Lesson 1: Martinism (excerpts)
The martinist is a theosophist. An anonymous author writes:
“By theosophist, one means a friend of God and of wisdom. The
real theosophist neglects none of the inspirations that God
sends him for unveiling the marvels of his works and of his
love, so that he inspires his kindred with this same love
through his example and his instructions. I say the real
theosophist: all those that only deal with speculative
theosophy are not quite theosophists, but can hope to become
so if they truly wish to and if they persevere in their
resolution to imitate the virtues of our Saviour and to place
all their trust in him. A real theosophist is therefore a
real Christian as one can be convinced by their doctrine,
which is one. This doctrine is based on the eternal
connection between God, man and the universe; and these
foundations are confirmed by the theogonical books of all
peoples, and especially by the Holy Scriptures understood in
the spirit, not only by the letter.
“Theosophists, sturdy in their principles, do not vary and
never argue; they aspire to convince by reason and facts; if
they cannot succeed, they remain deeply silent and moan on
the errors that blind the spirit of their kin: they pray God
to enlighten them and enable them to receive truth: because
truth bears its own proof, it only requires the mind to be
prepared to receive it.
“Therefore, we see that the theosophists are not a sect: they
do not try to make proselytes, and do not act as sectarians;
they only defend the cause of truth in their writings and
whenever the opportunity arises. Indeed, can one call
sectarian the wise that, in all times, have proved through
speech and action that they are truly friends of God?
“The unity and the fixity of their principles must also be
seen to distinguish them from the philosophers whose diverse
opinions naturally inspire distrust, even of the word
philosophy itself, which has been so often misused to this
day. For if philosophy taken in its general sense embraces
all known truths, it also embraces the most dangerous errors.
Let us pity those who take to philosophy through
thoughtlessness, without having received the light that only
eternal Wisdom can bestow, when prayed for sincerely, either
for the enlightenment of every one of us in our darkness, or
for that of our kin, providing Wisdom sees us as
worthy” [Cited by Robert
Amadou, Occident, Orient. Parcours d'une tradition, Paris,
Cariscript, 1987, pp. 38-39.]
[...] The motor of that initiation, of that purification,
is
desire:
“The first
principle of the science that we cultivate is desire. In no
temporal art has any worker succeeded without assiduity,
constant work and efforts to know all aspects of the art that
he wishes to embrace. It is therefore useless to believe that
we can reach Wisdom without desire, since the foundation of
that Wisdom is but a desire that breaks all the obstacles
that arise to obstruct our path; and it should not be
surprising that this desire is necessary, as it is precisely
the thought opposed to this desire that has deviated all
those that seek to enter.” [1]
[...] The martinist is
a theurgist, and the means of his initiation is theurgy. What
is
theurgy? It is,
according to the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1704), the
“power to
accomplish marvellous and supernatural deeds through
miraculous and licit processes by invoking the assistance of
God and his angels.” Theurgy engages
in a communion with the angels, which are the intermediary
spirits between man and God, and even with God Himself and
his Wisdom.
Two paths, as one would hear nowadays, are available to the
theurgist:
the external path of ceremonial
theurgy, which obviously does not exclude prayer, and
the internal path of cardiac
theurgy, which relies entirely on prayer. Studying the theory
of both paths is a prerequisite to the practice of either.
There is no easy path, but there are dangerous ones. May each
one of us follow the Apostle’s word: examine all, keep that
which is good.
Preliminary exhortation: “the first
step to be made must be in the path of humility, patience and
charity.
These virtues are so
essential to our order [i.e. the order of the élus coens]
that no progress in it can be made without advancement in
these virtues.” [2]
No matter the schools and paths chosen, that exhortation is
as pivotal to the martinist today as it was yesterday.
[1] Instructions aux
hommes de désir, Paris, Documents martinistes, 1979, n° 1, p.
1.
[2] Instructions aux
hommes de désir, 1, op. cit., p. 3.
Lesson 2: Numbers (excerpts)
According to the
Book of Wisdom, God has “disposed all
things by measure and number and weight”
(Wisdom, 11:20).
This is the scriptural basis that allows Martines de
Pasqually and Louis-Claude de Saint Martin after him to
uncover the secrets of the spiritual and material universe
through the
science of numbers. They are both
therefore part of a long line of Judaeo-Christian esoterism
that runs from the Old and New Testaments, through the Church
Fathers, such as Saint Augustine, and through the kabbalists,
without excluding sometimes a pythagorician influence.
This traditional higher science, which has nothing in common
with modern numerology, can be equally called a mysticism of
numbers, a philosophy of numbers, a metaphysic of numbers or
a wisdom of numbers. It is arithmosophy, following the
neologism used by René Allendy and Robert Amadou.
Martines de Pasqually uses numbers abundantly.
“It
is—he
says—this virtue
of numbers that brought the wise men in all times to say that
no-one can be learned, either in the spiritual divine, or in
the celestial, terrestrial and particular, without the
science of numbers.” (65) [1].
However, although the Treatise on reintegration contains many
pages on the mysterious meanings of numbers, Martines, who
often describes more than he demonstrates, remains silent
about certain aspects of the arithmosophic operations, which
he transmitted orally to his followers.
Un exemplary élu coen,
Louis-Claude de Saint Martin testifies to that
transmission, particularly in his personal notebook [2], and
in his volume on Numbers
[3]
which will be our constant reference throughout this lesson.
Indeed, in the absence of any detailed writings from Martines
on the subject, it is mainly through the works of his
disciple that some details of the Masters’ teachings reach
us. On some points however, the unknown Philosopher extends,
while further christianising it, the doctrine he received,
and also admits that some propositions of the coen teachings
remained obscure to him.
If the Eternal has disposed all things by measure, number and
weight, the number, Saint-Martin explains,
“is
the principle that determines and constitutes”
weight and
measure [4]. Thus, “the number
that governs all is indisputably
the
principal agent, as it can
sustain itself independently of measure and weight; whereas
neither measure nor weight could remain one moment without
number” [5]. Everything
therefore begins with numbers.
But let us not be mistaken. In spite of their importance,
numbers are “nothing by
themselves, but accurately represent the hidden ways of the
[divine] word and its incommensurable properties”
[6].
They “are but the
summarised translation, or the concise language of the truths
and the laws of which the text and the ideas are in God, in
man and in nature” [7]. Put an other
way, they are only “the
sensitive expression of the superior
truths”
[8].
Each number therefore represents an
elementary principle. And
“the main
error from which we must protect ourselves, is to separate
the numbers from the idea that each of them represents, and
to show them detached from their active basis”
[9].
We shall then be able to differentiate the numbers according
to their signification: divine, spiritual, material, evil.
[1] The numbers in brackets after a citation always refer to
the corresponding section in Martines de Pasqually,
Traité sur la
réintégration des êtres dans leur première propriété, vertu
et puissance spirituelle divine, Diffusion
Rosicrucienne, 1995, first authentic edition established on
the manuscript of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin presented by
Robert Amadou.
[2] Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, "Le livre rouge. Carnet
d'un jeune élu cohen", Atlantis,
n°330, Jan - Feb 1984.
[3] Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Les
Nombres, first athentic
édition of the autograph manuscript with an introduction by
Robert Amadou, Paris, Cariscript, 1983.
[4] Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, "Essai sur la matière"
in Présence de
Louis-Claude de Saint Martin, Tours, 1986, p.
136.
[5] Ibid., p. 136.
[6] Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, Le Ministère
de l'homme-esprit, Association
Rosicrucienne Le Tremblay, 1999, p. 327.
[7] Saint-Martin, Les
Nombres, ibid. art. 1.
[8] Ibid., art. 71.
[9] Ibid., art. 1.
© 2007 Serge Caillet / Instititut Eleazar