A History of the Martinist Order Tradition The Esoteric tradition has existed since time immemorial, and all

religions cont ain an inner core where matters of mysticism are revered as the true spirit of r eligious life. Christian esoteric mysticism encompasses a great wealth of traditions, composed of such streams as Gnosticism, hermiticism, therugy and kabbalah. Martinism, although a unique and independent tradition, has gathered stems from all of the aforementioned streams of wisdom. Here follows a short outline of the Martinist Order as a whole. For the destinie s of the three different branches themselves, a more in-depth tableau is present ed on their respective sections on this webpage. As an Order, or organized body of teachings and initiations, we can trace the Ma rtinist tradition back to the pre-revolutionary France of the 18th century, and the Order of Elus Cohens founded by Martinez de Pasqually. The beginning: Elect Priests Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually was born i n c. 1727 in Grenoble, France, and died in 1774 on Haiti at the age of 47. His father was a noteworthy Freemason, and was the holder of a Charter to found and operate Masonic lodges given unto him by prince Charles Edward Stuart, entit ling him as Deputy Grand Master. This charter was inheritable, and was given to his son at the age of 28. Martinez de Pasqually now began to erect one of the first Masonic high-degree sy stems in Europe, expanding on the traditional three degrees of the Craft. He named his order the Ordens des Chevalier Macons Elus-Cohen de L Univers The Order of Knight Elect-Priest Masons of the Universe , and opened the first lodge in 1754 . This Order stood out from the other Orders of the Time, in that Pasqually did no t interpret the classical myth of freemasonry as a mere symbolic rite designed f or the betterment of the individual man, but claimed that the underlying process , points to a greater, and deeper revelation on the nature of man, and his desti ny as a spiritual being. This notion he expanded upon in a set of higher degrees that he wrote himself; m oving completely away from the symbolism and workings of traditional masonry, in stead introducing his own philosophy, as outlined in his only work Treatise conce rning the reintegration of beings, into their original spiritual and divine prop erties, virtues and powers. In this massive work of wisdom and insight, he interprets the scriptures as he h imself learned from my masters , as he writes. This received doctrine expounds the scriptures to be read as a spiritual narrati ve, describing how man fell from his abode, and mankind as a whole, continues it s descent until he willingly halts himself, and works his way back into the stat e intended for him, aided by divine forces willing to intervene on his bequest. As further divergent to traditional freemasonry, this process was not only trans mitted to the aspirant by means of initiations, but also through personal ritual work, or theurgical operations (Theurgy from Greek: theo urgos god-working), to be done solitarily by the individual Cohen. Martinez de Pasqually died while staying in Port-au-Prince on Haiti, rather abru ptly and at a young age, and had not formally appointed a successor as Grand Mas ter of the Order. The perpetuation of his teachings was therefore dependant on t wo of his closest students, elected with the title of S.I. (Superieur Jug s) of the Souvereign Tribunal of the Order. Voie Cardiaque The Way of the Heart: Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin The Marquis Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, was born on the 18th of January 1743 i n the city of Amboise, France. Although born of nobility, he never lived in weal th, and during the French revolution he had many grievances for his title. Not m uch is known about his childhood, but his mother died when he was quite young, a nd he refers to this in his autobiography as having a set a deep impression on h is personality, and endowing him with a very sensible nature. His relationship w ith his father was not one of the best, and as a distraught youth, he early on b egan pondering religious and existential questions, consuming every book on reli

gious philosophy he could find. To accommodate his father s wishes, he started studying to become a barrister, but soon discovered that this was not for him. He despised the juridical prerogativ es enjoyed by the nobility, and found his studies to be detrimental to his own c haracter. Despite his philanthropic nature, he resigned from his employment and joined the army. This was a time when the military were one of the few opportunities a you ng man had, which gave him a means to both travel and support himself at the sam e time. Furthermore, his position as officer gave him plenty of time to delve de eper into his private study of religious and mystic texts. In his service in Lyons he became acquainted with two other officers, Monsieur d e Grainville, and the brother of Honor de Balzacs. These were disciples of Martin ez de Pasqually, and members of the Elus Cohens. His two new friends, recognizing his devotion and spiritual potential introduced the young Saint-Martin to Pasqually, who the former describes as his first teac her and master. Saint-Martin s explicit love for humanity, and his religious devot edness, in turn convinced Pasqually that he had found a worthy support to propag ate the work of the Elus Cohens. After thorough preparation and studies Saint-Ma rtin was initiated in the order at the end of the 1760 s. It did not take long for Saint-Martin to be admitted to Pasquallys inner circle, and upon doing so he left the military for good to devote himself to the work o f the order, and become Pasquallys closest confidante and full-time secretary. The Beneficient Knight: Jean Baptiste Willermoz The third central Character in the Elus Cohens, and in the early times of the ma rtinist movement, a close friend of both Saint-Martin and Pasqually, was Jean-Ba ptiste Willermoz, born on the 10th of July in Lyon, France. He received his education at Trinity College, and upon completing his studies be came the proprietor of a silk-store he opened in 1754. In 1767 he met the Bacon de la Chevalerie, Deputy Grand Master of the Elus Cohen in Paris; they both being freemasons led them into intimate discussions on the true goal of masonry. De Chevalerie then introduced Willermoz to Pasqually, and the silk trader finally found what he had been searching for; a devout and inten se group with clear opinions of what they sought out of masonry, and what lay be yond the craft. Willermoz was, more than Pasqually, a structured mind, who though his extraordin ary dedication, and organizational talents secured that the seat of the order wa s firmly established in Lyon, where he led the rapidly expanding lodge. Saint-Martin and Willermoz worked closely together, and had a frequent correspon dence when they were apart from one another. When Pasqually died, however, they felt that the Elus Cohens might not be able to last as an Order without the tute lage and inspiration provided by their common master. They then set out to secur e the transmission of the Martinist Tradition in two independent ways, each to t heir own natures, although remaining close friends for the rest of their lives. The Chivalric way of Willermoz: Jean-Baptiste Willermoz saw the Elus Cohen-lodges declining, and started his own rescue-mission to incorporate its teachings into the German Masonic rite, Der St ricte Observanz , the Masonic rite par excellance at the time. He called his adden dum Chevaliers Beneficantes de la Cite Sante Knights Beneficient of the Holy City, and added two further secret classes containing the essence of Pasquallys Treat ise on the Reintegration of Beings. This fusion intended to save the doctrinal teachings of the Elus Cohens, but aba ndoned the individual ritual work of the brethren. Willermoz received great acclaim for his revolutionary plans, and at the great M asonic convention of Willhelmsbad in 1778, it was decided to incorporate his deg rees into the Stricte Observanz. Willermoz and his adherents went home to France to commence the work, but were i nterrupted by the French revolution, spreading all his friends and coworkers wit h the wind. When the fires of the revolution had subsided, the Stricte Observanz had been dissolved as an Order in France, and Willermoz degrees were instead inc orporated in the Rectified Scottish Rite, who still is a living, breathing Mason

ic order on the continent. The inner Way of Saint-Martin: Saint-Martin found himself drawn away from the heavily ritualistic nature of Elu s Cohen, and started to pursue the same doctrine from a more traditional mystic standpoint; through inner contemplation, meditation and prayer. After a day-long ritual together with his master, he is supposed to have asked Is all of this truly necessary to reach God? , whereupon Pasqually shall have replie d, No, but we have to be grateful for what we have. His solitary work after Pasquallys death led to his debut as an author. In 1775 he published his first book Des Erreurs et de la Verite On Errors and on Truth, ano nymously under the nom de plume The Unknown Philosopher . Here he veiledly presents the totality of the teachings of his master. As Willermoz had done revealing the teachings in a discrete Masonic system, only open for men, Saint-Martin now did the same to the public, using plain terms, a nd well-known biblical imagery. This was to be the inception for what today is called the Way of the Heart . Pure Ma rtinist teachings, disrobed all the complex ritualistic and context necessary fo r Pasqually and Willermoz to communicate their messages. Saint-Martin, despite his desire for anonymity, quickly found himself the center of attention of a wide circle of followers, ranging from common friends and acq uaintances to the nobility of Europe and Russia. He therefore continued writing books and teaching in close intimate circles, bac k in post-revolutionary France, and at the courts abroad. Radical at the time, he invited both men and women into these circles, and conde nsed the initiatory ceremonies of Pasqually into one simple transmission given t o those who proved themselves to be of good will, and an ardent desire for reint egration. Russian Rosicrucianism and Martinism at the Tsars Court During his travels, Saint-Martin gained the friendship of a man named Roldophe S alzmann while residing in Germany. Salzmann did many things for Saint-Martin, mo st notably both introducing him to the alchemical Order des Ubekannte Philosophen (Order of Unknown Philosphers) and presenting the young Frenchman at the Russian Court in 1790. Here Saint-Martin got acquainted with many noblemen and women of the Tsar s family, and adopted a great number of students. Amongst his new friends were Prince Alexis B. Kourakine, Prince Alexander Gallit zin and Nikolaj Ivanovich Novikov. Nicolaj Novikov (1744 1818) was a famous freemason in Russia at the time, and a pu blisher of many works on the occult, most notably his many volumed encyclopedia of masonry. Initiated into several esoteric streams by amongst other the former two, including the Ubekannte Philosophen, and the more well known Rosicrucian or der of Gold- und Rosenkreutz , he started promoting a new order, containing both th e Rosicrucian corpus he was bequeathed by his previous initiators, but also Elus Cohen-material from Saint-Martins initiatory exchanges with Kurakin. This group is commonly referred to as the Theorists , taken from the name of the second degre e in the Gold- und Rosenkreutz. Novikovs esoteric imprints started running deep and wide, as he began incorporat ing more of the moral aims of the Order in general society. History remembers hi m for funding and starting the first public hospitals in Russia, a publisher of many magazines criticizing the social state of affairs, and being the intellectu al instigator of the Enlightenment, thus bringing the great motherland up to par with the rest of Europe s academia. This acclaim, and his social agenda, caught the attention of Catharine II. Upon rising to the throne, she exclaimed her disfavor of his reformatory tendencies, and fear of freemasonry ordered for the arrest of Novikov and his brethren, and sent him to Schlusselburg fortress 1792. Prince Kourakine (1752-1818) could not be jailed, due to his nobility, but was i nstead exiled. After this travesty, the Theorists had to continue their work in small, isolated and secret groups. These groups were often restricted to fathom only the neares t of family-members of the original Order, and thus caused the Tradition to be r

elayed by ancestry. To name some of these families, most notably are the Arsenyev s, and Chominskijs. The first ones, and perhaps the latter as well, were initiated into the current by Novikov himself on the 12th of December 1796, shortly after his release by Catherine s son Paul I. The Arsenyev-f amily and the family of Chouminski became the main preserver of what we from now on can coin as the Russian tradition. This specific branch of the martinism can a ccording to the rituals and teachings left us be seen as a Rosicrucian martinism and Rosicrucian Elus Cohen, due to its heavy influence from the Theorist lineag es and contents. Even though the order s work in Russia from then on always were under great stress , due to political oppression, especially during the communist era of the USSR, these branches were preserved intact in Ukraine, and later in other countries of central Europe until this present day. Interludium: State of affairs at the dawn of the modern age Martinism, now at the start of the 19th century, had taken on tree different for ms; The Elus Cohen was almost extinct, its fire slowly ebbing out in the hands of a few individuals without any intention of reviving the Order without Pasqually. Willermoz Rectified Rite continued to pass on its martinist teachings in the high est degrees of the Masonic rite, but with a diminishing amount of members within the circles where these where given. Saint-Martin s inner way was after his death passed on through his books, but the very initiation at the core of his spiritual succession was spread out all over Europe in families of which many did not any longer know of the source from wher e it came. A new Order emerges: The First Grand Council The year is 1886, the stage is once again France, and a young man of mere 18 yea rs, named Gerard Encausse (July 13, 1865 25 October 1916), later to be known as the prolific esoteric writer Papus, is initiated into a lineage of the Way of th e Heart by a relative on his deathbed. Papus, greatly enthusiastic of what he has come to possess, finds through a stro ke of destiny, an equal in the same situation, the three years older Augustin-Pi erre Chaboseau (17th of June 1868 2nd of January 1946). He in turn had received a similar initiation from his aunt. Together they discovered that there were oth ers in the same situation, and that there existed both discrepancies and shortag es in the different transmissions that were given out. They therefore gathered f riends, associates and initiates, to form the Ordre Martiniste in 1886, the firs t martinist order to term the tradition after the names of its forefathers. The Russian lineages did not arrive in central Europe until the early 19-hundreds, b ut lived on as separate branches of the same tree. Papus chose to preserve the initiation of Saint-Marin in an initiatory system of three degrees, adding two preparatory initiations to ensure the worthiness and of the candidate to the one proper degree, called Associate and Initiate. Also for the first time the history of Martinism as an order, one no longer had to be neither man nor freemason to join, although a handful of exceptions had be en made earlier in the Elus Cohen and the Rectified Rite. Ordre Martinist expanded all over Europe at an enormous rate, establishing itsel f in Germany, The Union of Sweden-Norway, Denmark, Britain and even in the Unite d States. But all this came to a halt with the demise of Papus on the battlefiel d during WW1, serving as a field-physician. His successor Charles Detr, better known as Teder, rose to lead the Grand Council after the death of his old friend, and took charge of the Order until he himsel f died in 1918. Once again a martinist order was left without a clear successor, but this time w ith many of the other leaders also passed away in the war. A council member named Jean Bricaud now took charge of affairs, and although he kept the order alive, he also re-instated the archaic belief that martinism shou ld be constricted only for men, and Master Masons. This led to a fractioning of the Order, into one group under Bricaud in Paris, and another branch in Lyons, k

eeping with the spirit of Papus and the first Council. This was a legitimate bra nching, and not a schism; as a free initiator in the Martinist Order, one always has the capacity to form an order of one s own. The two groups now worked separat ely but fraternally, and upheld what today is a venerable tradition amongst mart inists, of friendly recognition of common ideals and aspirations, and often-time s even the right to attend one another s meetings and initiations. Today there can be found a multiplum of martinist orders, due to several reasons . Both due to the order being unable to have contact with a single headquarter i n times of war, and the further branching for ideological reasons, and preferenc es of form. Ordre Reaux Croix: Encompassing the Three Branches of Martinism The Ordre Reaux Croix was founded by martinists seeing the need to reform what m artinism has become today, and weave the branching vines of the Tradition back t ogether into a firm foundation. A constitution where the ancient mystery preserv ed by our forefathers can be preserved, grow, and given on to future generations . -To gather the Three Ways of Reintegration under one banner, fighting for the release of man held captive, and to battle the forces of darkness that once over turned him. In the sanctuary of the Ordre Reaux Croix the three streams of martinism a, Theu rgic, Chivalric and Mystical way, comes together to forge one Candelabra: three torches burning in the darkness, together shining forth the same light as they a lways have, enkindling mankind s burning desire for Reintegration. We are of the belief that the authentic and genuine doctrine of our predecessors are the true soul and spirit of martinism, and that they therefore require an a dept and healthy body to contain and transmit its knowledge and wisdom. Therefor e the rites of old, kept in our custody, have been reworked to attain two ends; Firstly to re-establish the Christian Mystery-tradition that they were founded u pon in their original and undiluted form, and Secondly, to build the O. .R. .C. . as a coherent and fluent initiatory entity, where the relics of ages passed are given new outer form, and thus enabling them to co nfer their messages to the modern man. Three Torches of the Candelabrum: The The Voie Cardiaque (V. .C. .)is based upon traditional martinist currents throug h Papus and Chabosseau, and Russian lineages through Novikov. Utilizing a reform ed set of rituals, based upon the traditional structure of Ordre Martiniste, but re-imbued with earlier substance from Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, and the rit es and teachings of the Russian Tradition. The The Elus Cohens (E. .C. .) once faded away from history, but was legitimately re vived in the mid-fifties, and is a living branch of the order, refurbished accor ding to original rituals and manuscripts from the hand of Pasqually and his stud ents. The Elus Cohen is worked as a lodge system where the student is mainly wor king the operations individually or in smaller groups, This lineage runs through Robert Ambelain The The Chevaliers Beneficient De La Cit-Sainte (C. .B. .C. .S. .) of Willermoz is practi ced as a reformed rite, without any connection whatsoever with its freemasonic f oundation. Instead, parts of Voie Cardiaque been chosen to replace the Masonic C raft degrees, and the Secret Teachings of the Higher degrees now ferment the rit e as a whole. This chivalric lineage also runs through Robert Ambelain. In his core, man is only and solely a Desire of God, and in our works, the totali ty of our Being ought to be solely devoted to the universal and perpetual awaren ess of the Desires of God. Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin The Ordre Reaux Croix The Ordre Reaux Croix was brought into being in 2002, on the 250th anniversary o f the Fraternity. We have for the first time in history brought the three living traditions back t ogether under one banner, and thus allow the man and woman of Desire to pursue h is return to the divine through the way that best suits the individuals temperam ent and nature.

All admittance into the three branches in the Order begins in the Way of the Hea rt (Voie Cardiaque), and after a minimum of two years of study, the two other br anches are open as well for the student to follow. The Order s Grand Lodge is situated in Norway, and currently has jurisdictions in Sweden, Canada, Argentina, Spain, and England. The teachings of the O. .R. .C. ., existing and forthcoming, is based directly on the doctrines of our predecessors, and is therfore transmitted within a Christian sy mbolic vessel. This being said, the Order welcomes all good-willed men and women of desire, with a belief in a supreme being, regardless of their religious pref erences. These teachings are transmitted from one person to another in an Oratory or a Te mple, and all matters of our work is based on a close relationship between teach er and student. Our tradition stems from and incorporates authentic lineages and material from t he Elus Cohens, C. .B. .C. .S. ., Ordre Martiniste, and the Russian Martinists and Theor ists. To learn more about Martinism and the Ordre Reaux Croix, please read on the Hist ory setion, or visit our library. The laws of your life are within you: in that light that shines forth from your B eing, as an Image of God, not in written books, which are mere idols of men. Guard this Light, and never let it spill into empty words. -Those who firmly gua rds his words, he guards his thoughts, he guards his feelings, and those who gua rds thus, he rules himself well. -Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin