The Metaphysics of St. Germain

LAVAZZA, VICTOR HUGO; WRIGHT, PABLO

Religions of the World. Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. New Age Religions in Latin America

SpringerMeteor

Lugar: Heidelberg; Año: 2015; p. 1 - 5

The mystical movement known as Metaphysics, particularly widespread in Latin America but also in other countries of the world, can be attributed to an enigmatic character from 17th century Europe, the Count of Saint Germain. Although it began during the Count´s lifetime, the core of the movement remained vague until it was consolidated as a more well-known practice in the mid 20th century. Metaphysics went on to become one of the Western expressions of the philosophy of ?autonomy? and ´good living´ characteristic of the disciplines corresponding to the contemporary socio-cultural movement known as New Age.Published at the end of the 17th century, La Très Sainte Trinosophie (The Most Holy Trinosophy) is the only text attributed to Saint Germain that could have been published during the author?s lifetime. This alchemist text, profusely illustrated, has been reprinted regularly ever since (Hanegraaff et. al. 2006: 1023). However, the book upon which the practices of Metaphysics today are based is The ?I Am? Discourses. Published in the U.S. in the 1940s and authored by Godfrey Ray King (the pseudonym of Guy Ballard), this book explains the teachings of the Count of St. Germain. Known in Latin America as El Libro de Oro, this work has had a profound impact in Latin America. It contains Saint Germain´s theoretical-doctrinal proposal, including a series of suggestions on self-awareness and introspection on "oneself" through statements that always begin with the personal deixis "I am." It is important to note that over the years, the spiritual practices based on his teachings have been reworked according to the contexts, historical moments and places where the ideas of the ?founding master? were implemented.As noted by Frances Yates (1972), Metaphysics was initially part of a post-Renaissance esoteric wave that swept European courts offering its own path to hidden knowledge. In the 16th and 17th centuries, trends like metaphysics, Rosicrucianism, masonry and alchemy were practised in a sporadic and incidental manner without being viewed as inferior to scientific-rational knowledge. Metaphysics was not carried out by any established organization or group until the end of the 19th century. That is when the practises associated with the doctrine were given a new theosophical interpretation by Helena Blavatsky, who rescued the Count from oblivion in her monumental work The Theosophical Glossary (1892). In Latin America, the doctrines of Saint Germain are quite popular, especially in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. This can be mainly attributed, as shown below, by the work of the Venezuelan mystic Conny Méndez.