Émile Jules Grillot called Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry (or Émile-Angelo Grillot de Givry) (5 August 1874 in Paris – 16 February 1929 in Paris) was a French Catholic man of letters and occultist,

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, translator into French of numerous alchemical works including those of

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. He w ...

Biography

Son of Claude Grillot and Marie Louise Adenot he studied in Paris with the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

of the

Rue de Vaugirard The Rue de Vaugirard (Street of Vaugirard) is the longest street inside Paris's former city walls, at . It spans the 6th arrondissement of Paris, 6th and 15th arrondissement of Paris, 15th arrondissements. The Senate (France), Senate, housed in th ...

. He studied music and oriental languages before becoming interested in Christian hermeticism. Working as a music teacher, he married Virginie Doco on 2 September 1905. He also made a living teaching French and, between 1910 and 1920, as an organist in a Parisian church. He came into contact with Parisian occult circles, with figures such as

Stanislas de Guaita Stanislas De Guaita (6 April 1861, Tarquimpol, Moselle – 19 December 1897, Tarquimpol) was a French poet based in Paris, an expert on esotericism and European mysticism, and an active member of the Rosicrucian Order. He was very celebrated and s ...

Gérard Encausse Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (July 13, 1865 – 25 October 1916), whose esoteric pseudonyms were Papus and Tau Vincent, was a French physician, hypnotist, and popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order. Early li ...

and Péladan, soon becoming, although young, one of the most famous and respected Hermetic scholars.

Works

It would be on reading "Là-bas" by Joris-Karl Huysmans that Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry became passionate about the occult: Huysmans considered him to be "the greatest expert in Christian symbolism". His taste for

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, as well as his

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, led him, at a very young age, to enter the circle of Péladan's closest collaborators, in the ''Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique et Esthetique du Temple et du Graal'' (Order of the Catholic and Aesthetic Rosicrucian of the Temple and the Grail) which at that time acquired considerable fame with his '' Salons''. At the same time, he was initiated into the Rite of Memphis-Misraim of which his friend Dr

(Papus) had become a grandmaster. In 1895–1896, he was part of the editorial board of the magazine ''La renaissance idéaliste'' (''The idealistic renaissance'') edited by René Albert Fleury and the Comte Léonce de Larmandie. In this magazine he began to develop

themes which he supported throughout his life and which he explained in his book, ''Le Christ et la Patrie''. In Masonic lodges, he met for whom he made, between 1888 and 1890, several translations of the ''Bibliothèque Rosicrucienne'' of Henri Chacornac, father of Paul Chacornac, Parisian publishers owners of the ''Éditions Traditionnelles''. Parallel to his work at the Rosicrucian Library, he began his translations: the ''Traité de la pierre philosophale'' (Treatise on the Philosopher's Stone) attributed to

Saint Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

, the ''Adumbratio kabbalae christianae'' of

Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont (baptised 20 October 1614 – December 1698) was a Flemish alchemist and writer, the son of Jan Baptist van Helmont. He is now best known for his publication in the 1640s of his father's pioneer works on chemistry ...

followed by the translation of the famous ''Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae'' of Khunrath He then translated ''Absconditorum clavis'' of

Guillaume Postel Guillaume Postel (25 March 1510 – 6 September 1581) was a French people, French linguist, astronomer, Christian Kabbalah, Christian Kabbalist, diplomat, polyglot, professor, Religious universalism, religious universalist, and writer. Born in ...

then the

Savonarola Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of ...

's ''Treatise of the Seven Degrees of Perfection'' and, a few months later, the ''Basilian Aphorisms''. In the following years, he published the translation of

' ''Traité des trois essences premières'' (Chacornac, Paris 1903), which was the beginning of the two volumes of the translation of Paracelsus' ''Complete Works''. In 1911, he published ''Le Christ et la Patrie''. A documented study on the theoretical and theological incompatibility between Christianity and militarism. Initially ignored, the text was suddenly popular after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1924, a second edition was published and the book became one of the cornerstones of French anti-militarist literature. In 1925 and 1926, he translated into French both the ''

Monas Hieroglyphica ''Monas Hieroglyphica'' (or ''The Hieroglyphic Monad'') is a book by John Dee, the Elizabethan magus and court astrologer of Elizabeth I of England, published in Antwerp in 1564. It is an exposition of the meaning of an esoteric symbol that he ...

'' of

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

and ''The Kabbalah of Jacques Casanova'' of Bernhard Marr. He collaborated with the magazine ''Le Voile d'Isis'', became a friend of

Léon Bloy Léon Bloy (; 11 July 1846 – 3 November 1917) was a French Catholic novelist, essayist, pamphleteer (or lampoonist), and satirist, known additionally for his eventual (and passionate) defense of Catholicism and for his influence within French C ...

and René Guénon and translated old lost texts from the ''

Corpus Hermeticum The is a collection of 17 Greek writings whose authorship is traditionally attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The treatises were orig ...

'':

Nicolas Flamel Nicolas Flamel (; 1330 – 22 March 1418) was a French scribe and manuscript-seller. After his death, Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist believed to have created and discovered the philosopher's stone and to have thereby achieved im ...

, Basil Valentine, Dom Pernety. The ''Masonic precepts'' or ''Masonic code'' have been wrongly attributed to him insofar as they can be read in the ''Journal historique et littéraire'' (Historical and Literary Journal) of 1839

Bibliography

* . * * * * * His latest book: Translated by J. Courtenay Locke:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grillot de Givry, Emile Jules 1874 births 1929 deaths French alchemists French Freemasons French occultists French occult writers