page_title: Martinism
section_title: Modern Martinism
hierarchical_section_title: Martinism / Modern Martinism
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Мартинисты
context_page_description: Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and esoteric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his divine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration' or illumination.
  As a mystical tradition, it was first transmitted through a masonic high-degree system established around 1740 in France by Martinez de Pasqually, and later propagated in different forms by his two students Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz.
  The term Martinism applies to both this particular doctrine and the teachings of the reorganized "Martinist Order" founded in 1886 by Augustin Chaboseau and Gérard Encausse. It was not used at the tradition's inception in the 18th century. This confusing disambiguation has been a problem since the late 18th century, where the term Martinism was already used interchangeably between the teachings of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and Martinez de Pasqually, and the works of the first being attributed to the latter. Regular transmission of Martinism to Augustin Chaboseau and Gérard Encausse still has to be documented.
context_section_description: In 1905, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia invited Papus to Tsarskoye Selo to ask for advice on domestic difficulties that he was facing with revolutionaries. The First World War was disastrous for the Order. Papus died on the battlefield fulfilling his duties as a doctor, as did many other leaders of the Order. After the war, the Order was almost extinct and the surviving members splintered into competing factions.
  René Guénon was himself initiated in the Martinist Order. In between 1906 and 1912, Guénon was a member of Martinist Lodges Humanidad and Melchissedec, and published articles in L'Initiation, Revue Indépendante des Hautes Etudes Martinistes.  The Congrès Spiritualiste held in Paris on 7–10 June 1908, and organized by Papus, with the presence of Victor Blanchard, Paul Veux, Paul Chacornac, Theodor Reuss, and Charles Détré alias Teder took place at the peak of the collaboration between Guénon and Papus. However, the regularity of the Martinist Order was strongly questioned by Brother O. Pontet of the Grand Orient de France,. The creation by Guénon in 1909 of an Ordre du Temple within the premises of the Martinist Order, as well as his involvement in a Gnostic Church under the name Palingenius prompted the separation between Papus and Guénon.
  Many French Martinists supported Karl Wilhelm Naundorff's claims to the French throne. They joined the Synarchy movement and formed the Ordre Martiniste et Synarchie (OM&S) under the leadership of Victor Blanchard. Both Imperators of The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), Ralph Maxwell Lewis and Harvey Spencer Lewis were initiated into the Martiniste et Synarchie (OM&S). AMORC Imperator Harvey Spencer Lewis held the title of Grand Inspector for the Americas as well as Sovereign Grand Master Legate for the United States and was granted a charter to establish Lodges in the USA. Lewis later decided not to proceed with the OM&S plan for the USA due to the fact that Victor Blanchard was unable to produce all the required documentation. It turned out that the activities of the OM&S were limited to the transmission of various Martinist Initiations, and that the Order  otherwise had no actual existence. There was no Martinist Lodge in Paris at the time and Victor Blanchard gave his initiations in the temple of the Fraternitae des Polaires.
  In 1931 Augustin Chaboseau joined Victor-Emile Michelet and Lucien Chamuel (the other two surviving members of the original Supreme Council of 1891) to resuscitate the Order that they had founded with Papus. To emphasise the difference between traditional Martinism and the many new groups that had emerged, they named their movement the Ordre Martiniste Traditionnel (OMT). Victor-Emile Michelet was elected Grand Master and Augustin Chaboseau succeeded him in 1939 until his death in 1946. AMORC Imperator Ralph Maxwell Lewis was asked by the OMT in 1939 to bring Traditional Martinism to the U.S.A. Lewis was thus appointed Sovereign Legate and Regional Grand Master of the OMT and received the necessary charters and other documents required in order to proceed with the Order's expansion.
  The Second World War was as disastrous for the Order in Europe as the first. The Nazi regime suppressed all 'occult' groups and many Martinists died in concentration camps. The OMT in Europe and its American branch, the Traditional Martinist Order (TMO) still exist. The TMO currently operates in almost every free country in the world under the protection of AMORC. Martinism is still growing in popularity, and with the advent of the Internet, many new orders and online groups expressing an interest in Martinism have emerged worldwide.
  The Martinist Order (L'Ordre Martiniste) founded by Papus in 1887 continues, and grows worldwide with Groups across Europe, Africa, the United States and the Middle East.
caption: The Martinists, from left to right: Papus, Marc Haven, Philippe, Sédir [fr], Rosabis.
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