FROM MARTINISM TO CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN KABBALAH

The origins of Martinism

It is common practice in historical works dealing with Christian Kabbalah to consider only ancient periods, far removed from contemporary times. This habit tends to give us the false idea that this tradition had its hours of glory but has now completely disappeared. But this is not the case. Kabbalist adepts of the past had emulators, and their knowledge and rites have been passed down to the present day. Several schools of initiation received a share of this precious heritage and continue to transmit, develop, and adapt it to the understanding of today's individuals. Two important aspects of Christian Kabbalah have come to the fore in the last two centuries: mysticism and ritualism. These were developed by real adepts and took shape in several Orders and initiatory societies. Without going into detail at this point, let us just mention the ones we're going to focus on in particular: Martinesism, Martinism and the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross. These periods of the 19th and 20th centuries are extremely important, as they lay the foundations for the modern appearance of Christian and magical Kabbalah. It is important to remember that we're not concerned here with Kabbalah as a whole, but with the specific current mentioned above. For some, the kabbalistic occultists of the 19th century are of little interest and have only an approximate knowledge of the Kabbalah. Unfortunately, this judgment is based on an idea and a specific way to interpret this tradition. Yet this current is still very much alive. It is evolving, and those who can rightly be called the Past Masters have continued the common work.

Several aspects exist, and some schools put more emphasis on one or the other. This was the case for magic in Martinesism, mysticism in Martinism and a Hermetic fusion of the two in Rose-Cross Kabbalah. Far from being incompatible, these aspects, in their own way, made up what became Christian Kabbalah. We will begin by sketching a portrait of these currents.

Martinism is a spiritual movement that originated with the French theosophist Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. His work was essentially theosophical and philosophical.

 

Figure 11: Portrait of Louis Claude de Saint- Martin.

 

 

He was born in Amboise on January 18, 1743. After becoming a lawyer, and as was often the case for individuals of his status, he joined the army. With an officer's commission, he joined the Foix regiment garrisoned in Bordeaux, thus joining the rich milieu of initiation in south-western France. It was here that he met M. de Grainville and was initiated into the Masonic Order of the Elus-Cohens founded by Martinez de Pasqually. A Mason since 1765, Saint-Martin was dazzled by Martines and became his secretary. A high cohen dignitary, promoted to the supreme grade of “Réau-Croix,” Saint-Martin abandoned his masonic activities a few years later, without denying his “Cohen” initiation. He devoted himself to his metaphysical studies, becoming the foremost French[[1]] theosophist of his time.

When Saint-Martin discovered and enthusiastically translated Jacob Böhme's work, he was quick to make the connection with the initiatory and theurgic Gnosticism of his former master Martinez de Pasqually. As he wrote, Martinez had the active key to “everything that our dear Böhme expounds in his theories.” It is an “excellent marriage that of our first School and our friend Böhme.” But Saint-Martin wanted to place theurgy under the control of mysticism. The latter, in his view, went straight to the higher region, while the former was exercised in a region where Good and Evil are confused and mingled. Clearly, his judgment was a direct consequence of Martinez’ doctrine.

Saint-Martin chose as his author's name “Philosophe inconnu” (Unknown Philosopher). It was under this pseudonym that he published an important body of work, including the following titles: Des erreurs et de la vérité; Le Tableau naturel des rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'Homme et l'Univers; L'Homme de désir; Ecce homo; Le Crocodile; Le Ministère de l'Homme-Esprit, etc.

Because of the scope of his work and the depth of his inner vision, the Unknown Philosopher could rightly be called the “French Swedenborg.” Most of his works were written between 1775 and 1803, the year of his death in Châtenay, near Paris. The richness of his work, combined with his studies with Martinez de Pasqually, won him many disciples among the occultist Masons of his time, and helped make Jacob Böhme's system better known.

The Martinesist doctrine

Before going any further, we'd like to give a brief introduction to the doctrine of Martinez de Pasqually. For further analysis, we refer you to the leading French historians Rober Ambelain, Robert Amadou, Serge Caillet and Antoine Faivre, to name but a few.

G.Van Rijnberk presents Martinez’ teaching as follows: “To form an idea of his teaching, we have three types of document: 1° His Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings into their original spiritual and divine properties, virtues and powers; 2° The rituals and catechisms of his Order of the Elus Cohens ; 3° The letters on magical operations addressed by the Master to Willermoz.

The Treatise contains the secret doctrine (reserved exclusively for the Order's Reau-Croix): it deals with the fall of the spirit, the fall of Man into matter, the occult history of the Cosmos and Earth, the esoteric role of Evil and the demonic powers, and finally the possibility of humanity's return to its first state of glory.

 The Order's rituals and catechisms expound this same doctrine but veil it under the embroidery and embellishment of mythical details following the Masonic process. They also teach how man can purify himself and try to make himself worthy of enjoying all his primitive privileges after death.

 Finally, Willermoz's letters teach the theurgic means of relating to the spirits of the higher and supreme spheres.”[[2]]

“The doctrine of Martinez is one of the reintegration of beings. Reintegration implies prior expulsion, drama and denouement. Through worship and operative practices (evocations), man must obtain his reconciliation with God, then his reintegration into his primitive state.”

It is interesting to note that this doctrine could in some respects be similar to the Hermetic conceptions of the Neoplatonist tradition. However, the discourse is often confused, heavy-handed and overloaded with convoluted turns of phrase. There is nothing of the style of Greek or Roman authors.

For Martinez, God emanated spiritual beings, some of whom gave in to pride and, seeking to equal God, became creators themselves. To punish them, the Creator banished them from the spiritual world in which they found themselves. God then created an androgynous Adam to dominate these spirits. But he in turn became the victim of his own desire to create. He was then exiled to earth without contact with God, and from then on had to use intermediary spirits to regain communication with his Creator and reconcile with him. This is the purpose of all the theurgic operations taught by Martinez. He can then be reintegrated into his original form and functions, and all creatures still cut off from God can follow in his wake.

Naturally, many details and episodes enrich this myth and structure its theurgical practices.

This is a very simple presentation of Martinez’ doctrine and ideas. As we have said, Saint-Martin rejected the external path, without denying it. He would, however, always recognize the value and effectiveness of his master's studies and teachings but judged this path too dangerous. His sensibility guided him towards other horizons. His doctrine, however, remained essentially the same: the fall of spirit and man into matter, and the possibility of mankind's return to its first state of glory. This is the path better known as reintegration or, in the words of Réaux+Croix, reconciliation.

Martinist doctrine

 

Figure 12: Portrait of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)

Let us now look at the teaching and development of Saint-Martin's thought. Robert Amadou writes: “Saint-Martin was a Freemason, Saint-Martin was an Elu-Cohen, Saint-Martin adhered to Mesmerism. He willingly lent himself to the rites and customs of these societies. He behaved as an irreproachable member of initiatory fraternities. But this attitude represents only one period of his life.”[[3]] This is an important point to note, but not to extrapolate. Martinez’ secretary, a practitioner of theurgy, turned away from it. “Master,” he once said to Martinez, “do you need so many things to pray to God?” This growing tendency in him prevailed. Indeed, above all else, his quest was for God. The thirst for the Good, the Beautiful and the True, which only God could quench for him, would unceasingly drive him on. Thus, his inner evolution led him to distance himself from phenomena, to unite with the inner way that would later be called the mystical or way of the heart. After practicing the rites of Martinez, he read fashionable authors such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu, “writers with very little mysticism.” But Saint-Martin became able to think for himself, to elaborate his work, to synthesize his thoughts.

Then “came the revelation that transformed his life: Saint-Martin discovered Jacob Böhme.”[[4]] We say transformation, but we must see it as a true inner illumination that modified Saint-Martin's thinking and life right up to his death. Jacob Böhme's message reflected back on the unknown philosopher, purifying him by bringing him a truth that none of the practices of the Elus-Cohens had been able to bring him. This was the appearance in French esotericism of the inner way, firstly through his work, but also through the translations he made of some of Böhme's works. A detailed analysis of the Unknown Philosopher's thought would take us too far. That's why we're going to give the most concise possible view of what was for him the inner voice, the search for the divine Sophia. Let us begin by examining what he wrote about Jacob Böhme in the introduction to his first translation:

“Jacob Böhme, known in Germany as the Teutonic Philosopher, and author of “The Rising Dawn,” as well as several other theosophical works, was born in 1575, in a small town in Upper Luzace, called the old Seidenburg, about half a mile from Gorlitz. His parents were of the lowest class, poor but honest. During his early years, they kept him busy herding cattle. When he was a little older, they sent him to school, where he learned to read and write; and from there they apprenticed him to a master shoemaker in Gorlitz. He married at the age of 19, and had four sons, one of whom he taught to be a shoemaker. He died in Gorlitz in 1624 of an acute illness.

While he was an apprentice, his master and mistress being absent for the moment, a stranger dressed very simply, but with a handsome figure and a venerable appearance, entered the store, and, taking a pair of shoes, asked to buy them. The young man, not believing himself to be in a position to sell the shoes, refused to sell them; but the stranger insisted, and he overpriced them, hoping thereby to protect himself from any reproach from his master, or to disgust the buyer. The latter paid the asking price, took the shoes and left. He stopped a few steps from the house, and in a loud, firm voice, said: “Jacob, Jacob, come here.” The young man was at first surprised and frightened to hear this stranger, who was completely unknown to him, call him by his baptismal name, but having recovered, he went to him. The stranger, with a serious but friendly air, brought his eyes to his own, fixed them with a gaze sparkling with fire, took him by the right hand. And said to him:

“Jacob, you are a little thing, but you will be great, and you will become another man, so much so that you will be an object of wonder to the world. Therefore be pious, fear God and revere his word; above all read carefully the holy scriptures, in which you will find consolation and instruction, for you will have much to suffer; you will have to endure poverty, misery, and persecutions but be courageous and persevering, for God loves you and is propitious to you.”

With that, the stranger shook his hand, stared at him again with piercing eyes, and departed, with no hint that they had ever seen each other again.

From that time onwards, Jacob Böhme naturally received, in various circumstances, different developments which opened his mind to the various subjects he dealt with in his writings.”[[5]]

We are dealing here with a completely different setting than the one he encountered with Martinez. We are not dealing here with a theorist of the occult or a master of magical knowledge, but with a simple shoemaker, a man of little intellectual knowledge. It is important to realize that in 18th century thinking, such a man stands in stark contrast to the esoteric or mystical milieu. There was no ceremonial or learned initiations; only an encounter between two men, a cobbler and a stranger, who opened or revealed to him the unique door leading to the realm of the Spirit. The message of the shoemaker from Gorlitz guided his thoughts, gave him direction and support in his search, and opened the doors to the “beyond of the spirit,” away from the pitfalls of the philosophers. Sophia, an important point of doctrine, was at the heart of the debate between several theosophists of the century.

To put this idea into context, let us quote a fragment from the book of Proverbs 8:22-23 and 8:30-31 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his activity. Before his earliest works. I was established from eternity. From the beginning, before the origin of the earth. [...] I was at work with him and made his delights from day to day, playing before him all the time, playing on the face of the earth, and finding my delights among human beings.” From this perspective, Alexandre Koyré writes: “Divine wisdom is, as it were, the plan, the pre-existing model of creation. It does not itself create, it does not beget. It is only the ideal world or its image. An ideal, not a fiction, and that's why it possesses a certain reality; it represents the harmony of God's creative powers...” Böhme wrote: “This virgin is a similitude of God, his image, his Wisdom in whom the spirit sees itself and in whom the Eternal reveals his wonders...”[[6]] “Divine Wisdom, also called Sophia, Eternal Word, Glory and Splendor of God, is therefore a mirror, a fourth term that God opposes to himself in order to be able to reflect, realize and become fully aware of himself”[[7]]. In the introduction to “Ministère de l'Homme-Esprit”(Paris 1802), he summarizes with remarkable clarity the foundations of this Western S ophiological tradition; representing the essence of Saint-Martin's idea of this notion, this text is of great importance:

“The present physical and elemental nature is only a residue and alteration of a previous nature, which J. Böhme calls the eternal nature; (...) this present nature once formed, in all its circumscription, the empire and throne of one of the angelic princes, named Lucifer; (...) this prince, wishing to reign only by the power of fire and wrath, and to set aside the reign of love and divine light, which should have been his only torch, set fire to the entire circumscription of his empire; (...) divine wisdom opposed the power of fire and wrath, and set fire to the reign of love and divine light, which should have been his only torch; (...) divine wisdom opposed the power of fire and wrath, and set fire to the reign of love and divine light, which should have been his only torch.... divine wisdom opposed this conflagration with a tempering and cooling power that contained the fire without extinguishing it, thus creating the mixture of good and evil that we see in nature today.”

“Man,” Saint-Martin goes on to explain, “is placed in nature to contain Lucifer in the pure element; he is formed of fire, the principle of light and the quintessential principle of physical or elemental nature.” Yet he allows himself to be “more attracted by the temporal principle of nature than by the other two principles,” and falls into sleep and matter.

“The other two tinctures, one igneous and the other aquatic, which were to be reunited in man, and identified with Wisdom or Sophie - but which are now divided - eagerly seek each other out, hoping to find in each other that Sophie which they lack.”[[8]] Divine wisdom is thus placed in a key position, since man must identify with it if he is to rediscover the principle of Light. “Man, discovering the science of his own greatness, learns that by relying on a universal foundation, his intellectual Being becomes the true Temple, that the torches that must illuminate him are the lights of thought that surround him and follow him everywhere ; that the Sacrificer is his confidence in the necessary existence of the Principle of order and life; it is that burning and fruitful persuasion before which death and darkness disappear; that the perfumes and offerings are his prayer, his desire and zeal for the reign of exclusive Unity; that the altar is this eternal convention founded on its own emanation, and to which God and Man come to find their glory and their happiness; in a word, that the fire destined for the consummation of the holocausts, that fire which was never to be extinguished, is that of the divine spark which animates man and which, had he been faithful to his primitive law, would have made him forever like a shining lamp placed in the path of the throne of the Lord, to light the steps of those who had strayed from it; because, finally, man should no longer doubt that he had only come into existence to be the living testimony of Light and Divinity.”[[9]]

This quotation from Tableau Naturel clearly illustrates Saint-Martin's approach. All the visible, external aspects - the torches, the perfumes, the offerings, the altar - are internalized. For him, the essential step is not to pursue the quest through visible rituals, but to begin with the inner journey and then rise to the divine within. This is the approach of the Unknown Philosopher, but without remaining pure speculation. It will become an inner elevation through prayer, zeal and the desire for unity in God. A few sentences from the “Ministry of the Spiritual Man” illustrate this very well:

“On the one hand, the magnificence of man's natural destiny is that he cannot really and radically apprehend by his desire the only thing that can really and radically produce everything. This one thing is God's desire; all the other things that drive man, man does not apprehend; he is their slave and plaything. On the other hand, the magnificence of his ministry is that he can only really and radically act according to the positive Order pronounced to him at every moment, as master to his servant, and this by the only authority that is equitable, good, consequent, efficient and in conformity with eternal desire.”[[10]]

Those who feel this call, this desire to tread the ascending path, thus become a man of desire. With Saint-Martin, this path to spiritual initiation becomes a path of prayer and asceticism, apparently independent of the external paths known at the time. It rejects nothing. He doesn't actually assert that a rite is inadequate. What we can deduce is that the work must begin with an inner process. So, if a torch is lit without inner preparation, we are performing a magical act. If, on the other hand, lighting a candle is the culmination of inner illumination, then we are dealing with a theurgic principle. Saint Martin reminds us of this primary necessity.

Today, it is absolutely clear to everyone that Saint-Martin is the inspirer par excellence of an inner path stemming from Jacob Böhme. It is even more classic to oppose this path, as we have done, to the outer path of Martinez, often with the aim of rejecting or discrediting it. For some, mystical practice is limited to the observance of a passive, static, immobilist way, described as “Martinism and the way of the heart.” What do we call mystical immobilism? This practice or state of mind consists, under the pretext of inner practice, in contenting oneself with undergoing events, confusing prayer and inner vigilance with passive, sterile meditation. It is certainly a mistake to believe that we can make progress towards God by cultivating such a mental attitude. Similarly, to believe that this path would be incompatible with ritual practice would also be wrong.

The men of desire of whom Saint-Martin speaks are men of action, men of fire, not fatalists choosing an elusive, condescending attitude to life and its circumstances. They don't let themselves be overwhelmed by impressions or influences from the invisible. They have within them the desire to return to the divine, the desire for knowledge and wisdom. They no longer let themselves be tossed about by the ocean that is the universe and life.

The man of desire is a man of action. However, as we have just said, Saint-Martin does not advocate the passive path, but the inner path! There has been a tendency to believe that if the path were interior, it would become passive meditation, distinct from external action, the path of Martinez. But this is not the case. One only must look at the life of Master Philippe de Lyon to realize what Saint-Martin wanted. The man who is turned towards his fellow human beings really does help them, at all times, not only through the invisible planes, but also through his effective presence with those who suffer. The inner way is developed through prayer (We will show later exactly what this word meant to Renaissance Christian Kabbalists), through retreat into one's inner temple.

The heart path of the Unknown Philosopher is paradoxically a path that lies as much in the visible as in the invisible. It is a path of desire understood as pure dynamism, a will.

Thus defined, the Martinist path is revealed in a new light, with a strength and grandeur that is far from having disappeared, even if it is sometimes difficult to recognize. Saint-Martin wrote books that are well worth studying, no matter how difficult they may seem to us. They contain a message, an experience and a path that can only fan the flame that lies dormant within us. But if Saint-Martin wrote, we also know that he transmitted “two letters and a few points,” as Papus put it, as well as an influx, an initiation. It is the opening of a door, that of S∴I∴, Unknown Superior, Unknown Servant - whatever the term - the door of the heart. An opening, but also the transmission of a spirit, a symbolic concretization and, beyond the two letters, a few more lights.

Aspects of contemporary Christian Kabbalah

A few months after creating the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross, more than eighty years after Saint-Martin's death, Papus and Chaboseau, both members of the Order's leadership, discovered that they had been descended from the famous theosophist. Tradition has it that Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin founded a “little school in Paris” a few years after the death of his master Martinez de Pasqually. This society (community) was dedicated to the purest spirituality. He had integrated Martinez’’ doctrines with his own and established as his only degree that of S∴ I∴. This title was taken from the distinctive appellation of the supreme dignity of the members of the Sovereign Tribunal of the Order of the Elus-Cohens. In most secret societies, initiation was by degrees. Here, Saint-Martin chose to establish a transmission that was above all moral and spiritual. It was a matter of receiving the key that opens the inner door of the soul, through which one communicates with the spheres of the Spirit. At these heights, there were no conditions, no intermediate states. All that was required was a manifestation of desire, a commitment on the part of the soul and an awakening of the right will. As we have just seen, the principles were both identical to and different from those of the Order of the Elus-Cohens. Ritual techniques and preparations, for example, were always relatively simple in Saint-Martin's school. Saint-Martin considered preparation to be the result of the life we lead, both internally and externally. In this mystical path, unlike certain magical and theurgic stages, it was our daily inner work, our “moral attitude of purity,” that took the place of preparation. This means that all ritual preparations would be useless for anyone who didn't practice this inner process. This is the only way to approach true inner purity.

Papus claimed to have been initiated in 1882 into the S.I. “Supérieur Inconnu” by Henri Delaage, who claimed a direct link with Saint-Martin through the system of “free initiations'‘. As for Chaboseau, his lineage is said to have been transmitted to him by his aunt Amélie de Boisse-Mortemart. Both decided to initiate each other, and immediately informed the other leaders of the Order. Papus and Chaboseau passed on this essentially spiritual filiation of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's to the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross. As Delaage put it, it was then only materialized by “two letters and a few dots.”

Immediately aware of the richness of this heritage, the Order gave substance to this transmission by associating it with the “Unknown Philosopher” initiation of H.-T. de Tschoudi's Masonic system. This “Unknown Superior” ceremony then became the preliminary degree of the Order. The Masonic version, originally essentially symbolic, was thus activated by the operative knowledge of the Order's members. The foundations of Christian Kabbalah being Hermetic, the Order accomplished two simultaneous and seemingly contradictory things. On the one hand, to develop a unique S.I. ritual based on the magical and theurgic knowledge of its founders and, on the other, as we have just shown, to essentialize the Martinist message by freeing it from its historical context. The aim was to draw out the universal message present in the founder's work, while attempting to reduce as far as possible the extraneous contributions to the core of the doctrine.

What emerged were fundamental values that were above all moral and universal, and therefore sacred. Thus, the heart and center of Martinism came down to a set of simple attitudes: to be good and to do good. But how to achieve this became strictly personal, and it would be difficult and presumptuous to try to teach it. It is enough to encourage people to be humble, to live an honest moral life, to do good at every moment of their lives, without prejudice. Everything else is personal.

Summed up in this way, it is easy to see how this thinking is accessible to all religions. Whether you are a Muslim, a Christian or a Buddhist, there is no problem, because this doctrine only concerns the moral plane. If we seek to rise to the essence of things, this means that when Saint- Martin uses Christian prayers, he is not practicing Martinism, but expressing his mysticism through the language he received as a child. When we reveal the heart of his thought, we discover goodness and humility, virtues that are both universal.

If we were to consider Saint Martin's texts in their literal sense, then this doctrine or mysticism would be open only to Christians or those deemed fit to become Christians. In fact, this was the direction taken by the Régime Ecossais Rectifié (Scottish Rectified System), the Masonic system created by Jean Baptiste Willermoz, another follower of Martinez de Pasqually. But if we follow the example of the Christian Kabbalah and look for the essence behind the letter, then universality is revealed. We could say that texts such as “the prayers of Saint Martin” are important and at the same time ″dangerous″... Important, because it is possible to feel goodness, but at the same time dangerous because we might be tempted to reduce this approach to a strictly Christian practice. Yet this is neither the aim nor the spirit of Saint- Martin. One indication of this is that he never became religious in the true sense of the word. Instead, he continued his philosophical work, which was above all interior and mystical.

In this vein, imitating Saint Martin would not make us Martinist, but Saint Martinian. We must therefore make a choice between copying the historical figure and searching within ourselves for the universal principle he discovered. Only then can we reveal within ourselves this mystical way, known as the way of the heart. It is true, then, that a Christian Kabbalist will never be an imitator of Saint- Martin. But it is possible for him to understand the unity between mystics such as Eckartshausen, Lopoukine and Saint Martin himself. In a way, you can't be a Martinist, just as you can't be a Christian. In this spirit, there was only one Christian, Christ, and there was only one Martinist, Louis Claude d e Saint- Martin. On the other hand, every practitioner of this path can understand the nature of the door that these masters found, and thus access the same essential values.

From then on, all new members of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross had to be received by S I∴∴ (Unknown Superior), Adept of Saint-Martin, before receiving their first initiation into the Order. Once this moral commitment had been fulfilled, the Order's studies and initiations could begin.

This first degree of S∴ I∴ constituted the moral and spiritual foundation of the Order. It remained its prerequisite. It is for this reason that the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-+Cross has always considered this degree to be the moral prerequisite for the training it undertakes. At the time, there was no need to create a new Order. Martinism remained what it was meant to be: an incentive to practice the way of the heart as a fundamental condition of initiatory work. This first stage of S.I. is therefore fundamental, and paradoxically requires only minimal theoretical training.

This state is spiritual and constitutes an indefectible inner process. It is hard to imagine that you need to study Kabbalah, theology or any other science to make a moral commitment to such an inner process. The intellectual has nothing to do with this kind of awareness. Training is of a different order and aims at different degrees and stages.

A few years later, in 1891, as the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross reached another stage in its existence, Papus was asked to develop the initiation of the Unknown Superior in the form of an external Order whose essential role would be spirituality and Christian chivalry. Papus chose to structure it according to the Masonic three-grade scale. The only real initiation was obviously that of S.I. (Superior Unknown), the only one transmitted by Saint-Martin. There was no ambiguity in the mission entrusted to Papus. It was to enable as many people as possible to discover Saint-Martin's thought and to undertake the moral path represented in the purest form of Christian chivalry.

This structure ensured the durability of the Martinist Order, which continued to develop after Papus's death, branching out as its history unfolded.

It has to be said that the many Martinist Orders have had a problem of identity and content from that time to the present day. According to the founder's formulation of this tradition, Martinist practice is simple, tolerant and integrative. Initiation itself, of course, incorporates several aspects that explain the doctrine and enable it to be integrated into the recipient. But once this has been achieved, the realization of this ideal is a matter for the individual. It is a personal matter, and unfortunately cannot be developed in theoretical terms without becoming intolerant or dogmatic.

 

Figure 13: Main seal of the Martinist Orders.

 

Finally, it is worth quoting the founder of the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross, speaking to initiates after initiation into the preliminary S.I. degree of the Order. This gives us a good idea of Martinist doctrine as it was then considered in this Order, which brought together all these influences on the foundation of Hermeticism.

“You have been successively invested with the three hierarchical grades of our Order; we salute you S∴ I∴ (Superior Unknown), and when you have transcribed and meditated our notebooks, you will become Initiator in your turn. Your faithful hands will be entrusted with my important mission: you will have the responsibility, as well as the honor, of forming a group of which you will be, before your conscience and before Divine Humanity, the intellectual Father and, on occasion, the moral Tutor.”

This is not about imposing dogmatic convictions on you. Whether you believe yourself to be a materialist, or a spiritualist, or an idealist; whether you profess Christianity or Buddhism; whether you proclaim yourself a free-thinker or even an absolute skeptic, it matters little to us after all: and we won't offend your heart, by molesting your mind over problems that you must resolve, only face to face with your conscience and in the solemn silence of your appeased passions.

Provided you never seek to dissolve the ties of solidarity that bind you so closely to the Hominal Kingdom, considered in its synthesis, you are of a supreme and truly universal religion (this is the radical meaning of the word Catholic), for it is this religion that manifests and imposes itself (multiform, it is true, but essentially identical to itself), beneath the veils of all the esoteric cults of the West as well as the East.

Psychologists, give this feeling any name you like: Love, Solidarity, Altruism, Fraternity, Charity ;

Economists or philosophers, call it a tendency towards Socialism, if you like... Collectivism, Communism... Words are nothing!

Honor him, Mystic, under the names of Divine Mother or Holy Spirit.

But whoever you are, never forget that in all truly true and profound religions, i.e. those founded on Esotericism, the application of this feeling is the primary, capital, essential teaching of this very Esotericism.

Sincere and selfless pursuit of the Truth, that's what your Spirit owes to itself; fraternal kindness towards other men, that's what your heart owes to your neighbor.

Apart from these two duties, our Order does not presume to prescribe any others, at least in an imperative way.

No philosophical or religious dogma is imposed on your faith. As for the doctrine whose essential principles we have summarized for you, we simply ask you to meditate on it at your leisure and without bias. Traditional Truth wants to win you over to its cause through persuasion alone!

We have opened to your eyes the seals of the Book; but it is up to you to first learn to spell the Letter, and then to penetrate the Spirit of the mysteries it contains.

We've started you off: the role of your Initiators must stop there. But know this: it would be in vain for the most learned masters to reveal to you the supreme formulas of science and magical power. Occult Truth cannot be transmitted in a speech: Each individual must evoke it, create it and develop it within themselves.

You are Initiatus: he who has been set on the path by others; strive to become Adeptus: he who has conquered Science for himself; in a word, the son of his works.

[...]

But understand well, my brother, for a third and final time I implore you, understand well that Altruism is the only path that leads to the unique and final goal, - I mean the reintegration of the submultiples into the Divine Unity; - the only doctrine that provides the means, which is the tearing away of material fetters, for the ascent, through the higher hierarchies, towards the central star of regeneration and peace.

Never forget that the Universal Adam is a homogeneous Whole, a living Being, of which we are the organic atoms and constituent cells. We all live within each other, through each other; and even if we were individually saved (to use Christian language), we would only cease to suffer and struggle once all our brothers and sisters were saved too!

Intelligent egoism therefore concludes as Science traditionally concluded: universal brotherhood is not a delusion; It is a factual reality.

He who works for others works for         himself; he who kills or injures his neighbor injures or kills himself; he who insults his neighbor insults himself.

Don't let these mystical terms frighten you; there is nothing arbitrary about high doctrine: we're the mathematicians of ontology, the algebraists of metaphysics.

Remember, son of Earth, that your great ambition must be to reconquer the zodiacal Eden from which you should never have descended, and to return at last to the Ineffable Unity, Outside Which You Are Nothing, and in the bosom of which you will find, after so much toil and torment, that celestial peace, that conscious sleep which the Hindus know as Nirvana: the supreme bliss of Omniscience, in God.

S. DE G. -Alef-∴

S I “∴∴[[11]]

 

Continuing in the same spirit, let us quote a ritual text undoubtedly stemming from this same tradition. It gives us a clear idea of the moral commitment required of members: “Unknown, you have no orders to receive from anyone; you alone are responsible for your actions to yourself, and your conscience is the feared Master from whom you must always take advice, the stern and inflexible judge to whom you must give an account of your actions.”[[12]]

The initiate is placed face to face with his or her own conscience, with no particular commandments about daily life, choice of food or life's pleasures. He alone chooses what is best for him, according to the moral principles set out above. The same applies to everything in life.

This obviously implies that when he makes a mistake, his only judge is his conscience. He can therefore make a mistake. The only solution in this case is to apply the universal precept: “You can tell a tree by its fruit.”

It is easy to imagine how rich, yet sometimes uncomfortable, this drive to practice virtue can be. How much easier it would be to apply absolute laws valid at all times and based on the foundation of blind, blinding faith. This is not an easy path to follow, but it enables us all to develop a tolerance and love of life in all its dimensions that is totally incompatible with all forms of extremism.

 

[[1]] To be taken in the religious sense of the 18th century.

[[2]] R. Amadou, Louis Claude De Saint-Martin, Ed. Adyar, 1946.

[[3]] Ibid, p. 43.

[[4]] Ibid.

[[5]] Jacob Böhme, L'aurore naissante ou la racine de la philosophie, de l'astrologie et de la théologie, translated from the German by the Unknown Philosopher, Ed. Arché 1977, p. 7-8.

[[6]] Psychologia Vera, question 1-48, quoted by A. Faivre in his book: Kirchberger et l'illuminisme au XVIII° siècle, Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, Martinus Nijheff, Lahaye, 1966.

[[7]] A. Faivre, op. cit. p. 163-164.

[[8]] Ibid, p.167.

[[9]] Quoted in: Du Martinisme et des Ordres martinistes, J. Boucher, Ed. Dervy, 1953, p. 16-17.

[[10]] Ibid, p. 14.

[[11]] Stanislas de Guaita, Initiatory discourse for a Martinist reception - 3rd degree. .

 

[[12]] Ibid.