DEGREES OF THE ORDER
External Preliminary Formation
Pronaos
Preliminary Degree S. I.
Chapter
1st degree
2nd degree
3rd degree
Grand Chapter
Patriarchs R+C
BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE DEGREES
The preliminary formation is done outside the places of meeting. It is based on a series of lessons and its goal is to prepare the candidate for the degree of S:. I:.
PRONAOS
Preliminary degree S.I.
The degree of S. I. constitutes the moral and spiritual basis of the Order. It is the prerequisite for everything that follows. We know the foundation which Louis-Claude de Saint Martin acquired from his Master, Martin de Pasqually. A few years after his Master’s death, Saint Martin founded a « small school » in Paris. The purpose of this society (community) was the foundation of a soceity based on the purest spirituality. He integrated the doctrines of Martin into his own and founded a single degree which he called the “Supérieur Inconnu” (Invisible Superior). In the majority of secret societies the initiation was done by degrees.
Here Saint Martin chose a modality of transmission founded on moral and spiritual aspects. It was a question of receiving the key which opens the interior door of the heart by which one communicates with the spheres of the Spirit. At these heights, there is no condition, no intermediate state, There is only a manifestation of the purest desire, an engagement of the heart and a wakening of the True will. This foundation was the purest origin of the Martinist Order. Some years later, Papus and his successors choose to organise Martinism as an order structured in degrees which were intended to conduct to the initiate the unique transmission given to us by Saint Martin. Our Order has always regarded this grade as a moral prerequisite to the all other offices undertaken.
CHAPTER
First degree
The first degree has its roots in the era before the XVIII° century. By its nature, it is at the same time Knightly, Kabbalistic and Hermetic, it is a continuation of the Judeo-Christian Kabbalah, basing its rites and its philosophy on the writings of the founders and the great principles of this current. The second degree is a good example of the balance between the most authentic Hermetic traditions, humanism and those moral virtues which connect them in a very intimate way. The structure of its powerful ritual of initiation, for example, has its roots in the symbolism of the Sephirotic Tree of Life, the book of Sépher Yetzirah and it also implies the initiation of the candidate, in the totality of his being.
Second
degree
The second degree has its roots in what we may call the Christian Kabbalah of the Renaissance, and what some may refer to as the revival of Hermetism. The rediscovery by the Neo-Platonist school of Florence of the philosophical corpus and the initiations of antiquity bring to mind a rich symbolism and ritual interpretation of the world and Initiatic way that had been hidden for some time. The exoteric markers are many. For example, we may see the influence of this society in the outer world in the works of many artists and authors who were influenced by their contact with this movement. These include, such brilliant contributors as Dante, Campanella, Giordano Bruno, etc. On the esoteric plane, this degree is under the spiritual affiliation of, and heir to the Pythagorean, Elusinian or even Mithraic traditions.
Third
degree
The third degree synthesizes, prolongs and preserves the quest of the initiate towards those Initiatic experiences which have been a part of the Western tradition since the Renaissance. It accomplishes this by the use of specific ritual texts which “reactivate” the original form of our Tradition in an incontestably authentic way for every sincere student, thus fulfilling the quest for Initiation into the Mysteries.
GRAND CHAPTER
Patriarchs R+C
The Patriarchs R+C are brothers and sisters having followed the course of the four degrees of the order and having been a Chapter’s Master. They study and experiment with the advanced aspects of the Order and of our Tradition.
