MEDITATIONS ON THE PATER NOSTER

BY PAPUS
OUR FATHER
Father
The Father evokes the idea of the Creator, the idea of the Active Creator. At the same
time this term implies the idea of the love of the Creator for all of His creatures. Active
Creative Power and Supreme benevolence, such are the two principles evoked by the
term: Our Father.
From a purely intellectual point of view, the term Pater makes it possible to understand
how the adepts of all religions could be in intellectual and moral communion with regard
to the same idea of a Creative Power, and of Supreme Benevolence.
In this connection, Brahmanism sees the action of the Active Creative Power: namely,
Brahma, as balancing the preserving power of Vishnu and the transforming power of
Shiva. But the Initiates go further. The Father is the point of ya, opposed to the point of
ma. It is the mystical Yod of the Qabbalists and the first element of the sacred name. It is
linked to Yod Pater (Youpiter: Jovis, of the ancient sanctuaries). It evokes the Pitris or
creative powers of the Father. For the Buddhist, this term is linked to the teachings of
Yoga, of the Active Creative Principles and their mysterious mantras. For Islam, it is the
culmination of the Name of which al is the pronoun: Gabriel said to Mohamed: I am
the al of lah, the pronoun whose mystical name is formidable. Lah is one of the
keys to the name of the Creative Father of Abraham and of his Church. Allah is Allah and
Mohamed is His Prophet Sufism provides the active keys to this revelation.
WHO ART IN HEAVEN
Heaven
Any created being has its heaven, its earth and its horizon, and its central or infernal
core, its inferior or lower places.
Above the earth shines the Heavens, with its Stars and Planets, with its immense fluidic
Sea, in which the stars, true ships, plunge into and emerge from the floods; where the
paths of the zodiac indicate the path of the celestial arches and where the divine powers
inscribe their periods in letters of fire. In the same way man has his heaven, mind (spirit),
which illumines his path, the astral life, which maintains his forces, and the infernal
instinctive centers which darken his horizon.
However, any Heaven, to whatever plane it belongs, is the abode of the father. If it is a
being of sin like man, who voluntarily dressed himself in the skin of the brute (animal,

beast) then that celestial spark of the Father is in the center of the Spirit (mind) and shines
at the deepest of the most obscure external layers. If it is a planet, this divine spark
manifests itself in the ray of light, which links the planet to its sun. It is necessary,
therefore, to determine the heaven of a being in order to discover the true center of action
of the Father. If Christ, the Word (verb) made flesh, is truly the envoy of the Father, it is
necessary that on December 25, the day of His arrival, one should see in the heavens the
stereotypes of this incarnation. However, on this date, the Celestial Virgin, the Ox, and
the Ass surround the stable in the heavens where the Magi and the shepherds come to
adore the Announced. Our Father which art in Heaven, O profound Mystery worthy of
occupying an entire human existence for the one who wishes to understand the union of
the Father and the cycles of astral eternity.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
The Divine Name
A rabbinical legend claims that the one who knows how to pronounce the true Divine
Name can accomplish all miracles, and raise the dead. The enemies of Christ even said
that it is by having overheard the secrets of this pronunciation that Our Savior was able to
accomplish His miraculous works.
All these legends hide, as usual, a profound truth: namely that to know the Divine Name
is to possess the key to all human sciences, and ancient Initiation was based uniquely
upon the study of the Divine Name and its adaptations.
According to the Hebraic Qabbalah, Divinity is exteriorized by way of ten names of
which the only esoteric one is the fourth, formed of four letters and so powerful that it is
forbidden to spell it. This name, for the profane, is pronounced: Adonai (the Lord), and
for Initiates it is: IEVE, according to the four letters of which it is constituted: Iod, Heh,
Vau, Heh.
This name of the Heavenly Father is constituted in such a way as to reveal the key to all
human knowledge. Saint-Yves dAlveydre, in his mission of the Jews, shows, in effect,
that the second Heh of this distinguished name corresponds to Natural Science and to the
study of Nature Naturee or Nature in its passive, receptive state. The Vau corresponds to
the human Life Sciences, to the Biology of Humanity. For its part the first Heh
corresponds to Sciences of Nature Naturante or Nature in its active state, as the cause of
phenomena, and finally the Iod corresponds to the Sciences of Divine Nature itself.
Therefore, the one who knows the name of the Father can no longer profane it without
himself or herself denying all creation and its raison dtre.
By evoking at the beginning of his prayer this Divine Name, Our Lord thus links his
apostolic mission to all of the ancient mysteries, just as the attribution to each of the
evangelists, later in the form of the Sphinx, would indicate even more this linkage,
symbolized by the worship of the Magi during the birth of the Savior.

Now, what is indicated by the expression: Hallowed be thy name?

The one who knows the secret of the name of the Father can no longer pronounce this
name without trembling and praying. Even more importantly, by the effect of the
evocation of this name, the mouth, which enunciates it, the brain, which creates the
stereotypes of each sound which the larynx pronounces, the air, which vibrates under the
enunciation of the Word, all become a sanctuary and receive a ray of Divine Light. It is,
therefore, only in a sanctuary that this name, which sanctifies all, can be evoked, and man
must endeavor to create within himself such a center of divine evolution.
This creation can be effected by way of a triple effort:
1. Sanctification of the physical body by fasting, vegetarianism and an entirely mystical
training;
2. Creation of a living (animated) or astral Sanctuary by way of the Domination of the
passion stereotypes on all planes;
3. Creation of the mental Sanctuary by Silence and the observation of not thinking ill of
anyone.
Finally, Prayer and the Appeal to Divine Assistance create the spiritual Sanctuary within
us. Forgiveness and detachment from all that is terrestrial naturally supplement this
impulse. It is then, and then only, that the Creator finds in His creature the dwelling place
appointed for his efforts and for all the power of Divine Creativity.
THY KINGDOM COME
The Father left to man his freedom, and the human being organizes, according to its own
human will, social bodies and collective groupings. The Kingdom has, therefore, been
voluntarily shared by the Creator.
Man is free in his social sphere like a passenger is free in his/her cabin. The passenger,
once in his or her cabin, and throughout the duration of the voyage, can decorate it in his
or her own way, can furnish it even according to his or her taste. And, just like American
billionaires, he or she can even commit suicide in it. But all that does not in any way
influence the general course of the ship or the life of the other passengers. However, the
general progress of the ship of the Universe is reserved to the Creator, the only master of
all the only master of all, but He has a little kingdom to the human being who often
abuses it. If man understands, he adapts his personal laws to those of the Father, and then
the Reign of the Father is realized. It is to this realization that all the efforts of the true
children of Heaven must tend. Knowledge of the Reign of the Father implies the study of
all the laws of Harmony on all planes.

THY WILL BE DONE

Man, in order to leave the state of darkness into which his revolt plunged him when he
constituted Adam Kadmon, or collective Humanity, must develop a series of faculties,
which will later enable him to fight effectively against the old stereotypes which will
return. To develop these faculties, the Will plays a great role. But man is so proud of his
possession of this Will, that he makes of himself the center, and endeavors to fight against
any other incentive, even against the Will of the Father. To know how to place all power
in the hand of the Divine, to know how to obey and incline oneself, the more one is
powerful and believes oneself capable of everything; to know how to drive dreadful
doubt from ones spirit (mind) and to follow the right path of the middle, all that is the
work demanded of all those who prefer the Will of the Father to their own volition.
There exists on all planes of matter an intelligent force of inversion, which comes from
the realm of the Great Celestial Revolt, the ancient Seraphim, Lucifer. That the skeptics
and ignoramuses of holy things laugh here, it matters little. This opposing force exists,
just as the cone of the shadow that the earth trails behind it in the Heavens exists, just as
the shadow of all materialized beings also exists. The mystics call this force when it acts
here: the Prince of this world. At the end of the Pater, Christ will describe its means of
action, as well as the domain of this force of inversion.
Let us say here only that the struggle of the feeble Will of Man against the Will of the
Father-a struggle that is permissible because he has been granted his Freedom-is the great
vehicle of action for this power of inversion.
This force of inversion ties Man to all that is of this world, to all that one leaves here at
death: material goods, purely earthly affections, the egotism of a comfortable life while
others are dying of hunger on our doorstep.
Then comes war, that great crisis of social fever. All that one believed to have been built
on everlasting rock collapses. Money no longer serves to buy objects, which suddenly
have become scarce; the house in which one was sure to finish ones days, in a few
minutes collapses under the rush of shells; it is necessary to flee by road, abandoning
everything. And the rich farmer of yesterday, is today a poor emigrant who craves shelter
for his wife and his children, who are still quite happy that the man, the father, is there,
and that the poor woman no longer has to leave alone. Then the Will of the Father is
accomplished in spite of human heroism. One understands, one kneels and prays: Father,
may your will be done.
ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Each object or each human being has its shadow and its light. Each being of the
universe is constituted of various planes: thus the earth has a core, a nucleus, a vegetable
coating with rivers and mountains, an atmosphere in which bathe the solar rays,
constituting the day, and the soft light of the stars and the moon, constituting the night.

For our Sun, the Heavens is the entire zodiacal route with its millions of suns similar to
itself.
For the human being, as for any materialized being, the Heavens is not in the terrestrial
clouds, it is within Man himself, in his Spirit (mind), since man, according to Saint Paul,
is: Corpus, Anima and Spiritus.
Heaven and Earth are thus the universal and non-specific terms, which designate all that
is inferior.
The Heaven of Man is his Spirit (mind), his Earth is his body. Father, let your Will be
done in my body as it is done in my Spirit (mind), says the one who knows.
Harmony in all the Earth, Harmony in all the Heavens is the adaptation to a single will:
that of the Father. To know how to recognize what is Earth, and what is Heaven and to
know how to adapt all to divine harmony: it is there that one finds the secrets of true
Science, namely that of Life on all planes.
GIVE US EACH DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
Here begins, in the Pater, what relates directly to man. The sinner asks for the assistance
of the father to support the trials of the day, which begins. The thirst to possess, and the
fear of not having, exists in all material Nature. The marine plants, to which the tide has
brought food, are distressed by fear of want during the entire ebb tide. It is the same with
human nature.
Material life during the period of incarnation is intended to generate within us faculties
of which our Spirit (mind) will have great need in its future struggles. To withstand the
tests and trials, one needs a sort of graduated training, and the tests and trials are also
graduated according to our power of resistance. By requesting of the Father our daily
bread, we are not only asking for bread for the body, which He will do the utmost in
order to grant us, but we are also asking for the bread of the soul and for that of the spirit
(mind).
The daily Bread of the soul, is the force of creation, which resides in the good astral
stereotypes around us, and the daily Bread of the Spirit (mind), these are our challenges.
There are no trees, which produce beautiful flowers on this Earth without having below,
its roots, which grow in the shadows by pushing aside, with difficulty, hard stones and by
penetrating the unyielding earth. However, in order to grow, any human faculty-the
flower-also requires the hard work of tests and trials-Challenges-confronted by the roots.
The Father will never abandon His creature, and it is He himself who comes to suffer
with us at the time of our pain.
He appears and comes to say: Child of the dream, be courageousIf the terrible power
of Death appears around your relatives and friendsdo not despair entirelyI will be

thereclose to your broken heartat the very depth of your pain, call on meand you
will see then that I am really the Savior and you will fell my presence in the most
profound depths of your beingPray fervently and say with mePater da nobis panem
nostrum quotidianum
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS
AGAINST US.
After the support of the physical plane, after the triple bread of the material, here is the
key to the evolution of the soul on all planes. Here it is necessary to compare the Latin
text with the French commentary: Dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus
debitoribus nostris. Which one can translate as: remit to us (forgive) our debts as we
remit (forgive) the debts of those who are our debtors.
Forgive always, and always, always remit debts, and your assets will become
increasingly large; stars will be added to stars in your invisible sphere, more especially so
if you are perceived on Earth as a simpleton and as a being too stupidly good.
It is difficult to remain a defendant before the courts, to lose lawsuits and never wanting
to be a petitioner. But there is, on all planes, a path of evolution so sure and so precise
that the one who knows it will never abandon it.
Another consequence of this word is that it is always necessary to render unto the light
that which has been done in the dark. Evil lives in darkness; it fears the light. Therefore,
if you have to reprove your brother, do so in his presence and in light.
If, on the contrary, you have to do good to your brother, do so without the knowledge of
all in the dark. Thus you pay the debts against all the slandered, the disinherited and the
unfortunate of all kind.
It is necessary that the soul breathes a pure astral atmosphere and forgiveness is the
great key to the evolution of the soul, just as prayer is the key to the evolution of the
Spirit (mind).
To know how to forbear, how to suffer, how to pray, and how to forgive is one of the
most active paths for the practical mystic. All religions, truly linked to a divine center,
have put into practice the teachings given by the Savior in this admirable part of his
prayer.
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
The Latin says more clearly: Ne nos inducas in tentattionem. Do not lead us in the path
of Temptation.
Man can progress each day only by way of a more intensive training. To resist the
allurements, which will assail us on the spiritual plane, we must, know how to drive out

these seductive stereotypes, which each present themselves three times to the center of all
our sensations.
Initially a stereotype produces only a slight, faint impulse. If we resist, the stereotype
returns a second time, but this time a little stronger. This time, we cannot resist only with
our strength; it is necessary to seek assistance from above. If we ask, we are given a
being of light, who comes to us like a friend and who fights at our side.
Then the stereotype returns for the last time, even stronger, and again it is necessary to
ask for aid, but this time not only in our thoughts, but more so by way of our deeds. We
must surround ourselves with an aureole of light, if this time we wish to gain a final
victory. If we win, the stereotype is broken. It will no longer present itself. If we
succumb, it will be necessary for Heaven to descend within us in order to erase the
shadow, which we placed within our spiritual atmosphere. This will be the object of the
next verse.
This teaching on the triple coming of each temptation will be understood only by those
who know the conduct, the manner of proceeding of the stereotypes from which result the
majority of our deeds.
What it is especially important to know, is that we cannot do anything alone. It is
necessary to ask the Father to graduate the pressure in accordance with our strength of
resistance according to the formula Astra inclinant non necessitant. Destiny inclines us
toward a path, it does not force us.
Any passion is, in sum, a cerebral incitement towards a higher or lower path depending
upon the stereotype. The purpose of the training of the will is to curb this impulsive
movement. If we seek assistance for this action, then we are very likely to overcome
destiny. The square of evil, 5, or 25, is balanced by the Square of the number of God, 3,
or 9, and the square of the number of man, 4, or 16, (9+16=25). It was the Chinese who
taught this system to Pythagoras, and the Academics of Europe made of it a bridge to
assess the Baccalaureate, without understanding it any more than school children do.
Heavenly Father, receive our prayer, and lead us far from the path of the stereotypes of
tempters.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Sedl libera nos a malo, says the Latin.
The human being is weak on earth and often draws a curtain between his/her will and
the beneficial influence of the Father. It is necessary that divine pity traverse the
thickness of this veil in order that it may come to save the blinded or deluded creature.
Evil has invaded all, and the poor creature no longer has any energy to dominate
temptations. At this point in time the role of the Savior manifests with more splendor, if
ever that is possible. It descends into hell once again, celestial purity is overcome by the

splashes of the wicked and wretched stereotypes and, like the diamond, which passes
through mud without internal stains, this Christ force burns the bark without being
injured, impaired, or sullied. For that to occur, what is required? A dash, a rush, a flight,
an enthusiasm of the creature towards its Creator. Like the injured in the ditch, who
gently groans and attracts succor, so too the sinner who expresses the slightest
enthusiasm towards the Creator is at once hearkened unto.
And the release from evil may be physical, as in the healings by Christ. It may be on the
level of the soul, as in profound despairs when the Savior comes to manifest his presence
and his peace. Or it may also be spiritual, when unquestionable Faith comes to liberate
the Spirit (mind) from its doubts and its insidious questions.
And let us note that evil is not personified. There are powers or inversions, but of the
invisible we know but very few things. Some have made of the ancient God Pan, an
actual horned and twisted devil. The ancient Typhon of Egypt long ago made little
children tremble. But the Savior does not wish to personalize evil. He asks the Father to
erase it in its effects in the three centers of the human being, and that is all. For here, it is
a matter of an immediate question in which philosophical sophisms could not take hold.
First, let us save the sinner who appeals for relief and let us discuss afterwards.
Heavenly Father, if I have poorly understood my brother of the other realms of your
Kingdom, if I believe myself to be the only sage or the only possessor of Truth, manifest
your strength, show me that, as the Verb Incarnate has said, In my Fathers House are
many Mansions, and return to me charity and humility, those generators of all positive
virtue. Father, deliver us from evil.
FOR TO YOU ALONE BELONG ROYALTY, AND JUSTICE, AND POWER IN
THE CYCLES OF ALL ETERNITY.
The Latin Church concludes the Pater according to the last verse, which we have just
cited. But the Greek Church preserved the so-called Esoteric verse, which is the
response of the creature to the kindness of the Creator.
On the plane of the Spirit, all true direction, all spiritual Royalty comes from you, Oh
Heavenly Father.
On the plane of Soul, all social and moral harmony, all true justice comes from you and
only from you, Oh Heavenly Father.
On the material plane, all active force, all motive power in a world with its suns, its
planets and its continents, or in a small cell with its solar nucleus, its planetary plasma
and its zodiacal envelope, all come from you and only from you.
And in the cycles of the Eons of Eternity, all created beings, or all existing things crying
in their triple planes of manifestation:

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, the divine Father whose life circulates in all Eternity,
whose Verb (Word) determines all existence, and whose spirit (mind) of light illuminates
all material beings.
Vita, Verbum, et Lux, Basileia, Doxa, Dunamis, profound mystery that the soul perceives
in Prayer and which gives to the one who possesses it the greatest gift that one can hope
for on Earth: The Peace of the Heart-Peace of Mind! Amen.
Used with permission of LInitiation. Volume 3-#2, Winter 2003. English Edition.