iERKELEY LIBRARY i UNlVitSITY Of \CAimORNIA This is an authorized facsimile of the original book, printed by microfilm-xerography on acid-free paper. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS INTERNATIONAL Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. London, England 1981 SAINT- MARTIN THE FRENCH MYSTIC AND THE STORY OF MODERN MARTIN ISM ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. 811 PATERNOSTER ROW. E.C. 1922 ZT 022'? A) ;n SAINT- MARTIN THE FRENCH MYSTIC o S ' CONTENTS CHAPTER I rin THE GREAT DAY OF SAINT-MARTIN . 7 CHAPTER II EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIO . .17 ; - " ..,'"' ^ A- -.: CHAPTER III THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH . . 37 CHAPTER IV A DOCTRINE OF CORRESPONDENCES . 48 CHAPTER V THE MAN or DESIRE . . . . W CHAPTER VI LATER LIFE AND WRITINGS . . . 62 CHAPTER VH MODERN MARTINISM . . . 70 SAINT-MARTIN % THE FRENCH MYSTIC CHAPTER I TOE GREAT BAY OF SAINT-MARTIN DURING the second half of the eighteenth century it may be said without exaggeration that the intellectual, historical and political centre of all things was in the kingdom of France, The statement obtains not only because of the great upheaval of revolution which was to close the epoch, but because of the activities which prepared thereto. I know not what gulfs dispart us from the scheme and order of things signified by the name of Voltaire, by Diderot and the Encyclopaedists at large, or what are the points of contact between the human understanding at this day and that which was conceived by Condorcet in his memorable treatise. But about the import and consequence of their place and time I suppose that no one can question. The same land and the same period were the centre also of occult activities and occult interests, which I mention at once because they belong to my 8 SAINT-MARTIN subject, at least on the external side, since it happens quite often that where occultism is about on the surface there is mysticism some- where behind. We may remember in this connection that a Christian mystical influence had been carried over in France from the last years of the seventeenth century through certain decades which followed : it was that of Port Royal, Fenelon and Madame Guyon^ owing something almost unawares to the Spanish school of Quietism, as this in its turn reflected, without being aware of the fact, from pre- Reformation sources. As regards occult activities, if I say that their seeds were sown prior to 1750, it will be under- stood that I am speaking of developments which were characteristic in a particular manner of the years that followed thereon. Occultism is always in tho world, and among the French people especially there has been always some disposition to be drawn in this direction. In the eighteenth century, however, the sources for the most .part are not to be found in France. The persuasive illuminations of Swedenborg, the deep searchings of Jacob Bohme into God, man and the universe, the combined theosophy and magic represented by earlier and later kabalism, and a strange new sense of the Mysteries coming out from a sleep of the centuries with the advent of Symbolical Free- masonrythese and some others with a root of general likeness were foreign in respect of their origins, but they found their homes in THE GREAT DAY OP SAINT-MARTIN 9 France. So also were certain splendid historical adventurers who travelled in the occult sciences, as other merchants travel in the wares of the normal commercial world. I refer of course to Saint- Germain and Cagliostro, but they are signal examples or types, for they did not stand alone. There were men with new gospels and revelations of all kinds ; there were alchemists and magi in the byways, as well as on the public roads and in the King's palaces. Perhaps above all there were those who travelled in Rites, meaning Masonic Rites, carrying strange charters and making claims which had never been heard of previously in the age-long chronicle of occult things. When one comes to reflect upon it, the great, many-sided Masonic adventure may be said to stand for the whole, to express it in the world of signs, as actually and historically speaking there came a day, before the French Revolution, when it seemed about to absorb the whole. All the occult sciences, all the ready-made evangels, all philosophies, the ever-transpiring new births in time ceased to be schemes on paper and came to be embodied in Grades. So also the past, though it may be thought to have buried its dead, began to give them back to the Rites, and not as sheeted ghosts, but as things so truly risen and so much affirming life that they denied their own death and even that they had fallen asleep. Of such was the Rosy Cross. It came about in this mariner that our Emblematical Institution, 10 SAINT-MARTIN which was born, so to speak, at an Apple-Tree Tavern and nursed in its early days at the Bummer and Grapes or the Goose and Gridiron, may be said to have passed through a second birth in France. It underwent otherwise a great transformation, was clothed in gorgeous vestments and decorated with magnificent titles. It contracted in like manner the adorn- ment of innumerable spiritual marriages, which were fruitful .in spiritual progeny. I have pronounced its encomium elsewhere and that of the Rites and Grades, the memorable Orders and Chivalries which came thus into being. * More numerous still were the foster sons and daughters, being things connected with Masonry but not belonging thereto, even in the widest sense of its Emblematic Art. Of illegitimate children by scores, things of rank imposture or gross delusion, I do not need to speak. It is sufficient to say that Holy Houses of Masonry were everywhere in the land of France, and everywhere also were its royal standards un- rolled. There is no question, from one point of view, that all the claims belonged to a world of dreams, that from old-world history they drew only its fables, from antique science its myths, that the dignities conferred in proceedings were delivered in a glass of faerie, and that the emblazoned programmes of high intent and purpose were apt to fade strangely and seem written in invisible ink under the cold light of 1 -4 New Encyclopedia of Frccma3onry t 2 vols., 1921, s.v. Freemasonry in France. THE GREAT DAY OF SAINT-MARTIN 11 fact. But the reality behind the dreams must be sought in the spirit of the dreamers, for whom something had happened which opened all the the doors and unfolded amazing vistas of possibility on eVery side about them. The man who held the keys and indeed had forged them was no other than Voltaire, who in this connection stands of course for an intellectual movement at large, which move- ment meant emancipation from the fetters of thought and action.. To summarise the situa- tion in a sentence, apart from the Church and its dogma, all things looked possible for a. moment. The peculiar Masonic "system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols," might lead humanity either back to the perfection which it had lost or forward to that which it desired and could in mind descry dimly, however far away. The new prophets arid their vaunted revelations might have God behind their gospels, and the darkness of the occult sciences might veil unknown Masters, rather than emissaries of perdition. Condemned practices, forbidden arts might lead through clouds of mystery into light of knowledge, and in this light history might call to be written out anew. We know at this day that Map'onic legends are matters of fond invention, but some of them are old at the root, and we can understand in the eighteenth century how they came to pass as fact, more especially since the root of some was a Secret Tradition in Israel. When it came about, 12 SAINT-MARTIN under circumstances which cannot be recited here, that Masonic attention was drawn to the old Order of Knights Templar, which had been brought to the rack and the faggot as possessors of a strange knowledge drawn from the East, a Rite or a budget of Rites which claimed that the Order had never passed. out of being was like a fortune to those who devised. It is from this point of view that we must survey the amazing growth of Masonry in all its multitude of forms. We shall conclude that it was pursued zealously, with a heart turned towards the truth, and as one who believes that he may not stand alone, I am not unprepared to think that some of the traditional histories, to us. as monstrous growths, represented to the makers their views on the probability of things presented in the guise of myth. It was saved in this manner for them from the common charge of fraud. This is my judgment of the time, and there is one thing more on the wonder- side of the subject, the expectations and the vistas seen in front. As the time drew on for Voltaire to be called away and when the chief High Grades of Masonry connoted a reaction from much that is typified by his name, there rose up another personality holding one key only, but it looked like clavis abscond itorum a consiitutione mundi. This was Anton Mesmer, prominent in Parisian circles, a Mason like the rest of them, and destined presently to have more than one Grade enshrining his discovery and designed for the spread of its tenets. THE GREAT DAY OF SAINT-MARTIN 13 Granting the fact of his unseen but vital fluid, there was a root of truth at least in the long past of Magia, in the enhancements of vestal and pythoness, above all in occult medicine. So opened some other doors, and when Puystfgur discovered clairvoyance again as it might be for a moment* the mystery of all the hiddenness looked on the point of unveiling. But the doors shut suddenly, the dreams and the epoch closed in the carnage of the French Revolution, and thereafter rose the baleful cresset of Corsica. I have dwelt upon French Freemasonry because it is impossible to pass over it in pre- senting a picture of the period, but more especially because the life of the mystic Saint- Martin is bound up therewith for a certain number of years. Among the Rites which mattered at the moment his name connects with two, being the glory of the Strict Ob- servance and the problematical Order of Elect Priesthood. 1 Behind the first there lies the mystery of its Unknown Superiors, but this, when reduced to its equivalent in simple fact, means the circumstances under which and the people by whom its root-matter waa communicated in France to Baron von Hund, who returned with it to his German Fatherland and there formed it into a Rite, whose advent marked an epoch for evermore in Masonry. But 1 Z'Ortfre dc* Elu3 CofrtJ, but tho last is a nonsense* word, tho plural of the Hebrew Cohen Priest being CoAcmm, 14 SAINT-MARTIN in respect of the second there lies behind it the claim of Pasqually's apostolate in that for which it stood and whence, if from anywhere, he derived on his own part as, for example, the Rosy Cross. I cannot trace here the history of the Strict Observance : it claimed to represent a perpetuation in secret of the Knights Templar and to be ruled by a hidden headship apper- taining to that source. It may almost be said that it took Masonic Germany by storm, and planted its banners triumphantly all over Europe, save only in those British Isles where the Art and Craft of Emblematic Freemasonry rose up in 1717 ampng the taverns of London. It fell to pieces ultimately because it was in no better position to prove its claims than was the Craft itself to justify its recurrent appeals to the hoary past. But the point which concerns us is that before its karma overtook it the Rite was domiciled in France and had headquarters at Lyons under the government of a Provincial Grand Prior of Auvergne. It was transformed under these auspices from a Holy Houso of the Tojuplo into a Spiritual Houso of God, in the keeping of a sa'cred chivalry pledged to the work of His glory and the promotion of peace on earth among all men of goodwill. It ia the Apex of Masonry or the diadem of this Daughter of the Mysteries. . As regards Marlines do Pasqually and his Bite des Elus Coens, or Order of the Elect Priesthood, ho would seem to have been of Spanish descent or extraction, though he was THE GREAT DAY OF SAINT-MARTIN 15 born in Grenoble, and he is said to have been a coach-builder by trade a piece of information which comes, however, from a hostile source. It may stand at its value and in any case does not signify, for it must be admitted, I believe, that he was of comparatively humble origin, and his extant letters swarm with ortho- graphical errors, all his intellectual gifts notwithstanding and also his spiritual dedi- cations. Whatever has been, said to the contrary, it is quite certain so far as there is evidence before us that he emerged into the light of his Masonic career for the first time in 1760 and that the place was Toulouse, where he presented himself at a certain Lodge, bearing a hieroglyphic charter and laying claim to occult powers. A year later he emerged again at Bordeaux, where he appears to have been recognised on his own terms by another Lodge, which he had satisfied in respect of his claims. In 1766 he proceeded to Paris and there laid the foundations of a Sovereign Tribunal, which included several prominent Masons. He was again at Bordeaux in 1767, and three years later there nro said to have been Lodges of his Rite not only at that city but at Montpellier, Avignon, La Rochelle and Metz, as well as at Paris and Versailles. The Temple at Lyons was founded a little later. Such is the external story of the Rite in bare outline, up to the time when for my present purpose it can be merged in that of Saint- t Martin. And now as to that for which it stood. 16 SAINT-MARTIN I have intimated that Martines do Pasqually pretended to occult powers, and that there was at least one Lodge which hejd that ho had proved his claim. I shall show later on the extent of our present knowledge respecting the content of his Bite. It had a certain ceremonial procedure, which like all Ritual must have been sacramental in character, or with a certain meaning implied by its modes and forms ; but only to the least extent was it otherwise veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. On the contrary, it was concerned with the communication of a secret doctrine by way of direct instructiqn and with a practice which must be called secret in the ordinary sense which attaches to the idea of occult art or science. The kind of practice was that which endeavours to establish communication with unseen intelligence by the observances of Ceremonial Magic. There was procedure of this kind in the course of the Grades, or of some at least among them, and Pasqually, the Grand Sovereign, was also Grand Magus or Operator, It will be seen in a. word that the Rite of Elect Priesthood had a very different undertaking in hand from anything embraced by the horizon of Craft Masonry or the rank and file of High Grades. The doctrine embodied a particular view concerning the Fall of Man and of all animated things belonging to the material order ; it looked for the restoration of all, and on man as the divinely appointed agent of that great work to come. CHAPTER II EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC Loins CLAUDE DE SAINT- MARTIN belonged to the French nobility, as indicated by his armorial bearings and the coronet superposed thereon, but I have not come across his genealogy in any extant memorial. He was described very of ten in the past, and even by early French biographers, as the Marquis de Saint-Martin, but this is a mistake and has been rectified some time since : it does not appear that there was any title in his branch of the family. Though he suffered little inconvenience when the French Revolution came, he was included among the proscribed, meaning the noble classes. He was of Touraiue stock, and was born at Amboiso in that, district on January 18, 1743. It is said that his mother died soon after and that the father married again. We have his own evidence that filial respect was a sacred sentiment of his infancy ; that all his happiness was perhaps due to his stepmother ; that her teaching inspired him with love fclr God and man ; and that the intercourse of their minds took place in perfect freedom. 1 There are various indications of his delicacy in early 1 Portraii de M. de Saint-Martin fait par lui-mtm*. Set (Euvrei.Posthume*, 2 voli., 1807, i, 10, 15. ' 2 " 18 SAINT-MARTIN years, as when he tells us that he changed skins seven times in babyhood ; that his body was a rough sketch ; that he had very little " astral, " meaning psychic force ; that he could play passably on the violin, but that owing to physical weakness his fingers could not vibr&te with sufficient power to make a cadence. 1 I mention these points ^to show that, albeit Saint-Martin attained a fair age, he seems to have been always physically frail, amidst great mental activities. For the rest, there is no need to dwell upon his youth, as regards external facts, nor have many transpired* He was educated; at the college of Pont-Leroy, was designed for the career of the law and entered thereupon, but it proved so entirely distasteful that his father allowed him to exchange it for the profession of arms, he being then about twenty-two years of age. On the inward side, or as regards his early dedications, we have the benefit of his own intimations, too brief and few as they are, There is a work of the past, by a writer named Abadio, on The Art of Self-Knowledge, and though on my own part. I have not brought away -from it any striking recollections, it had a pertain repute in its day. Saint-Martin tells us that he read it .with delight in his youth, though he recognised later that it was charac- terised by sentiment rather than depth of thought. It was instrumental probably in disposing him towards the life of contemplation * Portr dtV, pp. 4,3, 11. EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 19 and the following of the mystic path. There was also Burlamaqui, to whom he Bays that he owed his love for the natural basis of reason and human justice, So far as regards books, but beyond these there were the promptings of his own spirit, and in respect of these he tells us (1) that at the age of eighteen, amidst all the confusions of philosophy, he had attained certitude ad to God and his own soul ; (2) that the seeker for wisdom had n^ed of nothing more; (3) that the foundation of all his happi- ness must be in contentment only with the truth ; (4) that absorption in material things was incomprehensible for those who knew the treasures of reason and the spirit ; (5) that human science explained matter by matter, and that after its putative proofs there were other demonstrations needed ; (6) that the inmost prayer of his soul was for God to abide therein to the exclusion of all else, in which manner he came to see, thus early, that Divine Union is the true end of man ; for I find this further thought set down as belonging to his first spiritual years, namely, (7) that we are all widowed and that we are called to a second marriage, 1 The influence of the Due do Choisoul secured a commission for Saint-Martin in the regiment of Foix. The next three years of his life, which are practically a blank, so far as memorials are concerned, have been filled up by biographers, following on obvious lines and * Portrait, pp. 68. 0, 13, 127. 128. 20. 21. 17. 20 SAINT-MARTIN those of least resistance. His occupations, in a word, were the duties ofJhis profession and the study of religious philosophy. There is of course no question, and so far from the life of a soldier offering any barrier to his dedications, they opened a path before him which he followed with advantage for a certain distance and remembered his experience therein with unfailing affection and reverence. As we learn by his correspondence, Martines de Pas- qually had married the niece of a retired major in the regiment of Foix, and he was known personally by the brother-officers of Saint- Martin, De Grainville among others, and in the end by Saint-Martin himself. De Grainville, De Balzac and Du Guers were initiates of the Elect Priesthood, and at some uncertain date between August 13 and October 2, 1768, Saint-Martin was received into the Order. According to his own testimony he had taken the first three Grades en bloc, apparently by verbal communication. They were conferred on him by M. de Balzac. 1 There is no record as to how they impressed him, but among several references to the Grand Sovereign of the Rite on the part of his disciple for a period there is one which appertains more especially to the initial stage of their connection. " It is to Martines de Pasqually," says Saint- Martin, " that I owe my introduction to the higher 1 See Saint-Martin's letter to Willermoz, under date of August 8,-1771, in Papus : Louis Claude de Saint- Alar tin, 1902, pp. 100 etetq. EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 21 truths.* 1 This sentence was written either on the eve of the Revolution or soon after, and having regard to the spiritual distance travelled already by the witness it is pregnant testimony. As regards the Ritual-content of the Elect Priesthood, we know certainly about seven Grades, being (1) Apprentice Elect Priest; (2) Companion Elect Priest ; (3) Particular Master Elect Priest ; (4) Master Elect Priest ; (6) Grand Master Priests, otherwise Grand Architects; (6) Grand Elects of Zerubbabel; and (7) a Grade of Rose Croix, not otherwise and more fully particularised, though it is a subject of frequent allusion in the corre- spondence of Martines de Pasqually and Saint- Martin. In the year 1895 Papus, otherwise Dr. Gerard Encausse, testified that the "Rituals of the Elect Priests, " with other numerous and important archives, had been transmitted as follows :'('!) To J. B. Willerinoz, a merchant of Lyons, circa 1782. He was one of the successors of Pasqually and Grand Prior of Auvergne in the Strict Observance. (2) From Willermoz to his nephew. (3) From this nephew to his widow. (4) From her to M. Ca vernier, an unattached student of occultism. There are other documents held by the descendants of M. Jacques Matter, one of the early and most competent biographers of Saint-Martin. By the mediation of M. Elie Steel, a bookseller of Lyons, Papus was placed in communication with Ca vernier, and * Portrait, pp. 58, 59. 22 SAINT-MARTIN was enabled to copy "the principal docu- ments/ 1 l Whether these included the Rituals does not appear, nor is it possible to indicate the present locality of the originals. It is certain, however, that Papus transcribed the Catechisms attached to six out of the seven Grades, as he published them at the date mentioned, 1 and I have full evidence also that he conferred the Grade of Rose Croix on at least one occasion, some years subsequently, as we shall see more particularly at the close of the present monograph. In the absence of the Rituals, which have never been printed, while I have failed to find manuscript copies in England, either in private hands or in any Masonic or other library, our available knowledge of the Grades is confined to the Catechisms and to the correspondence mentioned above. I will take these sources separately, as the first is concerned with the doctrine and symbolism of the Rite, and the second with its peculiar practices. (1) Appren- tice Elect Priest. The instruction of this Grade imparted perfect knowledge ex hypothesi on the existence of the Grand Architect of the Universe, on the principle of man's spiritual emanation and on his direct correspondence with his Master. It is obvious that the knowledge in question was conveyed dogmatic- ally. As regards the origin of the Order, it derived from the Creator Himself and had been * Papus : Marlines de Pasqually, Paris, 1895, pp. 11-14. * Ibid., pp. ZlSeteeq. EARLY LIFE OP THE MYSTIC 23 perpetuated from the days of Adam, that is to say, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Melchisedek, and afterwards to Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Zerubbabel and Christ. The meaning is that there has been always a Secret Tradition in the world, and its successive epochs are marked by successive custodians. It is in this sense also that the purpose of the Order is said to be the maintenance of man in his primeval virtue, his spiritual and divine powert. (2) Companion Elect Priest. Having been told of our " first estate " in the previous Degree, the Candidate hears in the next concerning the Fall of Man and personifies it in his own case. He has passed from the per- pendicular to the triangle, or from union with his First Principle to the triplicity of material things. The Grade of Companion typifies this transition. The Candidate is engaged to counteract the work of the Fall, in which his own spirit has been undone, and his whole world is in travail thereupon, to "acquire the age of perfection." The root of all is in a living realisation of . what is implied by the first estate of man, his ambition, his lapse and his punishment. There is one allusion to the pouring out of a more than human blood, but this subject is reserved to some later stage of advancement in the Order. (3) Particular Master Elect Priest. In the conventional symbolism, the Candidate passes from the triangle to the circles : he is at work in the circles of expiation, which are said to b* six 24 SAINT-MARTIN and in correspondenco with six conceptions employed by the Great Architect in con- structing the Universal Temple. The. symbol- ism of the Temple of Solomon is explained in this Degree, and its members, are called to the practice of charity, good example and all duties of the Order, for the reintegration of their individual principles, their Mercury, Sulphur and Salt, in that unity of Divine Principles from which they first came forth. Here is the only distinct Hermetic reference found in the memorials of the Rite. (4) Elect Master. The Candidate enters tho circle of reconciliation, and in common with his peers is engaged henceforward in warfare with tho enemies of Divine Law and of man at large on earth. We hear also, but vaguely, concerning One Who is tho Elect of God, Who has reconciled earth with man and all with the Grand Architect of the Universe. It is to be noted that in references of this kind we are left to infer that the Reconciler is Christ, for He is not mentioned by name. The Resurrection of Easter morning is referred to in similarly unprecise terms, and so also the sacrifice on Calvary. It transpires, however, that the warfare of the Grade is against the enemies of the Christian Religion. The initiations and adornments of Craft Masonry have been stigmatised as apocryphal in the first Grade, and yet they were sufficiently essential to be con- ferred invariably in summary form on every Candidate for the Elect Priesthood pre- EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 25 sumably in cases where they had not been taken previously. In the Grade of Elect Master he is warned to cut himself off from all clandestine secret societies, communicating apocryphal instructions, which are " contrary to Divine Law and to the Order/* (5) Grand Master Priests, surnamcd Grand Architects The Candidate was thirty-three years old in the fourth Grade and he has now attained the age of eighty. It would seem that he receives some kind of ordination. It is a Grade of light and the Temple is ablaze with light. There arc four Wardens, who represent the four symbolical Angels qf the four quarters of heaven, . recalling the occult mystery of the Enochian Tablets^ according to the memorials of Dr. John Dec hi The Faithful Relation. The ordination whatever its form is said to be operated by the thought and will of the Eternal, and by the power, word and intention of His deputies. The members of this Grade are occupied with the purification of their physical senses so that they may participate in the work of the spirit. They are engaged otherwise in constructing new Tabernacles and rebuilding old. There are said to bd four kindc of Tabernacles in the Universal Temple, being (I) the body of man, (2) the body of woman, (3) the Tabernacle of Moses, and (4) that of the Sun, or the " temporal spiritual " Tabernacle which the Great Architect of the Universe " has destined to contain the sacred names and words of material and spiritual 26 SAINT-MARTIN reaction, distinguished by wisdom as by a torch of universal temporal life." There is no further allusion to this Spiritual Sun. The Candidate now hears the Name of Christ, apparently for the first time in his progress through the Bite. It must be said that the Catechisms are rather obscure documents, and inferences drawn therefrom as to procedure in the Rituals are therefore precarious, but it would seem that the Candidate in this Degree begins to take part in those magical operations which are the chief concern of the Rite, as we shall see. (0) Grand Elect of Zenibbabel.T\iQ Prince of the Pcpplo is represented as a typo of Christ and his work as typical of redemption. In the Masonic Grade known as tho Royal Arch the Candidate testifies that he belongs to the tribe of Judah, but a Grand Elect on the contrary protests against such an imputation. He is of the tribe of Ephraiin, described as (1) that which has always enjoyed freedom, and (2) the last of the tribes of Israel but the first of the Elect. His earthly age is defined to be seventy years, while that of his spiritual election is seven. The seventy years of cap- tivity are those of material life, or life apart from election and from the ordination of true priesthood. The election attained by the Candidate imposes on him the spirit ua lisa t ion of his material passions, tho conquest of tho enemies of truth and those also of liberty. His rank is friend of God, protector of virtue and professor of truth. It is to bo noted EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 27 that he has had no part in the building of the Second Temple, because it was a type only of that Temple of our humanity which none but the Spirit can rebuild. This being so, it is difficult to see why members of the Grade are called Grand Elects of ZerubbabeL (7) Grade of JRose Croix particulars of which are wanting, as already seen, there being no Catechism extant. But the true Hose Croix is of Christ, and without it Pasqually's Rite would have been left at a loose end, for it looked through all its Grades to that Divine Event which ushered in the Christian Era. ,In tho above enumeration respecting the content of tho Rite I have taken its Catechisms as my guide, but it remains to add that there is some confusion on the subject. A letter of the Grand Sovereign has been quoted under date of June 16, 1760, in which the Grades are set out according to the following list: (1) Ap- prentice, (2) Companion, (3) Particular Master, (4) Grand Elect Master, (5) Apprentice Priest, (6) Companion Priest, (7) Master Priest, (8) Grand Master Architect. 1 To these Ragon added a Grade of Knight Commander, 1 which Papus seeks to identify with that of Rose Croix. I find no trace of the letter in published Pasqually memorials, and the date is certainly wrong. As regards Ragon, his mammoth lists of Degrees, Rites and Orders are utterly uncritical, but the fact that in this case he 1 Papua : Martinet dt -Pasqually, pp. 156, 157* a J. M. Ragon : Manud d* 28 SAINT-MARTIN produces an enumeration which is corroborated somewhere in the unpublished correspondence of the Grand Sovereign may justify us in thinking that there is authority for the ninth item and that the entire scheme may have represented an early state of Pasqually's Masonic plan. There is in any case the fullest evidence that his Rite was at work when several of its Ceremonies were only in an embryonic stage. I observe also that in a letter of Saint* Martin dated May 20, 177 1, 1 there is reference to a Dogroo under tho initials G, H t| which corresponds to no title extant in either scheme, as it is certainly not Rose Croix, this being always represented by R*J< in Saint-Martin's correspondence. Amidst variations and un- certainties, we are, I think, justified in regarding the Grade-Names at tho head of the several Catechisms as those appertaining to the Rite in its completed form. On tho surface of these documents there is nothing to suggest that the Grades , to which they are attributed wpro connected with Ceremonial Magic. They belong to the part of doctrine and the part also of symbolism, the latter including official secrets signs, tokens, words and similar accidents of purely Masonic convention. For the practical part we must have recourse to the correspondence of Pasqually and as it may seem, perhaps curiously to that of Saint-Martin* The * Papua : Saint-Martin^ pp. 02 ct scq. * See Papua : Martinet de PasquaUy, chapitre ii, passim. EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 29 letters of both were addressed to Jean-Baptiste Willennoz, the merchant of Lyons, who appears to have held the rank of Inspector-General in 1767,t,though more than a year later he is denominated Apprentice Rose Crobc : it would seem therefore that the jurisdiction implied by the broader title could have been exercised only over lower Grades of the Order. On August 13, 1768, the Grand Sovereign began to instruct Willeriuoz in occult or magical procedure, and continued to do so at long intervals until 1772, the communications in all being ten in number, so far as they have become available in pub- lished works. The operations imposed were to be performed by Willermoz in the solitude of a private room, and have therefore nothing to do with ceremonial observance in Lodge or Temple. The practice in these for it appears that there was a practice seems to have been performed by Pasqually himself, looking for* ward presumably to that time when some of his diseiples would have developed occult powers under his tuition and would be qualified to operate on their own part in public, so to speak, with some assurance of success. The Ceremonial Magic was Christian and presupposed throughout the efficacy of religious formiuce consecrated from time immemorial by the usage of the Latin Church. The instruc- tions reduced into summary form may be presented thus : (1) The Novice was coven- anted to abstain from flesh meat, apparently of all kinds, for the rest of his life. (2) As an 30 SAIOT-MARTIN Apprentice Rose Croix he was forbidden occult work except for three days in succession at the beginning of either equinox, meaning three days before the full moon of March and September. (3) As regards spiritual prepara- tion, he must recite the Office of the Holy Spirit every Thursday at any hour of the day ; the 'Miserere imi, standing in tho contro of tho room at night before retiring, facing Kant ; and tho DC l*rofundis on both knees and with face bowed to tho ground. (4) Tho clothing prescribed is elaborate, including all insignia of , tho Order that tho Novice was entitled to wear, but hero it will bo sufficient to say that, as he must "be deprived of all metals, even pins, he removed his ordinary clothing except vest, drawer's, socks and felt slippers. Over these he placed a. white alb, with broad flame-coloured borders. (5) He described the segment of a circle on the East side of the room and a complete circle of retreat on the West side, placing the proper inscriptions at the proper points, with the symbols and wax tapers. (6) These arrangements completed, he prostrated himself at full length within the western circle in complete darkness, for a space of six minutes, after which he arose and lighted all the tapers belonging to that circle. (7) He then prostrated himself within the eastern segment, pronouncing one of tho Names inscribed thereon and supplicating God, in virtue of .the power * given to His servants here reciting all the inscribed angelic EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 31 names to grant that which was desired by the Novice with humble and contrite heart. (8) The Novice again rose up and performed other operations, including the use of a particular kind of incense and the recital of certain invocations which are not given in the text. (9) The operation was to last one hour and a half, onward from midnight, no food having boon taken sinoo noon, Thorc arc other directions, not always in harmony with those which preceded, but the instruction is left unfinished, and as regards these initial operations we do not know what purpose they served or what manifestations character- ised success therein. About two years later Pasqually supplied further directions of a more advanced or at least more elaborate kind, the circle of retreat being now located in the centre of the room ; but again the procedure depends on particulars whichjiave been sent previously and the nature of which is unknown. We hear also of visions, described as white, blue, clear ruddy white, and so forth ; of visible sparks, of goose-flesh sensations, as of things seen and felt by mere novices of the Order. As to purpose, however, and result there is still nothing that transpires, except indeed the complete failure of Willermoz to obtain any satisfaction. The letters of Saint- Mart in to the same correspondent on the same subject may bo said practically to .begin as those of Pasqually ended, and they are models of clear exposition, compared with those of the 32 8MNT-MARTTN Grand Sovereign. 1 They endeavour in the first place to encourage Willermoz and dissuade him from supposing either that he is himself to blame or that the occult ceremonies are invalid. At an early stage one of them was accompanied by " the grand ceremonial " of the Grand Architects, a complete plan of this Grade and a prayer or invocation for daily use. We hear also of a " simple form of ordination " under the initials G. B., to which I have alluded previously ; of extended and reduced versions of some Grades ; of Elect and Priestly Grades. There are references to Latin originals of certain workings ; to procedure with Candidates on their reception as Grand Archi- tects, evidently magical in character ; forms of conjuration and exorcism of evil spirits which do not differ generically from those of historical Rituals ; and much on the formation of circles, with their proper modes of inscrip- tion. These things do not extend our know- ledge, except upon points of detail, and after midsummer, 1773, the character of the corre- spondence changes. Saint-Martin had supplied for a period the place, as it were, of a secretary to his occult Master, but Pasqually was called to St. Domingo in 1772 on " temporal business " of his own and was destined never to return. It follows that the Ceremonial Magic of the Elect Priesthood is by no means fully available * Tho first is dated March 4, 1771. Tho letters aro printed in cxtetwo by Papua in hia work on Saint- Martin, already cited. EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 33 from published sources ; but so far as the procedure is before us it does not differ, as I haive intimated, from the common records of the art except as these records differ one from another. This being the case, and as most of us are acquainted with the preposterous concerns of Art Magic in the past, we have, in the next place, to account as we can for an opinion on his early school expressed by Saint Martin long after he had abandoned it and all its ways : " I will not conceal from you that in the school through which I passed, now more than twenty-five years ago, communications of all kinds were numerous and frequent, that I had my share in these like all the others, and that every sign indicative of the Repairer was found therein/' * He said also : " There were precious things in our first school, and I am even disposed to believe that M. Pasqually, to whom you allude and who, since it must be said, was our Master, had the active key of all that our dear B.ohme sets forth in his theories, but that he did not regard us as fitted for such high truths." ' In the peculiar terminology of SaintrMartin, the Repairer signified Christ, and what therefore were those " communications " obtained as the result of invocations recited in magical circles drawn with chalk on the floor and inscribed, as in the 1 Letter of Saint-Martin to Baron de Liebistorf (Kirch- borgor), dated March 6, 1793. See Lcttrcs Intdites de L. O. ae Saint- Martin, Paris, 1862, or E. B. Penny'a trans- lation, entitled Thcosophio Correspondence. Ibid.. Loiter of July 11, 1700. 3 34 SAINT-MARTIN devices of old sorcery, with more or less unintelligible names I After what manner precisely did they manifest or at least indicate the presence of Christ ? For an answer to these questions we depend on the accuracy of a single witness who was either in possession of many priceless unpublished documents or had access thereto as President of the Martinist Order the late Gerard Encausse, otherwise Dr. Papus to whom my notes have referred already. He presents us with further extracts from the letters of Martines de Pasqually, who affirms therein (1) that if the thing La chose were not as I have certified and had it not been manifested hs it was, not only in my own presence but in that of so many others who desired to know it, I should have abandoned it myself and should have been in conscience bound to dissuade those who approached it in good faith ; (2) that in respect of the failure of Willermoz there was no gound for surprise because "the Thing is sometimes severe towards those who desire it too ardently before the time." ! One would think that La chose signified simply the subject or matter in hand, but according to Papus it was the Intelligence or Mysterious Being which manifested hi response to the invocations. Wo are to interpret the reference in this sense when Saint- Martin says, in his communication to Willermoz of March 25, 1771, that he was " convinced concerning the thing before having received the 1 Papus : Martinet de Pasqually, pp. 104, 105. EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC 35 most efficacious of our ordinations." I do not know how Papus satisfied himself respecting this forced and arbitrary construction, but whether it is correct or not, there is no question as to the fact that a Mysterious Being mani- fested by the evidence of the archives or that it was called subsequently by other names, such as " the Unknown Agent charged with the work of initiation," an expression of Willennoz. It follows that .we have good ground for accepting the view of Abbe Fournie, another disciple of the Rite, when he said that Pasqually had the faculty of confirming his instructions by means of " external visions, at first vague and passing with the rapidity of lightning, but afterwards more and more distinct and. pro- longed. " l Having established this point of fact, which sufficiently distinguishes the Grand Sovereign from other purveyors of High Masonic Grades in Franco of the eighteenth century, and his Rite also from many scores of contemporary institutions, we have to ascertain if we can what characterised the mani- festations, so that they justified Saint-Martin in the extraordinary view which he held con- cerning them, not in the first flush of occult experiences, but at a mature period of life. Meanwhile I have sketched his position and environment at the beginning of his intellectual career. As a result of exchanging the profession 1 See Fournie'd work, 'entitled Ce que nous avons lit, ce que nou* sommes et ce que noiw viendrona. Londres, 801. 30 SAINT-MARTIN of law for that of arms, he had entered a circle which brought him to the gates of certain Instituted Mysteries, then at work about him ; he had been initiated, passed and raised in the parlance of Blue Masonry ; he had received the ordination of the Elect Priesthood ; and had attained its highest Grade, being that of Rose Croix. It remains to add that he had left the army and was now approaching a point where the road which he had travelled divided : he had therefore to choose a path. CHAPTER THE SEARCH AFTER TKUTH THE correspondence between Saint-Martin and Willermoz had continued for two years and five months, but they had never seen one another. In the early part of September, 1773, Saint-Martin repaired to Lyons and was domiciled in that town for something approach- ing a year, during part of which he was apparently the guest of his rich Masonic brother. His own resources were small, and there are indications that he was not on the best terms with his father, no doubt owing to the fact that for the second time he had abandoned a career in life. We have seen that there was a Temple of the Elect Priest- hood at Lyons, which was also an historically important centre of Freemasonry in France, and Willermoz was an active member and officer of all the Rites. Saint-Martin, on the other hand, cared little or less than nothing foir ceremonial procedure, for Ritual which he found empty and for the hollow pomp of titles. By his own evidence, the offices of Ceremonial Magic were only less distasteful, notwithstand- ing his high opinion of the influences at work among them in the circle to which he belonged. He affirms that he had no " virtuality " in 37 38 SAINT-MARTIN activities of that kind; that he had little ' ' talent " for its operations; that he "experienced at all times so strong an in- clination to the intimate secret way that this external one never seduced me further, oven in my youth." ; and that he exclaimed more than once to his Master : " Can all this be needed to find God ? " l Such being the case, there need be no cause for surprise that Saint-Martin put on record long after his opinion that the "first sojourn at Lyons in 1773 "'was not much more " profitable " than others which he made later and especially in 1785.* It was important, however, in another and very different way, for it marked the beginning of his literary life. ifc It was at Lyons, "-he" tells us, "that I wrote the book DCS Erreurs ct de la Vtritd, partly by way of occupation and because I was indignant with the philosophers so called, having read in Boulangcr that the origin of religions was to be sought in the terror occasioned by the. catastrophes of Nature. 1 wrote some thirty pages at first, which I showed to a circle that 1 was instructing at the house of M. Willermoz, and they pledged nie to continue. It was composed towards the end of 1773 and at the beginning of 1774, in the space of four months and by the kitchen-fire, for there was no other at which I could warm myself, 1 Letter of Saint -Martin* to Kirchbergeir, dated July 12, 1792. * See the Notice HtV/ar