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Comte de Gabalis: Discourses on the Secret Sciences

Abbé N. de Montfaucon de Villars · tr. “The Brothers” (with their commentary) · 1670 (tr. 1913) · 53,030 words

A mysterious count initiates a sceptical abbé into the lore of the sylphs, gnomes, nymphs and salamanders who people the four elements, in five witty and unsettling discourses.

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Opening

Invocation to the Flame

CALL UPON THEE, O LIVING GOD, RADIANT WITH ILLUMINATING FIRE. O UNSEEN PARENT OF THE SUN! POUR FORTH THY LIGHT GIVING POWER AND ENERGISE THY DIVINE SPARK. ENTER INTO THIS FLAME AND LET IT BE AGITATED BY THE BREATHS OF THY HOLY SPIRIT. MANIFEST THY 11? POWER AND OPEN FOR ME THE TEMPLE OF ALMIGHTY GOD WHICH IS WITHIN THIS FIRE! MANIFEST THY LIGHT FOR MY REGENERATION, AND LET THE BREADTH, HEIGHT, FULLNESS AND CROWN OF THE SOLAR RADIANCE APPEAR, AND MAY THE GOD WITHIN SHINE FORTH

Warning.

This book is for the student who seeks to illuminate his intelligence by the Torch of his own divinity. Let him whose quest is the gratification of a selfish intellectualism beware its pages, for this is a book of hidden mystery and power. Therefore let the mind be pure that it may invite the approach of the Pilgrim Soul and come into a new realisation of God's Omnipotence and Justice.

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Contents

  1. Invocation to the Flame
  2. The Book
  3. The Abbé N. de Montfaucon de Villars
  4. Discourse I
  5. Discourse II
  6. Discourse III
  7. Discourse IV
  8. Discourse V
  9. Commentary · A–M
  10. Commentary · N–Z
  11. Commentary · AA–MM
  12. Commentary · NN–HHH
  13. Seven Ancient Prophecies
  14. Further Prophecies
  15. Hymn to the Sovereign Sun

About this edition

Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive

Public domain: First published 1670 (tr. 1913); public domain in the United States.

What’s included: The 1913 English rendering with the translators’ invocation and introduction, the five discourses, their full commentary, the seven ancient prophecies and the closing hymn. The plates are not reproduced.

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