Joséphin Peladan

Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 – 27 June 1918) was a French novelist and Rosicrucian who later briefly joined the Martinist order led by Papus (Gérard Encausse). His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed an esoteric-aesthetic form of Rosicrucianism and universalist Catholicism.

Biography 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 older brother Adrien studied alchemy and occultism as well. Péladan was an extremely active member of the French Occult Revival and a key influence on French and Belgian Symbolist art. However, his eccentric manner and overbearing nature caused him to be largely ridiculed during his lifetime, and quickly forgotten upon his early death at Neuilly-sur-Seine, from shellfish poisoning.

Career 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, 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. to present his doctrine and explain his vision. He subsequently expanded on this in Amphithéâtre des Sciences Mortes, a cycle of seven esoteric manuals intended for lay readers wishing to access his system of self-initiation and self-actualisation. while his esoteric ideas were absorbed, both credited and uncredited, into other 20th century esoteric movements. while his esoteric non-fiction works are handbooks for solitary self-initiation. Le Vice suprême, novel, 1884 Curieuse, 1885 Femmes honnêtes!, 1885 L'Initiation sentimentale, 1887 Istar, 1888 A coeur perdu, 1888 Coeur en peine, 1890 Comment on devient mage, 1891 L'androgyne, 1891 La gynandre, 1891 La Typhonia, 1892 Le panthée, 1892 La queste du Graal - proses lyriques de l'éthopée - la décadence latine; published "au salon de la Rose+Croix" (1892) Comment on devient fée, 1893 Le théâtre complet de Wagner: les XI opéras scène par scène avec notes biographiques et critiques, 1894 L'art idéaliste et mystique: doctrine de l'ordre et du salon annuel des Rose + Croix , 1894 Babylone, tragedy, 1895 Mélusine, 1895 Le dernier Bourbon, tragedy, 1895 Le livre du sceptre: politics, 1895 La Prométhéide : trilogie d'Eschyle en quatre tableaux, 1895 Le Prince de Byzance, tragedy, 1896 Le prochain conclave; instructions aux cardinaux, Œdipe et le Sphinx, tragedy in prose, 1903 Sémiramis, tragédie en prose, 1904 La Dernière Leçon de Léonard de Vinci, essay, 1904 La Clé de Rabelais, 1905 De Parsifal à don Quichotte, essay, 1906 La Doctrine de Dante, 1908 La philosophie de Léonard de Vinci d'après ses manuscrits, essay, 1910 (rééd. Stalker, 2007) De l'Androgyne. Théorie plastique, essay 1910