Reports LRA n°8



Neville Barker Cryer, The Arc and the Bow in sky, translated by English and presented by Georges Lamoine, Publish(edit) SNES, on 1999.

The French appearance of this impressive volume establishes(constitutes) in itself an event, because the literature which, in our language, concerns the side degrees of Anglo-Saxon systems, is practically non-existent. Work, exactly dedicated to the Leading masonry and to its complement, Nautonier of the Royal Arc, is certainly an inestimable documentary sum. And Dominique's foreword Mr Doyen, Grand Master for France of these same degrees, justifies to him only the interest of such an initiative; it(he) moderates at least the specifically British character of the inquiry, widely centred on developments and chances of Outre-Manche's jurisdictions.

Let us note that this type of investigation, characteristic of a certain historic school, can nevertheless lead(drive) to the excesses which one knows, notably for all which concerns the question of previous history, resting(basing) of advantage on an obsessional search for documentary proofs, which on the evidence of a continuous transmission of sat(based) sacred of the Profession (whatever it, moreover , the modalities of application).

The most characteristic example of the work, is confusion maintained around the role attributed(awarded) to Clément Stretton's masonry. Let us call back(remind) in that case these two important references, following René Guénon's comments (attentive and careful at the same moment, towards this ritual reconstruction), that were J.Tourniac's rates (" The Royal Order of the Scotland and Opératifs in René Guénon's perspective ") and of P.GIRARD-AUGRY (" survivals opératives in England and in the Scotland "), in the volume 3 of Honnecourt's ( 1981 ) V.'s works, to which it would be useful to refer.

Census(inventory) made by Cryer, of practices opératives, as so much of " elements which will redo surface as part of the leading ceremonies which we know today " (p. 32), gives evidence of the authenticity of a ritual corpus, filiation of which continues in the current Masonry. Let us insist on the fact that this one is a heir of the totality of the ritual deposit(warehouse) of the Profession, that she(it) underestimates him(it) or chooses to fruit it certain constituents. " Age-old customs " (expression of the regulations(payments) of Torgau, on 1462), that are characteristics relating to the marks(brands) of the masons, are so raised(found): personal, of approval (sanctioning(punishing) the fulfillment of the task) and much more still, coded. This last point, nevertheless the most significant, is hardly envisaged. It is true that his deepening concerned the esotericism of the Profession: That envisaged by F.RZIHA (known for the author, because briefly quoted) and Matila C. Ghyka, and emergency proceeding in the fundamental plans of the crowned geometry the builders. Certainly, such was not the priority of the work. And development, hardly interesting besides, subject noachique appropriate(clean) for the rank of Nautonier, at the end of volume, is not enough to fill this deficiency.

Frédéric Tessier

Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of the simple and annihilated souls, translates from medieval French, introduced and annotated by Longchamp's Max Huot, Publish(edit) Albin Michel, collection Spiritualités alive, on 1997.

This book, which was the object of a first publishing(edition) in 1984, understands(includes) an interesting introduction of L.'S M.H. which ends with a summary and descriptive table of the seven states of grace marking the seven stages of the spiritual progress of the soul until the destruction and the transformation in the divine love (p. 155), the central subject of the Mirror. Through the prologue and the 138 short chapters, the Mirror, invites the reader who is not allowed divert(confuse) by a not linear and not progressive development of the subject, to travel on an unpredictable sea, towards banks which a rational order would not have maybe been able to so well allow him(her) to suspect. Numerous and very rich notes of the translator are regrouped at the end of work.

It is at the time of Philippe Le Bel, of the dissolution of the order of the Temple, the big lawsuits of the Inquisition, that holds that of Marguerite Porete, which will bring him(it) (as well as the Mirror), to the stake in 1310, indicated as béguine in a time or the béguinage escapes " the traditional canonical forms of the religious life and (is) confined regularly by the opinion, as by the ecclesiastical authorities, on the heretical limits of the spiritual freedom, otherwise formally of the Free Spirit " (Intro p. 20), and further to the refusal persisted in front of the inquisition of Paris, not to collaborate with " an inequitable device " and " to receive forgiveness for faults which it stopped not having committed " (p. 26).

The Mirror, which " contains an invitation to be mirrored to get closer to an admired reality ", the being function(office) " to introduce us in the contemplative universe " (Intro p. 16), is a particular medieval literary kind(genre) which uses a stage setting where the actors such as "Reason", "Amur" or " Virtues ", as well as the Soul (simple and annihilated), are personified in the style of stories courteous of time. One finds there the big subjects of the education ésotérique universal which not départissent ever here the purest Christian forms and which place the author in the spiritual lineage of mister Eckhart, holy Bernard or Hadewijch of Antwerp... Let us quote, for example, that of the ascending and downward realization with the sacrificial necessity of second when the annihilated soul declares: " I sing and I become disenchanted for those that are not still free... " (P. 150)... The Mirror redraws the route, " the right(straight) royal road by the country of non-will " (p. 123), that the soul, freed(franked) from the sin, mistress(teacher) of Virtues having been subjected to them (pp.60 , 83) and " above Law but not against the Law " (p. 204), borrow(take) to go " where one can see the subtle images of the attractions of the divine love " (p. 67) and to reach the total transformation in this divine love. 

These subjects will contribute to the condemnation of the Mirror and its author, victims of the jealous person Reason (p. 132) " mistress(teacher) of Sainte-Eglise-la-Petite " made herself(itself) people governed by Reason and what the Amur " treat naughty boys ", they " to whom it is enough to be saved ", by being delighted that they " is put outside class(course) of secrets " divine ( pp.130,131 ). So, without they are ever named(appointed) if it is not by the words of " Sainte-Eglise-la-Petite " and " Sainte-Eglise-la-Grande " (pp. 79 , 80 , 106, 107), or acutely through the allusion made for the two sorts of holiness (p. 161), the exotérisme and the esotericism are clearly distinguished. It is even the problem of the not recognition of the esotericism within the Christendom which is treated(handled) here implicitly. Peace would be hierarchically restored if Reason, as her(it) expresses the desire for it in the chapter 39 (p. 102), wanted " to serve this soul (of these freed(franked) souls which establish(constitute) Sainte-Eglise-la-Grande - p. 107) and to be a slave of it ".

Nevertheless, even Mr H. of L. does not recognize esotericism (that he mentions contemptuously) the education of the Mirror (p. 30), he who asserts besides that the Mirror allows " an internal transformation of sacramental order in which could claim the book to Moyen-Age " (p. 14), so disregarding the necessity, in introduction, the preparation of initiatory order (formal or informal) for any real realization. 

The Mirror, as other works of this scale and this time, appears as one of the testamentary forms of the medieval tradition and testimony extremely living on an experience(experiment) of internal realization reaching its term. The reading is to light(enlighten) every convinced researcher that the actual realization of the being is a reality possible to achieve.