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The Secret Science – François Charles Barlet (1890/2022)

Volume 8 in the series “Martinism Without Secrets” is a compilation of texts. Here you find writings of Gérard Encausse (Papus), Eugène Nus, Doctor Ferran, Julien Lejay, Stanislas de Guaita and François-Charles Barlet. There is again a introductory “practical Martinist supplement”.

To start with the latter, this again concerns mostly exercises. Not my cup of tea.

The texts themselves are not too interesting either unfortunately. A lot of pages are dedicated to Theosophy, at the time of writing the texts undoubtedly new and groundbreaking, not nowadays not much so in my opinion.

We have a chapter about Theosophy specifically by Barlet and an enormous text about Sinnetts book Esoteric Buddhism by Nus. Also the text of Papus about Kabbalah is quite Theosophical. A reason to buy this compilation was the text about symbolism of Freemasonry, but “Dr. Ferran” manages to write close to nothing about Freemasonry in his text. Somewhat interesting is the final text of Stanislas de Guaita.

I appreciate the effort that the creators of these series take to make these old texts available in different languages, but not everything has the same relevance today in my opinion. The texts are also more ‘spiritual science’ type than personal growth (or whatever to call it) proper.

2022, isbn 979-8407019138

The Science Of Magis – Papus (1892/2021)

Papus (Gérard Encause (1865-1916)) is the next 19th century esotericist that I read a text of. It proves that both the series with the typical cover you can see on the right and the books of Alex Bushman are Martinists ‘opening up’. “Martinism without mysteries” you can see on the right.

I find the book of Papus not too interesting. It is a fairly Theosophy-type account which blends Theosophical esotericism with science of its day. Just as the other book from these series, it begins with an introduction with exercises, etc. and only after a while the actual translation follows.

Astral bodies, reincarnation, etc. these are the subjects at hand. Nothing too interesting. Perhaps I should try Papus’ more specific texts, such as his Kabbala book first.

2021, isbn 9798768440091

At The Threshold Of Mystery – Stanislas de Guaita (1886/2018)

Catching up on the actual writings of 19th century esotericists, I took a stab at Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897). De Guaita is mostly known as a poet, but he was involved in neo-Rosicrucian and Martinist organisations such as that of Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918), he was a familiar of Papus (Gérard Encausse (1865-1916), etc.

Au seuil du Mystère (1886) proves to be a highly interesting collection of essays. The book itself it not too long, but the publisher (Alex Bushman) added some extra material which is even more interesting.

The main book is a bit of a history of Western esotericism. There are more such books, but now at least I know that De Guaita was very well read. He works towards the time and traditions in which he himself was involved and other systems such as Theosophy, Mesmerism and the like.

In the appendices there are two detailed decriptions of two emblems from Khunrat’s Amphitheatrium and texts about Martinism.

2018, isbn 1796449385

Of Errors And Truth – Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (2021)

In the 18th and 19th century there have been many authors about whom many have heard, but not many have read their texts. Only relatively recently texts of such thinkers have become available in English and often these translations are not academic publications. Where is the ‘serious’ interest in people who have helped shape the (esoteric) world?

So here we have a translation of Des erreurs et de la vérité (1775) of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803). Some Martinists decided to make some of the basic works of their system available to the general public. An interesting idea.

Charles Lucien de Lièvre is the translator of the book and he wrote the preface. At least the Kindle version turned to be a strange book. It seems that Lièvre wrote most of the book with only here and there a quote of Saint-Martin. He speaks of people who have not understood Martinism, there is a biography of sorts, he speaks of real and false Martinism, etc.

After about 60 pages a translation of the book of Saint-Martin follows. Short chapters in which Saint-Martin mostly reacts to scientific findings of his time. The book is not really ‘spiritual’ or even ‘esoteric’.

The introduction is too much ‘I know it all, everybody else knows nothing’ and the text of Martin is … can I say: “dated”?

I applaud the effort that was made to make texts such as this available to an audience that does not master French, though.

2001, ISBN 979-8781413188

Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings – Martinez de Pasqually (2023)

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

The Man-God – Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (2017)

Amazon.com

Willermoz (1730-1824) was an interesting man living in an interesting time. As a Freemason he was involved in several systems. He also fathered a form of Martinism together with his master Claude de Saint Martin. He joined the Elus-Cohens of Martinez de Pasqually.

My main interest lays in ‘his’ Masonic system of the Strict Observance which he developed together with Baron von Hund. A system that is still worked today here and there, but about which not much information can be found.

Willermoz being a Frenchman and apparently not enough in the limelight for the non-French-speaking to know much of him (probably mostly because many of the organisations and systems that he was active in, no longer exist), close to nothing about or from Willermoz can be found in another language than French.

So I was somewhat surprised to run into this book. It comes from the ‘Martinist corner’. It is only 54 pages, printed on A4 and is some sort of mystical vision about Jesus Christ and his mission. It reads a bit like Jacob Böhme or a similar author. This is not entirely my kind of literature. Towards the end things become a bit more interesting.

The translator did make an introduction and he added a short text of Martinez de Pasqually.

According to Amazon, the translator, Felix Mupidia Lonji, translated other texts of French esotericists whose texts are not yet available in English. Let us hope he will translate more texts of Willermoz!

2017, isbn 1549869957