THE DEATH OF SATAN

and other
MYSTICAL WRITINGS
By the same author
Previously published
COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME ONE
Correspondence with Jacques Riviere
Umbilical Limbo
Nerve Scales
Art and Death
Unpublished Prose and Poetry
Cup and Ball
Seven Letters

COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME TWO

Th� Alfred Jarry Theatre
Two Stage Scenarios and Two Production Plans
Reviews
On Literature and the Plastic Arts

COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME THREE

Scenarios
On the Cinema
Interviews
Letters

COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME FOUR

The Theatre and its Double
The Cenci
Documents on The Theatre and its Double
Documents on the Cenci

THE CENCI (in Playscripts)

THE THEATRE AND ITS DOUBLE (in Signature Series)

In preparation
COLLECTED WORKS VOLUME FIVE
Heliogabale
Correspondence with Andre Breton
The Death of Satan
and Other
Mystical Writings

by
Antonin Artaud
Translated by
Alastair Hamilton
and
Victor Corti

CALDER & BOY ARS

LONDON
First published in Great Britain in 1974 by
Calder & Boyars Ltd.,
18 Brewer Street, London WlR 4AS

These pieces originally published in

ANTONIN ARTAUD: Oeuvres Completes, Volumes vii.� ·• • ;. :
by Editions Gallimard 1967, 1971
©Editions Gallimard 1967, 1971

English Translations
©Calder & Boyars 1974
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0 7145 0979 5

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 CONTENTS

Life and Death o f Satan Fire 7

Translated by Alastair Hamilton
Respiration Which Returns to God 13
Translated by Alastair Hamilton
Notes on Oriental, Greek and Indian Cultures 17
Translated by Alastair Hamilton
Mexico and Civilization 49
Translated by Alastair Hamilton
The New Revelations of Being 59
Translated by Victor Corti
LIFE AND DEATH OF SATAN FIRE
 An evil fire which rises,
a perfect projection and symbol of the irate and
rebellious will, sole image of rebellion,
fire separates and splits,
it disunites and burns itself,
what it burns is itself,
IT PUNISHES ITSELF.

A being to be defined
but the constitution of the idea of Being
which is negation more than affirmation
when pressed,
an attack on the anthropomorphic idea of Being,
the solution of antinomies, doubts, worries,
problems, by way of this dramatic exposition of
the disappearance of the notion of B eing. Besides,
Satan appears in it.

Before constituting a story - I mean, belonging

to a story, and what a story! - Satan is a huge
image, crackling like a thick oaken stake: he

9
crackles because he is coming apart . A scorching
and derisory image, an empty space on fire.
The desert.
O f course the fire of hell has nothing to do with
his nature, and even if I mention a burning desert I
am not making an allusion to hell.
A curious mental instinct induces me to search
for a principle, to reduce it alchemically; and the
way to reduce it is by fire.

But Satan, reduced and burnt to cinders,

and who is starting to die to himself
is bound to the image of fire
by an extreme tension
which resembles all that he is.

So it is more through a process of ab straction

than by way of his nature that Satan brings me
back to fire. Yet nature does not bring ab straction
back to me. On the contrary, abstraction makes me
invent nature, in a sort of infernal cycle.
For I extract something out of nothing, and not
Nothing out of something.

It is essential that this book devoted to the spirit

of Satan and constructed with that inexpressible
form of respir ation, so suited to the spirit of Satan,
in which the sole purpose of every new breath is to
empty itself, to castrate itself of movement, I
repeat, it is essential that this history of the despair
of human thought should begin with an assertion
of idealism. B ut this idealism saves me from

10
presenting problems which are also reflections of
Satan.
I mean, and I explain myself ab undantly in this
book, that everything that stops us �iving is a mere
refraction of Satanic thought, ruined by the
? ) of the human.

11
RESP/RATION WHICH RETURNS TO GOD .. .
 Respiration which returns to God,
the upper face of celestial goodness contami­
nated by evil,
issued from the base slime, the flight of celestial
cranes returns to the lap of God,
the system of tears which fall between the stars
crosses the veins and the lungs of God.
The vortex lined with an element that has been
contaminated.

Like a flight of bells or of birds the translucid

snowstorm begins to water the surface,
and I am he who will never return, says each
snowflake in a cry of ice as it returns to its vein, a
frozen vein of souls and tears,
the rain of the souls begins to water the surface,
issued from the gentle lap of God,
here is the rain of angels,
with the mobile course of a dazzled spirit
searching for the highway,
like an angel on one side, but with the face of
Satan,
15
 the scattered troop of souls falls in rain and
revives the sur face which it riddles and which it
situates in the dancing mass of atoms recognized
and enumerated one by one to all eternity.

The blue of an invisible earth with unusual

dimensions stretches in sheets of ice, like a rain of
crucified mirrors,
at the very moment when feeling develops, the
flow of slime from above settles in the veins of
God through appetite and desire,
it grows and settles with a harmoniously
compressed sound,
and, with a single movement, the frozen system
displays its mysteries like the arcades of a bridge
joining two immensities.

16
 NOTES ON ORIENT AL,
GREEK AND INDIAN CULTURES
 Air = silence, ductility, power over fire,
ubiquity, indispensable food of a supreme matter,
indispensable ingredient, docility, ob edience, force,
pressure of force, it goes everywhere, do minates
everything, it is the ultimate Virtue.

64 symbols contain 64 categories of evolution,

having learnt to connect the faculties one can
practise divinatio n.

Neither time, nor weight, nor quantity.

Quantity of sodium through the blood replaces

weight.

Yan sign,
- - ln sign

Syllogism = separate the concluding hypothesis

= unbearable.
19
 Yan: action Positive
In: re-action Negative

Strokes of Logos quadrangular

Yan Matter animal
In mind vegetal

Yan Man red globule

In Woman white globule

A sort of c onciliation will take place far from

the idiocy of people,
everyone will· suddenly find himself great and
prophetic,
people will look at themselves and will no longer
recognize themselves.

Sakurazawa' s book,
from East to West.

Notion of the necessity of the void,

There is only void,
all is expressed by it, through it, around it,
absence is more real than presence because it is
eternal, it is a reaction which is more immutable
and permanent than action.

Importance of the right or In,

for the Chinese the right or In is perverse, a
quality which we attribute to the left,
yet matter is perverse and female, not mind,
20
 they seem to attribute to the mind the qualities
of matter! !
Why?

It is the In which is active

and the Yan which is passive.

The In is male,
the Yan female.

Taikyoku.

We pass somewhat hurriedly from one subj ect to

another, from the data to the conclusion,
but that does not matter.

And then who cares about the Kingdom of God,

to refer to the Christian tradition in order to
effect a reconciliation with China is to search too
close to where we stand. In fact we would rather it
came from further away .

Taikyoku
Amida

A = Taikyoku
mt = phenomenal beings
da = law of evolution

I invisible
Hi voiceless

21
 ouei immaterial

From within Taikyoku in unfathomable space

we see space, time, Beings, Events.

Dream of extra-objective divines with no

warmth plunges into Taikyoku.
Taikyoku Tao the Dragon the Magic Agent
Eternity before chaos. Silent . Solitary . Alone .
Returns on itself.

The Infinite with regret - fleeting.

It is Disappearance. Nothing.
Tao manner of b eing of the Taikyoku Universe .

5 Elements 12 stages of knowledge

7 numbers Yang
- -
- -
- -

Divination

Perfectly taught Chinese - mental magnetism,

teaches the principles

uneducated opotherapy - serotherapy, circula­

tion of the blood
to chew flowers= to philosophize.
To teach without talking. To be useful without
acting.
22
 Silence,
Tao he who sees is plunged in darkness,
advances is backward
high up seems low.

Organize life,
NO,
forget that one is living.

To save a life= to betray nature

to do good, easy; to do nothing, but
dissolve universe, difficult.

Tao Above, no light,

Below, no darkness,

in front of him, doesn't see his face,

behind him, doesn't see his back,
he who knows, the ancient Mystery, the
way of Tao,

conforms to order of universe which

teaches the Aids.

I-Ching sacred book containing doctrine of·

Fo-Hi 290 0 B . C.

Men of I-Ching did not see indigo-violet,

greater numb er of teeth,
different mental mechanism,
I-Ching deals with energetics, divinization, cos-
23
mology up to the atom.

Canon of Hoang-Ti = acupuncture,

2640 B.C.

Divination = science

I-Ching and canon Hoang-Ti

elucidate Tao-te-Ching,
Tao-te-Sang, the way of wisdom,
science of primitive, simple peoples.

Language of knotted ropes, not syllogisms,

or dialectics,
we understand through o ur own words.

I-Ching = 64 sacred symbols,

formed by permutation 8 Symb ols of 3 strokes.

Kan Symbol - - stomach - water -

=

- - communication
penetration - 2nd son,
relations between men, things, inviSible forces,
equalization of material and moral do main.

Yn rest masculine matter

Yang m ovement feminine mind

Tai-Ki first mover

Pan-Kou Universal being
Siva of Krishna

24
 Tien-Hoang sky Providence
Ti-Hoang earth Destiny
Gin-Hoang Man Will

Love Feminine spiritual principle

Chaos Masculine material principle

Kneph Principal spiritual superior

equivalent to the First Brahma

Kneph Wodh Thor

New-heyl= new salvation or new health
Thor (town of Tyre) B ull - terror
Nin-us of Nin-Iah = Progeny of the Sovereign
Being
Teutad Moloch Kronos Saturn
of the Etruscans
Aesc-heyl-hopa

2230 B . C., a thousand years after the schism of

Irshou

the Tower of B abel was built

I
Teutad-Iswara-Moloch= Supreme Being I
Wodh
Iswara Pracriti
Brahma
Siva Vishnu

Brahma Sarasvati

25
 Vishnu Lakshmi
Siva Bhavani

Sattwa intelligence
Rajas soul
Tamas obscurity

<>

Brahma Vishnu Siva

Wodh lswara Pracriti
Neschama Ruash Nephesh
Sattwa Rajas Tamas
Tien-Hoang Ti-Hoang Gin-Hoang
Sarasvati Lakshmi Bhavani

Teutad
Moloch
Kronos

Yang Matter Male Negative

Yin Mind female Positive

The feminine conforms to its feminine nature, it

is true to its nature which is to be versatile and
changing,
it moves in its nature but, seen from the outside
and in relation to other things, it does not move.

Confusion not in the term but in the nature,

of course the feminine is undulating, volatile,
of course, the masculine is set, it does not move,
but where it does not move is in its nature,
26
 the feminine is volatile but versatile, it is
changing because it does not conform to its nature,
it is treacherous in relation to its nature.
The Masculine does not move, hut it is endowed
with movement in itself, it advances whereas on
the level of space and time the feminine does not
advance. It does not move.

That in relation to which the feminine does not

move is the absolute creation, it is in the
Metaphysical Creation that the feminine does not
advance, that it makes no Progress, whereas the
Masculine advances.
The Masculine really is the Mind and the
feminine really is nature, witness the fact that
feminine Nature is feminine in all traditions. We
can undoubtedly say that the Tradition of China is
also a tradition - the most invulnerable Tradition
since it has nee moved for centuries. It is the only
great Portion of the Universal Empire which has
remained entirely true to itself; and after that?

Vau Lahut
Nasut

5 conditions !
5 senses LOGOS
5 Elements

27
64 hexagrams of Wen-Wang in YI-KING,
each will be formed by superimposition of
2 of 8 Kaua or Trigrams of FO-HI.

Man: middle term of the Great Triad,

upper trigram = heaven
lower trigram = earth

28
 0

The Cruti (Revelation)

Sama Veda
Rig Veda Liturgical chants
Hymns in verse to music

Yaj ur Veda
Sacrificial formulae in prose

Brahmana
Samhita Rituals Aranyaka
(text)

Upanishads

Atman Brahman

29
 0

The naturalistic triad.

Naturalistic triad l Agni (fire)

Vayu (wind)
Aditya (sun)

Anthropomorphic gods
of the type of Indra

Abstract deities Prajapati (the Creator)

l
Devas father of complexes
and Anti-Devas = Asuras as we see.

The Brahman = doctor of the sacrifice

Hotar = the narrator

Udgatar = cantor, performer of the

melodies of the Sama-Veda.

The last day of the Sacrifice 3 pressurages

(Savana) of the sacred plant (Soma) .

These pressurages are accompanied by 12

solemn chants (Castra) , 12 musical recitations
(Stotra) .

The complete professional manual of the

Brahminic Sacrificer
is the Chandogya Brahmana,
the end of the speculations of the Chandogya
·30
Upanishad is the Monist formula:

YOU ARE HE

Vritti, tamil.

Manvantara, cycle over which reigns a Manu

Moksa manner of being in which the

terrestrial tendencies of the mind are
completely abolished and in which the
mind remains set in the soul without
any danger of its reincarnating.

Nicha dreamless sleep

Prana the life principle of the universe and

its localized manifestations

Raja tendency to restrain the objects of

pleasure

Tattvas ( 5) the metamorphoses of the primordial

substance the relations between this
substance and its modifications and
the principles

Soul

Breath

31
 Tattvas Akasa sound sound
Vayu touch touch
Tejas light colour
Ap taste taste
Prithivi smell fever

Subtle forces of nature

by Rama Prasad, 1889.

Organs of the senses Agni God of colour eye

fire red
Akasa sound black ear
Prithivi smell smell nose
A pas taste _ white tongue
Vayu touch blue hand

Active organs Penis Agni red

Hand Vayu blue
Foot Prithivi yellow
Speech Apas white
Anus Akasa black

()

Brahma
Shruti authority of tradition
Smriti derived authority

Trimurti

32
 Shakti:of Brahma = Sarasvati
Vishnu = Lakshmi
Shiva = Parvati

Traditional writings of the Shaivas

Smriti
and Vaishvanaris
Smriti Puranas
Tantras
Doctrine of the Avataras

Prakriti Universal undifferentiated substance

Purusha

Prakriti

Great principle of the manifest

------- transcending individuals

Satwa or Intelligible Light or Knowledge

Rajas expansive impulsion determines the level
of development
Tamas obscurity

CIVILIZATION

Metaphysical hierarchy and castes

Order
opposed to
liberalism,
I Humanism, !
total man
33
 social man,
historical materialism,
dialectics.

Binah,
Chochma
and, below, the little mechanistic theory of
those who only believe what they see. I myself
only accept what I can imagine and, in this Cabb ala
of the Vedas, there are fertile areas for my
imagination,
and we are dying of lack of imagination.

The more man worries about himself, the more

his worries escape him,
individualist and psychological ego centricity
opposed to humanism,
when we press man too closely we always end
up by finding that which is not man,
the search for character is the search for
separation,
it is anti-human specializatio n

Psychology is not the science of man, on the

contrary.

THE MONOTHEISM OF MOSES AND

THE DUALJTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

We are living in an age of panic. Just as a man

who is abo ut to die feels he should settle his

34
accounts, so nations should settle their accounts .
The time has come to recall the historic truths
which everyone has forgotten and to return to
truth over the heads of the misleading lessons
learnt at School.
There where the life of the world is based on the
search for the Unity o f things,
the history of nations is the history of the
betrayal of unity.
Prophets, merchants, Kings ( . . . ) .

Zeus: Hera and circular balance, destiny, the

Moirai,
his daughter Athena,
Zeus sleeps with Leto= Apollo his son and
Artemis his daughter,
Hera has her sons Ares and Hephaistus from
Zeus,
from Diana he has Aphrodite,
Aphrodite marries Hephaestus and commits
adultery with Ares.
Hermes, Iris, Hebe, priests in Olympus,
Ades and Poseidon, Zeus' brothers, reign over
Hell and the Sea respectively.

The role of Apollo

he kills the Python, purifies himself in the valley
of Tempe.

Cult of Dionysus.

35
 He separates the individual from necessity,
he teaches from beyond the grave,
he is the first to show men the path of
deliverance,
no family, no clan, no race, no nobility,
the individual alone reaches the gods through his
enthusiasm, gains from his means of covering
himself with beasts.

Son of Zeus and Persephone, he is called

Zagreus.
The Titans find him as a bull and kill him.
Titans punished, their soul 3 bodies or sheaths,
one of the three possesses liberty with magic and
sacred words.

Liberating words, magic formulae.

To belong to a thiasis.

CRETE

6000 years before our Time,

line of Aeschylus on the Stone Age,
they knew nothing of brick houses or
woodwork.
Mycenae. Tiryns. Labyrinth of Minos.
Argolis. Laconia. Boeotia.
Human beings reach Asia Minor, Egypt .
Obsidian deposits in Melos.
Pelasgians and canons traditionally reach
Cyclades, Paras, Naxos, go as far as Egypt =

36
advance of copper and tin= bronze in Crete.
Mallia. Knossos . Phaestos towards 240 0 =
solitary progress.
Small, thin, dark, pointed chin, large lips and
noses.
First Greeks = Achaeans = equivalent of Nordic
peoples,
the elegant woman of Knossos with her rumpled
beauty resembles the Parisian woman,
starting with a round hut, then economy of
space, one on top of the other.
Palace of Minos, large complex covered with
gypsum, stucco, room with pillars with double axes
(labrys),
princely town of Haghia-Triada,
clan or family= social cell,
individualism next to collec tivism,
the woman as a goddess, priestess, hunter,
pugilist, toreador.
Mother Goddess.
Minor and his lords,
then Minos reigns alone and receives divine
investiture every 9 years,
symbol of the lily and the double axe .
Zeus incarnated in a bull.
Ionians, Aeolians, Thracians, Illyrians,
all Indo-Europeans, invade Crete,
Achaeans decide to conquer it 1 400 B .C.,
terrible and swift, they set fire to it .

Cl.an.
Collective property.
Monarchy .
37
 Oligarchy of Barons.
Colonization.
Inspired by the Delphs.
Transmission of fire.
Theories.

Idols,
fetishism, rough and cut sto ne,
dove, bull, lion, serpent.

Demeter naked or clothed,

enormous breasts, oste ntatious hips,
his daughter Britomart,
the future Zeus, son or husband, composes a
Holy Trinity with his daughter,
this Zeus is below her,
cult of the dead in ever more secret to mbs,
symbols of the Monarchy,
Crosses in holy places.

The Mother

The Virgin The Son

Holy Trinity

Choirs, processions, games resumed by the

Greeks.

38
 2500 B . C.,
they bow down before the Mother Goddess, her
Virgin and her son
singing, dancing and performing processional
rites,
dances in honour of the illustrious dead or the
Heroes.

Mycenae, capital of the Atrides, successors of

the Perseids,
astonishing palace, walls four metres high, two
metres broad,
feu�al society, towns and palaces built upwards,
tombs with cupolas prince of Ithaca, of
Lacedaemonia, Argos, Pyles.

At Delphi:
Apollo, Pythians,
disembarkation at Kirrha,
across the sacred plain of Amphissa,
you reach Crissa where the Pleistos flows,
Apollo has succeeded Gaia, Mother Goddess,
and Pythia.

Dionysus and Orphism,

chewing magic herbs and crying: Evohe !
women like this cult,
Dionysus surprised by the Titan when he had
incarnated himself as a bull,
Titan cut in half,
his soul ab ove, his body, with its 3 sheaths,
below.
39
 Triptolemy, king of Eleusis,
Kore, Persephone,
Demeter - Artemis.

Later, Pluto, Iacchos, other gods in Eleusis

where Demeter Persephone reigns under Dionysus,
a strange drama invented by Orpheus who raises
the human
and takes it to the gods,
humans can then do as the gods,
Iacchos identified with Dionysus.

The femini ne is fluid, supple, plastic, it lends

itself, it does not advance, it has to be fluid to lend
itself, it is matter,
the mind is not supple, it is subtle, which is not
the same thing.
It advances, so it is cruel, barbarous and
primitive, it is the law, but just, and we must not
identify it with evil as the Chinese have done; that
is an error of interpretation .

Heraclitus of Ephesus
540-480 B. C.

The waking world is common to all.

the world of dreams is individual.

The Sybil's voice rings over thousands of years.

40
 All is bartered for fire, and fire for everthing
else.

Men contribute to the Universe in their sleep.

Earth = water,
water = air,
air = fire.

It is through humidity that souls reach life.

Disagreement with reason = discordant relation­

ship with the U niverse.

There, before he who is, the Heroes (They) arise

and guard the Living and the Dead.

When· fire arrives it will judge all things and take

possession of them.

God is like fire mixed with herbs according to

each man's taste.

We descend and we do not descend along the

same river,
be and NOT TO BE .

Though he does not suffer the Single Being,

suffers to be called Zeus.

The Single Being containing All Things and

contained in all things.

41
Concord and Harmony are produced from
contraries.

FIRE, through AIR, is transformed into SEA .

Some things are reserved for the dead and they

cannot imagine them.

As it transforms itself, fire relaxes,

it changes master in a state of pleasure.

When a man dies he lights a light for himself.

Alive, he touches Death,
Awake, he touches Being.

The soul has an affection for demons, it runs to

them.

The dry soul (fire) is the wisest.

Reason - fire. Transformation. Necessity.

Adjustment of opposites.
No causality= action.

Heraclitus attacks the Wise Men.

Prophesies the Inspired Men.

World engendered according to Thought,

not according to time .

Hades = Dionysus.

Docetism,

42
 evil= matter.

Syzygia.

Hylic,
hyle (matter).

TOLTEC CULTURE

Matter water
earth
gas
ditto radium
ditto ???

Ether elastic transmission

Energy heat, light, electricity
Energy Mental, psychic phenomena
Energy Life

Form produced by vibration,

forms of the physical level,
of the Astral level,
of the Mental level,
for the last two levels, acquire the concept
which relates to them.

Localization: One,
one localizing faculty
of the geographical
classification of things,
means of research (tact shows the coarseness

43
 of the thing).
Colour.
The astral body stands out in its individual
colours.
The Buddhi and the Spiritual also have their
colours.

The Manas who operate in the various parts. of

the brain,
organs corresponding to the faculties of
Observation,
gates in the Manas Eventuality.
Manas - Mahat - Mahatic Facuities or Gods.
7 Hermetic Principles 7 Levels
1st of mentalism 1st of the mineral spirit
2nd of correspondence 2nd of the elemental spirit A
3rd of vibration 3rd of the vegetal spirit
4th of polarity 4th of the elemental spirit B
5th of rhythm 5th of the animal spirit
6th of cause and effect 6th of the elemental spirit C
7th of gender 7th of the human spirit

Change your vibration. Break your vibration by

means of the Opposite Polarity.
Father Mother. Madre. Compensation. El
Kybalion.
To dominate the Polarity means to dominate the
principles of transmutation.
One cannot escape from the circle of cause and
effect, but one can escape from the ill effects of
one level by the laws of another level.

44
 0

Snake mask incrusted with turquoises,

cloak of feathers, symbols of the god.

Tula, town of the Toltecs.

Two-headed snake mask, attribute of Tlaloc.

0
Tezcatlipoca

� Quetzalcoatl Tonatiuh 0
Huichiloboch

0
0

Guilds.
College of artisans.
Collective lordship.

Organization of trade on a collective and

hierarchical basis benefitting professional and
territorial competence,
privilege but control by superior authority.
Protection,
egalitarian regulation.
All bosses, same rights and same obligations,
apprentices,
valets, assistants, journeymen,
masters,
45
 exact reflection of institutions of the Time.

Corporative economy repudiates individualist

and anarchic liberalism .

Professional specialization,
no innovations,
frauds sent to the stake,
the artisan works on the ground floor in the
sight of the public,
private trades, hierarchy of large enterprises and
private trades,
privacy confers the official guarantee of
Monopoly,
private corporations integrated by the constitu­
tional cadres of the kingdom,
corporation, discipline,
Production eliminates competition, introduces
social peace.

Will the corporation be supple, will it evolve.

Monopoly, privileges.
From democratic it becomes aristocratic, goes in
quest of honours.

SIX BODIES: drapers, grocers, furriers, haber­

dashers, money changers, gold smiths.

Reform.

46
 0

A CIVILIZATION

This civilization does not abdicate,

a civilization which makes no effort to sustain
human relationships is a civilization which is
abdicating.

Every true civilization keeps the soul alive,

sustains the desire to stay awake .
Explain how high Mexican c ivilization stays
awake .

Define the power of Barbary m Mexican

civilization,
distinguish between the currents:
Maya,
Toltec,
Oto mis,
Anaxtec,
Nahuatl,
Totonac,
never affirm anything except for points of high
principles.

Arrival in Mexico
flee from Barbary Europe,
last example of European Barbary: Marxism,
if Mexico takes to it.

47
 Arrival in Mexico, flee from civilization and
culture Europe which take us all back to Barbary
and I find myself confronted by the corpse of
European civilization and culture,
a revolution against the utilitarian Imperialism
of Europe is necessary and I ask the Mexicans what
they want to do,
analyse the aspect of this barbary,
Europe talks of progress,
and this progress is purely material and
mechanical,
the human race has not been improved.

On the contrary
and here describe the state of affairs to which
industrial civilization has led us.

48
MEXICO AND CIVILIZATION
 It may be a baroque idea for a European to go
to Mexico in search of the living foundations of a
culture the mere notion of which seems to have
disintegrated over here; but I admit that I am
obsessed by this idea; in Mexico there is the magic
reality of a culture bound to the soul, lost in flows
of volcanic lava, vibrating in the blood of the
Indians, and it would not take much to revive its
flames. Nor is it purely by chance that I associate
Mexico with fire . Every civilization started from
fire and the idea of fire nourishes and sustains all
aspects of Mexican life. Fire, the image of
civilization, has remained more than an image in
Mexico: it has been actively incorporated in the
Myths by which Mexican civilization proves its
vivacity .
Earth,
water,
sky,
fire,
I am constructing a sort of hierarchy in reverse,

51
 I am listing the elements according to a scale of
values opposed to the one given by Heraclitus;
fire,
sky,
water,
earth,
these are the elements according to Heraclitus'
hierarchy.
I am putting this philosophy into action, I am
restoring these four mythical images in which the
whole of Mexico is revealed.
And I am not restoring them as they are to be
found elsewhere. I am certainly not repeating an
elementary form of alchemy. But, just as all
existing matter passes these four points at one time
or another, just as modern physics has redis­
covered the energies and the principles which are
clearly expressed in the symbols of ancient
alchemy;
movement corresponds to mercury
energy sulphur
the stable mass salt,
so the activity of the principles, their perpetu­
ally renewed power, is illustrated in Mexico.
If there is a ·culture it is always alive and it burns
things up. For there is no culture without a hearth.
Judging from what remains of them Mexican earth
and air seem to have retained the means of keeping
the living hearths of culture alight. And that is why
the ancient Maya-Toltec civilization is still of
interest to us ..
A constant irrigation of the nervous system

52
flows beneath the Mexico of the Spanish
Conquista, making the blood of the old Indian race
boil. It may flow through deep and hidden
channels, but time has not exhausted it.
In a place where material progress, where the
conquests of a superficial perfection in which we
cannot participate either emotionally or physically,
where all stable elements are concentrated on
commodities to the exclusion of all interior
progress, we can say that true culture has ceased to
develop.
As we progress, as we gain such control over
nature that we can reclaim entire deserts, heaven
seems to escape us. And this is not an idle image
with no bearing on reality.
We know nothing about Mexican civilization. It
doubtless offers us a fine chance to dream, to
speculate.
Lawrence had his idea, so why should we not
have ours? Why should we not launch this idea of a
mass culture which throbs in every individual, of a
culture which constitutes a vast and tenacious form
of impregnation? For the danger of myths,
however elevated and tenacious they may be, is
that they fade away.
Besides, the Myths of Mexico, however briefly
we look at them, still revive in each one of us
certain basic ideas, a consuming urge to take flight,
to soar above ourselves.
A civilization in which the only people to
participate in culture and referred to as cultured,
and which has an essentially selective idea of
culture, but which anyone . who knows anything

53
about literature can shake, is a civilization which
has broken with its primitive sources of inspiration.
For it recognizes a duality of culture, a dualism in
reality. A civilization for which the body is on one
side and the mind on the other runs the risk of
soon seeing the bond between them snap.
It is a long time since Europe has produced any
Myths in which we can believe ·collectively. Indeed,
we are all awaiting the birth of a valid collective
Myth, and I think that Mexico, as it revives, will be
able to show us how to reawaken these Myths. For
Mexico, too, is awaiting their rebirth.
But, in contrast to what happened in Europe,
Mexico has not yet had time to see its old Myths
die.
The Spanish Conquista destroyed overnight
Myths whose powers had not yet been fully
developed. It put an end to gods who were still
being nourished in the entrails of the country and
it put an end to them just as they were going to be
transformed. The barbarous and rudimentary
aspect of the gods of the ancient Mexican
Pantheon is that of gods who have not yet had
time to humanize themselves. Now, I like to
believe that the gods of a stricken culture are about
to be reborn. I mean the gods of the Maya-Toltec
culture which had gone to earth and which was
absorbed from one day to the next in the entrails
of Mexico. The same gods, who could always
re-emerge since the new Aztec culture had not
elaborated them sufficiently, are about to be
reborn with a still more rapacious and concen­
trated existence. (If you find all this fantastic,
54
absurd, fanciful, imaginary, irrational, do not
forget that I took care to say at the b eginning of
this dream that I was dreaming.)
Well, these gods bound to the earth but adopted
by the water and the sky, these gods which
emanate from the fires of the earth and the water
of the sky, the plumed water of the sky displayed
by the rain, these rainbow-coloured gods of life,
tremors of the water of life curved by the wind of
the sky, who play to the four resounding corners
of the sky, to the four magnetized knots of the
sky, are the ever-living vibration which talks to the
ear of the soul, to the heart of the mind. (I know
that an expert in Indian matters would consider all
this to be verbiage and poetry. But all experts
regard true poetry as verbiage, and that is what
separates every true expert from life.)
These gods·are a means of life, a full attestation
of life. In a civilization which has lost its gods and
which only appreciates its material commodities,
the representations of its gods lose all contact with
reality. But gods tied to reality are never
dispossessed of their power, otherwise life wo uld
perish with them. If gods pass to the state of
effigies it means that their symb olism was
transitory and illusory . Gods who signify what has
been created, who are sp asmodic manifestations of
being and one of the aspects of the spasms of this
being, canno t ever be dispossessed by any force,
human or inhuman.
What I mean is that the gods of Mexico never
really lost their power for they were and are active
natural powers themselves. This is what raises our

55
hopes in Mexican civilization. It is an image of the
world, the revelation of a system of forces. It has
known the balance between the two worlds (as
well as their most intimate, most hidden
relationships).
The macrocosm and the microcosm, their
tenacious reality, was first clearly formulated by
Paracelsus, who is now coming into fashion again.
Now, the civilization of Mexico lives in an
organic nightmare.
This idea tetanizes, a fertile source for every
sort of obsession. Fertile and difficult perhaps, but
at the same time close to every man's sensibility. It
would seem that no Mexican individuality can
escape or that it can ever really awaken from this
organic combustion. I mean that for the Mayan
race, whose blood is starting to speak out once
more, the means of escaping from its dreams or of
re-entering another, inexhaustibly fertile dream,
are like a mythical force whose grip can never be
loosened. - Neither the images of their explosive
poetry which bring all that is most alive in them to
the surface and turn their sensibility inside out like
a glove, nor the hieroglyphs of their armed and
thundering gods have exhausted their energy: the
same blood is still speaking out. But it is in vain
that we search amongst ourselves for some poem
where our blood speaks out, some image, some
statue expressing a live and violent allegory. Our
world has lost its magic. If magic is a constant form
of communication from within to without, from
the act to the thought, from the thing to the word,
from matter to mind, we can say that we lost this
56
blinding inspiration, this nervous illumination long
ago and that we need to bathe once more in live,
untainted springs. It is all very well to distribute
land, it is all very well for wealth to circulate, but
we know that in Mexico, at the very time when the
natives are reacquiring the land of which their
ancestors were dispossessed, there is an active
group of thinkers searching for their gods and that
they may well find them under the earth. I mean
that the new civilization of Mexico may well be
brought into being, once more, by the forces of
darkness.
Before ending I would like to portray Mexican
civilization as it could exist.
It is certain that however powerless we may be,
civilization is searching for itself in Europe.
and if there is no trace do not convert to
European civilization,
but we must help by attempting to discover
their ideal of life over there,
this is all,
but see Massignon's letter.

57
 THE NEW
REVELATIONS
OF
BEING
The fire in the water,
the air in the earth,
the water in the air,
and the earth in the sea.

They are not yet insane enough, they are not

enough at one another's throats, the more furious,
the more fanatical, the nearer and dearer they are.

Here where the Mother eats her sons,

Power eats Power:
Without war, no stability.
THE
NEW
REVELATIONS
OF
BEING
 I say what I have seen and believe; and whoever
says I have not seen what I have seen, I will
immediately rip off his head.
For I am an unpardonable brute and shall be
until Time is no longer Time.
Neither Heaven nor Earth, if they exist, can do
anything against this brutality they have imposed
on me, perhaps so I might serve them . . . who
knows?
In any case to be torn away from them.

I see what is with certainty. If necessary, I will

create whatever does not exist.

For a long time now I have felt the Void, but

have refused to hurl myself into the Void.
I have been as cowardly as everything I see.
When I believed I was refusing the world, I now
know I was refusing the Void.
63
 For I know this world does not exist and I know
how it does not exist.
Until now, my suffering consisted in refusing the
Void.
The Void was already within me.

I know I wished the Void to enlighten me, and I

refused to let myself be enlightened.
If I was made into a pyre, it was to cure me of
being in this world.
And the world took all I had.
I struggled to try and exist, to try to consent to
the forms (all the forms) with which the delirious
illusion of being in this world had clothed reality.

I no longer wish to be possessed by Illusions.

Dead to the world; dead to what the world is for
everyone else, fallen, finally fallen, fallen, rising up
in the void I once refused, I have a body that
suffers the world and disgorges reality.
I have had enough of this lunar movement
making me name what I refuse and refuse what I
have named.
I must end it. I must make a final break with
this world which a Being in me, this Being I can no
longer name because if he returns, I will fall into
the Void, this Being has always refused.
It is done. I really fell into the Vo_id, since
everything - making up this world - had achieved
its aim of making me despair.
For you know you are no longer in this world
64
only when you see this world has really abandoned
you.
Dead, the others are not separated: they still
hover around their corpses.
And I know how the dead have been hovering
around their corpses for the exact thirty-three
Centuries my Double has been incessantly turning.

So, no longer existing, I see what is.

I really identified with this Being, this Being that
ceased to exist.
And this Being revealed everything to me.
I knew it, but could not say it, and I can start to
say it now, because I have left reality behind.

A truly Desperate man is talking to you, who

never knew the happiness of being in this world
until he left it and became absolutely separated
from it.
The others have not been separated, although
dead. They still hover around their corpses.
I am not dead, but I am separated.

65
 Therefore I will say what I saw and what exists.
And to say it, since the Astrologers can no
longer read, I will base myself on the Tarots.
 HOROSCOPE
OF SATURDAY 19 JUNE 1937

HEAVEN

TERNARY

In the heavens the Tarots said:

�HE AB SOLUT E MAL E OF NATUR E HAS

B E G UN TO MO V E IN TH E HE A V E N S . HE IS
R E VIV E D FOR TH E JU S TI C E OF TH E MAL E .
AND TH E JU S TI C E OF H E AV E N R E VIV E D
THE MAL E THI S D AY.'
What does this mean?
 It means Man will recover his stat ure . And that
he will recover it against Men. It also means a Man
will reimpose the Supernatural. Since the Super­
natural is man's reason for existing. And man has
betrayed the Supernatural.
It also means that, in a world given over to the
sexuality of women; man's mind will recover its
rights. Finally it means everything that constitutes
man has left us because we have betrayed man.
And the Man in us has freed himself from man. He
has ascended to judge us for being men. And this is
why we can no longer create. And to believe it, we
have only to look at ourselves.

QUATERNARY

THE H E A V E N S HAV E INVO K E D TH E FOR­

G OTTEN F EMINITY OF WOM E N . THEY HA V E

70
USED A POWER THAT WOMAN HAD
NEG LE CTED .
THEY HAVE FOR CED NATURE TO D REAM
OF PROCE S SE S O F WHICH WOMAN C AN NO
LONGER D REAM .
THEY HAVE FORCED NATURE TO BECOME
WOMAN'S proxy IN ORDER TO AC HIEVE AN
OPERATION PREP ARED BY THE MALE .

What does this means?

It means nature is about to revolt .

Earth. Water. Fire . Air.
The transmutation will be made by the four
Elements in concert.

EARTH

The reclassification of all values will be

fundamental, absolute, terrible .
But how will this terrible reclassification of
values be carried out?
By the four Elements, with Fire in the centre, of
course! But where, when, by what means, through
what?

71
 TERNARY

'BY WOMAN . THROUGH WOM AN . BY

WOMAN IND IR E C TLY ENLIG HT E N E D AND
ACHIE VING H E R OWN D UPLICITY . FOR IT
W A S THROUGH A WOM AN TH AT TH E D I VI ­
S OR KING G R E W D IVID ED WITHIN HIM S E L F
AND FOUND I N HIM S ELF TH E M E AN S BY
WHICH TO S EPARATE ALL THAT SHOULD BE
S EP ARA'l" E D .'

What does this mean?

This means:

QUATERNARY

A natural force debased by woman will free

itself against and by woman. This force is a
death-force.

IT HAS A D AR K G ENITAL R APAC IOU S ­

NE S S . I T I S PROVO K E D BY WOMAN BUT MAN
D IR E C T S IT . THE MUTILAT E D F E MINITY OF
MAN, THE F E TTE R E D TEND E RNE S S OF M E N
THAT WOMAN H A D TR AMPLED O N , HAVE
R E VI V E D A VIRG IN ON THAT D AY . BUT A
VIRGIN WITHOUT BOD Y , WITHOUT S E X, ONE

72
WHICH ONLY THE MIND C AN PRO FIT BY .
What does this mean?
It means sexuality will be put in its place. In the
place it ought never to have gone beyond. That the
sexes will be separated for some time . That human
love will become impossible. And that this work is
already begun.
It means that an Initiation will begin in the
darkness.
It means that at the basis of the present Destiny
there was treachery on the part of woman . Not
woman against some individual man, but woman
against all men.
And it means Woman will return to Man.
What does this mean?
It means that the world will be levelled by
Right. And that the Left will fall once more under
the Supremacy of the Right. Not here, or
elsewhere but EVERYWHERE .
Because a World-Cycle has closed that was under
the supremacy of Woman: the Le ft, the Republic
and Democracy.

It means that in the month of Cancer, Death will

reap all that is Cancer: the Left, the Republic and
Democracy .
Because Cancer makes (,°l and the Left
does 69.

What else does this mean?

73
 It means this higher Initiation will b e the
produce of Death and everything to do with
sexuality will be burnt in this higher Initiation, its
fire transformed by Initiation.
In order to re-establish the absolute Supremacy
of Man.

And that man will once more direct Life

Mentally over Wuman.

It means everywhere the Masses will fall once

more under the yoke and it is right they should be
under the yoke.
Because the Masses are Feminine in nature and it
is Man who governs Woman and not the contrary .
And until now poets have called this dominating
Male: the Mind.

So what does this insolent prophecy mean,

whose language no-one but visionaries and madme n
will understand.
It means that we are threatened with slavery,
because Nature is about to fall down on us.

The thing which makes us men and which

separated woman from man is now withdrawing
from men,
observing us and judging us.
Everything that allows us to exist and see how

74
badly we have lived and how badly we have kept
the virile principle within us,
leaves us, but in order to fall on us.
And the Virgin that it will concoct is the Natural
Revolt of things we ill-managed.
And the Revolution we did not know how to
make will be made by the world against us.
For Revolution, too, remembers she is a woman.
And before restoring Kings everywhere, Kings
that will then be the slaves of all and will thereby
know how to keep the world enslaved all the more
harshly -
This Revolution will teach us again, by her
impossible possession,
which will make everyone of us possessed and
insane,
HOW LIF E IS WITHD RAWIN G FROM US .

HELL

By what path, by what means, by Whom, will

this higher transmutation be performed?

TERNARY

BY A FOOL WHO IS A L S O A WIS E MAN AND

WHO HIM S E L F S E E S HE IS WI S E AND MAD .

75
 What does this mean?

It means he is b alanced between Life and

Solitude.
And to some he appeared a Solitary Fanatic and
a Sage and to others an Absurd Lout.

QUATERNARY

THROUGH HIM THE SEXES WERE· SEPAR­

ATED WITH THE FLAME, FOR HE KNEW BY
NATURE THE FLAME OF LOVE WON AND
LOST.
AND IN ORDER TO MAKE THEM ACCEPT
THIS SEPARATION BY THE FLAME, HE FIRST
GAMBLED WITH HIS OWN FIRE.
AT FIRST HE PRETENDED TO BE AN
ABSURD LOUT.
AND THE DESTINY OF MAN AND THE
WORLD IS SUSPENDED BY THIS MOUNTE­
BANK OF A LOUT.

And how soon will this revolting transmutation,

which can no longer be a Revolution, be carried
out?
In 5 months.
From what date?
From the 3rd of June, 1937.
Why?

76
 BECAUSE, ON THE THIRD OF JUNE 1937,
THE FIVE SERPENTS APPEARED, WHO WERE
ALREADY IN THE SWORD WHOSE STRENGTH
OF DECISION IS REPRESENTED BY A STICK!

What does this mean?

It means I who am speaking have a Sword and a

Stick.
A stick with 1 3 knots, this stick bears on the 9th
knot the magic sign of a thunderbolt; and 9 is the
number of destruction by fire and

I FORESEE DESTRUCTION BY FIRE.

That is, an infernal destruction. And 9 is the

number of infernal destruction , since hell repre­
sents fire.

I see this Cane in the midst of Fire and this Cane

is provoking destruction by Fire.

And this destruction will be radical.

I obtained the Sword from an African Negro and

the Staff from God.

77
 This Staff, I have been told, was mine in other
centuries. -

MY S WORD HAS THR E E HOO K S AND

S E VE N K NOT S .

So, out of the 5 Serpents that were revealed to

me by absolutely ordinary means, 3 are in the
shape of fangs in which I saw the hooks of the
Sword. Another tapering where I saw the sword.
The last is shaped like a knot.
The First, who advances ahead o f the others,
rises like a wave and he is shaped like a fang. The
two others, that seem to turn like a bundle of
blazing rods, also end in fa ngs.
The lower one has a point, as if the earth were
heaving.
The top one moves through the air like a comet
about to fall.

What does this mean?

It means that on the 3rd of June the powers of

heaven were set in motion.
It means, that on the 3rd of June last, an occult
power of destruction began to gather, and on the
3rd of November it will explode .

Why?
78
 Because 5 is the number of Man, not of men,
but of Abstract Man, and I have concluded that the
destruction would be accomplished by man and
within man and that it would take five months to
occur.
For if I add 3 of the 3rd of June to the number
of the 6th month of the year I get 9, the Infernal
Destruction which began on that day .
If I add 5, the number of Ab stract Man, to 6 of
the 6th month of the year, I obtain 1 1 , which
brings me back to November, and November is
under the sign of number 9 according to the old
calendar.
But November is the eleventh month of the
year. And if, by Cabalistically reducing the
numbers, I separate the two ones of 1 1 and add
them together, I obtain 2, which according to the
Caballa is the number of Separation-Destruction .
Moreover the figures in 1 9 3 7, added together
according to the same system of Cabbalistic
reduction also give 2 .
A n d the 5, o f the Serpents and of Ab stract Man,
added to the 6th month of the year also gives 1 1 ,
bringing us back to November, and 1 1 o f
November reduces to 2 .
Thus o n all sides the Destruction everywhere
sought has been unconsciously desired by everyone
and I claim that it is secretly willed by everyone as
the only means of saving us from a world where
life can no longer function.
And this Destruction has begun everywhere.
Furthermore, the 5 Serpents proceeded from
Right to Left. I concluded, as naively as necessary,

79
that the Right threatened the Left, and that in 5
Months, it would kill the Left .
N o w t h e 5 o f t h e Serpents, + 6 = 1 1.
1 1 is November.
Which gives 2. And 6 of the mo nth and 3 of the
day give 9.
"
And 9 is November, according t o the old
calendar.
And 3 of the day + 6 of the Month + 2 of the
Year also give 2, the Destruction, the Separation .
If I cover 3 with 5 , I get 8, the Portals of the
Infinite on earth ;
which cast upon 2 o'f Novemb er yields 1, the
Absolute Realization,
which means return to the Ab solute.
which means Disappearance in the Ab solute,
which means Annihilation in the Absolute and
for the Absolute.
And if I add the 1 of the Absolute of November
to the 2 of the Year of Disappearance-Destruction,
I get 1 2 . Maturity in all forms,
which means on that day the Absolute matured
in the forms and found all its forms.
A nd it means all forms will return t o the
Absolute.
F or putrefaction ripens the absolute today and
it is just that the year of putrefaction should have
acted over the Months on that day. Like 12
months around 1 single Month .
Other years, other months, other days have
already played with numbers.
But we do not enumerate them every day.
5 Elements

80
 instead of 4 Elements.

F or these double Rods of Fire, where Fire turns

on itself, like the Flame around the Focus, show
that the Fire will come out of the Focus,
Like the Lightning of Fiery Ether,
Of which Heraclitus has already spoken.

O n whatever side one turns, Destruction will be

given free play everywh e re.
But what do the 5 Serpents mean?
They show the 4 Elements in the midst of which
Fate will be given free play and by which it will be
Returned.
One single Man has prepared them because men
have deserved them. One single man will direct
them. And this man is a Tortured Man.

81
 This is what the Tarots of 1 5 June 1937 revealed
concerning the T ortured Man.
 AIR

TERNARY

WOMAN BEGETS ON MAN AN ABSTRACT

BEI NG , A SPECTR A L L AV A WHICH NO
LONGER HAS FREE P L AY .

QUATERNARY

THE I NVE R TED PER VERSION OF THE

WOR L D HAS PROVOKED SERAPHISM , THE
I N EF F AB L E WH I CH APPEARS ON L Y IN THE
D ESERTS.
A Dream of Continence has assaulted Humanity .
And it is on this Abstract Dream that the world
will try its fortune.

85
 EART H

TERNARY

EV ERYBOD Y THOUGHT THE TORTURED

M AN A FOO L .
HE APPEAR E D AS A FOO L TO EV ERY ONE .
AND TH E IM AGE OF THE WORLD ' S MAD ­
NESS IS INCARNATE IN THE TOR TU RED
M AN .

QUATERNARY

THE OTHER SID E OF THE FOO L WAS A

K ING, A D IVID E R KING PLACED AT THE
SUM M IT OF THINGS AND WHO HAD AC ­
QUIRED TH E RIGHT TO D IVID E THE M ,
S A Y IN G : THIS I S AND THI S IS NOT.
- AND THA T WHICH WAS AND THAT
WHICH WAS NOT REMAINED FOR E V E R TH E
TWO SID E S OF REALITY , VISIB L E AND
INVISIBL E .
- HE REND E RED JUSTICE EVERY WHERE ,
ON AL L LEVE LS SIM U L TANEOUSLY IN
MOTION ,
AND I T WA S INFERNA L JUSTICE FOR IT
W A S NO LONG E R A M ATTER OF R E NDERING
IT ,

BUT OF TA K ING IT AWAY

86
 HELL

TERNAR Y

No w IT IS THE JUGGLER WHO JUDGES

AND C ALLS THO S E WHO MUST BE CAL L ED .
HE CALLS THEM TO AN INF ERNAL
CONFRONTATION IN WHICH ALL THAT
PROCEEDS F ROM WOMAN W ILL CONTR I ­
BUTE TO THE DIVISION OF ALL THINGS .

QUATERNAR Y

THE DETAC HED RECLUSE HAS AVENGED

THE EVIL THAT ISSUED F ROM THE DARK ­
NESS OF WOMAN, BY THE POWER HE HAS
JU S T RE INVENTED .
THE POWER HE APPLIED TO DETAC HING
HIMSELF HAS GIVEN HIM AN INVERSE
POWE R .
AND I T WAS A POWER O F DE ATH .
OUR DESTINY IS A DESTINY OF DEATH . A
CYCLE OF THE WORLD IS F INISHED.

87
 CONCLUSION

Because I foresee total destruction by Water,

Earth, Fire and by a Star that will occupy the total
surface of the Air in which the Mind of Man has
been steeped, I also preach total destruction, but
Conscious and Rebellious Destruction .

What does this mean?

It means burning is a magic act and we must

consent to burning, burning in advance and
immediately, not one thing, but everything that
represents things for us, in ord<!r not to expose
ourselves to being burnt up whole.

All that is not burnt by All of Us, and will not

89
make All of Us Madmen and Recluses,
will be burnt up by the EARTH.

A CERTAIN NUMBER OF ESSENTIAL

DATES :

3 - 6 - 1 9 37 = 1 1 = 2
1 5 - 6 - 1 9 37 = = 5
1 9 - 6 - 1 9 37 = = 9

Between these three dates, which form a

Triangle, the Macrocosm was illuminated. I t was
turned earth-side.
They culminate in the Construction of Abstract
Man.

25 - 7 - 1 937 = 7
7 - 9 - 1 937 = 9
3 - 1 1 - 1 9 37 = 11 = 2
7 - 1 1 - 1 937 = 2

On the 2 5 th of July, 1 9 37, the Macrocosm

touched the Earth.

On the 7th the Portal of I nfinity is opened for

man. The tortured man is at last ready. He can
enter, he stands on his own feet before his work.

90
 O n the 3rd of November, Destruction is
illuminated.

On the 7th, it explodes in lightning.

The Tortured Man has at last come to be
recognized by everyone,

THE REVEALED .

91
SIGNA TUR E is a new s eries of shorter works , distinguished by
the highly personal and imaginative approach of the author to his
s ubject. It comprises works of poetry and prose, fiction and non­
fiction, and includes English, American and translated texts .

Signa ture 1
DARKER END S by Robert Nye poems

Signa ture 2
OL T by Kenneth Gangemi novel

Signa ture 3
T H E CARNAL MYTH by Edward D ahlberg essay

Signa ture 4
THE THEATRE AND I T S DOUBLE by Antonin Artaud essays

Signature S
SHARD S by Nicholas Rawson prose poem

Signature 6
ENEM I E S by Reinhard Lettau prose sketches

Signature 7
REFLECT I O N S by Mark Insingel novel

Signature 8
A B LACK MAN I F E S T O IN JAZZ POETRY AND PROSE
by Ted Joans

Signa ture 9
L E S S N E S S by Samuel Beckett prose

Signature 1 0
S T O R I E S F O R C H I L D REN b y Peter Bichsel short stories

Signa ture 1 1
I MAGES O F AFRICA b y Aidan Higgins diaries
 Signature 12
PRI S ON POEMS by Yuli Daniel poems

Signature 1 3
P O L I T I C S A N D L I TERATURE by Jean-Paul Sartre
essays and interviews

Signature 1 4
HA S H I SH, W I N E A N D O P I U M by Theophile Gautier and
Charles Baudelaire essays

Signa ture 1 5
MAN AT L E I S URE b y Alexander Trocchi poems

Signature 1 6
A SEN S E O F MEASURE b y Robert Creeley essays

Signature 1 7
SM UT An Anatomy of Dirt by Christian Enzens berger essay

Signa ture 1 8
KAL E I D O S COPE b y Lyman Andrews poems

Signature 1 9
T H E DEATH O F SATAN & OTHER M Y S T I CAL WR I T I N G S
by Antonin Artaud essays

Signature 20
S I GNATURE ANTHOLOGY prose
Previously unpublished work by Samuel Beckett, Elspeth Davie,
Eva Figes, Kenneth Gangemi, Aidan Higgins, Eugene Ionesco,
Jan Quackenbush, Nathalie Sarraute

Signature 21
TEXT S FOR NOTHING by Samuel Beckett prose