Saint Germain: Letter from Francis (Bacon), Oct 1, 1946,
dictated to G. Innocente
To the aspiring friends, greetings! I look with fondness upon your loving, gentle hearts aspiring to
wisdom & the accomplishments of the spirit. I think backward upon the days when I too, bound in the heavy garments of
unyielding flesh, pursued a like road toward the ever-beckoning achievement of mastery.
During my years of political life in England I learned that for the seer there is no peace in outer
living. Again & again my attempts to pierce the mysteries were interfered with by the pull of human interference. The
so-called tragedy of my political career gave me the opportunity for which I had longed, the freedom from duty to the filthy,
sordid wheels of political intrigue.
I left England with my books & manuscripts for a small & uncharted island, Bermuda, that I had
discovered in my earlier years while sailing. I had found a cave where uninterrupted I might pursue the course of my philosophical
thinking. I brought with me provisions for my simple wants & arranged with an old & trustworthy servant that from
time to time he would sail out to my sanctuary with necessary equipment for the sustaining of my body's life until my earthspan
was completed.
I simple equipped a small cave, hidden well amidst a grove of low-growing evergreens, that no house
nor hut might attract the attention of the teeming masses that might perchance escape their usual haunts & thru freak
of nature's storms or an unhappy quirk of their own thinking find themselves in the vicinity of my self-chosen exile. Curiosity
being one of the ugly propensities of the unawakened, I shuddered to even contemplate their delight at discovering my beautiful
island & shattering its silent beauty by their noisome merriment.
& so as my faithful friend's boat sailed away in the twilight I turned serene & happy at heart
to my lovely island at last to know peace & the uninterrupted serenity of Godly living. Ah me, I smile yet at my innocence!
A man alone freed from the turmoil of outer living on the brink of heaven!
Slowly at first & then in most intensifying pressure I found that I was not alone. A million teeming
thoughts of unhappy origin stretched across the bridge from my island to the homeland. A million agonizing, heartrending feelings
raised ephemeral figures of the loved ones & the ones despised. a thousand body cries rose as wind & rain & weather
changed the atmosphere of my habitation. Ah, then did I learn the truth that after I affirmed, "Man resists persons, places,
conditions & things because he has not mastered himself!"
& there amidst the bluest skies, the softest silvery sand, & the most exquisite greenery of
nature I faced the tempest. All the hell of Europe's brothel & my heartbreak & my ignominious suffering was within
me. I could not read nor study. I paced the shores of my island in horror to find the creatures of my own making. Never was
man nearer madness than your humble servant! I knew then truly why man & the whole world is kept busy in much outer doing
rather than face the truth that lies within himself. & then when the shock of my discovery had somewhat abated, I began
at the beginning in the firm knowledge that all, both good & evil, was within myself.
& with ever growing clamness & understanding I began to unravel the good from the evil &
to become master of self, to know tranquility.
Thus, to you dear aspiring ones, I AM grateful that you shall be spared the full impact of facing the
dweller on your threshold thru the merciful grace of the violet consuming flame. I determined after my own experience to perfect
some alchemical process whereby the aspirant might have softened this terrible experience & awakening, & I urge you
now in your forward progress to use that flame to hasten your entrance into the sphere of tranquility.
Lovely friends, blessed be your progress. I love you every one. May you from this simple letter learn
that where ever you go here or above, you must always take yourself, & that nothing but yourself causes your pain. &
nothing but your self will see your victory.
Gratefully & sincerely, your FRANCIS
