The Martinist
Order or l’Ordre Martiniste
Despite their close collaboration
there were major differences of principle and practice between Maître Philippe and
Papus. Apart from Nizier Philippe’s rejection of ‘animal magnetism’ as a
curative agent, as opposed to Papus’ research into it, Papus maintained a keen
interest in initiatory societies and in
particular with the possibilities of a revived Martinism. Philippe, on the
other hand, tended to regard initiatory grades (real or imagined) as vehicles
of personal pride, as indeed they can
well be. As Israel Regardie once remarked, whoever claims to be an adept is
hardly likely to be one!
Martinism had its immediate origins
in the philosophy and practice of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803) who had been a student of Martines
de Pasqually, founder of a group called l’Ordre des Chevaliers-Elus Cohens
de l’Universe (Order of the Elect
Priest-Knights of the Universe). There were many such groups in those days it
should be said, covering a broad field from social through political to
esoteric.
After Pasqually’s death in 1772
Saint-Martin felt it incumbent upon him to try to continue the work, at the
same time modifying some of Pasqually’s ideas and methods, which he found
somewhat demanding and complicated.
As Papus later put it: “According
to the account of Saint-Martin himself, the master gathered his disciples in a
room, no doubt purified by a previous operation, traced a circle in the centre
and wrote in Hebrew letters within it the names of angels and appropriate
divine names. These preparations astonished the young disciple to the extent
that he cried ‘Do we need to do all this to contact God?’
Nonetheless he
had no cause to regret these arrangements, for communication was made with ‘psychic
Beings’ giving startling proofs of the reality of their existence in the invisible
world. Those present became ‘illumined’;
that is to say that, for them, the existence of the invisible world and the
immortality of the soul became more certain than the existence of matter in the
physical world. And scorning death, they were ready for anything in propagating
and defending the doctrines dear to them.”
A feature of Saint-Martin’s system that
played an important role in its development was that, as well as group meetings
and initiations, individual members were permitted to confer personal
initiations on whomever they chose. Whether or not those concerned lived up to
it, (and who is to tell?) they had the right to use the letters S.I. after
their names with a triangle of dots, signifying ‘Supérieur Inconnu’ (Higher
Unknown One).
Whatever the merits or drawbacks of
this system it formed the starting point for the Martinist Order as revived,
renewed or invented ( however one wishes to regard it) by Papus. And all apparently
the result of a happy coincidence. Augustin Chaboseau (librarian at the Guimet
museum), Papus and a couple of friends were in the habit of dining together
every Tuesday at a small restaurant on the left bank, and discovered by chance in
the course of conversation that both Chaboseau and Papus had been privately initiated
in this way, without having thought very much about it at the time, or even
since. Chaboseau by his aunt, Mme A. de Boisse-Montemart two years before in
1886, and Papus back in 1882, when he was only 17 years old, by the writer
Henri Delaage (1825-1882) who sought to pass it on before he died.
It seems that over the course of
years the practice, at any rate with the Chaboseaus, had become almost something
of a family tradition. While Papus said
that apart from the letters S.I. and a triangle of dots, no arcane knowledge
was passed on to him, due to lack of time apparently, but as a somewhat
confused teenager he might not have appreciated it anyway.
On a broader front the system would almost
certainly have been responsible for the spread of various forms of Martinist
philosophy and practice as the ‘free initiators’ transmitted the ‘Sacrament’ of
their Order through France, Germany, Denmark and particularly Russia during the
19th century.
In their biography of Papus the
academics Marie-Sophie André and Christophe Beaufils cast their doubts on
Papus’ claim to this initiation, but I am quite prepared to accept it. Apart
from the fact of Papus’ basic rough and ready honesty, it has that ambience of unlikelihood
that tends to go with coincidental facts that come up with from time to time in
esoteric matters. I could match it with some even more unlikely! And it
certainly produced results, for within three years l’Ordre Martiniste was
founded.
What I also find convincing is the
remarkable charge that it put into Papus himself, as shown by a trilogy of
books he produced in 1895, 1899 and 1902, called Illuminisme en France 1774-1803. They
are detailed and scholarly works, with much first hand evidence from letters
of the three characters who originated what became the Martinist movement – Martines
de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (who did
much to develop a Masonic form of the system).
In these books one senses a sea change and greater depth and discipline in
the writing of Papus. So it was not entirely the influence of Maître Philippe
that was responsible for what some regarded as Papus’ religious reorientation
in the latter part of his life. The experience of running an ambulance unit on
the Western Front may well have had something to do with that.
Certainly from his detailed
quotations from Pasqually’s esoteric instructions to his students we realise something of Saint-Martin’s concern
about complication. Nor does there seem to be much differentiation between magic
and mysticism. Most of the invocations
are taken from standard prayers of the Roman Catholic church. The requirements
are very detailed, to be performed in a rigorous and formal way within a
complex system of magic circles and six-rayed stars, that can take at least two
hours to perform, much of the time prostrate, and with particular regard to the
positioning of a large number of candles, accompanied by the preparation of a complex
mixture of incense. The occasions close to the Autumnal and Vernal Equinoxes are
on days calculated from the rising or setting of the moons of March and
September. And when it comes to formal group rituals a high standard is
obviously expected, as can be judged from the catechisms of each degree, which
in the lowest, of Apprentice, consist of 99 questions and answers, some of them
quite detailed, that will need to have been committed to memory. There follow
the degrees of Companion, Particular Master, Elect Master, Grand Master (also
called Great Architect), Grand Elect of Zorobabel, (or Knights of the East). The latter character, Zorobabel, for those
unfamiliar with the Old Testament, was leader of the chosen people on their
return from exile and the rebuilding the Temple.
In much of this we find ourselves
involved with an Old Testament based symbolism that can have a secular (such as
restoration of the monarchy amongst others) as well as a spiritual
interpretation. There was continuing controversy during the 19th
century, with Eliphas Levi as well as Papus each involved in turn, as to
whether Masonry was an esoteric or a secular system. Indeed the latter seemed
the majority view in France, with the words Grand Architect of the Universe
being formally abandoned by a leading authority. A pretty big baby being poured out with the
bath water in the esoteric view!
The newly formed Ordre Martiniste
seems to have got under way in 1887, when a few S.I. initials start to
appear behind names and rumours of a lodge meeting and by 1891 a Supreme
Council of a dozen members was in place, with the familiar names of Charles
Barlet, Chamuel, Paul Sédir, Jules Lejay, Montière, Stanislas de Guaita, Paul
Adam, Jaques Burget, Maurice Barrès and Josephin Péledan, the latter two soon
resigning and replaced by Marc Haven and Victor-Émile Michelet; and of which
Papus was elected President for life.
A life that came to an end in 1916.
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