.. During the summer of 1960 between mid-July and early August, I spent my holidays at Mas de Cocagno the Schwallers Provencal house ... I trust my memory to gather the words and ideas that were exchanged during these hot days and our evenings under the starry sky, accompanied by the song of the cicadas. ISHA and Lucie frequently joined these discussions and added from time to time details that the Master himself had forgotten or rightly missed ... It should be noted that when asked a question, AOR never answered directly but he leaded the conversation to another pole of interest. That often proved more promising than the answer to the question.
It was his way of teaching without entering a doctrinal line; he was horrified by the word doctrine. But I was astonished in this summer, he was no longer using this misused way, peculiar to the old initiates : his language had become clear. I had the impression that a veil was torn apart, but I did not imagine that it was the veil of his human reality, that is to say that his mortal condition was ending.  A force of intense love came forth from him, a sweetness and a prodigious depth, an energy before which nothing and no one could have resisted. I think this is the last image I will keep of AOR: he delivered to all his heart, his intelligence, his being ...

​

The Lion was part of his secret teaching and it is in the language of the birds that he evoked this figure that he appears to the principle of Seth, that is to say, a danger necessary for the future of man. Man progresses only in the face of danger ! In his secular and philosophical definitions, he called him "mental," but in initiation he called him "Leo" and he developed the idea that it was absolutely necessary to face the ultimate reality, a source of fear and anguish. ... The dreadful, fearful and roaring "Lion" was to be tamed by the pharaoh on Sed Day, symbolizing the victory of the "Heart" over the mind. One would have thought that the Master was anxious, it is in any case what seemed to show a certain behavior. It was not so. AOR was exercising whenever he could, facing this feline who alone was able to reveal his kheperou (futures). I can still hear his sentence : "Without the Lion, there would be no Scarab" ; in other words, without the power of the trials engendered by the mind, there would be no leverage for this world. The Scarab is the image of true strength. He learned that in Egypt. AOR used to say that Egyptian culture seemed to emerge from the desert ... Egyptian civilization is not the fruit of evolution, it's an heritage ! 

 

In 1952, upon his return to France, Aor set to work and began to write what would be his magistral work : "The Temple of Man". In a letter of January 9, 1953 to Renée Foatelli (AMMA), Lucie Lamy tells us of this happy moment when the work accumulated in Luxor gives birth to his precursory masterpiece of Symbolist Egyptology … "AOR is still working on the book you know and I spend a lot of time with him to optimize the boards he wants to insert. I bought a projector that allows me to enlarge the pictures and reproduce them with much more detail and finesse. I am very happy with the way this work is going, as it allows AOR to escape from the languor he became accustomed to these days. He maintains a fruitful correspondence with some he had lost sight of and revives the fire that was sleeping in him. It is true that he no longer perceived any interest in his ideas and that his thought was far behind the materialist conceptions of this century. He sometimes rebels by saying that he reveals a treasure of knowledge and nobody wants it. He knows too well what it means "no one is a prophet in his country", because it is now America that brings to him in recognition and praise "…

​

Renée Foatelli (AMMA) in her 1972 memoir wrote : "Her ideas developed elsewhere, in the fertile soil of the United States, where all his books were translated and conveyed in the circles of Freemasons and Rosicrucians. It is thanks to a long-time friend, Jeanne Guesdon and her international networks (she was Grand Master of AMORC in France), that the name of SCHWALLER of LUBICZ was known and recognized across the Atlantic and that "the symbolist Egyptology " won all its acclaim. The Master's work found a second wind and finally aroused legitimate admiration. "

​

In 1948, the research group on ancient thought that AOR had formed in Luxor, decided to manifest itself in France under the name TA-MERI (APPENDIX I). The Sufi poet Mounir HAFEZ (APPENDIX II) was instructed in 1954 to explain the directives. When the members of the Luxor Group returned to France in 1951, forced by the Egyptian revolution events, AOR took over the destiny of the Order, to which it gave the name of "Sacred Way". It was in fact the fulfillment of an old prediction by his friend and alchemist Fulcanelli who had formerly warned him of the path his initiatic group would take. This name "Sacred Way" refers to the double and triple meaning of the Egyptian word "TA MERI", dear to AOR. His project was to write a book to develop his latest ideas and affirm without fear all his convictions.

​

The spiritual testament
In 1960, AOR thinks to transmit the direction of the Initiatic Order of the Sacred Way. On December 27th he wrote a letter to Renée Foatelli : "My Dear Sister AMMA, I want to thank you for having ensured the conduct of our Order during all these years. You have always been present, in the glorious hours, as in those which were less so ... marked by the abandonment and the failure of some.
The Work has persisted until now, but like any building, it must know the law of the DJED. TA MERI will be destroyed. Ruin and desolation are necessary to allow resurrection. Such is the sacred bird that makes its nest in a generating fire and that is reborn wiser and more beautiful, so will open up our Way again on a resplendent horizon. OUSIR is watching
Yet the time that betrays and passes, often fills the heart with bitterness and regret. After so many years spent studying my dear country; after having taught the word I have heard, understood and transmitted, it is time for me to give you the torch so that our light may continue to shine in the darkness of this world. I know that my days are coming to end and, even if Jean (Physician Dr. Lamy) claims otherwise, my passing to the far horizon is close.

Amma, I want to bequeath to you the Chen which is for us the visible Sign of the immemorial Chain which links us to the Origin and the Principle. No one but you would be worthy of this mission, for you have the precious seal that connect the old souls of TA MERI. Keep it as the pledge of fidelity to the Sacred Way on which we journey with happiness. This has proven effective for millions of years.

Hand-written: My spiritual thoughts go out to the Chemsou.  Signed: Aor Schwaller de Lubicz

PS : ISHA fully approuves my decision.

​

​