‘Natural Table translation is out’

     
Big news from the irrepressible Piers. He has translated this historic text, and has made it available to you. From the publicity:

Courtesy Piers Vaughan

I’m delighted to announce that Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s second book, Natural Table, is now published and available.

First published in 1782, seven years after Of Errors & Truth, Saint-Martin was still a Freemason and avid follower of Pasqually and his teachings, even though his Master had died years earlier, and the Elus Cohen was almost defunct. This book shows how he continued to develop the Theosophy, and this great image of God, Man, and the Universe examines Pasqually’s theology from ancient mythology and the Old Testament. He continues to the advent of Christ, whom he called the Repairer, and continues to the Apocalypse. We also should remember that this work was published in the same year as the Convent of Wilhelmsbad, at which Jean-Baptiste Willermoz received authority to rework the Order of Strict Observance into the Scottish Rectified Rite, forever preserving Pasqually’s teachings in one of most sublime Masonic Orders of all.

It’s available in hardcover and paperback, and at a discount for now, so act fast!
     

‘Alchemy Journal returns!’

     

The front cover of the new issue of Alchemy Journal,

Vol. 13, No. 1, published August 20, 2017.

Alchemy Journal is back, after an absence of—well, too long!

The International Alchemy Guild announced today that its quarterly periodical of esoteric thinking and practice returns this very day with Volume 13, Number 1.

The new editorial team is Editor Daniel Coaten and Assistant Editors Jim Baldwin, Tracy Cranick, and Gabriel Maroney, with Founding Editor Dennis William Hauck.

Alchemy Journal now is an online publication. Click here to sign up and get access.

This issue contains:

• Alchemy Praxis Aphorisms by Lynn Osburn
• The Alchemical Incubator by Vince Norman Martin
• Arcanum Djinn: Angelic Magic as Modern Medicine (Part 1: The Living Stone) by Gabriel Quinn Maroney
• Original Prayers by Alchemists: Cease Not Thine Operations on Me! from Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
• News from the Archives by Jim Baldwin
• Alchemy Astrology: Eclipse Within by Timothy A. Wilkerson
• Modern Alchemy Book Reviews by Dennis William Hauck

The Alchemy Guild “is an international organization whose members are practicing alchemists or interested in studying various aspects of spiritual and practical alchemy.” Read more here.

This is so exciting it actually may motivate me to start writing again.
     

‘Of Errors & Truth translated’

     

Click to enlarge.

You know Piers Vaughan is a well practiced translator of Robert Ambelain, but now Piers has a book that returns a text by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin to the seekers of hidden wisdom.

Click here.

“Very happy to announce that my translation of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s first book, Of Errors & Truth, written in 1775, is now available in hardback and paperback on Amazon,” Piers says. “I had the pleasure of working from a copy of the original 1775 book, published in Lyon, France. The book is an extraordinary work against the creeping materialism and atheism of the Enlightenment period immediately prior to the French Revolution. As well as giving an insight into esoteric and Masonic thinking of that time, it also gives us a glimpse into the life and times of late 18th century France.”

From the publicity:

Courtesy Piers Vaughan

Of Errors & Truth, or Man Restored to the Universal Principle of Knowledge was published in Lyon in 1775, when Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin was 32 years old. Born in 1743 in Amboise, France, he studied law for a short time before entering the army, serving as a commissioned officer at the regiment stationed at Foix. There he met the enigmatic Martinez de Pasqually, and shortly thereafter he was initiated into his extraordinary theurgical Masonic group, called the Order of Elect Cohens of the Universe. He soon resigned his commission to become the Master’s full-time secretary, eventually reaching the highest Grade in Pasqually’s Order, that of Reaux Croix.

He worked with Pasqually on his great work, Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings, an extraordinary sprawling work setting forth a unique view on the origin of man, his fall, and providing an unorthodox commentary on the first part of the Old Testament. It is through this close collaboration that Saint-Martin came to meet Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, another disciple of Pasqually who was a prominent Lyonnais businessman and Freemason who went on to found many Masonic Orders, in particular the Scottish Rectified Rite and the Knights Beneficent of the Holy City.

However, Saint-Martin became increasingly uncomfortable with the elaborate theurgical rituals of the Elus Cohen, and when Pasqually left France in 1772 to take up an inheritance in St. Domingo, the Order began to fall apart, and Saint-Martin found himself becoming increasingly mystical in outlook.

Courtesy Piers Vaughan

During an extended stay in Lyon with his friend Willermoz, Saint-Martin wrote his first book, under the pseudonym Unknown Philosopher. The book, recollecting Pasqually’s Treatise, outlines a mystical philosophical outlook that is clearly based on Pasqually’s teachings, but with a distinct Christian flavor. It is wide-reaching, attempting to put forward his theories by drawing on examples from many fields, including Politics, Philosophy, Music, Writing and Painting. The book was printed by Willermoz’s fellow lodge members, the Perisse Brothers, although the frontispiece claims the book was printed in “Edimbourg,” a common practice at the time to avoid paying exorbitant taxes charged on all books printed in France at that time.

The Enlightenment had led to a great expansion in the sciences, and the search to find the solutions to the great questions in nature and in man, rather than in God, distressed him greatly. He was particularly concerned about the influence of the so-called Materialists, who he felt were leading mankind on a path toward atheism. Therefore he wrote this book to counter their materialism, and to set forth a sweeping vision of the origin of man, his fall, and the path of return, which, following Pasqually’s terminology, he also called the Path of Reintegration.

The book was an immediate success, particularly among Masons, though its veiled criticism of religion and politics led to it being put on proscribed lists for a time. Naturally, it drew the wrath of the Enlightenment philosophers of the time, and in particular Voltaire. However, it takes its place as one of the great mystical Christian writings of the 18th Century, and as a major early document on the teachings of European Freemasonry in general, and the nascent Scottish Rite in particular.

Click here.

Don’t forget Piers will be the guest speaker at Phoenix Lodge in New Hampshire Friday night.
     

‘Introduction to Martinism Saturday’

     
The Traditional Martinist Order will host an Introduction to Martinism Saturday afternoon in New York City. In January, the Order will undertake a new cycle of classes, and I gather this meeting will provide answers about the Order and its teachings. Julian Johnson will lead the discussion. From the publicity:

Introduction to Martinism

Saturday, November 14

1 p.m.

Rosicrucian Cultural Center

2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.

New York City

Focusing on the works of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, we will explore the foundations of Martinism, a mystical movement deeply rooted in the Western Esoteric Tradition.

We anticipate people will ask about how and when they can receive the Associate Degree Initiation, as well as other questions pertaining to membership in New York Heptad.


On the following Saturday, November 21, the local heptad will confer the Associate Degree. (New York Heptad now meets at the Theosophical Society/Quest Bookshop at 240 East 53rd Street in Manhattan.)
     

‘Rosicrucian Digest: Martinism’

     

The new issue of Rosicrucian Digest, the periodical of the Rosicrucian Order, is devoted entirely to the subject of Martinism. It is the sixteenth such thematic issue expounding on aspects of the Rosicrucian tradition. The Rosicrucian Order’s sister society is named the Traditional Martinist Order.

As always, the Digest is available on-line, and there even are occasional on-line discussions on Facebook for further learning. 


The contents:

The Traditional Martinist Order—Introduction

Martinism: History of a Traditional Order

Take Back My Will by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Martinist Lessons

Aurora: Jacob Boehme

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings by Martinès de Pasqually

Of Errors and Truth by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

What Becomes of the Dead by Papus

Traditional Martinist Order Discourse: Kabbalah

Ieschouah, Grand Architect of the Universe

The Cloak

Martinism: The Way of the Heart

The Holy Spirit


Supplementary web articles also:

The Judeo-Christian Aspect of Martinism

Jakob Boehme: The Spiritual Awakening of the Teutonic Philosopher

The ‘Stage Set’ for the Agent of Omneity

The Traditionalist Martinist Order and Sacred Scriptures

On Equilibration: The Rose Cross Martinist at the Still Center

The Kabbalah: Secret Tradition of the West

The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix


I’m guessing there will be lectures and other programs on Martinism coming soon to the Rosicrucian Cultural Center, and I’ll pass along that information as it come.
     

‘The Light of Martinism’

     
The Traditional Martinist Order’s heptad in New York City will begin classes in January, starting a new two-year term of instruction in the Light of Martinism.

Louis Claude de Saint-Martin

What is Martinism? Well, ah, that’s a big question, but in this context, forget anything you have read on this website or elsewhere about Willermoz, Elu Cohens, CBCS, Ambelain, and other facts and figures. They are not misleading facts and figures, but they can confuse what is at hand here which, I believe, is Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and his teachings of how man can exist in harmony with deity, nature, and his fellow man. As I understand it, the Traditional Martinist Order adheres to what Saint-Martin himself intended: The work of meditation and spiritual alchemy toward Reintegration. There are no titles, jewels, or secret orders to covet; the reward is in mastering (read: living) the work itself.

Read more about it here.

I am not a member, but I am considering signing up, depending on what the meeting schedule looks like. I’m told it will be posted soon, and I’ll share it here when it becomes available. The New York City Heptad (a body of seven people), meets on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea.

Membership here. (The rest of the site is scheduled to launch on December 21.)