Lumen de Lumine.
Revista/Boletín Mensual.
Other titles: Lumen
1935--1943? Monthly, quarterly (irregular)
Montevideo, Uruguay.
Language: Spanish.
Editor: A.M. and Leonor Tizon; Raul Escursell, Juan M. Blanes; Guillermo de Pro; A. del Monte.
Succeeds: Lumen; Acacia
1/1, 1935-1943 (?)
32-48pp., $1.20-$1.80 -$1,200 a year (Uruguayan).

This succeeded a journal called Lumen that had ceased after a fire destroyed back issues and its mailing lists. It only survives in the essays collected in the multi-volume Enciclopedia "Lumen" published privately in the 1930s and then republished from the 1950s through the 1970s, which was not an "encyclopedia" but rather a collection of disquisitions on initiatory topics like alchemy, "The Awakening of the Gods," "Ceremonial Magic in Masonry," etc. Lumen de Lumine (a name taken from the Apostles' Creed), like its predecessor, was a journal of practical occultism, centered around the vital force of sex and its mastery, and actualized through initiation and ritual advancement through degrees of achievement. The journal announced that it wanted to be the "external organ" of a "Fraternity that has worked in silence and obscurity from time immemorial" and aimed "to disseminate topics related to the evolution and perfection of man in light of esoteric traditions. It does not belong to any particular school or institution but rather views with sympathy all serious movements that pursue common ends. This does not mean that LUMEN lacks an opinion. It has one and will express it in each case." The occultism it sought to inculcate was "la ciencia espiritual Pratica," and the journal regularly published anonymous "Cartas de los Instructores" on silencing the mind and the like, while carefully noting that the higher levels of the teachings were reserved for more advanced students. "We only publish those paragraphs that, by their nature, allow for publication, forcing us to suppress many esoteric instructions which can only be read by aspirants of a certain degree." These more secret teachings were of a sexual nature, although their details were cloaked in generalities, and they were opened to the beginning students only through articles on "The Mystery of the Serpent," "The Mysteries of Genesis," "The Occult Philosophy of Love and Marriage," and the like.

"The esotericist or occultist does not use the word 'sex' in the same sense as we do. He actually speaks of 'vital force,' which he conceives of as an electro-hydraulic energy, with a radiant and magnetizing vibratory activity, similar to that of electricity, to which it is very closely related, and is also capable of compression and pressure in the same way as hydraulic force. This Force radiates from the Great First Cause and is therefore divine in its nature . . . . * * * We have found (and we believe that every man or woman who can think sensibly can find) a sacred spiritual action in the manifestation and development of these energies which have such a transcendental and cosmic character. Only human beings of a lower state of evolution and disoriented by the accumulation of prejudices that obscurantist creeds or criminal conveniences erect in their midst, degrade and prostitute the sexual practice that possesses, in essence, a sublime principle."

The journal also published lengthy selections of occult fiction, an explication of "Light on the Path," and increasingly gave space for articles and filler on "The Law of Seven," the "Zodiacal Interpretation of the Pillars of Solomons Temple," "The Mysterious Ruins of Zimbabwe," "The Thought of Gandhi," etc., with long pieces on Hindu philosophy, Agni Yoga, R. Tagore, and diatribes against the Black Brotherhood of Ahriman (Satan), whose plans were revealed in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in 1906 which were then "intentionally and maliciously" attributed by the Brotherhood to the Jews in order to hide the omnipresent hand of the International Monopolies.

The journal was written and published anonymously with the exception of rare fiction by Mario Radarelli, the editor of El Mensaje, and poetry by the unknown Ana Logan ("Wisdom drew near to me, but my knowledge drove it away. Come, Understanding, I will try to silence the voice of my beliefs!"). It occasionally listed names of certain persons required by law to be responsible as editors or directors, like "Leonor Tizon," but they are unlikely to have been the authors or creators of the material published. (Tizon in 1933 was running a dry cleaning shop on Ituzaingo in downtown Montevideo and seems unlikely to have had the background to create the journal). The real author of the journal (and of the Grupo Lumen, which was said to have been in existence for 30 years) was Antenor Dal Monte (Antenor Dione Dal Monte Ferrari, 1912-1988), known today only for his works on introducing young apprentices to the esoteric mysteries of Masonry. Like Guenon, Dal Monte believed that freemasonry was a legitimate initiatory path to spiritual growth. His initiatory name in Masonry was "Lumen" and he was listed a few times in this journal as the one to contact with questions. He also was listed as editor on some editions of Enciclopedia "Lumen" and has the copyright on the editions republished in the 1970s. Most significantly, several works later published under his own name had earlier appeared in this journal.

The group around Dal Monte is said also to have published regular quarterly notebooks on the study of H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine and a private quarterly journal, Acacia. Biblioteca Nacional del Uruguay; Deutsche Nationalbibliothek; Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Preussischer Kulturbesitz; ZDB lists in many other German libraries.

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