Schisms, Sârs, and the War of the Two Roses

How Joséphin Péladan Split the Rosicrucians and Declared War on the Spirit of His Age

What happens when esoteric visions meet ego, secret orders become anything but, and a man insists the world needs a mage to remind it of humanity’s forgotten power?

This excerpt from my book, Son of Prometheus, explores the explosive rift between Joséphin Péladan and the occult circles of Belle Epoque France, and how that rupture helped to shape a singular esoteric legacy that history then promptly tried to bury.

I trace Péladan’s reluctant foray into the syncretic occultism of Papus and de Guaïta, his ideological fallout with Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, and the radical turn he took following personal tragedy—culminating in his audacious claim to be a new Magus who would restore the Church. Beyond the “War of the Two Roses” and its public fallout, this is an exploration of what it meant, to Péladan, to truly (in his words), de-occult the occult.

Blazon for the Outer Order of Péladan’s L'Ordre de Rose+Croix du Temple et du Graal formed after his rift with Papus and de Guaïta. Designed by François Mérintier at Péladan’s request.

You’ll meet the rivals who betrayed him, the doctrines he disavowed, and the order he re-established in his own image—equal parts mystical theater and aesthetic revolution. For those who have wondered why Péladan is so often overlooked in favor of louder names like Crowley, the answer begins here.

More than another occult spat, this is a true story stranger than fiction. It tells of spiritual conviction, ideological intransigence, and one man’s attempt to preserve the sacred from what he saw as its profanation by ritualistic dilettantes and spiritual tourists.

Full excerpt below—complete with betrayals, manifestos, excommunications, and more than a few Chaldean gods.

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If this preview has sparked your interest in Péladan—the occultist who tried to resurrect civilisation through beauty and esoteric revolt—the full piece continues below.

I’m currently completing the first volume of a major three-part anthology of his work for Theion Publishing. When finished, it will be the most complete English-language presentation of his esoteric system to date. In the meantime, this Substack is my only support while I research, write, and translate.

If you’d like to read on—or support the work—consider subscribing. What follows is the rupture that shattered a movement, and the vision that rose from its ashes.

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Péladan and de Guaïta spent 1887 developing their occult pursuits and assembling a like-minded circle, though it was de Guaïta who more enthusiastically sought out occult groups and contacts. Since early that year, he had frequented the meetings of Isis lodge of the Paris branch of the Theosophical Society, where he was introduced to Gérard Encausse dit Papus (1842-1909) by Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre (1842-1909).