l'Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rosecroix
l'Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rosecroix
An important French Rosicrucian order created in 1888, the same year of the founding of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in England. It was founded by the Marquis Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918). De Guaita, a poet living in Paris in the 1880s, had been introduced to the magical writings of Éliphas Lévi. Pélatan, a staunch Catholic, had developed an interest in mysticism and the kabala. He authored a series of novels under the collected title of La Décadence latine, one of which, Le Vice supréme, fell into de Guaita's hands. The two struck up a correspondence which led to a friendship and the establishment of the order.
The Ordre was headed by a council of twelve, six secret chiefs and six known persons. The original six besides the two founders included Papus (Gérard Encausse ), Marc Haven, the Abbé Alta, Paul Adam, and astrologer Francois-Charles Barlet. It was structured on three levels, and new members received in succession a baccalaureate, licentiate, and doctorate in the Qabalah (one of the alternate spellings of kabala).
The order suffered its first problem when Péladan withdrew over the other leaders' disagreement with his adherence to Roman Catholicism. He founded a rival order, l'Ordre de la Rose Croix Catholicque, du Temple et du Graal. He and de Guaita were never reconciled.
De Guaita died in 1887. He was succeeded by Johnny Bricaud, author of a number of books on the history of the occult, and then in 1932 by Constant Martin Chevillon. Chevillon was killed in 1944 by the Gestapo.
Sources:
Guaita, Stanislas de. Essais des sciences maudites. Paris: Carré, 1885.
——. La Serpent de la genese. 2 Vols. Paris: Chamuel, 1891, 1897.
McIntosh, Christopher. Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Revival. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1972.
——. The Rose Cross Unveiled: The History, Mythology and Rituals of an Occult Order. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK: Aquarian Press, 1980.
Wirth, Oswald. Stanislas de Guaita, souvenirs de son secrétare. Paris: Editions du Symbolisme, 1935.