Table Of ContentThe
“Le Voile d’Isis”
René Guénon
- 130 AH -
Table of Contents
F.-Ch. Barlet and the Initiatic Societies 1
Some Precise Details of the H.B. of L. 5
Sédir and the Hindu Doctrines 8
Léon Champrenaud (1870-1925) 10
Cologne or Strasbourg? 11
Madame Chauvel de Chauvigny 13
The Gift of Languages 14
The Compagnonnage and the Bohemians 17
The Secret Language of Dante and the ‘Fedeli d’Amore’ 20
The Thunderstones 31
The Triple Druidic Precinct 35
Some Aspects of the Symbolism of Janus 39
The Guardians of the Holy Land 45
Atlantis and Hyperborea 53
Concerning the Masons of the Middle Ages 59
A New Book on the Order of the Elect Priests 63
About the ‘Lyonnais Rose-Cross’ 68
The Symbolism of Weaving 71
Atma-Gita 75
The Greater Holy War 79
Regarding Pilgrimages 82
At-Tawḥīd 87
Al-Faqr 90
The Limits of the Mind 95
The Sifra di-Zeniuta 99
Sacerdotal Initiation and Royal Initiation 103
The Science of Letters (ʾIlm al-Hurūf) 106
The Rind and the Core (Al-Qashar wa al-Lab) 112
The Hermetic Tradition 116
The Rose-Cross and Rosicrucians 121
Magic and Mysticism 126
The Hieroglyph of Cancer 129
The Place of the Atlantean Tradition in the Manvantara 134
Sheth 138
The Language of Birds 143
Some Remarks on the Name Adam 147
Cain and Abel 151
The Symbolism of the Theater 155
The Secret Language of Dante and the ‘Fedeli d’Amore’ 158
Hermes 165
Chirology in Islamic Esoterism 171
Initiatic Organizations and Religious Sects 175
New Insights into the Secret Language of Dante 179
Taoism and Confucianism 184
Conditions of Initiation 196
Initiatic Regularity 202
Initiatic Transmission 209
Initiatic Centers 216
Initiation and Counter-Initiation 221
Initiatic Rites 225
Initiatic Trials 230
Qabbalah 234
Initiatic Knowledge and Profane ‘Culture’ 238
‘Fedeli d’Amore’ and ‘Corte d’Amore’ 242
Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers 248
Kundalini-Yoga 256
Kundalini-Yoga II 262
Initiatic Education 268
The ‘Religion’ of a Philosopher 274
The Holy Grail 279
The Holy Grail II 285
Initiation and Crafts 290
‘Verbum, Lux, and Vita’ 295
Initiatic Death 299
Alleged Empiricism of the Ancients 303
Ṣūfism 307
Initiatic Organizations and Secret Societies 313
Initiatic Organizations and Secret Societies II 318
Initiatic Secrecy 324
Profane Names and Initiatic Names 330
The Rite and the Symbol 335
Confusion of the Psychic and the Spiritual 342
The Arts and Their Traditional Conception 345
So-Called Psychic ‘Powers’ 350
The Rejection of ‘Powers’ 354
Some Errors Concerning Initiation 358
The Hindu Theory of the Five Elements 362
Myths, Mysteries, and Symbols 378
Dharma 385
Symbolism and Philosophy 389
Varṇaḥ 394
Synthesis and Syncretism 399
The Being and the Milieu 403
René Guénon
F.-Ch. Barlet and the Initiatic Societies
F.-Ch. Barlet et les sociétés Initiatiques, April 1925.
Before taking part in the beginnings of the movement which one can
label as properly Occultist, F.-Ch. Barlet was one of the founding mem-
bers of the first French branch of the Theosophical Society. Shortly fol-
lowing this, he contacted the organization widely designated by the ini-
tials H.B. of L., meaning Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor,1 which pro-
posed as its principal goal “the establishment of external centers in the
Occident that would resurrect the rites of ancient initiations.” This or-
ganization’s claimed origin went back 4,320 years before the year 1881
of the Christian era; obviously this is a symbolic date referring to certain
cyclical periods.2 It professed to be connected with a properly Occidental
tradition, for, according to its teachings, “the Hermetic Initiates have bor-
rowed nothing from India; the similarity that manifests between a num-
ber of different names, doctrines, and rites of the Hindus and Egyptians,
far from showing that Egypt has drawn its doctrines from India, only
makes it clear that the defining characteristics of their respective teach-
ings were derived from a singular stock, and this original source was
neither Indian nor Egyptian, but the Lost Island of the Occident.” As for
the form taken recently by the order, here is what was said: “In 1870, a
follower of the old Order, which still existed, in the original H.B. of L.,
with the permission of the initiates beside him, resolved to choose in
Great Britain a neophyte who could properly transmit his views.” After
completing a significant private mission in mainland Europe, he landed
in Great Britain in 1873, where he managed to find a neophyte whom he
instructed, after sufficiently verifying the authenticity of his credentials.
The neophyte then obtained permission to establish an outer circle of the
1 A similar organization named ”Hermetic Brotherhood of Light”, or the “Frater-
nité Hermétique de Lumière”, which seems to have been a rival or dissident
branch to the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. Furthermore, we can notice that
the name “Luxor” means “Light,” and even doubly so when broken down into
two words (Lux-Or) which each carry the same meaning in Latin and Hebrew,
respectively.
2 These cycles are referred to in Trithemius’ “Traité des Causes secondes,” the
teaching of which was included in the teachings of the H.B. of L.
2 The Veil of Isis
H.B. of L., to draw in those worthy of the form of initiation for which
they would qualify.
Upon joining the H.B. of L., Barlet had some hesitations: was mem-
bership compatible with being a member of the Theosophical Society?
He posed this question to his Master, an English clergyman, who rushed
to reassure him by stating that “he and his Master (Peter Davidson) were
also members of the Council of the Theosophical Society.” Nonetheless,
a thinly veiled hostility existed between the two organizations since
1878, when Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott had been expelled
from the H.B. of L., which they had been affiliated with since 1875
through their acquaintanceship of the Egyptologist Georges H. Felt.
Without a doubt, when the Théosophist journal claimed in one of its issue
that this outer circle of the H.B. of L. only dated back to 1884 it was meant
to conceal this unflattering expedition of the two founders of the Theos-
ophy Society; peculiarly, the same journal had published an advertise-
ment from the ‘Occult Magazine' of Glasgow in 1885, a publication of the
H.B. of L., wherein it appealed to people who wished “to be admitted as
members of an Occult Fraternity, who does not openly boast of their
knowledge, but freely and unreservedly instructs all those whom it finds
worthy of receiving its teachings” an indirect, but very clear, allusion
towards the opposing processes which the Theosophical Society was
known and criticized for. The hostility of the Theosophical Society was
to come to fruition later when members of the H.B. of L. began a project
to found an agricultural colony of sorts in America; Madame Blavatsky
found this opportunity favorable to avenge her previous expulsion, and
she managed to have the Secretary-General of the Order, T. H. Burgoyne,
barred from obtaining residency in the United States. Peter Davidson,
who bore the title of “Northern Provincial Grandmaster,” was the only
one permitted to enter, wherein he settled with his family in Loudsville,
Georgia, where he died several years ago.3
In July 1887, Peter Davidson wrote a letter to Barlet where, after de-
scribing “esoteric Buddhism” as “an attempt to corrupt the Western
spirit,” he states,
“the genuine and sincere Adepts do not teach these doctrines of
‘karma’ and ‘reincarnation’ put forth by the authors that profess
“esoteric Buddhism” and other theosophical works. Neither in the
works discussed above, nor in the pages of the Theosophist, is
3 While the H.B. of L. was falling inactive, Peter Davidson founded a new organ-
ization called the ‘Order of the Cross and the Serpent.’ Another of the foreign
leaders of the H.B. of L., of his own accord, was at the head of a movement of a
very different character, which Barlet was also involved in, but which we will
not deal with here.
René Guénon 3
there, as far as I am aware, an accurate and esoteric sense of these
important questions. One of the main objects of the H.B. of L. was
to reveal to those brothers that have shown their worth the com-
plete mysteries of these grave and profound subjects. It must be
noted that the Theosophical Society is not and has never been,
ever since Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott arrived in India,
to be under the direction or inspiration of an authentic and real
Himalayan Fraternity, but under that of an inferior Order belong-
ing to a Buddhist cult.4 I am speaking here of something that I
know and hold to be true with indisputable authority; but, if you
hold some doubts about my assertions, Mr. Alexander de Corfou
has several letters from Madame Blavatsky in which she clearly
confesses some of the same as what I have told you.”
One year later, Peter Davidson wrote in another letter, this slightly
enigmatic phrase: “The true Adepts and the true Mahatmas are like two
poles of a magnet, although several Mahatmas are in the ranks of our
Order, but they only appear as Mahatmas for very important reasons.”
At this moment, which is to say, in the middle of 1888, Barlet was leaving
the Theosophical Society, following dissensions which had occurred in
the Parisian ‘Isis’ branch, and in the echoes of the ‘Lotus’ branch of the
period.
It was also at about this time that Papus began to formally organize
Martinism; Barlet was one of this first to be summoned to his Supreme
Council. It was first established that Martinism’s purpose was to serve as
a preparation point for its members to enter into an order which could
confer a true initiation on those who would be capable of receiving it;
the Order which was intended for this purpose was none other than the
H.B. of L., of which Barlet had become the official representative for the
Order in France. This is why, in 1891, Papus wrote: “Genuine Occult so-
cieties exist which still possess the integral tradition; as a witness, I name
one of my Masters in practice, one of the most scholarly Westerners, Pe-
ter Davidson.”5 However, this project did not succeed, and it was recog-
nized that the superior center of Martinism was the Kabbalistic Order of
the Rosicrucian, which had been founded by Stanislas de Guaita. Barlet
was also a member of the Supreme Council of this Order, and when
Guaita died in 1896, he was named to succeed him as Grandmaster; how-
ever, if he ever actually had the title, he never exercised his functions in
an effective manner. In fact, the Order had no regular meetings after the
death of its founder, and later, when Papus thought to revive it, Barlet,
4 This is the organization headed by the Rev. H. Sumangala, the principal of the
“Vidyodaya Pirivena” of Columbo.
5 Methodical Treatise on Occultic Science, p. 1039.
