“Among the various Rites which, from time immemorial, have interested those Masons who are the best educated and the most imbued with the intimate conviction that their adherence to our Works must increase the sum of their knowledge, and bring them to the High-Sciences, the Rite of the “Elus-Cohen” is the one which has won over the most pupils, yet carefully preserved the secret of its mysterious works….”
Such is the definition given by the Order of Illuminist Masonry, which we found in the Transactions of the Grand Orient for 1804, Book I, Installment 4, page 369. This statement of appreciation, coming from a masonic obedience which never exactly passed for mystical, which later came to expunge the invocations to the Great Architect of the Universe from its Rituals, and slid insensibly from eclectic philosophy into simple politics, has a particular value. Also, one of the most erudite and impartial historians who concerned himself with mystical masonic Obediences, Gérard Van Rijnberk, tells us that:
“one cannot deny that the Order of Elus-Cohen constituted a group of men animated by the highest spirituality…” Another historian, M. Le Forestier, a very valuable specialist concerning matters of occult high masonry, says broadly the same thing, strongly emphasizing the purely altruistic and disinterested character of this Fraternity, more occult and mystical besides, than masonry in the general sense of the word.
This is why, of all the many “Orders” of illuminated masonry born in France and Europe during the restless current of the XVIIIth Century, none have had an influence comparable to that which entered into History under the common name – and incorrect besides – of Martinism. Its appearance coincided with that of a strange person called Martinez de Pasqually. Even now the most romantic hypotheses are circulating about his name and his origins. Some say he is from an oriental race (Syrian), and others pretend he is a Jew (from Poland). Martinez de Pasqually was neither one nor the other, and his concerned detractors – unless they prefer to use false historic information, which is a serious moral issue – can no longer ignore or hide from the definitive documents that we possess. These are:
1) The Master’s Act of Marriage to demoiselle Marguerite-Angélique de Colas;
2) The Certificate of Catholicism, dated 29th April, 1772, registered before his departure for Saint-Dominique on the “Duc de Duras”.
From these two documents, published by Madame René de Brimont, which were discovered by someone in the archives of the Department of Gironde, we can see that this man was named very precisely: Jacques de Livron de la Tour de la Case Martines de Pascally.
He was the son of “Messire de la Tour de la Case”, born in Alicante (Spain) in 1671, and of demoiselle Suzanne Dumas de Rainau. He was born in Grenoble in 1727, and he died in St. Domingo, Tuesday, the 20th September, 1774.
None of the preceding patronyms gives us any indication to suppose that he was Jewish. No more that the fact that he also lived for a specific period of his life in Bordeaux in “Jewish Road”! For if living by a ghetto could be proof of religion (and how, logically?), then how can one accept that in Paris, he lived with the Augustinians by the River Seine, without claiming that influence? Some have put forward the theory that perhaps he came from a Jewish background, and was a converted Jew. We would again argue that history was written in these documents and not by supposition, and that this obstinacy by particular “historians”, concerned with the idea that he might be both Jewish and a Freemason, raises strong concerns in us as to their ultimate intentions. The truth is, although ignorant of Hebrew (and he showed that in his works…), he was familiar with the Kabbalah and, like all practitioners of ceremonial magic, drawn to the use of Judaic traditions and material components. But his disciple, the Marquis Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who all his life was never apart from a Hebrew bible, was not so disadvantaged and, like him, used Hebrew elements, the basis of the whole Christian religious tradition.
Martinez de Pasqually spent his life teaching French masons of regular obediences (which had strayed from the correct philosophical systems), and under the exterior guise of a normal Masonic Ritual, a true initiatic teaching, capable of assuming aspects of theodicy, cosmogony, gnosis and philosophy. In order to have certain concepts already half-formed in a specific intellectual and material discipline, he only accepted regular Masons into his Order, at the grade of “Master” (Third Degree).
But in addition, since it was a fact that important components could also learned through the channel of “profane” life, he established at the base of his system a ‘potted’ prior transmission of the three ordinary masonic degrees (known as blue, or St. John Masonry).
In fact, one may understand this by the following: the secret reason for this earlier affiliation to masonic mastership resided in the fact that his school was based upon the same legend, or myth, as Freemasonry. Of the Hiram legend, presented without commentary or allusion to its esotericism, Martinez de Pasqually gave a transcendental explanation, a framework for his theogonic system. But he gave the esoteric allusion in the higher Classes of the Order, leaving the legendary presentation – common to all masonic obediences – to the first three degrees.
His father, Don Martinez de Pascally, was holder of a masonic patent in English, delivered to him on 30th May, 1738, by the Grand Master of the Stuart Lodge, with power to transmit it to his eldest son, allowing him “as Grand Master, to constitute and run Lodges and Temples to the Glory of the G∴A∴O∴T∴U∴”. So it was that Martinez was also the founder in Montpellier, in 1754, of the Chapter “Les Juges Ecossaise”. In 1755 until 1760, he traveled throughout France, recruiting followers. In this last year he failed in Toulouse, in the blue Lodges called “Reunited St. John”. At Foix, the Lodge “Joshua” gave him a sympathetic hearing. There he initiated a number of masons, and founded a Chapter: the “Temple Cohen”.
In 1770, the Order of Knight-Elus Cohen of the Universe had Temples spread far and wide: Bordeaux, Montpellier, Avignon, Foix, Libourne, La Rochelle, Versailles, Paris, Metz. Another was opened in Lyon, thanks to the activities of Brother J.B. Willermoz, and this city would remain the symbolic “capital” of the Order for a long time afterwards. The regular symbolic grades (Apprentice, Companion, Master) belong to traditional Masonry. They were destined to give the necessary quality of Master to the Profane entrant into the Order, required by the Rule to be able to attain the grade and functions of Réau-Croix. In the rituals and Catechisms, very few allusions were made to the secret Doctrine which had been promised, and which did not form part of the usual framework of contemporary Freemasonry. This allowed “visiting Brethren” from other obediences to be received, who at this time, didn’t go above the grade of Master, the only grade recognized by the Grand Lodge of France (the Higher Grades came later). Thus, such visitors couldn’t later report any specific teachings learned in the Cohen Temples to the Grand Lodge, which had recognized and adopted them on the 1st of February, 1765! The Porch Degrees (Apprentice-Cohen, Companion-Cohen, Master- Cohen), continued to maintain the external masonic character. Nevertheless, they were shot through with allusions, expressions, teachings, enigmas and ambiguities, destined to give a glimpse of the secret Doctrine – early and by flashes – reserved for the superior Degrees.
From the Temple Degrees, we can say that they constitute what is proper to call the “High Grades”. The rituals of “Grand-Architect” and “Grand-Elect of Zerubbabel” still retain the emblems of masonic symbolism (aprons, collars, jewels, the ritual format itself, etc…). But their Catechisms transport the Candidate into overt esoteric mysticism, and more particularly into that of the general Doctrine.
At the grade of “Grand-Architect”, the Brother was required to purify himself through a specific ascetic regimen of the Order (abstinence from certain meats, from certain sanctioned animal parts, fats, etc…in the spirit of the Old Testament – the regimen of the Levites – ). It was their mission to expel the Powers of Darkness which had invaded the terrestrial aura, by means of magical ceremonies performed in groups as well as alone; and to cooperate “sympathetically” – in a specific manner – in those special Operations performed by the “Sovereign Master” himself. This Grade was
equivalent to Apprentice Réau-Croix (this was the role devolved to the “Knights of the East” defined in the archives gathered by Papus). The following Grade, “Grand-Elect of Zerubbabel” (or “Commander of the East”), was equivalent to “Companion Réau-Croix”. Like all Companion grades in the various masonic “regimes”, it was both neutral and ambiguous, poorly defined yet full of mystery and enigma in the ritual. It was a Grade which in Cohen series was based upon the legend of Zerubbabel, explained at a higher level. It concerned itself with a mysterious and emblematic bridge,
analogous to that erected over the River Cephisus, and which the initiates on their return from Eleusis had to cross. In this Degree the affiliate had a respite from the ceremonial “Operations”. He meditated for a period of time, returned to the fundamental theories, and prepared himself, through a form of introspection (a thorough accumulation, or psychic retrenchment) to his future ordination of Réau-Croix. The “Secret Class” was that of the Réaux-Croix. According to all the historiographers of the Order, it only comprised a single Degree. Yet some abridged comments we have come across in the letters of Claude de Saint- Martin, during the time that he was secretary to the Master (in place of P. Bullet, who had disappeared), we are led to believe that that this Class comprised two Degrees. There is, in fact, a Degree abridged to two letters: G. R., which Saint-Martin refers to in some letters. And this makes us wonder if behind the secret grade of Réau-Croix there perhaps existed an even more secret one called “Grand Réau-Croix” or “Grand-Réau” (G.R.). The purpose of this class, through its esoteric teachings, was to place the dignitaries in communion with the worlds of the Beyond, those of the Celestial Powers, and this by means of the Evocations of High Magic. Whereas the grade of “Grand-Architect” taught how to chase Demoniacal Powers from the Earth’s aura by means of magical exorcisms, the grade of” Réau-Croix taught the means of evoking Celestial Powers and attracting them “sympathetically” to this same terrestrial aura. Moreover, by their apparent manifestations (auditory or visual), they allowed the Réau-Croix to judge the degree of progress which the evoker had achieved, and to see if he had been ”reintegrated into his original powers”, according to the Master’s phrase.
Before dying, Martinez de Pasqually had designated his cousin as his successor, Armand Caignet de Lestère, superintendent-general of the Admiralty at Port-au-Prince. But at the Master’s death, the “T∴P∴M∴” (Thrice Potent Master)10 was unable to become actively involved in the Order, not only with the Cohen “Temples” of Port-au-Prince and Léogane, but least of all with those in Europe. Schisms followed, inevitable in all human endeavors. When he dies in his turn in 1778 (four years after Martinez), he had transmitted his powers to “T∴P∴M∴” Sébastian de las Cases. De las Cases did not judge it appropriate to reestablish the broken relations with the various Cohen “Orients”, and to recreate union and unite the
Rite. Little by little the Temples “went to sleep”. But the Elus Cohen continued to propagate the Doctrine of the Order, albeit individually and by “mouth to ear” as the famous saying goes, and also collectively in secret groups, immutably comprised of nine members, and which carried the name of Aréopages Cabalistiques11 . And in 1806 the famous collective “Operations” once more took place at the Equinoxes.
The occult teachings of Martinez de Pasqually were thus transmitted down to the XIXth Century, on the one hand by the Elus Cohen, of which one of the last direct representatives was the “T∴P∴M∴” Destigny, who died in 1868; and on the other hand through certain affiliates of the “Scottish Rectified Rite”, also called the “Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte12”, a mystical masonic rite which had initially come out of the “Templar Rite of Strict
Observance” (German masonry), in its original form, but later became completely independent. These affiliates were holders of the secret instructions reserved to the Réaux-Croix, and which had been transmitted to them by J.-B Willermoz.
There ends the direct lineage, uninterrupted in sacramental “form”, of the “Knights Elect-Cohens of the Universe”. From this point forward, the “Martinist Movement” will be born, personified by the disciples initiated by Claude de Saint-Martin, and those of by J.-B. Willermoz. We are now going to look at these two branches.
But it appears that small groups of Elus Cohen still exist, coming from individual initiations given by the last direct and regular descendents of the Master, and who, in some towns in France, have survived the official death of the Order. This singular detail shows well the solid and deep roots sprouted out of the bosom of the invisible, Mystic Knighthood set up by the enigmatic traveler and mysterious master who was Martinez de Pasqually…
(AURIFER)
DEGREES OF THE ORDER:
Degrees of the Porche
1) Master Elu-Cohen
2) Grand Master Cohen - Grand Architect
Degrees of the Temple
3) Grand Elu of Zorobabel - Knight of Orient
4) Commander of Orient
Sovereign Sanctuary
5) Réau + Croix
6) Grand Réau + Croix
