This is the fourth in a series of essays exploring the book “Natural Table” by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. I am stepping through the book chapter by chapter, with the hope that I can help explain some of the subtle thought of this profoundly wise man. The previous chapter can be found here, and the entire series begins here.

Atheism disproves itself

Saint-Martin begins this chapter with a clever attack against atheism and materialism. Instead of trying to make arguments for the existence of God, he argues that atheists actually already believe in all the powers that a God would have, but that they have merely assigned them to material or themselves.

Without saying as much, atheists will already believe in something that could be called “the Creative Principle” since this is something that they can observe in their own actions. They also clearly believe in the truth since that is what they are arguing for. While denying the existence of God, they still believe in all the attributes that Saint-Martin argues are contained by God. So atheism in the end just swaps in other “things” in the place of God, but without actually doing away with any of the divine principles or attributes.

This clever argument seems a little out of place at this point of the book, but it serves as a launch point for the make argument of this chapter. It is also well in-character for Saint-Martin given that his first book, “Errors and Truth” spends considerable time in attacking the arguments (i.e., the “errors” of the title) of atheists and materialists.

Alchemical catalysis

At this point, Saint-Martin then changes to an argument based on alchemy. Consider the creative powers that he argued for in the previous chapters, and the things created by them. For example, think of the initial idea to write a poem and the actual verses that result from that. These things are so entirely different to one another that there is no way that their natures could interact. How then can one result in the other?

Saint-Martin argues for the existence of some middle thing; something that we might refer to as a catalyst. This thing, whatever it might be, is able to alchemically react with created things and the principles that created them. They are accessible to both worlds.

Our creative powers come from God, and so we are unable to work with them in any way, but the catalysing elements are available to us. As not-Gods, these are the raw materials for all our actions since the ability to use anything else would make us a competing God.

Divine characters

A precise analogy for these catalysts is the old dream of an original, divinely-inspired, alphabet. In this view, the alchemical catalysts would be the letters of such an alphabet. Saint-Martin refers here to the myth of Thoth, the divine inventor of writing and hieroglyphics in the Egyptian pantheon. But this isn’t just a comparison to illuminate his thoughts since in the very next paragraph he wonders aloud if by following a path to wisdom and enlightenment we might not be able to “finalize our alphabet“. That is, the original alphabet given to us directly from God may one day be found.

The importance of this argument becomes clear when we realise that nothing – absolutely nothing – that we write or say can be done without the use of symbols. Everything we do depends on them. So the poor Atheist/Materialist is forced to make use of God-given devices to make their arguments against God!

And remember that it is not just speech or writing. It is any creative action we take. Thus the only thing that an Atheist can do to argue against God is to take no action at all. They are powerless.

Emanation defined

From here Saint-Martin moves on to a rather beautiful discussion of the meaning of “emanation”. Clarifying this is vital since it is his claim that humanity was emanated from God, as opposed to being created by God.

He mentions that several common metaphors for emanation just don’t work. For example, the scent of some fragrance rising into the air or a river splitting into multiple streams. In each of these cases something of the original is lost. The fragrance eventually disappears due to evaporation and the flow of the original river lessens with each split.

The loss inherent in each of these metaphors makes them unsuitable as images of emanation since God loses nothing by this.

When reading this I thought that maybe fire is a better image, but Saint-Martin (predicting my mind perfectly!) uses this as another example of an unsuitable description. His arguments against fire as a metaphor are strongly based on the science of his day, with a fire requiring the existence of “phlogiston” within the material. Thus fire is something that also drains a resource.

Acts of communication

Saint-Martin, in his typical style, finds a metaphor that is not just perfect, but undergirds his entire system. The best image for the act of emanation is the communication of thought.

When I communicate a thought to you – something I hope this blog does – I do not weaken anything in my own thoughts. I can still go on to communicate the same ideas to others. So, when speaking, writing, building, etc., I “emanate” my thoughts to others in a way that causes nothing of the original to be lost.

Combined with the argument of the first chapter – that we have no thoughts of our own since they come either from the Divine or Nature – this is quite powerful.

What I emanate to you is the Divine itself. The literal Word of God.

(Saint-Martin is careful to state that there is still a difference between the emanations of God and those of our thoughts. Our own actions are always temporary and subject to the confusion of the material world, whereas God emanates eternal existence and life.)

Of oak trees

Saint-Martin finishes the chapter with a very nice analogy with the life-cycle of oak trees.

An acorn growing on a tree is passive. It takes no actions, and simply baths in the environment it finds itself in. High about the ground, exposed to the wind and the sun, and taking nutrients from the tree.

Eventually it falls and finds itself buried in vegetation. But having taken in the principles of the tree (its tree-ness so to speak), it then takes on an active role. It grows and extends out of the soil into the higher atmosphere. Under the right conditions it will also grow another passive acorn which can then go on to take the same journey.

A vital choice

Saint-Martin argues that this mirrors our own path, but with a critical difference. We have a vital choice to make that the material seed does not.

We grew from the Divine, exposed to Truth, Beauty, and eternal life. Our entire being was shaped by this start point.

We then fell into the materiality in which we now find ourselves buried, and it is here that we have a choice. We can choose to become active and to mirror those principles we learnt in our original state. Principles of Oneness and Truth.

Keeping our eyes on God, we can begin to stretch upwards out of the material world, and once again reach the higher atmosphere that was our birthplace.

The challenge to us is this:
Will you follow your Law and keep your focus on the Divine, or will you allow the confusion of the material world to keep you bound in passivity.

Before the flambeaux.