Papus Books Collection

Gerard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (July 13, 1865 - 25 October 1916), whose esoteric pseudonym was Papus, was the Spanish-born French physician, hypnotist, and popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order. Encausse's early readings in tarot and the lore of the Kabbalah in translation was inspired by the occult writings of Eliphas L�vi, whose translation of the 'Nuctemeron of Apollonius of Tyana' printed as a supplement to Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), provided Encausse with his nom de plume: 'Papus' means 'physician.'

In 1888, he co-founded his own group, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. That same year, he and his friend Lucien Chamuel founded the Librarie du Merveilleux and its monthly revue L'Initiation, which remained in publication until 1914. Encausse was also a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn temple in Paris, as well as Memphis-Misraim and probably other esoteric or paramasonic organizations, as well as being an author of many occult books. Outside of his paramasonic and Martinist activities he was also a spiritual student of the French spiritualist healer, Anthelme Nizier Philippe, 'Maitre Philippe de Lyon'.

In 1891, Encausse claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of Martinez Paschalis, or de Pasqually (c. 1700-1774), and therewith founded an Order of Martinists called l'Ordre des Superieurs Inconnus. Reuss elevated Encausse as X of the Ordo Templi Orientis as well as giving him license to establish a 'Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Ancient and Primitive Masonry for the Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris.'