Here is the introduction to the book by R.A Schwaller de Lubicz.
Just to give a taste of what it is all about.
The Temple of man Introduction by R.A Schwaller de LubiczEXCAVATIONS and philological studies supply the Egyptologist
with abundant material for a knowledge of (he life, beliefs, and
theology of ancient Egypt. An encyclopaedic amount of work is
available to the researcher. Nevertheless, Pharaonic Egypt remains
unknown in terms of its true science, i t s contingent psycho-spiritual
knowledge, and its philosophical mentality.
The funerary texts develop t h e myth transcribed into images, but
it has not been possible to translate the deeper meaning of these
images into comprehensible language. The philosophical connection
of the accumulated data is lacking. One tends to seek in ancient
Egypt, as well as in Babylon and other traditions of the past, what
might be called a rational expression of esotericism. This is an
error that arises from the prejudice that there is no esotericism, or
that there exists an intent to conceal a certain knowledge.
However, simple reasoning shows us that, for example, if the
Gospels were written to teach the way of Truth and to show us
what this Truth consists of. then the form of parab
les and enig- matic phrases chosen for this revelation would be nonsensical if its
purpose were to conceal this Truth. The purpose of these parables
and enigmatical phrases is not to hide anything from "he who has
eyes to see and ears to hear," according to the evangelical formula.
The purpose is to select those who developed the necessary under-
standing and who are for this reason worthy of these "secrets"
(that is to say. they will not misuse them for selfish motives).
There was never any intent to conceal, from those thus prepared,
any of the wisdom transmitted by texts, traditions, or monuments.
The enigma does not lie in the thing itself but is the result of our under-
standing, our faculties, and our intelligence, which arc not attuned
to the mentality according to which the idea was expressed, and it
is just this that our present education prevents us from admitting.
However, there is a type of education that—using the vital
organs in which the nervous flux is transformed as well as the
centers (or "nodes") of this flux—can awaken "consciousness" of
states that precede and transcend material forms. The West has no
terminology for this science, and thus we must have recourse to the
oriental languages. But the words alone are useless without the
concepts. Ancient Egypt is in fact one of the major sources of these
sciences: however, a true vocabulary of the Pharaonic language—or
even a provisional one—will never be possible unless attention is
given to those questions which we define as psycho-spiritual. The
Egyptian symbolism can guide us in t h i s regard and
show us mean- ings other than the common meanings currently accep
ted for a great many words. In this way. the meaning of many
texts will become clear.
Rationalism is based on the data provided by the senses, and the
senses perceive only a meager part of what is. Thus
, through rationalism alone we can know only what is encounte
red through the senses, what is ponderable, quantitative. Yet mathematics have
demonstrated the existence of elements that fall outside the
physical; we must take this into account, and if rationalism brings
us up against an impenetrable wall, in so doing it in fact teaches us
that it has its limits and that we should seek another means of
knowledge.
We express ourselves in a conventional language, and the dic-
tionary defines and limits the meaning of each word
.
Therefore, we can understand nothing beyond what the dictionary knows.
We write with conventional alphabetic signs that in themselves express
only sounds; thus our alphabet is merely a mechanical means for
composing the words in the dictionary and transmitting the
thoughts they encompass. It may be said that the combinations of
these letters are almost infinite: true, but the number of words is
limited by notions already acquired. Thought can also examine
observed phenomena and seek the causes. . . . Certainly it can, but
as soon as it approaches the metaphysical, it can no longer find in
our languages and forms of writing the means of expressing itself:
abstract ideas, formulated in words for which we lack the concepts,
are objectified and lose their significance.
It follows from these observations that either there exists only a
concrete world perceptible to the senses, or we lack a faculty that
would enable us to grasp the abstract, without having to concretize
through the imagination. The process is ingrained in us, in accordance
with a mode that always leads toward the quantitative definition.
This is the inverse of the Egyptian mentality.
If an unknown phenomenon appears, it is already the concretization of a cause that was abstract for us.
Instead of searching out the nature of this cause, we obey our reductionist tendency and
restrict both cause and phenomenon to the realm of the mechanical mentality.
We investigate nothing deeply; we pull e
verything down to our own limits. However, a simple image proves to us that there
is a way we can express ourselves without limiting a notion to a
defined form, and transcribe our thought without imposing our own
mentality on those who will read this image. We have gotten into
the habit of reducing everything in Time and Space: this is the rational habit.
An image, on the other hand, gives access to a world of qualities and functions.
For instance, if we say "a man walks,'' we see a man walking,
but we see him in a limited way: we imagine only the fact of moving or walking.
We can then place that fact in the past, present, or future and all the gradations of these tenses:
we situate this movement in Time and Space.
If, on the other hand, we see an image that represents a man walking (or s
imply lines depicting a man) we no longer imagine him, we no longer situate
him; he is there, it is the function that interests us, and the quality of that function.
We can then paint this man green: it will no longer be solely the function of walking
with one's legs that is evoked—this movement could also signify vegetation or growth.
But to our reason, walking and growing are two different functions, while in reality there is
an abstract connection between them: it is movement outside consideration of Time, or pathway, or specific direction.
If we wish to define this movement, we immediately reduce it in Time and Space, whereas there is no further need to
define the feeling of motion (whether walking or growing); the image—the symbol—acts as definition,
and we can in fact experience this condition (unconsciously become one with it, without any reasoning)
just as any child would looking at pictures.
Thus, the representation—the symbol—is our only true means of
transmitting an esoteric meaning, which, in alphabetic writing, we
have to seek in parable, or, possibly metaphor or allegory. The
Chinese mentality is characteristic of this transcribed symbolic
mentality: the idea is circumscribed but not named.
Something of this mentality, which we encounter in the Egypt of
the pharaohs, has remained among the peoples of the Middle East:
the indirect question and answer.
Symbolic representation and imagistic writing are the pure
hieratic forms of esoteric expression. Through symbolism, and
through it alone can we read the thought of the Ancients.
It is only through the symbolical that we will be able to coordinate the
known elements of this great civilization and that the writing may take on its true meaning.
With regard to this mode of expression, I shall quote Ampere,
Essai sur la Philosophic des Sciences (vol. 2, pp. 103-104):
"These rites, these dogmas, often conceal ideas once reserved for a small number of initiates:
and the secret of these ideas, though buried with them, can be rediscovered by those who study in depth
all the types of teachings remaining of the ancient beliefs and the ceremonies they prescribed.
Hence,a science, given the name of ' the Symbolic' (the name I shall retain for it),
proposes to uncover what was hidden behind such diverse emblems."
I shall explain more precisely what I mean by the word symbol in the chapter on "Definitions" and in the "Summary of Principles."
We also see in the symbol the only means of making a connection between the "oriental" mentality and the "occidental"
mentality, according to the basic distinction currently accepted. But pharaonic Egypt—which is, in my opinion,
the main source of Mediterranean civilization—is in some ways closer to us than is the Orient.
Its mentality is positive, and its expression is symbolic, to convey a form of esotericism that does not differ from the others, since
Wisdom cannot vary if it is real.
This symbolic aspect has been completely neglected in Egyptology. It is the proof of its existence,
and of the directive stemming from it in the pharaonic expression, that I find and present with
the Temple of Luxor.
The strangely irregular plan of this temple prompted me to investigate the causes of these irregularities.
Since this architec- tural conception was executed in several phases along the temple's
longitudinal axis, hitherto the simple explanation of attributing utilitarian purposes
to successive builders has been adopted. In my opinion, only more profound reasons could have inspired
these extraordinary constructions, which certainly, on account of the very
effort required, could not have been consecrated to inconsequential ideas.
Many positive proofs and experiments now confirm the correctness of this way of thinking.
Obviously, no one would build such monuments, and in such great numbers, over thousands of years,
for uncultivated peasants.
This work is of necessity that of an e l i t e , and, even more remarkably, an elite that never ceased to renew itself,
an elite that seems to have been uniquely endowed with a wealth of scientific knowledge, including an understanding of the laws of Life.
What, then, was this inexhaustible source, and what means so powerful and so stable assured such continuity?
We are dealing here, not with an evolution of science, but rather, on the contrary, with an immutable basis:
for the existence of a language and a form of writing that were already complete from
the time of the earliest dynasties of the historical period seems to confirm this.
What we see is not the beginnings of research, but the
application of a Knowledge already possessed
Love Always
mudra
