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Laure Desforges lives in Chantilly, in the Oise, in Picardy (France). She is the author of two books about the Saints. In her life, her passions are the stories she tells to her children, the flowers in her garden and the European mythology.
We had the privilege of being able to talk with her. Thanks to the Divine.
OJL : Hello Laure
Laure Desforges : Hello. Thank you for granting me this interview (smile).
OJL : So we will try to understand your personality a little first. Then in a second time we will talk about your work. Can you tell us what is your favorite color(s)?
Laure Desforges : The green.
OJL : The number(s) or digit(s) that you prefer?
Laure Desforges : The “22”.
OJL : The animal(s) that you like?
Laure Desforges : The deer.
OJL : The sport(s) that you prefer?
Laure Desforges : Gardening and walking at dawn with my dog.
OJL : The brand(s) you like?
Laure Desforges : The brand « Godin ». It’s the one on my wood stove.
OJL : A quote and/or a sentence that you like?
Laure Desforges : « Will I one day be pure enough to reflect myself in the tears of the Saints? » by Cioran.
But it was through my friend Rodolf Z. that I really understood it…
OJL : Finally, who are the superheroes (or even super-villains) that you admire?
Laure Desforges : There are several…
1_Edmond Furax (Signed Furax – French radio series)
2_Odin
3_Saturn
4_And many of the Saints to whom I have dedicated my books…
OJL : Let’s talk a little about you now. How could you introduce yourself?
Laure Desforges : I am a French mother.
I was born on October 22, 1981, on the last day of Libra.
One day, I came across this sentence from Céline who said: “We are dying of being without legend, without mystery, without grandeur. The heavens vomit us. We perish in the back room.”.
I decided to take the opposite view, and to live :
With my loved ones, dead and alive, in flesh, blood and spirit, with my ancestors and my children, in my home, in my forest, in my country, with our traditions, our myths, our legends…
OJL : What you say is very moving… Who are the professionals who shaped you? Who struck you down? In a few names and why.
Laure Desforges : I’m going to name three, and in doing so I realize that all three were born at the end of January, under the sign of Aquarius and under the northern shore of the Milky Way:
1_Claude Gaignebet
A huge folklorist specializing in Rabelais, but above all a shepherd, and a celestial tramp… I only met him through his books, because he died on February 5, 2012 (Sainte-Agathe), a few days before I had the good idea to write to him…
2_My friend Philippe B.
He was an auctioneer, a huge pagan genius, heir to Gargantua, with encyclopedic knowledge, an insatiable appetite and hilarious words. Died on April 2, 2021 (Good Friday).
3_My friend Rodolf Z.
He was into the Art Deco broc-&-roll (as he used to say) of the 30s and 40s, the greatest mystic with whom I have had the pleasure and honor of toasting. Died on June 5, 2022 (Pentecost).
OJL : Oh yes indeed. We can feel that these are very… Powerful people… Do you write under a pseudonym?
Laure Desforges : No, I write under my real identity. One day, a friend told me that “Laure Desforges” sounded like a Wagnerian heroine (laughs). I thought that was pretty cool. My friends call me Laurette or the girl from the forges (smile).
OJL : Let’s talk a little about your work now. What do you create?
Laure Desforges : I seize the Day, it’s a lot of joy and a lot of work (smile).
I wrote two books on the saints.
_The first, richly illustrated, is an investigation through our calendar that explores the pagan sources from which our Christian roots draw.
_The second, only text, tells the behind the scenes of the first book, the fruit of twelve years of research, and shows how the Christian saints populate my pagan life, and my faith.
OJL : How can you define your style?
Laure Desforges : I tell stories, as we used to do by the fireside. It’s folklore in the noble sense of the term. Since « folk » means « people » and « lore » means « knowledge ».
OJL : Lore and Laure… Same sound… How do you work?
Laure Desforges : When I study a saint (preferably the saint of the day) I always start with his or her date of birth in Heaven, to take into account the seasons, the weather, the course of the stars, etc…
I then find out about the etymology of his or her baptismal name, which I practically consider… Like a totem.
Then, I put myself in the shoes of a little illiterate peasant girl from the Middle Ages (laughs) and rather than reading, I observe dozens and dozens of works of art transmitted by artists over the centuries about him or her…
Anything that is bizarre or fanciful catches my attention… A dragon here, a talking wolf there, a horse whose leg is cut off and then welded back together, flowers in winter, etc. Everything that makes a fairy tale in fact!
Only then do I read the hagiographies, the biographical notices, the golden legend, quite a few things in fact…
I take a break… Either to sleep and dream or to go for a walk in the woods, garden, cook…
Then I write my chapter, the best for me is very early in the morning, keeping in mind the day, the name, the magic of « my » saint (broad smile).
OJL : Can we place a personalized order with you?
Laure Desforges : No, not really, even if I sometimes write a text inspired by and for this or that person that I have gotten to know…
On the other hand, I can sign my books, once they have been purchased from a bookseller.
OJL : Can we have a preview of the contents of your first book?
Laure Desforges : Yes of course:
OJL : Why did you start with All Saints’ Day?
Laure Desforges : My « Flower of Saints » (as we call the books dedicated to these characters and which follow the order of the calendar) begins in fact with the Dark Season…
This choice responds to the Christian point of view: All Saints’ Day is the celebration of the round of saints as a whole and the commemoration of our dead.
It is also his natalice, that is to say his birth in Heaven – his death – which gives the day of a saint.
This choice also responds to our pagan tradition of Europe… We begin with the Night, with the belly of the Earth and the entrails of the Cosmos. The winter crossing begins, which is gradually lit only by our inner fires, our homes and our souls, and the flame of hope in a new dawn, in a new spring…
OJL : Can we have a preview of a few pages of your latest work?
Laure Desforges : Yes, here are the ones about Saint Anthony, Saint Barbara and Saint Anne: here
OJL : Can we subscribe to your newsletter? Because social networks are a bit saturated…
Laure Desforges : In addition to my page with my publisher, I only have an Instagram page, which for the moment I try to keep up on a daily basis. Maybe it will change soon…
OJL : You have the same vision of the Christianity as our editorial staff. That is to say that for us, the Christian faith is inseparable from older beliefs. We are very grateful to you for that.
But, and you know this well, such opinions have led many people to be tortured and to be burned alive. For example, under the Inquisition. And even today, many Catholics are very aggressive when dogmas are questioned. What do you think about all this?
Laure Desforges : Well, concerning my book, it was very well received by Christians of different tendencies. The few Catholic readers who contacted me showed a lot of kindness and a real open-mindedness. My book was also entirely reread, day by day, by my friend Marie-Alix, a traditionalist Catholic who knows me very well and knows that I have a slightly different approach from hers. Everything was done with respect, spiritual correspondence and cordial understanding. But of course… A short while ago, we might have ended up in ashes…
OJL : How do you pray? What do you do on Sundays? For my part, on Sundays, I refuse to go and listen to the priests’ speeches. And I refuse communities full of hypocrites. Instead, I go and clean, all by myself, a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady. What do you think?
Laure Desforges : I find that taking care of a small sanctuary of Our Lady is a form of prayer and a luxury (yes, a luxury, like daylight) that is perfectly free and Sunday-like, and I find it very beautiful. For my part, I pray in a thousand and one ways… Every day. Turning the compost while thinking, “per aspera ad astra”, of the stars of Compostela, is a prayer… Going to listen to the bellowing of the deer in the depths of the night and the forest is a prayer… Crying when seeing Notre-Dame burn and hoping that a tear will put out the fire is a prayer…
OJL : What do you think of the Pope? And of the future of Christianity?
Laure Desforges : I prefer not to think anything about the Pope. As for Christianity, for me it is the same as Europe, not as an institution but as a land and people of civilization. I am fundamentally optimistic about everything that concerns my people. I have deep faith in the future of my children.
OJL : What do you think of oracles? And of other means used in the esoteric domain?
Laure Desforges : Putting aside the inevitable charlatans exploiting people’s misery, I am extremely sensitive to all manifestations of the Divine, and to those who know how to see them, by whatever means. I am not necessarily familiar with all the esoteric means you are talking about, but I have no prejudice against this or that approach.
OJL : What are your next projects?
Laure Desforges : Twelve tales imbued with fantastic realism. Twelve tales, as many as there are months in the year.
OJL : Is it possible to finance you? For example via Patreon?
Laure Desforges : I do not know Patreon and do not expect any financing. I did not write my books for money, but to pass something on to my children.
OJL : Do you have an anecdote about one of your books?
Laure Desforges : I finished my second book exactly one year after I started writing the first: twice on September 29, on Saint-Michel, the circle was complete, like an Ouroboros…
But my research began to take a systematic turn, day by day, on a certain December 4, 2012. It was Saint Barbara’s Day: Boom!
OJL : Bravo sincerely for what you do. Your vision is very original. May Our-Lady protect you.
Laure Desforges : About Our-Lady, one day when I was looking at a photo of the terrible fire of « Notre-Dame de Paris » seen from the Sky (that of the stone cross on fire…), my youngest daughter, Blanche, exclaimed:
« Oh, it is Our-Fountain ! »
Awesome slip of the tongue…
But it is true that the Truth comes out of the mouths of children…
Thank you for this interview, may Our-Fountain protect you too (smile).
Taurus
