Antonin Artaud, informed by Christ, announces the imminent Apocalypse. 1937.

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)

Autograph letter signed (in the text) to René Thomas and Annie Besnard.

Four quarto pages on lined paper.

Incomplete letter from the end.

[Dublin. September 1937]

"I entered into the mysteries of the world with the staff of Jesus Christ ."

A fascinating letter from Antonin Artaud, struck by mystical delusions. Informed by Christ himself, who "now speaks to him every day," the poet announces the imminent apocalypse to his friends.

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"My dear Annie, My dear Thomas, If someone comes to Rue Daguerre 21, and asks you if I am married, answer that No , of course, but if they ask you if there has ever been any talk of marriage for me , also answer that NO , that I have never even thought about it.

My very existence, you hear, my EXISTENCE depends on your answer. I cannot yet tell you what it is about, but it is a matter of grave importance.

The truth is that there are tremendous mysteries in the world, that the world is not what we believe it to be, nor especially as seen by those who say they only believe what they see.

The truth, my dear Annie, my dear Thomas, is that I have entered into the mysteries of the world with the staff of Jesus Christ that my friend René Thomas gave me. For the staff I possess is the very one of Jesus Christ, and you two, who know very well that I am not mad, will believe me if I tell you that Jesus Christ speaks to me every day now , reveals to me everything that is going to happen, and commands me to do what I am going to do.

I have therefore come here to Ireland to obey the very commands of God, the Son, incarnate in Jesus Christ. It was inspired by Jesus Christ that Marie-Anne left this walking stick at 21 rue Daguerre, with Thomas, so that Thomas would give it to me and it would do its work.

It is because this cane resided on Rue Daguerre that all the beings who have played a leading role in my life have passed through Rue Daguerre. In about 20 days, my dear friends—and I tell you this without boasting, for it is God alone who guides me, and without Him I would not act— in about 20 days you will hear a tremendous thunderclap over the world , for the cane of Jesus Christ will be used at the end of the world, and it must fight the Antichrist. The Antichrist himself will not come for several years, but in 20 days the face of things will be changed, and there will no longer be talk of war in China, nor of battles in the Mediterranean. England will have much more to do, I swear to you, for it will disappear from the map of the globe, and part of the island of England will disappear beneath the sea.

If I were only a man, I would say that I myself am going to risk death, but there is someone else within me who warns me of what must happen and tells me that I have nothing to fear. Know only, and this is all I can tell you for now, that in 20 days I will speak in the Name of God Himself, amidst thunder from God .

I will have no glory to derive from this, alas, for soon I will no longer be called Antonin Artaud; I will have become someone else, and the duty that falls to me is daunting.
It is daunting, Annie, to discover all at once who one is and that in reality one was someone else, and that this other was Ramses II in Egypt , truly Annie, truly , and that there were other men throughout history, all burdened with terrible responsibilities supported by powers that were perhaps also terrible, but crushing. I can also tell you that I now know that there are demons because I have seen and heard them; I also know that a plot…

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Artaud had met René Thomas in early 1937 on the terrace of the Dôme in Montparnasse, carrying a cane. Artaud had told him that this cane was his, that it was mentioned in the prophecy of Saint Patrick and that it still contained the blood of Christ.

On September 23, 1937, Antonin Artaud was arrested in Dublin for vagrancy and disturbing the peace. On the 29th, he was forcibly put on an American ocean liner bound for France. Upon arrival on French soil, Artaud was handed over to the French authorities who took him to the General Hospital, shackled in a straitjacket. He was deemed violent, dangerous to himself and others, and suffering from hallucinations and delusions of persecution, as indicated in the certificate of October 13, 1937, drawn up by Dr. R. before the transfer to Quatre-Mares: "[He] says that he is being given poisoned food, that gas is being blown into his cell, that cats are being put on his face, sees black men near him, believes he is being hunted by the police, and threatens those around him." Dangerous to himself and others, and attests that there is an urgent need to have the aforementioned admitted to the departmental asylum. », he is placed in the mental ward.

Bibliography: Antonin Artaud. Letters 1937-1943. Gallimard Editions.