with gratitude to yakub ibn al khadir
It may be asked, "Why are we including a segment on this subject, in a place that has to do with a) the Rosicrucians, and b) the Rite of Memphis? Because underneath these movements, and, indeed, underneath the entire Western Esoteric Tradition, lies that of the movement known variously as: Pietism, Quietism, The Free Spirit, the Philadelphians, and so forth.
It is a shame that people are still stuck within the box of their dogma-addiction-definitions, and still, unsuccessfully, contend that the Rosicrucians are European Christians (or mail order junkies who depend on San Jose for their initiations). With what we have been presenting, it is abundantly clear that this is completely wrong. In fact, it is something that has made wars against the middle east a reality. Therefore, along with everything else that is a contributing factor, the continuing belief that the Rosicrucians came from Germany or Northern Europe only, and are Christians, is a falsehood that has led to much bloodshed at the hands of the West. And this is not a lie.
We in the West can thank our mentors in the Orient, that is, the Moyen-Orient, or Middle East, for preserving the Gnosis, intact, even to the present times, and we SHOULD thank them every day, rather than thanking those hallowed names of western posterity alone.
From the Fourteenth Century on, and, indeed earlier, if we include the 'heresies' of Joachim of Fiore, and his successor, Fra Dolcino, both in Italy; to the early 18th Century, we see a movement that is one, yet separated into several components.
As we explore the theme of mysticism, gnosis, the contemplative life: it shall be clearer and clearer that mainstream religious belief and behavior is a gross aberration, and was contrived as a social control mechanism, rather than providing humankind with answers, solutions, and all the other things that religions are supposedly designed to offer.
Sometimes it includes the Rosicrucian Tradition, sometimes it does not, but at all times is endorsed, protected, or otherwise….
SO, for the present segment, we are going to cover ground that runs backwards and forwards - because in some cases it simply cannot be presented in a static, linear fashion. For that matter, we may spend less time on the Philadelphian Society, save for including it in the title, though it is a connecting link between Enthusiastic Religion and the foundation of Freemasonry, via the Chevalier Ramsay, and the rebirth of the Templar Tradition in Freemasonry, to the Rite of Memphis… which will be covered in the next segment.
We shall be covering the Quietist movement as it was known in France, perhaps not in depth, as we have done with some groups, only because it deserves a full-scale study, considering the influence it has had on esoterica, as well as the psychological and physiological effects left behind in the bodies and minds of its devotees…… A full-scale study, in fact, is well beyond the scope of this work, and we may come back to this theme in a future work. For more information, please refer to the works of others, collected in the Readings section.
This movement was connected to other things. There were antecedents, not in the typically accepted areas, like the teachings of Jakob Böhme, but in the teachings of Miguel de Molinos, and farther back, in the Alumbrados or Illuminati of Spain.
For that matter we are told that the first usage of the term Illuminati goes back to these Spaniards, but in reality it goes back to the followers of Joachim of Fiore, an abbot of a monastery in Calabria, sanctioned by the Cistercians, in the second half of the Twelfth Century c.e.
And, we shall see the antecedents of this movement, in familiar territory. But we shall not say it all in this preliminary notice.
It is not so much the case that these groups fall within the scope of what people are accustomed to regard as "Masonic Antecedents", or early "Rosicrucians". But, if we are to take certain story threads presented in franchise material, like HBHG, seriously, and trace them…. then, what emerges from other sources tends to validate what has been said.
For example, the Monks of Calabria, who mysteriously vacate their unknown locations in southern Italy, and appear, just as mysteriously in Calabria and inaugurate the Crusades, and include Peter the Hermit as one of their own. Then, as mysteriously as they show up, they bail, and leave Orval, and the rest of France, behind. Where do they go? Evidently we are convinced, back to Calabria, where the Joachimite movement is initiated, and this, for all intents and purposes, is one of the first of these enthusiastic movements to come into existence.
There is a good reason for this, because, according to the one source we are using for this information, Italy had quite a liberal religious lifestyle, until it was quashed and subverted by the Roman Catholic church. We shall return to this in the appropriate place.
This is going to be a short narrative section with a few charts (if completed) and some links to source materials, including the English language edition of Ramsay's Travels of Cyrus.
. . 
Turning to one of the "official" franchise publications we tend to quote from to support our own opinions, we read, concerning The Chevalier Ramsay :
"Ramsay was born in Scotland sometime during the 1680s. As a young man he was a mamber of a quasi-Masonic, quasi-Rosicrucian society called the Philadelphians. Among the other members of this society were at least two close friends of Isaac Newton. Ramsay himself regarded Newton with unmitigated reverence, deeming him a kind of high mystical 'initiate' - a man who had rediscovered and reconstructed the eternal truths concealed in the ancient mysteries.
"Ramsay had other links with Newton. He was associated with Jean Desaguliers, one of Newton's closest friends. In 1707 he studied mathematics under one Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, the most intimate of all Newton's companions. Like Newton he displayed a sympathetic interest in the Camisards - a sect of Cathar-like heretics then suffering persecution in southern France, and a kind of cause célèbre for Fatio de Duillier.
"By 1710 Ramsay was in Cambrai and on intimate terms with the mystical philosopher Fenelon, formerly curé of Saint Sulpice - which even at that time was a bastion of rather questionable orthodoxy. It is not known precisely when Ramsay made Charles Radclyffe's acquaintance, but by the 1720s he was closely affiliated with the Jacobite cause. For a time he even served as Bonnie Prince Charlie's tutor… [for a short part of a year, 1724, at Rome, until intrigue caused him to be shipped back to Paris. It is unfortunate the whole story isn't given in these books, rather than presenting the most titillating suggestions!]" - HBHG, paperback edition, p. 146.
We know that Ramsay learned SOMETHING, received SOMETHING, from SOMEONE (or, alternately, from SOME GROUP), since he certainly transmitted SOMETHING, in at least two of his works which I have been able to skim through. The first of these being The Travels of Cyrus, see links below, for links to the English language version. The second, being his Life of Fénelon. It is said that his best known work, The Travels of Cyrus, was written in imitation of Télémaque, by Fénelon. This is important, as it is part of a chain of events. Which we shall get to.
As far as Fénelon is concerned, while not running full biographies, as they can be downloaded, and that might be construed as quoting…… were we to offer the material in one place… we find the following in a work not easily available in the English language (at least here in America, where such works aren't considered important). It is by Jacques Matter, known primarily for his works on St. Martin, on the History of the School of Alexandria, and on the Gnostics. It is entitled Le Mysticisme en France au Temps de Fénelon :
"Nevertheless,
the ideal which the true missionary had not been able to realize, he revisited
his first project under a new form and conceived with an equal vivacity of imagination
the great plan of a mission in the East. The Levant was for him THE ANTIQUITY:
Ionia, Greece, the Illustrious Isles and Seas; the cities and monuments that it
celebrated since, with so much love and brilliance."
Then
Matter goes on to state that it was Fénelon's dream to trace the Lineage
of the Enthusiasts (i.e., the Quietists, like himself, like Madame du Guyon, Molinos,
Ramsay, et al.), a project that would not be realized in his lifetime, but a century
later, by the Abbé Barthelemy.
So, now, Barthelemy
got the job. He went on to write "Voyage of the Young Anacharsis",
which is referenced in a vital article that we found recently on the ancient history
and religious practices of the Arcadians. Barthelemy was a numismatist, and wrote
a lot on the coins and medallions of the Near East and Graeco-Roman world.
In
Ramsay's Life of Fénelon, it is stated that Fénelon was seeking
to attract the Church into a form of Universalism, that all the various religious
groups that were considered heterodox to Catholic Christianity were really approaching
the same goal, but that they had been unable to articulate it successfully. This
included the Neoplatonists, the Pagan philosophers, the Greeks, and even the Arab
philosophers….. Now, which Arab Philosophers was he referring to? The more
scientifically inclined, which might be considered safe, or various Enthusiastic
groups that existed in Syria? All we can say is that it fell on deaf ears.
Fénelon, we are told, took an interest in the teachings and writings of his contemporary, Miguel de Molinos. Also inspired by this line of religious thought was Pierre Lacombe, a Barnabite Friar, who, earlier in the 17th Century, attracted the attention of Madame Guyon, about 1676. From that time and for about a decade, they travelled the French countryside until about 1686, when Lacombe was recalled to Paris.
Evidently
the Barnabites themselves, named after Barnabas (which is not without significance
itself), sought some type of reform, that one fellow researcher has stated is
reminiscent of Vatican II.
Fénelon and Madame Guyon
corresponded between 1689 and 1693, and it was in the following year that her
activities and her past caught up with her and she spent nine years in the Bastille.
Fénelon
himself penned Telemaque, which not only caught him up in the web of heresy,
it got him condemned by the French Clergy and by the Court of France.
This
work, we are told, was inspired by his friendship with Madame Guyon, and by his
understanding of her philosophy.
Meanwhile, Andrew Michael Ramsay spent some time in the Netherlands, where he became a disciple of Pierre Poiret. Poiret was one of Antoinette Bourignon's more well-known disciples, although a contemporary of hers, named Johann Georg Gichtel - a student of the works of Jakob Böhme, and (it is said), a Rosicrucian, comes down to posterity more well-known than Poiret.
A short note here: The Philadelphians, who the authors of HBHG connect Ramsay to (without giving any proofs), were founded by Doctor John Pordage and others, like Jane Leade, the mystic, during the latter half of the Seventeenth Century, at London. This spilled over across the Channel, to the Netherlands. When the movement picked up more members, it was renamed to the Angelic Brotherhood. At this point, in the Netherlands, Johann Georg Gichtel and Madame Bourignon become associated with it. While we cannot say that these people practiced a form of quietism that was identical to that taught by Molinos, Lacombe, Guyon or Fenelon -- we can say that all of the primary characters in this part of the story were students of the ideas and writings of Jakob Böhme. Gichtel in fact went so far as to release an edition of Böhme's works. Bourignon's most popular disciple, Pierre Poiret, makes it into the Masonic Encyclopaedias due to his association with Ramsay -- as a teacher. We cannot say that there are any documentary proofs in existence, however. Nor do we find names, dates, or places in his Life of Fenelon. It is interesting though, that the names of Poiret and Bourignon are associated with the Quietism of Madame Guyon and Miguel de Molinos.
In 1710, Ramsay meets Fénelon, stays in France until 1724, when he is called to Rome to tutor the Stuart kids; is recalled, goes back to Paris and writes The Travels of Cyrus, which he based on Fénelon's Telemaque.
Among the things we found in The Travels of Cyrus is the following:
(speaking
of the Golden Age):
"The Greeks, who delight
in rural scenes, have described it as a Country of Shepherds." - Book VIII,
p. 371 of the dual language edition.
Ramsay and Fénelon,
Poiret and Antoinette Bourignon, Madame Guyon and Pierre Lacombe ; Gichtel and
his Angelic Brethren : a name also applied to the Philadelphian Society of London,
founded by John Pordage, Jane Leade, and others.
The idea behind all this was a new interpretation of religion, that was actually ahead of its time, in the backward-tending environment of Western Europe. Ahead of its time, yet always in existence, going back to the earliest days of the original Primitive Church, and then some.
It's a funny thing, perhaps, but the way these (or certain of these) people came to an idea of an enlightened spiritual society - a new Catholicism - as Fénelon and Guyon were regarded - was through the insanity we see in the mysticism of the French Quietists and related groups, the earlier Guerinets, successors to the Spanish Alumbrados, and then some : going back all the way to (at least) Joachim of Fiore, sanctioned by Saint-Sulpice to establish an abbey in his home town. And, at least as far as the Alumbrados and the Joachimites are concerned : they were referred to as Illuminati.
For this, we recommend the various articles that exist in online encyclopaedias, particularly the older ones. These would be, first, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the 11th Edition ; and the Catholic Encyclopaedia, from about the same time period. Anything much later than that is suspect, as the articles started getting chopped up and dumbed down from the 1960s on. The 15th Edition of the Britannica is a good example. See the Readings section for more material.
Here is the basic definition, from Catholic Encyclopaedia :
"Quietism (Lat. quies, quietus, passivity) in the broadest sense is the doctrine which declares that man's highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life. In the state of "quietude" the mind is wholly inactive; it no longer thinks or wills on its own account, but remains passive while God acts within it. Quietism is thus generally speaking a sort of false or exaggerated mysticism (q.v.), which under the guise of the loftiest spirituality contains erroneous notions which, if consistently followed, would prove fatal to morality."
This sounds a lot like the 12 step concept in the AA… "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol", et cetera. At least steps one through three…. This may be a generalization, a simplification. Yet, it is much more than that. The whole thing involves quieting the mind, stopping the mind, realizing the alignment of the human will with the Divine Will. The discovery of the True Will, in Thelemic parlance. This also reminds us somewhat, of another doctrine which we shall discuss later, that practiced by the Maronites of the Lebanon: Monothelitism.
We are told that it is basically a form of christian mysticism that is much like we find in Buddhism, various Indian sects, pantheistic Greek sects, including Stoicism, etc.
"It is fostered by Pantheism and similar theories, and it involves peculiar notions concerning the Divine cooperation in human acts. In a narrower sense Quietism designates the mystical element in the teaching of various sects which have sprung up within the Church, only to be cast out as heretical. In some of these the Quietistic teaching has been the conspicuous error, in others it has been a mere corollary of more fundamental erroneous doctrine."
This was brought about by Molinos and Petrucci, but had earlier antecedents. A later form was that of Fenelon and Guyon and those they influenced.
In its essential features Quietism is a characteristic of the religions of India. Both Pantheistic Brahmanism and Buddhism aim at a sort of self-annihilation, a state of indifference in which the soul enjoys an imperturbable tranquillity. And the means of bringing this about is the recognition of one's identity with Brahma, the all-god, or, for the Buddhist, the quenching of desire and the consequent attainment of Nirvana, incompletely in the present life, but completely after death. Among the Greeks the Quietistic tendency is represented by the Stoics. Along with Pantheism, which characterizes their theory of the world, they present in their apatheia an ideal which recalls the indifference aimed at by the Oriental mystics. The wise man is he who has become independent and free from all desire. According to some of the Stoics, the sage may indulge in the lowest kind of sensuality, so far as the body is concerned, without incurring the least defilement of his soul. The Neoplatonists (q.v.) held that the One gives rise to the Nous or Intellect, this to the world-soul, and this again to individual souls. These, in consequence of their union with matter, have forgotten their Divine origin. Hence the fundamental principle of morality is the return of the soul to its source. The supreme destiny of man and his highest happiness consists in rising to the contemplation of the One, not by thought but by ecstasy (ekstasis).
The origin of these Quietistic tendencies is not hard to discover. However strongly the Pantheistic conception of the world may appeal to the philosophic minded, it cannot do away with the obvious data of experience. To say that the soul is part of the Divine being or an emanation from God enhances, apparently, the dignity of man; but there still remains the fact that passion, desire, and moral evil make human life anything but Divine. Hence the craving for deliverance and peace which can be obtained only by some sort of withdrawal from action and from dependence on external things and by a consequent immersion, more or less complete, in the Divine being.
…
Medieval Quietism is further represented in the vagaries of Hesychasm (q.v.), according to which the supreme aim of life on earth is the contemplation of the uncreated light whereby man is intimately united with God. The means for attaining to such contemplation are prayer, complete repose of body and will, and a process of auto-suggestion. Among the errors of the Beguines (q.v.) and Beghards condemned by the Council of Vienne (1311-12) are the propositions: that man in the present life can attain such a degree of perfection as to become utterly impeccable; that the "perfect" have no need to fast or pray, but may freely grant the body whatsoever it craves; that they are not subject to any human authority or bound by the precepts of the Church (see Denzinger-Bannwart, 471 sqq.). Similar exaggerations on the part of the Fraticelli (q.v.) led to their condemnation by John XXII in 1317 (Denzinger-Bannwart, 484 sqq.). The same pope in 1329 proscribed among the errors of Meister Eckhart (q.v.) the assertions that (prop. 10) we are totally transformed into God just as in the sacrament the bread is changed into the Body of Christ; that (14) since God wills that I should have sinned I do not wish that I had not sinned; that (18) we should bring forth the fruit, not of external actions, which do not make us good, but of internal actions which are wrought by the Father abiding within us (Denzinger-Bannwart, 501, sqq).
Quite in accord with their Pantheistic principles, the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit (thirteenth to fifteenth century) held that they who have reached perfection, i.e. complete absorption in God, have no need of external worship, of sacraments, or of prayer; they owe no obedience to any law, since their will is identical with God's will; and they may indulge their carnal desires to any extent without staining the soul. This is also substantially the teaching of the Illuminati (Alumbrados), a sect that disturbed Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
As we stated above, regarding Quietism in general, the same applies to the antinomianism attributed to the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. This antinomianism suggests what we have come to understand about the function of the Divine Will that Thelema originally represented in New Testament Greek. The idea as it has come down to us, is to align the Divine Will with the Human Will and recognize these to be One. To act in accordance with this "True" Will, then is the object of the striving, is it not?
Well, then, this is not such a new thing, is it? This Thelema, this culture of contacting the Divine or "True" Will, and merging with it, in at-one-ment, is something that goes back a lot longer than 1904. Crowley did lay some of the groundwork when he indicated certain texts in the Syllabus or Curriculum for the A.'. A.'…. such as the Spiritual Guide of Miguel de Molinos, or the Sermons of Meister Eckhart. These are key texts. With them we might at least add some of Ramsay's works, but they are in the French language, and it would require most readers to learn another language…
It is perhaps a funny quirky thing, but it seems that most [now listen folks: we said most, certainly not all!] of the websites devoted to Thelema, if they are not carbon copies one of the other, then they are just plain downright cult-like in their orientation. We see precious little expression or manifestation of the Divine Will. Oh, there are some very rare exceptions, like Greater (than) Thelema! and the present Website, and we must allow for at least a half dozen others, but…. like William Mulholland once said, when he was looking for a place for the water to come from for the city of Los Angeles - take about 20,000 pictures of Yosemite and then dam it up!
Now we are not politically correct, and we do not care if statements like that are regarded as offensive by humans.
These days, the evolutionary wave suggests that works such as Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation and Other Devices, and The Psychopath's Bible, both by Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph. D., with the help of his talented friends / associates and published by New Falcon Publications. . . are the logical NEXT STEP, that Crowley was always urging in his own writings. Let's face it, these works are creative and psychological masterpieces, and not merely the regurgitation of the Golden Dawn Symbolism applied to the particular flavour of the month, as other publishers tend to do. In addition, they cater to the Extreme Individuals of the Species, and the basic idea is not as religious as it is psychological. But the Antinomianism is there, all the same. And this is crucial, because this is where the highest minds have always been located, the most radical and revolutionary minds; the real geniuses the planet has had to offer. For the Adepti, no rules are necessary, because not only are the rules there to be broken or proven invalid, but the rules are constantly being rewritten in the present.
Yet, at the same time we recognize the necessity for some rules, or Laws. Just not as many as we find on the books, these days. If one can live a life that does not require the religious prohibitions that are common features in all systems of belief; and if one can live a life that does not require obedience to civil and criminal laws, because one is not acting in such a way as to attract the attention of the Law…. then that is how we define this way of Be-ing.
And rather than merely harkening back to Aleister Crowley and his rendition of Thelema, and being a carbon copy of several "magic(k)al self-help" books on the market, or of websites that could all be combined together, and the server space sold to people who have new material in progress, this Antinomianism that takes place in the present, has antecedents going back at least as far as the Carpocratian Gnostics, and, judging by the content of the Carpocratian teachings and "beliefs" - going back to some form of contact with India and other parts of the East that can't easily be accounted for in the traditional Graeco-Roman mindset.
Hand in hand with this, and sometimes against this, we find the various black traditions, such as the Yezidis, or so called "Devil Worshippers" …… BOO! (to quote the Vargas character in The Ninth Gate)…… actually have roots in similar backgrounds, and in backgrounds that actually go back to first-family Christianity in the home turf, in the Transjordan, in the Decapolis, in Samaria and Syria. This is why we say that Satanism is really Christianity in drag. Is this so strange?
And, for no extra cost, we see some of these ideas present, in the philosophies of the early R+C, such as Dante Alieghieri, in Giovanni Boccaccio, in the early pre-Rosicrucian Rose+Croix of Venice in the mid 15th Century. Also, while the comparison with Thelema may be more visible in the doctrines of the three ages of Joachim of Fiore and of his various followers, such as the Apostolici, and Fraticelli, and so forth, it's there, too. And in Joachim we have a direct linkage with the mysticism of Bernard, Abbé of Clairvaux, and in the traditions of the Calabrian Monks, who had adopted the mysticism of the Desert Fathers. We repeat this again and again, but that is so people will pick it up and research it for themselves.
There are quite a lot of interesting items, and most of them are in the Readings section.
Suffice it to say, that This Quietism may go back to LaCombe; it may go back to Molinos; it may go back beyond him, to various other individuals and groups, like the Alumbrados, the Free Spirit, Antinomian Gnostics, and more. There are elements in it that are definitely Eternal, much like there are elements in Thelema (theoretically, at least) that are definitely Eternal.
Antinomian Gnosticism.
Since the Catholic Encyclopaedia mentions Antinomian Gnosticism being an influence upon Quietism, here is the section of the article on Gnosticism from that source:
The Antinomian
School
As a moral law was given by the God of the Jews, and opposition
to the God of the Jews was a duty, the breaking of the moral law to spite its
give was considered a solemn obligation. Such a sect, called the Nicolaites, existed
in Apostolic times, their principle, according to Origen, was parachresthai
te sarki. Carpocrates, whom Tertullian (De animâ, xxxv) calls a magician
and a fornicator, was a contemporary of Basilides. One could only escape the cosmic
powers through discharging one's obligations to them by infamous conduct. To disregard
all law and sink oneself into the Monad by remembering one's pre-existence in
the Cosmic Unit -- such was the Gnosis of Carpocrates. His son Epiphanes followed
his father's doctrine so closely that he died in consequence of his sins at the
age of seventeen. Antinomian views were further maintained by the Prodicians and
Antitactae. No more ghastly instance of insane immorality can be found than the
one mentioned Pistis Sophia itself as practised by some Gnostics. St. Justin (Apol.,
I, xxvi), Irenaeus (I, xxv, 3) and Eusebius (H.E., IV, vii) make it clear that
"the reputation of these men brought infamy upon the whole race of Christians".
The importance of this connection shall become more clear, as we pursue this section of the book.
Here's what the article on Quietism says:
These aberrations of Mysticism continued even after the preaching of Christianity had revealed to mankind the truth concerning God, the moral order, and human destiny. Gnosticism (q.v.), especially the Antinomian School, looked for salvation in a sort of intuitive knowledge of the Divine which emancipated the "spiritual" from the obligation of the moral law. The same Quietistic tendency appears in the teaching of the Euchites or Messalians (q.v.), who maintained that prayer frees the body from passion and the soul from evil inclination, so that sacraments and penitential works are useless. They were condemned at the Synod of Side in Pamphilia (383) and at Ephesus (431). The Bogomili (q.v.) of the later Middle Ages were probably their lineal descendants.
The Antinomian Gnostics being the Carpocratians, this is important, because this is one of the real strands of the Authentic Tradition that made it to the pens and books of the Heresiologists. And, if this is what is said to have been at the roots of Quietism, then, a number of other strands of the Authentic Tradition fit into the mix, as well, such as the generic Sethian Ophite package… whether they are known as Stratiotics, Barbelognostics, Secundians, Phibionites (aka disciples of Epiphanes, son of Carpocratian), Borborites, "filthies", etc.
We shall cover these in more depth in a later segment of Book Two, Part Four.
Messalians / Euchites.
(Praying folk; participle Pa'el of the Aramaic word meaning "to pray").
An heretical sect which originated in Mesopotamia about 360 and survived in the East until the ninth century. They are also called Euchites from the Greek translation of their Oriental name (euchetai from euchomai, to pray); Adelphians from their first leader; Lampetians from Lampetius, their first priest (ordained about 458); Enthusiasts from their peculiar tenet of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost by Whom they thought themselves inspired or possessed (enthous). The non-Christian sect of the Euphemites were also called Messalians, and Epiphanius (Haer., lxxx), our sole informant about these, considers them the forerunners of the Christian Messalians. The non-Christian Messalians are said to have admitted a plurality of gods, but to have worshipped only one, the Almighty (Pantokrator). They were forcibly suppressed by Christian magistrates and many of them put to death. Hence they became self-styled Martyriani. The Christian Messalians were a kind of Eastern Circumcellions or vagrant Quietists. Sacraments they held to be useless, though harmless, the only spiritual power being prayer, by which one drove out the evil spirit which baptism had not expelled, received the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and arrived at union with God, becoming so perfect that the passions ceased to trouble. They disregarded discipline in the matter of fasting, wandered from placa to place, and in summer were accustomed to sleep in the streets. To avoid persecution they would conform to ecclesias6tical usages, profess orthodoxy, and deny any heretical doctrines ascribed to them. They engaged in no occupations, were solely occupied in prayer, as they said, or rather in sleep, as Theodoret sarcastically remarks. The intensity of their prayer brought them into immediate communication with the Godhead. When they had reached the passionless state (apatheia, "apathy"), they saw the Trinity, the three Divine Persons becoming one and dwelling within them. They likewise saw the evil spirits that go through the world for the ruin of souls, and trod them under foot. In fact every man had within him a demon, who could only be replaced by the Holy Ghost. Even Christ's body was full of demons once.
Flavian, the Bishop of Antioch, tried to suppress them in his city about 376. By feigning sympathy he made Adelphius disclose his real doctrines; and then he banished him and his followers. They then wandered to the south-east of Asia Minor. Amphilochius of Iconium caused them to be again condemned at the Synod of Side (388 or 390). Letoius, Bishop of Melitene, finding some monasteries tainted with this Quietism, burnt them and drove the wolves from the sheepfold, as Theodoret narrates. The "Asceticus", "that filthy book of this heresy", as it is called in the public acts of the Third General Council (431), was condemned at Ephesus, after it had already been condemned by a Council of Constantinople in 426 and by the local council at which Amphilochius of Side presided. Yet the sect continued to exist. At first it included only laymen. Lampetius, one of the leaders after the middle of the fifth century was a priest, having been ordained by Alypius of Cæsarea. He was degraded from his priesthood on account of unpriestly conduct. He wrote a book called "The Testament". Salmon refers to a fragment of an answer by Severus of Antioch to this work of Lampetius (Wolf, "Anecdota Grfca", III, 182). In Armenia in the middle of the fifth century strict decrees were issued against them, and they were especially accused of immorality; so that their very name in Armenian became the equivalent for "filthy". The Nestorians in Syria did their best to stamp out the evil by legislation; the Messalians ceased to exist under that name, but revived under that of the Bogomili. In the West they seem hardly to have been known; when the Marcianists, who held somewhat the same tenets as the Messalians, were mentioned to Gregory the Great, he professed never to have heard of the Marcian heresy.
Bibliography. EPIPHANIUS, Haer., lxxx; THEODORET, Hist. Ec., IV, x; IDEM, Haer. fab., IV, xi; CYRIL OF ALEX., De Adorat. in Spir. et Verit., III in P.G., LXVIII, 282; TIMOTHEUS in Eccles. Grfc. mon., III, 400 sqq.; TER-MKRTTSCHIAN, Die Paulikianer im byz. Kaiserreich (Leipzig, 1893); PHOTIUS in P.G., CIII, 187 sqq.
We realize we could have just posted a link to the above article, but we want this material here, in one place.
Hesychasm.
(Greek hesychos, quiet).
The story of the system of mysticism defended by the monks of Athos in the fourteenth century forms one of the most curious chapters in the history of the Byzantine Church. In itself an obscure speculation, with the wildest form of mystic extravagance as a result, it became the watchword of a political party, and incidentally involved again the everlasting controversy with Rome. It is the only great mystic movement in the Orthodox Church. Ehrhard describes it rightly as "a reaction of national Greek theology against the invasion of Western scholasticism" (Krumbacher, Byzant. Litt., p. 43). The clearest way of describing the movement will be to explain first the point at issue and then its history.
[see below in the Readings section for more….]
Eckhart / Tauler / Common Lot
Free spirit / Religious Libertines…..
[See the Readings section… ]
The Alumbrados
Molinos
[See the Readings section….]
Guerinets / French Illuminés
Quietists….
[See the Readings section…]
So, now, what better a connection can we find, to the Rose+Croix, and to Freemasonry, than the Chevalier Ramsay? Not only was he an influence behind the high grade rites of Continental Freemasonry, that came about after his famous Oration, but his own writings attest that he was promoting the Masonic philosophy. In addition, he was using particularly Masonic devices in the books he wrote. One such device is the famed Pelican, pecking at its breast in order to feed its young. This is to be found at the end of his work entitled "Life of Fenelon"; and in Fenelon's Telemaque, we find some interesting symbolism….
What does this have to do with Quietism? Well, perhaps not so much in the symbolism, as in the direct association with Ramsay. Ramsay would also go on to (as we say) create his Rite, which influenced other Rites, which would lead to people like Martines Pasqually, to the Baron Tschoudy, to Saint Martin, to the Rite of the Philalethes, Savalette de Langes, and all the rest of them, getting involved and spreading the cement of Initiated Humanity…..
Ramsay, being a disciple of Pierre Poiret, himself a disciple of Madame Bourignon and Madame Guyon… and Fenelon being associated with Madame Guyon, suggests that a connection between the Esoteric Rites of the Authentic Tradition and the Mysticism of the 17th Century were indeed related.
Sidebar on Ramsay and the Royal Arch of Enoch.
Anyone who has followed our writings for the past 3 seasons, knows that we place a great deal more reliance upon the Royal Arch of Enoch legend than we do on any other Royal Arch legend. Now that we are coming to understand the significance of the various branches of Chapter and Council Freemasonry and other High Grade Rites, we can see why. We shall now give some material on the Chevalier Ramsay's contribution to the Craft:
Ramsay, we are told, was responsible for bringing the original Royal Arch degree to France, if not creating it himself, or coming up with the idea of the "recovered word", and it all depends upon the Masonic source one reads. See the article on him in the Readings section…
The story in the Royal Arch of Enoch legend, about the Lion with the Key to the Ark: that is a Ramsay invention.
The story evidently refers to a younger brother of Caleb [who overcame the Anakim at Kirjath ha-Arba (Hebron)], Othni-AL, or Othniel. We do not know much about him. He subdued Kirjath-Sepher after Caleb subdued Hebron.
Later on, in the Book of Judges, we read about him in reference to the battle that supposedly includes the bit about the Lion and the Key. This time, it comes to pass, that the Israelites were naughty again, and went back to their native cult practices, shame on them. The Lord had to punish them, so they were delivered into the hands of the King of Mesopotamia (called Syria in the Scottish Rite legend and Egypt in a passage to be related below, later on...). (Would it have been Babylon, or Assyria, at that time?) They are to be in this position for eight years...
"7. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God, and serving the Ba'als and the Ashe'roth. 8. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cu'shan-risha-tha'im king of Mesopotamia; and the people of Israel served Cu'shan-risha-tha'im eight years. 9. But when the people of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who delivered them. Oth'ni-el the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. 10. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the Lord gave Cu'shan-risha-tha'im king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cu'shan-risha-tha'im. 11. So the land had rest forty years. Then Oth'ni-el the son of Kenaz died." - Judges 3: 7-11.
Here is some information from our store of Masonic data:
"That Ineffable Name, meaning the Eternal, Self-Existent Being, Independent, Infinite, without beginning, end or change, itself still only the name of the very Deity manifested as the Creator of all beings and manifested source of emanations, and thus the symbol and key to still another and more occult name not known to the Hebrews alone, Moses engraved upon a plate of gold, and placed this in the ark of the covenant, where it remained for many years, during the whole time of Joshua and part of that of the judges who succeeded him. Forbidden to make known, it is said, its true pronunciation to the people, he communicated it to Aaron and Joshua only; and it was afterward made known to the High-Priests alone, even the kings of Judah and Israel not often knowing it. The pronunciation of Hebrew words not being indicated by the mode in which they were written, could only be communicated orally; and that of this Name was lost among the Jews in the revolutions and disasters that ensued after the death of Joshua and his immediate successors.
"But the word still remained in the ark, engraved on the plate of gold; and in the time of Othni-Al the son of Kenaz, younger brother of Caleb, in battle against Kusan-Rasathaim, King of Syria, between the rivers, those who bore the ark were slain by an ambush in a forest, and the ark fell upon the ground. The enemy, attacked and defeated in their turn, were driven from the place before they had time to plunder the ark; and after the battle, the men of Israel, searching for it, were led to it by the roaring of a lion, which, couching by it, had guarded it, holding the golden key in his mouth. Upon the approach of the High-Priest and Levites, he laid down the key and withdrew in peace, allowing them to take away the ark; taught by the Deity himself that the Israelites were his chosen people, entitled to the custody of that which contained his sacred name. Hence, upon the golden key worn by our Treasurer, you see the initials of the words: In ore leonis inveni Verbum; 'In the lion's mouth I found the Word.'" - Liturgy for the 13th Degree (Pike Recension).
Digging into the crypt a little more…..
"In the legend retained in the 13th Degree is an account of the recovery of the Key of the Ark, in the time of the Judges, a lion having it in his mouth; in commemoration of which this phrase (according to the old Rituals) is used, 'Inveni Verbum in Ore Leonis;' with the figures 525.
"In the symbol which we have given, from the Book Azoth, and in two others, in the same book, is the phrase, as we have said, Visita Inferiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem. It will be seen that the initials in the words in the phrase given above, are all included in this. That phrase, no doubt, was intended to cover this, concealing it from the Profane, but reminding the Adepts of it; and the degree contains the descent into the Earth." - Pike, The Book of the Words, p. 116.
We are not going to go too deep into this mystery in the present place. One of these days we will have full versions of all the rituals pieced together with the lectures and symbols intact. Now for something not readily available by Oliver:
"In the R. A. of Ramsay there was a jewel inscribed with the letters I. V. I. O. L., meaning Inveni verbum in ore Leonis, of which the following explanation was given in the historical lecture attached to the degree. 'Biblical history informs us that the Jews were slaves to the Egyptians until they were redeemed by Moses, for the purpose of occupying the promised land. We also learn from the annals deposited in the archives in Scotland (!) and only to be examined by us, that in a certain battle the ark of alliance was lost in a forest, and was subsequently found by the roaring of a lion, which, on the approach of the Israelites, ceased its roarings, and couched at their feet. This lion had previously devoured a great number of the Egyptians who attempted to carry away the ark, keeping securely in his mouth the key to the treasures which it contained. But when the high priest came near him, he dropped the key from his mouth, and retired couching and tame, without offering the least violence to the chosen people.' There is a similar allusion to a lion in the degree of the venerable Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, or Master ad vitam, where he is represented as having been wounded by an arrow, and having escaped from the stake to which he had been bound, lay at the mouth of a cave with the broken rope about his neck, using certain mathematical instruments. At the foot of the stake lies a crown. This bore a reference to the escape of Charles Edward Stuart, the claimant to the crown of England; and in the lectures a question is asked, 'What does Jackson signify?' which is thus answered, 'I am that I am, which is the name of him who found the cavern where the lion was hid that kept in his mouth the key of the ark of alliance, which was lost, as is mentioned in the degree of the R. A.' It is now universally allowed that Jackson means Jacques-son, the son of James, the exiled king. There can be no doubt but Ramsay invented the French Royal Arch, and made it the highest of all his degrees, and the ne plus ultra of Masonry. The fact is, the above was a symbol to signify the lion of the tribe of Judah, or Christ, pierced with the spear, and bearing the key to unlock and explain the tendency of the Jewish dispensation, and its reference to Christianity." -- Oliver, Origin of the English Royal Arch, p. 25, footnote.
Now, this is very, very interesting. Now this is not in the Pike Recension at all, for this degree. We only find it in The Francken Manuscript, and that very briefly, in the form of a catechism. Here we have some hidden allusions to "Le Roi Perdu", the Lost King. Also, we have some reference to the Cavern, which crops up later on in our researches. While the name may be Jackson, or son of Jacques, or James… an allusion to the Pretender, perhaps there are other entities which this may allude to. And this will bear itself out in the final analysis, when we look at the words which pertain to the 20th Degree, Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges. In addition, in the 25th Degree (or Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret) - Rite of Perfection version, we so far do not get anything pertaining to this mystery at all, unless there is something missing in the ritual typescript.
None of this, we realize bears a jot or a tittle of a relation to French Quietism, but it was an invention of Ramsay, who was a Quietist.
Did Ramsay possess the mystical ARBA and transmit it to his Brethren in France, Scotland, and England? The Francken Manuscript says that the real History of the Order (that of the Emperors of the East and West, or Rite of Perfection), is kept in the treasury of the Order at Kilwinning, not far from Ayr, where Ramsay (and our ancestor, Robert Burns the Poet) was born.
Did Ramsay come upon information of a nature that would have been regarded as explosive in his day and age? These days it might not be so regarded, as everybody gets more jaded every passing day. But the Fundamentalists and the Catholics would be threatened with such a revelation were it to manifest. This is what has been alluded to in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Sacred Geometry? Rennes Zodiacs? et cetera? Not nearly enough to shake the church to its foundations. We have been coming upon information that is far more damning of the corrupt institution. Information that is right out in the open for all to see. But no, we shall not say another word, until we get to the appropriate segment of the inquiry.
Madame Guyon was a disciple of Pere Lacombe, who had been influenced by the teachings of Miguel de Molinos, whose Spiritual Guide is on the A A Curriculum, and is attested to by Crowley himself as a work of high value…. In fact, Crowley himself would seem (when he's not trying to be dirty, evil, and nasty) to be a closet Quietist. He names the works of Molinos and Eckhart, for example in the Syllabus of Instructions.
At any rate, we are told in some places that one of the influences upon Molinos was the Alumbrados of Spain. This could be. Even though, like Poussin, Molinos spent most of his life in Italy, where there were the Rossi (at least if one reads "The Earth Will Shake", by Robert Anton Wilson), he did come from Spain. He seems to get an influence from a Juan de Falcon…. John the Falcon. or John of Falcon. The Alumbrados go back to the late 15th Century, and seem to exhibit the same characteristics that define the Quietists of two centuries later in France and England.
Prior to all of this, there are connections to be had in the movement that spread across most of Europe known as the Brotherhood of the Free Spirit. This was an antinomian group, and the descriptions we have read about it in Norman Cohn's Pursuit of the Millennium and in other places, suggests to us the same kind of ritual activity attributed to the Adamites (that Theodor Reuss writes about), and to the Frankists as described by several authors.
Some of the inspiration for this wider movement came from German Pietist groups like the Brotherhood of the Common Lot, of the works of Johann Tauler and, of course, the New Age's favorite mystic, Meister Eckhart. Texe Marrs even goes as far as to regard Eckhart as the leader of a group called the Luciferians. Where he gets that, we still are looking.
That takes us back to the 14th Century.
In the Europe of the time of the Crusades, there were several movements that in some cases were libertine, in others, antinomian, but in all - anti-Rome. These include the various Catharist movements, whether the Albigenses, the Vaudoux, the Patarines, the Bogomili, or the grandparent of them all, the Paulicians. Well, there were great-grandparents, too, and perhaps, the great-great grandparent goes back to certain middle-to-high grades within the Essene hierarchy.
We are told, that, according to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, that the Hesychists were the inspiration behind the Quietists, and that these, in their turn were inspired by the Bogomils, who were inspired by the Messalians or Euchites, who were inspired by the Antinomian school of Gnostics, as represented by the Carpocratians. Who were the Hesychasts, you ask? They hung out at Mount Athos (where the Baphomets are said to reside, according to some authors, so-called), and this involved the Palamite Heresy. Since this is too much beyond the present scope of this short narrative, we will skip it, but include data at another time, for the readings section.
Another strand to consider, but to discourse upon later, is that of the Italian branch, which ends with the Dolcinists, and continues back thru the days of Frederic II, our ancestor, and then back to Joachim of Floria, a Calabrian Monk who was associated with the Cistercians and Bernard of Clairvaux, and this was during the Crusades. Indeed, these people in CALABRIA were interested in the life-style of the desert monk, typified by the Thebaid Brethren, and by one known as St. Nil, who is known to us as a monk who went and lived in the Sinai for a number of years in complete solitude. This hankering for the desert solitude, brings us back in time to the Desert Fathers, aka the Qadosh Fathers or Thebaid Brethren, of which we have more to write on, later in this portion of Book Two.
From Uncle Freddy came the war between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which was a feature of Brother Dante Alieghieri's Divine Comedy. And Dante, of course, according to the Johannite Legend, was of the Rose+Croix. Doubt it not.
What
is important here, at this point in the chronology is the Carpocratians - which
will be seen later on in this portion of Book Two.
To conclude this abbreviated survey of a very large subject: a subject that shall be covered in more detail in the future, particularly from a psychological perspective, we have a few more notes on the relevance of the subject.
This mysticism, called Quietism, is related to Pietism, which arose in Germany. Ultimately, one strand of the tradition devolves upon the contacts in southern Italy before the First Crusade was preached. In other words, it goes back even farther, to the Desert Fathers, known in our writings (and those we quote) as the Qadosh Fathers, a term that we ourselves coined, in that particular spelling…..
Prior to that, as we have stated, it goes back to various Gnostic schools: in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Mesopotamia… and, if the story that is to be surveyed later on is true, it goes back, most certainly to the Carpocratians, who existed at the time of Trajan.
WHY do we reiterate this so much? Because it is necessary, when there are those who would rather see the Authentic Tradition communicated to the West via the Manichaeans, or the Mandaeans, or the Zoroastrians, or the Sufis -- even if Sufism permeates just about every group...
Perhaps history is made and then written of by the victors, but does that mean we are to believe it? And, does it mean that a huge edifice, created for the purpose of social control, is still viable, when it is clear that it is rotten to the bone? When, in fact, the very heresies it sought to eradicate, are carriers of the historical tradition that forms the basis, the stone of foundation, as it were, for the system of belief that it calls its own?
Here is an example of what we are speaking of when we write of the importance placed upon the Desert Fathers, by the Calabrian Monks, before, during, and after, the First Crusade:
"C'est alors que les âmes délicates, amoureuses de silence, cherchèrent, au delà de l'institution monacale, des retraites meillures pour la vie contemplative. Aux X° et XI° siècles, la pineta de Ravenne, les solitudes d'Agubbio, de Vallombreuse, de la Sila calabraise, le mont Gargano, l'Athos de l'Occident, se peuplèrent d'ermites. Ils y étaient encore à fin su XIII° siècle. Vèritables Pères du Désert, ils chantaient des psaumes, jeûnaient et se donnaient la discipline. Plusieurs, tels que saint Romuald, le fondateur des Camaldules, et saint Nil, l'hégoumène grec de Calabre; premier abbé de Grotta-Ferrata (1002), eurent un grand renom dans le monde entier. Quelques-uns, tels que Pierre Damien, Dominique de Sora, Bruno de Segni, revinrent parfois à l'Église séculière pour la purifier et la diriger. La chrétienté les admirait pour leurs pénitences extraordinaires, leur renoncement à toute consolation terrestre et les longues extases pendant lesquelles leur étaient révélés les secrets de Dieu; les maîtres de la société féodale, le Pape et l'Empereur, les vénéraient en les redoutant pour la hauteur même de leur sainteté et le don de prophétie qu'on leur attribuait. Othon disait à ses barons, en descendant de l'ermitage de saint Nil: 'Ces hommes sont véritablement citoyens du ciel, ils vivent sous des tentes comme étrangers à la terre'. Ils s'étaient, en effet, affranchis dès cette vie de la communauté humaine. Leur action sociale était plus médiocre encore que celle des moines. Ni les anachorètes, ni les cénobites ne pouvaient donc régénérer la chrétienté. Ils étaient impuissants à réformer, même pour quelques jours, la société ecclésiastique. Qu'un moine de Cluny, Grégoire VII, qu'un abbé du Mont-Cassin, Victor III, monte sur la chaire papale et exige du clergé l'austérité et l'obéissance du cloitre, cet essai de rénovation religieuse ne durera que le temps d'un pontificat…." - Émile Gebhart, L'Italie Mystique, pp. 19-20.
In Italy, home of the Church, this mystical tradition, and the more esoteric leanings of some players in the game, never died out. This can be seen in the widespread interest in the Hermetica, translated several centuries later, by Marsilio Ficino, after Georgius Gemistius aka Plethon sought refuge at Venice, after his school at Mistra, Greece, was closed due to the Ottoman takeover.
Speaking of the Hermetica, we find Ramsay speaking of the identity of Enoch with Idris, with Taaut, with Hermes, et. al., almost in the same sense that the Harranians also regarded him.
Even later, during Poussin's stay in Italy, there were those with Esoteric leanings, as can be seen in histories of the period.
Now, what do we have that ties with the stories presented in the more popular, but now passé books, like HBHG? Plenty, to cut a long "Serpent Rouge" story short….
This Quietism, survivor of the ancient gnostic traditions, going back at least as far as the antinomian Gnosis of Carpocrates, Epiphanes and the sect known as the Phibionites, named after him: has quite a long history. It can be seen to go back even farther than that.
This Quietism is one of the major influences behind High Grade Freemasonry -- Templar Freemasonry (on the one hand); and French Occultism, such as Martinism and the lines that lead to the French Occult Revival of the 19th Century, (on the other)…..
We shall see, in the segments that follow, where these strands lead…
Next up, a survey of the Philalethes, the Philadelphes, the Disciples of Memphis, and the legacy of these groups.
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