Book 2 of 4 of the “Élu Coën Library” is most likely the most famous one. As a matter of fact, I also proved to have read a Dutch translation! After ordering the English translation I wondered: “Did I not already have a book of Martinez de Paqually?” Well, I did not, but my girlfriend did and it is a 2012 version of the Dutch Martinist Order of this very book…
We both got stranded in the book too! I does not happen often that I do not manage to finish a book, but this is one of them and now I have two copies of it.
The new English translation claims to correct omissions of earlier versions. I suppose that includes the fact that the Dutch version has added headers in the text, which are included in the table of contents, while the English book is a massive wall of text. A few images were added to the English version to brighten things up a bit.
“Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually (1727?–1774) was a theurgist and theosopher of uncertain origin”, according to Wikipedia. He not only forms the cradle of Martinism, but in his own time he was the founder of the Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l’Univers, better known as the Élus Coëns, or -as it is called in the book- the order of the Réaux-Croix. That is actually a hard term to translate. It means something like “true cross”, but De Pasqually also uses the word “Réaux” to refer to Adam for example.
The book is presented as a source book for Martinism and -more generally- Western esotericism, including Masonic symbolism, but in fact it is a massive explanation of Biblical stories. To me, the book is rather a theological book, than an esoteric one. Only here and there is an interesting passage, but overall the book is so try and distant, that I again did not manage to get through it.
2023 Rose Circle Publications, isbn 9798394604799
