The X-Ray Specs of Franz von Baader!
Amazing what you can get done while lying in bed with a hacking cough, a temperature, a glass of water and a laptop! As a service to those interested in Pasqually, Saint-Martin and the like, this is a sort of public service announcement regarding a much-desired book by the early 19th Century German Philosopher, Franz von Baader, excitingly called “The Secret Teachings of Martines de Pasquales.”
This ‘book’ was initially published in 1899 by the Loge Arc-en-Ciel (Lodge of the Rainbow) of the Order of Mizraïm as part of the first public release of a version of Pasqually’s “Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings.” with a preface directly attacking Papus and his Ordre Martiniste, together with his early works on Pasqually (1895) and Saint-Martin (1902), claiming that not only did Papus not have access to the more important books concerning Martinezism in particular, but that their group claimed they were more orthodox, operative and therefore closer to the spirit of Pasqually than the mystical path of Saint-Martin, reinvented by Papus. Naturally, its publication caused something of a storm at the time, and brought attacks from the Papus camp raining down on the Lodge. As a result, in 1900, they release a second book, which is the one in question.
The title of this book – The Secret Teachings of Martines de Pasqualis – is, to quote an English politician of the late 1900s, “being economical with the truth”. To English speakers seeing this thick book, the promise of hundreds of pages explaining everything Pasqually must seem frustrating, and for a long time I have been asked to translate it. However, I must let you into its rather disappointing secret. While my task is to create English translations of seminal French works – and I have indeed done this here – the results may not always be what people hoped for! However, at least I am providing a public service in laying to rest once and for all this false hope.
The book, in fact, consists of only a handful of pages actually written by Franz von Baader. The vast majority of the book is a history of early Martinism from the point of view of the Loge Arc-en-Ciel which, while interesting in itself (and I will translate it one day), sheds no further light on Pasqually’s work. Worse, the few pages of von Baader’s work, which is in fact a letter to a friend, absolutely does NOT give us all the secret teachings of Pasqually, although it does provide a few interesting views on his philosophy in the most general terms. The main part of the book, actually entitled “New Historical Notice on Martinezism and Martinism” was written by René Philipon under the pseudonym of Chevalier de la Rose Croissante (Knight of the Growing Rose) in response to his detractors, using previously unavailable documents as, in his words: “the best response to criticisms which are as inconsiderate as they are fruitless.”
Nevertheless, now I have explained that Franz von Baader’s very short work really adds nothing to Pasqually’s teachings (hence the ‘X-Ray specs’ analogy, if you were still wondering…), it is nevertheless an interesting insight into a major German philosopher and his fascination with Pasqually’s teachings. I warn you I did not spend too much time on this, since I only wanted to provide the gist, and also because, frankly, my philosophy isn’t up to it! This is a German philosopher in his prime throwing around quotations from other contemporary philosophers. At least translating Saint-Martin was a process of understanding a person who had a specific outlook on life: these are professional philosophers speaking in an entirely different language. I’ve done my best, but I warn you that I don’t understand one or two of the footnotes myself, so I can’t promise a comprehensive job on this one.
To download the PDF, click the link below:
Franz von Baader – The Secret Teachings of Martinez Pasqualis
Thanks for this.
What are the “previously unavailable documents” used by Rene Philipon?
My apologies for not replying to this question earlier (blame Christmas – and I’m also working on a new translation which I hope to publish early next year). I had a quick scan through the text, focused mainly on the footnotes (after all, if Philipon was going to cite new documents during his long attack on Papus’ scholarship, surely he would provide their credentials?). I was rather disappointed. Almost all the citations were from existing books and articles – mainly Papus’ own books on Pasqually and Saint-Martin! However, there were all of 3 references to ‘inédit’ (or unpublished) materials. But these were few and far between, consisting of extracts from letters – and these were cited as being from public libraries. There is one from a letter from Pasqually to Mallet de Versailles darted 1774 (p. 56); and later one from P.M.Salzac, of Versailles to Frédéric Disch, of Metz (p. 92). But neither appear to offer startling new revelations. Finally there is an extract from another letter to Bro. Disch (p. 96). That’s it for unpublished items.
However, against this one should add that, given this was written in 1900, travel was more difficult than now, so anything not available in a local library or a magazine would require some effort to research, so it is entirely possible that some of the printed documents being quoted would not have been generally available.
I wish I could provide a more exciting answer!