Weekly Meditations

Paul Sédir, pseudonym of Yvon Le Loup (1871-1926), published numerous works on Christian Mysticism and Hermeticism. He first collaborated with several esoteric movements of his time; then, following his meeting with the remarkable Christian teacher and healer Master Philippe of Lyon, he devoted himself to serving Christ. In this service he gave numerous lectures, many of which were collected and published as books. Of Sédir's meeting with Master Philippe, the prolific author Dr. Gerard Encausse (Papus), wrote: "There was in Sédir's life a solemn, decisive event that made him grasp the emptiness of secret sciences and societies and placed him forever upon the sole way of the gospel.""Every book on religious exercises could be entitled 'Imitations of Jesus Christ.' May I be forgiven for having written another. Many anemic souls expect everything from heaven. This is a mistake. Rather: "Help yourself, and heaven will help you!" For this, energy is needed-disciplined, systematic energy. We must undergo a preparation, cleansing, and purification. Preparation is the desire we all have to do well. Cleansing must be bodily, moral, and mental discipline. Purification will be trials coming from the lower worlds, conveyed by the agents of destiny, depending on our strength of resistance and good will. It will also be the invisible work of the angels of Jesus on our cold and hard heart to soften and warm it. The way of using the book is as follows. Each morning, after our first prayer, let us immerse ourselves into the supernatural unknowing of faith and ask God again for His Truth. Then, let us read one of these pages carefully, ardently, in deepest inner silence. Let these readings quickly become contemplations. Let the heart replace intelligence. Let us try to love instead of trying to understand. Then let us pledge ourselves to practice the observance with which each meditation ends."Sédir believed, not without reason, to have found in Master Philippe an authentic witness to spiritual reality, to Hermeticism understood in the same sense as we understand it in these Letters: as the tradition of authentic spiritual experience across the ages, which has the aspects named mysticism, gnosis, and magic."-Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism"After the death of the Austrian thinker and seer Rudolf Steiner in 1925, when the revered Bulgarian spiritual teacher Peter Deunov was asked whether great spirits who had already died ever came to his lectures, he replied that only Rudolf Steiner and Paul Sédir attended them."-Harrie Salman, Rudolf Steiner & Peter Deunov