“We venture to suggest that the veils of the Arcana are the Arcana itself, when looked at at one remove... It is the veil which creates the mystery... All the operations of the Work, even the elements or ‘Magisterium’, even the primary steps, belong to the mystery of the Work. It is really too easy to reject the veils simply because they veil!.

If they did not veil, what would be left? Ah! According to the Adepts... not much would be left, really: a few of the most worn-out philosophical and moral cliches are all that remains at the bottom of the mysterious crucible...

That is of course the value of occultism and esotericism, their miracle: they bring back half-dead, greying and worn out ideas to lively curiosity, because of the attraction of the great unknown. But it is understood that these will not be revealed point-blank: which would be a disappointment. Passing from the Disciple to the Master, there is a radical difference in point of view. The Disciple hopes for an illumination which will transform himself and his life; the Master contents himself with transforming others.

The first believes that the Revelation will reveal something new and marvellous; the Master is mature enough to have been brought, in one way or another, to the realisation that the Revelation brings only the Revelation that THERE IS a Revelation: its content matters little. For the Master, the essential thing is precisely to teach. Thus the actual Object of the Revelations is indifferent: what matters is to persuade others and himself that they must go towards this Revelation: in the beginning one is sustained by curiosity, then little by little, one casts away, one purifies, one abstracts, until one knows that there is no question and that the essential thing is to prepare others to follow this path. This is why the veils, far from being tiresome accessories, are the very substance of the Revelation.”

- V. Plomb and J. Brunet - College of ‘Pataphysics.