ESOTERICISM OF THE PATER NOSTER by PAPUS Translated from the French by Tau Phosphoros Patriarch Apostolic Church of the Pleroma bxtracted from Traité élémentaire de science occulte, 5th ed., pp. 427-438 (The French text of the Pater varies somewhat from our accustomed English renditions. I will therefore utilize more customary forms, while giving more literal translations of the French in brackets when there is a notable difference in the “exoteric part." In the "esoteric part," I translate direct from the French, as the variance is great from any recognized English form. - Trans.] The "Pater" has always been considered as one of the most esoteric among the Christian prayers. According to tradition, Christ would have, at the moment of the sacrifice, addressed this marvelous invocation to his heavenly Father, and all the occultists have present to the spirit the work of Eliphas Lévi on the ocult verse of the "Pater." Whatever be the actual origin of this prayer, it is easy to determine therefrom the highest initiatic essence through an analysis, even succinct. We are going to attempt to present to our readers, in the hew following pages, an initial summary of our researches into this subject. Me do not doubt that minds better prepared than ours, concerning this subject, could push a study much further that we only see to skim. It is necessary to consider in the "Pater" 1. The Prayer in itself; 2. The divisions that it presents and its raison d'etre; 3. The adaptations of this prayer according to the principles of analogy. ‘THE PRAYER ‘The "Pater" comprises two parts: 1. an exoteric part, the only one known by the generality of the Catholics of the West. 2. An esoteric part, known by the Churches of the East and whose enunciation is reserved to the priests. The exoteric part includes the revelation of the forces which act in the three worlds and the analysis of their means of action. ‘The esoteric part attaches these forces to their source by the revelation of the mysteries of the Grand Arcana. This is the synthesis of the teachings whose analysis is contained in the first part. Let us give as a reminder the French text of these two parts. EXOTERIC PART Our Father who art in Heaven [Our Father who is in the Heavens], Hallowed be Thy Name [May Your Name be sanctified], Thy Kingdom come [May Your Kingdon come], Thy Will be done - on Earth as it is in Heaven. May Your Will be done - on Zarth as in Heaven.-2- Give us this day our Daily Bread [Give us today our Daily Bread], And forgive us our trespasses [Forgive us our offenses], As we forgive those who have trespassed agaisnt us. [as we forgive those who have offended us.] Lead us not into temptation [Preserve us from Temptation], But deliver us from evil [And deliver us from Evil]. ESOTERIC PART For thou art [Because You are], ‘The ROYALTY and the RULE and the FORCE in action into the Mons (generative cycles). Such is the text of the Prayer, in which we have, moreover, already indicated the divisions upon which we will return shortly. For the moment let it suffice us to state that the words employed are very general. Father, Name, Kingdom, Will, Earth, Heaven. Bread, Forgiveness, Debts (or offenses), Temptation, Sin. This indicates to us henceforth that it is Lavs with which we are dealing, that is to say that, according to the method dear to the ancients, each of these words is an analogical key allowing one to adapt the law enunciated to a whole series of realities. It is to a trial of some of these adaptations that we will dedicate our next study. Let us return to the captial division which must be established between the verses. DIVISION OF THE VERSES We know that occultism, without distinction of date of schools, teaches the existence of three vorlds: 1. The Divine World; 2. The Mental or Astral World; 3. The Physical vorld. Mr. Amélineau, in his scholarly work on Egyptian Gnosis, insists on this fact that al1 the gnostic schools are in agreement on the existence of the three vorlds. It is the same of all the Kabbalistic, alchemical, or theurgical schools. Now, the first three verses correspond to the Divine World characterized by three terms. Father, Name, Kingdom, and synthesized by the term Will. Barth, Heaven, serve as link between the two worlds. Bread, Forgiveness, Offense, correspond to the world of the hunan Will. Finally, Tenptation and Sin are related to the flesh and to the physical world. Divine World God is analyzed under his triple manifestation: The Father (ur Fathor) considered as existing in all tho heavens, that is to say in all the planes where our Ideal may be revealed, be it in the physical, astral, or divine. This Father manifests himself by two other aspects, the ord (Your wane), the true knowledge of which is to be reserved to the initiates so as not to be profaned (be sanctified); The Holy Spirit (Your Kingdom), living realization of the Divinity in all its incarnations, and by which the initiates call it everywhere the total advent (aay it come).-3- Finally, the Divine Unity appears in this mysterious invo-evolution of the Will (your #411) whose current of love traverses all creation, from Matter (the garth) in all ite planes unto the Spirit, the Ideal (ieaven) in all its hierarhizations. It is this mysterious current (evoked by Hermes at the start of his Emerald Tablet) which ties the Divine world to the human world that we are now going to approach. Hunan World At all the instants of our life the current of Divine Love penetrates us and brings us the spiritual pread whose salutary influences ve must assimilate to ourselves daily. But, more often, we close our soul to this divine influx which, similar to the Sun illuminating the Earth, cannot, however, penetrate into the depths of the grotto that we hollow out ourselves by sinking ourselves into matter instead of evolving towards Spirit. What, then, is the means to open our being to the Daily Bread of spirituality? The following verse is going to teach us. Each offense made to our divine Innortality is a debt that we contract freely towards ourselves, and which we will have to pay by the sufferings of the next incarnation. As Pythagoras taught, we ceaselessly generate our future by the use that we make of our will in the Present. Now, there is a means to rapidly open the gate of our inner heaven, it is to sacrifice a little of our egotism in favor of our universality. Our egotistical life is in us, but our moral life is in others. It is only in acting to the benefit of others that we act in a manner of evolution; whereas by acting to our own profit, we act in the manner of involution, of darkening. If someone injures me, he contracts with me a moral debt whose settlement I an free to delay at my will. ie becomes, by his action, my slave. If I consider the hatred of his action and if I think tovards vengeance, I become egotistical, T willfully generate evil which kills me spiritually. But, if I forgive, I become universal, I act in a divine manner, and I destroy not only the evil that T vas going to do, but also the evil that my enemy has done to himself. I advance, to the extent of my means, the evolution of the whole of humanity by rendering attractive two souls which would have remained, perhaps for centuries, repulsive to one another, and which would have delayed the final reintegration. Voluntary Forgiveness is indeed, therefore, the most marvelous method of appealing to Providence which has been revealed to us. From this comes the capital importance of this word fron the point of view of conscious creation, by man, of his Innortality. Puysical World This creation of Sin, that is to say of evil for ourselves, is indeed the key of our incarnation into the world of Flesh, into this world of physical Temptation. It is the spiritual Adam who, through his desire to unite with Matter in the hope of being stronger than God, has created in his molecules, that is to say in us, the ‘Temptation towards the world below. Our era is gravely ill from an error issued from the same source. Between tvo powers, the rdea, naked and without apparent strengths, and Money, 80 powerful in appearance like a universal lever, the profane hasten t othe money and are not long to notice that this power is only illusory and that the pile of gold gradually diminishes as one wishes to diffuse its influence among a great number of beings. The idea, on the contrary, is multiplied by the number of beings vho incarnate it, growing with Teim. Between the Spirit, subtle ideal, and Matter, immediate manifestation, Adam has chosen the latter; from this come the Evil, the