The Lessons of Lyons

Founded in 1754 by the enigmatic Martinez de Pasqually, the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe (or Elus Coen) left an indelible impression on French Freemasonry and worldwide Martinism.Pasqually’s Elus Coens worked tirelessly for the restoration of 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 )are 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.a collection of teachings and notes taken during a period of three short years (1774 - 1776) in Lyons, they provide a fascinating insight into the small Lodge of members of Pasqually’s Order of Elus Coen meeting in that city at that time. 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 working and especially the purpose of that spiritually-charged Masonico-theurgic rite.

This book is highly recommend to all those interested in early French Masonry, esoteric currents and a singular path of theurgic praxis which 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.

Revised second edition with full index.