This is the eighth in a series of essays of a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s book, “Natural Table of the Relationships which exist between God, Man and the Universe”. The previous essay can be found here.

As a physicist I have to admit that I struggle a little with this chapter. Saint-Martin relies heavily on the science of his time; extending various theories into the realm of metaphor in order to draw conclusions about how the Divine is working within the material world to teach us. My problem isn’t so much with the metaphorical interpretation of scientific theories, but more with the theories themselves. The fact that these theories are outdated and wrong greatly weakens his argument that these facts were established by the Divine in order to teach us.

To keep with the spirit of the exercise I try to raise my view a little, and instead think of it in the following manner. Given that a reasonable person could see such links between contemporary science and spirituality should make us pause and consider what other metaphorical truths may be hiding in plain sight, if only we could open our eyes.

The main message though is undeniable. Love flows constantly onto us from the Divine. Closely linked with our Heavenly Father, this Love falls on us constantly whether we are aware of it or not. But we have the job of completing the circle by making sure that this Love flows back from us to its Source.

Reproduction of beings

He starts by thinking about reproduction.

Plants, he argues, reproduce in a very passive way, governed by the spread of water. Since water is elementally different from the physical nature of plants, their links with their offspring are quite weak.

Animals on the other hand reproduce “with great physicality” (*cough*). The fact that their way of reproducing matches their own physicality, the ties that bind them to their offspring are very close.

For humans however, he considers our offspring to be our intellectual creations. Our thoughts and theories match so closely our intellectual/spiritual nature that the connections we have them are closer even than those between animals and their children. So close in fact that we can sometimes not distinguish the difference.

At this point he then zooms out massively to consider the Divine. Given that God is perpetually engaged with the continual creation of all things, all of which are created with His own abilities and essences, how close must these ties be. These connections must be absolute, and so all beings much find their ultimate joy in this great Centre.

Seeds of the Divine

Each of us has a seed of the Divine within us, and it is unavoidable that this will act in order to grow and spread. But just like a seed planted in soil, this Divine kernel must be given water, light, and warmth in order to thrive. Without proper care and attention we will miss the chance to experience the beauty and fragrances of the fully-formed flowers.

In other words, the existence of the Divine within us gives us the ability to experience the full flowering of God here in materiality, but only if we work for it. We must nourish the seed, and we must protect it from evil influence.

Interestingly, Saint-Martin applies this to “the Principle of Evil” – Satan – as well. Despite its great crime, it still receives the love of God. Like fresh water pouring into the ocean stops stops it from becoming a dry mass of salt, God’s love overflows from humanity into this Evil Being in a way that maintains hope for its eventual reintegration into the One.

God does not withhold his love, even from the most criminal spirit.

Backwards flow of Love

But this flow of Love should not be uni-directional. It is not sufficient for this to come from God to us — it must also flow back from us to God.

God’s love is a given, but for us to emerge from the darkness requires us to reciprocate. We must love our Father.

(This reminds me strongly of the meaning behind my mystical name and the name of this website — Avidha-Wa. “He was lost” in Aramaic.)

Awaken to that Love

Saint-Martin draws a parallel with natural light and someone who is asleep. While awake you can observe the light all around you, and while asleep you lose your connection to it. But this doesn’t mean that the light is gone. Someone else in the room with you who had stayed awake would still be bathed in the same light.

No matter what spiritual state we are in — conscious or unconscious — the Light is always falling on us and the source of that Light can always see us. To properly reciprocate, all that is asked of us is to stay awake and keep our eyes open.

Alchemical considerations

For Saint-Martin there were only three elements – Water, Fire, and Earth. He viewed Air as being superior to these three, and existing on a “higher plane”, to borrow some New-Age-speak. The material world was built of the three elements, while Air was reserved for the Divine planes, acting to cleanse the lower elements. To this end, he claims that there is an Air for Earth, an Air for Water, and an Air for Fire, each acting on the particular element to activate the Divine within it.

The choice of these three elements as being foundational has a nice feature from Saint-Martin’s perspective. Through observation it can be said that Fire rises, Earth falls, and Water extends horizontally at its own level. This allows him to state that these three elements will therefore fill all of space, but it also resonates closely with his previous discussions on the flow of Love. The upward motion of material (gases for example) under the action of Fire is matched with the downward flow of material under the action of Earth (gravity). Material becomes more dense as it descends and less so when it rises under these forces. This mirrors the love of God flowing into Earthly matter, and then rising through the Fire of our prayers and reciprocated love of the Divine.

Since, as argued previously, the Love of the Divine will flow to us no matter what state we are in, the important action for us to consider is that of Fire. How can we employ Fire in a way that will allow the completion of the circle of the flow of Love back from us to God?

Transparency of the Heavens

To this end he considers the sciences of Astronomy and Astrology.

From astrological considerations we can make interpretations and predictions based on observations of the movement of the heavenly bodies. But it may be the case that poor weather obscures or disturbs our view, and so we are left without help.

But through the development and study of Astronomy we can, in a sense, burn away these disturbing factors, leaving us with pure knowledge of the motion of the stars and planets. In this way we use the Fire of our intellect to remove those aspects of the material world that hide the truth from us. In Saint-Martin’s view, we burn away the opaque, and leave the world transparent to as to view able to view the Divine more directly.

For Saint-Martin, the world surrounding us is brimming with facts that point to the Divine, but we need to work to see them. We need to properly observe the world, but we also need to apply intellectual effort to “burn away” confounding factors and arrive at pure knowledge.

Our duty to Love

In the end, we are constantly bathed in Divine Love, even if we are incapable of seeing it. It is our duty to awake to that fact and to work to return that love by applying the Fire of our soul to activate the divine seed within us.

The only tribute that Wisdom requires of man while giving him the use of these benefits, is that he gives Him glory and that he recognizes Him as being the Sovereign Arbiter of everything that exists; … that instead of acting in his own name, as he constantly does, he should always act, like those Beings, in the name of the Living God who alone created them.

That, then, is the Great Work, or that change of will by which all the Powers of Nature have been employed since the beginning of things without yet being able to make it happen.

“Natural Table”, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Before the flambeaux.