This book contains introductory material in the first half, and excerpts from The Temple of Man in the second half, making it the perfect introduction to this author. Schwaller de Lubicz proves countless points about ancient Egypt's level of philosophical, cultural and mathematical sophistication that eliminate conventional ideas about history as likely or even possible. It's too bad this work doesn't reach the audience it deserves. Less compelling is the fact that the bulk of his work, including this book, is nothing but his own medieval, alchemical philosophy projected onto the Egyptians. His ideas are interesting on an intellectual level, but not to be taken literally, and they won't exactly lead you to the "philospher's stone". Unlike de Lubicz's measurements or his observation of water erosion on the Sphinx, which we can reproduce, his interpretations of the meaning of the heiroglyphs are entirely subjective and spring from his own prejudices. So there is much gold here, but you must know how to separate it from the fool's gold.

Understanding this philosopy makes you a good student in any religious school.I even dared to consider sufism from this standpoint and asked questions such as "what's the place of form-and- geste in islamic dinamic meditation techniques?" Extraordinary for understanding egyptian painting and architecture.

This book had to be one of the best books I have ever read. The journey that Vandenbroeck takes the reader on, is a unique one and will definitely result in a "breakthrough". Started reading his other book "Al-Kemi", and I must say I should have been reading them at the same time. A lot of things from Breaking Through become clearer in conjunction with the other book. Enjoy the journey!

...of Schwaller de Lubicz with which to begin an approach to this unique, major thinker. Though I purchased his recently-issued $200 (list) massive 2-vol. tome THE TEMPLE OF MAN, and regret it not for a second, its sheer bulk is daunting to those of us unblessed with nice work-desks, or not as at home with geometric formulations as with the written word (there's plenty of both within)... But a valuable taste of this author's style and essential philosophic thrust is contained in E & S, which reads more poetically and resonantly than the slim volumes SYMBOL & THE SYMBOLIC and THE TEMPLE IN MAN by the same author. To clarify, the best pocket-size, affordable volumes to begin with by this author are this one and NATURE WORD; I also strongly recommend the larger volumes SACRED SCIENCE & THE EGYPTIAN MIRACLE...and the book AL-KEMI by Vandenbroeck, which is about de Lubicz... From one who's approaching 50 years of living and slightly fewer of reading, whose tastes run the gamut of great east-west spiritual/literary/esoteric/initiatic traditions, I confess no author seems more brilliant, original, multi-disciplined, and worth-the-effort-to-comprehend, than R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz...

This is a short jog into Rene's greater work Le Temple d'Homme. Sacred Science is a guide to the metaphysical world harnessed by the pharaoh. One will quickly agree with the well recorded research and analysis expertly layed out in this work. This book casts shadows on other books released about Egyptain Theocracy. This book traces the origin of Heliocentricity much farther back then Capernicus and sites the Pythagorian understanding behind the Cathlic "Heretics" of the middle ages. And consequently traces Pythagoros back to his roots, his training by the priests of the temples in Egypt for 15 years! This Book is filled with amazing revelations is dry and techincal, possibly aimed at the acedemic community, but If you enjoy Ancient History, Cause and Effect, Ancient Egypt or Greece, mythology or are a skeptic you will love this book.

This is the only biography of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz available in English and as such would be an absolute necessity even if it did not contain rare insights and information regarding the man. Unfortunately the book is written in the most pretentious pseudo-literary style I have ever had the displeasure to endure. Vandenbroek goes out of his way to use big words where little ones would do, to compress where he should expand, to obscure where he ought to reveal. This is probably in the tradition of many alchemical writers, at least in the author's own mind, but Vandenbroek is no alchemist, merely an egotisitical bore. Get the book nevertheless.

Dispersed among pages devoted to small-minded pettines and pendantic diction there is enough rarefied subject matter to warrant reading and re-reading this fascinating exposé of the hermetical mind of Schwaller de Lubicz. One cannot ignore the rare biographical information imparted on the Fulcanelli milieu. Well worth a place in your library. Silvio Pan

Andre VandenBroeck's "Al-Kemi" is much more significant than a memoir (as described by the author), and far beyond a simple collection of biographical data pertaining to the life of Rene Schwaller de Lubicz. Not that these points are absent. To the contrary, VandenBroeck depicts with great lucidity his understanding of the events and personalities involved his relationship with "Aor" late into the 1950's. Al-Kemi's more vital value however, resides in the fact that reads as a microcosmic course in Hermetic Philosopy, challenging the readers established ways of thinking (even reading!), and offering alternative perspectives. Despite VandenBroeck's knack of utilizing the printed word economically (or, perhaps due to this talent), he effectively communicates profundity through brevity. Hence, the reader will note two predominent ideological threads woven into the memoir: Rene Schwaller's metaphysics of perception (derived mostly from his interpretation of Pythagorean and Pharaonic geometry, or "symbolique", and ultimately spurring all modern philosophical controversies. The battle of "Archemides vs. Pythagoras", the question of two as the result of increase, or as the result of division of the one thing). Secondly, de Lubicz's stress placed on the role of Alchemical Salt. Thus, Rene Schwaller's extention of the Hermetic doctrine of Salt as the matrix of manifestation sends the reader on a mysterious and alluring journey. Absent of any chronology in this Hermetic adventure, back, forward, and simultaneously the trek visits the Parisian Alchemical world of the 1900's, complete with Fulcanelli, whose relationship with Schwaller often reminds one of John Dee and Edward Kelly's work together. This "fixing" of Salt moves behind the temple walls of Pharonic Egypt, finds testimony in the Gothic Cathedrals, presents us with the stormy climate of right-wing, monarchist, and elitist brotherhoods of post World War I France and Germany. And it is this Salt, that our perception inscribes experience upon, circulating eternally throughout nature, more critical, stable, and reliable than DNA in the course of esoteric "evolution" (if such a word can be used without detracting from Schawller's arguement), and providing the key to the Adepts' secret of Palingenesis.