In 1773, Martinès de Pasqually wrote the following:
Furthermore, I want to bring to your attention the correspondence of the heart of man with every spiritual being. Man’s body is the organ of the soul and, through its use, the minor makes his intent and will of spiritual action known to others by the different movements and actions that he performs. The soul of the minor is the organ of the intellect, intellect is the organ of the major spirit, and the major spirit is the organ of the divine Creator. Such is the beautiful organic harmony of the principal divine spiritual beings, either of man’s particular form or of the general and universal form, and this teaches us with certainty that everything has truly been emanated from the first necessary Being to every other being, spiritual or temporal.
“Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings in Their First Spiritually Divine Property, Virtue, and Power”, Martinès de Pasqually
What is an organ?
As with all properly used symbols, the metaphor of the “organ” implies several different interlocking ideas. Breaking down a symbol into parts, and then declaring, “This is what this symbol means!”, is always to do harm to the symbolism. Rather, we must always keep the unity of the symbol before us, even while breaking it down. The “et” in “Solve et coagula” is vital.
Nevertheless, I will break down the word “organ”, and rely on your good judgement to rebuild it yourself.
An organ is something that is a fundamental part of a well functioning body. The health of the overall body relies on the health of the organ itself and on the organ doing the job it must in the correct way and at the correct time. A body lacking an organ will always be weaker than a body with a well-functioning organ, but a body with an organ that is not operating as it should may be better off removing it.
Pasqually’s hierarchy
In the above quote, Pasqually outlines a hierarchy of such organs. From the divine Creator at the top to the human body at the bottom.
This division has a clear correspondence with other thinkers in its indication of a tripartite soul, but for this discussion I would rather focus on the hierarchy and the flow of divinity throughout the system.
Returning to the metaphor of the organ, I would argue that a human organ is just as human as the human itself. That is, “humanity” exists at all levels of the hierarchy. It becomes somehow weaker as one descends the diagram from individual organs to tissue to cells to the proteins and molecules that build up that cell, but I dare say that you would hesitate before drawing a strict line — “here is where the humanity stops!”
What I believe Pasqually wants to emphasise here is that the human body is a tool of the Divine, but that its materiality puts it at the furthest point in the chain from the Divine. Our bodies are divine, but only in the way in which a hair follicle is human.
Development
Contrast this with the following from Louis Claude de Saint Martin almost 30 years later:
The perfection of mystery is, to unite in a true and harmonious combination, what will at once satisfy our intelligence and nourish our admiration; this we should have enjoyed for ever, if we had kept our first estate. For the door by which God goes out of Himself, is the same by which He enters the human soul.
“Man: His True Nature & Ministry”, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
The door by which the human soul goes out of itself, is the same by which it enters the understanding.
The door by which the human understanding goes out of itself, is the same by which it enters the spirit of the universe.
The door by which the spirit of the universe goes out of itself, is that by which it enters into the elements and matter.
Saint Martin also suggests a hierarchy through which the Divine flows throughout Creation, but there are some significant differences with respect to that described 30 years previously by Pasqually.
Pre- and Post-Fall
For Saint Martin, humanity’s link with the Divine had become direct and immediate. For God to flow out of Himself is identical with his flowing into the human soul, with no intermediaries being necessary.
This is very similar to the state of affairs described by Pasqually at the point in his myth where Adam has not yet fallen. At this point Adam is superior even to the Major Spirits, and can operate with all the powers of the Divine. Saint Martin says as much a paragraph or so after the preceeding quote.
Instead of watching carefully at his post, Man not only opened all these doors to his enemies, but he closed them against himself, so that he now finds himself outside, and the robbers within. Can a more lamentable situation be conceived?
“Man: His True Nature & Ministry”, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Hope
Note that there is no mention of the human body in Saint Martin’s hierarchy.
While he places materiality at the very bottom of his chain of existence, he takes care to avoid attributing this in any way to anything human. I don’t doubt that he would agree that our bodies are intensely material, and so belong at the bottom in this way, but rather I think that the way in which he downplays this is to prevent the reader from assigning anything human to the material world.
It seems to me that Saint Martin took the metaphor originally given to him by his teacher, and developed it to provide a sense of the hope that his mystical work had provided him. His relationship with God was personal and direct, and the Fallen state was not a historical fact, but rather an ever-present risk of daily life.
Or, to put it more hopefully, returning to our original state of Grace is an ever-present opportunity.
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