1801 engraved portrait of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin,

by Gilles-Louis Chrétien after a drawing by Jean Fouquet.

Published by Robert Amadou in the periodical

‘La Tour Saint-Jacques‘ in 1960.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA, is a letter received by Jean-Philippe Dutoit-Mambrini (a.k.a. Keleph Ben Nathan) from Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and inserted in his 1790 two volumes ‘La Philosophie Divine‘ (a second edition followed in 1793, in 3 volumes), volume I, Part III, chapter XIX ( in the re-shaped 1793 edition, volume I, part IV, chapter XI). We use the text of the second edition, as corrections and changes have been made, but we share below the original text from the first edition. A Via-HYGEIA English translation from the original French.

We do not understand how and why this text hasn’t been translated earlier, especially by those who claim to be the followers of his idea? It is remarkable!

Saint-Martin speaks with the peaceful authority of someone who knows, who has been there on the field practicing and gathering experience, who has learned the inevitable lessons and has grown an understanding of what Magnetism is and is not.

Certainly, Magnetism is something to avoid putting in the hands of those who are just content with the light surface of things, endangering themselves by the very reason of their arrogant ignorance. This is a precious warning to all those who are eager to understand how things work in this world, but are unable to be patient and let time & experience teach them accurately.

When confronted with the ancient axiom, ‘As above, so below‘, we should not forget what we are reflecting in our own inner mirror…

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‘La Philosophie Divine’

Volume I-Part IV-Chapter XI

A confirmation of the doctrine developed in this book regarding Magnetism & Somnambulism, with a letter written to me by a wise lover of the Truth, who after having many experiences with them, had developed an understanding about their inherent abuse and danger, and had decided to leave these practices behind.

‘I thank you, Mister, for having the kindness to share with me your ideas upon the astral spirit, Magnetism and Somnambulism. Your theory is ingenious, it has depth, but above all, it is very true; a long experience with these subjects has confirmed to me all the principles you have delineated.

You have perfectly established the danger of Magnetism; I would have  desired that you would have entered the matter in a more deeper manner, with more details, so to indicate how Magnetism works.  This ‘working’ depends upon the exposition of your principles; I will review them below, in a few words.

The Fall of Man had an impact upon all the beings of the Creation; these being were to be ruled by Man, and Man, in turn, ruled by the Spirit of God.

Man, after the Fall, kept the Image of his lost power (originally flowing from the divine Might), but he was obliged to lower himself into a realm of base pleasures. You have very well proved how the astral spirit has replaced the divine Spirit.

In describing this astral domain, you show how, it can take all the forms and powers of the primitive air, and this fluid can be activated by the will of Man; this will is the first agent of his freedom; it has been left to him, even though the Fall occurred, because God does not take back a gift. Then you establish that the devil is the prince of the power of the air; consequently, if Man using his will, acts through the astral spirit upon the primitive air, therefore he enters the realm of the enemy, and great dangers can result from it.

I could tell you that Magnetism is the fruit of the will, acting through the astral spirit upon the air principle; it is from this cause that most-or how to say it in a better manner-almost all of the magnetizers have operated astonishing effects, and I can assure you that a very small number had even raised themselves way up to this cause. And this is another type of Magnetism, of a superior nature and as distant to the ‘common’ Magnetism you describe, as day is distant from darkness; but, because it is not the one you denounce, I will continue to lay the foundations of what enthusiasm has adopted without knowing it, and what ignorance has rejected, also without any ground.

The existence and influence of this primitive air have been proven by scientists, either they have considered it under its ‘universal agent’ aspect or as ‘universal Magnetism‘-and this independently of the necessity of this cause, to allow them to explain some of the great natural phenomena of the Universe. Athanasius Kircher, Herman Boerhaave, Jan Baptist van Helmont, Johann Georg von Wirdig, and many other famous authors spoke of it; it is even surprising that modern academics have denied the existence of this principle, in the recent times, probably too subtle for those who want to submit everything to a coarse manipulation and only admit as partaking of reality but what they can reduce to the analysis of their operations.

A science, more real and with more depth, would have provided the commissioners of the academies with more peremptory means than those they used to prevent the dissemination of Mesmer’s dangerous’ doctrine. They would have not lost themselves in a Sargasso sea of hypothesis and roamed the land of Chimeras! They would have prevented themselves to attribute as principle & cause to the phenomena they cannot explain, the fire of imagination and of memory!

But, would they have recognized, in the footsteps of their older Masters in Science, this primitive air, that surrounds all substances and can be gathered and concentrated by a multitude of circumstances, and especially by Man’s will. If Man has the power to gather common air in a smaller space, and to concentrate it up to the point to produce the most violent explosion, why wouldn’t he have the power to gather the fluidic currents that exit his body? And to apply it to another body that would have more particularly an analogy with his?

We would have thought that the multiplicity of experiences would have, at least, inspired a few doubts to the gentlemen commissioners against their denial; and besides their assertions and the solemnity of their decision (that there is no such thing as ‘Magnetism’), some scientist, of a lower rank and not decorated with the title of academician, have reproduced these experiences to such a point that they cannot have any doubt left-and they even found the evidence-that the will of Man was a sufficient lever to lift, in a infinitely elastic atmosphere, even more subtle particles of this very atmosphere! From this, they have concluded that the meeting of the fluidic currents of two different bodies must produce a result; because when two causes are combined, the result is necessarily a blend, as long as these causes aren’t similar and they are clearly dissimilar.

Now, particular affections and passions, different temperaments, do produce different fluidic currents upon different human beings; therefore, these different fluidic currents must produce a difference upon the body of the person they are directed or applied. Would they only accelerate the movement, this cause would be sufficient enough to explain the countless phenomena Magnetism produces, or  ore precisely: the effect of the will acting upon the astral spirit upon the air principle.

The animic spirits (A Via-Hygeia note: original French is ‘Les esprits animaux‘. Not linked to animals but to the spirits linked to the anima, the soul-force that animates) which surround the most delicate fibers and circle around them to preserve their function, move in a regular pattern—but this movement can be accelerated in a thousand ways.

The commissioners of the Academy, did they know-did they submit to their analysis the nature of these spirits and the length of their atmosphere? Though, the most famous physicians do vindicate their existence; and if they exist, they must move in a fluid; and this fluid must have an action upon them. Now, that this has been enunciated enough, let’s get back to the principles you have delineated.

The astral spirit is Man’s lot & his domain, since the loss of the superior Spirit. This astral spirit can be activated by the will of Man, and it can take all the forms and powers of the primitive air. If the primitive air is the fluid in which the animic spirits evolve, Man has a power upon them by the mean of the primitive air and can gather them in part in their center, which is the sensible principle; a principle which is in turn they depart and gather from, alike the sun rays depart and gather in it. You must realize how much analogy this theory has in common with the one you have about the sun-and I cannot resist to propose to you that you do publish it. By the way, what I propose to you, is way more satisfying than the denials of the gentlemen commissioners, who, I think, did not seriously study the question given to their appraisal.

Now, we need now to quickly prevent an obvious objection that this theory may arise in the heads of some exalted individuals. They could say, that Man could very well upset the system of the Universe, if he had through his will the power I grant to him. These enthusiasts ought not to forget, that alike God has fixed limits to the waves of the sea, he has also fixed the power of Man, in proportion to his nature and the quantity of acts  each being ad each individuals must operate. Therefore, the mass of the primitive air being of the general domain of all the beings, Man can only move what has been assigned to him.

It seems that I am moving away from your ideas when you state, it would be easy to establish that Magnetism, simply as such, could be used as a diagnostic tool in medicine, and that it is through the same principle that Michael Schüppach had acquired fame, and that it enabled him to ‘read’ the diseases in looking into the urine of his patients, whereas that similar parts of Man are depicted upon the primitive background of the ether and the urine, and can be seen by experienced eyes, alike they are depicted upon the primitive background of the ether of the atmosphere.

I have met a scientist, a mineralogist, who had discovered within the gangue of a stone, what most agile physicians and chemists with a very good magnifier could hardly glimpse. If similar parts are depicted upon the primitive background of the atmospheric ether that surrounds it, it is not then surprising that Schüppach may obtain the knowledge of diseases by the mere observation of the urine-and also through the same principle-we  can glimpse through the atmosphere that surrounds the body and the nature of the fluidic currents that exit from it, alike we glimpse among the rays of the sun the great number of the molecules that evolve within them; similarly, we can also through the shadow made by the reflection of the sun rays, judge of the reality of an object that this shadow represents.

Upon these ideas, the physician who would use Magnetism as a diagnostic tool-and who would use it only for this purpose-if he knew perfectly the universal game (A Via-Hygeia note: in French: ‘le jeu universel’) of all the fibers that compose the human body and their relationships between them-if he would use this agent only to add movement in this or that part of the body, without depriving others-if he would understand the simplicity of being, and the simple and original cause that has provoked the illness; this agent (Magnetism’s fluidic current) as simple than universal, would be already of a great benefice in the hands of such a physician; but would he heal by the virtue of this agent alone?

No, Mister; this universal agent, this air principle being simple by its own nature, ought to have only a simple influence of a similar nature; therefore,  if a disease is the result, or the collected consequence, of eight or ten causes, this simple agent cannot destroy such a blend; it would even be dangerous to use it as such, because through it we could increase in the part that is ill a movement that would accelerate dissolution and death.

Oh! If Magnetism, considered under the simple aspect of a physical relationship, is of such a danger, what would even happen of we consider it under more sophisticated relationships?

We have agreed that the primitive air, being this fluid through which the animic spirits evolve, Man has a power over them through it and he can gather them-at least a great part of them-into their center, which is the sensible principle: it is just about forming a current with the air principle and to drag the animic spirits within that current.

When the animic spirits are in perfect affinity with the sensible principle, immediately they rush at any call towards the center; there, they abandon more or less the external senses to go revive themselves in that center, or sensible principle. It is this very affinity and this tendency more or less perfectioned, that determines in the magnetized subjects the states of convulsion, catalepsy, sleep and somnambulism.

The more the subject has surrendered his own action, his proper will to the action of the magnetizer, the more it is easy for him to gather in the center of the sensible principle the animic spirits that revive the external senses.

The more the external senses are turned towards this center, the more they are resting in inaction and the less they provide to the sensible principle food for the superior senses, which are  understanding, memory and Imagination.

Then, the sensible principle as it does not send to the superior senses the animic spirits that it has pumped from the inferior senses,  these superior senses being deprived of food by the animic spirits, they pump from their own atmosphere, that spreads, as we have seen earlier, way up to the domain of the astral spirit, the inferior mixed ideas that the gullible and deceived men have so many time pleasantly contemplated as being the expression of truth.

You have perfectly perceived, in your book, the spirit of this doctrine, and you have drawn marvelous consequences to proscribe these Chaldean and Babylonian practices that the Scriptures condemn in so many places; these cursed practices have attracted upon the Chaldeans the evils that have striped them from this blessed Earth, because they have been exposed complacently to the actions of the inferior forces they had called upon Nature and they have tried to snatch from the  divinity the veil it has covered her charms from Man at the time of his Fall; they have also erected altars against altars but forgot their original purposes,  indulging in the pride of their own discoveries.

These are the practices Mesmer has dared call himself the originator! With more good faith, he could have told us the dreadful end of his Master, and instead of shrouding himself with veils of mysteries for grounding his fortune, he should have warned us about these disastrous results!

The magnetized subject submits his action and freedom to the magnetizer, without being untied from his own interests; because the slave cannot by himself being stripped off this possession that is so lethal for us all. The magnetized is but a slave, and from this slave we dare promise ourselves getting oracles of truth! Such a mistake!

Truth is but one, and in this simulacre we only get but lies, due to the combination of the interest of the magnetized and the will of the magnetizer; so that it is impossible not to stray in this path. If the will of the magnetizer is of an ethical nature, he does not care much about all the knowledge that are not in God; and if this will is not of an ethical nature, the poor slave, or the magnetized, will only see in the atmosphere that he is forced to scrutinize, or better, he will feel only the things he is analog to the will he is submitted to.

These things come imprinting themselves in the power of the mind of the magnetized, alike the reflection upon a mirror. The interest of this magnetized slave, draws this vain appearance and only transmits what is not against his own interests: such is the result that we ought to expect.

Therefore, the nature of the will, the strength of the imagination, the favorite hobbies, will determine the nature, the strength and the degree of somnambulism. Therefore, when you know the magnetizer, it is easy to know what kind of sleep the magnetized has fallen into!

The materialist will not get a somnambule of an order superior to matter; the person who elevates himself to a moral level, will obtain a reciprocal effect; but if the person rises to the spiritual realms, let him tremble! It is the demon himself who will render the oracles; such is the god the poor gullible has established in his heart…

You may, dear Mister, denounce to the family fathers, to the magistrates, to the citizens, these great abuses of which I have just scratched the mere surface.

In willing to delineate my ideas, I have realized that I have from time to time used some of yours; It is because truth being similar to itself, nuances do make it look prettier!

Finally, do with this letter what ever you want; if it contains some new ideas, do identify them in your excellent book.

Perhaps I have exceeded the limits of a letter, and even though i have aimed myself to speak to you about the inferior level of magnetism, I doubt that the great number of those who practice it and speak of it, have seen it under these point of views, even though these are about the lowest level of it.

Oh! If this level has been difficult to understand, I cannot dare to indicate the means to reach the other one (the higher level of magnetism)!

I am, Mister, etc…’

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Original French

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Source

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Appendix

About Saint-Martin’s engraved portrait,

by Robert Amadou

This engraving was first published by Stanislas de Guaita, who described it as follows: ‘Reproduction of a very rare portrait, made with the physionotrace, engraved in 1801‘. The signature on the engraving specifies that it is a ‘drawn by Fouquet; engraved by Chrétien, inventor of the physionotrace, Cour St-Honoré in Paris‘.

The cellist Gilles-Louis Chrétien (1745–1811) had indeed invented in 1786 a device formed by ‘the ingenious combination of two parallelograms, designed to keep the ruler carrying the objective parallel to itself‘; this device was named the physionotrace.

Chrétien had partnered with the draftsman Jean Fouquet, and thus, from 1793 to 1798, as evidenced by the Salon catalogs, Fouquet exhibited hundreds of portraits at the Louvre that had been engraved by Chrétien based on his drawings traced with the physionotrace.

I do not believe that this portrait of Saint-Martin was engraved only in 1801, as Guaita claims—his information is often inaccurate. The great popularity of the physionotrace declined after 1798, and Chrétien then returned to music.

Moreover, the clothing worn by the theosophist in this drawing appears to predate the Directory period; it is certainly not from a later time. For these two mutually supporting reasons, the portrait can be dated to around 1795, when the Philosophe Inconnu was about fifty-two years old, give or take two or three years.

The same engraving was published again, likely based on Guaita’s work, as the frontispiece of the reissue of Saint-Martin’s ‘Les Nombres‘, prefaced by Sédir.

We do not know what became of the copy of this engraving owned by Guaita, nor have we been able to locate any other copies.

Original French

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