Heraclitus, Hegel, and dialectical understanding

For the surrealists, when the human sciences study myth they do so from a perspective that is too external to their object of study. In this way all esotericism remains dependent upon magic thought, even if it is diversified through practices such as astrology, alchemy, geomancy, theurgy or Kabbalah. Hermes Trismegistus and Saint-Martin have admittedly been omitted, but the essential difference in relation to the list of 1923 lies in the contribution of Marxist theorists: Marx himself, as well as Engels, Lafargue and Lenin. In truth surrealism has never been inclined to become a school or a party, nor to open itself up to all comers. In this it is comparable to the various more or less secret groups or societies practising esoteric knowledge, and if no surrealist was ever asked to create a poetic or artistic work, the mutual recognition between surrealists was to be found in the purlieu of this mental location.