Papus (1865–1916)

I didn’t review this book right away because it is basically very prosaic rather than inspiring. I guess that the philosophy of the Tetragrammaton or whatever you’d call it is worth reading, but much of the symbolism or wrong—it is possible for a symbol or its interpretation not to correspond to observation, reality, or experience, you know. It’s a famous name, for his field, the name of Papus—ooo! They were all, ~men~, back then: and they have since, ~died~, oh! What joy! 👻—but the correct correspondences between the Major Arcana and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (and what those letters symbolize) wasn’t given out in books until about 1900: before then they publicized a system that was off by one for practically all of them in all printed material (which only existed for about a century or so, before 1900, even though tarot cards were published as early as I don’t know, I guess the 1300s or 1400s—but they were taboo, basically, much more so, even than they are today); out of fear, I guess, they only told the true system to people sworn to secrecy. A crazy story from a crazy time. I read one of Eliphaz Levi’s books and it seemed better than this—it was very flowery and prolix, and so I suppose there must be something in THAT book other than just, whatever he changed to keep himself safe, I guess. (I guess if the system seemed absurd to outsiders, it would attract less persecution? I guess that’s it, although I’m not sure that we today can necessarily get inside their head on that one.) But this book is mostly just tables and keywords and correspondences, and in a number of important places they are the WRONG correspondences, you know. (The Emperor is not the womb! The EMPRESS is the womb! A feminine man who succored people would be embodying Empress energy, not Emperor energy!) I guess it’s nice to be introduced to the idea of the Hebrew letter-Tarot Trump correspondence idea…. But it’s nice to get the fucking details right, wouldn’t you say?… (meer)

This short book is a polemical history of esoteric societies in modern France, written by Gerard Encausse ("Papus"), organizer of the Martinist Order in the late nineteenth century. It has been recently translated into English by Piers A. Vaughan, and features on its cover the seal of the Martinist Order of Unknown Philosophers, to which Vaughan declares his adherence (8).

Encausse denominates top-down dispensaries of occult wisdom as "Illuminist," as distinguished from the Masonic style of sodalities organized through lodge-elected leadership. The opening sections of the book are chiefly concerned to trace the genealogy and form of "contemporary" (i.e. 1899) Martinism from its Illuminist sources. This exposition includes counters to the various fin de siecle slanders of Martinism from church sources and conspiracy-mongers such as Gabriel Jogand ("Leo Taxil").

The Rosicrucians (Elias Ashmole in particular) were the creators of Freemasonry, according to Encausse, and he sees a vengeful Templar current running in tension with the benevolent Rosicrucian one, with each contributing distinctly to the various Masonic high grades and rites. He offers a symbolic overview of the contents of advanced degrees in the Rite of Perfection and Scottish Rite, which contains some interesting observations, and he is especially concerned with the Rose-Croix degree because of its putative relationship to Martinism.

Encausse deplores the atheist trajectory of the French Grand Orient and prophesies its demise. He also mocks the tiny and senescent Rite of Mizraim, for which he would later (1908) obtain a sort of organizing authority in the form of a patent to establish a “Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Antient and Primitive Masonry for the Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris” from O.T.O. Caput Ordinis Theodor Reuss.

On the very last page of the book, Encausse characterizes Martinists as "resolute synarchists," alluding to the socio-political program of Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, which later became more strongly associated with Martinism, especially by its detractors. This connection was a chief concern of the academic study Beyond Enlightenment by David Allen Harvey, but this one brief mention is the first time I have observed it in a primary text of the period.

Vaughan's translated text is adequate for English readers, although the book appears to have been prepared hastily. There are clumsy vestiges of French idiom and typographical errors on almost every page, giving "is" for "it" and "in really" for "in reality," for example. Occasionally a word seems to be missing, and there are grammatical failures. But Vaughan's knowledge of the subject matter, with which he boasts twenty years of initiated experience, appears quite sound. His editorial footnotes are helpful and lucid.… (meer)

TRATADO ELEMENTAL DE CIENCIA OCULTA

El Ocultismo no abriga la pretensión de
dar la ùnica respuesta posible a las
cuestiones que aborda. Sólo pretende ser
admitido como un instrumento de trabajo,
un medio de estudio. Unicamente la más
indisculpable vanidad podria hacer creer a
los adeptos de las verdades esotéricas,
que son los poseedores de la verdad
absoluta, en lo que quiera que fuese.

El Ocultismo es un sistema filosófico que contiene
la solucióỏn de aquellas cuestiones que
màs frecuentemente preocupan a la
inteligencia humana. Pero ¿será esta solución
la respuesta uníca de la verdad? La observación
y los experimentos son los encargados
de decirnos la última palabra.

El estudio del Ocultismo ilumina el pasado
y permite contemplar la antigüedad
desde un punto de vista hasta hoy poco
conocido. Este estudio ofrece al investigador
contemporáneo un sistema básico de
afirmaciones y de ideas respecto de energías
casi ignoradas, energías pertenecientes
a la naturaleza y al hombre.… (meer)