BEYA Publications have the honour of presenting to the English readers the first english edition of Louis Cattiaux’s Florilège épistolaire (published in French in R. Arola, Croire l’incroyable ou l’ancien et le nouveau dans l’histoire des religions, Beya Éditions, june 2006, Belgium), under the title of The Collected Letters of Louis Cattiaux. 

This edition is available on www.amazon.com, which offers the option of the «Look Inside» tool. It is enhanced with an epilogue presenting two studies upon Louis Cattiaux’s master work: The Message Rediscovered. The first by Emmanuel d’Hooghvorst: «The extraordinary prophetic message of Louis Cattiaux», and the second by Charles d’Hooghvorst: «Louis Cattiaux, an unsung genius». This book is illustrated with 35 coloured pictures and 7 black and white pictures.

Between 1980 and 1994, selected extracts from Louis Cattiaux’s letters to his friends were published continuously in the Belgian review «Le Fil d'Ariane» under the title Florilège cattésien. Here we present them in the order decided upon by Emmanuel d’Hooghvorst when he made his selection, which included the most interesting extracts in terms of their philosophical and initiatic content.

In any case, this Collection of letters represents the cream of Louis Cattiaux’s epistolary output, whose message, as its compiler makes clear, always concerns the alchemical Art and Grand Oeuvre. 

When d’Hooghvorst presented this selection in 1980, he addressed it to the readers of Cattiaux’s The Message Rediscovered, as he clearly considered these letters to be a complement to the book. An introduction to this Collection for today’s reader should therefore consider its close link with that book, Cattiaux’s masterwork. The relationship hides rather more than one might think. Indeed, we unearth an uncommon and surprising story, like a miracle happened in the heart of the twentieth century.

However, this Collection of letters may also serve as a point of departure for accessing The Message Rediscovered, a sort of natural short cut leading us to its reading and its understanding. Emmanuel d’Hooghvorst’s selection dovetails perfectly with The Message Rediscovered, as its companion, its close and faithful friend. But one might ask why such importance is attached to this relationship. A brief review of events will help us to better understand the marvellous adventure leading up to the publication of The Message Rediscovered.

Cattiaux kept up an intense personal relationship with a group of friends with a passion for his work; some of them did not live in Paris, which explains their regular correspondence. If they wrote almost daily, it was out of interest in the mysteries contained in the verses of The Message Rediscovered. The volume you are holding right now is a selection of those letters.

It is in The Message Rediscovered that Louis Cattiaux expresses his essential and substantial inspiration, but something of that creative power can also be felt in his letters. They will undoubtedly be of use to more than one sincere seeker who BELIEVES THE UNBELIEVABLE, and will give them a way into The Message Rediscovered, to enter its halls and share its ambrosia.