L'ordre Martiniste

Paris - La Belle Époque

The disciples of Saint-Martin spread the Doctrine of the Unknown Philosopher in France, Germany, Denmark and above all in Russia. It was through one of them, Henri Delaage, that in 1880 a brilliant young Parisian doctor, Gerard Encausse (Later to be known as Papus), became acquainted with the doctrines of Saint-Martin. Subsequently, in 1884, together with some of his associates, he established a Mystical Order which he called the Ordre Martiniste or the Martinist Order.

The founding of the Order came about when Encausse met Augustin Chaboseau in 1884. In parallel, Stanislas de Guaita, in association with Papus and Pierre-Augustin Chaboseau founded the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose Croix in 1888. Papus and Chaboseau discovered that they had both apparently received Martinist initiation through two different chains of succession which linked back to Saint-Martin and his original disciples. Papus claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of de Pasqually and to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-Martin by his friend Henri Viscount Delaage. However, Encausse realised that there was a "missing link" in his own chain of succession: he and Chaboseau therefore "swapped initiations" to consolidate their lineages.

The Martinist Order which Papus founded was organised as a Lodge system, which worked four degrees:

   Associate
   Mystic
   Unknown Superior (S::I::/Supèrieur Inconnu)
   Unknown Superior Initiator (S::I::I::/Supérieur Inconnu Initiateur)(Lodge/Heptad Master).

Of these, the first two introduce the Candidate to key Martinist concepts, while the third supposedly confers the actual Initiation which Saint-Martin gave to his original disciples. Martinists generally believe that to be an authentic initiate, one must be able to show a chain of Initiatic Succession which goes back to Saint-Martin himself. However, Restivo states that "Martinist authenticity is not contingent upon acceptance or initiation into a filiation or succession of other Martinists as no personal initiation chain from Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin exists in the sacramental manner of ordination as culmination of mastery in an Initiatic order."

About the rituals themselves, the following general points may be made:

   The mystical Christianity of Martinism is emphasised by the fact that all lodges are opened by invoking Yeheshuah, (Hebrew: יהשוה) i.e. the Tetragrammaton,
   with the addition of the Hebrew letter Shin, which was first suggested by Reuchlin as a Qabalistic way of spelling Jesus.
   Despite the Lodge structure of Martinism, the rituals themselves do not bear any resemblance to the symbolic degrees of Freemasonry. The rituals have their
   own milieu of dramatic and esoteric content. It has been claimed however that some of the rituals derived from the Egyptian Freemasonry of Cagliostro, and 
   the Scottish Rectified Rite of Willermoz.
   The rituals contain elements of Martinez de Pasqually's philosophy, and passing references to the Qabalah, in addition to principles derived from Saint-Martin's own teachings.
   The candidate at key points throughout the rituals is expected to answer on his or her own initiative. He or she is constantly encouraged to meditate on the symbolism presented.
   The rituals often rely on the element of surprise to reinforce the points they make.