Joséphin Péladan

Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 in Lyon – 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 in particular.

Péladan was born into a Lyon family that was devoutly Roman Catholic. He studied at Jesuit colleges at Avignon and Nîmes. After he failed his baccalaureat, Péladan moved to Paris and became a literary and art critic. His eldest brother Adrien studied alchemy and occultism as well.

In 1882 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. 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 Babylonian king left the title of "Sâr" to his family. Péladan's Le vice suprême was interwoven with Rosicrucian and occult themes. After reading Péladan's novel, the French poet Stanislas de Guaita 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.

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 and the Tarot. In 1888, De Guaita founded the Cabalistic Order of the Rosicrucian. The Rosicrucian Order is a legendary and secretive Order that was first publicly documented in the early 17th century.

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