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Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts: The Cosmic Movement

and the Ideal et Realite Circle

Article  in  Nova Religio · May 2016

DOI: 10.1525/nr.2016.19.4.102

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 Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

The Cosmic Movement and the

Id éal et R éalité Circle

Boaz Huss

ABSTRACT: This article discusses the nexus between art and occultism
in the Idéal et Réalité group, which was active in Paris in the third decade
of the twentieth century and attracted many prominent writers, poets,
actors, and artists. The Idéal et Réalité group emerged from the early
twentieth-century esoteric Le Mouvement Cosmique, and it was much
influenced by its Cosmic Philosophy. The Cosmic Movement was
founded by Max Théon and his wife Théona (Mary Ware) in the first
decade of the twentieth century. Art and literature were important in the
philosophy and practice of both the Cosmic Movement and the Idéal
et Réalité circle. Art dealer Eugène Blot and members of his extended
family contributed to the participation of high-profile artists in the Idéal
et Réalité circle.

KEYWORDS: Cosmic Philosophy, art and occultism, Cosmic Movement,

Idéal et Réalité, Max Théon, Théona, Mirra Alfassa, Eugène Blot, Louis
Thémanlys, Claire Thémanlys, Pascal Thémanlys

I
n 1922 a new magazine named Idéal et Réalité, dedicated to litera-
ture, thought and art, appeared in Paris. The aim of the group
behind the new publication was to form a circle of artists who
believed in the transformative and creative value of the arts. It aspired
‘‘to advance the formation of its internal core of a family of thinkers,

Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 19, Issue 4, pages
102–118. ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480. (electronic). © 2016 by The Regents of
the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission
to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s
Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints.
DOI: 10.1525/nr.2016.19.4.102.

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

writers, and artists of different sorts—a harmonious group which works

for the same ideal.’’1 The Idéal et Réalité circle, which published the
journal until 1929, attracted many prominent writers, poets, actors and
artists. Its ideas concerning the spiritual significance of the arts were
based on la Philosophie Cosmique of the early twentieth-century French
esoteric group known as the Cosmic Movement founded by Max Théon
(1848–1927) and his wife Théona (Mary Ware, 1843–1908).
Today there is a growing interest among scholars in the connections
between late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century occult movements
and artistic circles, and in the impact of Western Esotericism on modern
art, music, architecture and literature.2 While the relation to modern art of
movements such as the Theosophical Society and the Anthroposophical
Society is recognized,3 the impact of the Cosmic Movement and the Idéal et
Réalité group on the early twentieth-century artistic milieu in Paris has
received scarcely any scholarly attention.4
This article presents an overview of the Cosmic Movement and the
Idéal et Réalité group. It argues that these movements played important
roles in artistic and literary circles in Paris in the early twentieth century.
The concern with the arts in both of these movements is rooted in their
esoteric ideas known as Cosmic Philosophy. According to Cosmic
Philosophy, artists have special spiritual sensitivities and the production
and consumption of art is spiritually uplifting. Art can manifest and
reveal the hidden divine realms, contribute to the perfection of the
human form, and prolong life.5

THE COSMIC MOVEMENT

The Cosmic Movement was established in France in the early 1900s.

The mysterious teachers of the movement, who resided at that time in
Villa Zarif near Tlemcen in northwestern Algeria, were Max Théon and
his wife Théona. Like other occultists of that period, they used different
aliases throughout their lives, and hid their real identities. Max Théon
was also known as Aia Aziz, and his wife as Una and Alma.
Max Théon was probably born in Poland into a Jewish family as
Eliezer Mordechai Bimestein.6 He appeared in London in 1884 as an
‘‘oriental healer’’ and as the grand master of the Hermetic Brotherhood
of Luxor (H.B. of L.). The Hermetic Brotherhood was a secret order
that offered practical instructions in occultism that was active in the last
decades of the nineteenth century. It aimed to advance the spiritual
development of humanity and to cultivate the occult powers of its mem-
bers.7 Madame Théon was born as Mary Ware, in the village of Sutton
Courtenay in England. In the late 1860s she became acquainted with the
Anglo-Catholic reform ideas of the Oxford movement, which advocated
a monastic reform in the Church of England.8 She founded an Anglican

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Nova Religio

Figure 1. Max Théon. Courtesy of Ewa Hana Raziel.

nunnery in Claydon, Suffolk, and served as its mother superior for more
than a decade.9 Later, she became interested in Spiritualism, and, going
under the name of Una, established in 1884 an esoteric group in
London, the Universal Philosophic Society. The objectives of the society,
which called for a spiritual reform of society, research of occult sciences,
and the development of psychic powers, anticipated some of the teach-
ings of the Cosmic Movement.10
It was probably in Spiritualist and esoteric circles in London that the
two future leaders of the Cosmic Movement met. They married in March
1885, and a year later they left London, traveled through France, and
eventually settled in Algeria. During 1898–1899, Théon published
a series of articles and booklets in French. In these articles he discussed
his ideas concerning human psychic evolution, and the ability of the
psycho-intellectual man to reach immortality. According to Théon, man
was originally formed immortal, but hostile forces condemned him to
mortality. When human psyco-intellectual capacities will be evolved
again, man will regain physical immortality.11

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

In January 1901 the first issue of the Revue Cosmique, dedicated to the
‘‘restitution of the original tradition,’’ was published by ‘‘a group of
unknown and sincere students.’’ On its front page appeared the image
of a lotus floating on water framed by a square in the center of a hexa-
gram, a six-pointed Star of David shape. This was the emblem of ‘‘the
secretary of the cosmic teaching’’ whose name, Aia Aziz, appeared only
in later issues.
The editor of this journal and the leader of the nascent movement in
Paris was François-Charles Barlet (Albert Faucheux, 1838–1921), a cen-
tral figure in the fin de sie`cle French esoteric milieu.12 In 1902, following
a disagreement with Th éon, he resigned from editing the Review
Cosmique and left the movement.13
After Barlet left, Théon edited the Revue under the name Aia Aziz. In
1904 the young writer Louis Thémanlys (Louis Moyse, 1874–1943),
a descendent of well-established and wealthy French Jewish families
(Beer, Furtado and Solar), joined the Cosmic Movement and became
the leader of its center in Paris. In 1906 he married Claire Blot (1883–
1966), the daughter of the famous art dealer Eugène Blot (1857–1938).
Claire Thémanlys, who was a musician and later wrote several novels and
plays, became active in the movement. She was followed into the move-
ment by her parents and siblings. Her brother-in-law, Marc Semenoff
(originally, Marc Kogan, 1884–1968), a writer and translator of Russian
literature of Jewish origins, joined the movement and later became its
general secretary.14
It is interesting to note that many of the members of the Cosmic
Movement were of Jewish origins. They were probably attracted to the
movement because Christian doctrines were not central in Cosmic
Philosophy, and possibly because of Théon’s Jewish background.
A friend of Louis Thémanlys, Matteo Alfassa (1876–1942), the son of
a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family, also joined the Cosmic Movement, and
following him, his sister, Mirra Alfassa (1878–1973). Mirra, who would in
the 1920s become known as ‘‘the Mother’’ in the Integral Yoga movement
of Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), was an art student. She became very active
in the Cosmic Movement, and visited the Théons in Algeria in 1906 and
1907. Mirra’s first husband, the artist Henri Morisset (1870–1956), and
her second husband, the former pastor and lawyer Paul Richard (1874–
1964), were also active in the Cosmic Movement.
The major publications of the early Cosmic Movement were the
Revue Cosmique, appearing from 1901 to 1908, La Tradition Cosmique,
published in 1904 and 1906, and several books and pamphlets that were
published in the movement’s printing house, Les Publications
Cosmiques. The Cosmic Movement publications included theoretical
discussions of Cosmic Philosophy, literary works and book reviews.
Many of its essays, especially those published in La Tradition Cosmique,
were based on revelations received by Madame Théon in a state of

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Nova Religio

Figure 2. Mirra Alfassa, Villa Zarif, depicting Max Théon and his dog. 1906. Oil on
board. Courtesy of Tal Gilad.

trance. Writings of the Cosmic Movement were also printed in English in

The Morning Star journal published in Loudsville, Georgia by Peter
Davidson (1837–1915), who collaborated with Théon in the Hermetic
Brotherhood of Luxor and moved to the United States from Scotland
in 1886.
As stated in the Revue Cosmique, the declared objectives of the Cosmic
Movement were:

to demonstrate to the ‘‘psycho-intellectual’’ human being the true

object and aim of life and the extent to which human capacities can be
developed, to show that human beings are of divine origin and that
their mission is to manifest the divinity inherent in them, to raise and
spiritualize collective and undeveloped humanity, to restore the pri-
mordial lost tradition, to unite science and theology, and to prove that
through evolution, human beings can regain their state of complete
immortality.15

The Cosmic Movement’s emphasis on the development of occult powers

continued the practical occult approach of the Hermetic Brotherhood
of Luxor and of the Universal Philosophic Society.16 In its publications
the Cosmic Movement presented a complex cosmology, according to
which all reality is material, apart from the formless highest principal.
The material world, from the subtler planes of matter to gross matter, is
depicted as spheres that surround the first emanation of the formless.

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

Meditation practices and trance techniques played important roles in

the movement. Théon and his wife believed in the capacity of certain
people, ‘‘sensitives,’’ to attain higher knowledge in a state of complete
passivity. They developed and practiced clairvoyance and trance techni-
ques in order to achieve such knowledge.17
In September 1908 Madame Théon died during a visit to Europe.
Théon continued to reside in Algeria with his secretary Augusta Rofle
(1845–1935), known as Teresa, until his death in 1927. After the death of
his wife, Théon became much less involved in the activities of the move-
ment and the Revue Cosmique stopped appearing.
Mirra Alfassa and her second husband, Paul Richard, left the Cosmic
Movement. Following a visit to India in 1914–15, they became affiliated
with Aurobindo Ghose (Sri Aurobindo), the political revolutionary
turned spiritual teacher living in Pondicherry (Puducherry) on the
southeast coast of India. Paul Richard cooperated with Aurobindo in
initiating the publication of the journal Arya, in which the first formula-
tions of Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga philosophy were presented. The
couple returned to Pondicherry in 1920, but Richard left soon after to
pursue his spiritual path and Mirra Alfassa remained. In 1926 Aurobindo
recognized Mirra Alfassa (who had by then divorced Paul Richard) as
the incarnation of Shakti, the divine female power, and she became
known as ‘‘the Mother.’’ Alfassa helped establish the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram in Pondicherry, where she lived for the rest of her life. Some
ideas of Aurobindo, such as the notion of the ‘‘psychic being’’ as the
evolutionary soul, and the French term corps glorieux to refer to luminous
physical perfection resulting from the highest spiritual experience, may
have been influenced by Cosmic Philosophy as conveyed to Aurobindo
by Paul Richard and the Mother.18
Louis Thémanlys continued to direct the Cosmic Movement, and
published a few issues of a new journal, Le Mouvement Cosmique (in
1913, 1914 and 1920), two more volumes (5 and 6) of La Tradition
Cosmique (1920), as well as few books of his own published by Les
Publications Cosmique. During the 1920s Louis and Claire Thémanlys
established the group Idéal et Réalité.
Although the Cosmic Movement gradually dissolved, the Cosmic
Philosophy continued to be studied and practiced by different indivi-
duals and groups during the twentieth century, and it is still studied by
small groups today. Pascal Thémanlys (1909–2000), the son of Louis and
Claire, who was active in the Idéal et Réalité circle, continued to develop
the ideas of the movement, and to integrate them with Hasidic and
Kabbalistic traditions.19 After his immigration to Israel in 1949, he pub-
lished a book on Théon and the Cosmic Movement and his memoir,
which contain important information about the movement and the
Idéal et Réalité circle.20 In the 1970s he formed Argaman, a group
dedicated to the study of Kabbalah and the Cosmic Philosophy. The

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Nova Religio

group published several of the writings of the Cosmic Movement, includ-

ing Hebrew translations of works by Théon and Pascal Thémanlys and
some of the original English texts written by Théon and Théona.21
In France the Cosmic Philosophy continued to be taught and pub-
lished by Dr. Francois Couillad and his circle, as well as by Moı̈se
Benharoche-Baralia, the author of À l’ombre de la tradition cosmique
(1967),22 and his disciples Jacques and Chantal Baryosher.23 Today,
small groups in Israel, France and Turkey continue to study and practice
the Cosmic Philosophy.24

THE COSMIC MOVEMENT AND THE ARTS

The intersection between the Cosmic Philosophy and the arts came
to the fore within the activities of the Idéal et Réalité circle. Yet, even
before the founding of the group in the 1920s, the arts played an impor-
tant role in the Cosmic Movement.25 Some of the future leaders of the
movement were interested in arts already in the late nineteenth century.
Before her marriage to Théon, Mary Ware had an interest in the arts,
especially theater, literature and poetry. After she left the nunnery in
Claydon she was part of theatrical circles in London, traveled with a comic
opera company, and wrote dramatic plays and poetry.26 The lectures she
gave as Una in 1884–1885 included discussions of Shakespearean plays
and were accompanied by music and poetry. François-Charles Barlet, the
first leader of the Cosmic Movement in Paris, together with Julien Lejay
published a book titled Synthesis of Aesthetics: Painting (1895), in which the
spiritual aspect of painting is discussed.27
After the creation of the Cosmic Movement many artists, writers and
musicians joined its ranks. Louis Thémanlys, who became the leader of
the movement in Paris, was a prolific writer. In 1902, before he joined
the Cosmic Movement, he published Les àmes vivantes, a novel that deals
with questions of artistic inspiration. After he joined the movement he
published several books about the Cosmic Philosophy, as well as novels
and plays, which also dealt with spiritual matters. Claire Thémanlys
was a musician (a pianist and harpist),28 and she also published several
novels and plays.29
Claire Thémanlys was the daughter of the famous art dealer Eugène
Blot. Blot was a collector of Impressionist paintings, and later, of works
by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and
other avant-garde artists. Blot was the son of a producer of bronze sculp-
tors, and he dealt also in bronze casting. He was a patron and close
friend of sculptor Camille Claudel.30 Eugène Blot, his wife Alice, and
Claire’s younger siblings also became interested and active in the
Cosmic Movement. Jacques Blot (1885–1960), who was a painter and
later a gallery owner, was involved in the administration of the

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

movement, and served as its treasurer.31 Denise was a pianist who joined
the movement together with her husband, Marc Semenoff. Mirra Alfassa
was also an artist, as was her first husband, Henri Morisset.32
The spiritual significance of the arts was central to the teachings of
the Cosmic Movement. According to the Cosmic Philosophy, art can
manifest and reveal the hidden divine realms and contribute to the
perfection of the human form. 33 The importance of the arts was
declared in a visionary essay (probably written by Madame Théon),
entitled ‘‘Unpublished Study from an Ancient Source about Art and
Genius,’’ published in 1905 in the Revue Cosmique. 34 In this essay
Mureh reveals to Thulepenth the significance of theoretical and practi-
cal art, and declares that the ‘‘magnificent task’’ of the artist, ‘‘the child
of genius,’’ is ‘‘to put before man the ideal of the perfection of form, and
to suggest to the advanced sensitive the veiled Divine which is manifested
by the human.’’35
A poetic article titled ‘‘Luminous Thought,’’ which was probably
written by Louis Thémanlys and published in the Revue Cosmique in
1908, is addressed to artists, musicians and poets:

Children of Art, hearken to the voices of splendor! May your genius

fashion the harmonious matter that will reveal the psychic and pure
beauty!
Be free and saintly, you, the chosen of the form, who came to teach
men the perpetual ideal that must be their goal!
...
Artists of the integral light, prepare your enthused souls to reflect like
a sacred mirror the eternal poem of the extensions in which Order
reigns!
Oh musician, who resonates like a harp with all sentiments, make the
receiver of the hymns of triumph declare happiness and peace! May your
rhythm sooth or heroically enflame the zeal of many and restore the
balance to those who are troubled.
Painter, evoke for us the marvelous splendor of the harmony which
tends towards progress, the melody of lines, the grace of colors and the
luster of lights and of the groups fulfilled according to profound affinity.
The immensity is before you, Poet, open like a blessed field. Your
language is music which describes in image the symbol by which the
invisible exposes his law in all the degrees.
Poet, come to sing! Poet, come to fight! May your word liberate! May
your prophetic saying call and forge victory.36

In the second decade of the twentieth century, under the leadership of

Louis Thémanlys and the extended Blot family, art-related activities
became central in the Cosmic Movement. In 1910, ‘‘The Cosmic
Group of Art,’’ was founded.37 Max Théon approved the foundation
of the group, and wrote to Louis Themanlys:

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Nova Religio

Figure 3. Henri Beau, Etude de Mystique printed in Art, Science et Peuple. 1919.
Courtesy of Tal Gilad.

I am glad to hear the news about the Cosmic Group of Art because in
general, one has need of something in front of his material eyes before
he can be impressed, and the article is essential to making this materi-
alization, and we say—all the good to those who by their energy, a divine
force that dominates all true art, express and manifest that something
which gives everyone a way of showing their origin. The plenitude of
goodness overshadows them.38

During World War I (1914–1918) the group was less active, and after
the war it resumed its activities. In 1919 members of the movement
published a new periodical, Art, Science et Peuple, with the subtitle ‘‘By
Science, with Art, towards the better Man.’’ Edited by Salvator Schiff, Art,
Science et Peuple emphasized the group’s conviction of the compatibility
of spirituality and science, and declared that the improvement of
humanity would be achieved through science and the arts. The journal
opened with an article by the biophysicist and philosopher Pierre
Lecomte du Noüy (1883–1947) about ‘‘Science and Philosophy.’’39 It
included an article on ‘‘Love, Intelligence and Life, or Art, Science and
People,’’ by Claire Thémanlys, and an article on ‘‘The Incomprehension
of Beauty’’ by her father Eugène Blot.40 The famous opera singer,
actress and writer Georgette Leblanc (1869–1941) published an article

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

Figure 4. Louis and Claire Thémanlys in their salon. Courtesy of Ewa Hana Raziel.

on ‘‘Art and the People,’’ which raised the question of the future of the
arts after the World War.41 The review also printed some of the wood
engravings of the Swiss artist Emil Alder (1871–1933), and a painting by
the Canadian artist Henri Beau (1863–1949) titled ‘‘Study of a Mystic’’
(see Figure 3).42

IDÉAL ET RÉALITÉ

In 1921 Louis Thémanlys in cooperation with the author, poet, and

musician Gustave Rouger founded a new group known as Idéal et
Réalité. The first president of the group was the actress and film director
Ève Francis (1886–1980), and its first vice-president was the scholar and
translator of ancient Greek literature, Mario Meunier (1880–1960).
Members of the Cosmic Movement, and especially the extended
Thémanlys and Blot families, took an active part in Idéal et Réalité,
which attracted many prominent scholars, actors, writers and musicians,
as well as politicians, aristocrats and esotericists.43
The group organized lectures, concerts, dance shows and plays.44
The group gathered once a month at the salon of the Thémanlys family
for meetings in which music was played, poetry and lectures read, and in
which musicians, artists and writers from abroad were introduced.45
Members of Idéal et Réalité opened a theatrical group and staged two
of Claire Thémanlys’ plays (see Figure 5).46
Apart from the artistic activities, the Idéal et Réalité group also
opened a School of Initiation, which met during 1929 to discuss esoteric

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Nova Religio

Figure 5. Program of Nausicaa, Théatre des Arts, Paris. 1920. Courtesy of Tal Gilad.

and spiritual questions.47 The discussions were dedicated to an ancient

initiatory cosmic tradition, which was believed to be the source of all
human civilizations and which shapes humanity through religion, phi-
losophy, science and the arts.
The organ of the Idéal et Réalité group, published from 1922 to 1930,
was entitled Idéal et Réalité: Littérature, Pensée, Art. The magazine included
articles, short stories and poems. It supplied information on the group’s
activities and also published reviews on theater performances, literature,
painting, music, dance and psychic sciences. In the first issues of Idéal et
Réalité, Impressionist, post-Impressionist and Fauvist artists (including
Jean Puy, Pierre Laprade, Armand Guillaumin, Charles Guérin, Henri
Mattise and Paul Signac) published short responses to questions posed
by the magazine’s art editor, Jacques Blot, such as, ‘‘What is the impor-
tance of the subject in a work of art?’’48
In contrast to the Cosmic Movement, the Idéal et Réalité circle
regarded itself primarily as an artistic movement. According to the state-
ment of intent published on the back cover of the magazine, the group’s
main purpose was to unite young artists and stimulate a revival of
thought in the artistic and literary fields:

Through their strong propensity for traditional balance, by their intense

desire to advance progress, and by the voluntary welcome they offer to

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

Figure 6. Idéal et Realité (November 1922) front cover. Courtesy of Ewa Hana Raziel.

young talents, Ideal and Reality draws and unites all those who want to
participate in the current revival of thought.

Nonetheless, the activities of the Idéal et Réalité circle’s members

were inspired by the Cosmic Movement’s ideology. It emphasized the
spiritual role of art according to the principles of Cosmic Philosophy,
and aspired to create a brotherhood of artists who believed in the
creative and transformative power of art. In a review of the group’s
activities published in the November 1922 issue of Idéal et Réalité it
was stated:

The group wishes also to recall its aim of the elevation of thought and
of Art, through the union and reunion of a brotherhood of sincere
enthusiastic artists who accept the idea of the responsibility of Art, which,
by the way, gives Art all of its high social, educational, transformative and
creative value. . . . [I]t aspires also to advance the formation of its internal
core of a family of thinkers, writers, and artists of different sorts—a har-
monious group that works for the same ideal.49

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Nova Religio

CONCLUSION

The Idéal et Réalité circle, like other groups in the early twentieth
century such as the Theosophical Society and Anthroposophical Society,
integrated artistic and literary activities with esoteric doctrines and prac-
tices. Although the Idéal et Réalité circle is less well-known than some of
the other artistic movements of this period inspired by esotericism, the
circle played an important role in the Parisian culture of the 1920s.
The importance of the arts in the Cosmic Movement and its offshoots
was dependent on its occult teachings as well as on the social connections
of many of its members to artistic circles. Like other Western Esoteric
movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as
the Theosophical Society, the Mystical Order of the Rose + Croix and the
Golden Dawn, the Cosmic Movement drew many artists to its ranks. The
aspirations of members of the Idéal et Réalité circle to create a spiritually
inspired artistic movement follow the activities of the late-nineteenth-
century French Post-Impressionist group, Les Nabis (the Prophets), and
the Salons de la Rose + Croix, which the French occultist and painter Sâr
Joséphin Péladan (1858–1918) held in Paris the 1890s.50
The Cosmic Movement and the Idéal et Réalité circle adopted and
adapted Neo-Romantic and esoteric perceptions of the spiritual signifi-
cance of art that were prevalent in the fin de sie`cle. As Nina Kokkinen
observes:

During the 1890s, artists were given special status as visionaries capable of
reaching out to the other-worldly to acquire hidden knowledge. Their
exceptional skills were described with various accolades. Artists became
magi, prophets, preachers, alchemists and priests. Compared with other
people, they were specially believed to have the unique potential to
achieve knowledge of a more spiritual kind.51

Max Théon and Madame Théon and their followers perceived art as
spiritual practice, and regarded artists as having special spiritual sensitiv-
ities. Art production and consumption was considered by them to con-
tribute to spiritual development. Artists were believed to be able to
perceive and represent the hidden realms. These ideas were expressed
in a call to artists found in the 1908 poetic article ‘‘Luminous Thought’’
published in Revue Cosmique:

Spiritualize yourselves, artists, whose role is to constantly improve

everything, so that you will be able to reflect the divine Oceans!52

I am grateful to Julie Chajes, Christian Chanel, Massimo Introvigne and the

editors of Nova Religio for their helpful comments to an earlier version of
the article, and to Asher Benyamin for his help in translations from French.

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts

The research for this study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant
no. 1405/14.

ENDNOTES
1
Idéal et réalité 1, no. 4 (1922): 190–91.
2
Tessel M. Bauduin, ‘‘The Occult and the Visual Arts,’’ in The Occult World, ed.
Christopher Partridge (New York: Routledge, 2015), 430–31.
3
Tessel M. Baudin, ‘‘Science, Occultism and the Art of the Avant-Garde in the
Early Twentieth Century,’’ Journal of Religion in Europe 5, no. 1 (2012): 46–48.
4
The exception is Christian Chanel, ‘‘De la ‘Fraternité hermétique de Louxor’
au ‘Mouvement Cosmique’. l’oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 2 vols., Ph.d. diss., Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1992/1993. See especially 2:860–73.
5
For a preliminary discussion of the aesthetic and literary aspects of the Cosmic
Philosophy see Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 2:861–65.
6
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:137–39, 203–86; Joscelyn Godwin,
Christian Chanel, and John P. Deveney, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor:
Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism (York Beach,
ME: Samuel Weiser, 1995), 8–9, 17–21.
7
Godwin, Chanel and Deveney, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, 3–77. The H.B. of
L., dating to 1884, was a rival of the Theosophical Society founded in 1875 by
Helena P. Blavatsky (1831–1891) and Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907). See
Godwin, Chanel and Deveney, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, 6–7.
8
Ralph Washington Sockman, ‘‘The Revival of Conventual Life in the Church
of England in the Nineteenth Century,’’ Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1917.
9
Boaz Huss, ‘‘Madam Théon, Alta Una, Mother Superior: The Life and
Personas of Mary Ware (1839–1908),’’ ARIES 15, no. 2 (2015): 210–46.
10
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:219–29.
11
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:394–412.
12
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Th éon,’’ 1:291–302; Godwin, Chanel and
Deveney, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, 63–65; Jean-Pierre Laurant, ‘‘Barlet,
François-Charles,’’ in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. Wouter
J. Hanegraaff with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek, and Jean-Pierre
Brach (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 162–63.
13
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:427–29, 442–44; Huss, ‘‘Madam
Théon, Alta Una, Mother Superior.’’
14
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:543. Semenoff was the son of the
Russian Jewish historian, philologist and journalist Eugène Semenoff, whose
original name was Solomon Moisevitch Kogan. Marc Semenoff’s first publication
was La Caserne (1911) with an introduction by Anatole France. Marc Semenoff
translated classic Russian literature, including works by Dostoyevski, Gogol,
Pushkin and Tolstoy. In the 1930s he became close to the Russian occultist
Maria de Naglowska (1883–1936) and joined the Brotherhood of the Golden
Arrow. In 1932 he published his major esoteric work, De l’Inde mystérieuse à la

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Russie mystique. I am grateful to Michele Olzi who provided me with information

concerning Marc Semenoff.
15
Title page of Revue Cosmique 7, no. 1 (January 1908).
16
This approach resembles also one of the aims of the Theosophical Society.
The idea that a few human beings can achieve complete immortality appears in
the early writings of Blavatsky. See John Algeo, ed., The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky,
vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2003), 370–73; ‘‘Madame Blavatsky on the
Views of the Theosophists,’’ The Spiritualist (8 February 1878): 68–69. See Julie
Hall, ‘‘The Concept of Reincarnation in Theosophy,’’ Ph.D. diss., University of
Exeter, 2011, 67–69; John Patrick Deveney, ‘‘The Two Theosophical Societies:
Prolonged Life, Conditional Immortality and the Individualized Immortal
Monad,’’ in Theosophical Appropriations, ed. Julie Chajes and Boaz Huss (forth-
coming). According to Deveney, the pursuit of immortality was one of the goals
of early Theosophical Society.
17
See Christian Chanel, ‘‘Théon, Max,’’ in Hanegraaff, with Faivre, van den
Broek, and Brach, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, 1112–13; Peter
Heehs, ‘‘The Kabbalah, the Philosophie Cosmique, and the Integral Yoga:
A Study in Cross-Cultural Influence,’’ ARIES 11, no. 2 (2011): 219–47. For a com-
prehensive discussion of the Cosmic Philosophy see the second volume of
Chanel’s ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon.’’
18
Heehs, ‘‘The Kabbalah, the Philosophie Cosmique, and the Integral Yoga,’’
233–39; Godwin, Chanel and Deveney, Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, 338; Chanel,
‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:28, 519. Heehs, ‘‘The Kabbalah, the Philosophie
Cosmique, and the Integral Yoga,’’ 236, points out that ‘‘in 1933 the Mother took
the symbol of the Mouvement Cosmique—a hexagram enclosing a square with
a lotus floating on water inside—and made it the symbol of Sri Aurobindo’’ and
his Integral Yoga. In Hinduism and Buddhism, yantras and mandalas consisting
of interlocking downward-pointing triangle and upward-pointing triangle (fre-
quently a series of these) have specific cosmological meanings. The Integral
Yoga symbol has meanings in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy not necessarily drawn
from Cosmic Philosophy.
19
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:519.
20
Pascal Thémanlys, Max Théon et la philosophie cosmique (Paris: Bibliothèque
Cosmique, 1955); Pascal Th émanlys, Un itin éraire de Paris à J érusalem
(Jerusalem: Cahiers de Jérusalem, 1963).
21
Max Théon, Visions of the Eternal Present (Jerusalem: Argaman, 1991); Max
Théon, The Sixth Cosmic Epoch (Jerusalem: Argaman, 1992).
22
M. Benharoche-Baralia, À l’ombre de la tradition cosmique (Biaariz: l’auteur,
1967).
23
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:516–17.
24
These include the Argaman group in Israel headed by Aryeh Rotenberg; the
Kabbale/Cabale Tradition Cosmique of Jacques and Chantal Baryosher,
kabbale.pagesperso-orange.fr/, accessed 13 January 2016; and the Green
Man’s Creations headed by Nikolas and Nalan Lecerf, greenmanscreations.
com/blog/spirituel-ustalarspiritual-masters/, accessed 13 January 2016.
25
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 2:860–73.

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 Huss: Cosmic Philosophy and the Arts
26
Huss, ‘‘Madam Théon, Alta Una, Mother Superior.’’
27
François-Charles Barlet and Julien Lejay, Synthe`se de l’esthéthique: la Peinture
(Paris: Chamuel, 1895).
28
Claire was a student of the musician Cesar Geloso, and studied harp with
Madame Tassu-Spencer. She studied at the Conservatoire National de Paris, and
performed in public concerts. See Concert donné par César Geloso, Marseille, 8
Février 1906 (program).
29
La conquête de l’idéal, an autobiographical novel written in 1908, was first
published in Le Mouvement Cosmique and printed in 1920. Le rayon vert, a play,
was published in 1922; in the same year she also published Premiers pas vers la route
spirituelle, a book concerning the ideas of the movement. Her memoir about her
visit to Algeria, Un séjour chez les grands initiés, was published in 1931.
30
See Eugène Blot, Histoire d’une collection de tableaux modernes (Paris: Editions
d’Art, 1934); Catherine Chevillot, ‘‘‘Take this helping hand I am holding out to
you’: Eugène Blot, from Bronze Founder to Art Dealer,’’ in Camille Claudel and
Rodin: Fateful Encounter (Hazan: Musée Rodin; Quebec: Musée national des
beaux-arts du Québec, 2005), 262–345.
31
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:504–05.
32
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:455–56.
33
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 2:861–65.
34
‘‘Étude Inédite de Source Ancienne sur l’art et le génie,’’ Revue Cosmique 4,
no. 7 (1905): 424–39.
35
‘‘Étude Inédite de Source Ancienne,’’ 429–30.
36
‘‘Pensée Lumineuse,’’ Revue Cosmique 7, no. 11 (1908): 689–91.
37
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:503–05.
38
MaxThéon letter, 29 April 1910, in Pascal Thémanlys Archive, Beer Sheva,
Israel.
39
P. Lecomte du Noüy, ‘‘Quelques mots sur le Science et la Philosophie,’’ Art
Science et Peuple 1 (1919): 16–24.
40
Claire Thémanlys, ‘‘L’Amour, l’intelligence et la Vie ou Art, Science et Peuple,’’
Art Science et Peuple 1 (1919): 32–35; Eugène Blot, ‘‘ L’incompréhension de la
Beauté,’’ Art Science et Peuple 1 (1919): 37–40.
41
Georgette Leblanc, ‘‘L’Art et le Peuple,’’ Art Science et Peuple 1 (1919): 25–28.
42
Art Science et Peuple 1 (1919): 23, 30.
43
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:511–13. Amongst the followers of the
group were the Jewish Russian-born French general and diplomat Zinovy
Pechkoff (1884–1966); the Romanian aristocrat, author, poet and diplomat
Hélène Vacaresco (1864–1947); Marcel Hiver, the editor of CAP (Critique, Art,
Philosophie. Bulletin mensuel d’art et de littérature); the writer, translator from
English and musician Léon Guillot de Saix (1885–1964); the Dutch Sufi disciple
of Inayat Khan, Louis Hoyack (1893–1967); the actress and film director Ève
Francis (1886–1980), and her husband, film director Louis Delluc (1890–1924);
and the artists Pierre-Edmond Peradon (1893–1981), Georges Bouche
(1874–1941), and Émilie Charmy (1878–1974).
44
Thémanlys, Un itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, 22.

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45
Thémanlys, Un itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, 21–22; Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max
Théon,’’ 1:511–13.
46
Idéal et Réalité 2, no. 6 (1924): 288; Idéal et Réalité 2, no. 8 (1924): 384. In 1920
Claire’s play Nausicaa was performed in the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. The music
for the play was composed by Paul Vidal, and the lead actors were Suzanne
Nivette, Eva Reynal and George Saillard. See Thémanlys, Un itinéraire de Paris
à Jérusalem, 21; Idéal et Réalité 2, no. 2 (1923): 49. Another of her plays, Le rayon
vert, directed by Irénée Mauget, featuring Eva Reynal and Anita Soler, was per-
formed in 1922. See Thémanlys, Un itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, 21; Claire
Thémanlys, Le rayon vert (Paris 1922); Idéal et Réalité 1, no. 3 (1922): 142.
According to a review in Idéal et Réalité, only one act of the play was performed
following a performance of Rabindranath Tagore’s play Chitra, which was pro-
duced also under the patronage of the group.
47
Chanel, ‘‘L’Oeuvre de Max Théon,’’ 1:513.
48
‘‘Notre Enquéte,’’ Idéal et Réalité 1, no. 4 (1922): 188; Idéal et Réalité 1, no. 5
(1922): 193–202; Idéal et Réalité 1, no. 6 (1923): 266–70.
49
‘‘Group Idéal et Réalité,’’ Idéal et Réalité 1, no. 4 (1922): 190–91.
50
Bauduin, ‘‘The Occult and the Visual Arts,’’ 433–34.
51
Nina Kokkinen, ‘‘The Artist as Initiated Master: Themes of Fin-de-Siècle
Occulture in the Art of Akseli Gallen-Kallela,’’ in Fill Your Soul! Paths of Research
into the Art of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, ed. Tuija Wahlroos (Espoo: Gallen-Kallela
Museum, 2011), 47–48.
52
‘‘Pensée Lumineuse,’’ 691.

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