STANISLAS DE GUAITA , POET AND OCCULTIST (1861-1897) Cofouder with Joséphin Péladan of the ”Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix’, he wa s greatly influenced by Lévi, D’Olivet and was a good friend of Papus. He was work ing actively, like Papus , being a member of many esoteric orders (Masonnery , Rose-croix kabbalistique , Martinism etc..) and he wrote, in my opinion, the best book ever written : ”La clef de la magie noire” 2nd vol. of the trilogy ”Essai de sciences maudites”. Unfortunately he died prematurely and never finished the 3rd volume (Le probleme du mal), wich was supposed to be his magnum opus (his secretary, Oswald Wirth, with the aid of Marius Lepage, assembled his notes in a little book(Le probleme du mal), but, none of them having the profound wisdom that Guaita had, it turned out to be greatly critiqued, and form the opinion of most, if not everyone, was not a good book.

De Guaita was a poet, and was fighting with a drug addiction, a ”Crowley” before the letter. In his defense, I must say that he took morphine because of terrible headaches, and a really frail health. Like all his predessesors and in the spirit of his time, he wrote poetry, wich turned out pretty good. His literary style was heavily influenced by Charles Beaudelaire. His occult works are filled with poetry and beautifull landscapes of deep esoteric knowledge. His ”Rose-Croix Kabalistique” was entirerly based upon the teachings found in ”la langue hebraique restituée”. The order was associated to Martinism as well as the Gnostic Church. It was revived in the 1960’s by Robert Ambelain and is still active today.

In 1890, he got into a fight with his first mentor, Joséphin Péladan, wich took home rich proportions, in what was called the war of the 2 roses, leading to Péladan leaving the ”Rose-croix Kabbalistique” and founding the ”Rose-croix catholique” . Guaita was unable to cope with Péladan’s excessive catholic dogmatism and passive reintegrationism, and Péladan was unable to cope with Guaita’s lack of piety and active reintegrationism. There was some flame wars going on for a while, much like the G.D., where Guaita had been accused of casting a spell(((envoutement a distance))) on a certain J-Antoine Boullan (ex-abbot, condemned for satanism). Th e problem was settled by a gun duel; the 2 protagonist were uninjured but his op ponent(Jules Bois) tells that a bullet was magically stopped in his own gun by G uaita.

De Guaita composed some of the sublimiest pages of esoteric kabbalah, and was regarded by his contemporary as a master kabbalist. His works are really ”Léviesque ” and ”D’Olivetesque”, but with a deeper kabbalistic background. Here’s a short extract of his kabbalistic teachings : (Clef de la magie noire, p.35-39, speak ing of the deluge) ”Here, we touch to one of the arcanas of the Mosaic initiation,and only those w ho have a full and complete understanding will know what should be understood by the famous RUACH AELOHIM, whom, in the Principle (BERESHITH), was moving (((en puissance de fecondité))) on the face of the double-waters. By it’s essence, this RUACH AELOHIM is connected to the RUACH HAKADOSCH, the Holy Spirit; it’s the first, edenic, manifestation.In substance and in the universe, it is this mysterious agent that the Hindus call Akasha(the pure fluid), whe n an inteligent force directs it; but which, abandonned to the fatality of it’s own movemnet, becomes the cyclone of Nahash, or the serpent of genesis; in one w ord, the astral light.

In one case or another, it has been called the ”soul of the world”, as we will see later.It is the supreme factor of the elementary equilibrium, AEMESH, and t he sword of judgement or moral equilibrium, HOCQ. As principle of the sensible m anifestation, Moses makes it flow from Eden under the name PhISHON, the protecti ve river of objective, or physical creation; as expression of the generative pla stic faculty, and specially as Universal Power of vital individualization, this theosoph designs it under the emblem of NOAH’s dove, IONAH.That is what we can say”…….

……”All the above-mentioned terms, and other ones wich will be explained later, expresses the occult filiation emanated from RUACH HAKADOSCH, the holy spirit; A hierarchy of Principles and Powers, hierarchy wich for us, fallen sub-multi ples of ADAM, (((viens aboutir))) in the astal world, or world of hyper-physical fluids. We already have, in our ”Au seuil du mystere”, shed some light, following the constant tradition of the Masters of Wisdom, on the triple nature of t he universal fluid, (((selon qu’il est considéré))) in his expansive movement (AOD), in his restrictive movement (AOB), or in the integral cycle of his double movem ent, ascending and descending (AOR).

If we observe that the waters have always been taken, in the sanctuaries of the ancient world, to be the material hieroglyph of the passive and restrictive principle, we should not be surprised to learn that these waters, in their normal st ate, are (((comprimées))), condensated, and like chained by a victoriously compres sive force, (((astreigente et liante))) (HEREB). This static knot, coming to dis solve itself, it follows that the waters obeys, (((dans la mesure de))) their wonderfull elasticity, to the universal agent of fecondity and expansion who (((di namise et distent))) everything, following the quadruple multiplication proper to the elementary world.

This last agent, really close to IONAH, was well known by the ancient Sages: they had assigned it for emblem the cubic stone, which becomes, in the 4th Arcana of the tarot, the throne where the mysterious emperor will sit, the Rahwon of Thoth and the Moloch of the phenicians (substantive which, by a simple mutation of the latent vowels, give the hebrew word Melech, meaning king). (((Au retrait))) of the compressing agent wich neutralized the force of expansio n, the water dilatates itself with an extreme violence : this is what Fabre D’Olivet translates by the great intumescence; this is what Moses wants us to unders tand when he says : And were opened all the sources of the potential abyss”…. ….

”So the Flood operates by a phenomena of natural order, the retreat of a cosmic constrictive force, and permanent cause of the fall of waters.(((Entravée a point nommé))) in it’s condensating function, this force abandons the liquid masses to the mercy of an opposed force, infinitely (((muliplicatrice et dilatante))). Of this decisive (((retrait))), who’s still the immediate provocator ? There a gain, God operates only by the preestablished principles; human liberty is one o f those principles. Like Fabre D’Olivet says, it is not the Verb of the divine W ill wich sponteaneously untie the sources of the abyss : IOD-HÉVÉ (((cede a l’effort de l’Adam terrestre qui se débattait contre lui))); (((il le laisse choir du poid s de son lourd destin))); that is all. The hominality was fighting to become ind ependant of its celestial principle. The Creator (((cede a regret))); (((il s’éloi gne, alors qu’on voulait s’éloigner de sa face))); he (((affranchit qui tentait de s’affranchir))). All negative, the condemnation he pronounces (((se réduit a un a quiescement tacite))).

Man, abbandonned to the whirlwind of it’s constant corruption, did, without knowing it, a pact with Death : he belongs, from then on, to the fatality of suicide . He calls the cataclysm; he evokes it in a language wich is unknown even to him self, without knowing it…He ignores that the cataclysm will come. Fabre d’Oliv et is formal on this point : ”the true tought of Moses is that the Being of Beings destroys the earth only in abandoning it to degradation, to the corruption wich is it’s own work”…………..

This passage is taken from the forewords of the 2nd vol. of his ”essai de scien ces maudites” trilogy. This is high speculations, and it is like this troughout the rest of the book. From what we heard, we can see the big influence that D’O livet played on Guaita. He also expounded a lot on the principle of astral light . Basically, what he says is that without a properly trained will and mind, you will not be able to direct this agent and you will inevitably become it’s slave, and when you become a slave to this agent, it becomes ”the Devil”.