Modern Occultism

I start in Helena Blavatsky,—again, thanks to Pessoa,—I follow on Éliphas Lévi, Max Heindel, A.P. Sinnet, and I arrive now in Gérard Encausse, that “Papus”. What can I say? It is amazing how resistant I am. My enthusiasm for so-called modern occultism has lasted only a few pages. And yet I continue to give credit to the authors, pretending not to be fed up with this vocabulary full of “mysteries,” “keys,” “secrets,” incredibly tedious analogies—not to say stupid… I read them and feel the physical presence of Voltaire, instigating me to sneer at the revelators who hide their own name. No, my friend, I will not… It is interesting to remember that I said recently that I have never experienced the sensation of being in front of the revelation of a truth. Of a lie, however… calm down, very calm down, because we would be committing the injustice of mixing them all in the same bag.