of his ‘Introduction to the Occult Science’; he gives a clear reason for that:

‘’The first who dreamt became seers and, having gathered, they formed the initial priesthood. What did they see, these intuitive, in the luminous night? Nothing extraordinary, nothing experimental, they saw what was hidden to the material and unfocused eyes: The law of relation that unites between them all things created. They perceived the fateful link between heaven and earth, between Creator and creature. They discovered the eternal continent, the After-life. They wanted to share with their brothers this fertile vision, and religion started. They did not explain the mystery, they acknowledged it, and thus gave a horizon to intelligence. Their genius was sentimental and impressive first; the formulas came long after; and because abstraction cannot be assimilated for the masses, superstition appeared, and perpetuated itself until us, with a prodigious loyalty. The warlock in low Brittany repeats the conjurations engraved on the Niniveh bricks.”

There are only narrow-minded spirits who would pretend that the religions, because they are revealed, don’t have the value of exact science; these materialists forget that at the beginning, all sciences were occult and based as much upon intuition as upon experience; the true scientists have no problem recognizing that most of the great discoveries are more the fruit of intuition that of reasoning. To who dares considering the study of the occult sciences, the Sâr gives an insightful advice: “We must get rid of the cerebral habits of today in order to figure out the obscure genesis of the human mind. The first experience is similar to a mental oration, to a poetic inspiration. At the beginning, thought is prayer, ode, ‘enosis’ (ravishment)… In all nations, the sacred books are the oldest. Man’s thought, like his writing, during the Antiquity started with theology and ethics, and then took the shape of a practical magic”.

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Original French

‘I thought in the past that we were creating the events of our lives; i now know that we merely follow them: Every speech creates what it affirms in the measure that its affirmation realizes fate-that is the harmony of laws and wills. The only things Man creates are his dreams; In action, he succeeds only through others.’

Joséphin Péladan

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