A History of the Martinist Order Tradition

The Esoteric tradition has existed since time immemorial, and all religions contain an inner core where matters of mysticism are revered as the true spirit of religious 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 destinies of the three different branches themselves, a more in-depth tableau is presented on their respective sections on this webpage.

As an Order, or organized body of teachings and initiations, we can trace the Martinist 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 in 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, entitling 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 systems 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 not interpret the classical myth of freemasonry as a mere symbolic rite designed for 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 destiny as a spiritual being.

This notion he expanded upon in a set of higher degrees that he wrote himself; moving completely away from the symbolism and workings of traditional masonry, instead introducing his own philosophy, as outlined in his only work “Treatise concerning the reintegration of beings, into their original spiritual and divine properties, virtues and powers.”

In this massive work of wisdom and insight, he interprets the scriptures as he himself “learned from my masters”, as he writes.

This received doctrine expounds the scriptures to be read as a spiritual narrative, describing how man fell from his abode, and mankind as a whole, continues its descent until he willingly halts himself, and works his way back into the state intended for him, aided by divine forces willing to intervene on his bequest.

As further divergent to traditional freemasonry, this process was not only transmitted 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 abruptly and at a young age, and had not formally appointed a successor as Grand Master of the Order. The perpetuation of his teachings was therefore dependant on two of his closest students, elected with the title of S.I. (Superieur Jugé’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 in the city of Amboise, France. Although born of nobility, he never lived in wealth, and during the French revolution he had many grievances for his title. Not much is known about his childhood, but his mother died when he was quite young, and he refers to this in his autobiography as having a set a deep impression on his personality, and endowing him with a very sensible nature. His relationship with his father was not one of the best, and as a distraught youth, he early on began pondering religious and existential questions, consuming every book on religious 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 prerogatives enjoyed by the nobility, and found his studies to be detrimental to his own character.

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 young man had, which gave him a means to both travel and support himself at the same time. Furthermore, his position as officer gave him plenty of time to delve deeper into his private study of religious and mystic texts.

In his service in Lyons he became acquainted with two other officers, Monsieur de Grainville, and the brother of Honoré de Balzacs. These were disciples of Martinez 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 teacher and master. Saint-Martin’s explicit love for humanity, and his religious devotedness, in turn convinced Pasqually that he had found a worthy support to propagate the work of the Elus Cohens. After thorough preparation and studies Saint-Martin 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 of 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 martinist movement, a close friend of both Saint-Martin and Pasqually, was Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, born on the 10th of July in Lyon, France.

He received his education at Trinity College, and upon completing his studies became 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 intense group with clear opinions of what they sought out of masonry, and what lay beyond the craft.

Willermoz was, more than Pasqually, a structured mind, who though his extraordinary dedication, and organizational talents secured that the seat of the order was firmly established in Lyon, where he led the rapidly expanding lodge.

Saint-Martin and Willermoz worked closely together, and had a frequent correspondence 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 tutelage and inspiration provided by their common master. They then set out to secure the transmission of the Martinist Tradition in two independent ways, each to their 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 Stricte Observanz”, the Masonic rite par excellance at the time. He called his addendum ”Chevaliers Beneficantes de la Cite Sante” – Knights Beneficient of the Holy City, and added two further secret classes containing the essence of Pasquallys Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings.

This fusion intended to save the doctrinal teachings of the Elus Cohens, but abandoned the individual ritual work of the brethren.

Willermoz received great acclaim for his revolutionary plans, and at the great Masonic convention of Willhelmsbad in 1778, it was decided to incorporate his degrees into the Stricte Observanz.

Willermoz and his adherents went home to France to commence the work, but were interrupted by the French revolution, spreading all his friends and coworkers with 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 incorporated in the Rectified Scottish Rite, who still is a living, breathing Masonic order on the continent.

The inner Way of Saint-Martin:

Saint-Martin found himself drawn away from the heavily ritualistic nature of Elus 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 replied, ”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, anonymously 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, and well-known biblical imagery.
This was to be the inception for what today is called the “Way of the Heart”. –Pure Martinist teachings, disrobed all the complex ritualistic and context necessary for 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 acquaintances to the nobility of Europe and Russia.

He therefore continued writing books and teaching in close intimate circles, back in post-revolutionary France, and at the courts abroad.

Radical at the time, he invited both men and women into these circles, and condensed the initiatory ceremonies of Pasqually into one simple transmission given to those who proved themselves to be of good will, and an ardent desire for reintegration.

Russian Rosicrucianism and Martinism at the Tsars Court

During his travels, Saint-Martin gained the friendship of a man named Roldophe Salzmann while residing in Germany. Salzmann did many things for Saint-Martin, most 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 Gallitzin and Nikolaj Ivanovich Novikov.

Nicolaj Novikov (1744–1818) was a famous freemason in Russia at the time, and a publisher 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 order of ”Gold- und Rosenkreutz”, he started promoting a new order, containing both the 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 degree in the Gold- und Rosenkreutz.

Novikovs esoteric imprints started running deep and wide, as he began incorporating more of the moral aims of the Order in general society. History remembers him for funding and starting the first public hospitals in Russia, a publisher of many magazines criticizing the social state of affairs, and being the intellectual 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 instead 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 nearest of family-members of the original Order, and thus caused the Tradition to be relayed 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-family 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 according 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 lineages 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 forms;
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 highest 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 where 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 years, 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 the Heart by a relative on his deathbed.

Papus, greatly enthusiastic of what he has come to possess, finds through a stroke of destiny, an equal in the same situation, the three years older Augustin-Pierre 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 others in the same situation, and that there existed both discrepancies and shortages in the different transmissions that were given out. They therefore gathered friends, associates and initiates, to form the Ordre Martiniste in 1886, the first 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, but 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 been made earlier in the Elus Cohen and the Rectified Rite.

Ordre Martinist expanded all over Europe at an enormous rate, establishing itself in Germany, The Union of Sweden-Norway, Denmark, Britain and even in the United States. But all this came to a halt with the demise of Papus on the battlefield during WW1, serving as a field-physician.

His successor Charles Detrè, 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 himself died in 1918.
Once again a martinist order was left without a clear successor, but this time with 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 should 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, keeping with the spirit of Papus and the first Council. This was a legitimate branching, 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 separately but fraternally, and upheld what today is a venerable tradition amongst martinists, of friendly recognition of common ideals and aspirations, and often-times 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 in times of war, and the further branching for ideological reasons, and preferences 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 martinism has become today, and weave the branching vines of the Tradition back together into a firm foundation. A constitution where the ancient mystery preserved 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 overturned him.

In the sanctuary of the Ordre Reaux Croix the three streams of martinism a, Theurgic, Chivalric and Mystical way, comes together to forge one Candelabra: three torches burning in the darkness, together shining forth the same light as they always 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 adept and healthy body to contain and transmit its knowledge and wisdom. Therefore 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 upon 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 confer their messages to the modern man.

Three Torches of the Candelabrum:

The The Voie Cardiaque (V.’.C.’.)is based upon traditional martinist currents through Papus and Chabosseau, and Russian lineages through Novikov. Utilizing a reformed 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 rites and teachings of the Russian Tradition.

The The Elus Cohens (E.’.C.’.) once faded away from history, but was legitimately revived in the mid-fifties, and is a living branch of the order, refurbished according to original rituals and manuscripts from the hand of Pasqually and his students. The Elus Cohen is worked as a lodge system where the student is mainly working the operations individually or in smaller groups,
This lineage runs through Robert Ambelain

The The Chevaliers Beneficient De La Cité-Sainte (C.’.B.’.C.’.S.’.) of Willermoz is practiced as a reformed rite, without any connection whatsoever with its freemasonic foundation. Instead, parts of Voie Cardiaque been chosen to replace the Masonic Craft degrees, and the Secret Teachings of the Higher degrees now ferment the rite 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 totality of our Being ought to be solely devoted to the universal and perpetual awareness 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 of the Fraternity.

We have for the first time in history brought the three living traditions back together under one banner, and thus allow the man and woman of Desire to pursue his return to the divine through the way that best suits the individuals temperament and nature.

All admittance into the three branches in the Order begins in the Way of the Heart (Voie Cardiaque), and after a minimum of two years of study, the two other branches 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 symbolic 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 preferences.

These teachings are transmitted from one person to another in an Oratory or a Temple, and all matters of our work is based on a close relationship between teacher and student.

Our tradition stems from and incorporates authentic lineages and material from the Elus Cohens, C.’.B.’.C.’.S.’., Ordre Martiniste, and the Russian Martinists and Theorists.

To learn more about Martinism and the Ordre Reaux Croix, please read on the History setion, or visit our library.

“The laws of your life are within you: in that light that shines forth from your Being, 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 guards his words, he guards his thoughts, he guards his feelings, and those who guards thus, he rules himself well.”

-Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin