The Drawing Back of the Veil: An Explanation of Symbols in the Hierologium

[Margin: The variants are included here with consideration for the German translation, which is almost entirely appended by our hand; those of the ancients for the latter are likewise present in their appendix.]

Note.

[Margin: ms.]

This piece is from the collection of the old Cantor Montagne and was communicated to me by the same. On the original, there was still Br. Joh. Verninac. But I do not know who this is. Perhaps it is the same one who was of the Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maur and in the year 1727 was the librarian of the monastery of Bonne-Nouvelle at Orleans. Who the author Br. Almericus de Neocastro was, is unknown. For we do not have accurate lists of all the persons of the Order, but only of the Primaries. But when it stands on the title that this explanation is originating from the revelations ex revelationibus Mar Kephae Bar Daizan, this is indeed proof of the age of the Hierologium itself, but by revelations? I understand merely the explanations of the images; whether these may have been orally delivered by those of old, or the author may have taken his explanations, which he gives here under the title Retractio Velamenti, from such written essays.

—
The beginning of the retraction of the veil or the explanation of the Symbols in the Hierological tablets
by the humble friar Almericus de Neocastro, from the revelations of Mar Kephae Bar Daizan.

Rhythm.
Hear, son, you who desire the arcanum of the Order.
It is fruitless and vain what you have hitherto learned.
For that which this world calls high wisdom,
truly closes the path to you, which offers heavenly things.
It leads indeed to honors.
But what does the miserable man give less?
For after huge labors,
it still occupies the mind
with vain and impotent desire,
which held you before,
an ardent and sad lust,
which has often ruined you.
Where God is, there is life,
there is satisfaction,
there is infinite virtue,
and glorification.
There is light eternally shining,
everything that you desire,
and paying back to you more
than you had expected.
Seek Him first, if you are wise,
then the rest will come.
Cherish and revere Him
with most devout mind,
and that which was hidden
from the wise of the world

there it shall be revealed,
so that you may know it thoroughly.
High wisdom does not come to the sinner.
Knowledge of the Light does not join itself
to the shadowed.
The profane mind never grasps
a sacred mystery,
and if by chance it seizes it,
it seizes it unto destruction.
Holy things to the holy! therefore, you are permitted
through the Most Sacred
to stretch out on the straight path
to the inner shrine of nature.
The closed door lies open to you
if only you approach.
But if your heart is teeming with sins,
you shall never ascend.
The earth is silent, the heaven is silent,
all the angels are silent
at the retraction of the veil,
when the works of the Omnipotent
show themselves to be beheld,
the great works of God.
You, in purity of mind
and silent, consider
when the darkness returns us
to the sky in silence,
what revelation offers
concerning God and Nature.