Robert Ambelain (2 September 1907 – 27 May 1997) was a French essayist. He was involved in the

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

Martinist Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and esoteric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his divine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration'. As a mystical traditio ...

movement and claimed to have revived the

Primitive Scottish Rite The Primitive Scottish Rite is a Masonic Rite. According to Robert Ambelain, an esotericist who "awakened" it in 1985, it was the rite used by the St. John of Scotland Lodge in Marseille, which was introduced to France in Saint-Germain-en-Laye fro ...

. He has written several works, such as ''The Masonic Secret'', in which he tells the most relevant aspects of Masonic lodges.

The reawakening of the Élus Coëns

In 1943, Robert Ambelain, whose mystical name was ''Aurifer'', revived the Order of the '' Élus Coëns.'' The other two esotericists who signed the Charter to revive the Order were Robert Amadou (1924 – 2006) and Roger Ménard. Georges Bogé de Lagrèze (1882-1946) was elected Grand Master and Ambelain his Deputy Grand Master. The degrees of this new Order were the Operative degrees of the original ''Élus Coëns'', reconstituted with the scarce material Ambelain had in his hands. The name of the Order was later changed in ''“Ordre Martiniste des Élus Cohens”'', where candidates were also initiated into the usual three degrees of Martinism; this was the ‘outer order’ which formed the ante-chamber of the Operative degrees. Ambelain, who always looked for possibilities to expand the Order, introduced elements that had nothing to do with the original ''Coëns'': Neo-Gnosticism,

Qabalah Hermetic Qabalah () is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. It is the underlying philosophy and framework for magical societies such as the Golden Dawn, Thelemic orders, mystical-religious societies such as the Bu ...

and

Memphis-Misraim The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm is a masonic rite founded in Naples, Italy in September 1881 by the merger of two older rites; the ''Rite of Misraïm'' and the ''Rite of Memphis''. Although founded in 1881, its predecessors ...

among others. This happened because he did not have enough material to actually do all the degrees, and found in other traditions a good solution to fill the gaps. This was quite easy for him because he was the leader of several initiatic organisations, which were closely linked with each other: The Martinist Order, the

Rite of Memphis-Misraim The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm is a masonic rite founded in Naples, Italy in September 1881 by the merger of two older rites; the ''Rite of Misraïm'' and the ''Rite of Memphis''. Although founded in 1881, its predecessors h ...

, the Élus Coëns, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose+Cross, the Ecclesia Gnostica Apostolica and the Gnostic Catholic Apostolic Church. Ambelain entrusted its leadership to Ivan Mosca (1915 – 2005) – mystical name ''Hermete'' – who made the Order dormant in 1968 and then reawakened it in 1995. Upon the death of Mosca, who did not designate successors, two groups claimed the legitimate succession, a Spanish and an Italian-French one. A third group also reconstructed its ‘regularity’ within the Order of the United Rites of Memphis Misraim, through an Ambelain-Kloppel-Castelli lineage, and proceeded with a philological reconstruction of the original rituals and operations.

Writings

* "Martinism". ''Man Myth and Magic'' 62 (London: Purnell, 1971), 1746–47. * ''Jésus ou le mortel secret des Templiers'', Paris, Robert Laffont, «Les Énigmes de l'Univers», 1970. * "Spiritual Alchemy". ''The Inner Path''

References

1907 births 1997 deaths 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French non-fiction writers French Freemasons French male essayists {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub