Saunière and the occult Part 2

 

Papus

So what were the Martinists drawn to Papus, and then to his successors at the head of the Martinist Order, looking for?
It was the one, undivided Church, faithful to the Tradition of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church, and possessor and dispenser of the gnosis spoken of by Clement of Alexandria.
Since its origin, such a Church has remained alive in the East, after having disappeared in the West in the Middle Ages, to the advantage of Roman Catholicism. That is the Orthodox Church. Its providential return in the West allows Martinists today to once again find an authentic ecclesiastical practice, in parallel with those who follow the practice of the few rare Gnostic Churches worthy of this name, where the faithful are often hardly more numerous than the priests.

This effective reconciliation of the Orthodox and RCC is one of the stated aims of the Hieron du Val d’Or and L’Eglise d’Avignon that played such a major part in the esoteric level of Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

An examination of the Creed of the Eglise Gnostique Universelle at Lyon, 1908 shows nothing that would have caused a conflict or crisis of Faith for a Catholic priest. In fact the creed takes the prosaic Catholic teachings to a higher spiritual and intellectual level. The main addition to the existing Creed being nothing more than the conscious and committed search for Reintegration: the quest towards a state of divine spirituality.

Extract from the sermon of H. H. + Johannes Bricaud (Jean II) on the occasion of his appointment as Patriarch of the Universal Gnostic Church in Lyon, 1908.

1. - That spoke to us through His mouth and taught us the Gnosis and the true holy life, so that we shall be free from slavery of the Demiurges and their earthly Archons, and as he made our return to the pneumatic World from which we came possible, where He returned after his death.
2. - We believe in the Third Aspect of the Trinity, Life, which follows from the Father as from the Son, and reveals itself in the Pneuma-Agion, the Holy Ghost.
3. - Who gives us joy in life, and leads us on the Path of Truth and Holiness, who unites all beings, who is worshipped in the Father as in the Son.
4. - We believe in a Pneumatic Universe, immeasurable Church of the Spirit, as old as God Himself, and older than the Material [hylic] Universe, where our globe finds itself as but a colony in the Perisphere, whereon we men descend as spirits.
5. - We profess the two Baptisms, and the three other Mysteries of the purification and conversion of mankind.
Amen.
Lyons, 1908.

Thus we can see the attraction of Martinism and the Gnostic Church to perhaps the more intellectual of priest. Of course we must not forget that these esoteric Christian movements were also deeply involved with Monarchist movements, especially those in support of Charles Naundorff.
But there is one fundamental politico-philosophical belief, shared by Monarchists and Martinists alike, that provides an explanation for Saunière’s possible connection to the wider occult world.

As previously mentioned, Priory of Sion publications allege that Saunière, on a trip to Paris, was welcomed into Parisien occult society: in which he made the acquaintance of some very notable people such as Emma Calve and Debussy. Later publications by those close to the Priory of Sion elaborate on this aspect of the life of Saunière. We must also recall that the Priory’s own list of Grand Masters includes Charles Nodier, Victor Hugo, Claude Debussy and John Cocteau, all connected in one way or another with this occult world; more specifically to the world of Symbolist Art.

The one aspect of political philosophy common to each of these societies, movements and people, is their unswerving belief in Tradition and Hierarchy as the necessary path to social order.

This focus on tradition was typified in the Rose-Croix Orders of Josephin Peladan, who we must recall was a member of the original Martinist Grand Council under Papus. Peladan had completed his education in Italy during which time he fell in love with Italian Art. In 1882 he arrived in Paris, presenting himself as an art critic. His views can best be summed up in his own words, “I believe in the Ideal, in Tradition, in Hierarchy.” We will see how his view of art was to become a major influence in symbolist art and occult societies. It was through his meeting with of the renown occultist, Stanislas da Guaita, that he decided to revive 17th century Rosicrucianism. His association with da Guiata brought him into the world of Black Magicians, that included those such as the decadent satanist, J K Huysmans, and the notorious Abbé Boullan whose activities we will examine later.

In 1892, Peladan organised the first of his annual Salons de la Rose-Croix in which his version of traditionalist art, closely linked to that of the symbolist movement, was to be vigorously promoted. We know exactly what he approved of from his own writings, including a set of rules to be rigidly adhered to. It is clearly stated that Catholic Dogma and symbolism is to be given priority, even if the execution was imperfect. He believed that the Catholic Church had become a repository for ancient wisdom that could be rediscovered in its symbolism. Although at times his writings verged on heresy, and some of his former Rose-Croix Orders were later condemned for becoming overly influenced by eastern mysticism, Peladan himself managed to escape censure by the Church. However, in his mind, Peladan considered himself to be more Catholic than the apparently liberal voices in the Vatican.

Peladan

First mentioned by Gérard de Sède, other researchers have since agreed that Saunière’s rose-embroidered chasuble and the many rose motifs found in the decoration of his church, especially on the Stations of the Cross, is evidence of Saunière’s involvement with Rose-Croix movements. This is possible, but we must be cautious in this interpretation, as the rose is commonly found in mainstream Catholic symbolism.

A frequent visitor to Peladan’s salons was the composer Claude Debussy, a friend of the great esoteric writer, Stephane Mallarme, and other leading occultists. Peladan’s patron in this enterprise was the Count Antoine de la Rochefoucauld, who had been intimately linked with the appearance of a Sacred Heart vision. Following a break from Peladan in 1893, Antoine de Rochefoucauld set up a review and appointed a known satanist, Jules Bois, as editor. Jules Bois was the lover of Emma Calve, the famous opera singer alleged to have had a “liaison” with Saunière. This connection to Jules Bois opens up an interesting, even if rather slender, line of enquiry.

Bois had a reputation as a Black Magician but was also closely connected with other notable occultists who claimed to be traditionalist Catholics and supporters of the Naundorff claim to the Monarchy.

But how can we reconcile the association of a so-called Black Magician with the world of Catholic Traditionalists?

Satanists (Black Magicians) are often confused with Luciferians, the terms often erroneously being interchanged. Luciferians form part of a tradition known as Promethian. Many of them recognised Christ as one of the prophets in the sense that Christos (Greek) equates to Lucifer (Latin) which signifies the “Bringer of Light”. Lucifer is to Luciferians the prophet who will reveal the true message of the sacred texts (Gospels), obscured and distorted by the Roman Catholic Church. This belief could well be seen as a form of Gnosticism rather than the more popular perception of Devil worship. A conclusion confirmed in the writings of the poet Stanislas da Guaita, who in 1887 had founded the Rosicrucian Cabalistic Order with Peladan and Papus. His works show him to be a Gnostic but he also wrote about Satan and Black Magic.

Returning to Rennes-le-Château and Saunière we find yet another mystery. In 1891, Saunière installed a statue of the Virgin Mary on an antique pillar upon which an engraved cross appears upside down. No priest would have remained unaware of this anomaly and would have taken steps to rectify it. But Saunière compounded this oddity by engraving two inscriptions on the pillar, thereby confirming his intention to display prominently and publicly an upside down cross.

It is surely no coincidence that the upside-down cross had been adopted by French Catholic Occultists in representation of not only the martyrdom of St Peter but more importantly, of the inner teachings/tradition of the Church.
– And key amongst these Catholic occultists was Eugene Vintras. A professed Catholic, he formed his own Church of Carmel and wore an inverted cross on his vestments. A confirmed monarchist, he actively preached that Charles Naundorff was the rightful king. Despite being excommunicated allegedly for practising Black Magic rites, he continued to receive significant support from factions within the Catholic Church.
But is it possible that the true reason for his excommunication was for preaching a form of Gnosticism considered a threat to the Catholic Church?

Abbé Boullan

When Vintras died in 1875 the Abbé Boullan, a defrocked priest, also a supporter of the Naundorff claim, became his successor at Lyon. Previously, at La Salette he met the nun Adele Chevalier, a friend of the visionary Melanie Calvat. Boullan formed an intimate relationship with Adele drawing accusations of strange sexual activities. Melanie is said to have revealed the secret of La Salette to Adele, with whom she had set up the Order of the Mother of God. She and Boullan set up the `Society for the Reparation of Souls’ with a view to “curing devilish illnesses”. Condemned by the Catholic Church he was imprisoned for three years, but on his release returned to the mission of curing spells.
His own writings show that Boullan was indeed participating in depraved sexual activity that was found to be unacceptable to most of the occult world. In fact after a meeting with Boullan in 1886, Peladan’s colleague, da Guiata, reported that he (Boullan) had fallen deeply into error.
But despite his reputation for sexual and other bizarre practices, Boullan is best known for his “Law of Sacred Regeneration”, which is more or less identical to the theory of Reintegration found at the heart of Martinism.
Boullan’s biographer, Joanny Bricaud, wrote “Since the Fall from grace resulted from an illicit act of love, the Redemption of Humanity can only be achieved through acts of love accomplished in a religious manner”. It was believed that “guilty love must be combated through pure love, through a sexual approach, but in a heavenly manner, to the spirits in order to raise onself: this is the union of wisdom”.
Interestingly in 1908, Bricaud was appointed patriarch of the Universal Gnostic Church and by 1918, also became head of Papus’ Martinist Order.

So we have seen that at their heart, Martinism, the Gnostic Church and the Luciferian tradition share common beliefs: beliefs that may not necessarily be in conflict with a loose interpretation of Catholic dogma, especially to the questioning intellectual priest. The conflict arose not in the teachings but in the methods. The Catholic Church believed Man’s Salvation lay in the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion, Confession, Repentance etc., that could only be received from the Catholic Church. Whereas for the Gnostic, it was believed that the only way for Man to return to the state of grace he enjoyed before the Fall, was through true Gnosis and by confronting and working through his natural earthly sexual instinct.

Though at the present time there is no hard evidence to place Saunière in this Esoteric and Gnostic world, it is certainly not improbable. On balance, the facts presented here show that this possibility does enjoy much credibility.
But the ultimate question for Rennes researchers still remains. What was the true nature of Saunière’s relationship with his house-keeper Marie Denarnaud, who refused to speak about such matters?

Whether there was an esoteric dimension to the relationships between Jules Bois and Emma Calve or even between the notorious Joseph Boullan and Adele Chevalier, we might probably never know. But it is possible that however misguided they were, they shared the aim of Reintegration: the return to a state of perfect grace. Was this in fact the basis for the protracted and loyal relationship between Saunière and Marie? Is it not possible that they were imitating the ultimate relationship, as suggested in the Gnostic Gospels, that of his lord, Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, His most beloved disciple and the repentant sinner?

Sources

Symbolist Art Edward Lucie-Smith, Thames & Hudson, 1972 (1986)
The Occult Chambers Compact Reference, trans from French 1991
Dictionary of Art & Artists Peter & Linda Murray, Penguin, 1959 (1973)
The Rosy-Cross Unveiled, Christopher McIntosh, Aquarian 1980
Occult symbolism in France Robert Pincus-Witten, 1976
The Occult Establishment James Webb, 1976

Internet sources

A Brief History of the Martinist Movement
The Rose-Croix Martinist Order, Inc, copyright 1995,1996
FUDOSI by Milko Bogaard

Guy Patton