Annales de l'OUNE.
Paix, Travail, Idealisme, Amour / By reading the Annales you can change your life. The teachings it contains are the bread of the Elite. Eat of this if you want to be part of the Elite.
1920 Monthly
Paris, France. Language: French. Editor: Librabius, Grand Maitre de l'OUNE.
Succeeds: Mysteria (?)
1/1, October 1920. 11 francs a year in France, 14 francs abroad.

This journal was announced for October 1920 with a proposed printing of 5,000 copies but it probably never appeared. It is possible that an earlier version of this journal appeared in 1914-1915 since the prospectus that announced the journal says that its "nouveau titre" was to be Annales de l'OUNE, but the statement could simply be an effort by Loiselle to claim the succession of Papus's last journal, Mysteria, which had ceased publication during the War. The proposed journal was to be the organ of the the Ordre Universel de la Nouvelle Egypte (OUNE), around which hangs a convoluted tale. When Papus (Gerard Encausse) died in 1916 he did not name a successor for the various occult, Masonic, Gnostic and spiritualist organizations he led -- most notably the Ordre Martiniste -- but he did leave a handwritten letter that ended up in the possession of "Phaneg" (Georges Descormiers, 1866-1945), an old companion of Papus's, apparently authorizing "Librabius" to dissolve the Martinist order in the event of Papus's death and replace it with OUNE. Several commentators have identified this Librabius with Ernest Loiselle, one-time librarian of the Martinist Supreme Council, but the reference in Papus's letter is certainly to L.M. Georges Loiselle, whose name appears several times in this prospectus. This Loiselle had been a Martinist since 1896 with the initiatic name "Librabius," and was a regular correspondent of Papus's, as his numerous letters in Fonds Papus in Lyon show. He was director of Loge Osiris no. 318 in Paris and a "Docteur en Hermetisme" from Papus's ecole Hermetique. Unimpressed with this pedigree, however, the Martinist Supreme Council on Papus's death chose "Teder" (Charles Detre, 1855-1918) as head of the order, and on his death in 1918 Jean Bricaud claimed the succession and the order was fragmented into various contending factions, among which, and very little noted, was Georges Loiselle's OUNE.

OUNE was the product of a reorganization of the "fourth section" (the practical section) of Loge Osiris in 1913-1914, which was reconstituted in 1914 as the Loge Mère O.U.N.E.-Isis in Paris. As Mysteria noted in 1913: "The fourth section of the Osiris group deals especially with practical work and scientific and individual training of the will, intuition and clairvoyance, by means of the Telepsych." There were several psychic devices called "Telepsych" in the period, notably one described in Revue Metapsychique in the mid-1920s as an "automatic telepsychic detector: an electric oui-ja" that featured a dial with numbers or letters and a pointer and a planchette, situated some distance away, that could influence the pointer telepathically. No record remains of what Loiselle's Telepsych was like but it was obviously his own invention since he was a civil engineer and is described as an entrepreneur and "fabricator." The note in Mysteria is carefully to add "reproduction prohibited" after the name of the device.

Loiselle eschewed controversy and "sterile discussions" of personalities and opened the OUNE to all men and women initiated by Papus or his successors -- although ranks in the Martinist hierarchy conferred after Papus's death had to be reconsidered and approved by the OUNE (i.e., by Loiselle). To enhance its claim to Papus's inheritance, the prospectus for the journal carried a notice of lectures by "G. Phaneg," who had played a role in the Martinists' rejection of Papus's desires for the order after his death, and advertised the services of Papus's widow in "psychisme." Like the Martinist Order, OUNE was to be highly structured and elaborately ritualistic, although it is difficult to believe that the plans for the organization of the group throughout Europe and the ceremonial directions ever came to fruition. Costumes for meetings were to be made by members as they wished -- taking as their model that worn by the Grand Master Librabius (whose photograph in full regalia was available for 1 fr. 50 in stamps). The journal as announced for 1920 was to "embrace all of occultism, especially the unpublished work done in [Loge Osiris] and then being done in Loge Mère O.U.N.E.-Paris," which was described as an initiatic center embracing "Initiation, religions, philosophies, God, force, life, chance, universal life, alchemy, symbolism, magic, seership, psychic methods, astral projection ("dedoublement"), spagyric medicine, spiritisme, spirit photography, telepathy, etc." All of this, in turn, was to be practically enlivened by the discoveries of Loiselle's Laboratoire Osiris, including no doubt the Telepsych. "Its discoveries are numerous: a method of "dedoublement," diverse mechanisms, curious preparations, unique beauty products, etc., etc., whose formulas are freely placed at the disposition of the Ounistes. In the future, the laboratory will deal especially with experimental psychism." Since 1913 Loiselles had been advertising his weekly meetings on "sciences pratiques, chimie, physique, botanique et manipulations en general" -- 50 centimes or free to those who signed up for his "ecole de massage" -- and when it became obvious that neither the journal nor the grandiose OUNE was going to prosper, Loiselles seems to have turned to lessons. An insert in one copy of the prospectus announced:

Private lessons leading to complete initiation (by correspondence or by appointment) PROGRAM Regeneration of the will, the memory, confidence and courage; suppression of mental disturbances, despair, doubt, fear, shyness, manias, vices; methodical reestablishment of the notion of "Life and Duty." Reason and purpose of life. Exact notion of the Hereafter. Mitigation of grief. All in accordance with reason, kindness and science. This program, complete in eight lessons written in simple and clear terms, is within reach of all levels of intelligence and of all ages. Absolute Discretion in correspondence. Letters are returned to sender.

Loiselle was also President of Papus's Confederation Spiritualiste Universelle, and in practice the OUNE seems to have been largely devoted to spiritualism -- a spiritualism "based on modern science, that is to say, that leaves no place for unproved affirmations": "it advances a theory and proves it experimentally." The journal was to have regular reports of spirit communications from "Stella," and promised to serialize, beginning in its first issue, a novel on love, initiation, magic, Druidism, and the like. The prospectus for the journal was filled with enthusiastic exhortations ("L'Ouniste est le soldat au service de l'idee, il doit vaincre") and held out the promise that "quand il l'a reçu, l'initie est en droit de croire qu'il a reçu toute la somme de verite humainement possible." All seem to have been futile. Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon.

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