First paragraph of the Treatise of reintegration by Martines de Pasqually
06/06/2006 Filed in: Martinism
The following excerpt is a translation of the first
paragraph of Martines de Pasqually’s Treatise on the
reintegration of beings in the first property, virtue
and divine spiritual power.
The Treatise is considered to be a (pseudo-) midrach from the 18th century. Indeed, it is a commentary of the bible, and in many places, an extrapolation thereof. The scriptures are the lattice on which a profound teaching is woven. The actual source of Martines’ teaching is a matter of debate, but I have already mentioned one likely candidate. Martines had intended to provide a commentary of both the Old and New Testaments, but unfortunately, he died before having reached his goal. Nonetheless, what he left us is the core of his doctrine, which he claims to have received from his own teachers, whom he didn’t name. He never took credit for inventing what he transmitted to his disciples in the Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Elus Coêns de l'Univers.
The best edition to date of the Treatise is the Traité sur la réintégration des êtres dans leur première propriété, vertu et puissance spirituelle divine, established and presented by Robert Amadou. Diffusion Rosicrucienne, 1984. A copyright-free, but very incomplete version can be found on the web. [Edit: there is a new translation in English, of which a review can be found here].
At the very beginning of his Treatise, Martines describes the emanation of spiritual beings before time. Thus, we are here in the very first words of the first sentence of Genesis, “before” the creation of heaven and earth. What Martines tells us here, is that God emanated. Emanation, as Martines explains later, is the act of extruding part of oneself. Thus the emanated beings are of the same essence of the “emanator”. Emanation, according to Martines, is the first step of creation. The popular use of the word “creation” is what Martines calls emancipation.
So, God emanates spiritual beings. Martines uses the word spiritual and not divine to mark the essential difference between God and his creatures, the latter being created, thus having a beginning. The emanation of a spiritual being is its origin, and God is the source.
Why did God emanate? For his own glory, says Martines. A close synonym for glory would be light. One might get a slight sense of what kind of light that might be from Ex 34:29-35 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. etc. and Matthew 17:2 And [Jesus] was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Another synonym could be ‘divine immensity’... read on.
Where did God emanate? In his divine immensity. Cabalah talks about ‘the place’, makom, which is God’s dwelling. Of course this is not a geographical place; remember, these events are before time, before there is a sky or an earth, thus before space. In truth, the divine immensity is God’s glory, and God’s glory is the essence of his Presence.
You might feel that there is something circular about all this: God emanates for his own glory in his divine immensity. Actually, from that impression we can get a sense of the completeness, the oneness of Creation.
Now what were those spiritual beings meant to do? Martines tells us that they were emanated in order to perform a cult. They were given a task to fulfil, which is in fact the true and only proper form of divine cult. Thus, they were given laws, precepts and commandments. Notice the three-fold contract established between God and his creatures.
Why would such a contract be needed? To accomplish their duty, it would have made no sense if these spiritual beings were mere robots. For there to be a meaning to their acts, these beings had to voluntarily choose to follow their duty towards their Father. That is why their commandments (“do”s and “don’t”s) were matched to their precepts according to their law (nature or attributes).
Indeed, Martines explains that they were both free and distinct from their Creator. He further insists that without that inherent free will, they would have no faculty, property or spiritual and personal virtue. In other words, they would simply not exist. Their free will is what makes them beings in their own right, thereby having the ability to keep those attributes (law, precepts and commandments) that allow them to accomplish the divine cult in an orderly rather than in a anarchic way. As Martines writes, that is what their emanation was founded upon. Just as Adam and Eve were later to be told But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it (Gn 2:17), Martines insists that these first spiritual beings knew the conventions upon which they had been emanated. Indeed, without that knowledge, there would not have been the kind of free will that allowed them their very existence.
However, those conventions were not respected, as the Bible goes on to describe. Some of the spiritual beings decided, on their own accord, not to follow God’s commandments. This prevarication is what Martines, following the steps of Church Fathers and many scholars, calls the first Fall. The second fall is what concerns us more directly...
The Treatise is considered to be a (pseudo-) midrach from the 18th century. Indeed, it is a commentary of the bible, and in many places, an extrapolation thereof. The scriptures are the lattice on which a profound teaching is woven. The actual source of Martines’ teaching is a matter of debate, but I have already mentioned one likely candidate. Martines had intended to provide a commentary of both the Old and New Testaments, but unfortunately, he died before having reached his goal. Nonetheless, what he left us is the core of his doctrine, which he claims to have received from his own teachers, whom he didn’t name. He never took credit for inventing what he transmitted to his disciples in the Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Elus Coêns de l'Univers.
The best edition to date of the Treatise is the Traité sur la réintégration des êtres dans leur première propriété, vertu et puissance spirituelle divine, established and presented by Robert Amadou. Diffusion Rosicrucienne, 1984. A copyright-free, but very incomplete version can be found on the web. [Edit: there is a new translation in English, of which a review can be found here].
Before time, God emanated spiritual beings, for his own glory, in his divine immensity. These beings were to perform a cult that the Divinity had set by eternal laws, precepts and commandments. They were therefore free and distinct from their Creator, and one cannot refuse them the free will with which they were emanated without destroying their faculty, property and spiritual and personal virtue, which were necessary for operating with precision within the bounds where they were to exercise their power. It was positively within those bounds that these first spiritual beings had to accomplish the cult for which they had been emanated. These first beings can’t deny nor ignore the conventions that the Creator made with them by giving them laws, precepts and commandments, because it was upon those conventions only that their emanation was founded.
At the very beginning of his Treatise, Martines describes the emanation of spiritual beings before time. Thus, we are here in the very first words of the first sentence of Genesis, “before” the creation of heaven and earth. What Martines tells us here, is that God emanated. Emanation, as Martines explains later, is the act of extruding part of oneself. Thus the emanated beings are of the same essence of the “emanator”. Emanation, according to Martines, is the first step of creation. The popular use of the word “creation” is what Martines calls emancipation.
So, God emanates spiritual beings. Martines uses the word spiritual and not divine to mark the essential difference between God and his creatures, the latter being created, thus having a beginning. The emanation of a spiritual being is its origin, and God is the source.
Why did God emanate? For his own glory, says Martines. A close synonym for glory would be light. One might get a slight sense of what kind of light that might be from Ex 34:29-35 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. etc. and Matthew 17:2 And [Jesus] was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Another synonym could be ‘divine immensity’... read on.
Where did God emanate? In his divine immensity. Cabalah talks about ‘the place’, makom, which is God’s dwelling. Of course this is not a geographical place; remember, these events are before time, before there is a sky or an earth, thus before space. In truth, the divine immensity is God’s glory, and God’s glory is the essence of his Presence.
You might feel that there is something circular about all this: God emanates for his own glory in his divine immensity. Actually, from that impression we can get a sense of the completeness, the oneness of Creation.
Now what were those spiritual beings meant to do? Martines tells us that they were emanated in order to perform a cult. They were given a task to fulfil, which is in fact the true and only proper form of divine cult. Thus, they were given laws, precepts and commandments. Notice the three-fold contract established between God and his creatures.
Why would such a contract be needed? To accomplish their duty, it would have made no sense if these spiritual beings were mere robots. For there to be a meaning to their acts, these beings had to voluntarily choose to follow their duty towards their Father. That is why their commandments (“do”s and “don’t”s) were matched to their precepts according to their law (nature or attributes).
Indeed, Martines explains that they were both free and distinct from their Creator. He further insists that without that inherent free will, they would have no faculty, property or spiritual and personal virtue. In other words, they would simply not exist. Their free will is what makes them beings in their own right, thereby having the ability to keep those attributes (law, precepts and commandments) that allow them to accomplish the divine cult in an orderly rather than in a anarchic way. As Martines writes, that is what their emanation was founded upon. Just as Adam and Eve were later to be told But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it (Gn 2:17), Martines insists that these first spiritual beings knew the conventions upon which they had been emanated. Indeed, without that knowledge, there would not have been the kind of free will that allowed them their very existence.
However, those conventions were not respected, as the Bible goes on to describe. Some of the spiritual beings decided, on their own accord, not to follow God’s commandments. This prevarication is what Martines, following the steps of Church Fathers and many scholars, calls the first Fall. The second fall is what concerns us more directly...