The Cosmopolite says: "He who does not

descend shall not ascend." This is, my

Disciple, the test of tests, where

malignant influences await you, hoping

to see you stumble and fall into outer

darkness.

If you resist them, the Phoenix,

successor of the Alción, will reveal itself

to you. The world is unaware of higher

births. Therefore, adopt the holy habit of

suffering the contempt of those who are

worth less than you.

Let this truth soak in: until you reach the Light, justice will not be done to

you.

It is necessary to become utterly indifferent to the opinion of men, easier

to say than to do.

What do you care about appearing as a vague unity in the eyes of people

if you are aware of your intellectual sovereignty?

Act according to your conscience without worrying about the outcome.

Accept glory as a burden and do not desire it; rather soon desire eternal

glory, that of the Philosophers: the Absolute.

If you seek the approval of men, you walk toward darkness, then you are

outside the Path. If you want to be a Saint so you are recognized as such;

surely you will never be one. miraculous power will hyper-concentrate in

you when you no longer desire it, when the ambition to possess it has

died in you.

Then you will not boast of using this power that would astonish men.

But how long is the road left to reach this result? Envelop yourself, my

disciple, in an abyss of humility. Be minimal among the minimal. Become

obscure. Hide yourself like that disciple of Kung-Tse who drew tears of

admiration from his master and made him say: Oh, how wise Hoei was!

He lived in a retreat, in the back of a narrow street, abandoned, and his

serenity remained unaltered! Oh, how wise Hoei was!

Remember this word: "Patience is the ladder of the Philosophers and

humility is the gate to their garden." Lower yourself, and one day you will

be transfigured and wake brilliant and radiant in the embrace of the King

of Glory, the King of the East seated on his throne, as the old masters say,

and you will enter the Purple Sea, which is the Magisterium of the

Philosophers.

But remember you are still only the leprous Mercury that has killed the

Sun of Righteousness on the effigy of the quaternary!

Grillot de Givry

PUTREFACTION