Pasqually’s treatise available again!

Pasqually’s Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings into their Original Property, Virtue & Divine, Spiritual Power is the seminal writing to understand the theory behind this extraordinary man’s Masonic Order, the Elus Cohen.

While the original document was secretly passed between the Réaux-Croix, or members of the highest Grade of this Order, to be copied by hand and returned to the author or his secretary (variously Abbé Pierre Fournié and Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin), it eventually made its way into the public domain a century after the author’s death, published in France by René Philippon. Since then, several new copies of the Treatise have been discovered in private collections and languishing in long-forgotten library archives, all slightly different becase of changes the author made, or the inevitable errors made or embellishments added by the copiers. Eventually, Robert Amadou published both a facsimile edition of the Treatise in Saint-Martin’s own handwriting, and a complete transcription of the work, together with copious commentaries, cross-references and insights.

The work is hard to comprehend even in French, since this was clearly not the first language of its author; and it is interesting to note that even his secretaries, whose command of the language was unimpeachable, were either inclined not to alter a word of their Master’s book, or. were commanded not to do so. This makes it something of a nightmare for English translators, since if the French struggle with it, it becomes even more of a challenge to translate! For this reason, it remained in French until relatively recently, when Peter Mayden in Canada, then Trevor Stewart in England, attempted translations. There was also a version undertaken by the Martinists of Barbados. However, all three suffered from the same major setback: they were in very limited editions and quickly became unavailable. Also, given their desirability there was no secondary market where one could search for secondhand copies.

Then a few years ago, the English translator who uses the pseudonym ‘The Three Luminaries’ translated the Robert Amadou version. All was solved! A very capable version of the Treatise was now freely available on Amazon and elsewhere. Scholars and Martinists rejoiced. There wasn’t even a need to purchase it immediately, since it would now be around forever.

Except… very soon afterwards the translator withdrew the book (along with other important translations) from circulation, having had a change of heart (let’s leave it at that). Now those who were getting ready to buy it were left with nothing.

So, we are immensely grateful to Michael Osborne for stepping into the breach and providing us with a new translation which is destined to become the definitive English version!

If anybody possesses the skills to perform this task it is certainly Michael. He already has celebrated translations of The Lessons of Lyon and Pierre Fournié’s What We Have Been, What We Are And What We Will Become under his belt, and he had given a number of public talks on the subject in person and in Zoom meetings, establishing his credentials as an expert in this field.

Having just read his translation of the Treatise I can say that I am most impressed. Not only has he translated the work, he has managed to coax it into contemporary English, making it a far more comfortable read than earlier versions, thereby making it more comprehensible. It is now far easier to see the debt it owes to Masonic symbolism, and also its role as a source for Martinism and the Rectified Scottish Rite with its references to the Path of Reintegration and its appeals to the Man of Desire. It also allows for the clearest explanation of the Universal Table (included in the book) that I have seen to date. Michael’s Introduction is masterful and provides an excellent historical explanation and scene-setting for the Treatise, and even lifts a corner of the veil into the translators’ personal beliefs. He has followed the original layout (which had no chapters or breaks) but helps us along with images of biblical scenes artfully used to break the text up into logical sections, while retaining the original layout.

The Treatise is a product of its time, and one must forgive the sometimes harsh judgement Pasqually metes out to other religions.Times were different, but we are adults and can take this in our stride.

In sum, on reading this translation I have never taken away so much from the Treatise before, and I much enjoyed learning new things from our latest translator which I hadn’t known, or hadn’t thought through fully before. The translator is to be commended for an excellent piece of work!

Hopefully, this version will be available to us for a long time. But, given the history of prior translations, I would recommend you grab a copy of this book sooner rather than later…!