Category: Martinism

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The Hidden Tradition

Rosicrucian Rose

For most men life is made up of two days:

  1. In the first they believe everything.
  2. And in the second, nothing.

For a few others, life also has two days, but what distinguishes them from ordinary men is that

  1. In the first day they believe only in illusions, and these are nothing;
  2. While in the second day, they believe in everything, for they believe in truth, which is all.

~ Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Since Rene Guenon was an initiate into a Martinism order, it may be of interest to explore their teachings. Martinism derives its name from the two “Martins”: Martinez Pasquales and Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. The former mysteriously appeared with an order based on theurgy or ceremonial magic. The latter joined that order, but eventually abandoned it when he felt that he moved beyond “operations”. There was a loose group that gathered around him, the S.I. for the Order of Superieurs Inconnus (Unknown Superiors) and initiation was decidedly less formal.
Continue reading “The Hidden Tradition”

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Analogy by Papus

Among angelic minds, according to the authority of Dionysius and St. Thomas, the glory of our theology, that is highest which by its intelligence understands with the fewest concepts and forms what lower minds understand with many and varied ones. ~ Pico della Mirandola, Heptaplus

In the Letter on the Magician in Meditations on the Tarot, we are referred to Papus’ description of the method of analogy:

The open recognition of the relationship of all things and beings has engendered an exactly corresponding method of knowledge. It is the method generally known under the title THE METHOD OF ANALOGY; its role and its import in so-called “occult” science has been illumined in an admirable way by Papus in his Traité éleméntaire de science occulte.

This is my translation from the French of the chapter on analogy in Papus’ book.

Analogy

After having determined the existence in antiquity of a real science, its mode of transmission, the general subjects which it preferred to study, let’s try to push our analysis further in determining the methods employed in the ancient science that we have seen to be Occult Science (Scienta occulta).

The goal pursued was, as we know, the determination of the invisible through the visible, the noumenon through the phenomenon, the idea through the form.

The first question that it is necessary for us to resolve is to know if that connection of the invisible to the visible truly exists and if that idea is the expression of a pure mysticism.

I believe I have sufficiently made apparent by the example of the book, previously stated, what a study of the visible, of the phenomenon was in comparison to a study of the invisible, of the noumenon.

How can we know what the author wanted to say by seeing the signs which he used to express his ideas?

Because we know that there exists a consistent connection between the sign and the idea that it represents, that is, between the visible and the invisible.

Likewise, we can immediately deduce the idea by seeing the sign. Likewise, we can immediately deduce the invisible from seeing the visible. But in order to discover the idea hidden in the print character, it is necessary for us to learn to read, that is to say, to use a special method. In order to discover the invisible, the occult of a phenomenon, it is also necessary to learn to read by a special method.

The principal method of Occult Science is Analogy. By analogy, one determines the connections that exist between the phenomena.

Three principle methods can lead to the goal of the study of man:

  • One can study man by his organs and their function: this is the study of the visible, study by induction.
  • One can study man through his life, his intelligence, and what is called his soul: this is the study of the invisible, study by deduction.
  • Finally, one can consider, reuniting the two methods, the connection that exists between the organs and their function, either between two functions or between two organs. That is study by analogy.

In this way, if we consider the lung, the science of its details will teach us that this organ receives air from the outside, which undergoes a certain transformation in him.

If we consider the stomach, the same science will teach us that this organ is charged with transforming the food that it receives from the outside.

The science of the phenomena stops there; it cannot go further than the observation of the Fact.

Analogy, seizing these facts and treating them by generalization, that is to say, by the method opposed to the method of the detail, formulates thus the phenomena:

  • The lung receives from the outside something that it transforms.
  • The stomach receives from the outside something that it transforms.
  • Therefore, the lung and the stomach, exercising an analogous function, are analogous to each other.

These conclusions will appear more than bizarre to men devoted to the study of details; but if they remember this new branch of anatomy that is called philosophical anatomy, if they recall the analogy perfectly established between the arm and the leg, the hand and the foot, then they will see that the method that led me to the above conclusions is only the development of what preceded the birth of philosophical anatomy.

If I have chosen as an example the analogy between the lung and the stomach, it is to guard against an error that is made very often and which closes to everyone the knowledge of the Hermetic texts. That is the belief that two analogous things are similar.

That is completely false: two analogous things are no more similar than the lung and the stomach, or the hand and the foot. I repeat that this remark is one that is no longer important for the study of occult sciences.

The analogical method is therefore neither deduction nor induction; it is the usage of the clarity that results from the union of these two methods.

If you want to know a monument, two means are available to you:

  • Go around or rather crawl around the monument while studying its smallest details. You will thereby know the composition of its smallest parts, the relations that they affect between them, and so on; but you will have no idea of the wholeness of the edifice. This is the use of induction.
  • Go up to a high point and look at your monument the best that is possible for you. You will thereby have a general idea of its wholeness; but without the least idea of the details. This is the use of deduction.

The flaw of these two methods jumps to the eyes without the need for numerous commentaries. Each one of them lacks what the other possesses. Reunite them and the truth will be produced resoundingly. Study the details and then go to the top and begin again so that it will be necessary, you will know your edifice perfectly. Unite the method of the physicist to that of the metaphysician and you will give rise to the method of analogy, the real expression of the ancient synthesis.

To do only metaphysics like the theologian is as wrong as doing only physics like the physicist. Build the noumenon on the phenomenon and the truth will appear!

What to conclude from all that? It is necessary to conclude from it that the challenging book, in its critical part, demonstrates for all time the vanity of philosophical methods with regard to the explanation of the phenomena of high physics, and demonstrates the necessity to constantly keep in front of you the abstraction with the observation of the phenomena, condemning irrevocably in advance everything that remains in pure phenomenalism or rationalism.

We have just taken a new step in the study of ancient science by determining the existence of this absolutely special method but that must not yet be enough for us. Indeed, let us not forget that the goal that we pursue is the explanation, however rudimentary that it is otherwise, of all the symbols and of all these reputedly mysterious allegorical stories.

When, in speaking of the analogy between the lung and the stomach, we generalized the facts discovered by experimental or inductive science, we have elevated these facts by one degree.

So, I am asked if there are degrees between the phenomena and the noumena.

It suffices from a little observation in order to realize that many facts are governed by a small number of laws. It is by the study of these laws considered under the name of secondary causes that the works of the sciences bring.

But these secondary causes are themselves governed by a very restricted number of first causes. The study of the latter is moreover perfectly disdained by contemporary sciences which, relegated to the domain of sensory truths, abandon their research to the dreamers of all schools and all religions. However, it is there that Science resides.

We have not have to argue for the moment who is right and who is wrong; it is sufficient to note the existence of this triple gradation:

  • Infinite domain of FACTS.
  • More restricted domain of LAWS or secondary causes.
  • More restricted domain of PRINCIPLES or first causes.

We can summarize all this in a diagram:

analogy pyramid

This gradation, based on the number Three, plays a considerable role in ancient science. It is on it that is largely based the domain of analogy. We must also pay some attention to its developments.

These three terms are found in man in the body, life, and will.

Any part whatever of the body, a finger for example, can be removed from the influence of the will without ceasing to live (radial or ulnar paralysis); it can moreover be, by gangrene, removed from the influence of life without ceasing to move.

There are therefore three distinct domains: the domain of the body, the domain of life exercising its action by means of a series of special drives (the great sympathetic, vasomotor nerves) and localized in the blood corpuscle. The domain of the will acting through the special drives (voluntary nerves) and having no influence on the organs essential to the maintenance of life.

We can, before going further, see the utility of the analogical method for clarifying certain obscure points, and this is how:

If any thing whatever is analogous to another, all the parts of which that thing is composed are analogous to the corresponding parts of the other.

In this way, the ancients established that man was analogical to the Universe. For that reason, they called man the microcosm (small world) and the Universe the macrocosm (large world). It follows that, in order to know the flow of life in the Universe, it suffices to study the vital flow in man, and reciprocally, in order to know the details of the birth, growth, and death of a man, it is necessary to study the same phenomena in the world.

All that will appear quite mystical to some, quite obscure to others; also, I ask you to have patience and to refer to the following chapter where all the necessary explanations on this subject are found.

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The Imperishable Ocean of Light

The following passages are taken from L’homme de désir (The Man of Desire) by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin.

[87]
Happy is he who is filled with courage and confidence, and whose past sorrows and iniquities do not retard him in his work!

You ask how to pray. Does a sick man ask what how he must express his pains? Always command evil to go away, as if you were being regenerated in your powers.

Always call upon the good, as if the highest favors had not abandoned you. No longer consider if you are impure and if you are weak. No longer look backwards, and no longer prescribe for yourself any other plan but that of perseverance.

You can, by your obstinacy, recover what the divine goodness has granted you by your nature.

Say then without ceasing: I command iniquity to flea far from me; I command all natural and spiritual aids to gather around me.

I beg all the pure elect to lead and protect me. I bow down before the one who alone can reestablish all my relations.

Each one of his words give birth to a world: each one of his words can place the legions of living beings around me: because he does not speak without giving birth to life and to spread it in the souls who seek it.

Alas! We can anoint the Lord with our prayer, like that holy woman who anoints him with perfumes in front of his tomb! We can make it so that the stay in the tomb is less bitter to him.

[120]
Do you want to know your superiority over nature? See how much you extend or strengthen the faculties of the animals as you wish. You perfect, if you want, all substances; you are a king, you are an angel of light, or at least you should be.

Do you know why the more elevated are the objects of your studies, the easier it is for you to make discoveries in them? It is because, like your spirit, they are closest to the truth. Hesitate no more. The sciences of the spirit are much more certain than those of matter.

That is why all the sacred authors say the same thing; whereas the scientists of the lower order are all fighting amongst each other.

Look even around yourself and at the simplest laws of the physical world. The astronomers predict the eclipses and revolutions of the heavens several centuries in advance; and they could hardly predict whether the weather tomorrow will be clear or cloudy.

Man, be filled with trust in your nature and in the one who gave you thought. Let that faith not be a vague and sterile belief in vain doctrines. It is necessary for it to be active and swift like a torrent; but it is necessary that that torrent be inflamed, so that it can illuminate itself in your heart.

The reason man carries his head in the skies is because he does not find here anywhere to rest his head. And why would he look here to rest his head? Doesn’t he cling to unity? And can unity find its rest in the order of mixed things?

Soul of man, know the repose that is made for you. It is that which is characteristic of unity itself: it is to feel that you are separated from that which is disorder and corruption; it is to feel that you swim in freedom in the imperishable ocean of the light of order and life.

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Secret Movements of the Heart of Man

Translated from Letter to a Friend, or Political, philosophical, and religious considerations on the French Revolution by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. (French title: Lettre à un ami ou Considérations politiques, philosophiques et religieuses sur la Révolution française.

Here he points out that the Truth must be first found in the spirit and heart of man, by introspection; this Truth is anterior to the traditions, and confirms what he is taught in Tradition. This comes without effort.

[25] So the elements, air, sound, time, weather, languages, math, the close alliance which is found among the good and base customs of natural and civil society, the political institutions whose invention belongs to us less that we believe, since we can create nothing, history of the human race, the same scene of his prejudices and his universal errors in which one would have probably found a fixed residue, if one gave himself the necessary time and attention to let its volatile and the heterogeneous parts evaporate, the inexpressible and secret movements of the heart of man, especially that type of holy veneration by which he is seized when he contemplates his own grandeur, and which, in spite of his crimes, darkness, and deviations, reveals it to himself like a naked God, (allow me the term) like a God ashamed, who blushes to find himself exiled on the earth, who weeps from the inability to show himself in it in his true and sublime form, and who is more reserved and more embarrassed again in the face of virtue. Here are the paths in which the thought of man had been able to find as many religions, that is, as many of the means to unite to himself his intelligence, his spirit, and his heart as the only source from which he descends, and without which there is no peace for him; because while carefully roaming over these paths, he could not fail to meet the one who belongs to him, and who would have led him infallibly to his end.

[26] I warn you, my friend, that with so many gifts which are offered to the observers to support their religious principles, I am pained by never seeing them employ any of them, and abandon them all to resort to books and miracles. The sacred books that they quote to us, are naturally at such a distance from the belief and thought of man, that it is not astonishing to see them miss their target with identical weapons. The verities which he is concerned about are anterior to all books: if one does not begin by teaching man to read these verities in his being, in his mysterious circumstances in opposition to the thirst of his heart for the light, finally in the movement and the play of his own faculties, he grasped them poorly in his books: instead that if, by the active inspection of his own nature, he already saw himself as what he is, and foresaw what he can be, he receives without effort the confirmations that he can find of them in the traditions, and which serves only as the support of an already existing fact and recognized by him.

[27] All the more, it is also like that with miracles: I believe that it is a word that one would never have pronounced before man without having previously begun to attempt to discover the key to his being. One can never repeat it too much, it is in him, and in him alone, that man can find the understanding of all miracles; because if he had once glimpsed the miracle of his own nature, there would no longer have been anything about them which can surprise him.

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The Tableau of God

Translated from Letter to a Friend, or Political, philosophical, and religious considerations on the French Revolution by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. (French title: Lettre à un ami ou Considérations politiques, philosophiques et religieuses sur la Révolution française

In a wide ranging discussion of the French Revolution written in the form of a letter to a friend, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin turns, in these passages to the question of demonstrating the existence of God. Moving beyond the philosophical arguments, Saint-Martin is intent on demonstrating the God who is active in the soul and in the world.

The atheist is unable to see that God is reflected in the human soul. In denying that, the atheist is veiling the very thing that brings attention to his existence, replacing it with the darkness of nothingness. Unlike the Gnostics or the Platonists, Saint-Martin does not see the material world as a prison, since it, too, passively reveals the creative power of God.

An important point he makes is that there must be some common essence between God and man as the basis any possible communication. Ultimately, this can only be recognized and cannot be demonstrated to everyone’s satisfaction. The translation follows.

[12] The true atheist, if there is one, and consequently the truly impious man, is the one who, turning his gaze on the human soul, is unaware of its grandeur and disputes its spiritual immortality, since it is only in the character and the immensity of the gifts and virtues, of which the soul of man is susceptible, that we can see reflected, as in a mirror, all the pure and sacred rays, of which the tableau of God must be composed: thus, to extinguish the human soul is to cover the Divinity with a lugubrious veil that this soul alone has the power to bring to attention in all worlds; it is to extinguish that eternal sun whence everything originates, and to immerse it, with the universality of things, in the mourning and the obscurity of nothingness.

[13] The only means that we would therefore have of proving the true God, the God ruling over free beings, finally the loving God and source of a joy that can be communicated to other beings, would be without doubt to demonstrate in his creature the existence of some base or some essence similar to his, and even to obtain and to feel this joy of which He is the principle; finally, it would be to demonstrate the spiritual and immortal existence of the human soul which, in its radical and integral nature, is fully desire and fully love, finding itself to be then the active witness of the holy and loving God, as physical nature is the passive witness of the powerful and creator God, we would have placed thereby all the foundations of the building, and it would only be a question of working on its construction: for it is very much without doubt that the immortal existence of the human soul has been recognized, as several good spirits have done on earth; but to recognize a thing, is not always to demonstrate it.