Background
He was born on January 18, 1743, at Amboise, into a simple family from the minor nobility, "la petite noblesse", of central France.
(Finally! The long awaited English version of, "The Man of...)
Finally! The long awaited English version of, "The Man of Desire." The French writer and mystic-philosopher, Robert Amadou once asserted that Of all the writings of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, "the Man of Desire" is the best written, even though it sometimes feels a little too much It is in this work that the Unknown Philosopher, the most influential Western mystic of the Age of Enlightenment, presents in an unparalleled poetic genius all the main themes of the martinist doctrine according to which the human being committed the crime of moving away from God and fell into the material world. In so doing, he somehow fell asleep to the spiritual world, and his inner Temple is in ruins. Thus, he has to rebuild it. For, even though he has lost his first power, he still retains the germ of it, and it is only up to him to make it grow again. Regaining this paradise state that made the human being a manifested Thought, Word, and Action of God, such is the Martinist quest. Becoming a man of desire is to want to rebuild his inner temple and reintegrate his divine origin. A Man of Desire is the one who seeks his primitive purity. His desire is the Desire of God. Saint-Martin said on this matter: "There is nothing as common as the envy and as rare as the desire." It is in this work that you are going to discover the various texts constituting the foundation of the much talked about Way of the Heart, so dear to Martinists of all creeds, which was drawn by the Unknown Philosopher to pave the path, par excellence, leading to reintegration.
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(For several centuries prior to the founding of the Theoso...)
For several centuries prior to the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875, individual 'theosophers' in Britain and Europe were quietly in touch with one another all seekers of the inward way. Theosophic Correspondence (1792 1797) is a series of inspiring letters, personal and philosophic, exchanged during the climactic days of the French Revolution between Kirchberger, member of the Sovereign Council at Berne, Switzerland, and Saint-Martin, whom Kirchberger regarded as 'the most eminent writer . . . and most profound of his age.'
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0911500626/?tag=2022091-20
( The Crocodile (1792) is a brilliant epic, one of those ...)
The Crocodile (1792) is a brilliant epic, one of those rare books of which one can say that no one ever wrote anything else like it. The eponymous Crocodile is an attempted saboteur of the Divine Plan, an instrument of the Adversary, who claims to have created and shaped the universebut who is, after all, a liar. As for the divinity, he remains invisible, but is described as a jeweler whose wife who supervises a Society of Independents, the members of which never meet but are always in session. Add to these concepts a plague of books, which reduces human knowledge to a soggy pulp; the sunken city of Atalante, where everything stopped dead at the moment of its submersion; and the fact that the ultimate hope of a beleaguered Paris in the face of diabolical catastrophe is an aging Jew armed with a little box, and the cocktail is, to say the least, original and appealing to the connoisseurs of the bizarre.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612275680/?tag=2022091-20
( Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin is one of the most eminent...)
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin is one of the most eminent of the western mystics, responsible for an illuminative 'Path of the Heart' that has come down to us in the form of Martinism. Throughout the tumultuous days of the French Revolution, Saint-Martin maintained a regular correspondence with Baron Kirchberger, member of the Grand Council of Berne, Switzerland, in which he considers and expounds upon many spiritual and theosophical topics of mutual interest. Less formal than many of his other works, 'Theosophic Correspondence' reveals a more human Saint-Martin, and forms an accessible introduction to the main points of the Unknown Philosopher's spiritual doctrine.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1908388374/?tag=2022091-20
He was born on January 18, 1743, at Amboise, into a simple family from the minor nobility, "la petite noblesse", of central France.
As his father wished, he tried first law and then the army as a profession.
While in the garrison at Bordeaux, he came under the influence of Martinez de Pasqually, usually called a Portuguese Jew (although later research has revealed the probability that he was a Spanish Catholic), who taught a species of mysticism drawn from cabbalistic sources, and endeavoured to found thereon a secret cult with magical or theurgical rites. Around September 1768 Saint-Martin was introduced to the Elect Coëns. From 1768 until 1771, Saint-Martin worked at Bordeaux as secretary to Martinez de Pasqually.
In 1771, Saint-Martin left the army to become a preacher of mysticism. Same year he was living with Jean-Baptiste Willermoz at Lyon, while writing his first book. During his writing periods, his patron was his aunt countess Cecile Sophie de Saint-Martin married to marquis Francesco Lodovico de Candia, a Savoyard duty-ambassador in Lyon, from whom he received an allowance to sustain his life and project. His conversational powers made him welcome in Parisian salons; but his zeal led him to England, where he made the acquaintance of William Law, the English mystic, and to Italy and Switzerland, as well as to the chief towns of France. In February 1784, Saint-Martin joined Society of Harmony in Paris. In 1787, he met William Law on a trip to London. From 1788 until 1791 he resided at Strasbourg, where he met Baron Karl Göran Silfverhjelm, the nephew of Emanuel Swedenborg. At Strasbourg, in 1788, he met Charlotte de Boecklin, who introduced him to the writings of Jakob Böhme. In July 1790, he resigned from Rectified Scottish Rite and asked Jean-Baptiste Willermoz for his name to be removed from all Masonic registers. In 1792, Saint-Martin began corresponding with the Swiss theosopher Niklaus Anton Kirchberger von Liebisdorf.
A nobleman, he was interned and his property was confiscated during the French Revolution. He was later freed by local officials, who wanted him to become a school teacher.
(For several centuries prior to the founding of the Theoso...)
( Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin is one of the most eminent...)
( The Crocodile (1792) is a brilliant epic, one of those ...)
(Finally! The long awaited English version of, "The Man of...)
He was brought up a strict Catholic, and always remained attached to the Church, although his first work, Of Errors and Truth, was placed upon the Index.
Quotations: “All mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country. ”
