Robert Ambelain (1907 – 1997)
One of the great French esotericists of the latter half of the 20th Century was undoubtedly Robert Ambelain. For many years his activities and books dominated the French esoteric landscape. Indeed, he sometimes thought he had been too successful, in that so many people copied his ideas and presented them as their own, as the esoteric book market exploded following World War II! Under the mystical name of ‘Aurifer’ he ran a Martinist Lodge in Paris under the very noses of the Nazi occupiers, and later ran or resurrected many Orders which had faded from sight over previous century, as well as breathing new life into others.
I first came across him back in the 1990s, and immediately fell in love with his style, his occasional indifference to dates and facts, and his boundless enthusiasm as he brought esoteric concepts and practical theurgical ceremonies into the public domain.
My enjoyment of his books led me to wish to share them with a more general English-speaking audience. Indeed, it is sad that s many books freely available in France to the youngest schoolkid are completely unknown or inaccessible to the vast majority of people in the rest of the world, due to the language barrier. To date I have translated 8, and have another 13 sitting in my library, to be translated at a future date. I even put them up as PDFs on a website starting back in 2003, so that English speakers could enjoy these insightful teachings.
But then I received a letter from the main publisher of his works, and that was that! For the past 14 years I’ve tried to find a way of obtaining permission to publish them: a letter from his granddaughter, a profit share with one of his main publishers. But anyone who has tried to work through the Napoleonic (read Byzantine) legal system of France, mixed together with a soupçon of chauvinism (‘but nobody can understand French writers like the French, so why bother?’), knows how nearly impossible it is to actually accomplish anything!
And so I stare at the websites of Editions Bussières and Editions Robert Laffonte, which now carry but 11 and 1 of his 43+ books respectively, and wonder why I cannot share the 21 books I could with English speakers.
But watch this space! Some friends with a legal leaning are taking an interest in my predicament. I am still hopeful that I will have some good news to post on this site e’er long…..!
Thank you so much for translating”Spiritual Alchemy”.
It must have been a remarkably difficult translation. I admire your skill and understanding. And while achieving a transmutation of the soul might take an entire life span, your work is inspiring many awakened souls to strive for the chrysopoeia.
Thank you for your kind words!
Thank you – hopefully I will be able to bring more translations soon!
Hello,
Do you know if Le Secret d’Israel is available in English? or other languages than French ?
Thanks.
Dear Fatima,
Thank you for your message. Unfortunately I’m not aware of a translation in any other language. I possess a French copy (Lafont Edition from 1995), but I haven’t translated it yet. The problem is the Ambelain family appear extremely resistant to allowing me to publish any of his works in English. That tends to dampen my enthusiasm for translating any more books, and why I focus on books which are out of copyright (Sédir, Saint-Martin, Papus, etc.) to avoid anything getting in the way of making these available to anglophones. Sorry I can’t be more help. piers
Hi Piers,
Thanks for your message.
I actually have French as first language but the French edition is so expensive I thought maybe I could find it much cheaper in another language.
If you say it’s worth the money than will probably buy it.
It is difficult to understand why the family is against an English translation. Hopefully they will change their mind. Soon.
Best regards/ Fatima
Where would one find the most compelling accounts of Masons or other Estoericists taking part in French anti-Nazi resistance? Who was leading this and what was typically done?
To what extent were Masons implicated with Vichy?
Thanks
I regret I wouldn’t know exactly where to send you for this information. I am certain there have been books or at least studies on this in France, but since it’s outside my area of study or expertise I wouldn’t know where to send you to look, other than to go to online to French public libraries and try search words. I agree it would be most interesting to learn how Masonry helped to organize the resistance in the various town and cities when free passage from town to town was next to impossible.
However, on an anecdotal level I would think it highly unlikely there was any collaboration whatsoever between French Masons and the Vichy Government, who dissolved all Masonic Lodges (and the Nazis, for that matter). It seems to be a fact that whenever a totalitarian government gets into power (be it fascist or communist) the first thing they do is eradicate any opportunity for groups to gather in private, destroy their records and ridicule their beliefs. There can be nuances to this where, for example, we’ve since learned of the intense interest certain leading Nazis had in esoteric topics; and Lyon which, along with Avignon were known as centers of religious and esoteric independent thinking, were certainly subject to intense scrutiny, and it was the Masons there who hid the records and archives of Freemasonry from the Nazis and their Vichy puppets.
Punishment for being a Mason was, if one was lucky, imprisonment in a prisoner of war camp, or if unlucky, in a concentration camp. Given the common bond felt by all Masons, it seems highly unlikely that one Mason would hand a Brother over for certain punishment and possibly death. Indeed, this occurred at the end of the war in Lyon, when Constant Chevillon, a leader in Masonry, the Gnostic Church and Martinism, who was indeed known as am inspiring local organizer of resistance, was assassinated by supporters of Pétain. Similarly, we learn from Robert Ambelain’s book ‘Le Martinisme’ that he ran Martinist and Elus Cohen groups in Paris right under the noses of the occupying forces, knowing full well that admitting a new member who hadn’t been closely vetted, would result in a far greater peril than simply seeing ritual published by an unscrupulous and morally bankrupt person.
A couple of decades ago I remember talking to a Martinist from a Lodge in Spain under General Franco, where discovery meant certain death. Those extreme pressures tend to bond Brothers and Sisters together very closely indeed, and while I am sure you can find a handful of Masons who were never really ‘true’ members and who were only happy to name their compatriots in the hope of a temporary favor from the Vichy Government, those would have been outweighed a thousand-fold by those who preserved the fraternal bonds and aided and supported their Brothers and sisters to the extent of their abilities.
Good luck with your studies. Although Masonry hasn’t exactly been a topic of serious study among academicians until relatively recently, more and more are finally beginning to realize that Masonry has played a significant role in everything from the spread of trade routes, colonization, the dissemination of ideas and the organization of resistance to oppressive regimes, and ignoring its existence is tantamount to ignoring one of the major motivators of many key events in the history of the past three decades.
Some people say that ROBERT AMBELAIN was a fascist. They seem to form this view based on his affiliation with Mircea Eliade.
I found a web page put up by one who claimed to be Ambelain’s daughter and it listed all of his books. To me it seemed unlikely, even impossible, that Ambelain was a fascist.
But in France there were far more people who collaborated than who resisted. And the argument is that Esotericism is just like Religion, a Middle-Class Opiate. Support for the Right is the Achilles Heel of all esoteric groups.
In the US, Master Masons, male only, have been very middle-class and very conservative. Like more likely to have been part of the Joseph McCarthy anti-communism than to have opposed it.
So the answer then is to find accounts where French Masons defied German and Vichy laws, and resisted, especially using lethal violence.
Real good book:
https://www.amazon.com/Purge-Purification-French-Collaborators-After/dp/0688049400
I am in the US, not France, and I do not speak or read French.
How about the Le Droit Humaine Co-Masons, or the Mishraim and Memphis Masons, or any Martinist Groups?
Its like in de Beauvoir’s Blood of Others, accounts of direct action, or support of direct action, make a big difference.
And then François Mitterrand remains for many an man of ambiguities.
Thanks,
Francis
Francis, you mentionned Simone de Beauvoir. Did you know She was a notorious pedophile?
She used to provide Sartre with virgin teenagers that she viciously attracted, manipulated so he could abuse and rape them.
These two were the « Epstein and his infamous girlfriend « of that era.
They totally got away with their crimes however.
Your company publishes some interesting looking books. When it comes to this material, as you can see, I am a neophyte.
Part of the difficulty is that we don’t have many English language books about Ambelain, Martinism, Gnostic Churches, or Esoteric Masonry.
What Masonry was Ambelain involved with, Le Droit Humain, Memphis-Mishraim? Is Masonry in France more esoteric?
What connection is their between Martinism and Masonry. Seems like there is no automatic connection, but when Martinism is talked about it seems to be in a Masonic context.
How about with Gnostic Churches?
Some web sites for Gnostic Churches seem to show a woman sitting on an altar. Is this after Aleister Crowley?
His Gnostic Mass, opening and closing curtains, seems to have been inspired by the Eastern Orthodox Mass.
Is the idea of a naked woman lying on the alter coming from Das Bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans?
Is Maria de Naglowska influenced by this?
Only with she, Eugene Grotsch, and Kenneth Grant, does it seem like this is intended to result in real sex.
Are their Mathematicians involved with Esotericism, Martinism, Masonry, or with French Resistance.
The liability of esoteric groups is that usually the oppose the Left and support the Right. But if they were involved with the more lethal aspects of French Resistance, then this would be completely different.
All interesting questions. I can say the ‘usual’ gnostic mass most certainly doesn’t involve naked women lying on altars! The very notion would have appalled the Cathars and other gnostic sects, most of whom were quite ascetic in nature.
Regarding your other comments, I respectfully have to say that this is a blog site, not a one-man helpdesk! Perhaps someone else who reads your comments may care to add to the thread. My focus is on providing the books you mention as far as I am able. Sadly, I’ve translated a number of Ambelain’s books, but am not allowed to publish them because I cannot get permission from the family (they are still well within copyright). I’m hoping for a change of heart at some stage…!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_Chevillon
Interesting, like to know more about like Constant Chevillon did.
https://www.amazon.com/Gnose-Constant-Chevillon/dp/2713800315/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Constant+Chevillon&qid=1590170009&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Constant-Chevillon/e/B004N1PVYM/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
Not In English though.
This site is good:
http://pansophers.com/martinist-order-review-martinism/
Here, this lists Chevillon and Ambelian
http://pansophers.com/memphis-misraim-review/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_Memphis-Misraim
http://pansophers.com/licht_liebe_leben/
http://pansophers.com/amorc-rituals/
https://masonicun.org/the-ancient-primitive-rites-of-memphis-misraim/
https://aprmm.info/us
It’s a shame we know so little about the people rather than the ‘icons’. Just about everyone who would have been alive to know Chevillon the man are now dead. Ilive in hope that someone will write a biography one day…
The idea of a naked woman lying on an altar would be from:
1. J. K. Huysman
2. Maria de Naglowska
3. Anton LaVey
4. Eugene Grotsch
5. Kenneth Grant
With 2, 4, and 5, it is intended to result in real sex.
I do not know if it is ever like this with Nema’s group. With the Chaos Magick people it seems that there are no rules, ritual sex would sometimes be likely.
I had not known that Cathar’s would have had any kind of Gnostic Mass. But then in Da Vinci Code there is some kind of Mystical Marriage.
There is so much I do not know, and there are so many books which are either not translated to English or not available.
Greetings I have been trying for years to source this book in english did you by any chance translate it?
ROBERT AMBELAIN
SCALA PHILOSOPHORUM OU LA SYMBOLIQUE DES OUTILES
DANS L’ART ROYAL.
Ouvrage Illustré de quatre planches hors-texte et de quinze figures.
Éditions Niclaus, Paris, 1975, format 16 x 24, broché, 196 pages.
Gnostic Sex goes back to the ancient world, as with the Barbelot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01417RJMY/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i12
Of course there is the problem that most of the written accounts are coming from their detractors.
Churton argues that Simon Magus has his woman, Helen, and that this was just like Aliester Crowley with his various Scarlet Women,. and then later Jack Whiteside Parons and his woman Margorie Cameron.
They say that bread and wine sacrifice came from Egypt and it is the alternate or substitute form for Liturgical Sex.
D. H. Lawrence picked up on this in his story “The Man Who Died”, compares the Christian resurrection with the Egyptian.
Churton says that the gnostic sex of antiquity is very much like tantic sex, authentic tantra, not American Neo-Tantra.
Donald Michael Kraig expounds on this in all of his books. And it seems to have been central to Kenneth Grant.
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Tantra-Continuously-Spirituality-Millennium-ebook/dp/B017WP7P4E/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=modern+tantra&qid=1593646540&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
Seems like two main Western Rituals, the Orthodox, Gnostic Eucharistic Sex Mass
and the Masonic Rite from I guess Mystery Schools.
How these two might connect, or how they might connect to Martinism I do not know. But some do clearly connect Martinism to both. This genealogy of ideas is what I am struggling to understand.
Francis
Piers, I am reading Mark Stavish’s Egregores, and (on page 51) found Mark’s reference to Ambelain’s comment on the Jesuit practice of revitalizing Egregores through rituals. This is reported in the context of “Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola” … can you help me find a reference to this source? Thanks, Tom
Tom,
I’ve looked it up, and it’s on page 179 of the Editions Bussière 1992 version of ‘La Kabbale Pratique’ (orig. 1938). It doesn’t really say much more. In his section on Egregores, Ambelain states:
“When an egregore has lived for a long time, it acquires a relatively independent existence. Then it no longer obeys the impulses which the masters of the sect transmit to it through the intermediary of ritual, and, no longer a docile slave, it often becomes a fierce tyrant. This explains why, quite often, a movement later deviates far from its originally declared goals. Also, the egregore can affect the material. The secret of conquering an egregore through evoking it was a secret known to the priests of Rome.
“The psychic formation of egregores had long been described in many works of occultism. The rules of yoga form part of them. The “Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius”, a work known to all the disciples of the Jesuits, is also a part of this body of work.”
I hope it helps.