Abstract
In surrealist researches and writings, recourse to the occult and the hermetic tradition goes hand in hand with the valorization of a set of esoteric knowledge which gathers at the same time mysticism, alchemy, arithmosophy and fictions which make an important place for mystery and the supernatural. Breton devoted himself from his first works to esoteric orientation and hermetism, consubstantially united with his poetry. We evoke the Breton text –Arcane 17, which has as its theme the arithmosophic calculation on its date of birth and that of Gerard de Nerval and, since no methodology can exhaust the meaning of this text, extremely rich in intertextual references, in images symbolic, mythical, in metalogisms, we propose to approach a methodologically open approach that gives absolute priority to the text. The presence of occultism and arithmosophy in Arcane 17, as indeed in all the other surrealist texts dealing with these domains, refers in fact to their poetic aspects. A set of Breton texts (Arcane 17, Le Surrealisme et la peinture, Perspective cavaliere, Les Entretiens) invite us to examine how this author treats esoteric thought as the possibility of a deployment of reverie and poetic inspiration. This corpus attests, certainly, Breton’s concern for the deep links between numbers, letters and events as signs to be deciphered in his spiritual approach and remains an inspiration to the most innovative sensibilities of modernity. Breton was fascinated by the number 1713 (his initials A. B. constitue, by a precise graphical game, an equivalent by transforming the figures; in the text Du poeme-objet, Breton reflects at length on the historical and scientific events related to this year) and refers explicitly several times to Pythagoreanism and Gerard de Nerval. The aim of this article is to show that the persistent vitality of an esoteric conception on the world and on the human understanding that surrealism has always proposed itself contemplates the possible actuality of some aspects of Breton’s thought, such as evidenced by a recent study by Patrick Lepetit The Esoteric Secrets of Surrealism: Origins, Magic, and Secrets Societies (2014).
Highlights
Introduction“We can even ask ourselves what is the nature of the interest that some members of the group and its immediate circle, namely Breton himself, displayed for numbers
In surrealist researches and writings, recourse to the occult and the hermetic tradition goes hand in hand with the valorization of a set of esoteric knowledge which gathers at the same time mysticism, alchemy, arithmosophy and fictions which make an important place for mystery and the supernatural
From the first emergence of Surrealism, we see a main characteristic of movement appearing corresponding to a set of four fundamental themes or rather four essential dynamics that involve a set of literary, philosophical and cultural references from a rich cultural heritage accumulated on several centuries - the metaphysical tradition and its esoteric implications, the libertarian rupture with norms and rational rules, the valorization of adventure and quest, the resurgence of unknown precursors
Summary
“We can even ask ourselves what is the nature of the interest that some members of the group and its immediate circle, namely Breton himself, displayed for numbers. From the first emergence of Surrealism, we see a main characteristic of movement appearing corresponding to a set of four fundamental themes or rather four essential dynamics that involve a set of literary, philosophical and cultural references from a rich cultural heritage accumulated on several centuries - the metaphysical tradition and its esoteric implications, the libertarian rupture with norms and rational rules, the valorization of adventure and quest, the resurgence of unknown precursors These four dynamics are not always explicitly linked, but their co-occurrence responds to a deeper logic: they are present simultaneously in Breton's work and sometimes even in the surrealist movement. To better study the original characteristic of Arcane 17, we must emphasize “the deployment of the plural aspect of the text, its semi-open character, the fact that it lacks a unitary meaning, that several discourses are based on it [10]”, taking into account the domain of esotericism and hermetism in all their forms: Hermetic Cabal, High Magic, Alchemy, Theosophy, Arithmosophy
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