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GERARD ENCAUSSE
alias
PAPUS

Gerard Encausse nasce a La Coruna, terre basche di Spagna, il 13 luglio del 1865 da padre francese
e madre spagnola, in un periodo di crisi per le fratellanze iniziatiche travolte dalle conseguenze dei
movimenti illuministi rivoluzionari che non solo sconvolsero i rapporti e gerarchie sociali visibili,
ma si insinuarono nei movimenti tradizionali generando una babele che tradì l’Ordine Tradizionale
da cui avevano origine e dipendevano.
La crisi portò a modificare gli statuti, i rituali, fino allo stesso linguaggio simbolico riducendo la
maggioranza delle confraternite a vuote vestigia ritualistiche che si trasformarono in enti morali e
sociali che perseguivano una propria solidarietà in nome di una società giusta e fraterna proveniente
dalle proprie fondamenta e di conseguenza perdendo quell’idea di trasmissione iniziatica
orizzontale dipendente da una forza che procede e ritorna verso l'Unico e su cui è basato l'Ordine
Tradizionale.
Gérard Encausse si trasferì a Parigi, in quel periodo centro del mondo culturale, dove si laureò in
medicina ed intraprese la professione di medico, ma ben presto si trovò coinvolto nell’immenso
laboratorio esoterico della società parigina di fine ottocento dove entrò in contatto con i più
eminenti personaggi occultisti, spesso politicamente legittimisti ovvero restauratori della monarchia
borbonica sul trono francese, tra cui i membri della Rosa+Croce del Tempio e del Graal tra cui
Saint Yves d’Alveidre, Josephin Peladan e Stanislas de Guaita che trovarono in lui un grande
erudito nelle scienze ermetiche, ma anche un eccellente divulgatore ed organizzatore tanto da creare
in poco tempo una rivista esoterica molto celebre ancora oggi dal nome “L’Initiation”, un gruppo
indipendente di alti studi Tradizionali ed una facoltà di scienze ermetiche che fu ritrovo per i
maggiori occultisti del tempo e non ultimo la pubblicazione dei suoi primi libri sulla divinazione.

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Nel 1882 fu scelto da Henri Delaage per continuare la catena iniziatica di Louis Claude de Saint
Martin con il grado di Superiore Incognito e il nome iniziatico di Papus in onore del primo dei
dodici geni del libro “Nuctemeron” di Apollonio di Tyana, nel 1888 entrò a far parte dell’Ordine
della Rosa Croce Kabbalistica fondata da Guaita e Peladan e qui scoprì un altro discepolo regolare
dell’iniziazione marinista in Agustin Chaboseau, ed entrambi gli fu concesso di dare visibilità agli
insegnamenti del teosofo di Amboise anche per arginare o dare una valida risposta occidentale alla
propaganda orientale della teosofa della Blavatsky ripresa dalla Fratellanza Ermetica dell’Alba
d’Oro che faceva proseliti nello stesso periodo.
Il successo di Papus nel risveglio martinista fu immediato tanto che furono create in poco tempo
numerose logge, grazie al vincente connubio tra magia, ermetismo e teosofia cercando di ricondurre
il tutto nel solco tradizionale. Fu l’alchimia che permise a Gerard Encausse di essere annoverato
come uno dei massimi esponenti dell’occultismo moderno e inserito nel pantheon esoterico
moderno insieme ad Eliphas Levi, Fabre d’Olivet, Stanislas de Guaita e d’Alveydre.

L’opera di Gerard Encausse fu nuova Luce nelle tenebre materialiste che espandevano le proprie
ombre dissolute nella società di quel tempo, nasceva una nuova cavalleria spirituale fondata sulla
Saggezza antica e Tradizione Sacra di cui il Martinismo era depositario, ma l’azione rigeneratrice
ormai trasformata in papusiana non si fermò qui, ma continuò ad insinuarsi all’interno di altre
fratellanze come l’Ordo Templi Orientis di Kellner e Ross prima dell’azione disgregatrice di
Crowley e nell’Antico Primitivo Rito di Misraim e Memphis di cui divenne Gran Maestro del
Sovrano Gran Consiglio Generale di Francia dei due Riti massonici, riuniti alcuni anni prima da
Giuseppe Garibaldi. Nell’ultimo periodo della sua esistenza terrena, dopo aver seguito le orme
occultiste di Eliphas Levi e quelle intellettuali di d’Alveyedre, incontrò un nuovo ispiratore nel

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taumaturgo Philippe Vachot che lo condusse sulla via del misticismo cristiano di tipo
devozionale, lontano sia dalla reintegrazione Martinezista sia dalla via cardiaca di Saint
Martin e da tutto ciò che aveva caratterizzato la sua vita. Morì di tubercolosi contratta nella sua
opera di medico volontario durante la prima guerra mondiale nell’anno di grazia 1916.

Bibliografia

 Les arts divinatoire, Castel Negrino, 2006

 Ciò che deve sapere un maestro massone, Atanòr, 2005
 La reincarnazione e la metempsicosi, I Dioscuri, 1989
 La scienza dei numeri, Atanòr, 1984
 Chiromanzia sintetica e analitica, Atanòr
 Magia bianca-magia nera, Napoleone, 2000
 Il carattere rivelato dalla fisionomia, L'Airone Editrice, 1996
 Ciò che deve sapere un maestro massone, Brancato, 1995
 I tarocchi. L'arte della divinazione attraverso la cartomanzia, Napoleone, 1993
 Morte e reincarnazione, Casa del Libro, 1990
 Trattato di magia pratica, I Dioscuri, 1989
 La filosofia occulta e la magia, I Dioscuri, 1989

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Gerard Encausse

July 13, 1865 - 25 October 1916

whose esoteric pseudonym was Papus, was the Spanish-born French physician, hypnotist, and
popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order.

www.rosicrucian-order.com

Overview

Gerard Encausse was born at Corunna La Coruña in Spain on July 13, 1865, of a Spanish mother
and a French father, Louis Encausse, a chemist. His family moved to Paris when he was four years
old, and he received his education there.
As a young man, Encausse spent a great deal of time at the Bibliothèque Nationale studying the
Kabbalah, occult tarot, the sciences of magic and alchemy, and the writings of Eliphas Lévi. He
joined the French Theosophical Society shortly after it was founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1884
- 1885, but he resigned soon after joining because he disliked the Society's emphasis on Eastern
occultism. In 1888, he co-founded his own group, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. That
same year, he and his friend Lucien Chamuel founded the Librarie du Merveilleux and its monthly
revue L'Initiation, which remained in publication until 1914.
Encausse was also a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light and the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn temple in Paris, as well as Memphis-Misraim and probably other esoteric or
paramasonic organizations, as well as being an author of several occult books. Outside of his
paramasonic and martinist activities he was also a spiritual student of the French spiritualist healer,
Anthelme Nizier Philippe, "Maître Philippe de Lyon".
Despite his heavy involvement in occultism and occultist groups, Encausse managed to find time to
pursue more conventional academic studies at the University of Paris. He received his Doctor of
Medicine degree in 1894 upon submitting a dissertation on Philosophical Anatomy. He opened a
clinic in the rue Rodin which was quite successful.
Encausse visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905, and 1906, serving Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina
Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant. In October 1905, he allegedly conjured up the
spirit of Alexander III, the Tsar Nicholas's father, who prophesied that the Tsar would meet his
downfall at the hands of revolutionaries. Encausse's follower allege that he informed the Tsar that
he would be able to magically avert Alexander's prophesy so long as Encausse was alive : Nicholas
kept his hold on the throne of Russia until 141 days after Papus's death.

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Although Encausse seems to have served the Tsar and Tsarina in what was essentially a shamanic
capacity, he was later curiously concerned about their heavy reliance on occultism to assist them in
deciding questions of government. During their later correspondence, he warned them a number of
times against the influence of Rasputin.
When World War I broke out, Encausse joined the French army medical corps. While working in a
military hospital, he contracted tuberculosis and died on October 25, 1916, at the age of 51.

Levi, Tarot and the Kabbalah

Encausse's early readings in tarot and the lore of the Kabbalah in translation was inspired by the
occult writings of Eliphas Lévi, whose translation of the "Nuctemeron of Apollonius of Tyana"
printed as a supplement to Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), provided Encausse with his
nom de plume: "Papus" means "physician."

l'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus

In 1891, Encausse claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of Martinez
Paschalis, or de Pasqually (c. 1700-1774), and therewith founded an Order of Martinists called
l'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus. He claimed to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-
Martin by his friend Henri Vicomte de Laage, who claimed that his maternal grandfather had been
initiated into the order by Saint-Martin himself, and who had attempted to revive the order in 1887.
The Martinist Order was to become a primary focus for Encausse, and continues today as one of his
most enduring legacies.

Bishop of l'Église Gnostique de France

In 1893, Encausse was consecrated a bishop of l'Église Gnostique de France by Jules Doinel, who
had founded this Church as an attempt to revive the Cathar religion in 1890. In 1895, Doinel
abdicated as Primate of the French Gnostic Church, leaving control of the Church to a synod of
three of his former bishops, one of whom was Encausse. It was also during this period, circa 1894 -
1895, that Encausse briefly joined and quickly resigned from the Theosophical Society.

The Golden Dawn; Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix

In March 1895, Encausse joined the Ahathoor Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
in Paris. Although Encausse claimed as his "spiritual master" the mysterious magician and healer
known as "le Maitre Philippe" (Philippe Nizier), his first actual teacher in the intellectual aspects of
occultism was the marquis Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842 - 1910). Saint-Yves had
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inherited the papers of one of the great founders of French occultism, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1762
- 1825), and it was probably Saint-Yves who introduced Papus to the marquis Stanislas de Guaita
(1861 - 1897). In 1888, Encausse, Saint-Yves and de Guaita joined with Joséphin Péladan and
Oswald Wirth to found the Rosicrucian Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix.

Antisemitic Writings

In October 1901 Encausse collaborated with Jean Carrère in producing a series of articles in the
Echo de Paris under the pseudonym Niet ("no" in Russian). In the articles Sergei Witte and Pyotr
Rachkovsky were attacked, and it was suggested that there was a sinister financial syndicate trying
to disrupt the Franco-Russian alliance. Encausse and Carrère alleged that this syndicate was a
Jewish conspiracy, and the antisemitic nature of these articles, compounded by Encausse's known
connection to the Tsar of Russia, may have contributed to the false allegation that Papus was the
author who forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic hoax alleging that a
worldwide Jewish conspiracy controls the media and financial institutions. In his occult writings
Encausse drew heavily upon the scriptures and Kabbalistic mystical writings of the Jews. He also
attended Golden Dawn ritual meetings alongside Moina Mathers (Mina Bergson), the Jewish wife
of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. However, in his pseudonymous political writings he
excoriated Jews as evil financial conspirators. This contradiction between occultistic Judophilia and
political Jew-hatred was neither explained nor acknowledged in his writings.

Encausse, Reuss and Paramasonry

Encausse never became a regular (Grand Orient) Freemason. Despite this, he organized what was
announced as an "International Masonic Conference" in Paris on June 24, 1908, and at this
conference he first met Theodor Reuss, and the two men apparently exchanged patents:
Reuss elevated Encausse as X° of the Ordo Templi Orientis as well as giving him license to
establish a "Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Ancient and Primitive Masonry
for the Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris." For his part, Encausse assisted Reuss
in the formation of the O.T.O. Gnostic Catholic Church as a child of l'Église Gnostique de France,
thus forming the E.G.C. within the tradition of French neo-gnosticism. When John Yarker died in
1913, Encausse was elected as his successor to the office of Grand Hierophant (international head)
of the Antient and Primitive Rites of Memphis and Mizraim.

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Partial bibliography

Papus (Gerard Encausse). L'Occultisme Contemporain. 1887.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/notice?N=FRBNF30400013
PDF scans from Gallica

Papus (Gerard Encausse). L'Occultisme. 1890.

Papus (Gerard Encausse). La Science Des Mages. 1892.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/notice?N=FRBNF30400027
PDF scans from Gallica

Papus (Gerard Encausse). Anarchie, Indolence et Synarchie. 1894.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/notice?N=FRBNF30399986
PDF scans from Gallica

Papus (Gerard Encausse). Le Diable et l'occultisme. 1895.

Papus (Gerard Encausse). Traite Méthodique De La Magie Pratique. 1898.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/notice?N=FRBNF30400031
PDF scans from Gallica

Niet (Gerard Encausse and Jean Carrère). La Russie Aujourd'hui. 1902.

Papus (Gerard Encausse). La Kabbale. 1903.

Papus (Gerard Encausse). Le Tarot Divinataire. 1909.

http://www.archive.org/details/clefabsoluedelas00papuuoft
PDF scans from Internet Archive

LINKS

T. Apiryon, brief biography http://www.hermetic.com/sabazius/papus.htm

Links to Papus http://autorbis.net/tarot/biography/tarot-history-researchers/papus-encausse.html

Complete bibliography of the writings of Papus http://www.chez.com/crp/papus/bibliographie.htm

Rosicrucian Order http://www.rosicrucian-order.com/

Martinist Order -span.- http://www.martinismo.org/