Description

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin was originally a high initiate in Martinez de Pasqually’s ‘Ordre des Chevalier Maçons Élus Cohen de L’Univers’, better known as ‘Elus Kohen’, a theurgic order dedicated to human salvation through High Magic. The group maintained a Gnostic-like belief that human souls had become trapped in material bodies at the Fall, and that Jesus – the ‘Great Repairer’ – had come to return humanity to its original estate. While agreeing with the fallen state of Man and the material world, Saint-Martin became disillusioned with Elus Kohen magical practices, and formulated his own ‘Path of the Heart’: a mystic, meditational technique for achieving the same ends. ‘Man, His True Nature and Ministry’ is St Martin’s most important exposition of this philosophy, and his method of regaining the primordial divine grace.

Man: His True Nature & Ministry (Le Ministère de l’Homme-Esprit) was the final major work from Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and regarded by many as his most important. The book was first published in 1802, a year before the author’s death. The writings of Saint-Martin are seen as representing Christian Theosophy (as related to the influence of Jakob Böhme), a form of mystical philosophy. The works of Saint-Martin follow a mystical tradition in which emphasis is placed on inner spiritual alchemy. The author himself preferred not to consider his work as an ordained path but rather explained it as a silent ‘way of the heart’ to attain reintegration with the Divine. Saint-Martin’s focus is on the attainment of direct, unmediated knowledge of the nature of divinity and the origin and purpose of the universe. The writings of Saint-Martin, for some time out of vogue, are capturing a new generation of readers who recognize the importance of the author’s insights and the necessity for inner contemplation.