Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

– 27 June 1918 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism. He established the Salon de la Rose + Croix for painters, writers, and musicians sharing his artistic ideals, the

Symbolists Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

in particular.

Biography

Péladan was born into a Lyon family that was devoutly Roman Catholic. He studied at Jesuit colleges at

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune had ...

and

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of ...

. After he failed his baccalaureat, Péladan moved to Paris and became a literary and art critic. His older brother Adrien studied alchemy and occultism as well.

Career

In 1882 Lucie-Smith, Edward. (1972) ''Symbolist Art''. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 109. he came to Paris where Arsene Houssaye gave him a job on his artistic review, ''L'Artiste''. In 1884 he published his first novel, ''Le vice suprême'', which recommended the salvation of man through occult magic of the ancient East.Rudorff, Raymond, ''The Belle Epoque - Paris in the Nineties'', Saturday Review Press, New York, 1972. (pp. 185-195). His novel was an instant success with the French public, which was experiencing a revived interest in spirituality and mysticism. The novel went through several printings. He claimed that a

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

ian king left the title of "Sâr" to his family. Péladan's ''Le vice suprême'' was interwoven with Rosicrucian and

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

themes. After reading Péladan's novel, the French poet

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 ...

became interested in occultism. In Paris, De Guaita and Péladan became acquainted, and in 1884, the two decided to try to rebuild the medieval secret society, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. Péladan was influenced by the teachings of

Eliphas Lévi Eliphaz is one of Esau's sons in the Bible. Eliphaz or Eliphas is also the given name of: * Eliphaz (Job), another person in the Bible * Eliphaz Dow (1705-1755), the first male executed in New Hampshire, for murder * Eliphaz Fay (1797–1854), f ...

. De Guaita and Péladan recruited Gérard Encausse to help rebuild the brotherhood. Encausse, who went by the pseudonym "Papus", was a Spanish-born French physician and occultist who had written books on magic,

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

and the

Tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...

. In 1888, De Guaita founded the ''

Cabalistic Order of the Rosicrucian The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross (french: Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix – O.K.R.C.) was France's first ever occult society, established by Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan in 1888. Its structure and teaching had similarit ...

''. The Rosicrucian Order is a legendary and secretive Order that was first publicly documented in the early 17th century. Guaita's Rosicrucian Order provided training in the

, an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, which attempts to reveal hidden mystical insights in the Hebrew

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

and divine nature. The order also conducted examinations and provided university degrees on Kabbalah topics. De Guaita had a large private library of books on metaphysical issues, magic, and the "hidden sciences." He was nicknamed the "Prince of the Rosicrucians" by his contemporaries for his broad learning on Rosicrucian issues. By the 1890s, De Guaita, Papus and Péladan's collaboration became increasingly strained by disagreements over strategy and doctrines. De Guaita and Papus lost the support of Péladan, who left to start a competing order. In June 1890, Péladan left the Martinist Order and created a quasi-Catholic

Ordre du Temple de la Rose + Croix A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

. Péladan was the leader of the new order, and he took the titles of "Imperator" and "Super Magician".

Ordre du Temple de la Rose + Croix and the Salon de la Rose + Croix

The

inspired Péladan to organise an outlet for his beliefs concerning the role of spirituality and idealism in art. As an art critic, Péladan had been vocal in critiquing the dominant trends in French art, which included officially sanctioned styles promoted by the academy, and the Impressionists. This resulted in a series of six exhibits of

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

artists and associated French avant-garde painters, writers, and musicians, as the Salon de la Rose + Croix. The Salon was enormously popular with the press and public, but failed to succeed in revolutionising French art, as Péladan had hoped.

Publications

Marcellin Desboutin - Portrait du Sâr Mérodack Joséphin Péladan

* ''Le Vice suprême'', novel, 1884 * ''Curieuse'', 1885 * ''Femmes honnêtes!'', 1885 * ''L'Initiation sentimentale'', 1887 * ''Istar'', 1888 * ''A coeur perdu'', 1888 * ''Coeur en peine'', 1890 * ''Comment on devient mage'', 1891 * ''L'androgyne'', 1891 * ''La gynandre'', 1891 * ''La Typhonia'', 1892 * ''Le panthée'', 1892 * ''La queste du Graal - proses lyriques de l'éthopée - la décadence latine''; published "au salon de la Rose+Croix" (1892) * ''Comment on devient fée'', 1893 * ''Le théâtre complet de Wagner: les XI opéras scène par scène avec notes biographiques et critiques'', 1894 * ''L'art idéaliste et mystique: doctrine de l'ordre et du salon annuel des Rose + Croix '', 1894 * ''Babylone'', tragedy, 1895 * ''Mélusine'', 1895 * ''Le dernier Bourbon'', tragedy, 1895 * ''Le livre du sceptre: politics, 1895 * ''La Prométhéide : trilogie d'Eschyle en quatre tableaux'', 1895 * ''Le Prince de Byzance'', tragedy, 1896 * ''Le prochain conclave; instructions aux cardinaux'', 897* ''Œdipe et le Sphinx'', tragedy in prose, 1903 * ''Sémiramis'', tragédie en prose, 1904 * ''La Dernière Leçon de Léonard de Vinci'', essay, 1904 * ''La Clé de Rabelais'', 1905 * ''De Parsifal à don Quichotte'', essay, 1906 * ''La Doctrine de Dante'', 1908 * ''La philosophie de Léonard de Vinci d'après ses manuscrits'', essay, 1910 (rééd. Stalker, 2007) * ''De l'Androgyne. Théorie plastique'', essay 1910

References

External links