Fundamentals of Esoteric Knowledge

The Philosophers of Nature (PON) was a non-profit educational and research association founded in France, under the name Les Philosophes de la Nature (LPN), by noted esotericist Jean Dubuis in 1979. The purpose of this group was the study and disoccultation of teachings on the occult/esoteric sciences, mainly alchemy and Qabalah, making these spiritual disciplines available for all who had a legitimate interest in learning these subjects and in the spiritual evolution of man.

Mr. Dubuis originally created numerous lessons on plant and mineral alchemy, these followed by another impressive number of lessons on the Qabalah. While those were stand-alone courses of study, the specialized nature thereof did make a certain amount of general knowledge and understanding of western esotericism a clear benefit to the student; and he discovered that in spite of several members of the association also being Initiates of various esoteric Orders—some with decades of such membership under their belt—many of these individuals did not possess a sufficient foundation in esoteric basics such as knowledge of Creation, the various forces of the Cosmos and their function, man’s place in the Universe etc. In an attempt to remedy this and make the members of LPN/PON better equipped to approach the more specific disciplines such as alchemy and the Qabalah, Jean Dubuis wrote the present 12-lesson course: Fundamentals of Esoteric Knowledge.

Although written to support the members of the association by educating them in the core principles of western esotericism, this series of lessons is yet another stand-alone course which complements the theoretical teachings with practical ones, effectively providing the student with an Initiatic study program. Mr. Dubuis always believed that the study & practice of alchemy and Qabalah, regardless of the various “practical” benefits, had the ultimate purpose of spiritual development—what in certain Rosicrucian teachings is referred to as union with Cosmic Consciousness, or the “Path of Return”, as the LPN/PON members would have put it. As such, both of these areas of western occultism/esotericism are Initiatic in nature, bringing about the spiritual “awakening”, and subsequently progressive evolution of the practitioner. Thus, such was also one of the purposes of the 12 lessons of the present work.

While the original French association, LPN, unfortunately dissolved in 1995, and the American branch thereof, the PON, closed its doors in 1999, the invaluable teachings thereof thankfully live on. However, not until now have they been available in the printed & bound form presented here. This publication is, therefore, a historic event, indeed. Not only have all lessons of the course been reedited with all diagrams graphically recreated, but minor translation errors have been corrected, as well; and paragraphs that were accidentally missing in the English translations have been tracked down in the original French lessons and added to now complete the lessons in which they were once absent. Furthermore, additional material has been included by the editor, Lenny Pedersen—himself a long-time student of the LPN/PON teachings—to clarify matters that may have been less clear in the past. All the core material of the lessons, however, has been kept as it was in order to retain the place in occult/esoteric history that these teachings comprising the Fundamentals of Esoteric Knowledge occupy.