FOOTNOTES

Table of Contents F.-Ch. Barlet and the Initiatic Societies Some Precise Details of the H.B. of L. Sédir and the Hindu Doctrines Léon Champrenaud (1870-1925) Cologne or Strasbourg? Madame Chauvel de Chauvigny The Gift of Languages The Compagnonnage and the Bohemians The Secret Language of Dante and the 'Fedeli d'Amore' The Thunderstones The Triple Druidic Precinct Some Aspects of the Symbolism of Janus The Guardians of the Holy Land Atlantis and Hyperborea Concerning the Masons of the Middle Ages A New Book on the Order of the Elect Priests About the 'Lyonnais Rose-Cross' The Symbolism of Weaving Atma-Gita The Greater Holy War Regarding Pilgrimages At-Tawhid Al-Faqr The Limits of the Mind The Sifra di-Zeniuta Sacerdotal Initiation and Royal Initiation The Science of Letters ('Ilm al-Hurūf) The Rind and the Core (Al-Qashar wa al-Lab) The Hermetic Tradition The Rose-Cross and Rosicrucians Magic and Mysticism The Hieroglyph of Cancer The Place of the Atlantean Tradition in the Manvantara Sheth 138 The Language of Birds 143 Some Remarks on the Name Adam 147 Cain and Abel 151 The Symbolism of the Theater 155 The Secret Language of Dante and the 'Fedeli d'Amore' 158 Hermes 165 Chirology in Islamic Esoterism 171 Initiatic Organizations and Religious Sects 175 New Insights into the Secret Language of Dante 179 Taoism and Confucianism 184 Conditions of Initiation 196 Initiatic Regularity 202 Initiatic Transmission 209 Initiatic Centers 216 Initiation and Counter-Initiation 221 Initiatic Rites 225 Initiatic Trials 230 Qabbalah 234 Initiatic Knowledge and Profane 'Culture' 238 'Fedeli d'Amore' and ‘Corte d'Amore' 242 Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers 248 Kundalini-Yoga 256 Kundalini-Yoga II 262 Initiatic Education 268 The 'Religion' of a Philosopher 274 The Holy Grail 279 The Holy Grail II 285 Initiation and Crafts 290 'Verbum, Lux, and Vita’ 295 Initiatic Death 299 Alleged Empiricism of the Ancients 303 Şūfism 307 Initiatic Organizations and Secret Societies 313 Initiatic Organizations and Secret Societies II 318 Initiatic Secrecy 324 Profane Names and Initiatic Names 330 The Rite and the Symbol 335 Confusion of the Psychic and the Spiritual 342 The Arts and Their Traditional Conception 345 So-Called Psychic ‘Powers’ 350 The Rejection of ‘Powers’ 354 Some Errors Concerning Initiation 358 The Hindu Theory of the Five Elements 362 Myths, Mysteries, and Symbols 378 Dharma 385 Symbolism and Philosophy 389 Varnah 394 Synthesis and Syncretism 399 The Being and the Milieu 403 René Guénon F.-Ch. Barlet and the Initiatic Societies F.-Ch. Barlet et les sociétés Initiatiques, April 1925.

Before taking part in the beginnings of the movement which one can label as properly Occultist, F.-Ch. Barlet was one of the founding mem- bers of the first French branch of the Theosophical Society. Shortly fol- lowing this, he contacted the organization widely designated by the ini- tials H.B. of L., meaning Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor,^[1] which pro- posed as its principal goal "the establishment of external centers in the Occident that would resurrect the rites of ancient initiations.” This or- ganization's claimed origin went back 4,320 years before the year 1881 of the Christian era; obviously this is a symbolic date referring to certain cyclical periods.^[2] It professed to be connected with a properly Occidental tradition, for, according to its teachings, “the Hermetic Initiates have bor- rowed nothing from India; the similarity that manifests between a num- ber of different names, doctrines, and rites of the Hindus and Egyptians, far from showing that Egypt has drawn its doctrines from India, only makes it clear that the defining characteristics of their respective teach- ings were derived from a singular stock, and this original source was neither Indian nor Egyptian, but the Lost Island of the Occident." As for the form taken recently by the order, here is what was said: “In 1870, a follower of the old Order, which still existed, in the original H.B. of L., with the permission of the initiates beside him, resolved to choose in Great Britain a neophyte who could properly transmit his views.” After completing a significant private mission in mainland Europe, he landed in Great Britain in 1873, where he managed to find a neophyte whom he instructed, after sufficiently verifying the authenticity of his credentials. The neophyte then obtained permission to establish an outer circle of the H.B. of L., to draw in those worthy of the form of initiation for which they would qualify. Upon joining the H.B. of L., Barlet had some hesitations: was mem- bership compatible with being a member of the Theosophical Society? He posed this question to his Master, an English clergyman, who rushed to reassure him by stating that “he and his Master (Peter Davidson) were also members of the Council of the Theosophical Society.” Nonetheless, a thinly veiled hostility existed between the two organizations since 1878, when Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott had been expelled from the H.B. of L., which they had been affiliated with since 1875 through their acquaintanceship of the Egyptologist Georges H. Felt. Without a doubt, when the Théosophist journal claimed in one of its issue that this outer circle of the H.B. of L. only dated back to 1884 it was meant to conceal this unflattering expedition of the two founders of the Theos- ophy Society; peculiarly, the same journal had published an advertise- ment from the 'Occult Magazine' of Glasgow in 1885, a publication of the H.B. of L., wherein it appealed to people who wished "to be admitted as members of an Occult Fraternity, who does not openly boast of their knowledge, but freely and unreservedly instructs all those whom it finds worthy of receiving its teachings” an indirect, but very clear, allusion towards the opposing processes which the Theosophical Society was known and criticized for. The hostility of the Theosophical Society was to come to fruition later when members of the H.B. of L. began a project to found an agricultural colony of sorts in America; Madame Blavatsky found this opportunity favorable to avenge her previous expulsion, and she managed to have the Secretary-General of the Order, T. H. Burgoyne, barred from obtaining residency in the United States. Peter Davidson, who bore the title of “Northern Provincial Grandmaster,” was the only one permitted to enter, wherein he settled with his family in Loudsville, Georgia, where he died several years ago.^[3] In July 1887, Peter Davidson wrote a letter to Barlet where, after de- scribing “esoteric Buddhism" as "an attempt to corrupt the Western spirit," he states,

"the genuine and sincere Adepts do not teach these doctrines of 'karma' and 'reincarnation' put forth by the authors that profess “esoteric Buddhism” and other theosophical works. Neither in the works discussed above, nor in the pages of the Theosophist, is there, as far as I am aware, an accurate and esoteric sense of these important questions. One of the main objects of the H.B. of L. was to reveal to those brothers that have shown their worth the com- plete mysteries of these grave and profound subjects. It must be noted that the Theosophical Society is not and has never been, ever since Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott arrived in India, to be under the direction or inspiration of an authentic and real Himalayan Fraternity, but under that of an inferior Order belong- ing to a Buddhist cult.^[4] I am speaking here of something that I know and hold to be true with indisputable authority; but, if you hold some doubts about my assertions, Mr. Alexander de Corfou has several letters from Madame Blavatsky in which she clearly confesses some of the same as what I have told you."

One year later, Peter Davidson wrote in another letter, this slightly enigmatic phrase: “The true Adepts and the true Mahatmas are like two poles of a magnet, although several Mahatmas are in the ranks of our Order, but they only appear as Mahatmas for very important reasons.” At this moment, which is to say, in the middle of 1888, Barlet was leaving the Theosophical Society, following dissensions which had occurred in the Parisian 'Isis' branch, and in the echoes of the ‘Lotus' branch of the period.

It was also at about this time that Papus began to formally organize Martinism; Barlet was one of this first to be summoned to his Supreme Council. It was first established that Martinism's purpose was to serve as a preparation point for its members to enter into an order which could confer a true initiation on those who would be capable of receiving it; the Order which was intended for this purpose was none other than the H.B. of L., of which Barlet had become the official representative for the Order in France. This is why, in 1891, Papus wrote: “Genuine Occult so- cieties exist which still possess the integral tradition; as a witness, I name one of my Masters in practice, one of the most scholarly Westerners, Pe- ter Davidson.^[5] However, this project did not succeed, and it was recog- nized that the superior center of Martinism was the Kabbalistic Order of the Rosicrucian, which had been founded by Stanislas de Guaita. Barlet was also a member of the Supreme Council of this Order, and when Guaita died in 1896, he was named to succeed him as Grandmaster; how- ever, if he ever actually had the title, he never exercised his functions in an effective manner. In fact, the Order had no regular meetings after the death of its founder, and later, when Papus thought to revive it, Barlet, who was no longer affiliated in any Occultist groups, declared he was disinterested entirely; he thought, no doubt with reason, that such at- tempts that rested on no solid foundation could only lead to new failures. We shall not speak further of some organizations that are, more or less, ephemeral, to which Barlet affiliated with perhaps a little too easily; his great sincerity and honest, confident character prevented him in these circumstances from seeing that some people only sought to use his name as a guarantee of "respectability." In the end, these unfortunate experiences had led him to be more cautious and to question the useful- ness of all the associations which, under pretensions of initiation, hid their lack of knowledge, and which were ultimately but a pretext for adorning themselves with pompous titles; he understood the vanity of the external forms in which truly initiatic organizations are clear of. Sev- eral months before his death, he spoke of a new so-called Rosicrucian society that was imported from America, which he was invited to join. He told us that he would do nothing about it, because he was absolutely convinced, as we are, that true Rosicrucians never founded societies. We will close on this conclusion that Barlet reached at the end of so much research, and which should give many of our contemporaries very seri- ous thought, if they want, as the teachings of the H.B. of L. said, “To learn to know the enormous difference between the intact truth and the ap- parent truth," that exists between the real initiation and its innumerable counterparts.