FOOTNOTES

*1. [Jesus may have said it, but he did not say it anywhere in canonical literature. A similar saying is found in some Apocryphal documents, such as the Acts of Peter. —Trans.]

*2. [Here Naglowska is referring to another article in the same issue of La Flèche. Since it is not part of The Book of Life, it appears in a separate section of this anthology. —Trans.]

*3. [Though not an exact quotation, this is reminiscent of Ephesians 3:9. —Trans.]

*4. [This is another of Naglowska’s pseudonyms. The article referred to appears separately in this anthology. —Trans.]

*5. [This seems to be intended as a paraphrase of John 21:19–22. —Trans.]

*6. [This is an echo of Revelation 21:4–5. —Trans.]

*7. [So far as is known, the work was never published. —Trans.]

*8. [In the original French text we find here the following additional stipulation, which I believe Naglowska would not have included today: “You will not introduce into your midst any man of black or red color, for these races are expired.” —Trans.]

*9. [The description of the Master sounds very much like Henri Meslin, known to have been a member of Naglowska’s magical group. The priest-like gestures, the seriousness, and the mention of the return of Isis, all fit Meslin, who was a gnostic bishop (Tau Harmonious), and wrote a book called The Return of Isis, under the name Frater Lotus. —Trans.]

*10. [Many people still believe that Naglowska was a satanist, but it is a theory that has no congruence with her work, or with her own statements. She seems to have allowed, and even fostered, the misconception though, probably because it was good for attendance at her weekly conferences on the rue Vavin. —Trans.]

*11. [In Naglowska’s symbolic language, the Mountain always represents the initiatic process. The plains, on the other hand, represent the mundane world inhabited by the uninitiated. —Trans.]

*12. [We see that Naglowska has given these characters the names that she ordinarily used as her own pseudonyms: Auguste Apôtre, Hanoum, Xenia/Xenophonta, and La Flèche. The addition of her real name, Maria, completes the total of five “persons,” who in reality are all her. Naglowska did have a magical group, but the “staff ” of her little newspaper was fictitious. —Trans.]

*13. [In French it is “les Pâques,” the original “s” having been replaced by the circumflex accent. The French word is plural. The word in Hebrew is “pesach,” usually translated into English as “Passover.” —Trans.]

*14. [This is the first description of the Water Dance, which later appears in Chapter 11 of The Light of Sex. —Trans.]

*15. [This has a scriptural ring to it, but I have not been able to find it anywhere. —Trans.]

*16. [This “courser” always represents human sexuality, which needs to be mastered and directed. —Trans.]

*17. Matthew 7:6

*18. [Naglowska does not appear to have ever written such an article. —Trans.]

*19. [Colonel Alexis Métois was a French military man and writer. He must have had an interest in new religions, because he later became a supporter of the Caodai religion of Vietnam. The director of La Griffe, Jean Laffray, also came to be associated with Caodai. —Trans.]

*20. [Naglowska was in Alexandria, Egypt, for about two years, beginning in 1927. —Trans.]

*21. [In French, this expression also means to be “on the streets,” or “homeless.” —Trans.]

*22. [Thanks also, it seems, to its being originally published in an edition of only 1,007 copies. —Trans.]

*23. [Naglowska always spelled this name as “Pascal Bewerly Randolph.” This alternate spelling is sometimes met with today, but I have not been able to trace any use of it before Naglowska’s translation. —Trans.]

*24. [This is inaccurate. Randolph committed suicide on July 29, 1875. —Trans.]

*25. [This was Naglowska’s address at the time. —Trans.]

*26. [This is a bit obscure, but is probably a reference to the three persons of Naglowska’s Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Mother. The meaning would then be that Spiess wants to embody Eros in a feminine rather than a masculine mode. —Trans.]

*27. [In all fairness to Marquès-Rivière, it was the newspaper (La Flèche), not the symbol itself (la flèche) that he categorized on page 175 as “Luciferian.” I here translate his words, for those who may be interested: “. . . I dedicate the following lines, which I have extracted from a review of small circulation that pertains to a very closed Luciferian group, of Caucasian origin . . .” It is worth noting that the material he excerpted is from an article titled “Isis and Lucifer,” which appeared in La Flèche No. 3, December 15, 1930, and was written by Frater Lotus (Henri Meslin, who was certainly a Mason and was later also a gnostic bishop). —Trans.]

*28. [This is the exact description that Marquès-Rivière gave in his book, on page 175. —Trans.]

*29. [Most of this information about Les Polaires, and much more, can be found in the very interesting 1995 republication of Asia Mysteriosa, by “Zam Bhotiva” (Cesare Accomani). See particularly the introduction to the book, which is by Arnaud d’Apremont.¹—Trans.]

*30. [This is Polaire terminology for a messianic figure whom they expected. —Trans.]

*31. [This is undoubtedly a reference to her husband, a Jewish musician and Zionist, who left her with three children so that he could go to Palestine. —Trans.]

*32. [This line is taken verbatim from the first poem in this chapter, “Snow.” —Trans.]

*33. [This line is another reference to the poem, “Snow.” —Trans.]

*34. [An alternate French translation/double entendre: And with an ardent furrow. “Furrow” is usually used of a plowed furrow, or a ship’s wake, or a track. This could represent the Priestess’s hoped-for legacy. The Priestess, of course, is the now-flagging Naglowska herself. But this may also be intended as a play on words, for “furrow” could also represent a woman’s labial cleft. This, in turn, could be a reference to the public’s association of Naglowska with sex. —Trans.]

†1. [Apparently not a canonical quotation —Trans.]

†2. [There was one person in Naglowska’s group whose name was the name of a season: Marc Hiver (hiver = winter). Marc Pluquet said that he was Naglowska’s “friend,” which suggests to me that they had a romantic relationship. He was a well-known art critic in Montparnasse, and may well have been the source of the money to publish La Flèche. This would explain the statement that Naglowska’s work would fall apart without him. The mention of “benevolent criticism” is interesting too, since he was a critic by profession. —Trans.]

†3. [I have not been able to locate any corresponding canonical passage. —Trans.]

†4. [This seems quite excessive. When the book came out, the price was 200 fr. —Trans.]

†5. [Again, this is inaccurate. Osiris Randolph, who had become a successful surgeon, died on July 20, 1929. —Trans.]

†6. [Another reference to the poem. —Trans.]

‡1. [The Holy Spirit —Trans.]

‡2. [This would be the hostess, “Gladys,” of Thimmy/Magre’s account. —Trans.]

‡3. [Kate Corson Randolph died in 1938, in Toledo. —Trans.]

‡4. [Another reference to “Snow.” —Trans.]