Un occultiste rabelaisien : S.U. Zanne, le père de la cosmosophie

This Flemish occultist (1838-1923) defined himself as a “hermetic-hermit, an adept and initiate, Hierophant of the Royal Order of Melchizedek”. Raymond Abellio references him among the great initiates of the era. Cosmopolitan and multilingual, he travelled from Ghent to Louisiana, passing through Texas, England, Paris and Lyonnais before settling down near Mâcon. He was the author of a secret Doctrine and a monumental, 4 volume Cosmosophy (a small number of copies of these works were made for his disciples and today are extremely rare). Zanne also explained his doctrine orally to a group of disciples. He took part in the 1900 International spirit and spiritualist congress of Paris. An occultist and pioneering feminist, he wrote in several reviews. He was also the inspiration behind the Lodge of Melchizedek, under the stewardship of Papus. His biography is presented here, written by Ève-Suzanne Ancel, his companion during his final years, full of untold accounts, lively portraits, rich with the delightful anecdotes of two of his first disciples: Jean d’Udine, music critic and student of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze and Raoul de Maratray, poet and translator of poetry, the text Recognition of Zanne by his chosen disciple, Edmond Gilliard, the notice provided by the editors Gilliard and Ancel regarding Zanne’s work, Principles and elements of cosmosophic education, two articles by Zanne which appeared in 1899 in La Fronde: Western and eastern traditions and western occultism and eastern eroticism.