Italian version

Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (La Coruña, 1865 – Paris, 1916) was a doctor, hypnotist, and occultist. Born in Spain to a Spanish mother and a French father, he is best known by the pseudonym Papus.

He spent his early childhood in France, where he received his initial education. From a young age, he developed an interest in occult works, primarily teaching himself through the writings of Éliphas Lévi. It was Lévi’s translation of Apollonius of Tyana‘s “Nuctemeron” that inspired his pen name, Papus, which is the name of the Genius of the First Hour in the text. He later joined Madame Blavatsky‘s Theosophical Society; however, his disappointment with the Society’s overemphasis on Eastern thought soon led him to leave.

Encausse’s personal history is deeply connected to Martinism, a spiritual doctrine inspired by the French mystic and philosopher Louise Claude de Saint-Martin, often referred to as the Unknown Philosopher. It’s important to note that not all sources agree on the exact sequence of events, so we will offer a description that may not be complete or exhaustive.

In 1882, Encausse was initiated into the “Intimates of Saint-Martin” by Henri Delaage 1, who was also a disciple of Saint-Martin and had conferred upon him the title of “Unknown Philosopher.” In 1886, Augustin Chaboseau 2, a French occultist and historian, received a similar initiation from his aunt. Two years later, in 1888, Encausse and Chaboseau, along with Stanislas de Guaita 3, a French poet and esotericist, founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross.

Encausse and Chaboseau later realised that they had each received valid Martinist initiations through two separate lines of succession. To strengthen their lineage, they decided to exchange their respective initiations. This event is significant for tracing the origins of the Martinist Order and its connection to the Order of the Rose-Cross, as it was accessible only to those who had attained the third Martinist degree.

Some sources suggest that in 1893, Encausse was consecrated as bishop of the Gnostic Church of France by its founder, Jules Doinel 4, who aimed to revive the Cathar religion 5.

Despite his commitment to the esoteric milieu, Encausse continued his academic studies at the University of Paris, graduating with a degree in Medicine in 1894. He subsequently opened a highly successful clinic in Paris.

In 1895, he became a member of the Ahathoor Temple in Paris, which is part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society founded in Great Britain dedicated to ritual magic and theurgy. However, this participation is regarded as questionable.

In the early 1900s, he travelled to Russia three times in the service of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, serving at court as both a doctor and an occultist. Given the tsar and tsarina’s significant interest in occult matters, Encausse often served as an adviser on government matters. On more than one occasion, he warned them about Rasputin’s sinister influence.

In 1901, Encausse was involved in a journalistic dispute over a series of articles he published in a Parisian newspaper, in which he denounced a Jewish conspiracy to weaken the Franco-Russian alliance. He was accused of anti-Semitism and of being the author of the famous and controversial Protocol of the Elders of Zion 6.

In 1908, Encausse met Theodor Reuss, a Franco-German occultist and Freemason, who founded the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO 7). Reuss promoted Encausse to the 10th degree within the OTO.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Encausse joined the army as a doctor in a military hospital in Paris. There, he contracted tuberculosis and died in 1916 at the age of 51.

His bibliography includes works on occultism, the Kabbalah, practical magic, and the Tarot. His book, Le Tarot des Bohémiens, remains a significant milestone in the study of Tarot.

Bibliography (in English)

  • An Introduction to the Study of Symbolism
  • Astrology for Initiates
  • Elementary Treatise of Occult Science
  • Elementary Treatise on Practical Magic
  • Martinezism, Willermozism, Martinism and Freemasonry
  • Occultism and Philosophy
  • Reincarnation: Physical, Astral and Spiritual
  • The Analogy between the Sacred Word and Numbers
  • The Divinatory Arts
  • The Ethics of Occultism
  • The Practice of Occultism or Magic
  • The Qabalah: Secret Tradition  of the West
  • The Science of Magic
  • The Tarot of the Bohemians
  1. Henri Delaage (1825-1882) was a Parisian writer and journalist active in occultism. He published numerous works and was friends with many illustrious figures of his time, including Balzac and the Dumas father and son. ↩︎
  2. Augustin Chaboseau (1868-1946), a French physician, historian, and occultist, was the original organiser and promoter of the Traditional Martinist Order. ↩︎
  3. Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) was a Parisian poet and an expert in esotericism, as well as an active member of the Rosicrucian Order. Éliphas Lévi particularly influenced his writings. In 1888, he founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross, which included notable members such as Papus, Péladan, and Antoine de La Rochefoucauld. However, he later had disagreements with La Rochefoucauld over doctrinal matters. De Guaita passed away at the young age of 36. ↩︎
  4. Jules-Benoît Stanislas Doinel (1842-1903) was a French archivist, founder, and patriarch of the Gnostic Church, taking the ecclesiastical name Tau Valentin II after a dream in which he declared himself consecrated by the “Aeon Jesus.” His doctrinal orientation and rituals were based on Cathar documents, with a strong influence from Valentinian Gnosticism and cosmology. In 1895, Doinel separated from the Gnostic Church and converted to Catholicism, collaborating with Léo Taxil in the so-called “anti-Masonic plot.” In 1900, he was readmitted to the Gnostic Church as a bishop. ↩︎
  5. Catharism (from the Greek καθαροί, “the pure”) was a pseudo-Gnostic movement that flourished particularly in southern Europe, including Spain and France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. The Catholic Church denounced the movement as heretical and, through the Inquisition, eradicated the sect in 1350, massacring thousands of its followers by burning or hanging. The Albigenses belonged to the Cathar movement, and were so called because they originated in the French city of Albi. Catharism proclaimed the existence of two gods: the good God of heaven, who was the God of the New Testament, and the God of the physical world (Rex Mundi), identified with the God of the Old Testament or by some with Satan. Some Cathar communities believed in a mild dualism, in which Satan was seen as an initially good servant of God who later rebelled; but most accepted an absolute dualism, in which the two gods were twin entities of equal weight and importance. Since the demiurge created the physical human form, the only possibility of salvation came from renouncing the material self; until this happened, one remained trapped in a cycle of reincarnations, condemned to a life of suffering on this earth. ↩︎
  6. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a publication that is part of an antisemitic conspiracy, detailing a Jewish conspiracy for global domination. It was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into several languages, and distributed internationally. The text was exposed as “occult propaganda” by the British newspaper The Times in 1921 and the Frankfurter Zeitung in 1924, but was later used as a school text in Nazi Germany. It is a document designed to appear genuine; in reality, the material used is plagiarised from numerous works of political satire and short stories by the antisemitic German writer Hermann Goedsche. The Protocols continue to be used by conspiracy theorists and are available online. ↩︎
  7. The O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) is a ritual magic organisation that originated in Germany around 1904. Apparently founded by Karl Kellner, an Austrian industrialist, the organisation, over time, gathered various members. Initially, the O.T.O. had a Freemasonic and Templar influence. Crowley became a member of the order in 1910 and, in 1914, incorporated the rituals of Thelema, also introducing the practices of sexual magic. After his death, the order endured various vicissitudes, but it remains active today. ↩︎