Pantacle 2022

Traditional Martinist Order
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Light of Martinism!
Welcome to the twenty-second edition of the Pantacle, the official
magazine of the Traditional Martinist Order.
In this issue, we begin with Brother Lonnie Edwards’ explanation of
“The Continuum of Life and the World of Relationships.” Frater Edwards,
a longtime Martinist and retired Provincial Master, recently went through
transition. He regularly contributed to Martinist and AMORC publications,
videos, and gatherings during his long association with both Orders. He was
a trained surgeon who authored one of the most popular modern books and
video series on Rosicrucianism: Spiritual Laws that Govern Humanity and the
Universe, and he served as the Vice President of the English Grand Lodge for
the Americas.
Our second article, by Provincial Master Michael Shaluly, invites readers
to imagine the heart as having complicated layers that we can explore and
move beyond in order to reach “our intimate connection to the Divine.”
Next, after quotes from this Order’s namesake that we would like you
to consider, Sister Gail Butler offers a new perspective on mirrors, and what
they mean in regards to “the inscribed image of the Divine upon our Souls.”
Following this is an exploration of the ideas of Louis-Claude de Saint-
Martin’s “second Master,” Jacob Boehme, with special focus on how Boehme
shaped Saint-Martin’s notion of the “Way of the Heart.”
Brother Joe van Dalen wrote our fifth article, which is about Kabbalah
providing a “path of reintegration through the way of the heart.” Studying
the Kabbalistic Tree offers a “path of health, healing, and becoming whole.”
Finally, Sister Josselyne Chourry-Benvelica takes a broader perspective
by exploring the unseen astral and spiritual influences on our existence. She
writes that she does this so that, one day, we can have access through the
“Way of the Heart” to the “Central Initiation.”
May you ever dwell in the Eternal Light of Divine Wisdom!
Julie Scott
Grand Master
TRADITIONAL MARTINIST ORDER Page 1
The Continuum of Life

and the World of Relationships
by Lonnie Edwards, MD, SI
Brother, Mentor, Friend
1924 - 2022
Life expresses itself as one grand and glorious continuum. Life

begins, protected in the healthy womb, and then flows from infancy
through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and on into our mature
years. Each of these stages of life is intimately connected to the previous
stage. Because of this interconnection, each stage of life receives and
exerts a powerful influence upon those stages preceding it and those
following it.
To truly understand this concept and make practical use of its
value for teaching us a better way of fulfilling our lives, we must first
enlarge our understanding of who we really are. What is the essential
purpose of our lives? What is the meaning we are meant to contribute
to the wholeness of life? As we ask ourselves these questions, we must
Page 2 PANTACLE NO. 22 2022
stop thinking of our purpose and our meaning as being singular and
confined to the short span in which we will live on this earth. We must
begin, instead, to think of our lives and our contributions as a part of
that great and glorious continuum that we share in space and time. Our
oneness in this chain of events, of which we are a part and to which we
will make our contribution, refines and evolves the continuum on this
plane for centuries to come.
As I look into the face of a newborn infant, I see a micro-image

and a reflection of that continuum. In my mind’s eye I see that infant
striving to become a living part of the fabric of society. Even before this,
I see the unborn child making preparation for the coming newborn
infant as the physical body develops into its various systems: endocrine,
cardiovascular, reproductive, and so forth.
I see the spiritual body of the infant striving toward “becoming”

– seeking its nourishment of love, soothing rhythmic sounds, and
harmonic feelings. I see “mind” drawing on all of these as it pushes forth
toward its best potential. I see the precious infant drawing at the same
time upon its inborn potential and its external environment. Along the
continuum we are called to help this microreflection of ourselves – and
our greater collective selves – to release its full potential. The wholeness
of life is in our hands, and we are a part of that wholeness.
As this precious infant’s life is reborn into the earthly environment,

I also see that it is born into a “world of relationships.” The
characteristics, meaning, and purpose of these relationships vary with
regard to character, quality, and quantity. They may be pleasurable,
challenging, stimulating, rewarding, spiritual, loving, or of many more
types. All of these relationships are designed to aid the infant in its
growth and evolvement, and they provide an opportunity for it to add
to the glorious continuum of life. The infant’s travels and experiences
are a micro-image of our own.
Relationships characterize our earthly lives. The manner and

attitude in which we deal with these relationships determine their
overall outcome, as well as the effect they will have upon our sense of
physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being.
All relationships provide an opportunity for the Divine to flow to

and through us. When the Creative Divine flows from us, it connects
with its kind in others, and the resulting contact produces greater
light. When our consciousness observes this, a feeling or sense of being
separate is lost. The realization comes that we are experiencing the “one
life” secretly veiled in many bodies. Our challenge is to see and live
beyond the appearance of the veil.
This world of relationships provides the opportunity for us to
participate constructively in the glorious continuum of life and the
unfolding of Divine Universal Intelligence in all human affairs. These
relationships include human beings and all life forms. They are at all
levels and in all activities of organizations, groups, individuals, families,
friends, tribes, and clans. All these varieties of relationships provide the
same opportunities if we but face them with a broader vision of unity,
seeing ourselves in those with whom and for whom we interact. Seeing
beyond and through the illusory veils that separate us is necessary. In
addition, always realizing the Divine Within, we can see the face of the
Divine in those with whom we relate.
We can innately be the Divine and permit the Divine to flow
through us to others. Intuitively, when we think of the Divine, thoughts
of light, love, beauty, patience, understanding, and compassion bathe
our mind and consciousness. When we assume the attitude of Divinity,
our relationships become meaningful and we perceive and accomplish
the cosmic lessons they bring. This is the means by which the grand
and glorious continuum of life evolves and contributes to all humanity.
In the world of relationships we must make choices. As we function
in this world, we discover that there are alternatives for the actions,
thoughts, motives, or beliefs facing us. To make wise choices, we need
to always bear in mind the resources that are ours to use. Prudent
thinking and the capacity to scrutinize thinking are part of those
resources. Our will and emotions must be poised and balanced. We
must bring into consciousness some degree of foresight and futurity,
for these will permit us to consider the consequences.
The recognition of choices is extremely important to the student
seeking growth and spirituality. The art of being aware of choices
and then exercising and demonstrating wisdom in selection must

be acquired. In the process of learning to make wise choices, many
spiritual attributes are developed. As human beings, we recognize that
free will is an inherent human attribute and right. We must also realize
that, as human beings, we must accept and live with our choices and
our preferences, be they good or “bad.” The student should regard this
as a right as well as a divine endowment.
We are taught that we must walk through the pillars of opposites.

This means that we must also wrestle with pairs of opposites. In so
doing, we learn to acquiesce in favor of a greater principle over a lesser
one. Here is where we learn to distinguish between “good,” “better,”
and “’best,” and to realize that the good of the whole transcends self-
interest and the ego. Here is where the sincere student begins to exercise
the will freely and gradually use its tremendous and enormous power
for spiritual purposes – for right action and right relationship. We must
become increasingly aware that life with its myriad experiences is not
something that happens to us unbidden; it is a creative work for which
we are the artist, architect, engineer, and builder. By experiencing
chaos, we sometimes learn how to make life’s best choices. Questions
will appear to be more simple, and yet of utmost importance. For as
the student is drawn to seek the Master Within, and hence is drawn
closer to his or her soul, this influence will make the line of choice
become clear and well defined. So Mote It Be!
Let’s Apply What We’ve Learned . . .
Exercise for Contemplating the Continuum of Life

(Read silently or aloud three times before performing.)
Sit in contemplation for a few moments regarding the continuum

of life and how you have been a part of this great continuum. Then
visualize your participation in your present life.
Delving Into the Folds of Our Hearts

by Provincial Master Michael Shaluly, SI
The medical fields of today recommend that we keep active

physically and mentally to maintain health. What we don’t hear is how
we should continuously take care of and explore the boundaries of
consciousness for our growth and well-being. Certainly, most of the
healthcare industry is not yet focused on the expansion of awareness
for the betterment of our health. Society as a whole accepts that we are
born into families, traditions, and ways of thinking that tend to define
us. Our awareness is inclined to linger within this limited realm, fitting
into a tradition-shaped box and seldom peeking outward towards
other possibilities. But there is a deeper root within us that is linked to
infinite possibilities. We should cherish our traditions and heritage, of
course, and yet we can recognize an ever-greater perception of ourselves
if we exert the mental will to redirect thought.
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, a mystic of the past well known to

Martinists, spoke of the “practice” of delving into the heart. Stating
that this practice requires laborious work, he understood the effort it
takes to search for and find a different level of thinking, to recognize
thought that is beyond objective thought, and a guidance that is ever-
present but masked in the illusions we create. Willing ourselves to find
the strength of quiet and get past our mental obstacles is difficult, but
this is the work required to unfold the way of the heart. It requires that
we stretch our thinking on all planes in which we think.
We, as mystics, do probe our conscious boundaries. In return, we

receive inspirations that are difficult to define. We analyze all forms
of relatable human experiences, a compilation of the awareness of our
world that we have developed. Science, religion, and the arts inspire
us and in their own way point to a great power behind creation. From
centuries of human effort to now, mysticism within humankind has
ceaselessly searched for origins and clues to the perplexity of human
awareness. We are aware that we are unaware of something deeper, and
it is that deeper something that we desire to become aware of. This

mystical directive is a remnant of our connection to Omneity, peeking
at our objective mind from within the folds of our hearts. It manifests
to us as we ponder the movement of the heavens or marvel at how our
body functions and wonder just how or why “all” exists as it does.
The Traditional Martinist

Order superbly guides us
to this mystical directive by
engaging our inner church,
an experience that differs
from an objective one. We
tend to place our objective
thinking upon even an
unknown state such as
Cosmic Consciousness. In a
state of all-knowing Cosmic
Consciousness, what is it
that we would know? Would
it be earthly, intellectual
knowledge? Or would it be
beyond this objective world, a deeper awareness and understanding
of the essence of all of creation? The sermons of the inner church
are given in the language of inspiration, and with reverence we must
wait for her quiet and sublime directive. We look outside ourselves
to answer an inner desire that speaks its own language; thus, when
© 2022 Supreme Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis.
All Rights Reserved.
This magazine is officially published by the Traditional Martinist Order under the
auspices of the Supreme Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae
Crucis. This publication is provided for your personal, private use only, on an “as
is” basis, without warranty, and may not be used for any commercial purpose. No
part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, displayed, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including electronic, without the express written
permission of the Supreme Grand Lodge.
we explore the outer world, we are exploring that wordless language.

We are exploring our deeper selves. Let your mind dwell on that: we
look outside ourselves to answer an inner desire, thus, when we explore
the outer world, we are still exploring ourselves. Allow your thought
patterns to pay homage to that intimate desire that drives us to ponder
and seek. All of your explorations are within you.
As infants our awareness is for a time focused inward and the folds
that eventually cover our intimate connection to the Divine have yet
to develop. Eventually, awareness must look outward and begin to
confront this wondrous world that we are born into. Our attention is
drawn away from that inner observance into the various activities that
require our attention to learn and survive in society. This is as it must be
as we make our way into and through our human experience. Finding
our way back to our inner nature is that aforementioned laborious
process. It is laborious because it requires our will to overcome our
illusions. We live in this world, and it is oftentimes hard to recognize
anything beyond the physical. In this physical world, we experience
difficulty and tragedy, beauty and love, the ups and downs of life. The
laborious task before us is to change our thought patterns even in the
midst of chaos. When we look across the various sources that vie for
our attention, it is important to find a way to steady ourselves with that

great guiding power that creates everything. Indeed, stop for a moment
and ask yourself, in the quiet of your mind – is it truly possible to
access a power that created everything?
Perhaps we can access this power by contemplating where it is

and where we are in relation to it. Ask yourself – where do you live?
The first thing that comes to mind is perhaps your current residence.
Contemplate the question more deeply and let it settle – where do you
live? Besides our physical surroundings, we could also say that we live
in a certain mental state familiar to ourselves. More deeply, we can
understand that we reside in a state of being that is within the folds of
consciousness, an eternal home, a state our soul personality abides in,
ensconced in the arms of that which created us. Our teachings state
that we live in consciousness. Consciousness is not separate from our
physical presence or our physical world, we live in it. During our waking
hours, we are unaware that we live in a guiding consciousness because
we seem to be only an observer to it. Yet, we observe and contemplate
the very consciousness that allows us to observe.
Psalm 23 perhaps is an attempt to guide us to a realization of living

in conscious creation. This prayer ends with the words “goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life for I dwell in the house of
the Lord forever.” Open your consciousness to a higher realization of
sacred writings such as this, for they may be guiding you to a higher
awareness of yourself. When you get consumed in what seems to be the
outer movements of the world, might it help you to remember that you
dwell in the house of the Lord…forever?
Now think of a person you know well. What is it that you know?
Allow this question to settle…what is it that you know? In our mind’s
eye, we see their physical features. We instinctively know that while
their outer form is familiar to us, there is a deeper part of them. We
have an impression of their personality and various traits such as their
sense of humor, their temperament, and so forth. From our previous
introspection of our deeper “home,” we can also know that they too
share the ultimate home in the arms of our creator just as we do. We
can therefore know that in some way, hidden in the folds of our hearts,
we are connected.
Now think about the

love that you have for
someone. What is it that you
love? It may be fair to say
that your love for someone
is physical, emotional, and
beyond. As human beings,
we get to experience many
kinds of love toward others.
Examine the love you have
for someone close to you,
go inward and ask yourself,
what is it that you love in
this person? As you wish, you can progress to other people and things.
What is it that you love in your family pet, or your garden, and so
forth? This analysis, if you allow it to grow, may reveal deeper levels of
love and where that love stems from within you.
It may be difficult to recognize the actuality of connecting to the

force that creates us. We know that force exists, but our objective
consciousness tends to separate itself from that force. It is an oxymoron;
we are conscious of that energy that gives us life, we can and do observe
it, but since we observe it, we feel we are separate from it. We even
know that it is a part of us, but still feel we are observing from outside
of it. But we are connected with that which we observe; indeed, we

exist with it through consciousness.
Through scientific observations, we discovered that the cells of our

body regulate through electrical signaling, using electrically charged
flows to communicate, a touchless signaling system across tissues. It is a
sprinkling of light into the chambers of our being. We receive impulses
that obviously perform necessary functions, but we are consciously
unaware of them. The field of evolutionary biology has begun to
relate this bioelectricity to consciousness, recognizing that in nature,
electric fields power the processes of life, including consciousness. We
are gradually learning that these energy fields reveal key aspects of
consciousness. The prevailing view was that the brain’s electric fields are
a side effect of the brains’ activity. Now, there are active theories that
these fields drive the brain and help explain consciousness. In other
words, scientific inquiry shows the possibility that the body’s electric
fields are associated in some manner with some kind of outer, directing
consciousness.
A scriptural view of this living field can be contemplated from the

Book of Genesis: “darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God [the Divine] hovered over the surface of the water.” Roam with
the meaning of these beautiful and profound words for a moment.
That spirit hovers over all of us, connecting us to everything, to the
very source of life. It is always there, sprinkling us with the light of
life. You are a vessel receiving this guidance. It is animating your body
and animating your awareness. Turn your thoughts toward this light
sprinkling down upon you and let it settle into you. The energy of
creation hovers, holding galaxies together just as it holds us together
as sentient beings. We are observing this divine flux even as we are
a part of it. It is as if we can confirm that hermetic law that states
the universe is mental, that there is a guiding thought in all things.
With this knowledge, consider that the word “Lord” from Psalm 23
mentioned earlier is not something outside of us. It is that part of us
that invisibly guides us in life, as the shepherd guides the sheep, just as
we see the cells guided and transmitting knowledge within us.
This beneficent power is always with you and can help you to
reconcile situations in life. Sit now, and simply relax into yourself.
Think of anything that may be bothering you, a memory, a situation,
a person. We will call it a visitor. Welcome this visitor into your inner
home; as you exhale, let it settle with you. You are together in the
house of the Lord! In this house, the forces that benevolently hold the
fabric of the universe together converge around you. Visualize now the
light that contains this power encompassing your visitor. Allow this
brightness to grow in illumination until your visitor disappears within
it, absorbed into the goodness of this light. Now, feel that goodness
permeate your entire being.
This force always functions completely selflessly for you. Whether

you have been kind or unkind, whether you have helped or harmed,
this force serves you. It is a noble love of autonomic consciousness
operating behind your objective consciousness within the folds of your
heart. All of these universal forces envelop you, creating the miracle of
you! You are a holy being, privileged to be selfless love in action. That
pure love hovers and remains with you for all of your terrestrial days.
Look within where you reside. Say mentally to yourself, “I am.” We are
fortunate to witness consciousness through this world of experience.
Contemplating the Pantacle of

our Order with interlaced triangles
pointing in opposition, as well as
the arrangement of the officers in
our Heptads, can reveal the ebb
and flow of our conscious journey.
From our human perspective,
we follow a pattern of light, life,
and love. With that first breath,
there is the light of consciousness,
followed by our ability to live and
grow into this world, followed by
love for others and for life itself. Perhaps from Omniety’s point of view,
it is the opposite – love, life, light. From that all-creating essence, pure
love existed with a pure desire to share; from that love and desire, life
developed to begin a journey through consciousness; and then light
shown in the form of human consciousness to became aware of that
pure love that is our origin. Our awareness is to develop an awareness
of Omneity.
While we cannot see Omneity, we know she is there because we

live. Abide in her grace. Close your eyes often and enter that quiet that
selflessly awaits to guide you. Settle into your conscious being with
simple pauses, looking into the surface of the deep within you, and
recognizing that Divinity moves you. With this practice, you will delve
into the folds of your heart, and your heart will blossom like the rose
upon the cross and release the aroma of pureness into your world.
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
“It is not the head which is necessary to advance in Truth;

it is the heart.”
“Wake up each day before dawn to accelerate your work,

for the soul of humanity was produced to serve both as a
receptacle and medium. Be vigilant, for the Creator of beings
wishes to come and make an alliance with your soul.”
“Books are windows of the truth, but they are not the
door; they point out things and yet they do not impart them.
It is within that we should write, think, and speak, not merely
on paper.”
“The mind is required for human sciences; for divine

sciences mind is not needed, for they are the offspring of
the soul.”
“We cannot produce a thought, a word, an act, which is

not imprinted on the eternal mirror on which everything is
engraved, and from which nothing is ever effaced.”
Polishing the Mirror of Self

by Gail Butler, SI
Our study of the “mirror of self ” begins with a look at ancient

“enigma” mirrors1 of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and how they
may offer a metaphor for the processes of self-growth.
During ancient times, in the Middle East and Asia, mirrors were
often made of bronze (an alloy made primarily of copper and tin, with
other elements like lead sometimes added), which could be polished to
a fairly high degree of reflective capacity. Some of these mirrors, called
“enigma” or “magic” mirrors, were fashioned via a process of casting
an image of a deity onto the backside of a bronze plate. The other side
– what would become the reflective face of the mirror – was etched or
inscribed, copying the decorative casting on the back. A mercury-based
substance was then applied to the face of the mirror, which filled in the
inscribed design, rendering the surface of the mirror even and smooth
while simultaneously hiding the inscribed image. The face was then
polished to the highest possible sheen so that one’s own image could be
seen for grooming purposes and cosmetic applications. Additionally,
a “vision” of the inscribed deity would manifest under particular
conditions of angle and light. This effect, gained from the inscribing
and laminating processes, happened when sunlight hit the reflective
surface and the hidden image was revealed in the mirror or projected
upon a wall, creating an illusion as if light was passing through the
mirror rather than reflecting off of it.
The initial process of polishing2 a bronze mirror was long and

laborious, requiring a succession of finer and finer silica sands and
polishing powders. The process is likely to have taken many hours
to achieve a reflective result. Frequent but less lengthy polishing was
required to maintain reflectivity and prevent oxidation. Mirrors of this
type were time-consuming and costly to make, thus only the wealthy
could afford them.
Nineteenth-century scientists were baffled as to how the sacred

imagery was achieved. Present-day scientists understand both the
optics and process, yet the precise means used to work the metal still
remain a mystery.
Because ancient enigma mirrors have oxidized over the centuries,
their reflective capacity, and concealed imagery, appear to be absent.
With careful restorative polishing their reflectivity and visionary secret
again becomes apparent, enchanting all who have the opportunity to
view them in museums around the world.
If you want to know others, begin by knowing

yourself, because everyone is a mirror.
-Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
Our consciousness is our own metaphoric enigma mirror. Without

the Light of the Divine manifesting in conscious awareness, our
mirror may remain dark and void, and we would subsist in a world of
separation and tension. In order to polish our mirror of consciousness
we may choose to begin the task of reintegration of self by considering
what processes might be helpful.
Might our mirror be occluded on some level by fear, rigidity,
emotional reactivity, resentments, or unexamined opinions and beliefs?
By what methods is the light of understanding brought to the
mirror that it might better reflect one’s own Inner Light?
Might consideration of new information, even if it contradicts the
foundational “truths” of one’s accepted selfhood, reveal heretofore-
veiled reality or knowledge?
As the oxidized surface of an ancient mirror may be re-polished to
reveal its inner secret, our own mirror of self may wait in crystal clarity
beneath obscuring thoughts and the concepts hindering synchrony
with our own inner Christ Consciousness.
When our thinking and self-concepts are scrutinized and rectified,
an expanding sense of unity of being and purpose whets our desire for
more knowledge and wisdom that can only arise through the mirror
of consciousness. Therefore, the work of the mystic always begins
with examining his or her thoughts for any inconsistencies with one’s
highest virtues, aspirations, desires, and conceptions of the Divine
nature within.
What hinders us from seeing and hearing the

Creator, is our own hearing, seeing, and willing; by
our own will we separate ourselves from the will of
the Creator. We see and hear within our own desires,
which obstructs us from seeing and hearing beyond
our own human nature.
-Jacob Boehme
A further consideration is that while mystical studies from a purely

cerebral standpoint may be interesting, a wholly theoretical knowledge
will not move the consciousness. Mystical comprehension should also
be applied at the level of the heart by incorporating the techniques
of self-reflection, meditation, and prayer. Otherwise one remains
a student in a state of self-imposed postponement, one whose quest
has mired in mentality rather than elevated through the processes of
mystical distillation.
Saint-Martin has said that we must separate the pure from the
impure by rectifying our own spiritual natures and virtues. He further
asserted that we must also attempt to evoke these same attributes in
others by becoming living examples of our inner light.3
The process of illumination continues with the recognition that we

are always at the center of a sphere of Consciousness.4 We may expand
our own conscious further into this sphere depending upon our desire
to do so. By asking Divinity to give us Its Wisdom instead of using
solely our own, we begin an expansion in awareness and our mirrors
begin to further clarify.
Prayer, contemplation, introspection, and meditation – in addition

to study – are key techniques that aid in polishing the mirror of self.
Saint-Martin continued by saying that we “fall” whenever we fail

to desire a Being greater than ourselves for the “Soul can only live
on admiration.”5 It is through sacred admiration that we employ the
spiritual alchemy that begins the dissolution of that which obscures
our encounters with the Divine. If our mirror is not regularly polished
the cares, fads, and uncertainties of a material world begin to impair
our inner vision. A failing to admire leaves us empty and void, and
instead we may attempt to fill our inner yearnings with the sometimes-
inadequate cravings of the material world.
A condition of peace and happiness internalizes when the mystic
has achieved balance – a state of nonconflict – between material and
spiritual desires.
Through A Glass Darkly
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face

to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know
even
v as also I am known.
-1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV
Paul the Apostle describes our knowledge and awareness of the

Divine as clouded, dim, incomplete…as “darkly.” His use of the word
“glass” is most often interpreted as “looking glass” or “mirror.” Paul’s
statement may have utilized the concept of an enigma mirror – as we
too are doing – as a metaphor to reveal a mystical truth. If the mirror of
consciousness is unpolished, the Divine Mystery, or enigmatic “Image,”
cannot become realized – seen face to face.
The traditional religious interpretation of Paul’s statement is that
after Christ’s return, and when the “church” is fully mature, we will see
Yeshua Christ face to face.
However, from a mystical reading of Paul’s verse, we may apprehend
that there is no need to wait for a future Second Coming to come “face
to face” with the Divine Image. Instead, as we brighten the mirror of
consciousness, it’s possible to interface with our own concept of the
Repairer, as reflected by the Divine within each one of us.
If at first our vision seems partial, clouded, or darkened, it is through

sacred work and worship that the mirror of self begins to attain more
light, and our vision of the Divine grows clearer. We come to know the
rich inner reality and character of nature and of our own being. We
come to know the Divine as an inclusive circle of consciousness and
experience this knowledge as if “face to face.” We comprehend that we
are an integral – and necessary – component of the Divine Mystery.
The mystic recognizes that while the Divine is unknowable, it’s
possible to unite, commune, and attune with It.
Because the Divine vibrates and moves in all things and beings, we
can harmonize and know It via our hearts and Soul-natures beyond the
constraints imposed solely by reason or logic.
We realize our Oneness with all things both incarnate and abiding
in potentiality and comprehend the hidden unity lying behind a veil
of appearances. Seeming dualities are resolved in “complementarity,”6
rather than by the tension caused by opposition or division.
In the Gospel of Thomas, recorded by “Didymos, Judas Thomas,”
Ieschouah (Yeshua) says, “When you know yourselves, you will be
known.” These are words we find echoed by Paul’s verse. For Men and
Women of Desire, knowing ourselves becomes more than a mere wish,
it becomes as necessary to our being as breathing is to the existence of
the body.
Perhaps the “church” alluded to by religionists as part of the meaning
of Paul’s verse – although going unmentioned in it – is what mystics
term, “the Inner Church,”7 the one without material structure, the
operation and apprehension of which constitutes the “True Church”
because it is the eternal “inscription” realized upon the mirror of self.
Without awareness of the inscribed image of the Divine upon our
Souls, our mirrors of consciousness, and the True Church it reflects,
cannot yet be known within. When a solely outer veneration begins
to incorporate, an inner search for an emergent Light results. It is then
that we become part of the shared quest of all Souls who inhabit what
Karl von Eckartshausen termed, “The Community of Light.”
Since the Fall, the single aim of humanity,

unrecognized by those who walk in spiritual darkness,
has been reconciliation and reintegration with the
Creator. While on Earth our objective is to employ all
rights and powers of our being in rarefying, as far as
possible, the intervening media between us and the
true Sun, so that there may be a free passage, and
the rays of Light may reach us without refraction.
-Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
Endnotes
1
Oscar Holland, “Magic Mirror: Hidden Image Revealed In Reflection of Centuries-
old Artifact,” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/style/article/magic-mirror-cincinnati-art-
museum-scn/index.html.
2
HANS, “Mirror Polish – Bronze Mirror Restoration In 15 Hours,” YouTube,
https://youtu.be/Phnso5C5CWc.
3
Supreme Heptad of the Traditional Martinist Order, “Relations of Humanity
With the Divine, According to the Table Of the Natural Relationship Between the
Divine, Humankind, and the Universe, by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin,” Cup Level
Monograph no. 7, page 3.
4
Ibid, page 2.
5
Ibid, page 1.
6
Supreme Heptad of the Traditional Martinist Order, “Divine Reconciliation,” CUP
Level Monograph no. 70, page 3.
7
Supreme Heptad of the Traditional Martinist Order, “The Inner Church,” SI Degree
Monograph No. 10, page 2.
Jacob Boehme and the Way of the Heart

From a Martinist Manuscript
The Jacob Boehme monument in Görlitz, Germany.
Approaching the subject of the Way of the Heart is to make an

incursion into the heart of the Western Esoteric Tradition, in its
noblest and purest form. Also, what other traditional current, if not
Martinism, can be described as the Way of the Heart?
The Martinist teachings are based on the writings of Martinez

de Pasqually and Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. The latter read the
voluminous works of Jacob Boehme and immediately recognized
him as his second Master, both by the bright light he brought to the
teachings received from his first School, and through the development
of a fully complementary concept he had to make with the Sophia.
The last works of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who became known
as the Unknown Philosopher, especially in the Ministry of the Human-

Spirit and Of the Spirit of Things were infused with the philosophy of
Boehme. Therefore, it is worth studying the writings of the Teutonic
Philosopher in relation to Martinism, since Boehme and Saint-Martin,
who complement each other, are themselves directly in line with this
particular current of thought in Western Esotericism known as the
Enlightenment. As part of this article, we will focus primarily on the
contribution of Boehme to this particular path Saint-Martin called
“the Internal” and that Papus described as the Way of the Heart. When
necessary, we will also call on the writings of the Unknown Philosopher
to clarify certain points.
In the early twentieth century,

Papus wrote: “True esotericism is the
science of heart adaptations. Feeling
is the sole creator in all planes, the
idea is creative only in the human
mental plane; it only reaches the
Higher Nature with difficulty.” He
thus introduced the Way of the Heart
and gave us the heart over the mental,
in accordance with what Saint-Martin
taught: “It is not the head which is
necessary to advance in Truth; it is the
heart.”
Gérard Encausse (Papus).
But what is the Way of the Heart?
Let us first specify what it is not. The Way of the Heart is the
opposite of sentimentality, emotionality, and attitudes related to them.
Contrary to what one might think, it is neither for the weak nor the
coward. The Kingdom of the Divine must be conquered. The doors
will not open by themselves, just to please us. We must go forward
boldly to conquer the Adventurous Castle. As Knights of Christ, we
must clad our hearts with charity, waving before our enemies the spear
of prayer and the shield of Love!
The Royal Path par excellence, the Way of the Heart requires
voluntary and gradual purification of the being leading to the mystical
marriage of the Lamb. It will culminate in the reintegration of the
being within the Divine. It calls for strength because it requires us to
practice the difficult art of the custody of the heart, so as to progressively
control our emotions, thoughts, words, and actions. Finally, it requires
perseverance, because throughout this work of transmutation and
advancement, we will be tested in our Desire.
The Way of the Heart aims at favoring the heart, the true sanctuary
of the Inner Temple, which brings enlightenment by Divine Wisdom,
but can also, if we are not careful, facilitate the worst excesses through
our passions, our instincts, and our shortcomings. Saint-Martin
conceptualized the Way of the Heart by teaching that the heart has
two doors, one upper and the other lower. “We must,” he said, “be sure
to close the lower door that opens into the world of darkness and open
the upper door, the only one by which we can access Divine Light.”
“In this sense,” he said again, “the Way of the Heart leads humanity to
open itself to the Divine and to participate in the harmony of Creation,
learning to fully control the upper door of the heart.” Boehme expressed
a similar idea in Life Beyond the Senses: “The soul has [...] heaven and
A drawing
of Jacob Boehme’s
cosmogony in
Vierzig Fragen
von der Seele or
Forty Questions
of the Soul
(1620).
hell within itself.” He also wrote: “The

kingdom of the Divine does not come
accompanied by spectacular signs. We
will not say, ‘See, it is here or there, for
the kingdom of the Divine is within
you.’”
Having experienced the theurgical

way that he considered illusory and
presenting a real danger for those
The Seal of Martinez de Pasqually. who were not prepared, Saint-Martin
developed an opposite method he
called “internal,” which was, according to him, safer because of
being on an infinitely higher plane. “The internal learns everything
and preserves everything,” he said. In essence, Saint-Martin strove to
internalize and sublimate the work proposed by Martinez de Pasqually.
Robert Amadou, a specialist of Martinism, expressed the following on
the evolution that the Unknown Philosopher experienced:
Saint-Martin believed that working with and on [the] virtues

and powers are performed best within us: operation of the heart
having a triple meaning; a work of knowledge (the eye of the heart
is the organ of spiritual science); labor of love (the heart is the
organ of feeling); finally, a work of the inner vital forces linked to
blood (imagination, speech, and gestures)…. The heart is the organ
of Knowledge and Love inseparable. After making me discover
myself, the heart reveals the Divine.
Having briefly defined the Way of the Heart, and grasped

something of its meaning, let us try to analyze what could have been
the contribution of Boehme to the development of this method by
Saint-Martin.
Apart from his cosmogony that Saint-Martin could easily credit to

that of his first instructor, and to whom he remained faithful until his
death, Boehme brought to the Unknown Philosopher the basic idea of
Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, in support of the concept of Regeneration.
Boehme’s developments came to strengthen Saint-Martin in his internal
Eighteenth-century illustration by Dionysius Andreas Freher for the book The

Works of Jacob Behmen.
approach and provided him with the key that allowed him to enhance
the spiritual society he had so patiently built over the years.
For Boehme, the ideas of Sophia and Regeneration are inseparable.

He saw in Sophia the Light springing from darkness when Divinity
revealed Itself. This is the Celestial Virgin who appears in the first
instant of Creation and is the mirror in which Divinity contemplates
Itself. Originally, the primordial Adam was a being of light and not of
flesh, and Sophia was his celestial spouse. It is thanks to Sophia that
Adam was united with the Divine. With the Fall, Adam lost his body
of light, was encased in a body of flesh, and walked away from his
celestial spouse. From this rupture was born True Desire. Humanity
thus became desiring, and ever since has been seeking everywhere
for our other half, Sophia, in order to

recover our completeness. Humanity
is, therefore, a widower and must unite
with Sophia in order to find completion.
This Spiritual Wedding to which we
aspire can be achieved if humankind
works diligently towards its inner
regeneration. Regeneration corresponds
to a new generation, therefore a new
birth, consisting of finding the inner
state that was originally lost.
Divine Union is possible only by Depiction of a possibly

the action of the Christ, the Word, in legendary episode in the life of
the heart of humanity, transforming Jacob Boehme by Joseph Mulder
it into a holy receptacle of Celestial (1686). The caption reads:
“Jacob Boehme with the preacher
Light. This mystical marriage will
Gregor Richter in Görlitz, who
effectively regenerate us and return to was hostile to him in front of
us our body of light. Thus regenerated, everyone, putting in a good word
we will be able to radiate Love, as did for a certain young baker from his
the original Adam, because then we will followers. The gentleman became
hear directly, in our heart, the Divine very angry about this, showed
him the chamber door and threw
Word. For Boehme, Christ is the
one of his slippers at his head. But
Divine Wisdom itself emanated from the good man meekly picked up
the Divine. The Temple of Wisdom the slipper, put it back on the foot
is the Temple of Light: Sophia. To be of the angry preacher, and went
admitted, you must be dressed in your on his way, wishing him every
body of light. This is the prerequisite blessing.”
for access.
Boehme, in The Election of Grace, gave us a clear explanation of the

process that has just been described in these terms:
The veritable spouse of the being of the celestial world was the
Virgin, Sophia, the Eternal Virginity, or the Love of humanity;
this Love, this Virgin, was manifested originally in Adam when
he was still within Jehovah; but now the Voice of the Divine is
manifested in Yeshua’s Name that developed from Jehovah into

an Alliance. This is the Covenant whereby Yeshua’s Name must
be introduced into the obscure being born of Jehovah during the
accomplishments of the times, the Holy Being of Sophia or the
Holy Essence of Love.
What is the most effective method to get there? To one who follows
the Way of the Heart, there is only one that is effective when used
properly and wisely. It is prayer. Boehme, Saint-Martin, and Papus, the
three proponents of the Internal, all considered it to be the key leading
to the Kingdom of Love. The following quotes are more than edifying
in this respect.
First, here is what Boehme wrote:
The Divine requires for prayer a pure soul, simple and bare,…
that will appear pure before the Divine, so that It begins to
operate…. The will must strongly attach itself to the Divine, so that
it could say with Jacob when he had struggled all night with the
Divine: “Lord, I will not leave thee, that Thou would bless me….”
One who prays properly operates internally with the Divine.
Then, let us quote Saint-Martin when he stated in Person of Desire:

“When your heart is full of the Divine, it employs verbal prayer which
will be the expression of the Spirit as it should always be. When your
heart is dry and empty, use the silent and concentrated prayer; it gives
your heart the time and means to warm and refill.”
Finally, Papus said: “Prayer is the great mystery and can, for those
who perceive the influence of Christ, the Divine who became flesh,
enable one to receive the highest influences of action in the Divine
Plan.”
But, one might ask, when Boehme evokes the soul, what does he
mean? For the cobbler of Gorlitz, as for Saint-Martin, the soul is not of
a separate nature than the Divine. In Confessions he wrote: “Where do
you want to go to look for the Divine? Seek only in your soul, which is
the eternal nature in which is the divine begetting.”
Jacob Boehme introduces this same truth to us in The Rising of

Dawn with all its purity, simplicity, and disconcerting clarity, thereby
summing up all his work in the Way of the Heart so dear to Saint-
Martin that it was his guiding principle: “The Divine is so close to you,
that the generation of the Holy Trinity takes place within your heart.
All three persons, the Parent, the Son and the Holy Spirit are generated
within your heart.”
We better understand the

interest of Saint-Martin in Boehme,
whom we consider the “Father
of the Interior Church.” The
Church was referenced by Karl von
Eckartshausen in his two books: The
Cloud Upon the Sanctuary and Some
Characteristics of the Interior Church.
The Unknown Philosopher found
in his second Instructor a similar
Karl von Eckartshausen. path to that which he advocated
and in which “...an invisible and
immediate contact with the Divine
is possible in the secrets of the heart.”
We will conclude this article with a short passage from Boehme’s

book previously quoted, Life Beyond the Senses. It consists of a dialogue
between the Inner Master and his disciple. It summarizes very well the
goal to be reached through the Way of the Heart:
The disciple said to his Master: “How may I come to the life
beyond the senses, so that I may see the Divine, and hear the
Divine speak?” And the Master said: “If you will but rise a moment
into that where dwells no creature, then you will hear the Divine
speak to you.” “Is that near at hand; or is it afar off?” “It is in you,”
said the Master, “and if you can, keep silent for a while neither
thinking nor willing, then you shall hear the unspeakable Words
of the Divine.”
The Kabbalah, Health, and Healing

by Joe van Dalen, SI
The Kabbalah provides one explanation of our relationship

with the whole, of how creation came to be. It provides a view
of the appearance of Light and its reception into the lower
realms, to use terms of the temporal world of time and space
to explain this.
The purpose of the Kabbalah is to channel human existence into

physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being, or as Martinists
describe it, to provide a path of reintegration through the way of the
heart while emphasising the close relationship between the physical
and non-physical.
The capacity to receive the Light of Infinity depends on the

harmonious flow of the vital energy. The person who is ill or the body
that ails has this flow blocked or obstructed. The Kabbalah speaks of
tsinorot, channels through which the human being is linked to infinity.
When they become blocked, when they become tangled or knotted,
the Kabbalah speaks of stimat hatsinorot, obstruction of the channels.
Healing then, is untying the knots that block the circulation of the
vital or personal influx “SHePHaH” (shin – peh – ayin).
‫*ש פ ע‬
It is interesting to note that if two letters of this word are transposed,
it becomes the word “PeSHaH” (peh – shin – ayin) which means “fault,
prevarication, sin.” Prevarication or sin here is not primarily a moral
failing but an existential one in terms of the Kabbalah. It is the fact of
not being open to the possibility of receiving the light of the Ein-Sof. It
is related to the idea of “missing the mark,” just as an archer may miss
the target.
* Note: Hebrew is read from right to left.
In kabbalistic terms, the influx of “Energy-Light” tends to

concentrate in the Hebrew alphabet, particularly in the letters of the
“Holy Name.” Harmony is therefore attained through a link with the
intermediary worlds of the ten sephiroth, a harmony created by the
correct use of the letters and figures which give access to this intermediary
world. Language then, in the context of reality, is to remind us that the
world is filled with signs which we need to know how to read and exist
as only a part of our momentum of being. To unravel the knots that
impede the flow of light, language needs to maintain a momentum and
requires understanding.
It is our birthright to be joyous, enabling us to express the self, to

say what has to be said, to break the chains of captivity, to reinvent
ourselves and inject new breath into life. Kabbalists will, through their
own experiences, aim to develop a coherence to the acts of their lives
and have an awareness of the triangular manifestation of their daily
thoughts, words, and actions. They will try to not “miss the target.”
The secret of health is in the here and now; it is lived in the renewed
presence of oneself. The study of the Kabbalah is a “return to self ” in
an intensely lived present. At the right moment, a new breath will be
added to our experience, as Abraham Abulafia, the great Jewish mystic,
wrote in his The Treasure of Hidden Delight:
You shall feel that a new breath will be added to you, that will
awaken you and will pass through your whole body. And it will
cause you pleasure and you will have the impression that there falls
upon you, from head to foot, the oil of a perfumed balm. And you
will feel a contentment and great joy, mixed with ecstatic joy and
trembling which will fill you completely, body and soul.
Light – Vibration - Energy
The essential concept of the kabbalah is movement as the origins

of life. What is energy? It is a series of constant vibrations of particles
of invisible light. It is the triad “light-vibration-energy,” the “three in
one.”
The eLoHiM declared: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
It is the fiat lux! Everything is energy, and so is thought. But it is not
confused thought. It must have a meaning, an orientation, and a
direction. Those who can orientate their thoughts in the right direction
are on the harmonious path. Today, the science of particles, the study
of cells, and bio-hermeneutics acknowledge that we can modify the
vibrations of our body by the force of thought, in a positive or negative
sense.
To conceptualise the process of Creation, Kabbalists used the

illustration of the Tree of Life, also known as the Sephirothic Tree. Thus,
from the fiat lux, “Let there be light,” the light progressively invaded
Creation, infusing it with density through the ten receptacles, which
are the sephiroth. Similarly, Kabbalists say that the inner vibration of
the human being corresponds to ten rhythms or ten pulses. In fact,
the ten sephiroth are both the sensors and transformers of energy. An
identical deployment of energy can be found throughout the Hebrew
letters and their corresponding numbers.
From the earliest days of the Merkavah school of the kabbalah,

techniques were developed to energise the body, as was the case in other
cultures. As students of AMORC, we are familiar with the importance
of breathing, vowel sounds, and posture to put these into effect. From
a therapeutic point of view, the combination of these produces specific
vibrations that improve blood circulation and vital energy in our cells
and nervous system.
As an example, one Kabbalistic source gives an exercise in the

Hebrew language, with the emphasis on the following vowel sounds
with their own sphere of influence:
• ‘o’ acts upon the thorax and diaphragm, and tones the heart.
• ‘a’ acts upon the esophagus, the upper ribs and the upper
pulmonary lobes.
• ‘e’ acts upon the throat, the vocal cords, the larynx, and the
thyroid.
• ‘i’ vibrates upward, toward the larynx, the nose, and the head,
and dispels migraines.
• ‘oo’ acts upon all the abdominal viscera, including the stomach,
liver, intestines, and gonads.
Other exercises involve intoning consonants added to vowels

amounting to some 11,100 possible combinations. Or there are
visualization exercises focusing on the letters, combined with
vocalization and movement. These exercises are designed to keep the
channels open for the experience of a greater influx of light-vibration-
energy.
What is an Illness?
Since everything is energy and vibration, we can see that disease

appears when there is an obstacle in the circulation of the vital energy.
From the spiritual point of view (without making any judgement), we
could say that an illness exists when there is near incapacity (temporary
or chronic, besides so-called karmic illnesses) to receive divine
vibrations. The sick person, whatever the illness, is a being who comes
up against a blockage or an obstacle.
Dr Edward Bach, in his book Healing Through Flowers, wrote:
The illness is, in its essence, the result of a conflict between

the soul and the mind, and will never be eradicated without some
spiritual and mental effort. Suffering is a corrective measure that
brings to light a lesson that we have not understood in other ways,
and it can never be eliminated so long as this lesson has not been
learnt.
Sri Aurobindo, in his book The Guide to Yoga, wrote:
Chronic or recurrent illnesses are mainly due to the

subconscious, to its stubborn recourse to and habitual repetition
of everything that has been impressed on the consciousness of the
body.
Illness then, is a subtle adaptation game and each person is a

different vibratory type. Our troubles are therefore a field of vibrations
that resist the cosmic influence in matter. Each of our pains is like a
weight on a scale, and we have to find the corresponding measure of
light so that our plight is straight and we can achieve equilibrium. We
should maintain our compassion and not be quick to make judgements
about our own or others’ personal deceptions. Why seek to explain
everything? None of us is always an open receptacle to the Light. Each
of us follows our own path and encounters the practical hardships that
provide the necessary effects for evolution.
Every cure then goes through a modification of the ill person’s

thinking patterns. It implies a questioning at the existential level and
especially at the level of consciousness. This work is found through the
word that comes from “the Word.”
Healing and the Name of the Divine
The English word “therapy” mainly implies healing or providing a

cure. The remedy or therapist are produced after the event to repair a
break in the body, spirit, or soul. Nowadays, the meaning has extended
to mean a preventative measure and a particular attitude to sickness.
The Hebrew THeRouPHaH, like the Greek therapeíā, has a

deeper meaning than the common definition. In the healing process,
the Kabbalistic tradition insists on bringing to the fore a sense of
responsibility of every human being by raising awareness of their
problems through words. In Exodus 15:26, the Divine actually presents
Itself as the healer:
He [It] said, “If you will listen intently to the voice of ADONAI
your God [Divinity], do what he [It] considers right, pay attention
to his [Its] mitzvot and observe his [Its] laws, I will not afflict you
with any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians; because I am
ADONAI your healer.”
Kabbalistic commentaries interpret this as meaning: “If you

understand the meaning of the tetragrammaton, YHVH, you will be
protected from sickness and you will receive the light and energy of the
infinite in the most perfect way possible.”
Created in the image of the Divine, Adam appears after the 26th
phrase of the first chapter of Genesis. Now, 26 is the numerical value of
Yod He Vav He, four consonants designating the Creator.
‫יהוה‬
(10 + 5 + 6 + 5)
It turns out that the number 26 is predominant in the human

architecture.
• Each foot has 14 phalanges + 5 metatarsals + 7 tarsal bones =

26.
• Each hand has 14 phalanges + 5 metacarpals + 7 carpal bones

= 26.
• The thorax is composed of 2 clavicles + 24 ribs = 26.
• The vertebral column comprises 7 cervical + 12 dorsal + 5

lumbar + 1 sacrum + 1 coccyx = 26.
Health means taking care of the tetragrammaton. Taking care of

being means taking care of time and ensuring temporal existence does
not become dysfunctional. French writer Jean-Yves Leloup expressed
it this way:
This means that we must care particularly for that which is not
sick and that which is not mortal within us. Thus, the therapist
does not concentrate first and foremost on the sickness itself or on
the patient, but on that which is beyond the reach of sickness and
beyond death in him. Philo puts it this way: taking care of being
and not of my being or his being. Being is not a thing, but a space,
an opening which must remain free. The Divine is the freedom
of humankind. Take care of this liberty, do not alienate it from
anything or anyone, keep it alive and humble. Take care of people
in that which escapes humankind. The cure is something which is

given to us as a bonus.
In Martinism, the “Great Name” is of course extended, and, Louis-

Claude de Saint-Martin would say, is transcended by the “Holy Name”
with the addition of the letter shin, to create Ieschouah, the “Great
Repairer.”
‫יהשוה‬
In Of the Spirit of Things, Saint-Martin wrote:
The character of the Name of the Divine is that of a physician,

so gentle, so beneficent, that It comes within us and comforts us
without ever being hidden, and what, therefore will It not do if we
invoke It?
Therapy
The Way of the Heart is to find the essential vibration of our being,
the ensure the ShePHaH, our personal influx, flows freely. Where
knots or obstacles are encountered, a “therapist” may be needed to
untie the ball of knots, to shake us up into a new opening of vitality, a
new breath.
All therapy, from the Greek theós, meaning “divinity,” comes from
the permanent “Source” and flows into the “temple of Humankind.”
The therapist is an interMEdiary, a MEdiator (same root as MEdecine,
MEdium), a sort of MEdian channel between the earthly and celestial
planes. The diaGNosis is a word which alone falls within the limits
of duality and the mystery of GNosis. The therapist, of course, needs
to start with himself or herself. Another cannot be treated unless you
treat yourself first. The therapist must have three necessary qualities:
knowledge, practical experience, and the intelligence of the heart.
The therapist is one who listens, who will redirect because we can
give no meaning to the worst of suffering. The therapist is going to
have to give a meaning to the sickness expressed by the words of the
“patient.” Isn’t the word “patient” an interesting description of the
person who comes to consult? Patience is a virtue on the path of life.

We have to agree that we are powerless in the face of suffering, rather
ignorant in the face of disease, perhaps because the conditions of
coming into the world and each newborn’s vocation are still a mystery
for us, as is death.
We could say that each being incarnates into a body that will be the
fertile ground in which it will grow physically but which he or she will
have to fertilize and water with the mind to find the path of return on
a higher step on the ladder of evolution of consciousness. The body is
therefore only the shell (that will pass away), the carcass (that will break
down), of a vaster inner earth.
As Annick de Souzenelle wrote in her book Job on the Path of Light:
If we accept an approach of total not-knowing and of absolute

emptiness, then from our depths and from the grace of the Divine
will emerge this light that fills our being and make us proclaim: A
person is a Divine Whole!... The inner earth means the level where
a person is situated in relation to the rise in consciousness which
he is called upon to raise much like the rising sap of the tree which
he is.
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is worthy of study to assist in the

reintegration of being, in the ascent to the Illimitable Light. It is the
path of health, healing, and becoming whole.
May You Ever Dwell in the Light of Divine Wisdom.
Bibliography
Chourry, Josselyne. Qabbale et corps humain (Kabbalah and the Human Body).
Diffusion Traditionelle, 2021.
Saint-Martin, Louis-Claude de. De l’esprit de choses. Paris: Laran, Debrai, & Fayolle,
an 8, 1800.
Souzenelle, Annick de. The Body and Its Symbolism: A Kabbalistic Approach. Wheaton,
Ill.: Quest Books, 2015.
Ouaknin, Mark-Alain. Mysteries of the Kabbalah. New York: Abbeville Press, 2000.
Astral and Spiritual Influences

by Josselyne Chourry-Benvelica, SI
What part do astral and spiritual influences play in our existence?

Although our goal is not to perfect our divine nature, since the
emanated soul of the Divine is of necessity already perfect, our thought
consciousness, nevertheless, maintains an illusory perception of the
world. Therefore, how can we aspire to free will if we are prisoners of
our lower nature?
It is up to us to unravel the astral aspect of our existence and to
develop the spiritual influence, the aspiration of the soul towards its
higher dimension, so that one day, we can have access through the
“Way of the Heart” to the “Central Initiation.”
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin deplored the fact that most
people making up earthly humanity are bogged down in the sidereal
relationships at the level of their astral body:
For it is a truth that is most certain, that instead of seeking to
break their chains, people seek almost everywhere only to add more;
and whether out of negligence to repel their enemy, or through
their careless enthusiasm to fly before them, the whole of humanity
is almost divided into two parts, in which one is constantly in the
passive sidereal mode or in a servile and fatal somnambulist state,
and the other is in a sidereal and more fatally active state, in which
after having reached its limit, falls again into the most difficult and
frightening of slaveries. (Saint-Martin 1800, vol. 1, p. 193)
We can see the diverse reactions in matters of politics, the economy,

competition, finances, even religion, and so on. Many people are all
swilling from the same trough of karmic astral programming, giving
rise to formatted responses, conditioned by a computer drive on which
the best and the worst (all the slag) of humanity have been gathered
and recorded. From this our mechanistic thoughts arise, affecting our
conditioning, our beliefs, and most of the dogmas that have ossified
the moving and creative thoughts of the Divine. We are therefore
“individually” and consequently “collectively” the authors of our evils
and madness in all spheres of society, with the responsibility falling
as much among governments,
financiers, and most religious
authorities as among the
ignorant majority who get
trapped in the mesh of astral
influence. And so, the wheel
of incarnations (which could
be described as an astral clock
of fatalism) uncoils an ever-
continuing history upon
the stage of humanity and is
repeated to varying degrees.
To conquer the astral, to get off the beaten paths, to get out of
saṃsāra, to kill the old person, to become a “New Man or Woman,”
these expressions are all invitations to a new dawn. This is the rebirth
to which Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin invited us: “Yet if our temporal
destiny is interlinked with the astral it disappears before the Divine,
for this is the eternal unity to which a person, above all beings, has the
power to rejoin” (Saint-Martin 1800, vol. 1, p. 197).
The word “power” here is understood to have no relation to a
temporal and egocentric power.
The “Eastern Theosophy of Lights” or “Eastern Theosophy,”
according to the Platonists’ philosophies of Persia (Avicenna,
Suhrawardī, Ibn ‘Arabī), believes in something that is the equivalent of
our Inner Master, which it presents under the guise of an Intermediary
Angel (which has nothing to do with the idea of a Guardian Angel)
attached to each of us as a double at the soul level. In some ways it calls
to mind our Higher Self directing our lower self. This angel confines
itself to the east of the soul (our perfect, immortal, human soul) and
waits for us to hear its voice (our inner voice) prompting us at each
moment, while our soulpersonality continues to delude itself by
confusing the astral and the spiritual.
The soul is thus a mirror with two faces, so to speak:
• The practical face intervenes on the level of thought, judgment,
emotion, and intellect.
• The contemplative face is on the level of the spiritual,
unconditional love of Pure Knowledge.
Whether it is the Intermediary Angel or the Inner Master (what do
terms matter?), it is important to open one’s heart to Sophia (Wisdom)
to allow the “dawning lights” to penetrate the Self so that we are no
longer “disoriented.” Whether we are conscious of it or not, only
spirituality can give meaning and direction to our being.
All sages have expressed this longing of the soul towards its higher
dimension, towards the fiery and luminous center that Buddhists call
the “Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus,” so that one day soon we will be
able to reach the “Central Initiation” through the “Way of the Heart.”
Saint-Martin said: “This initiation is one by which we can enter the
heart of the Divine and make the heart of the Divine enter us to make
an indissoluble marriage.”
ln Suhrawardī’s view, the purpose of life is to make the soul grow

so that it can radiate throughout the body and transfigure it into
spiritualized matter. It thus makes humanity the recipient of Divine
Light. Suhrawardī thinks that the purifying effort of each soul is like
an eclipse, a beautiful poetic image to invoke the required unveiling.
If only one verse of Sri Aurobindo’s poems were to be quoted to
talk about the human soul, then the following would be my preferred
one: “To put the Divine’s joy into the self awakens our souls.” The
great poets were able to draw upon the inspired word with their Muse
or Inspirer-Angel, grasping through the poetic voice the illumined
meaning of the Word, because
the Word comes secretly
from beyond thought. lt has
wings like the Simurgh (the
fabulous bird of the Epistle
of Birds from Avicenna, an
initiatic tale); it rises from its
ashes through inspiration like
the Phoenix; it is white like
the Peace Dove; and it strings
words together like the pearls
on a Divine Crown (Kether).
There are flashes of light
from the east once a soul has been purified and can reach beyond the
astral into the spiritual realms that belonged to it. In this situation “the
souls of people are soaring above the sidereal to be directed by pure
spirit. They are a class of people truly within the line of those who have
separated the metals within them and have formed a marriage with the
proven gold” (Saint-Martin 1800, Vol. 1, p. 195).
How can we not wonder, like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in Hymn
of the Universe, what more essential thing there is in the mystical quest
than “to have found the Word to dominate matter, or to possess the
matter to attain and be affected by the light of the Divine?” Is he not
suggesting that “the stuff of the Universe, in becoming thinking, has
not yet achieved its evolutionary cycle?” The evolution of humanity’s
consciousness advances according to the breakouts made from within
the confines of astral thought, going round and round in the mental
scaffolding that always ends up collapsing crossing the desert, or

among the ruins stuck in the mesh of the fluidic envelope. How many
dark nights, ascents and descents, are a prelude to “this transformation
consisting of going from a life of the senses to a life of the spirit?” This
questioning, according to John of the Cross, makes the cause of the
darkness due to two opposites (the astral influence and the spiritual
influence). “Now, two opposites are incompatible upon the same
subject, and the soul being the subject where these two opposites fight
each other, there must of necessity be suffering,” he said in the Dark
Night of the Soul.
The astral system, operating in a continuous loop, has a tendency to
reduce all thought to the mechanical, and every word to some ancestral
conditioning and defensive activity. ln short, we are always at war with
ourselves, creating more internecine wars on a human scale. ln fact, it
is noticeable that when all is quiet and easy, people have the tendency
to “rest on their laurels.” When people are this way, they need dramas,
catastrophes, and strong emotions to regain the impulses of generosity
and solidarity present at times of tests and trials. Yet once the events have
passed, they return to their thought patterns and their lies. Suffering,
the crossing of the desert, and the dark night are all products of the
response to the call of the inner master that we do not see in our mirror,
so blinded are we by the astral envelope and egotistical illusions. To
seek perception of the ONE, to tame the natural self by means of the
spiritual self, to emerge from ignorance and aspire to knowledge, these
are the processes towards liberation and accession of real free will.
There is a time to name, conceptualize, separate, and list, as well as
to analyze, compile, and study. Then there is a time when “the tangible
contours of individuality disappear,” a time when “the feeling of our
finiteness no longer confines us.” Even if we became well-versed in
the greatest subtleties of Buddhist philosophy, Kabbalah, Sufism, or
any other spiritual tradition, only a certain mystical thread would
remain in common among them. There is no other way to convert
our ignorance into knowledge or to transform darkness into light than
by the awakening of our deepest desire. We have to dismantle our
mechanistic thinking and the tendency to intellectualize everything,
to stop fighting windmills and talking like a puppet on a string; all
these only give the astral world more force. Let us be Men and Women
of Desire. Let us open the higher door of the heart. Let us go and
meet our Angel, in the manner that Hermes and Poimandres meet in
the first book of Hermes Trismegistus’s Corpus Hermeticum. Here, the
Egyptian Promethean, the personified Nous, appears to Hermes and
instructs him:
It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the
things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses
of my body being held back – just as people are who are weighed
down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.
Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds,
called out my name and said: What would you hear and see, and
what have you in mind to learn and know?
And I do say: Who art you?
The Being said: “I am the Human-Shepherd, Mind of all
masterhood. I know what you desire and I am with you everywhere.”
I reply: “I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend
their nature, and know the Divine.” “This is,” I said, “what I desire
to hear.” (Tresmigistus, Book 1, p. 1)
On that day, we will be a New Person on this calm Earth. Let us
exhort ourselves each day to respect this injunction:
Therefore, human, wake up each day before the dawn to speed
up your work. It is to your shame that your daily incense only
burns after sunrise. It is not the light of the dawn that once had to
tell your prayer to come and pay homage to the Divinity of beings,
and ask for mercy. Your prayer itself should have called the light
of the dawn and made it shine upon your work so that then you
could pour it from the height of the celestial east upon their nations
slumbering in inaction, and pull them out of their darkness. Only
through such vigilance can your edifice grow, and enable your soul
to become like one of the dozen pearls that must one day serve as
gates to the holy city. (Saint-Martin 1798, p. 43)
Let us not delay this living alchemy, let us not postpone this
meeting with the other half of ourselves, with our spiritual twin!
Let us never again be our worst enemy, for the Universal
Divinity longs to pass through our entire being so as to become
our companion. This friend is us, this companion following us like
our shadow is always us, the angelic mediator is again us, and this
radiant soul that dwells in us is a soul which the Divine has just
visited, and left Its precious tokens of love and wealth. It will live
forever in the Divine East, its first home, because the Lord gave it
the creative Word that has developed all of its properties, its gifts,
and its attributes of which it is the result and the agent. It has cast
over this radiant soul Its vivifying eye, and it was regenerated in Its
entire being, as all of nature regenerates itself through the vivifying
gaze of the sun. (Saint-Martin 1796, p. 14)
Bibliography
Corbin, Henry. L’homme de lumiere dans le soufisme iranien. Paris: Présence, 1971.
Jean de la Croix. La nuit obscure. Paris, Seuil, 1929.
Saint-Martin, Louis-Claude de. De l’esprit de choses. Paris: Laran, Debrai, & Fayolle,
an 8, 1800.
Saint-Martin, Louis-Claude de. Le Nouvel Homme. Paris: Imprimerie du Cercle
Social, 1796.
Shihaboddin-Yahya Sohravardi. Archange empourpré - Quinze traités et récits mystiques.
Paris: Fayard, 1976.
Sri Aurobindo. Savitri. Quebec: Institut de Recherche Évolutive, 2004.
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. Hymne de l’Univers. Paris: Seuil, 1961.
Trismegistus, Hermes. Corpus Hermeticum. Trans. G.R.S. Mead. London: The
Theosophical Publishing Society, 1906.

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What are the main stages of life according to the passage?

What are the main stages of life according to the passage?

What is the author's view on the purpose and meaning of life?

What is the author's view on the purpose and meaning of life?

Traditional Martinist Order

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Continuum of Life

Life expresses itself as one grand and glorious continuum. Life

As I look into the face of a newborn infant, I see a micro-image

I see the spiritual body of the infant striving toward “becoming”

As this precious infant’s life is reborn into the earthly environment,

Relationships characterize our earthly lives. The manner and

All relationships provide an opportunity for the Divine to flow to

and then exercising and demonstrating wisdom in selection must

We are taught that we must walk through the pillars of opposites.

Let’s Apply What We’ve Learned . . .

Exercise for Contemplating the Continuum of Life

Sit in contemplation for a few moments regarding the continuum

Delving Into the Folds of Our Hearts

The medical fields of today recommend that we keep active

Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, a mystic of the past well known to

We, as mystics, do probe our conscious boundaries. In return, we

it is that deeper something that we desire to become aware of. This

The Traditional Martinist

we explore the outer world, we are exploring that wordless language.

our attention, it is important to find a way to steady ourselves with that

Perhaps we can access this power by contemplating where it is

Psalm 23 perhaps is an attempt to guide us to a realization of living

Now think about the

It may be difficult to recognize the actuality of connecting to the

of it. But we are connected with that which we observe; indeed, we

Through scientific observations, we discovered that the cells of our

A scriptural view of this living field can be contemplated from the

This force always functions completely selflessly for you. Whether

Contemplating the Pantacle of

While we cannot see Omneity, we know she is there because we

“It is not the head which is necessary to advance in Truth;

“Wake up each day before dawn to accelerate your work,

“The mind is required for human sciences; for divine

“We cannot produce a thought, a word, an act, which is

Polishing the Mirror of Self

Our study of the “mirror of self ” begins with a look at ancient

The initial process of polishing2 a bronze mirror was long and

Nineteenth-century scientists were baffled as to how the sacred

If you want to know others, begin by knowing

Our consciousness is our own metaphoric enigma mirror. Without

What hinders us from seeing and hearing the

A further consideration is that while mystical studies from a purely

The process of illumination continues with the recognition that we

Prayer, contemplation, introspection, and meditation – in addition

Saint-Martin continued by saying that we “fall” whenever we fail

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face

Paul the Apostle describes our knowledge and awareness of the

If at first our vision seems partial, clouded, or darkened, it is through

Since the Fall, the single aim of humanity,

Jacob Boehme and the Way of the Heart

The Jacob Boehme monument in Görlitz, Germany.

Approaching the subject of the Way of the Heart is to make an

The Martinist teachings are based on the writings of Martinez

as the Unknown Philosopher, especially in the Ministry of the Human-