AMERICAN RECTIFIED MARTINIST ORDER

This Body was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, at a General Convocation held on June 2, 1902. The Martinist Body from which this American organization obtained its powers was established at Paris in 1887, and traces its ancestry to Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, who initiated M. de Chaptal and the Dr. Gerard Encausse, best known under his pen name as Papus. The organizer in America was Dr. Edouard Blitz. The American Body separated from the Supreme Martinist Council of France, and among other differences of action restricted itself to admitting Freemasons exclusively. A manifesto explaining the attitude of the American organization was issued under the direction of the Brethren who met at Cleveland on the above date. An Independent and Rectified Rite of Martinism was constituted in England the same year, 1902, but while in sympathy with the American project was not restricted to Freemasons. See also a paper, Martinisine, by Brother N. Choumitsky, of Saint Claudius Lodge No. 21, Paris, June 4, 1926, where the author discusses the periods of Dom Martines de Pasqualiy (1767-74) ; J. B. Villermo (1752-80) ; Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1805), and their successors, Doctors Encausse (Papus), M. Detre (Jeder) and others.

Martinism has three principal degrees :

Associate, Initiate, and secret Superior. Members in session wear red cloaks and masks. To elevate the soul toward heaven, to labor for the good of humanity, and all to the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe, were the avowed purposes of the Order.