The Lessons of Lyons
This was the very first English translation of the notes and lectures written between 1774 and 1776 by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, and Jean-Jacques Du Roy d'Hauterive concerning the teachings and directions given by Martinez de Pasqually.
The volume includes translations of Pasqually's letters. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the Masonic movement in France and the Élus Coëns in particular.
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The Lessons of Lyons
Founded in 1754 by the enigmatic Martinez (Martinès) de Pasqually, the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe (or Élus Coën) left an indelible impression on French Freemasonry and worldwide Martinism.
Pasqually's Élus Coëns worked tirelessly to restore man's inner divinity and eventual reintegration with God. The fraternity practised a system of white magic (theurgy) aimed at recovering humanity's original spiritual memory. Composed by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz and Jean-Jacques Du Roy d'Hauterive, The Lessons of Lyons (sometimes called "A Course in Martinism during the 18th Century") is a contemporary commentary on the instructions given by Pasqually, reproduced here in English for the first time. Also contained in this edition are several of Pasqually's surviving letters.
As a collection of teachings and notes taken during three short years (1774 - 1776) in Lyons, they provide a fascinating insight into the small Lodge of members of Pasqually's Order of Élus Coën meeting in that city. Since the Master himself was elusive and cryptic at best in his mailed instructions, the weekly - later more sporadic - meetings held by Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, the local Lodge Master, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who was visiting and writing his first book, and Roy d'Hauterive would have been very instructive to the new members.
Since most of the source materials are limited to some letters, a few catechisms, Pasqually's monumental Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings, and the occasional discovery of lost documents in libraries and private collections, this collection of teachings provides invaluable insight into the workings and especially the purpose of that spiritually charged Masonico-theurgic rite.
I highly recommend this book to all those interested in early French Masonry, esoteric currents, and a singular path of theurgic praxis that drew so heavily on the earlier European currents and set them against the atheistic tendencies of the Encyclopedists and Enlightenment forces of the time, which threatened not only to separate science from belief but to overthrow belief in the numinous entirely.
PURCHASE LINKS:
“Wonderful to have in English at last!"
"It is wonderful to have the 'Lessons of Lyon' (sometimes called "A Course in Martinism during the 18th Century") in English at last! ... it is clear that the enigmatic translator knows his stuff ... and his translation style gives evidence of his general command of French, and the fact that, like some less worthy recent translations, it came from a thinking mind and not a computer ... Mr. Osborne exhibits a strong ability to translate rather than simply transliterate, and the prose flows in a pleasantly readable style."
Piers A. Vaughan
"Massively useful for understanding the Élus Coën"
"Do you realise how good your Lessons of Lyon book actually is!?? Massively of more use to understanding the Élus Coëns than the Manuscrit d'Alger"'Custos in Ordine', Great Sovereign of the Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l'Univers, O.O.E.C.
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